Usagi, A Saiyan Child
by Kichigai Joshi
Summary: Usagi's life as a Saiyan; For those of you who are wondering and haven't read my updates page, this story has been moved to my website. It's listed on my profile page.
1. Story Key

  
This isn't my main story right now A Plan For Revenge is. Once I get that story finished I will concentrate more on that.  
  
This story is going to be long. I'm trying to make it as long as possible. This is going to be a drama/action/adventure story. My story is going to be in intervals. It is going to be about Usagi and her life as a Saiyan. I will add in many twists don't worry. I would never intentionally write a boring story. Here is how you work my story.  
  
Under the chapter bar it will show all my chapters. Well duh. That's a no-brainer. Anyways, the first interval will be named. Don't know what those names are yet so I cant tell you. Sorry. So then after the name will be a list of parts. Its kind of like chapter 1 part 1.Try to think of each of these intervals as a new saga. Easy right? I hope so. Ok. This story may take a while to write so here it goes.  
  
*AUTHORS NOTE*   
don't you just love how we stick these things in almost all of out stories? Ok, before you read the story you should probably read this in order to understand it. Ok, so in this story as you all know Usagi is born to our very own Goku and Chi-Chi. She is still a Sailor Scout. Not much is changed until one day. That's all I can say about the plot. Now then. Lets establish a few facts. The Z gang used the Dragon Balls to wish that all of the humans that are part of this "gang" age as slow as Saiyans so they can be together. You know that friendship kind of stuff. So Usagi is born after Goten. Gohan is in his 40's. Pan is in her early 20's. Trunks is about 34 and has a family (although they wont be in it that much since they aren't really part of dbz) and Goten is 33. Ok, I think that's about it for now  



	2. The Beginning Part 1

Disclaimer: Ooh ooh, I know what goes here. The fact that I don't own Sailor Moon and DBZ goes here. Right?   
  
Goku sat in what used to be Gohan's room. He could remember when he was just a little boy. Right before Raditz came when he was still 4. He could remember how fragile he was and how he used to look up to him. Then he thought about how he was killed right before his son's eyes. Once when he was 4 and another time when he was 11. He also thought about how he wasn't there for 8 years of Goten's life. Goten had never held it against his father. I mean hey, the man was dead. But still, he missed so much of his kids' lives. Could he actually do it right this time? They say that the Third time is a charm but how much truth is behind that? He didn't want another innocent child to be hurt the way Gohan and Goten had.   
  
Goku stopped thinking for a moment and looked around the room. The walls of Gohan's room were now covered with pink wallpaper and had girls' furniture in it. Goku stood up and walked to the door. There were little tick marks of Gohan's height by the door. It went from age 1 and stopped at age 4. Tears started to form at the base of Goku's eyes as he punched the wall. "DAMNIT! How could this have happened? Another life will be shattered by me!!"  
  
"GOKU! COME QUICK!" Goku popped his head out of the door and saw his wife sitting on the sofa in the living room. "ITS TIME!" Goku didn't know what to think. He wasn't ready for the child to come. Its not that he didn't want it, he just wanted to be there for it and feared that he wouldn't be able to. He didn't want someone else to raise HIS child. He was grateful that Piccolo had taken care of Gohan, and Chi-Chi for Goten but he felt that his kids never REALLY knew HIM."  
  
"Coming Chi-Chi." Goku ran out of the pink infested room to where Chi-Chi was. "Brace yourself." Goku picked Chi-Chi up as gentle as possible. He grabbed some of Chi-Chi's things that had been packed months ago when she first heard that she was pregnant. "Do you want to fly or take the car?"  
  
"FLY! I need pain killers as soon as possible." Goku jumped out the window with his wife in his hands and started to fly towards the hospital where his third child would be born  
  
Goku looked down at his wife who seemed to be in quit a bit of pain. "Are you all right Chi-Chi?"   
  
"I'll be ok. I'll have to be. Don't worry about me just go faster." Chi-Chi tightened her grip on her husbands arms as he increased speed. She had different thoughts about the child then he had. She couldn't wait for the child. She had always wanted a girl. Yeah she loved her sons but it wasn't the same as a girl. They were always so interested in fighting. And Gohan always hung around Piccolo like he was a god. She had never really cared too much for him but he made Gohan happy and never harmed either of her two children.  
  
She couldn't wait for the child to be born. She couldn't wait until she could dress her up in cute little dresses. She didn't know how Goku felt about their daughter but she was sure he was happy. Nothing had happened since the incident with Buu. She was certain that this child would live a happy life.   
  
Goku landed in front of he hospital gently so he would not jolt his wife. He carried her in and sat her on a chair by the main reception desk.   
  
The receptionist looked up from what she was doing. "Can I help you sir?"   
  
Goku turned around and walked to the desk. "Yes, my wife is going into labor. We need to get her into a room."  
  
"WITH LOTS OF PAIN KILLERS! OWWWW!" Chi-Chi grabbed her stomach and cried out in pain.   
  
Goku rushed to her side and grabbed her hand. "It's alright Chi-Chi."  
  
Chi-Chi squeezed his hand as hard as possible and looked into his eyes. "I just want it to be over."  
  
"It will be soon." A doctor walked up from behind Goku with a stretcher. Two more men came from the left and started to put Chi-Chi on it. The doctor injected Chi-Chi with some morphine to help keep the pain down. "I'll meet you in your room. I'm going to call the family." Goku waved goodbye to his wife and walked down a long hall. At the end of the hallway were two payphones.   
  
Goku called Goten first. He was at a business dinner in America.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Hey son? You mother has just gone into labor."  
  
"Oh really? I'll be there in a few." Sometimes being able to fly had its good points.  
  
Then he called Gohan and Pan.  
  
When Goten, Gohan and Videl, and Pan and her boyfriend arrived Goku was waiting for them in front of the hospital. He waved to them. "Hey! Over here!" Goku had just gotten off the phone with Bulma and she and Vejita should be there any minute.   
  
"Hey dad. How is mom?" Gohan looked worried. He knew that his mother could get pretty difficult when she went into labor. He had to go through it when Goten was born.  
  
"She's doing ok for her. The doctors have her on lots of pain killers."  
  
"Are we aloud to go in to see her?"   
  
Goku looked at his Granddaughter and kind of laughed for a moment. He was going to have a daughter who was 20 years younger than his granddaughter and then got serious again. "Only I am able to go in. Her orders. But she wants everyone here when it's all over."  
  
Gohan looked at his watch then back up at his father. "Shouldn't we be getting inside?"  
  
"Yeah I guess so." Goku led the others through the hospital to the delivery waiting room.   
  
Goten sat down by a window and started to read a magazine when he saw Vejita in the window out of the corner of his eye. He didn't think much of it at first. Then he looked over and realized what was going on. He jumped out of his seat. "Oh my god!"   
  
Everyone looked over at Goten and then at the window. Vejita opened the window and put his daughter and wife on the floor and climbed in. "There now you two, that wasn't so bad now was it?"  
  
Bulma stood up and brushed herself off. "My god Vejita. I don't know why you couldn't just use the door."  
  
"Yeah dad. You made us look like idiots. Flying in the window like that."  
  
"Now you listen to me. I shouldn't have to use the door. There are windows and I don't plan on letting them go to waste." Vejita stopped and noticed that everyone was starring at him. "What do all you idiots want?"  
  
No one answered. They knew not to. One because it was Vejita and two he's just simply has some strange logic.  
  
Bulma ran up to Goku and hugged him. "Oh Goku I'm so happy for you. You're going have a little girl finally. It will be so much fun."  
  
Vejita snickered. "Speak for yourself." Vejita stood in the middle of the room with his arms crossed as usual.   
  
Bulma put her hands on her waste and frowned. "And just what is that supposed to mean?"   
  
"I'm saying that once a man has a daughter everything goes to hell. Especially when they turn into teenagers. That's when you really need to watch them."  
  
Now Vejita had Bra's attention. "'That's when you need to watch them'?"  
  
"Yes, that's when you all want to go party with boys who want nothing but sex. That's when I never see the bathroom again. Also, your parents never get to use the phone again."  
  
Pan looked angry. "Not all teenage girls are like that."  
  
Vejita looked at Pan. "Oh yes, I forgot the ones who like to think that they are boys."  
  
"Hey now, don't you ever call my daughter a boy." Gohan was ready to hit Vejita.  
  
"Settle down brat."  
  
"Stop calling me 'brat' already. I'm in my 40's, I'm not a child anymore."  
  
Vejita snickered. He knew just how to get on Gohan's bad side.   
  
Bulma looked at Goku again as everyone else calmed down. They knew that there was no way to reason with Vejita. "So Goku, have you thought of any names yet?"  
  
"I thought about calling her……."  
  
All of a sudden a doctor came out of the room from behind them. "Is there a Goku out here?"  
  
Goku stood up and faced the doctor. "Yes, that's me."  
  
"Well, follow me, your wife wants you." Goku looked at his friends who all smiled back at him. All except Vejita who forever had a scowl planted on his face. Goku followed the doctor into his wife's room and closed the door behind him.   
  
Goku looked at his wife. She looked very tired. He sat by in a chair that had been placed by her bed. "Yes dear?"  
  
Chi-Chi opened looked into her husband's black eyes. They looked so calm and peaceful. "I just wanted you here by my side." She raised her hand and placed it on his face. She quickly pulled her hand away and placed it on her stomach. "OHHHHH!" The pain was getting worse.   
  
Goku stood up. He wanted to do something for his wife but he didn't know what. The doctor rushed over to Chi-Chi and gave her and checked her heart rate. The pain soon disappeared and Chi-Chi was once again happy. "Are the others here?"   
  
"Yes, although I don't know how well they are getting along out there."  
  
"Are you sure that you are ok with this Goku?"  
  
Goku was puzzled." What do you mean? Of course I'm ok."  
  
Chi-Chi knew better. She was of course a woman. A mother of two boys. She knew when there was uneasiness in the room. "Ok Goku." All of a sudden another gush of pain rushed through her body. She knew that it was actually time.   
  
The doctor once again rushed by her side. This time it was to deliver the baby. Goku watched his wife suffer. He hated the fact that he could not help her.   
  
Chi-Chi closed her eyes. The pain was excruciating. Tears began to form in her eyes. She managed to look up at her husband who was looking down at her. He was worried. He had forgotten what it was like to go through something like this. Chi-Chi grabbed her husband's hand and squeezed it as hard as she could. He didn't mind. He would do anything to help her.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Gohan sat outside in the waiting room listening to everyone gossip about things that were happening in their lives. He looked over at his Goten and remembered what it was like when he was born. He had been there and witnessed it. That was nearly 33 years ago. He wondered if his mother would be capable of raising another child again. He and his brother had put her through so much hell. Gohan stopped thinking for a moment when he noticed Trunks walk in the room.   
  
Bulma stood up and welcomed her son. "Hey Trunks, how's it going?" She looked behind him. "You didn't bring your family?"  
  
Trunks hugged his mother. "No, Hinotama has a dance recital she had to be at and Neko had to take her."  
  
"Oh," Bulma looked a little disappointed. "I was really looking forward to seeing Hinotama."  
  
"Oh quit your whining woman. You see that blasted kid all the time." Vejita didn't hate his grandchild he just didn't want to have her around all the time.  
  
Bra on the other hand loved her niece. "I agree with mom, you should have brought them along."   
  
Bulma looked back at her daughter. "Thank you Bra."   
  
Vejita snarled at the two women and crossed his arms. "Yeah well maybe if you moved out of the house you would meet someone and have your own kids to play with."  
  
"Well maybe if you wouldn't try to kill every boy that I have ever gone out with I would get married. I mean really, I'm how old now? 20 and you still won't let me date. And as for me not moving out, I'm going to a college 10 miles away from the house. And you let me move out?" Bra loved these little games she played with her father. She always won.  
  
"Fine, have it your way." Vejita walked out of the room to the candy machine. Everyone could hear Vejita kicking at it. "Damn you. You stupid machine give me candy or I'll blast you to hell" 'Damn that kid, always making me look like a fool out of me in front of my subjects.' Vejita didn't want to go back in the room or else Bulma would bitch at him for picking a fight with Bra.  
  
Bra laughed. "Another point for Bra briefs. I'm just that good."  
  
Everyone laughed. She did have a talent for being able to proving her father wrong.   
  
Trunks and Goten started to talk and Gohan went back into thought.  
  
*~*~*  
2 hours later in the delivery room  
  
Goku watched his wife calm down. It was all over now. The baby had finally been born and he hadn't passed out like he did when Gohan was born. The doctor handed Chi-Chi her daughter. She was wrapped in a pink blanket. Chi-Chi was so overwhelmed with happiness that she forgot about all of the pain. She smiled softly at her baby girl. She looked up at Goku who was also smiling. She handed him his daughter.  
  
Goku held his newborn daughter for the first time. (Well obviously) 'She's so fragile' he thought to himself. He felt as though he was going to snap her in half. Chi-Chi scooted over allowing Goku to sit on the bed by her. They both look at their daughter. Goku had never seen anything more beautiful. He pulled the blanket away from the baby's face to reveal tiny little blonde hairs.  
  
Chi-Chi noticed her blonde hair. "Goku, she has blonde hair."   
  
Goku grinned. "I know." A little golden brown tail found its way out of the blanket and wrapped its self around Goku's arm.   
  
Chi-Chi smiled when she saw this. "What are we going to do about that?"  
  
"Lets leave it."  
  
"Leave it?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Ok. Have you thought of a name yet?"  
  
"Yes. I want to name her Usagi."  
  
"It's a beautiful name Goku." Chi-Chi looked at the baby and wrapped her hand around her head. "My little Usagi." She whispered.  
  
  
(Ok, ill try to write the next part as soon as possible. But things like this take some time and thought. Please review this and tell me what you think. It would be greatly appreciated)  
  



	3. Part 2

  
  
Goku handed the baby back to Chi-Chi. She snuggled her daughter. She hadn't been this happy since Goten had been born. "Goku, this has to be the most perfect moment." She snuggled her daughter. Goku smiled. He loved to see his wife happy. He started to think that maybe this baby would be all right. That nothing would attack earth and force him to leave it. He thought about the others and stood up. Chi-Chi looked up at him. "Don't leave."  
  
Goku started to walk for the door. "I'll be back, I'm going to get the others." Goku left the calm surroundings and entered the waiting room.   
  
The doctor came to take the baby away from Chi-Chi. "We don't want a lot of people around her at first. It may upset her."  
  
"I understand." Chi-Chi watched as the doctor took her child to a safer place. She was so excited."  
  
Bra was the first to notice Goku. "Hi Goku, is everything ok?"  
  
Goku looked at Bra who was reading a magazine and thought about what it will be like to have a teenage daughter. Always reading magazines or hanging out at the mall and always talking on the phone. "Chi-Chi is fine and she wants to see all of you now."   
  
Everyone stopped what he or she was doing to go see Chi-Chi. When they entered the room she looked so calm. As if nothing had happened. Bulma walked over to the bed and sat by her best friend's legs. "Congratulations Chi-Chi."  
  
"Thank you Bulma."   
  
"I don't think I could ever give birth to another child."   
  
Chi-Chi just smiled. Goku came and sat next to her again and grabbed her hand.   
  
"Hey mom how does it feel to have a daughter now?" Gohan patted his mom on the leg.  
  
"Let me tell you, it feels great." Gohan gave his mother a kiss.   
  
"So mom, what did you guys name her?" Goten hugged his mother and gave her a kiss.   
  
"Your father named her Usagi." She thought it was a very beautiful name. She never thought in a million years that her Goku would come up with such a name. Maybe he was finally growing up. Ha! That would be the day.   
  
"Oh grandma, that's a wonderful name. I love it."  
  
"Your grandfather decided to leave her tail you know."  
  
"What?" Gohan looked at his father who was nodding in agreeance. "Why?"  
  
"Because, I want her to be natural. I want her to stay the way she was born. If it wasn't for Piccolo you would still have you tail."   
  
"Kakkorott, what's wrong with you? You are acting even more dumb then normal."  
  
"I think that it's a good reason. Why mess with the child?"   
  
Vejita looked at his wife. "You would. Think it's a good reason."   
  
The doctor came into the room with some vitamins. "Oh, I'm sorry but you are all going to have to leave. This little lady needs her rest. She has had a big day. You can come back tomorrow."  
  
Bulma stood up and looked at her friend. "Well I'm glad to see that you are ok."  
  
"Thanks for coming guys." Chi-Chi felt very sleepy all of a sudden. Giving birth to a child wears you out.   
  
Gohan and Goten gave their mother a hug. " We will see you tomorrow mom."   
  
"Good bye boys."   
  
Goku leaned over the bed and gave his wife a kiss. "I'll be back tomorrow. I love you."  
  
"I love you to." 'Wow, Goku seems maturer today. I wonder what he's hiding.' Chi-Chi was so tired that before Goku had even left the room she had fallen asleep.  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
Goku softly closed the door behind him so he wouldn't disturb his wife. She had been through a lot and he didn't want to wake her. When he looked up he saw curious faces staring back at him. "Yes?"  
  
Bulma acted as the spokes person for the group. "We want to see the baby."  
  
"Uhhhhh……I don't know how to do that." Goku knew what he had to do. He needed to locate a doctor. "Just a minute. I'll be back." Goku walked down the hall to a reception desk.  
  
Bulma turned back to the crowd. "Oh I'll bet she's beautiful. Just like her mother."  
  
"Humph. You women are all the same. Always obsessing over babies." Vejita could care less about the blasted things. All they did was cry and eat.  
  
"Well Vejita, if you don't like it just go home." Bulma was fed up with Vejita's behavior for the day. She could only take so much of his crap.  
  
"Fine, I will." Vejita jumped out the window.   
  
Bulma raced to the window and stuck her head out. "IT'S CALLED A DOOR! LEARN HOW TO USE IT! Honestly, sometimes he can be so obnoxious."  
  
Trunks looked at his mother and held back a laugh. "Sometimes?"  
  
"Ok, all the time."  
  
"Well, mother, I'm sorry but I have to go. I have business at the office."  
  
"Ok. I'll see you later."  
  
"Bye mom. Bye Bra." Trunks waved goodbye to everyone and was off on his way.  
  
"I can't wait to see the baby." Bulma always got excited when there was a new baby in the group. She just never thought the new baby would come from Chi-Chi and Goku.  
  
"We know that mother." Bra had put up with her mother's baby obsession when her niece was born and she really didn't want to put up with it now. It wasn't even a relative.  
  
"I know, I just love babies." Bulma looked around the room. "Pan, where did your boyfriend go?"  
  
"Oh, he had to leave. Vejita scared him off." Pan hated Vejita. He was always making fun of her. She wasn't a tomboy; she just loved to fight.   
  
"Ok, I'll talk to him when I get home."  
  
Bra laughed. She loved her mother's sense of humor. "Talk? More like yell."  
  
Goku walked in the room and everyone was laughing. "Where's Vejita and Trunks?"  
  
"Well you know Vejita, and well Trunks had some business to take care of at the office."   
  
"Oh, Well I asked where we can see the baby and the secretary pointed me down a couple of halls." Goku couldn't wait to see his daughter again.  
  
"So can we go see her now"  
  
"Come on dad, let's go before Bulma wets her pants."  
  
If it wasn't for the fact that she was going to see the baby Bulma would have smacked Goten in the face for that little remark. "I'm not going to wet my pants young man. I just want to see the baby."  
  
Goku couldn't hide his laughter. "All right, all right. We can see the baby now. Follow me." Goku waved for his friends and family to follow him. They walked down a long corridor passing many rooms with people waiting to go to surgery until they found themselves at a junction. Goku actually knew where he was going for once. He turned right into a hallway where there were many payphones and chairs against the wall to the right. On the left was a huge glass window. On the other side of this room was a room full of newborn babies.   
  
Everyone congregated in front of the window. Goten looked for his baby sister. He had always wanted a younger sibling that he could pick on but it was a little late now. He didn't care. He still loved her.  
  
"There she is!" Bulma squealed as she pointed to baby Usagi.   
  
"Where? I don't see her mom."  
  
Bulma pointed to the most right corner of the front of the room. "There in the corner."  
  
Everyone huddled over to the right corner and looked at the newborn saiyan. "Ok grandfather, she's beautiful." Pan found it kind of strange that her aunt was 20 years younger than she was. She had had friends with aunts and uncles maybe only 7 years older but never younger. It amazed her.  
  
"Hey look Gohan, She has blonde hair." Goten pointed out her hair to everyone.  
  
"Dad, why does my sister have blonde hair? Is she like a super saiyan or something?"   
  
Goku started to scratch his head. "You know, there is a funny story about that. I guess she is a super Saiyan."   
  
"You know grandfather, you can train her to use her power. Maybe she could become stronger than you someday." Pan couldn't wait to have another female fighter in the gang.  
  
"You think so?"  
  
"Of course you can. And you should too."  
  
Although Bra was Pan's best friend she didn't exactly want another fighter for a friend. She wanted someone she could teach how to do all the girl things that a girl needs to do. "No, you shouldn't train her Goku. A girl is a fragile thing. You should love and protect her." Bra knew this was a bunch of BS but she knew Goku and how gullible he is.  
  
Pan put her hands on her waste and shook her head in disbelief at her friend. "What a load of crap. You just want someone to play makeup with Bra."  
  
"No, that's not it."  
  
"It is and you know it."  
  
Bra got an evil grin on her face. "Fine, I guess it's got some truth behind."  
  
Bulma put her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "It was a nice try dear. I guess we cant all be good liars like I am."  
  
"Can it mother. Any ways Goku, It's up to you if you want to train her. I mean, she is after all, your daughter."  
  
"Yeah, I guess we will have to wait and she what she wants." Goku turned back to look at his daughter one more time before he left the hospital for the day.  
  
"Well dad, I would love to stay with you, but I have to get back to my meeting. I'm going to get in enough trouble as it is."   
  
"Yeah, I have to get back home too dad. I'm conducting an experiment with plants for the office." Gohan always had some experiment he was working on.  
  
"Alright, I'll see you two later then." Goku waved goodbye to his two sons. 'Wow, they sure do grow up fast. It seems just like yesterday that Gohan and I were training in the room of spirit and time.'  
  
"I guess Bra, and I should be going. I need to see if Vejita has destroyed anything at home. Can you give us a ride Pan?"  
  
"Sure Bulma. Goodbye Grandfather. I'll see you in a few days."   
  
Goku waved goodbye to the girls and found himself left alone with his thoughts. He turned back to his daughter. 'Well Usagi, It looks like you have finally made yourself a nice opening. Everyone seems to like you.' Goku placed his hands on the window as if he thought he could get closer to Usagi. She was laying in her cradle all snug in her blankets. She seemed so calm and happy not knowing what kind of power she really possessed. "I'll always protect you no matter what." Goku whispered. He backed away from the window and walked back down the hall in which he had come from.   
  
He left the hospital around 6:00 at night. He was tired and hungry. He debated on weather he wanted to go out to eat or eat at home. He decided to return home. It had been a long day and he had no money. He called for nimbus. He jumped on nimbus and headed home.  
  
When he got home he walked into the kitchen. He flipped a light switch that revealed a room full of pots and pans. Chi-Chi had had so many cravings lately. He looked at the mess. "This will need to be fixed before Chi-Chi and Usagi come home." He walked through a pile of old food wrappers over to the fridge. He pulled out a pot roast that Chi-Chi had planned on cooking for dinner. "I wish I knew how to cook." Goku thought for a moment. He remembered how he used to just cook his meals over a fire before he met Bulma. He took the roast out and cooked it like he did when he was a kid.   
  
After dinner he decided to go to bed. He planned on going back to the hospital and visit Chi-Chi in the morning.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku arrived at the hospital when Chi-Chi was being served breakfast. "Good morning Goku."  
  
Goku had his usual goofy smile on his face. "Hiya."  
  
Chi-Chi laughed. She had been married to the man for nearly 40 years now and he still made her laugh. "I see your doing ok."  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine. How are you?" Goku pulled a chair up by his wife's bed.  
  
"I'm a little tired but that is to be expected. The doctor gave me the birth certificate when I woke up."   
  
"Ooooh lemme see." Chi-Chi pulled a small piece of paper off of a table by her bed and handed it to Goku. Goku read it out loud. "Son Usagi. Born to Son Goku and Son Chi-Chi June 16, 2001." Goku smiled.   
"Chi-Chi how would you feel if Usagi wanted to fight?"  
  
Chi-Chi nearly spit out the spoonful of cereal she just put in her mouth. "Now Goku, you have the boys. Please let me have Usagi."  
  
"I won't push her, but what if she WANTS to fight?"  
  
Chi-Chi thought long and hard. She was tired of fighting Goku for her children. She was also tired of fighting her own children. All she wanted was what was best for them. "Well I guess you can train her a little. But on the basics and only if she wants to. Don't be going and putting any ideas into her head about fighting. Let her come to you with it ok?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Alrighty."  
  
"The doctor says we can go home in a week."  
  
"I can't wait."  
  
(Ok, there's another chapter out. What do you think so far?")  



	4. Part 3

  
  
It had been a week since Usagi was born. Goku was excited. Chi-Chi and Usagi would now be coming home. He could finally hold his little daughter again. He thought about the day she was born and how fragile she had felt. The last time he had held a baby he was in his 20's and was barley strong enough to beat his brother Raditz. Now he was much stronger and had to be careful about holding Usagi. He grabbed a Jacket and was on his way to he hospital.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi got herself dressed so she could be ready to leave the hospital when Goku arrived. Bulma had come to visit her before he got there. "So then I told Vejita to get his feet off the table."  
  
"Oh god Bulma, what did he do?"  
  
"He just snorted at me."  
  
"Well that sounds like Vejita."  
  
"Yeah, well I wasn't about to take that from him. I got up from the table, picked a pair of scissors from a drawer and cut a big chunk of his hair out."  
  
"Oh my god you didn't did you?" Chi-Chi examined her friend's face. "You did. Hahaha serves him right. So what did he do."  
  
"He nearly had a heart attack. Then he went off about how I don't appreciate what he does for the family. And I said 'what just sit around and talk about how great you are?' That's when….." At that moment Goku walked in the room. "Oh hi Goku how are you?"  
  
Goku looked at Bulma. "Just great Bulma how are you?"  
  
"Good. So today is the big day huh?"  
  
"Yeah." Goku looked at Chi-Chi who seemed to be all packed. "So are you ready to go?"  
  
Chi-Chi looked around to double check. "Yeah I think I am. Let's go. Come on Bulma."  
  
"Oh you mean I get to go?"  
  
"Of course you get to come." The trio walked out of Chi-Chi's room and down to the front of the hospital where a doctor was waiting for them with Usagi.  
  
Bulma's eyes almost watered when she saw the baby. The last time that she had seen Usagi, she had been behind a glass wall. "Oh Chi-Chi, she's so beautiful."  
  
Goku took the baby from the doctor and handed her to her mother. Chi-Chi held her as gently as possible. Usagi was bundled in a fuzzy pink blanket. The only thing you could see was her face. "Are we ready to leave?"  
  
"I'm ready when you are dear." Goku had driven the car. He didn't want Usagi to go flying anywhere until she was a little bit older.  
  
Chi-Chi looked at Bulma, "Are you coming to our house?"   
  
"Of course. I want to play with the baby."   
  
Chi-Chi laughed. "Bulma, you never could resist a new baby."   
  
"Of course not. I love babies." Goku left the hospital driveway to get the car. Bulma walked over to her friend so she could get a better look at Usagi. "She's so cute with her little baby nose. Goku said that you two decided to leave her tail." Bulma poked at Usagi's nose.  
  
"Yeah, he wanted to keep it. Why I don't know but I'm going along with it. It's not like there's any moon since Piccolo blew it up anyways." Chi-Chi looked up to see that Goku had arrived with the car. "Did you bring the baby carrier Goku?"  
  
"Yeah, its right here." Chi-Chi placed little Usagi in her carrier while Goku held it for her. "Be careful to not hurt her."  
  
"I know Goku. I have been through this before."   
  
"I know you have, I just want to make sure."  
  
"Goku are you on anything?" Bulma didn't know what was wrong with Goku. She had never seen him act so normal and mature.   
  
"No, why?"   
  
"You are acting different. Like you aren't a kid."  
  
Goku helped Chi-Chi into the front passenger seat. Once she was in he handed her Usagi. "Maybe I'm just finally growing up?"  
  
"I don't know." Maybe it was true. Maybe he really was growing up. Or maybe he was just trying extra hard. Bulma climbed in the back seat of the car and strapped herself in.  
  
Goku started the car and headed home. He couldn't wait until he could get Usagi home. He was kind of excited about having a daughter. It would be a lot different than boys that's for sure. "Gohan and Goten are going to be there when we get home."  
  
"Oh that's good. I haven't seen them for a week." Usagi grabbed her mother's finger and wouldn't let go.  
Chi-Chi giggled a bit.  
  
"You mean they never came to visit you?" Goku remembered telling his sons to visit their mother at least once. That it would have meant a lot to her.  
  
"No. Gohan called a couple of times. Pan came down though. She brought her mother with her too."   
  
It was a two-hour drive from the hospital and the Son house. Goku was driving relatively slow for the fact that he didn't want to make Chi-Chi or Usagi sick from fast motions.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Gohan and Goten arrived at their old house at the same time. "So, What do you think they did to your room Gohan?"  
  
"I don't know, I'm afraid to look." Gohan hadn't been in his old room since it had been remodeled. He didn't even know that his sister was going to have it until about a month ago.  
  
"Well, I guess we could go look at it now."  
  
"We could do that." Gohan pulled out a key from his pocket an unlocked the front door. The two boys walked in and looked around a bit. "You know, it's been a while since I was last in here."  
  
"Yeah same here. It sure does bring back memories."  
  
"Come on," Gohan waved for his brother to follow, "Lets go see what they have done to my room." The two of them walked back to Gohan's old room. Gohan put his hand on the door. "Here it goes." He opened the door and his jaw nearly fell to the floor.  
  
Goten burst out laughing. "Oh my god Gohan. I guess they weren't joking when they said that they were going to remodel your room. Oh this is just too good."  
  
Gohan hit his brother upside the head. "Shut up idiot. This isn't funny. They have changed the whole thing. The walls and floor aren't even wooden anymore."  
  
"Yeah, I just love the pink wallpaper with the white rabbits."  
  
"They just had to pick my room. And what is with carpet. At least it's yellow and not pink."  
  
Goten was still laughing. "Yeah, they even replaced all your furniture."   
  
Gohan heard the front door opening and the voices of his mother and Bulma. "Stop laughing, they are here."  
  
Goten couldn't stop laughing. He found this whole ordeal to be very entertaining. "I'm just glad that they didn't touch my room."  
  
"Gohan? Goten? Is that you?" Chi-Chi started to walk back to put Usagi in her room. She heard voices coming from that direction.   
  
"Yes mom, Goten and I are here."  
  
"Yeah we love what you have done with his room."  
  
Gohan hit his bother again. "Shut up." Goten rubbed his head.  
  
Chi-Chi turned corner and saw her sons. "Oh hi boys, I'm so glad to see you. This is your sister."  
  
Gohan walked up to his mother and looked at his little sister. There was over a 40-year difference between them. She was just young enough to be his granddaughter. Although he was hoping that wouldn't happen for some time. She was sleeping very soundly and was still wrapped up in her soft fuzzy blanket. "Wow mom, she's so cute."  
  
"Gohan, are you turning mushy on us?"  
  
Gohan once again hit his brother in the head. "Would you be quiet already?"  
  
"Boys, stop fighting. You'll wake your sister."   
  
Bulma couldn't believe it; here they were two gown men acting like children. "Honestly you guys, can't you ever get along?"  
  
"Come on Bulma, lets put Usagi in her room." Chi-Chi and Bulma proceeded to Usagi's room.  
  
Goku walked into the room. "Ah just the two people I need to see."  
  
"What is it dad?" Gohan took the liberty of sitting on the couch that was in front of the TV"  
  
"This isn't directed toward you Gohan as it is your brother."  
  
"Ooh getting ourselves in trouble even after we have moved out are we."  
  
"Shut up Gohan."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile in Usagi's room.  
  
Chi-Chi unwrapped little Usagi from her blanket and placed her in her crib.  
  
"Chi-Chi, she has blonde hair."  
  
"I know, her tail has some blonde hair in it too."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I'm not sure. Goku never explained to me why."  
  
"Well, what was Goku doing when," Bulma didn't quit know how to put this into words, " well when you guys were ummmmm….well…."  
  
Chi-Chi stopped her friend. "Say no more Bulma, I know what you are trying to say. And yes I think I just realized why she is blonde."  
  
"Oh well, she is adorable and that's all that really counts."   
  
Usagi was awake now. She sat in one of Gohan's old T-shirts, which Chi-Chi just put her in, and looked up at Bulma. She pointed at her. "Uuuh." Was all that came out of her mouth.  
  
"Oh Chi-Chi I think I may have to take her home with me."  
  
"Now you leave her alone. She's mine." The two women laughed kind of loud which upset Usagi. She began to cry. "Oh Usagi, I'm sorry. Were we too loud?" Chi-Chi picked up her daughter and tried to calm her down. "Shh there now. Its alright." Chi-Chi managed to quiet her down rather fast.  
  
"Her Chi-Chi, can I hold her?"   
  
"Sure." Chi-Chi handed Usagi over to Bulma.  
  
This is what Bulma had wanted all day. To hold Usagi. "You and I are gonna have fun kid. You know that? Your father and I had fun together. Your big brother Gohan and I had fun together. Now its our turn to have fun together."  
  
~*~*~  
  
One year later  
  
"COME ON VEJITA WERE GOING TO BE LATE NOW GET OUT HERE!!!"  
  
"NO!! I REFUSE TO COME OUT!! I'M NOT GOING TO THAT STUPID PARTY."   
  
Bulma laughed. It had been a year since Usagi had been born and on this day the Son family and all their friends were celebrating her birthday. "Come on Vejita, it cant be that bad. Just come out."   
  
Bra just happened to walk in the room at the time. She was wearing a long red silk dress. "What's going on mom?"  
  
"Your father wont come out of the bathroom. Vejita, come on. We are going to be late."  
  
"I'm not going. I don't care what you say."  
  
"Dad, lets just go. I want to see Usagi."  
  
"Don't think your going to persuade me girl."  
  
"Dad, Goku said that he could kick your ass any day."  
  
"He did, did he? Wait a minute, I'm not falling for that."  
  
Bulma laughed. It was a good try but it had been used too many times. "Fine, if you don't come out you can cook your own meals from now on."  
  
"Damnit woman." Vejita opened the door to the bathroom and walked out. Bulma and Bra laughed so hard when they saw him. "Well what are you too laughing at?"  
  
Vejita stood in the doorway wearing a brown suit with a red little bow tie. "Oh Vejita, you look so adorable."  
  
"yeah dad. Just promise me you will never come to any of my classes looking like that."  
  
"I still don't see why I have to go to the party looking like this. I look like a sissy."  
  
"Oh stop complaining and lets go."  
  
"I look like Kakkorotto's kid Gohan. A total and complete dork."  
  
"Oh well, deal with it because you are going."  
  
The family of three piled into a car and headed off to the Son house.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Oh Goku, I'm so happy. Usagi is finally a year old." Chi-Chi had been waiting a long time for this day. She had been planning it even before Usagi was born. Pretty pathetic huh? Chi-Chi rushed around making sure that everything was perfect when there was a knock at the door. "Can you get that Goku? I'm going to go get Usagi."  
  
"Ok." Goku proceeded to the door and let in Gohan and Videl. He greeted them with a wide smile. "Hi guys."  
  
"Hi dad."  
  
"Hi Goku." Videl held a box wrapped in metallic pink paper.   
  
"Come in you two. You're the first ones to arrive."  
  
Videl hit Gohan. "See I told you we weren't going to be late." Goku just stared blankly at the couple. "So where's Usagi?"  
  
"Right here." Chi-Chi emerged from a hallway with Usagi. She dressed her daughter in a Pink dress that had white ribbons around the waste. She put her hair in little pigtails. Her tail dangled beneath her.  
  
"Oh look at her, she's adorable.." Videl held out her arms, which told Chi-Chi that she wanted to hold her. She held Usagi in her arms and looked down into her blue eyes. "I have the cutest sister-in-law ever." Chi-Chi walked into the kitchen and signaled for Videl to follow. Videl handed Usagi to Goku and followed her mother-in-law into the kitchen.  
  
Usagi wrapped her golden brown tail around her father's arm. Just as he was about to close the door Trunks and his family arrived. Goku smiled. "Hey guys what's up." Everyone started to arrive. Except for Bulma, Vejita, and Bra.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Hurry up and fix the car Vejita." Halfway to the party Bulma's cars broke down.  
  
"What do I look like a mechanic? I am an Saiyan fighter."  
  
"Just hurry up."  
  
"Screw it" Vejita picked up his wife and daughter and flew off to the Son house.  
  
Bulma began to scream and kick. "What are you doing Vejita?"  
  
"You want to get to the party don't you?" Bulma for once didn't have an ounce of argument in her. He was entirely right. Although that wasn't the reason he did it. If it was up to him he wouldn't go but he just got tired of listening to her nagging him all the time.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"I wonder where my parents are." It wasn't like Bulma to just not show up to something. Especially if it included Usagi. Trunks was beginning to worry. He knew Vejita wasn't a problem. Bulma could make him do anything.  
  
"I feel Vejita's Ki. They are here." Before Bulma had a chance to ring the bell Goku opened the door. "Hi you guys." Goku only saw Bulma and Bra. "Where's Vejita?"  
  
Bulma turned around. "Just a minute." She walked around to the side of he house. "Come on Vejita lets go inside."  
  
"No, you only said I had to go to the party not inside."  
  
"The party IS inside."  
  
"I hate you woman." Vejita walked with Bulma into the house. Everyone stared at what he was wearing for a moment until it finally sunk into them exactly what he was wearing. Then they all laughed.  
  
Goku laughed the most. "Oh wow Vejita. If only Freiza could see you now. HAHAHAHAHA!"  
  
"Shut up EVERYONE!" No one shut up. Vejita walked over to Trunks and punched him in the face. "NOW SHUT UP ALL OF YOU BEFORE I BLAST YOU TO HELL!" Everyone finally shut up. "That's better. It wasn't my idea to wear this. It was the woman's."  
  
Chi-Chi walked into the room right about this time with Pan, Videl, and Usagi. "Oh hi you guys. I didn't know you were here." She took one look at Vejita. "Vejita I am so, so sorry."  
  
Vejita let out a small growl. "don't start with me woman."  
  
"Ok, now that everyone is here lets start the real party. What does everyone want to do?"  
  
(ok that's it for this part. I added in that last part for the fact that the first part of this chapter was too dry. The good part will start next Please review and tell me what you think so far.)  



	5. Part 4

Usagi opened her eyes. The five-year old had had a hard time sleeping all night. She was too excited to sleep. She was going to be starting her first day of school the next day. Her mother hadn't let either of her brothers go to school until they were in high school but she and her brothers had convinced their mother otherwise. She looked over at her clock, which read 6:45. She rubbed her eyes with her hands.   
  
Chi-Chi opened the door to her daughter's room to see that she was already awake. "Hi sweetie, it's time to get ready. School starts at 8:00 and you need to take a bath." Chi-Chi left Usagi's room to go to the bathroom. She began to run the water into the tub.  
  
Usagi climbed out of bed and left her room. She noticed someone standing in the shadow of the living room. "Who's there?" Usagi was a very skittish girl.   
  
The figure walked out from the shadow and revealed itself. "Its just me Usagi."  
  
Usagi smiled. She ran to her father and hugged him. "Hi daddy." She wrapped her tail around his leg. She only came up to a little below his waste.   
  
"Good morning. Today's the big day huh?" Goku was going to miss having his daughter around all day and he was sure she was going to miss being around him. She would spend most of her day watching him train.  
  
"Yep. I can't wait. Gohan says it's gonna be fun."   
  
"Well Gohan's right about that, now why don't you go take your bath. I'm sure it's ready for you."  
  
"Ok" Usagi chirped. She let go of her father and skipped off to the bathroom. When she entered, her mother had the tub full of blue sparkling.   
  
"OK, when you're done just get dressed and I'll do your hair then get breakfast for you." Chi-Chi loved having a daughter. She especially loved being able to do her hair. Usagi had unusually smooth hair for a saiyan though.   
  
"K." Usagi smiled wide. She was always a chipper little thing. She watched as her mother left the room then climbed into the bathtub.  
  
The water was just the way she liked it. Luke warm. She hated it when it was too hot because it would always turn her skin red. When Usagi was finished taking her bath she drained the tub and dried herself off. She wrapped the towel around her body and walked to her room. She was excited about putting her school uniform on. The uniform was a red and black plad dress.   
  
Chi-Chi opened the door to Usagi's bedroom just as she was finishing up getting dressed. "Are you ready for me to do your hair yet?"  
  
Usagi turned around. "Yep."  
  
"Ok come sit on my lap." Chi-Chi sat down on Usagi's bed and began to put her daughter's hair up into two odangos.   
  
"OWIE!!" Chi-Chi pulled a little too hard with the brush and pull Usagi's hair.  
  
"I'm sorry dear. Hold still so I can do this."  
  
"But it hurts."  
  
"The more you hold still the sooner it will be." This happened every morning. It was really hard for Usagi to sit still so when Chi-Chi would try to do something with her hair, it would end up being pulled. "There, all done."  
  
Usagi jumped off of her mother's lap and ran down to the kitchen where her father was already at the table waiting for breakfast. "Is breakfast ready yet?" Usagi could berley see over the top of the table as she sat in her chair.  
  
Chi-Chi walked into the room. "No, I'm doing that right now."  
  
"Chi-Chi, we're hungry."  
  
"I realize that Goku, that's why I'm making something to eat." Both of the Saiyans starred blankly at   
Chi-Chi.  
  
Goku looked at his daughter. Her odangos didn't even pass her chin. 'She's getting big. Time passed rather quickly the past 4 years.' "Chi-Chi when is it going to be done?"  
  
"Soon Goku. Honestly you're worse than a child."  
  
"Worse than me?"  
  
Chi-Chi laughed at her daughter. "Yes worse than you. Ok, NOW it's done Goku." Chi-Chi put the food on the table and watched as Goku devoured half of what she had made. She served herself and Usagi some of the food and left the rest for her hungry husband.   
  
Usagi always found it interesting to watch her father eat. Actually she found it more funny than interesting. He was always making a mess when he ate. She had tried to eat like him once before and it made her so sick.   
  
She finished eating and hoped down off of her chair. "Ok, I'm ready when you are dad." Goku was going to take Usagi to school until she was old enough to take the flying Nimbus by herself. It was too long of a car drive to her school and, like her brothers before her, she needed faster transportation.  
  
"OK, I'm almost finished." Goku speed up in his eating so he could finish in time to take his daughter to school. He threw down his eating utensils. "Done. Ok Usagi, let's go."  
  
"Yay!" Usagi raced out the front door.  
  
"Goodbye Usagi." Chi-Chi yelled. She turned back to Goku. "I guess she really is excited." Chi-Chi didn't have a problem with this. She wanted her to do well in school.  
  
"Yeah. I guess so." Goku walked out of the house and joined his daughter. "Flying Nimbus!" He looked at Usagi. "Pretty excited, huh?" Usagi looked up at her father with a big smile and nodded. The Flying Nimbus came rushing down to them from the sky and stopped just below Goku's waste. Goku picked up Usagi and placed her on Nimbus and climbed on it himself and sat behind her. He grabbed onto her waste to make sure that she wouldn't fall off when they started to fly. "Lets go Nimbus." They were off to Usagi's school.  
  
When they arrived at the school there were many children running around the courtyard screaming and playing games with each other. Usagi's eyes widened when she saw all of this. "Wow, this is cool."  
  
Goku was also in awe. He had never seen anything like this. "You're telling me. I wanna stay here too."  
  
"Daddy, you can't. You have to go home and train." Usagi gave her dad and hug and kissed him goodbye and ran off into the screaming heap of kids.  
  
"Goodbye, Usagi." Goku waved goodbye to his little girl and was off back to his home. He would return again once school got out.   
  
Usagi walked around the schoolyard looking for hoping that she would meet a new friend. She tried to stay away from the older kids but it couldn't really be helped. They were the most abundant. In fact, as she looked around, she couldn't really spot anyone her own age. She was lost.   
  
Usagi walked over to a group of girls who were standing talking in a circle. "Excuse me."  
  
The girl with the shorter hair looked at Usagi and laughed. "Hey girls, it looks like we got ourselves a wanna be. I'll take care of this." For some reason this girl didn't wear a girls uniform. Instead she wore the male uniform which consisted of a white shirt and red plad pants. She wore a tie around her neck. "What do you want little kid."  
  
"I was wondering if you could tell me where the kindergarten area is." The group of girls laughed. "What? What's so funny?"   
  
"You must be the only kid who doesn't know where the kindergarten wing is. Hello, it's the place on the right side of the school with all the little screaming, annoying kids. What's wrong with you?"  
  
"Hey, you don't have to me mean!" Usagi stuck her tongue out at the girl with the short blonde hair.  
  
"You shouldn't have done that kid! Now your gonna pay." Usagi backed away from the 5th grader. The girl noticed Usagi's tail. "You know, we tend to leave our make believe toys at home."  
  
"Huh? What do you mean?"  
  
"That stupid tail of yours. What were you pretending to be some sort of animal?"  
  
A girl with aqua color hair walked up from behind her friend. "Did you go to pre-school kid?"  
  
"No."  
  
"You really are out of it."  
  
"Shut up. Leave me alone. I didn't do anything to you."  
  
"Well just because you're annoying me, and because I feel like it, I'm going to kick your ass." Usagi was scared. She had not expected this. The blonde shorthaired girl jumped for Usagi's tail. Usagi jumped away and noticed that a lot more kids were gathering around. She looked back at the shorthaired girl who was getting up off the ground. Her nose was bleeding. "You're going to pay girl."  
  
Usagi watched in fear as the girl once again ran for her. Usagi was about to dodge away when someone grabbed her from behind. Usagi tried to squirm her way out of the hold. "Let me go." Usagi saw that the shorthaired girl was coming at her in full force and closed her eyes.  
  
"I've got her Haruka."  
  
"Good work Michiru, I'll pull that stupid tail off of her while I'm at it." Haruka slowed down to a complete halt in front of Usagi, who was still closing her eyes. "Stupid girl." Haruka grabbed Usagi's tail and pulled on it.  
  
Pain shot everywhere through out Usagi's body as Haruka pulled her tail. "AAAAAAHHHHHH!"  
  
"What's wrong, it won't come off." Haruka squeezed harder and pulled more.  
  
"That's because it's attached to my body you idiot." Michiru let Usagi go. She fell to the ground as her vision went blank as the pain increased.  
  
Haruka let go of her tail. "Wow, you're some kind of freak. We can't have freaks at this school." Haruka raised her leg to kick Usagi in the face when someone stopped her.  
  
"Miss Tenno, what do you think you're doing to this poor girl?"   
  
Haruka looked back. "Sorry Miss Haruna. I was just ridding the school of an unwanted freak."  
  
"No one is a freak here Haruka. Getting in trouble on the first day of school you two. Go to the principle's office now."  
  
"Ah man, come on Michiru." Haruka turned back to Usagi, "Don't let me catch you around here again. You hear?"  
  
"GO! The rest of you, be on your way. There is nothing left to see here." Haruna watched as the rest of the kids went back to what they were doing before Haruka's little outburst. She knelt by Usagi who was trying to regain her stance. "I'm sorry about that. What's your name?"  
  
Usagi looked at the lady. She wasn't sure if she should trust her. "Son Usagi." She whispered.   
  
"What a nice name. Well Usagi, what grade are you in?"  
  
"Kindergarten." Usagi was stumbling while she was trying to stand up. Getting her tail pulled drained her energy. She had never felt that kind of pain before in her life. Haruna held Usagi's hand to help her up.  
  
"Well then, lets get you where you belong shall we."  
  
Usagi learned that she had nothing to fear from this woman. "What's your name?"  
  
"Miss Haruna."  
  
"Really? You're my teacher." Usagi was happy to have such a nice teacher.  
  
"That's great, I hope all of my students are as sweet as you." Usagi smiled.  
  
~*~*~  
  
When Miss Haruna and Usagi got to the kindergarten wing, all of the kids were already inside the classroom and seated at their tables. "There's your seat over there." Miss Haruna let go of Usagi's hand and went to the front of the class.   
  
Usagi walked to the back of the class where her seat was. As she walked back all of the students starred at her tail. They had never seen a human with a tail before. She noticed all of the kids watching her and began to feel very uncomfortable. She sat next to a blonde girl who wore a red bow in her hair who also starred at her. "Why do you have a tail?"   
  
"I'll tell you later."  
  
"Ok. My name is Minako. What's yours?"  
  
"Usagi."  
  
"Cool."  
  
Miss Haruna tapped a pencil on her desk to get everyone's attention. "Good morning class. This is kindergarten and I am your teacher Miss Haruna." She went on about what they would accomplish by the end of the year and all that introduction stuff teachers always talk about on the first day of school.  
  
The students have an hour for lunch and they can pretty much go anywhere in the kindergarten wing.  
Chi-Chi had packed a lunch for Usagi. She was afraid that if she gave her money to buy it she would just loose it. Usagi sat by herself in the kindergarten playground and ate her lunch quietly.   
  
Minako walked up to her. "Can I eat with you."  
  
"Sure."   
  
Minako sat down by Usagi and began to pull stuff out of her lunch bag. Behind them screaming kids could be heard playing. "So, why do you have a tail?"  
  
Usagi was more than happy to tell her. She didn't want people to think she was a freak and she thought that by telling people they wouldn't think of her as a freak anymore. "Well you see my daddy is a Saiyan."  
  
"What's a Saiyan."  
  
"I don't know. I think it's some sort of an alien or something. Anyways, my daddy was born with a tail and so were my brothers. I have another friend named Vejita and his kids were born with tails too."  
  
"Cool. I want one." The two girls laughed.  
  
A boy walked up to them. "Hey freaks."  
  
Minako stood up. "Who you callin a freak?"  
  
"You." The boy pointed at Usagi. "And you're the biggest freak I've ever seen."  
  
Usagi wasn't going to say anything. She didn't want what happened earlier to happen again. Minako wasn't just going to sit around and let that boy pick on her new friend. "Hey, pick on someone else. Usagi isn't a freak."  
  
"Yeah she is. She has a tail. Ha ha ha ha ha, I'm glad I don't have a tail." The boy ran off and began to play with some of his friends.  
  
"Don't listen to him Usagi. He's the freak."  
  
Usagi just sat and stared at her food. She felt like crying but didn't because she didn't want to be called a crybaby on top of being called a freak. "You don't have to sit with me."  
  
"What do you mean?"   
  
"I mean look at me. I am a freak. I have a tail. I'm just making everyone hate you too." Usagi lost her appetite.   
  
"What ever, why would I want to play with someone who is mean so someone that they don't even know."  
  
Usagi smiled a little bit. "Thanks Minako."  
  
"And besides, you're my new friend."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The day went on like that. Kids would tease Usagi for having a tail and they would tease Minako for being too much like a boy and for hanging out with Usagi. Usagi wasn't sure she liked all of the other kids. She missed being home with her father and couldn't wait to go home.  
  
"Ok kids, it's 3:00 and you all know what that means. It's time to go home. I'll see you all tomorrow." Miss Haruna dismissed her class.   
  
Usagi and Minako walked out to the front of the school. They were both waiting for their parents to pick them up when Usagi spotted Haruka and Michiru. "Oh no."  
  
Minako looked back at her friend. "What's wrong Usagi?"  
  
Haruka saw Usagi trying to hide behind a girl with long blonde hair. She walked up to her with Michiru. "He squirt. Thanks to you we got 2 weeks of detention. This means war between us."   
  
A man in a long brown coat walked up from behind. "Hello girls, I hope you weren't pestering these two girls."  
  
Haruka rolled her eyes. "No we weren't Mr. B." Mr. B, as the students call him, was the head of detention.  
  
"Good, come along ladies, we have work to do."  
  
Usagi laughed as Haruka and Michiru walked off to be put to work for a half-hour. "What was all that about, Usagi?"  
  
"They kind of beat me up before school and now they have detention."  
  
"Wow, no one likes you Usagi. I'm sorry."  
  
"Yeah well I have to live with it. That's ok though. I have you and my family. I have lots of friends who are way older than me." Usagi tried to fake being ok on the outside, but inside she was really hurting. She looked up in the air and looked for her father. She spotted him on Nimbus. "Daddy!" She yelled so her father could see her. She smiled and waved.   
  
Goku landed on Nimbus. "Hey Usagi. Ready to go home?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
Minako starred at Goku wide eyed and mouth open. "Wow, your dad has a flying cloud. How cool Usagi."  
  
"That's nothing. You should see him train. Now THAT'S cool."  
  
Goku looked at the girl who stood next to his daughter. "Who's this Usagi?"  
  
"Oh, yeah, Daddy this is my new friend Minako. Minako, this is my daddy."   
  
Minako stuck out her hand to Goku. "Nice to meet you sir."  
  
Goku shook hands with his daughter's new friend and smiled. "Nice to meet you Minako. Well Usagi, I guess we should be going."  
  
"Ok." Goku pulled Usagi on Nimbus and Usagi waved to her friend. "Good bye Minako. I'll see you tomorrow."  
  
Minako waved back. "By Usagi."  
  
~*~*~  
  
On the way home Usagi was pretty silent. She was thinking about her first day at school. It was nothing like what she had expected it to be. She was grateful that she had a new friend though and that she didn't have to go through the year alone. She elected not to tell her father about what happened in the morning.  
  
"So, did you have fun?"  
  
"Yeah, it was cool. We have a whole hour for lunch and we get to go anywhere we want. I ate lunch on the playground with Minako. My teacher's really nice. Her name is Miss Haruna." Usagi was out of breath. She had just said a mouth full in one sentence.  
  
"That's cool. I missed having you around all day."  
  
"I missed you too daddy." Usagi wrapped her tail around her father's waste as they flew home and leaned into his chest. She was worn out from the day's activities and needed to rest.  
  
(Ok, that's it for this chapter. I'd like to hear what you think so far so please review. ^_^)  
  



	6. Part 5

  
  
It was 8:00 and it had been a long day. Usagi lay in her bed and thought about the events that had taken place earlier in the day. She thought about how all of the kids in her class picked on her. All just because she had a tail. Usagi looked at her tail, which was wrapped around in a bundle of blankets. "Stupid tail!" Usagi cried softly to herself. This had been the worst day she had ever been through. She did not want to go back the next day.   
  
Usagi's bedroom door opened and let the light from the world outside peer in on her. Usagi was startled. She was supposed to be in bed. Her parents never disturbed her once she was put to bed. She didn't know what this could be. "Usagi?"  
  
It was the voice of her father. Usagi wiped the tears off of her face and stared at her father hoping that he hadn't seen or that he wouldn't turn on the lights. "Yes daddy?"   
  
Goku knew that there was something bothering his daughter. He couldn't quit put his finger on it. "Are you alright? I thought I heard something in here?"  
  
'Oh no,' Usagi thought to herself, 'Did he hear what I actually said?' Usagi coughed. Her throut was clogged from crying. She didn't want him to find out that what she had been doing a moment ago. "No, nothings wrong."  
  
Goku didn't know what to say. He didn't want to accuse his daughter but if something was bothering her she should have told him. He might have been able to fix things for her. He didn't want her to be in pain. That was the last thing that he wanted her to live through and he would have done anything to make her feel better. "Ok." Goku left Usagi's room and closed the door behind him.  
  
Usagi sighed. "That was close." She lay her head back in her pillow and tried to sleep. She couldn't though. Every time she closed her eyes she could see Haruka and Michiru laughing with her classmates behind them also laughing and taunting her. Usagi squeezed her pillow as tears spilled out of her eyes again. "They wouldn't be mean if daddy was around."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku had noticed that his daughter had acted strange ever since she had come home that night. She was trying to hide her true feelings by covering them up with happiness. She wasn't doing a very good job of it. Her sadness showed itself in her eyes. They looked so sad.  
  
Goku lay next to his wife in bed. He looked over at her. She seemed to be reading a magazine of some sort. "Chi-Chi?"  
  
Chi-Chi put down her magazine. Goku had a habit of interrupting her right when she was in the middle of a juicy gossip article. "What is it Goku?"  
  
"Do you think we are doing the right thing by sending Usagi to school?"  
  
Chi-Chi didn't understand the nature of the question. She didn't understand where it came from either. It just kind of popped out of no where and hit her in the face. "What do you mean Goku? She loves school. She said so herself. Now stop worrying and let me read." Chi-Chi went back to her reading magazine and had hoped that there would be no more interruptions.  
  
'Maybe Chi-Chi is right. Maybe Usagi was just tired. She still seemed like she was hiding something.' Goku decided to watch the situation more closely.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi arrived at school with her father at 7:30. A half-hour before it started. She looked around to make sure that Haruka and Michiru were no where in sight.   
  
Goku found this strange. The day before she had barely been able to not jump off Nimbus and now, today she was as cautious as well, no one he knew. He couldn't understand what she was doing. She seemed to be searching for someone. "Well, aren't you going to go?"  
  
Usagi wanted to say 'No.' She didn't want to go to school. She wanted to go back home and spend the day watching her father and brothers train like she had before school. She hated school. "I guess so." Usagi kissed her father and UN-wound her tail from his waste. She reluctantly jumped off the cloud and looked back up at her father.  
  
Goku definitely sensed tension coming from her. "Goodbye Usagi, I'll be back after school." He looked into his daughter's eyes and saw it. It was a plea from his daughter. As if she was asking, no, begging him to not make her stay. 'What happened yesterday? Why won't you tell me?'  
  
"Goodbye daddy." Usagi waved and watched her father leave. She was all alone now. Vulnerable to everyone's jokes and taunting. She turned around headed for her classroom. She thought about yesterday again and the boy who had called her a freak. She thought about how that boy had gotten the whole class to call her monkey girl. That was her new nickname. Then she thought about Minako and how nice she had been to her. "At least not everyone hates me." She said to herself as she quickened her pace.  
  
"Yeah well pretty much everyone does."  
  
"Huh?" Usagi looked behind her. She heard a voice in the bushes behind her. "Who's there?" Haruka and Michiru emerged from their bushes and showed themselves to Usagi. "Stay away from me." Usagi began to back up. She hoped that they wouldn't be dumb enough to start a fight again. They had gotten detention yesterday.  
  
"You know, you got us in a lot of trouble yesterday Monkey Girl."   
  
Usagi started to tremble. Haruka was challenging her with her body movements. She kept coming closer. "How do you know that name?"  
  
Haruka laughed. "News travels fast. Everyone in the school knows it now. Your rep is over before it starts."  
  
Usagi could have cried right then and there. "I never did anything to you. Why don't you just leave me alone?"  
  
"Oh, is the baby gonna cry? Well don't worry, we will get your mommy in here. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha." Haruka grabbed Usagi's bag from her.  
  
"Hey give it back, that's mine." Haruka held her bag high in the air. Usagi jumped for it.  
  
Haruka shook her head in disbelief. "No, no, no, little baby monkey's shouldn't play with human toys." She began to pull things out of it. "Oh what's this I see?" Haruka pulled out a little pudding container. "Mine. You know, just because I'm nice. I'm going to test your food and make sure it's not poisoned."  
Haruka opened the pudding and stuffed it all in her mouth. "Yum, this is good food, but chocolate isn't for monkeys." She pulled out some rice balls and ate them too.  
  
Usagi just sat and watched her lunch be devoured by her bullies. Fear flowed through her body.  
  
"Yeah, you would have died if Haruka hadn't eaten it for you." Michiru grabbed the bag from Haruka and started rummaging through it. Usagi didn't know what to do. She was too scared to grab the bag from the aqua haired girl.   
  
Michiru stopped looking through the bag when she came across an orange ball. "Oh, what's this?"  
  
Usagi scowled at the girl. "What?"  
  
Michiru pulled the ball out of Usagi's bag. "Ooooh, looks valuable. It's mine now."  
  
Usagi could have screamed when she saw what Michiru was talking about. She was holding the dragon ball that her father had given her on her 4th birthday. It was the 6 star dragon ball. He had given Gohan the 4 star ball and Goten the 5 star ball. "Nooooo!" Usagi began to run up to Michiru. She couldn't and would NOT loose that ball to a couple of bullies. She didn't care how big or strong they were.   
  
Haruka pushed her out of the way. "Get lost kid."   
  
Michiru examined the ball more closely and threw down Usagi's bag.  
  
Usagi sat on the ground and watched as the two walked away with HER dragon ball. "Just wait until my daddy hears about this." It was yesterday all over again. She got up, brushed herself off, and walked back to her class.  
  
~*~*~   
  
Usagi arrived to class late. "Miss Son, I hope you won't make this a habit."  
  
Usagi looked at her teacher. "I'm sorry Miss Haruna. It won't happen again." Usagi took her seat by Minako.  
  
"At this school we want our kindergartners to feel welcome, like they belong to this school." Usagi felt everything but belonging. "And so that this can be accomplished, we have some of our upper classmen come by at lunch." Usagi didn't know if she liked the sound of that. It sounded more like an invitation to bad feelings then good sounding.  
  
~*~*~   
  
Usagi met Minako once again at the playground for lunch. She greeted her friend with a shinning smile. Although people were mean to her she didn't forget the fact that Minako didn't make fun of her when she could have very easily. "Hi Minako!" She sat by her friend who was already eating. She pulled out her lunch bag that her mother had packed for her.  
  
"So are you excited about those upper classmen coming today Usagi?" Minako watched her friend fiddling with her bag. She looked as though she was searching for something.  
  
"Not really. What if they are mean to us." Usagi couldn't believe it. It was missing. She closed her bag.  
  
"Usagi, just because some people are mean to us doesn't mean everyone will." Minako watched her friend put her lunch bag away. She started rummaging through her book bag now. "Usagi?" No answer. "Usagi? Are you listening to me?"  
  
Usagi put her bag down on the ground. "Huh?" She realized that Minako was talking to her. "I'm sorry. What were you saying?" Usagi got a look of anger on her face.  
  
"Are you ok Usagi? Where's your lunch?"  
  
"My lunch?" Usagi stood up and frowned. "My lunch is in the stomach of some bully. I can't believe it! Haruka at it all!" A hand on her shoulder startled Usagi. She turned around to see who it was. She couldn't believe it. She wanted to dig a whole and then climb in it. She smiled a fake smile. "Oh, hi Haruka."  
  
Minako recognized her. But from where?  
  
"Hello, monkey girl." Haruka had an evil smile on her face. A smile that could scare ANYONE.  
  
Usagi stood there and clenched her fists. "Stop calling me that."  
  
"Look up when you're speaking to us monkey girl." Michiru wasn't mean by nature. Haruka had turned her into a bully.  
  
Usagi looked up. "What do you want? Why are you here?"   
  
"Little monkey…"  
  
"Hello, she told you to stop calling her that." Minako was taking a chance here. She knew it wasn't a good idea to try and stand up to an older kid than you. Especially if they had the traits of a bully.   
  
Haruka diverted her attention to the girl standing next to Usagi. "And who are you? The assistant monkey?"  
  
"Don't get involved Minako. You don't know what you're getting into." If someone had told Usagi that the summer before she wouldn't have begged her mother to go to school. 'What a mistake.'  
  
"Usagi, don't just let them push you around like this."   
  
Haruka saw that Minako could become a problem. "Michiru, take care of her."   
  
Michiru nodded. She grabbed Minako and pulled her aside. "Let me go you bully." Minako began kicking. She tried desperately to kick Michiru buy it did not work.  
  
"Now, it's just me and you Monkey girl." Haruka was once again paying attention to the girl with the tail.   
  
"Why are you here Haruka?" Usagi took a step back.  
  
Haruka pulled out Usagi's 6 star Dragon Ball and began tossing it in the air. "Well, it seems as though the people in the office think we should be here to help you kids get used to school. All of the kids here are cool except for you two rejects."  
  
"That can't be true. Your are too mean for that. NOW GIVE ME BACK MY BALL!" That was the one thing that would make her more aggressive. That ball meant a lot to her.  
  
Minako watched Usagi from her holding. She didn't know if Usagi could handle herself out there. 'What did she do to make these two mad?' She began to struggle to free herself from Michiru's grip. No luck. "Let me go!"  
  
Michiru kicked Minako. "Hold still."  
  
"Oh, so this ball is of value to you huh?" Haruka tossed it in the air again.  
  
"Give it back NOW!"  
  
"Settle down. What can I make you do to get this ball back?"  
  
Usagi jumped for the ball but Haruka dodged. Usagi fell flat on the ground. She pushed herself up and looked at Haruka and began to cry. "Wait until my daddy hears about this."  
  
"Oooh, your dad, I'm scared. I can take him."  
  
Usagi laughed. "I wouldn't count on that."  
  
"I'll bet your dad is a stupid monkey just like you."  
  
'Bad move' Minako thought.   
  
Usagi frowned. "You take that back. My dad is not a monkey. I'm not a monkey." Usagi couldn't believe that this was her talking. She knew she was going to get a good beating for this.  
  
Haruka was enjoying this so much. She could see the pain that she was causing Usagi. She got a rush from causing the pain in others. "I'll bet he is a monkey. That's the only reason why you have a tail. Or maybe your mother is a monkey. Ha, ha, ha, ha, your parents cross-breeded."  
  
Usagi had no idea what she meant by this term but she knew that she was tired of Haruka slandering her family. "You'll pay." Usagi lunged herself at Haruka. She pushed her to the ground and sat on her chest.  
  
"Usagi!" Minako got loose of Michiru's hold and ran to her friend and tried to pull her off.   
  
Usagi was hitting Haruka in the face over and over. She was too weak to do any damage. Haruka threw he off. She ran at Usagi and began to kick her. Usagi was unable to move. The pain was too great.   
  
Minako ran up to Haruka and pulled on her arm. "Stop it."   
  
Haruka elbowed Minako back. "Get away you stupid monkey's friend. You're next." Haruka picked up and held Usagi against a wall and looked her straight in the eyes. "This is just a warning. I'm keeping your stupid ball too."  
  
"Please, stop it, she can't defend herself." Every single kid on he playground had gathered around to watch the fight. They all rooted against "monkey girl."  
  
Haruka was really getting tired of Minako. She was becoming a pest. "Michiru, silence her."  
  
Michiru nodded in compliance. "Gladly." She grabbed Minako from behind and kneed her. Michiru let the little girl fall to the ground.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mr. B went to check on Haruka and Michiru, he wasn't sure if putting them in the kindergarten wing was a good idea but they had sworn that they changed. That they wouldn't bully anyone. When he got there he wasn't in the least bit shocked at what he saw. He crossed his arms. "Girls, follow me now! All four of you."  
  
Haruka dropped Usagi. "Damn, see what you got me into again Monkey girl? This isn't over." She waved for Michiru who stopped what she was doing to Minako.  
  
Minako pulled herself off the ground. He back ached but she was sure that the pain she was feeling was nothing compared to the pain that her friend was feeling. She walked over to Usagi, who was using the wall as support. Her clothes were torn to shreds and her hair was all out of her odangos. It hung down to the bottom of her shoulder blades now. She had dirt all over and was even bleeding in her face. Minako let Usagi use her shoulder to brace herself on instead of the wall. "Are you ok Usagi?"  
  
Usagi coughed. "No, I want to go home."  
  
"I have a feeling that's where we are going to be going." The two walked towards Mr. B who was standing at the gate that left the kindergarten wing.  
  
He looked at them with cold eyes. Like he didn't care. "Well, here we are again Haruka and Michiru. And you two," He turned to look at Minako and Usagi, "I'm disappointed in you. Only your second day of your school careers and you get yourselves into a fight."  
  
The four girls walked to the office glaring at each other with Mr. B in the middle of the two age groups.  
  
~*~*~  
  
When they arrived at the office Mr. B instructed them to sit in the chairs that sat just inside the office doors. "You four stay here, I'm going to get the principle and then we will call your parents after we ask you a few questions." He disappeared down a long hallway.  
  
Usagi closed her eyes and grabbed her head. "Oh no, my parents?"  
  
Minako slouched in her chair. "Great, I'm going to be grounded for sure."  
  
Usagi had a headache. 'I wonder if Gohan or Goten ever got in any trouble like this before?' She was scarred. Not only scarred that Chi-Chi would have a total conniption over what she had done, but scared about what her father would think.   
  
~*~*~  
  
After 10 minutes Mr. B walked out of his office with the principle. The principle looked like a nice person but Usagi had learned in the past two days not to trust people on looks alone. The Principle looked down at the four girls who sat before her and shook her head. "Never in my life have a seen such a fight take place. A fight between a 5th grader and a kindergartner." Usagi's tail waved beneath the chair. She always did this when she was nervous. The principle looked at Usagi and then at Haruka and Michiru. "Who did this to this poor girl."   
  
Haruka and Michiru looked at each other and said nothing.  
  
"I'm going to say this one more time and I want an answer. Now, who did this to, excuse me what's your name?"  
  
Usagi looked up. "Usagi."  
  
"Who did this to Usagi?"  
  
Haruka reluctantly raised her hand as she glared at Usagi. Usagi cowered in her chair. "I did ma'am."  
  
"That's what I thought. Haruka, in the 4 years that you have been here prior to this year, you have been in more fights than anyone else, am I wrong."  
  
Haruka looked the Principle straight in the eyes as if she were trying to challenge her. "No."  
  
The principle looked at Usagi and Minako with unsympathetic eyes. "Who threw the first punch?" She hadn't expected the answer she got.  
  
Usagi looked up at her. She had been taught to never lie. "I did ma'am."  
  
"But only after Haruka teased her." Minako piped in.  
  
"Quiet, young lady, I'll deal with you when I get to you." She looked back to Usagi. "Come, on, let's go call your parents."  
  
Usagi carefully pushed herself up out of the chair with the armrests and looked back to Minako.   
  
All she could do though was give her a sympathetic look. Minako watched as Usagi followed the principle into her office. Usagi walked in and the door slammed behind her. Right now she feared for her friend. She watched as Mr. B signaled for Haruka to follow him. Now it was just her and Michiru. She looked at her.  
  
"What are you looking at monkey assistant?" Minako shot her attention away from Michiru to the secretary who was working at the desk in front of her.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The principle sat down in her seat and put her hand out. "Please, take a seat Usagi."  
  
Usagi was nervous. She really wished that she hadn't started the fight but she couldn't let Haruka take her Dragon Ball and then call her parents a monkey. She sat in the chair.   
  
"Now since you are new you probably don't know who I am. My name is Mrs. Willings."  
  
Usagi watched her pull out some papers from a Manila folder. It was her blue emergency card that she had turned in yesterday. She knew exactly what it was for. 'Well, here it goes.'  
  
Mrs. Willings picked up the phone that sat on her desk. She looked at Usagi's card and dialed the number on it.  
  
~*~*~   
  
Goku was in the shower when the phone rang. He hurried out of the bathroom into his room. The phone sat by Chi-Chi's side of the bed, which was farther away from the bathroom. He jumped over the bed and picked up the phone that was screaming at him. "Hello?"  
  
"Hello, is there a Son Chi-Chi around there?"  
  
"No. I'm sorry, she's out right now."  
  
"Ok, is there a Goku around then?"  
  
"That's me." Goku was drying off his hair with his towel.  
  
"Well my name is Mrs. Willings, the principle at Meadows and I'm calling about your daughter."  
  
Goku bolted up from the bed. "Usagi? Is she ok?"  
  
"Yes she's fine sir, but she has been involved in a fight." Mrs. Willings filled out a disciplinary form as she talked with Usagi's father. Gees I hate those things don't you?   
  
"A fight?"  
  
"Yes, and you'll be surprised to hear that she started it. We have a no tolerance rule on fighting at this school and action will be taken against your daughter. I would like you to come down here so we may talk in person."  
  
"Alright." Goku hung up the phone. "Usagi started a fight?" This did in fact surprise Goku. His daughter had never done anything like this before. He was both angry and disappointed. He was angrier than anything. He had not raised her to fight. He got dressed as fast as he could and called for Nimbus.  
  
(Ok, that's it for this chapter. I got a review from someone saying that I was being mean to Usagi, Haruka, and Michiru, and please, trust me when I say this, I know what I'm doing. ^_^I like to set myself up so I can write a good story. Thanks for the reviews everyone.)  
  



	7. Part 6

Goku flew on Nimbus to Usagi's school. He didn't what he was going to do with her. He didn't know what Chi-Chi was going to do. If he was angry with her he didn't want to imagine what Chi-Chi would do. In a way he was glad that Chi-Chi had been out shopping with Bulma when Mrs. Willings had called.  
  
~*~*~   
  
Usagi watched Mrs. Willings fill out a few forms and then looked out the window behind her. She could see Minako sitting in the office. 'I guess Michiru, and Haruka already got their punishments.' She turned back around and looked around the office a little bit. It had certificates of Mrs. Willings diplomas on the wall to the left of her. 'What a mess I've gotten myself into. I didn't even get my Dragon Ball back yet. I wonder what my punishment will be.' Usagi shifted herself to get more comfortable in the chair. When she did, however, she hurt herself. Haruka had really done a number on her. What would she tell her mother? She would go ballistic when she saw her. She would go ballistic when she heard about what SHE had done.  
  
A knock at the door interrupted Usagi's thoughts. Mrs. Willings looked up from what she was doing. "That must be your father Usagi."  
  
"Great." She once again and looked at the window behind her. Yep, sure enough, it was her father. 'My time has finally come.' She thought to herself. She wanted to cry. Her heart began to beat faster with anticipation.  
  
Mrs. Willings walked to her door and greeted Goku, "Good afternoon sir, it's nice to meet you."  
  
Goku smiled. "It's nice to meet you too." The two adults shook hands. Mrs. Willings walked back to her desk. Goku saw his daughter sitting in a chair in front of the Principle's desk and frowned. She looked really beat up. He clothes were ripped and her hair was a mess.  
  
She could feel it. Usagi could actually feel it. She felt her father's eyes on her. She let herself slide down the chair. She was ashamed of herself. Her father was ashamed her of her too. She knew he was. He just had to be after what she just pulled.   
  
Goku sat in the chair next to his daughter and looked at her. She held her head low and had wrapped her tail around a leg of the chair. He could see the blood on her face. And a bruise was forming on her right eye.  
  
Usagi was afraid to look at her father. She was afraid of what he would see in her eyes. Tears. Tears were what he would see in her eyes. . Not tears of sadness, no, not those kinds of tears. He would have seen the tears of a girl who just let her father down.  
  
Mrs. Willings rustled some papers on her desk and cleared her throat. "Now Mr. Son we have a severe problem on our hands." Goku looked away from his daughter and focused all of his attention on Mrs. Willings. "It seems that your daughter has decided to pick a fight with two girls in 5th grade. It is highly unusual that the younger child starts the fight." Usagi wiped her tears from her face.  
  
Goku didn't know what to think. This had just kind of come at him so fast. He still couldn't get over the fact that it was Usagi who had done the dirty deed and not one of his boys. " I understand. What are you going to do about it." Goku took a quick look back at his daughter. She wouldn't look at him. She hadn't picked her head up since he arrived. She was suffering. He knew he shouldn't feel sorry for her but her did. He had to be firm with her though. He couldn't cave in.   
  
"I have decided to suspend her for two weeks."  
  
"Two weeks? Isn't that a little much? She's only in kindergarten."   
  
"I'm sorry, but if we bend the rules for her, then we have to bend the rules for everyone else. The same punishment will be dealt out to the other three who were involved."  
  
"I understand." Goku looked back at Usagi.  
  
Usagi finally looked at her father who was starring straight at her. She saw the anger in his eyes. The anger of a disappointed father. It made her feel even worse. Her heart felt like it was falling from a 100-story building. He had never looked at her like that before.  
  
Goku stood up. He didn't want to talk to his daughter at that moment. He needed time to let everything sink in. He signaled for her to follow.   
  
She stood up very slowly. It still hurt to move. Every muscle in her body ached. Her heart the most.  
  
Goku turned around. "Thank you Mrs. Willings. I'm sorry this had to take place." He looked back down at Usagi, who looked like she was in a lot of pain.  
  
She looked up at him and their eyes once again met. He quickly looked away. 'Does he hate me now?!'  
Usagi followed her father out the door and saw Minako sitting in the same chair. She was swinging her feet.  
  
"Miss Aino." It was Minako's turn now. Minako stood up and proceeded to the principle's office where her parents would be called and notified of her actions. She walked passed Usagi and her father. The two girls locked eyes together. They watched each other sympathetically as they passed one another.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku called for Nimbus.   
  
Usagi looked up at her father. He hadn't looked at her since they were in the principle's office. The more he thought about the situation, the angrier he got.   
  
Nimbus arrived. Goku lifted his daughter on the yellow cloud and climbed on behind her. 'Maybe school isn't the place for her.' He thought to himself.  
  
For once Usagi was actually afraid of her father. She had never had any need to be before. She had occasionally been afraid of her mother but that was to be expected. Even her own father, the strongest man in the galaxy, had been afraid of her. Then it hit her. If her father was this angry what would her mother think? Usagi's heart ached deep within her chest.   
  
Usagi stopped thinking for a moment and noticed that they were not going home. 'Where are we going? What are you thinking about daddy? Please, I need you to talk to me.'  
  
Goku knew exactly where they were going. They were going to the place that he and Usagi always went when they wanted to spend to time with each other. No one but them knew about it. Every summer Goku would take Usagi camping there for 2 weeks. He knew that it would be safe to talk there. There would be no intrusion of Chi-Chi-Chi.  
  
Nimbus landed. Usagi looked around. 'What are we doing here?'   
  
Goku jumped off Nimbus and grabbed his daughter off. He didn't want her to hurt herself anymore than she already was. 'I still can't believe it. There has to be a reason.' He didn't know exactly how to handle a situation like this. It had never come up before.  
  
Usagi looked at her father. He seemed to be fighting and internal conflict. 'Why did her bring me her? Wait a minute. He's not planning on leaving me here is he? Does he really hate me that much?' She replayed the fight in her head. The reasons, they had been good reasons. She thought about her Dragon Ball. Everything pilled up in her head. There was no room left. It was all too overwhelming. She began to cry.  
  
When Goku saw this, he immediately picked his daughter up and sat her down by a tree and knelt down by her. "Usagi, we really need to talk." He felt really bad for her. He pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to his wounded daughter. He told himself over and over again that he wouldn't do this, but looking at her, he had to. She needed it. She had been through enough stress for the day. He didn't want to add to it.  
  
Usagi looked at the Senzu bean that Goku held out to her. She looked at her father who was smiling down at her. She took the bean and ate it. She could feel her energy returning to her muscles. Her body no longer hurt. He didn't hate her after all. She was overjoyed. She threw herself into her father's arms and hugged him as hard as she could. "I'm so glad you don't hate me daddy." She cried harder. Now they were tears of happiness. She wrapped her tail around his waste.  
  
  
Goku hugged his daughter but was somewhat confused. He watched as she cried into his chest. "What do you mean Usagi? I have never, nor will I ever hate you."   
  
Usagi pulled away from Goku's chest. Tears streamed down her face. Why had he acted so cold to her a few moments ago? "You don't."  
  
Goku stroked Usagi's hair as she rested her head against his chest once again. "Of course not. I love you." The two Saiyans sat against the tree in the shade. It was a hot and sunshine filled day. The waterfall could be heard behind them. "Usagi, I know something is bothering you. Please, talk to me. I can't help you unless you tell me."  
  
Usagi didn't know if she had the willpower to tell him. She was embarrassed. She closed her eyes and saw the fight. She saw herself being held up against the wall from another perspective. Haruka swung at Usagi. She squeezed her eyes shut even harder. She decided that there was no escaping it. She needed to tell him. He would have made her anyways. "The whole story?"  
  
Goku nodded. "The WHOLE story."  
  
Usagi got comfortable in her father's lap. This could take a while. "Well you see, yesterday before school, I didn't know where to go. I asked a group of older girls. They seemed nice. They called me stupid for not knowing where to go. Then one of the girls, whose name was Haruka, saw my tail. She laughed and her friend Michiru laughed too. Then Haruka tried to grab my tail. I jumped out of the way but Michiru grabbed me from behind, which allowed Haruka to grab my tail. It hurt daddy." She grabbed her father's orange GI and looked him closer in the eyes. "It REALLY hurt. She was about to kick me when my teacher Miss Haruna stopped her. Then at lunch," Usagi's eyes were watering now, "A boy walked up to me and Minako and called us freaks. Now the whole school knows me as 'Monkey Girl." Usagi was at a full fledge cry now.   
  
'Tears of pain' Goku thought to himself as his daughter spilled her feelings to him. 'So that's what I was sensing from her. She had been wrongfully picked on. She had been so excited at school and it just slapped her in the face with no mercy.' Goku felt like crying himself. "Usagi, it's ok. Don't listen to what they say."  
  
Usagi tried to wipe her tears away but no matter what she did they just kept coming. "No, it's not ok daddy. I am a freak."  
  
Goku wanted to comfort his daughter with words of wisdom but he couldn't think of much to say. "Usagi, I'm disappointed in you. I would have expected better from you. Come on, you can't be giving in to their jokes with out a fight."  
  
"Fighting is how I got here. I got myself beat up. I'm just a freak who can't defend herself."   
  
Goku lifted his daughter's face with his finger so he could look into her eyes. "You know, if you believe that, it will be true."  
  
What was he trying to say? Usagi didn't understand. "But I am."  
  
Goku put his finger to Usagi's mouth to silence her. "Don't say that. You can do anything."  
  
Usagi smiled. She knew what he was trying to do and she appreciated it. "I'm still a freak. Look at this stupid tail." She pointed to her tail. She wished it wasn't there. That thing had gotten her into more trouble then she could handle.  
  
"Just because you have a tail doesn't make you a freak. It makes you special." Goku poked his daughter's nose. "Now, would you like to tell me why you started a fight with Haruka and Michiru today?" Goku knew that they were the ones she fought with. What other 5th graders could there have been to fight?  
  
Usagi was reluctant to tell him. She didn't want him to get mad at her for loosing her Dragon Ball that he had given to her. She was going to have to tell him though. That's one of the main reasons why the fight started. "Well, ok. Here it goes. Today, after you left I started walking to class to meet up with Minako. Haruka and Michiru saw me and grabbed my bag. I tried to get it back but they were too tall and too fast for me. Haruka ate my lunch and Michiru……" Usagi paused for a long time. She didn't want to say what happened next.  
  
Goku could see that his daughter was struggling inside. She didn't want to tell him something. "Yes, go on sweetie."  
  
Usagi half smiled. She knew he was just trying to help. "Well they stole the Dragon Ball you gave me."   
  
"WHAT?!" Goku now knew why she had been so hesitant to tell him what happened. Not only had his daughter gotten into a fight but now he had to think of some way to get the dragon ball back. If they knew of it's hidden powers then he would have to fight and leave Usagi.   
  
She knew this was going to happen. Usagi knew that her father would get upset when she told him. She had hoped he wasn't too mad at her. She lowered her head so she didn't have to look him in the eyes. "I'm sorry daddy."  
  
Goku knew he had blown it. He should have better than to burst out like that. He just made things worse. His face softened as he looked down at Usagi. "It's ok. I'm not mad at you. It wasn't your fault." Goku began to play with his daughter's long blonde hair. It was a mess after the fight. It looked like it hadn't been brushed in days.  
  
"At lunch they came to the kindergarten wing. They said that the office sent them there to welcome us kids. They didn't make me and Minako feel very welcome. The called me "Monkey Girl" and called Minako the "Monkey's assistant". Then Haruka pulled out my Dragon Ball and started tossing it in the air. I tried to get it back by Haruka was fast. She started to make fun of my tail again and said that either you or mommy were monkeys and that you cross-bread, whatever that means. Then I jumped on her and hit her. I wasn't strong enough. She threw me off her and kicked me and pushed Minako aside. My vision went black. I think she slammed me against the wall. I'm not sure. I still couldn't see"  
  
Goku cringed when he heard what Haruka had done to his daughter. How could someone that age pick on a 5-year old? It stumped him. Goku couldn't believe it. He was angry. He didn't want his daughter to be made fun of anymore. He didn't want her to suffer. "Usagi, thank you for telling me what happened." He tensed up. "Usagi, it's getting late. I think we should go home."  
  
Usagi looked at her father as he stood up. Why had he suddenly changed moods? "Are you going to tell mommy?" Usagi knew that she would be in major trouble if he did. She had hoped that he wouldn't.  
  
"Not exactly." Goku had a plan to keep Chi-Chi from knowing. He knew that she would just put more stress on their daughter if he did.  
  
"Huh? What do you mean daddy?"  
  
"I'm going to tell her you were in the fight but you didn't start it. I'm also going to tell her that they suspended you because of the fact that you were still involved. Just like Minako." Goku hoped that it would work.  
  
Usagi hugged her father. "You're the best daddy. I love you." She squeezed him as hard as she could.  
  
Goku looked down at Usagi and smiled. "I love you too Usagi."  
  
~*~*~  
  
When the Saiyan Duo returned home there had been no trace of Chi-Chi being home. Goku scratched his head. "You know, that's really odd. Your mother should be home by now." Goku walked into the kitchen to see if there was any meal in the fridge to eat. Nothing. No sign of food left by Chi-Chi. Goku scratched his head. "What are we supposed to eat?"  
  
Usagi walked into the kitchen in a new set of cloths. (Picture her in kind of what Gohan wore when he was 4 minus the hat. I'm going to change it a little though. The shirt stops at her waste and a skirt starts right after it and goes halfway down her thigh. The main part of her shirt is green and the sleeves are yellow. The skirt is also green.) Her hair had been left hanging down. She never really did her hair right and she wasn't going anywhere anyways. "Daddy I'm hungry, when is mommy going to come home."  
  
The front door busted wide open and Chi-Chi stood behind it with a hand full of bags. "I could use a little help Goku." Chi-Chi nearly dropped the bags she was carrying.  
  
Goku rushed by to her and grabbed half of the bags. "I sure hope you brought home dinner because we're hungry." Goku carried the bags over to the counter and started looking through them for something to eat.  
  
Chi-Chi set her bags by Goku's bundle and slapped his hand away from the newly bought food. "Get out of my kitchen if you want me to make dinner Goku." Goku was always crowding her when she brought home food. He always had to be the first to snoop.  
  
"Fine." Goku waved for Usagi to follow him into another room. He didn't want Usagi to tell her mother anything about the day. That was for him to do after dinner.   
  
Usagi left the kitchen with her father. "Daddy, why does mommy always kick you out of the kitchen?"  
  
Goku looked at his wide-eyed little girl. She was always so full of questions. "Because mommy is always on PMS."  
  
Usagi starred at her father. "What's PMS?"  
  
Goku laughed to himself. "Nothing."   
  
Usagi shrugged her shoulders and left. She went to her room and closed the door behind her. She walked to her window and sat down in a chair. The sun was going down. The sky was orange and red. She loved the sunset. It was so peaceful. Usagi felt very tired all of a sudden and yawned. She rested her head on her arms, which rested on the window seal and sighed. "What a day." Usagi really hoped that her father would keep his word and get her out of the mess she created. The house started to fill the aroma of what her mother was cooking. It smelled so good. Usagi had just realized that she hadn't eaten since breakfast.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"DINNER!" Chi-Chi yelled when dinner was ready to be eaten. More like gorged with Goku's appetite. She was glad that Usagi hadn't inherited that trait from Goku. Although she was a Saiyan she never really acted like it.  
  
Goku raced into the kitchen and sat down. "Sure smells good Chi-Chi. I can't wait to eat it." Goku had been starving. Chi-Chi kept him out of the kitchen so he couldn't even get a snack.  
  
"Well you will have to wait for Usagi to come down out of her room." They waited for her but she never came. It had been 4 minutes since Chi-Chi called for Usagi. It wasn't like her to just not come down for dinner. "I wonder what's taking her so long."  
  
Goku stood up. "I'll get her."  
  
"No. I'll get her." Chi-Chi headed for the doorway of the kitchen and turned around. "If you touch that food before we get back, Goku, you will never eat any of my cooking again." She really did know how to put Goku in his place.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi knocked on her daughter's door. There was no answer so she knocked again. Again, no answer. She slowly and quietly opened the door and revealed her daughter. She had fallen asleep watching the sunset. 'She's so precious.' Chi-Chi thought to herself. She hated to disturb her but Usagi needed to eat. She shook her daughter's shoulder. "Usagi, Usagi wake up. It's dinner time."  
  
Usagi jumped out of her seat. "Who's there?" She looked up to see that it was only her mother and smiled. "Hi mommy."  
  
"Hi sweet heart. It's time for dinner." Chi-Chi began to leave the room.  
  
"Great! I'm hungry!" Usagi ran out of her room and down to the kitchen. She had totally forgotten about the fight and how she and her father would soon have to tell her about it.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku was stuffing his face as usual. "Yum, Chi-Chi this is delicious."  
  
"Thank you Goku." Chi-Chi looked at her daughter who had barely eaten a thing. Usagi wasn't up to it. She had started thinking about the fight again and lost her appetite. "Usagi, aren't you going to eat?" Usagi didn't here her mother's words. She had been in a daze. "Usagi?"  
  
"Huh? Oh, sorry mommy, what did you say?" Usagi started to pick at the rice on her plate.  
  
"Aren't you going to eat honey?"  
  
Goku watched his daughter. He knew what was wrong and it was only a matter of time before Chi-Chi also knew. "Leave her alone Chi-Chi-Chi."  
  
"Goku, stay out of this." Chi-Chi turned back to Usagi. "You need to eat. What's wrong Usagi? Did something happen at school today?"  
  
Usagi's heart started to race inside her. This wasn't supposed to happen. She wasn't supposed to find out until after dinner. She didn't know what to say. She looked at her father for answers. "I..uh…"   
  
"We have something to tell you Chi-Chi." Usagi looked at her father with relief. He saved her. Just like he had promised. She smiled.  
  
Chi-Chi looked at Goku. "Goku, why do I have a feeling that this is going to be bad news?"  
  
"Just wait until after dinner dear."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "NO! TELL ME NOW!"  
  
Usagi cringed. 'Daddy just tell her. You're making her mad. Please."  
  
Goku cowered away from his wife. "Well you see, a couple of 5th graders felt that it was their duty to pick on our Usagi here. They called her Monkey Girl and stole her dragon ball." He was still very angry about that fact. He hadn't yet come up with a plan to retrieve it. He WOULD get it back for his daughter though. "They started to beat her and her friend Minako up and all four of them got suspended for two weeks." Goku hoped that she would buy that. He looked at Usagi who seemed pleased with his performance.  
  
Chi-Chi looked at her daughter. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around her. "Oh my baby, are you alright? Did they hurt you much? It's alright, mommy won't let them touch you anymore." Chi-Chi was choking Usagi. She was squeezing too hard. Now she knew what Gohan was talking about when he told her how over protective she is. "Now who are these girls that hurt my baby?" She turned to Goku. "I want to talk to their parents."  
  
'Shit, I wasn't expecting this.' He had to protect Usagi. He had promised her that he wouldn't let her find out the truth. He couldn't break his promise. "I have already taken care of it."  
  
Chi-Chi couldn't believe it. Goku had done something responsible for once in his life. "Are you sure?"  
  
"I'm sure, why would I lie?"  
  
Chi-Chi couldn't argue with that. She looked back down at her daughter. "Why don't you go back up to bed darling. You have had a long day."  
  
Usagi complied with her mother's wishes.  
  
~*~*~   
  
The night was stormy and Usagi had been asleep for 4 hours. It was 10:00. All she had dreamt about was the fight. More like Haruka beating the stuffing out of her. There was Usagi in the middle of the playground. All of the eyes starring at her. Rooting for her to loose. Haruka raised her fist and pulled it back. She laughed and hit her in the face.  
  
Usagi opened her eyes. She shot up and sat alone in the dark. "It was only a dream Usagi. It was only a dream." She looked outside. It was raining heavily. It was a perfect picture of the past two days. Her life started out sunny like the day and turned to one big storm like this night.   
  
She held her head in her hands. "I wish I was strong like daddy. Then they wouldn't pick on me." She thought for a moment. "That's it." A flash of lightning struck right outside her window. "AAAAAAHHHHH!" Usagi ran out of her room and into her parent's. Chi-Chi and Goku had been awaken by the sound of their daughter's scream. Usagi jumped in between her parents. She burrowed herself deep in the covers and made sure every part of her was covered.  
  
Goku and Chi-Chi looked at the lump between them and laughed. Chi-Chi turned on a lamp and Goku pulled the covers off of Usagi, who was curled up beneath them. "Usagi, can we help you?"  
  
Usagi looked up at her parents who were peering down at them. She smiled and sat up. "I'm scared."  
  
Chi-Chi put her arms around her daughter and pulled the blankets back up to their wastes'. "It's alright. It's just lightning."   
  
Usagi had never seen lightning before. There weren't many storms where they lived. "Can I sleep with you guys?"  
  
Chi-Chi looked at Goku for approval. He nodded yes. "Yes, you can sleep in here with us."   
  
The three snuggled together. Usagi remembered what she wanted to talk to them about and sat up again. "Mommy, Daddy, I was thinking, can I learn how to fight?"  
  
(Ok, that's if for this chapter. Please tell me what you think. ^_^)  



	8. Part 7

Chi-Chi starred at her daughter. She wasn't sure if she had heard her right. "Please say that again. I don't think I heard you right sweetie because I could have sworn you just said that you wanted to learn how to fight."   
  
Usagi looked at her mother. She looked as if she had just seen a ghost. "I did mommy. I want to learn how to fight." Usagi didn't know what she was doing to her mother. If she did she wouldn't have continued this conversation. She would have stopped it right then and there.   
  
Chi-Chi couldn't believe it. 5 years and not a single word about fighting until tonight. 'Why o' why' she thought to herself. "Honey, I think you're running a fever." Chi-Chi put her hand on Usagi's forehead.  
  
Usagi pulled back. "I'm fine mommy. I just want to learn how to fight." She looked to her father for assistance. Goku couldn't intervene though. He left the decision totally up to his wife. He trusted that she would do the right thing.  
  
"Usagi, dear, you just got yourself beaten up today. Fighting just isn't for you." Chi-Chi could feel it. Her little girl was slipping through her hands and she knew in her heart that there was no way to stop it. She gave birth to Goku's children and with that came fighting. All Saiyans needed to fight sooner or later. She had always known that Usagi would end up fighting along side her father and brothers one day. She just didn't think that that one-day would come so soon.  
  
"No mommy, fighting is for me. If I can defend myself maybe Haruka and Michiru won't pick on me anymore. Please, let me learn." Usagi was begging her mother. She knew that her father would allow it. She saw it in his eyes.  
  
Chi-Chi couldn't make up her mind. She could either make her child happy or miserable and she knew what it would take to make her happy. "Goku, you have to promise me that you will let nothing happen to my baby girl. If something does, I will hold you personally responsible."  
  
Usagi's face filled up with a smile. "You mean it mommy? I can learn to fight?" She hugged her mother.  
  
Goku stroked his daughter's back. "We start your training tomorrow." He smiled. He was happy to see his little Usagi happy again. She had had a miserable two days.   
  
Usagi snuggled in between her parents as happy as she could ever be. Her mother turned out the lights and lay down next to her. She had hoped that she was doing the right thing by letting her daughter learn to fight. Usagi thought about Haruka and Michiru. 'Next time, I'll be ready for you guys. I hope.' Usagi turned over. "Mommy?"  
  
Chi-Chi was already half asleep when her daughter broke the silence. "What?"   
  
Usagi looked at her mother with her innocent blue eyes. "Why are you always on PMS?" Goku shot his eyes wide open.  
  
'This is why I didn't want to send her to public school. She is badly influenced there. "Who told you I was always on PMS, Haruka or Michiru?"  
  
"Neither." Goku tired to put his hand over Usagi's mouth but couldn't find it in the dark. "Daddy told me. What IS PMS anyways? Does it hurt?"  
  
Chi-Chi turned on the lights again and glared at her husband. "Why the hell are you filling our daughter's head with garbage?! Is that what you think of me? Just a woman on PMS all the time? Well what do you have to say for yourself? ANSWER ME!" Chi-Chi sat with her arms on her waste.  
  
Usagi didn't understand what was going on. Goku cowered at the sight of his wife's angry face. He knew he shouldn't have said that little PMS remark to Usagi. "I'm sorry?"  
  
"I'm sorry isn't good enough buster! I don't know why you even stay here if you think I'm on PMS all the time! What's wrong with you?! You can just leave if that's what you really think!" Chi-Chi was in one of her spats again.  
  
Usagi giggled. She thought it was the funniest thing in the world when her father got yelled at. Here he was, the defender of the galaxy, and he was afraid of one single woman. Hell, I don't blame him. I would be too wouldn't you?   
  
Goku glared at Usagi. "This is all your fault little lady. If you hadn't have brought this up I wouldn't be in this mess." Goku smiled. "So I guess you know what that means right?" Goku grabbed Usagi and wrapped his arms around her. He started tickling her all over.  
  
"Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha. No stop." Usagi couldn't stop laughing. Her father knew all her most ticklish spots. "Mommy help me." She struggled to get out of her father's grip but it was no use. When your father is as strong as Goku there is no hope for an escape.   
  
Chi-Chi just starred and laughed. She thought about helping but it was more fun to just watch. Or maybe it would be more fun another way. "Hey Goku, lets double team."  
  
"No!" Usagi loved these times with her parents. It was one of the only times they weren't fighting with each other. She knew what her mother would go for. Her feet. Usagi tossed around in her father's arms as he tickled her.  
  
Chi-Chi went for exactly what Usagi thought she would. She grabbed her feet. Now her whole body was being tickled.   
  
Goku finally released his grip on his daughter.   
  
Chi-Chi did the same.   
  
Usagi lay sprawled across her parent's bed and was breathing heavily. The blankets were now torn off the bed. "That was mean."  
  
Her father laughed. "I found it quit funny actually."  
  
"As did I."  
  
Usagi looked at her father upside down. "You weren't the one being tickled." Usagi yawned. She was worn out.   
  
Chi-Chi looked at her clock. It was already 11:00. "We should be getting to sleep. You have a big day ahead of you, Usagi." She got out of bed and started throwing the blankets back on the bed. She didn't care that they weren't put on right.  
  
Usagi stood up on the bed. "I'm thirsty."   
  
"I'll get you some water." Goku walked out to the kitchen.  
  
Usagi pulled out her legs from beneath her and bounced on the bed by her mother.   
  
"So are you sure you want to learn how to fight? It's hard work." Chi-Chi wanted desperately to just tell her no. But it would break her heart. She was much different then Gohan and Goten. She didn't take disappointment well. She had much more sensitive feelings, which made her whole disposition fragile.  
  
"Yep, I really want to learn." Goku walked in with a glass of water for his daughter. Usagi gulped it down fast and handed the glass back to her father who then put it on the nightstand by the bed.   
  
He crawled back into bed with the two women of his lives. The three curled up together and soon fell asleep.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi woke up alone. Her parents were no where in the room. She rubbed her eyes and glanced at the clock. "9:00." Usagi hopped out of her parents' bed onto the hard wooden floor. The floor was icy cold beneath her tiny feet. Usagi shivered.   
  
She was in an exceptionally good mood today. She didn't have to go back to school and face her classmates. Instead, she got to stay home and train with her father. She liked the way that sounded. Now, instead of watching, she would actually get to train with him. She wondered what it would be like. If it would hurt or even if it would be fun. Only time could tell. Usagi scampered out of the room into the living room where her mother sat reading a book. She walked behind the chair her mother was in and climbed on the back. "What cha readin'?" Usagi looked over her mother's shoulder.  
  
Chi-Chi put down her book and looked back at her daughter. "Nothing that you would be interested in." Chi-Chi starred at Usagi and thought to herself. 'So this is it. This is when I loose my precious innocent daughter. I will never have another child. Why am I so useless?'  
  
Usagi looked around. She couldn't hear her father doing his usual daily routine of digging through the refrigerator. "Where's daddy?"  
  
Chi-Chi turned back around. "He went to get something for you."  
  
"Something for me? Cool." Usagi wondered what it could be. She was distracted from her train of thought when she heard the doorknob of the front door turn. "That must be him." Usagi ran for the door, nearly loosing her footing.   
  
Goku had not expected Usagi to be right at the door when he opened it. He nearly jumped through the roof when he saw her. "Oh my g…." Goku stopped himself. He tried his best to never cuss in front of Usagi. He didn't want her to learn any bad habits. "Usagi, please don't do that again. You could give someone a heart attack by doing that."  
  
Usagi wasn't listening to her father. The only thing that she cared about at that moment was what he had bought her. She started jumping up and down excitedly. "What did you buy me, what did you buy me, what did you buy me?"  
  
Goku watched his over energetic daughter hop around him. Nothing could keep her down for a long period of time. She seemed to be totally over the last two days. "Hold on let me get settled in and then I'll show you."  
  
Usagi stopped jumping around him in circles and now just hopped in front of him. "But I can't, I wanna see what you got me." Usagi whined.   
  
Goku smiled. He could see she was about to burst with excitement. She seemed to have a lot more energy then Gohan and Goten. "Alright. I'll show you."  
  
Usagi jumped as high as she could. "Yay!" Goku took out a box, which he carried in a plastic bag. Usagi looked at it and then back at her father. "What's in it?"  
  
"A new outfit for you."  
  
"A new outfit for what?"  
  
"You want to learn how to fight don't you? Well, we can't have you fighting in your regular cloths. Your mother would have a fit. So, I thought you could use something to fight in." Goku could see the mile wide smile that formed on his daughter's face. She jumped at her father and gave him a hug. "Now, go get dressed and then we will begin your training."  
  
"K!" Usagi still had a smile on her face. She turned around and ran back to her room. She stopped on her way, though, when she saw her mother. She seemed to be frowning, almost pouting, about something. She held out her new outfit for her mother to see. "Look what daddy bought me mommy!"   
  
Chi-Chi looked at her daughter and faked a smile for her. "That's great honey. I have to go slit my wrists now."  
  
Usagi watched her mother as she walked into her room and closed the door. Usagi didn't know what she meant by slitting her wrists but at that point she didn't care. She was too excited to care. Usagi turned around and ran to her room.  
  
Chi-Chi walked to her bed and buried her face in her pillow. She let out a long scream and sat up again. "DAMNIT GOKU!" She yelled.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku waited as Usagi changed. He just loved to make her happy. He could tell that she was really excited about fighting. He walked over to the bag he had brought home and pulled out about 5 boxes of doughnuts. He opened the boxes and ate all of their contents. "I should have bought more. Usagi, Are your ready yet?"  
  
"Just a minute." Usagi looked at herself in the mirror. She looked like a true fighter in her new uniform. She loved it. She stood tall and tried to look strong. (Ok her outfit is pretty basic. It's kind of like Goku's only blue and it's a skirt instead of pants. She isn't wearing an undershirt because the top is made for a girl. Her boots come up to about her knees. Kind of like Sailor Moon's only they are gray.)   
  
Usagi walked up to her father who was looking for something to eat. "Ready!"   
  
Goku didn't know Usagi was there and was startled by her. He hit his head on the refrigerator ceiling. "Oww." Goku rubbed his head. " That hurt. Ok, we are off."  
  
"Yay. This is so cool. Where are we going?" Usagi couldn't wait. She was going to become a fighter just like the rest of her friends and family. She would finally be able to stand up to Haruka and Michiru.  
  
"We are going to our spot. Chi-Chi we're leaving now!" Goku yelled up to Chi-Chi who sat in her room and pouted.  
  
"FINE! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT!" Chi-Chi was angry with her husband. She knew that he was the reason that Usagi wanted to fight. He just had to be. Why else would a girl as sweet as Usagi want to fight? "I'll get you back Usagi. One day you will hate to fight and become my baby again."  
  
"Strange. Usagi, does your mother seem to be acting strange to you?" Goku noticed it when he woke up. Something seemed to really be bothering her.  
  
Usagi thought. "Nope. Nothing strange."  
  
Goku shrugged. "Ok."  
  
Chi-Chi watched Goku take Usagi to a place to fight. She watched them from her room like a nosy neighbor watches people in their neighbor hood. 'All because I had to send her to school.'   
  
Chi-Chi walked over to the phone and dialed Gohan's number. 'You better be home.'  
  
Gohan picked up his phone. "Hello?"  
  
"Yes, Gohan, this is your mother."  
  
"Oh hi mom." Gohan didn't know what the occasion was. He hadn't been expecting her to call. There hadn't been any plans made or anything.  
  
"Yes Gohan, I just want you to know that IT'S YOUR FAULT THAT MY LITTLE GIRL IS FIGHTING! IF YOU AND YOUR BROTHER HADN'T FILLED HER FRAGILE MIND WITH THOUGHTS ABOUT SCHOOL SHE WOULDN'T HAVE HAD A REASON TO FIGHT!" Chi-Chi hung up the phone and dialed Goten's number.  
  
Gohan held the phone away from his ear. His mother had a tendency to over react. "What? Usagi's fighting?" It was true that he had helped put ideas and thoughts of school in Usagi's head but he hardly thought that that was the reason that she was fighting. He heard the dial tone on the other end of the phone and hung up. "That was rude, mother. Don't even give me a chance to reply."  
  
Videl walked into the room. "Who was that Gohan?"  
  
"Just my mother over reacting again. I guess my sister is fighting now. Mom is pretty upset about it."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Before Nimbus had even gotten close to the ground to let off it's load, Usagi had jumped off to the ground. Goku grabbed the back of her blue GI. "You're not a fighter yet little lady. You would have hurt yourself if I would have let you do that."  
  
Usagi blushed. "I'm sorry daddy, it's just that I really want to learn how to fight."   
  
Goku set his daughter down when Nimbus landed. "Well, I'm just going to teach you the basics at first. Like defense and some the art of making and effective hit."  
  
That was good enough for Usagi. She needed anything she could get and if you had to have someone teach you, your best bet was to have her father as your Sensei. "Ok, let's start!"  
  
Goku nodded. He led her to a field that was big enough to practice. "Ok, now lets start with an effective punch. Now there are two types. One is the dirty way to fight and the other is, well, the clean way. The correct way. I'm only going to teach you the clean way, and Vejita will no doubt teach you the dirty way sooner or later." Usagi nodded. "Now, everyone knows how to make a fist and I'm sure you do too so why don't you try hitting me. I want to see how hard you hit."  
  
Usagi made a fist and hit her father as hard as she could in the arm. Goku barley felt a thing. It was like a prick from a needle to him. "That would have been good if you hadn't of hit me with a crook in your arm. Try to have your arm fully extended by the time you make contact. It will make the effect your hit power go up. Now try it again." Usagi punched her father again. This time she did it the way he told her and she hit harder. "There, now that was good. Just remember to do this and you'll be fine. But we will have to work on your strength. We can go to Vejita's and use his weights daily and get you stronger." He didn't want to use weighted clothing at this time because he wanted her to learn to fight first before he started adding variables.  
  
Usagi liked the sound of that. She couldn't wait until she could fight with her father like her brother's did. With Ki blasts and flying. Maybe one day she would even be strong enough for him to become Super Saiyan to fight with her. Usagi smiled to herself.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi and her father had been sparring for about 2 hours now. He taught her how to some tricks to hitting and defending. She looked at him. He had his back turned to her. Usagi was ready for some hand to hand combat now. At least, she thought she was. Goku turned back and raced towards her. Before she realized what was going on her father's fist was in her stomach. She fell back to the ground and looked up at him. He just glared at her with savage black eyes. What was he doing? He jumped at her again. She didn't know what was going on. She tried to jump out of the way, but was too late. She thought too long before she made her actions. His foot rammed into her left arm and she was thrown back even further. She stood up and stared at him. "What are you doing daddy?" He punched her again. She was thrown back down to the ground. She struggled to get back up. He body ached and she wasn't sure what was going on.  
  
  
'Why isn't she blocking? Come on Usagi. You want to be a fighter, don't you?' "Anticipate my attacks. Don't get distracted."  
  
Usagi saw that Goku was going to try to hit again and jumped to the side. She raised her leg and kicked him in his stomach. Goku looked over and grinned. Usagi was surprised and didn't see the attack he was about to do. He lunged for her. He pinned her on the ground and sat on her, squishing her. "AAHH!"  
  
"I told you not to get distracted by anything!" Goku looked down at her as she screamed out in pain. She was strong. Stronger than her brother's when they were young. That was to be expected though. She was a super saiyan. She could take the pain. If he had done this to Gohan when he was this age he would have been beaten by now and unable to move. Goku adjusted his feet and Usagi cried out in even more pain.  
  
"Get off. Please daddy. Get off. It hurts." Usagi couldn't move. The pain paralyzed her. If only her father knew what he was doing. Goku looked at his daughter confused. He knew that she could take more. He felt her power. She wasn't tapped out. "Get off my tail!"  
  
Goku looked down and saw that his foot was on her tail. "Oops. He stood up. Sorry about that." He laughed and scratched his head like he always does.  
  
Usagi glared at her father. Oh boy was she mad now. She let herself gain her energy back and stood up. She charged at her father with anger. She jumped on him and held on. She climbed up to his face. Goku didn't quit know what she was trying to do. Usagi looked her father in the eyes as she sat around his neck in front. She raised her fist and punched him in the face a couple of times. She hit pretty hard too. Then she started to scratch at his face. It was no longer a game to Usagi. He stepped on her tail and didn't even seem to care.  
  
Goku pulled her off of his face and threw her to the ground and heard her hit hard. He didn't care though. He grabbed his face and then pulled his hands away. There was blood all over them. 'Wow, she's strong.'  
  
Usagi lay on the ground. Her bones ached. 'Was this how Gohan and Goten were trained? Did they turn against each other like this?' She tried to stand up but it didn't work. She was out of it for the day. She collapsed on herself.   
  
Goku looked at his daughter. "What, is that all your giving it today?" Goku was challenging her and he knew it. He was a little angry with her for what he had just done. If she were under anyone else's training she would have gotten more than just thrown on the ground. Vejita would have played a game of soccer with her as the ball.  
  
Usagi turned onto her back and let all of her limbs lay spread out. She looked up at her father whose face was bleeding. She laughed. "Did I do that?"  
  
Goku kind of frowned. "Yes. You did this. You are pretty strong you know that kid?"  
  
Usagi smiled. "I am? I don't think so. I got my butt beat. I could barely touch you."   
  
"That's because you're just starting out. You will get better. Believe me. You have the potential to be a great fighter." Goku picked his daughter up off the ground and held her in his arms.  
  
Usagi wrapped her tail around his arms. She leaned into him and closed her eyes as he walked to Nimbus. "Then I have to potential to be just like you daddy."  
  
(Ok, that's it for this chapter. I hope you liked it. What do you think? Was it good or bad? Please review. ^_^)  
  
  
  



	9. Part 8

  
When Goku and Usagi returned home it was dark and Usagi had fallen asleep. Goku watched her as she slept in his arms. She had given her all today. She learned a lot and he was proud of her. Tomorrow they would continue her training. Hopefully they wouldn't fight for real again. Goku hadn't meant to throw her but she hurt him, it was more of a reaction then retaliation. But she had to learn that SHE couldn't retaliate like she did either.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku entered the house quietly. He didn't want to wake his sleeping daughter just yet. He carried her into the bathroom.  
  
Chi-Chi followed them in. "Goku is she ok?" Chi-Chi looked at her daughter and gasped. She was covered in dirt and had cuts and bruises. "Goku, what did you do to her?" Chi-Chi hit her husband. She hadn't seen his face.  
  
"I only did what I had to." He turned around.  
  
Chi-Chi examined his face. "Oh Goku, did my little Usagi do that?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes, she isn't as innocent as you think. She can be pretty vicious."  
  
Chi-Chi laughed. "It's funny how you beat Buu, but you can't handle your own 5 year old daughter. What did you do to deserve that?"   
  
"I stepped on her tail." Goku set Usagi on the counter and started to shake her. "Come on Usagi, wake up. Let's get you fixed up."  
  
Usagi barley opened her eyes enough to see her parents standing in front of her. "What's going on?" Usagi shifted around. "Owie." She still hurt all over, although the pain had gone down a large amount.  
  
Chi-Chi pushed Goku aside. "Oh my poor baby, Usagi. Do you want to stop fighting? Mommy will understand if you do."  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No, I want to keep fighting mommy." Usagi yawned. "Can I go to bed?"  
  
Goku pulled out a bottle of peroxide from the medicine cabinet. "First we have to clean out all of your cuts so they don't get affected."  
  
Usagi widened her eyes. "No! Anything but that!" Usagi jumped off the counter and ran for the door.  
  
Chi-Chi stepped in front of her. "Where do you think you're going? You have to stay here and get disinfected first." Chi-Chi picked up her daughter and placed her back on the counter. "Here you go."  
  
Usagi scowled at her parents. They always insisted on putting on the peroxide whenever she got a cut. She hated it. "Why can't I just have a Senzu bean?"  
  
Goku started to poor some of the solution onto a cloth so it could be applied to Usagi's knee. "Because, you need to learn how to recover on your own."  
  
Usagi closed her eyes as her father put the cloth on her wounds. It stung. "Oww!" She couldn't wait until the pain was over. She opened her eyes when he took the cloth off.  
  
"There now. That wasn't so bad now was it?" Goku put the first aid materials away.  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yes it was. It stung."  
  
Chi-Chi helped Usagi off of the counter. "Now you may go to bed. Your dad is going to wake you up at 7:30 in the morning so you can continue your training." She kissed her daughter on the check and hugged her.  
  
"Aren't you going to tuck me in?"  
  
Chi-Chi looked at her daughter. 'I'm still wanted?' "I thought fighters were supposed to be strong and take care of themselves."   
  
Usagi smiled. "Not this one." She kissed her father goodnight and grabbed her mother's hand. Usagi pulled her from the bathroom into her own room.   
  
Chi-Chi was happy. At least it wasn't like Gohan. He didn't really want anything to do with her after he became a fighter. He was too independent for that. She watched as Usagi changed into her pajamas. 'Maybe I still have a chance to change her, but maybe I shouldn't. If I push her she may hate me.' Chi-Chi tucked her little girl into bed. She walked to the door and put her hand over the light switch.  
  
"Goodnight mommy." Usagi curled into her blankets.  
  
Chi-Chi turned the lights out. "Goodnight Usagi." She left the room and closed the door. Goku was standing behind her with his arms crossed. "Hi Goku."  
  
Goku saw the pain on his wife's face. "You're really struggling with this aren't you?"  
  
Chi-Chi tried to hide her feelings. She thought that she had been doing a good job of it so far. "No, whatever gave you that idea?"  
  
Goku stood in the same spot as his wife began to walk by him. He grabbed her elbow, stopping her right in her tracks. He pulled her in front of him and looked deep into her eyes. "You did."  
  
Chi-Chi pulled away. How could he know what her true feelings were? There were still things about her husband that she did not fully understand. "Maybe I am having a problem with this."  
  
Goku sighed. If she had a problem with it she should have spoken up the night before when Usagi asked to fight. "Chi-Chi you can make her quit anytime you want. I'm leaving the decision all up to you, but just keep in mind that if you do, Usagi will be crushed." Chi-Chi listened to the words of her husband. He was entirely right which is why she was having a hard time deciding on what to do. "You saw how excited she had been."  
  
"Please Goku, don't put the decision only on me. I can't handle the pressure. I want her to be happy but I don't want to loose my little girl." Chi-Chi felt numb.  
  
Goku hugged her. He knew what she was feeling. He too hated to give up his innocent little girl too but she would still be there. She would just know how to fight. It's not like she was leaving them for good. "You are not going to loose her. She is still going to be the same little Usagi we have known for 5 years. I promise."  
  
Chi-Chi let herself be consumed by Goku's warmth as he held her in his arms. "I hope your right."  
  
~*~*~  
  
3 days later.  
  
Goku opened Usagi's room precisley at 7:30 like he had for the past three days. He looked in on his sleeping daughter. She was so peaceful. He hated the fact that he had to wake her but she needed to train. He walked to the side of her bed and shook her shoulder. "Usagi, wake up. We have to go training."  
  
Usagi slightly opened her eyes to see her father standing over her. She grunted and closed her eyes again. "No, let me sleep." She turned over with her back to him.  
  
Goku sighed. "I thought that you wanted to learn how fight. Come on get up." He lifted the covers off of his daughter.   
  
Usagi curled up and shivered. She wanted to fight but she was too tired. "Let me sleep daddy. Please. I'm too tired." She pulled the covers back over her head.   
  
Goku hated to do what he was about to do, but she needed to wake up. He put his hands under the matress of his daughter's bed and grinned. This was kind of a funny situation. He swiftly pulled the matress from underneath Usagi forcing her to fall onto the base of her bed. "I told you, it's time to wake up."  
  
"AHH WHAT'S GOING ON?" Usagi franticly started to look around. She wasn't sure what was going on. She looked at her father who was holding her matress and laughing at her. She gave him a dirty look. "That wasn't funny." She crossed her arms.  
  
Goku dropped the matress. Her blankets and sheets lay all over the floor. "Pick up this mess."  
  
Usagi gave her father a puzzled look. "But you made the mess."  
  
Goku shook his head no and crossed his arms. "If you would have gotten up when I told you to, this room would be clean. You have to learn discipline if you want to fight. Now get dressed when you're finished and then we can leave." Goku turned around and left the room.  
  
Usagi looked around and sighed. "That's not fair. Maybe I should have gotten up." Usagi tried to lift her matress back onto her bed. It was too flimsy. She fiddled with it for a while. She finally managed to get one end of it on the base of her bed. She went to the other side. When she lifted it, the side that was on the bed already slipped off. "No. Don't do that." Usagi tried desperately to get the matress up on her bed.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi finally got her room cleaned up. "Next time I'll get up when daddy tells me to." Usagi looked around to make sure that every thing was in place. She had made her bed. "I think that's it." She got herself dressed as fast as she could.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku walked into the kitchen and found Chi-Chi cooking something for breakfast. "Chi-Chi, I'm hungry. When do we eat?" Goku looked over his wife's shoulder.   
  
"We eat when the food is ready. Now quit bothering me." Chi-Chi pushed Goku away for space.  
  
"When will it be ready?" Goku was starving and it was getting late and he wasn't sure if he would be able to stay and eat. He and Usagi had to be getting on their way soon.   
  
Chi-Chi frowned and turned around to Goku. "It will be done when it's done!"  
  
Goku put his hands up to his wife. She always had a way to scare him. "Fine, ok." He backed out of the kitchen.  
  
Usagi wasn't watching where she was going and bumped into her father. She glared at him. She was sill angry about what he had done in her room. "What's wrong?" She looked in the kitchen. "Is mommy still on PMS?"  
  
Goku started to laugh but caught himself and quickly stopped. "Don't say that anymore Usagi. Your mother would kill me if she heard you talking like that." Goku looked at a clock. "It's 8:45, we need to leave by 9. Your mother needs to hurry up and get breakfast ready. Usagi, go see when it will be done."  
  
Usagi walked into the kitchen. Chi-Chi looked at her daughter in her blue GI and tensed up. "Tell your father to get his sorry self in here."  
  
Usagi put her hands to her mouth. "Daddy! Time to eat." Before Usagi even had a chance to turn around Goku was already in his seat. Usagi sat across the table from her father as Chi-Chi put food on their plates. "What are we doing today daddy?"  
  
Goku was filling his mouth full of food. "We are going to go to the Capsule Corp. I want you to start training with weights."  
  
Chi-Chi nearly choked on the food she had in her mouth. "Weights? She's too young. She just started three days ago."  
  
"She may have only started 3 days ago, but she is strong enough to handle weights. She is, after all, a Super Saiyan." Goku had a point. He planned on having Bulma make her some weighted cloths for her while he had Vejita show her some tricks. Goku wouldn't be able to be the only one to train her. He wasn't tough enough on her. He couldn't be. He hated to be mean to her.  
  
Chi-Chi looked at her daughter who seemed to be concentrating more on her food then listening to her parent's conversation. "Goku, I don't care if she IS a super Saiyan, I don't want you to push her too hard."   
  
Goku started in on 6th's. "She has learned a lot. She can handle it. I wouldn't make her do something if I thought that she couldn't do it. Don't worry."   
  
Usagi finished eating and starred at her father. "When are we going to leave?"  
  
Goku stopped eating. "When ever you're ready. I was just finishing up." He stood up and walked outside.  
  
Usagi took her plate to the sink and turned around to her mother. "Don't worry mommy, daddy isn't pushing me too hard. I trust him. I'll be ok." She walked out of the house and joined her father.  
  
Chi-Chi sat in her chair. She was speechless. Usagi had been listening. She wouldn't have said all those things if she had known. "Now he has her lying for him to get me off of his back."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku and Usagi flew to the edge of the city on Nimbus. Usagi couldn't figure out why her father had brought her to the city. "Daddy, I know that there must be a reason why we are here." She and her father jumped off of Nimbus.   
  
Goku starred at her. He was all of a sudden in his serious mood. He put his hand on Usagi's shoulder. "Yes, there is a reason." He looked onto the city. "From now on, as part of your training, you will have to run at least 2 miles a day to build up stamina. This may sound like a lot but believe me it's not. At least not for a Saiyan anyways."  
  
Usagi's mouth nearly dropped to the ground. When she told him she wanted to fight she hadn't expected to be running. She looked at their destination that lay in the middle of the city. "Daddy, isn't that more than 2 miles?"  
  
Goku grinned. "You can handle it. Now lets go."  
  
Usagi just looked at the city. She couldn't believe what she was about to do. She looked at her father innocently. "Do I have to?"  
  
Goku frowned. He hated it when she tried to pull the guilt trip on him. "Yes. Don't fall behind." Goku ran off into the direction of Capsule Corp.  
  
Usagi jumped. "Hey, wait for me." Usagi ran after her father. She would have to keep up with him. If she fell behind she would be lost. She didn't know the way. He was already 3 blocks ahead of her. The only reason why she could see him was because of his Orange GI that he wore. "Daddy wait for me! I can't run that fast." Usagi ran as fast as she could but it wasn't fast enough  
  
Goku looked back to his daughter. She was falling behind. "Don't stop Goku, you can't baby her forever. She has to learn. Don't stop. Just keep running at this pace." Goku wasn't even running at half of his normal pace and Usagi still could barley keep up. He knew that there was a lot of work to be done.   
  
Usagi ran and ran and ran but couldn't keep up. There were too many obstacles and she couldn't see her father most of the time. Usagi hadn't seen him for 5 minutes. She was getting worn out and couldn't breathe very well. She felt like there was acid pumping through her muscles. "I don't see daddy anywhere." She ran past a few more people. She squinted her eyes and looked for her father's bright Orange GI. She couldn't spot it in the crowd of people. She could feel her pace falling. She had been running for a good mile already.   
  
Goku knew that he had lost his daughter. Before he went and found her he wanted to test her survival skills. He ran the rest of the way to Capsule Corp. to train with Vejita before he had to retrieve his daughter.  
  
Usagi was officially lost by her standards. She stopped running and panted heavily. "Where could he be? Why did he leave me?" Usagi looked around. The part of the city that she was currently in was unfamiliar to her. She saw a street to her right that lead down to some houses. She decided to walk down it. There were fewer people down there then there had been on the street that she was currently on.   
  
It seemed to be a quiet neighborhood. It wasn't very big and most of the houses were small. She continued to walk down the street. She saw a girl with long blonde hair in one of the yards and thought of Minako. "I wonder what Minako is doing right now. I wonder if she got into a lot of trouble." Usagi thought some more as she neared the girl. "She looks a lot like Minako."   
  
The girl turned around and got a smile as wide as the Grand Canyon on her face. "Usagi! Is that you?"  
  
Usagi couldn't believe what she saw. She rubbed her eyes. "Minako? Wow! I didn't know you lived over here. I'm so happy to see you!" Usagi ran up to the girl and hugged her.  
  
"This is so cool. I never thought that I would see you around here. Where's your dad?"  
  
Usagi pulled away from Minako and thought about her father leaving her again. She shrugged. "I dunno."  
  
Minako looked at her friend. "You don't know? How did you get here?"  
  
"My daddy is training me to be a fighter. This is his idea of training, I think. I was supposed to run to Capsule Corp. with him but he ran too fast and I couldn't keep up. I don't know where he is now. I'm really happy to have found you."   
  
"I know, now we can hang out."  
  
Usagi looked at her friend's house. It was one of the bigger houses on the row. "You mean you aren't grounded because of what happened the other day?" Usagi would have loved to play with Minako.   
  
Minako shook her head. "Nope, my mommy and daddy aren't mad at me because I didn't do anything. I told them why it even started and they didn't even care that YOU started it. "She had reason" is what they said." Minako started to walk back to her house.  
  
Usagi smiled. "Cool, I kind of got in trouble. Then I told my daddy what happened. He said that he would train me so I could defend myself." Usagi got a great idea. "Hey, maybe daddy can teach you to fight too. That would be cool."  
  
Minako turned around. "I don't know, it might hurt. I could be fun. Maybe I'll give it a try. Come on, I want you to meet mommy."   
  
Usagi followed her friend. She didn't care that she wasn't supposed to be relaxing because her father wasn't around to stop her. Usagi entered Minako's house.  
  
"Mommy, I have someone for you to meet." Minako turned back to Usagi. "My mommy is really nice."  
  
Minako's mother entered the room with a smile. "Who is it dear?" She looked down at the little Saiyan fighter. She found it odd that she had a tail.  
  
Minako introduced her friend to her mother. "Mommy, this is Usagi, the girl from school. Usagi, this is my mommy, Mrs. Aino."  
  
Usagi stuck out her hand. "Hi, nice to meet you."  
  
Minako's mother grabbed Usagi's hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you too. Minako has told me a lot about you. I'm sorry about your ball. What is the word you used for it Minako?"  
  
"The proper name for it is Dragon Ball, Mrs. Aino." Usagi still didn't know how she was going to get the ball back. She was going to leave that up to her father. She was still upset about it. She had hoped that he would come up with a plan soon. She wanted it back.  
  
Mrs. Aino smiled. "Such a polite little girl."  
  
"Mommy, can I hang out with Usagi for a little while?"   
  
"Sure. Just don't get into any trouble please."  
  
Minako remembered Usagi's question. "Can I learn how to fight with Usagi?"  
  
Her mother didn't know what to say. "Fight?" Maybe Usagi wasn't such a good influence after all. "I don't know."  
  
"Please?" Minako gave her mother the "puppy dog" face.  
  
"Only if you are careful."   
  
Minako was pleased. "Ok." She turned to Usagi. "Ok, let's go."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi and Minako left the neighborhood and entered the main street of the city. "Wow, your mom is cool. She lets you go where ever you want."  
  
"So does your dad." The two girls waited for a crosswalk light to change along with a lot of other people.   
  
"Yeah but if my mom finds out, my dad will be dead." Usagi and Minako crossed the street when the light changed to the white person. "Do you know how to get to Capsule Corp.?"  
  
"Yeah, why? Is that where you guys were going before you got separated?" Minako looked at Usagi's face. Her mood seemed to change whenever her father was mentioned. "What's wrong Usagi?"  
  
"I don't know. My dad has changed since he started to train me." Usagi wasn't sure why. She hadn't done anything. She needed to talk to Gohan and Goten. They had trained with them. She needed to ask them if he always acted this way when he trained with them or if it was just her.  
  
Minako decided to just leave it at that. She didn't want to upset Usagi. "Well, we can take the long way or cut through allies."  
  
Usagi was feeling brave that day. "Let's cut through the alleys."  
  
"Are you sure? They can be really dangerous." Minako didn't really want to take the alleys but she would if Usagi wanted to.   
  
"Yep. I can handle it. I'm a fighter now. Remember?" Usagi loved saying that. It rolled off of her tongue so easily. "Let's go."   
  
Minako and Usagi proceeded down the alleys. They made it through their first one alive and ended up on a street with even more people then before. A man swaggered over to them with a bottle in his hands. "Heyi laaadeesss. Wha youu doiiyn? Wann comb wis mei?"  
  
The man stumbled onto Usagi. She pushed him away. "Get away." She waved her hand in front of her face. "Yuck, you really stink mister."   
  
Minako grabbed Usagi's arm. "Let's get out of here, Usagi. There are some really weird people here."  
  
Usagi turned her head to look at the man while Minako pulled her away. He fascinated her. "Minako, what was wrong with that man? Why was he acting so strange?"  
  
"Haven't you ever seen a drunk person before?" Minako knew all about drunken people. Her father came home drunk sometimes. She hated it when he did because he was always mean to her. Her mother had to hide her from him when he was drunk.  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No, my parents only get drunk when they won't be seeing me for a day. They never let me see them and I'm glad they don't. I don't ever want to see them acting like that."  
  
Minako laughed. "It can be funny sometimes. But other times it's just plain scary."   
  
Minako and Usagi walked down another alley. "So how far is it to Capsule Corp. Minako?"  
  
"About six more allies down."   
  
A man dressed in black tattered clothing jumped out from the side of a building that created the left alley wall. He had chains hanging from every pocket on him. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?"  
  
"It looks like a couple of babies boss." Came a voice from behind them.   
  
Minako and Usagi looked behind them where two more men stood. They backed into each other in fear. 'I hope I can fight good against these guys.' Usagi thought to herself.  
  
(Well that's it for this chapter. Please review and tell me what you think. Thank you. ^_^)  
  
  
  



	10. Part 9

Minako and Usagi with their backs to each other as they faced their attackers. Minako kept her eyes on the man who stood in front of her. "Usagi, do something." She whispered.  
  
The man in front or Minako snapped his fingers. "Boys, check them for valuables."   
  
The two men who stood in front of Usagi started to come closer to them. Usagi formed her fists. "Stay away from us." She began to crouch down into her fighting stance.   
  
The taller of the two men in front of her laughed. "Look boss, she's trying to act tough. Ha, ha, ha, ha, what can a baby do to us?" He pulled out a knife from his pocket. Usagi didn't notice it. The man kept it well hidden behind his wrist.  
  
Usagi frowned. "We aren't babies. We are going to show you just how tough we really are."   
  
Minako gulped. "We are? Usagi you seem to be forgetting that I can't fight yet."  
  
It had totally slipped her mind. "I'm sorry Minako, I did. Ok, when I make my move, you try to run and hide, ok?"   
  
"No, I'll try to help if I can." Minako never kept her eye off of the man in front of her. She didn't want to give him a chance to strike. She hoped that Usagi could run them off.  
  
"Hurry up already. We don't have all day. After you take their things I want you to silence them." The man that was referred to as boss was serious.  
  
' "Silence them" What does he mean by that?' Usagi didn't know what he meant by that but she didn't want to stick around to find out. "You won't touch us." Usagi turned around and pushed Minako aside and got into a fighting stance.   
  
Minako looked up at her friend. 'What's she doing? This wasn't part of our plan. Does she think that she can take them all on by herself? She could barley take Haruka alone.' She stood up. The muggers didn't seem to notice her. They were more interested in Usagi. 'I'll wait here for a while.' She ducked behind a pile of boxes.  
  
Usagi tried to watch both sides of her but was more concerned with the men to her left. She didn't think that the boss would do anything until his minions were down for the count. "Come on, I'm not afraid." That was a lie. Usagi's heart was beating a million miles per hour inside her little chest.   
  
The man with the red Mohawk sneered at Usagi. "Yeah right. What can you do? The best bet you have is to run away, which won't happen." He held onto the handle of his knife.  
  
"Well see about that." Usagi jumped for the red head with all of her energy. "Go away." She went for a punch to the stomach. He tried to jump out of the way but Usagi was too fast for him. She had gained quite a bit of speed in the last couple of days.   
  
He doubled over with pain. He looked at his fellow mugger. "Don't just stand there Bubba, get her."  
  
The man called Bubba leaped for Usagi. He was ready for her to jump to the right. She couldn't jump to the left because of the man she just injured. He appeared to be heading for her but was ready to turn at her first sign of movement.  
  
Usagi did exactly what Bubba wanted her to. When she jumped to the right he quickly and swiftly pulled out his knife. He extended his arm to the right, cutting Usagi's left arm open. "Ha, ha, strike one for you missy."  
  
Usagi fell to the ground. She hadn't anticipated that. She grabbed her arm in pain. "Oww."  
  
Bubba saw her tail. "How interesting."  
  
Usagi shot her attention back to Bubba who was approaching her rather slowly. She scowled at him. "You won't get away with this." She jumped back to her feet. The man with the red hair was back on his feet and had his knife pulled out. Usagi saw him too. She saw everything that she thought needed to be seen. What she didn't see, though, was what really DID need to be seen. The boss of the group. He had his gun out ready to shoot whenever Usagi became a real threat.   
  
Both men were now coming to her. She didn't know what to do so she did what her instincts told her. She ran up to Bubba and kicked him in the nuts and hard. "Stay away from me!"   
  
The red haired man grabbed her from behind. "I wouldn't be so confident if I were you girly."  
  
Usagi squealed and kicked against his legs. "Let me go you bully!" She grabbed his hand and bit it as hard as she could. She could feel his flesh rip between her teeth but she didn't care. She had to defend herself. Her arm throbbed with pain and she was loosing sensation in it.   
  
The red haired man threw Usagi down on the ground. "Oww, you stupid brat." He kicked her as she tried to get up and then stepped on her. He dug his foot into her back.  
  
"Aahh!" Usagi now understood what her father met by her enemies won't play fair.  
  
Bubba walked up to Usagi as she was being pinned down. He knelt in front of her. "You know, your friend is really lucky that she got out of here." He swung the knife in front of her face. That was all she could concentrate on. "Now, what should we do to you? We could kill you easily, or we could kill you the hard way. The painful way. The fun way. " He turned back to his boss. "What do you think?"  
  
His boss just laughed and pointed the gun at Usagi's face.   
  
Minako looked around for a useful weapon. All she could find were papers. Useless papers. She started digging around for something she could use. She looked and looked until she finally found something.   
  
"You have been the first to strike against us kid." He cocked the gun. "We can't let you spread word of this little incident."  
  
Usagi closed her eyes and began to cry. She thought of her father. 'Daddy, why aren't you here to help me? I need you!' Images of her family and friends began to fill into her head. So this was it. This is how it was going to end. At least she save Minako's life.  
  
"I WON'T LET YOU HURT UASGI!" Minako jumped out from her hiding place and hit the muggers' boss in the back of the head with a large metal pole. He fell to the ground and started to bleed. Minako stared at the man. "Oh my god."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Minako, you saved me!"  
  
Minako looked at her friend. She ran to the man who had his foot on her and pushed him back. She pulled Usagi up off of the ground and the two ran out of the alley onto the next street. Bubba followed them out. Usagi looked behind them. "Run faster Minako. He's gaining on us." They picked up the pace and ran faster. It was a lot easier for Usagi to run now with all of that adrenaline rushing through her veins.   
  
"Usagi, take him out."  
  
"I can't!" Usagi was too scared. She wasn't ready for this kind of fight.  
  
"Yes you can."  
  
Usagi stopped running and turned around to Bubba who stopped too. She needed to fight. It was the only way to get rid of him. She pictured Haruka's face on him. She thought about her Dragon Ball. She thought about her nickname, "Monkey Girl", she thought about all of her classmates laughing at her. "NO! I WON'T RUN ANYMORE!" She was tired of being treated like trash by others. It was time for her to take a stand and defend herself. Usagi was now more furious than ever.   
  
Bubba starred at Usagi. "I'm getting bad vibes from that girl."  
  
Minako stared at Usagi in amazement. She had never seen her so angry.  
  
Usagi lifted her head high and lowered the rest of her body. "You will pay." She frowned at Bubba. She charged at him. "I WILL MAKE YOU PAY!"   
  
"Shit, she's freaking me out!" Bubba got his knife ready again.  
  
Usagi continued to pursue Bubba as he readied himself. Right before she got to him she jumped in the air and extended her leg. Her foot rammed into his collar bone area.  
  
He was thrown back to the ground. "Why you little." He threw his knife at Usagi. She had already turned around and had her back to him. The knife inserted itself into her leg.  
  
Usagi fell to the ground as Bubba got up and ran away. Minako ran to Usagi and knelt by her. "Are you ok Usagi?"  
  
Usagi touched her fingers to the cold metal blade that stuck out of her leg. She lay her head to the ground. "No! It's hurts so much. I want my daddy."  
  
"What are we going to do about your leg?" Minako examined it closely. It looked like it was in pretty deep.  
"Do you want me to pull it out?"  
  
Usagi opened her eyes and looked at Minako. "Are you crazy? I don't want you to touch the thing." They both stared at each other. They knew exactly what one another was thinking. Neither of them wanted to ever go through something like that alone again. It was traumatizing and both of them were frightened.   
  
Usagi lifted her head so she could see her friend better. "Thank you Minako. You saved my life back there. How can I ever repay you?"  
  
Minako thought for a moment and came up with the perfect thing. "You can keep being my friend."  
  
Usagi kept smiling. "I think I can manage that." She looked down at her arm. A long wound extended from her shoulder to the top of her fore arm from where the mugger's knife cut her. "Oww. That really hurts." Usagi's back really hurt too. "I guess I'm not that good of a fighter after all."  
  
"What ever Usagi. You keep running your mouth like that. You were a great fighter. I never could have hurt them like you did."  
  
"No, I turned my back on the enemy. Daddy will yell at me for that one. I just know it. I let him down again. I can't do anything right. I can't even fight right."  
  
Minako felt sorry for her. "Don't beat yourself up over it Usagi. Do you think your dad will come looking for you?"  
  
Usagi hadn't thought of that. "I hope so. I can't move my leg. And no, you still are not touching this knife." She cringed as a deep pain ran up her leg into her upper body. "I hope daddy gets here soon."  
  
Minako thought of something from TV that she had been watching about first aid. "You know, if you leave that in it will get infected."  
  
Usagi hadn't thought of that either. She hoped that she wouldn't regret what she was about to say. "Ok, take it out carefully."  
  
Minako nodded. "Ok." She grabbed onto the handle. "Here it goes. Don't move." She began to slide it out of Usagi's leg as slowly and gently as possible. Usagi wailed as the pain grew. "I'm sorry Usagi." Minako hated to hurt her like this.   
  
Usagi watched as the knife left her skin. She could feel it coming out all the way. She watched Minako take the red ribbon out of her hair and tie it around her leg. "Thank you Minako."  
  
Minako smiled. "No problem. Can you move it?"  
  
Usagi tried. "No." She didn't know what to do. "Wait a minute. Why don't we take the flying Nimbus to my daddy?"  
  
"Good idea."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku, Bulma, and Vejita believe it or not sat on one of the many decks at Capsule Corp.   
  
"So Goku, when are you going to go get Usagi?" Bulma sipped her lemonade.   
  
"I was thinking about going and getting her now."  
  
"I don't think you have to do that Kakkorotto." Vejita saw Usagi and Minako flying in on a yellow cloud.  
  
Goku stood up and looked in the direction that Vejita was looking. He saw the flying Nimbus. He was disappointed in Usagi. He thought she was better than a cheater. "I can't believe it."  
  
Bulma walked up to Goku. "I think you have some work to do Goku. Wasn't the point to you leaving her in the city for survival?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes, but she has probably been riding around on Nimbus all day. How does she expect me to train her effectively if she does things like this?" He noticed Minako on the cloud with his daughter.  
  
"Well it looks like you have a rebel on your hands Kakkorotto. Doesn't do what she's told." Vejita stood up and left the deck. "Tell me when she's really ready to learn how to fight."  
  
Goku glared at Vejita. Usagi was not a rebel. She usually had reasons for doing the things that she did. Why else would she bring Minako with her? Nimbus landed on the ground below the deck and Minako hopped off. Goku jumped off the deck. He took one look at his daughter and could have killed himself. "Usagi! What happened?"  
  
"Daddy, we ran into these guys who tried to silence us. What ever that is."  
  
'Silence! They tried to kill 5-year old kids?' He scooped his daughter off of the cloud. He eyed her leg. "Usagi, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you out there alone. You weren't ready."  
  
"No, it's my fault. I turned my back to the enemy."  
  
"No, if I hadn't had left you out there the whole thing wouldn't have happened. Don't worry, I can fix you right up."  
  
Usagi groaned. "Not the peroxide again." She looked up at her father sympathetically.  
  
"No, something more effective." He set her back on Nimbus and pulled a bag off of his belt. He dug his hand into it and pulled out a Senzu bean. "Here you go. It's my last one." Goku handed the bean to his daughter.  
  
"Thanks daddy." She consumed the Senzu bean and began to feel her leg again.  
  
Goku looked at Minako. "Hello Minako. How have you been?"  
  
"Hi Mr. Son. I've been better." Minako wasn't sure how to ask for training from Goku.  
  
"So girls, please enlighten me with the story of how you got beat up so badly."  
  
Usagi and Minako looked at each other and inhaled a huge breath of air. Usagi decided that SHE would tell him. After all, he was her father. "Well you see, after I couldn't see you anymore, I went down this street….." Usagi told her father everything that happened.  
  
He couldn't believe it. He left her out there and she was hurt badly. He scolded himself for being so irresponsible. "Usagi, I'm very proud of you. You did well today."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes. "Don't try to make me feel better daddy. I can't fight. I will never be as strong as you are." Her eyes began to water. She so wanted to be like her father.   
  
Goku watched her. For someone who wanted to be a fighter, she sure did act like a baby. But that was ok. He liked her that way. He didn't want to force her to grow up. He wanted her to have a longer childhood then his sons had. "You will be, Usagi. You are already very strong. You held up against those guys who tried to kill you. You survived. You have taken your first step to becoming strong." Goku hopped that his words made Usagi feel better.  
  
Usagi sat on Nimbus and thought about what her father had just told her. Maybe he was right. Maybe she really would become strong. She looked up at him. "So are we still training today?"  
  
Goku smiled. There was the spirit he knew she had. "Of course. You think I would let you get off that easily today? You have to be out of your mind to think that."  
  
Usagi jumped off Nimbus. "Cool!" She looked at Minako and remembered why she had come along with them. "Hey daddy. Can Minako train with us too?"  
  
Goku was startled by his daughter's question. "Is it ok with her parents." Usagi nodded with a smile. "Then ok. I'll start her today then while you are training with Vejita."  
  
Usagi froze in place. "Train with…Vejita?"  
  
Goku didn't understand what the problem was. "Yes, you will be training with Vejita today, with your new weighted cloths."  
  
"But Vejita will kill me. I can't train with him. And weighted cloths? Are you crazy?" This was all more than Usagi had bargained for.  
  
Goku laughed at his daughter. "Come on Usagi. Vejita is not going to kill you. He's just rougher on you than I am. You need that. And as for the weighted clothing, that will enable you to become strong."  
  
Usagi didn't mind the weights as much as she minded the training with Vejita. "If I die, I'm going to come back and haunt you." Usagi grinned at her father.  
  
Goku smiled. "Alright. It's a deal."  
  
Bulma walked out of the door that led to the patio with a capsule. She handed Usagi a capsule. "Here you go sweetie. This is your new and improved training GI."   
  
Usagi grabbed the capsule from Bulma. "Thanks Bulma."  
  
Bulma got serious again. "Oh yeah, a bit of advice. When training with Vejita, make sure you don't turn your back on him."  
  
Goku glared at Bulma. He didn't want her to scare Usagi. "Shut up Bulma."  
  
Bulma stuck her tongue out at Goku. "What do you know Goku?" She turned around and walked back into the building.   
  
Goku looked down at Minako who was watching every move he made. "So you want to learn how to fight too huh?" Minako nodded. "Well let's go then." He turned back to Usagi. "I'll be back for you later. Behave."  
  
"Ok daddy." She waved to her father as he and Minako left on Nimbus. Usagi was left alone with her thoughts. "Well, I guess I should change."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Vejita waited for Usagi in the main courtyard of Capsule. Corp. "Where is that blasted girl?"  
  
"Right here." Usagi walked up to Vejita. Or at least she tried to. It was more like a crawl.  
  
Vejita snorted and crossed his arms. "You are a disgrace to the Saiyan race. Look at you. You can't even handle some stupid weights."  
  
Usagi tried to stand up. Her outfit was basically the same as other one only weighted. Her legs were weighted with metal boots that weighed about 20 pounds each. Her main outfit weighed about 30 pounds and she had 10-pound wristbands. Her father would raise the weights as she got stronger. "The weights are too heavy."  
  
"Nonsense girl. You just aren't trying hard enough." Vejita picked up Usagi by the back of her GI and jumped into the air.  
  
"Where are you taking me Vejita?" Usagi looked at the city below her as Vejita began to fly.  
  
He looked down at her and snorted. "Don't ask so many damn questions girl." 'Damn Kakkorotto has some annoying brats.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
When Vejita reached his destination he stopped and hovered in the air. Usagi looked around. Her legs felt as though they were going to fall off. They were being heavily pulled down by the weights that she wore on them. She looked up at Vejita who didn't seem to be doing anything. "Vejita, why are we just sitting here?"  
  
Vejita knew what he was doing. "I'm beginning your training girl." Usagi got a puzzled look on her face. He grinned at her. He loved doing this to Goku's kids. He opened his hands and let Usagi fall to the ground.  
  
Usagi screamed as she watched the ground come close to her at a horribly fast speed. "No!" She put her hands in front of her to break her fall. Vejita kicked her back up into the air from beneath her. She wailed. "What was that for?"  
  
"You will do this the right way!" Vejita watched to make sure she didn't fall the wrong way, as he put it. If she didn't fall just right she would break her bones. Usagi flew back high into the air. She closed her eyes. Was this his idea of a joke or was he trying to teach her something. She put her hands back in front of her body. Vejita saw this and hit her back into the air again. "I said do it right!"   
  
She didn't understand. "What are you talking about?"  
  
Vejita stared up at Usagi from a lower altitude. "Falling."  
  
"There's a special way to fall?" Usagi thought he was crazy. Her father never told her about a special way to fall. She made sure that she didn't put her hands in front of her. She tried to think of what kind of way was the correct way to fall.  
  
"Hurry up!"  
  
"I'm trying." Usagi changed positions as she fell back down to the ground. She managed to lift her upper body up and put her feet facing down.  
  
Vejita smiled to himself. "She learns fast. She truly is a Saiyan. Too bad she has to be Kakkorotto's brat."  
  
Usagi's speed increased when she changed positions. She wasn't pushing against the air as much as she had when she was going front body first.   
  
Vejita kept his eye on Usagi. He wanted to make sure that she wasn't going to change positions. "Don't be tense. Relax your muscles!"  
  
Usagi could barely make out what Vejita was trying to tell her as the air blew past her ears. She complied with what she said and relaxed herself. She landed on the ground feet first. Since she relaxed her muscles, her legs folded beneath her and her body was pushed forward. She quickly reacted and caught herself with her hands. Now she was just crouching. She stood up. "Wow, that really works."  
  
Vejita smirked. "Obviously. Everyone does it." He crossed his arms. "Stand up girl."  
  
That may take some work. Usagi still wasn't used to her new fighting gear. Tried lifting her body with her legs. She struggled with it for a couple of minutes and then fell over. "It's too heavy."  
  
Vejita glared at her. "It's not too heavy. Now hurry up. We have things that we need to do."  
  
Usagi struggled to sit up. When she finally accomplished that she grabbed her legs, which sat straight out in front of her. She lifted her right leg and sat her foot flat on the ground. She performed the same action on her left leg.  
  
Vejita smirked. "What do you think you are doing?"  
  
Usagi looked up. "I'm trying to stand up."  
  
"Well you aren't going to stand up like that."  
  
Usagi ignored him. What did he know? Now her feet were planted on the ground. All that was left to do was left to do was stand up. That was the hard part. She didn't know how she was going to lift her body up off of the ground. She used the ground as leverage. She tried to push herself off of the ground with her hands. She almost got up but fell. She looked up at Vejita. He was just sneering at her.  
  
"How incompetent." He lifted her to her feet and held her there. "Now, before we go on lets see if you can even stand with your weights. Stand for as long as you can." Vejita let go and Usagi was on her own.  
  
She swayed back and forth. Her body demanded that she fall. The weight was more than she could handle. At least she thought it was. She ached already. She wanted to drop but knew that if she did Vejita wouldn't like it. She stood up for about four and a half minutes before she lost her balance and fell to the ground.   
  
"Get back up."  
  
Usagi looked at Vejita. She knew it wouldn't happen. She was too tired form just standing. She tried lifting her leg. To her surprise it worked. She lifted it a little bit off of the ground. "Yay! I did it."  
  
"Not yet you didn't. Now stop slacking off and stand up for god's sake." Vejita was getting disgusted.   
  
Usagi nodded. She lifted her other leg too. Then she pushed herself into a crouching position. Now she was in the same position as she was when she first started. "Ok, here it goes." She pushed with all of her strength in her legs. She began to rise, very slowly.  
  
Vejita was amazed at Usagi's strength. He had never seen a child of her age take to weights so easily. Yeah she was having trouble but that was to be expected. She was doing great. Goku was right. She was quite strong. "So you finally decided to stand up?"  
  
Usagi didn't pay any attention to him. She just concentrated on standing up. She was getting tired but was not about to give up. She couldn't stop now. She had come so far. She pushed herself almost to exhaustion. She finally got all the way up. "I did it? I did it! Yay! I'm so happy. I finally did it!" Usagi nearly fell down but caught herself. "Whoops better pay attention to what I'm doing."  
  
"Are you ready to move on now?" Vejita was bored.   
  
Usagi diverted her attention to Vejita. "What? There's more? I can hardly stand up and I'm tired. Please let me rest a little bit." Usagi swayed. She had bruises forming from where Vejita hit her.  
  
Vejita frowned. "You are not a baby, kid. You don't need to rest."  
  
"But…"  
  
Before Usagi could finish what she was saying Vejita's fist was in her stomach. She fell back down to the ground. "I said no."  
  
Usagi had no energy left to stand up. She tried but it was no use. Her energy for the day was gone. She looked up in the sky and saw her father flying to them. "Daddy." She sat on the ground with her legs in front of her.  
  
Goku landed and looked at his daughter. "You look tired."  
  
"I am, these weights are REALLY heavy." She looked up in the sky. It was getting late. The sun was already setting.  
  
"They are supposed to be. That's one of the most effective ways to get strong."   
  
"Kakkorotto, teach your brat some discipline. She's not serious enough. She acts more like a kid then a fighter." Vejita jumped in the air and got ready to leave.  
  
"Vejita, she is a kid. She doesn't have to act like an adult to be a fighter." Goku walked over to Usagi.  
  
"That's where she takes after you." Vejita left with those words being said.  
  
Usagi didn't understand. She didn't understand most things. "I don't act like a fighter?"  
  
"You act like you and that's all that counts. Promise me that you will never change." He picked Usagi up.  
  
"I promise. Where's Minako?" Usagi leaned into his chest and closed her eyes.  
  
"I took her home. She learned a lot today. She's strong." 'She was really strong for a human.' Usagi wrapped her golden brown tail around her father's arm while he called for Nimbus. He looked at Usagi who was already asleep. "You have had a long day my little Usagi. Go ahead and sleep."  
  
(There see, no cliffhangers this time. LOL! Ok, that's it for this chapter. Is it good or bad? Please review. Thank you. ^_^)  
  
  
  
  



	11. Part 10

Goku lay in his bed unable to sleep. He couldn't forgive himself for what he had done to Usagi. She had shown a great amount of progress in the past couple of days. He had just forgotten one thing. She was still a child. A child who has never been in the city alone. He had never taken her there really. She pretty much stayed in the mountains all of her life.   
  
Goku turned over and looked at his wife. If he were to tell her what he had done she would have kicked him out of the house and discontinued Usagi's training. He didn't tell her. He couldn't tell her. He wouldn't tell her for one person and one person only. Usagi. He wanted her to be happy no matter what. He thought about Minako. She had an unusually large amount of power for a kid.   
~*~*~  
  
Usagi had a nightmare that night. The run in with the muggers in the alley had scared her more than she thought.   
  
~~*Dream*~~  
  
Usagi walked down the street with Minako. They couldn't decide if they wanted to go down the next alley or if they wanted to walk around the block to the next street. They thought about their options for a while and finally decided to go down the alley. What could possibly have happened?   
  
Two men jumped out at the girls. Usagi backed up. She looked to her side for Minako. She wasn't there. "Where did you go Minako?" She looked behind her but saw no trace of her. She looked back at the men. One jumped out at her with a knife. Usagi tried to jump out of the way. She couldn't. Instead, she fell to the ground. "What's wrong with me? Why can't I move?" She tried to stand up but it was useless. She realized she was once again wearing her weighted clothes. She looked up at the man. He dangled his knife high above her head. She watched as he brought it down and shoved it in her chest. Everything flashed white as she closed her eyes.  
  
When she opened her eyes again she was in an all white room. There was nothing in it except Vejita, who stood in front of her. "You're pitiful brat. Stand up and act like a true warrior."  
  
"I can't."  
  
He sneered at her. "Yes you can. Now hurry up before I loose my patience."  
  
'Am I dead?' She tried to stand up. No use. Her body wouldn't budge from its place. "Vejita, I really can't."  
  
"Look girl, I'm tired of playing games with you." He held out his hand.  
  
Usagi watched as a blast came crashing towards her at maximum speed. She began to scream at the top of her lungs.  
  
~~*Back to reality*~~  
  
Usagi was heavily sweating as she was tangled in her blankets. "Mommy! Daddy! Help!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku and Chi-Chi were awaken by their daughter's cries for help. They jumped out of bed and ran to her room hoping that she was ok.  
  
Chi-Chi busted the door open. She gazed in on her daughter expecting to see her half eaten by a giant bug by the way she had been screaming. "Are you ok Usagi?"   
  
Goku slammed into his wife pushing her face first to the floor. "Sorry about that Chi-Chi."   
  
Chi-Chi stood up and pushed Goku. "Watch where you are going you stupid muscle bound freak." Chi-Chi walked over to her daughter's bed and sat down. Usagi had stopped screaming and was still asleep. Chi-Chi put her hand on Usagi's forehead. "She's having a nightmare Goku. It's all because of you. You are pushing her too hard aren't you?"  
  
Goku thought about his nightmares. They were always about him fighting. He was sure that that's what Usagi was dreaming about. After the day she had had why wouldn't she. "Chi-Chi, I am not pushing her. Stop accusing me."  
  
Chi-Chi glared at her husband. "I'm just making sure my little Usagi stays safe."  
  
Goku rolled his eyes. "She is safe. She's with me isn't she?"  
  
"I have to give you that one. You can protect her like one else." She looked back at her sleeping daughter. She seemed to be in a peaceful rest now.  
  
Goku pulled his wife away from Usagi. "Let's not disturb her. Come on. Let's go back to bed." Chi-Chi agreed. She didn't want to wake Usagi.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi woke up to her father's voice at 7:30. She made sure to get up on time this morning because she didn't want to waste time building her bed again. She sat up.   
  
Goku stood at the door. "Are you feeling refreshed?"  
  
Usagi looked at her father. She wanted to tell him 'no'. Her whole body ached. "I'll be fine." She replied. She swung her legs over her bed. "I had the worst dream last night daddy."  
  
"I know, we heard you screaming. Your mother thought you were being tortured in here." Goku laughed. Chi-Chi was always OVER over-reacting.   
  
"Sorry." Usagi walked over to her father and hugged him. Her tail found it's way around his leg.  
  
Goku hugged back. "What's this for?"  
  
Usagi looked up. "Just for being you. For putting up with me."  
  
Goku smiled. "I love you too Usagi. Now, get dressed. Don't put on your weighted cloths yet. We are going to run first. Bring them along though."  
  
Usagi opened her mouth to protest. "Not again. You know what happened yesterday."  
  
"Don't worry, trust me." Goku left the room.  
  
Usagi sighed and got dressed.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi waited for her father outside. He was still eating. "Daddy sure eats a lot of food." She looked up at the sky. It was a beautiful sunny day. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky.   
  
She thought about school. Things would be a lot different when she got back. When people picked on her, she wouldn't be afraid to stand up to them. She would finally be able to get her Dragon Ball. Speaking which, she needed to ask her father about. She hoped that he hadn't forgotten about it. It meant a lot to her and she wanted it back. Thinking about the Dragon Ball made her think about Haruka and Michiru. "Won't they be surprised when they see how strong I have become. They won't dare try anything with me." Usagi smiled to herself. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her parents walking out of the house. She was a little surprised to see her mother. "Where are you going mommy?"  
  
"I'm driving the car to Bulma's. I'm tired of being home all alone." Chi-Chi walked to the car.  
  
Usagi frowned. 'More like you want to make sure I don't get hurt.' Her mothered worried about her way too much.  
  
Goku picked up Usagi. "Well kiddo, I guess we should be on our way. We don't want to waste any time. I want you to get used to the weights as soon as possible and I want Minako to learn good fighting technique so I can put you two together."  
  
Usagi got excited. She couldn't wait until she and Minako could spar with each other. It was going to be so much fun. "Ok!" Usagi watched her mother pull away in the car and waved. "Bye mommy!"  
  
Chi-Chi looked at her daughter. "Good-bye sweetie. I'll see you there." Chi-Chi grinned. 'What a perfect way to see how well Goku takes care of her.'  
  
Goku called for Nimbus. The two left for the city where Usagi would begin her training for the day.  
  
~*~*~  
  
When Goku and Usagi reached the border of the city it was already hot and there were many people on the streets. Usagi jumped off the cloud and anticipated what was going to happen next. She didn't want a replay of yesterday.   
  
Goku stepped of and gazed into the city. He would have to watch Usagi extra careful if he didn't want to get separated again. "Well here we go, remember we are running all the way to Bulma's."  
  
Usagi wanted to make a few things clear for herself. "What if we get separated again? And what about Minako?"  
  
Goku knew that she was going to ask these questions, as she is always so inquisitive, and already had answers for her. "Well I'm going to run at your pace. I will make sure you don't slow down. Once we get to Bulma's, I will leave to get Minako. I want you to have a little rest time before you begin the rest of your training."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Oh, I understand. K! Let's do this!" Usagi readied herself for the run. She looked at her father who was just standing there. She didn't know what he was thinking. "Aren't you coming with me daddy?"   
  
Goku nodded. "I can't start the run, I have to see what pace you are running at."  
  
Usagi giggled. "Oops. Ok. I'm ready, let's go." Usagi began to run to her destination that lie in the middle of the crowded city. Goku ran by her side. Usagi found that it was easier to run this day then it was the day before. She felt a lot lighter. The weighted cloths really did enhance your power when you weren't wearing them.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi had been running for 2 miles. Her speed had not decreased that much. She was panting heavily as she looked over to her father. He hadn't even broken a sweat. She looked back in front of her. 'I have a long way to go before I'm that strong.' Usagi ran faster. She had motivation now. Every time she felt like she was going to slow down or collapse she would just look at her father. He would keep her going.   
  
She looked to her left as they passed a large park filled with trees. There were lots of kids playing with each other. They were climbing around all of the toys there. She began to get jealous. 'I wish I had that many friends.' She slowed down and stopped as she watched everything that was going on.  
  
Goku looked at Usagi and then what she was looking at. He should have yelled at her for stopping but didn't. She had run a long ways. He knew why she was looking. He felt bad for her. All she wanted was friends. He watched the kids in the park.  
  
Usagi lay her eyes on a girl with brown hair who looked like she was her age. She wore her hair up in a ponytail high on her head. It looked like she was sparring with a group of kids. She seemed to be overpowering everyone. Usagi's eyes glimmered in the sunlight. 'Wow, she's good. I wonder who she is.'  
  
Goku put his hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Usagi."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. She had totally forgotten about the running. "Oops, I'm sorry daddy. It's just that when I saw all the kids in the park…."  
  
Goku put his hand over Usagi's mouth. "It's ok Usagi, I understand."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Thanks."  
  
"Shall we continue?"   
  
Usagi nodded. "Yep!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi had arrived at Bulma's about a half-hour ago. They both sat outside by the pool. "So, Bulma, tell me, did Goku tell you anything about Usagi's training yesterday?"  
  
Bulma looked her friend straight in the eye. 'Did he tell her about yesterday? Maybe I shouldn't mention it to her. I know how her temper is.' "Well, actually, yes, he did. He said that she is showing great progress for a starter. She is really strong. Vejita was actually surprised at her performance yesterday too. He said that he had never seen anyone catch on to weights as fast as she did. Now coming from Vejita, that's gotta mean something."  
  
Chi-Chi listened to Bulma's words. Maybe he wasn't lying to her after all. Maybe he wasn't pushing her. "I'm going to keep my eye on him."  
  
Bulma rolled her eyes. Chi-Chi always had to worry. "Chi-Chi, listen to me. Goku would never do anything intentionally to harm Usagi. He loves her too much. He never did anything to Gohan and Goten. Don't worry."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled. Maybe Bulma was right. Maybe there really was nothing to worry about. "I guess." At that moment Goku and Usagi walked to the pool area. Usagi was out of breath. "Oh, Usagi, are you ok? Here drink some water." Chi-Chi poured a glass of water for her daughter and handed it to her.  
  
Usagi gulped the water down as fast as she could. She was incredibly tired from the running. "Thanks mommy."  
  
Goku looked at his wife. "Hiya Chi-Chi." He looked back down to his daughter. "You can rest as soon as you put your training gear on." He meant the weighted clothing.  
  
Usagi looked at her father. She protested with her eyes but complied anyways. What she really wanted to do was rest first and THEN put on her gear. She ran back into the building.  
  
Goku looked at the two women who sat by the pool. "I'll be back. I have to go get Usagi's friend Minako." He flew in the direction of her house.  
  
Chi-Chi looked at Bulma. "Is he training another one?" Bulma just simply nodded as she drank her soda.  
  
Usagi walked back out to the pool. She was having some trouble walking because of the weights. It was little easier to walk today. She walked slowly to a chair by her mother and sat down. More like fell down.  
  
Chi-Chi stood up. "I knew it! He is pushing you!"  
  
Usagi didn't want to put up with this. She was getting tired of her mother always jumping to conclusions. She closed her eyes and let sun beat down on her. It was so relaxing. "Mommy, I'll tell you when he is pushing me."  
  
Chi-Chi was surprised. Usagi had never talked back to her like this before. It was happening. Her baby was leaving her. Oh just shut up Chi-Chi and quit overreacting ^_^ "Fine." She sat down.  
  
Usagi started to think about the girl at the park. Who was she? She looked like a good fighter. She wanted to go back to talk to her.  
  
Bulma walked to the edge of the pool. "You know, it's such a nice day, I think I'm going to swim. Would you like to join me Chi-Chi?"  
  
Chi-Chi stood up. "Sure, why not?" She looked back at her daughter who still had her eyes closed. "Are you going to be ok out here alone?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Bulma and Chi-Chi went into the building to change. Vejita walked out just as they walked in. He noticed Usagi sitting in the chair. "You are never going to get strong like that."  
  
Usagi opened her eyes. "Daddy says I can rest until he gets back."  
  
"Your father is too soft." Vejita sat down next to her.  
  
"No he's not." She watched him sit down. "You aren't going to get strong like that." She said in a sarcastic tone.  
  
Vejita leaned over to her. "I am already strong girl. I'm just waiting for you to get your butt out of that chair and into training mode."  
  
Usagi challenged him with her eyes. "Well my daddy says I don't have to. So there." She stuck her tongue out at him.  
  
Vejita growled. "You are just so lucky we aren't training yet."  
  
Usagi giggled. She loved to test Vejita's patience "I wonder where daddy is. He should have been back by now."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku arrived with Minako at Capsule Corp. about an hour after he left. He landed on Nimbus at the pool. Usagi was still sitting in her chair, Bulma and Chi-Chi were in the pool, and Vejita had left.  
  
Usagi watched as Nimbus landed in front of her. Minako jumped off and ran over to her friend. "Hey Usagi. Look at what your dad got me." She showed off her new fighting uniform. "He asked me what kind of GI I wanted and I told him I wanted one just like yours. Only in orange because that's my favorite color."  
  
Usagi just looked at her friend. "That's so cool Minako. I should take my Odangos down. Then we can tell everyone we are twins."  
  
Minako laughed. "Yeah, we could really confuse people. Except for the fact that you have a tail and I don't."   
  
Usagi looked down at her tail, which hung off the side of the chair. "Yeah, well I can hide it."  
  
Minako looked around. "This place is really big." She looked back at her friend. "Come on Usagi. Let's go train."   
  
Usagi just smiled. "I wish I could Minako. But you see, I can't exactly get myself out of this chair."  
  
Minako didn't quite understand what Usagi was talking about. "What do you mean? I know you are comfortable but don't you wanna get strong."  
  
Usagi laughed. "It's not that Minako. It's this stupid uniform. It's weighted. I have to work extra hard to move." Usagi placed her hands on the armrests of the chair. She pushed her weight against them and slowly began to rise out of the chair. Once she was up she wobbled a bit. "See what I mean."  
  
Goku had watched his daughter try to stand up as he stood by the pool. He was proud of her. She had learned so much in the past few days. He grinned. "She may even surpass me one of these days." He walked over to Usagi.  
  
Chi-Chi and Bulma overheard him talking to himself. The both looked at each other. Chi-Chi's face was pure white. "Did you hear that Bulma? My little baby can become stronger than Goku."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. "Hi daddy, guess what!"  
  
Goku saw happiness in his daughter's eyes as he looked down at her. He smiled. "What?"  
  
"I stood up easier today. And guess what else. It's not as hard to keep standing either." Usagi was pleased with herself.  
  
"That's good Usagi. I'm very proud of you." He looked back at Chi-Chi. "Your mother is very proud of you too, even though she doesn't want to admit it." He turned to Minako. "I guess we should get on with your training, Minako."  
  
Minako nodded. "Ok Mr. Son"  
  
"Usagi, I believe that Vejita is waiting for you inside somewhere. Go find him." Goku led Minako back to Nimbus. "I'll see you later." He waved to Chi-Chi and Bulma. "Goodbye you guys."  
  
Usagi walked to the door, which led inside and turned around to her mother. "Don't worry about me mommy, I'll be fine. I can take care of myself."  
  
A mother's worst nightmare. Hearing those words come out of their 5-year old's mouth. Chi-Chi watched Usagi walk in. "You know Bulma, I think I'm going to stop worrying about Usagi. I'm putting too much stress on myself."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi met Vejita where they had met yesterday. "I have been waiting forever brat!"   
  
"My daddy just got here."  
  
Vejita turned around and hit Usagi to the ground. "I don't care. If you want to learn how to fight then act like it! Just because you have the opportunity to do something doesn't mean you should do it! Now get up and let's go!" Vejita stood and waited for Usagi to stand up. She rolled over on her stomach and pushed herself up with her hands and feet. She would remember not to make him made again. 'Amazing, truly amazing, yesterday it took her forever to stand up and today she does it with little effort.' He grabbed her by the back of her GI again and flew to the place where they had gone the day before.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Vejita held Usagi out away from him. He let her dangle there. Usagi knew what he was going to do. He was going to drop her like he had done the day before. "Just get it over with Vejita."  
  
Vejita smirked. "Do you know what I'm going to do? Well for your information when…." Vejita stopped what he was saying and let go of Usagi. He hadn't planned to do it that way but he wanted to catch her off guard.  
  
It worked. Usagi definitely had not expected him to do drop her right in the middle of a sentence. She quickly got into her "falling" position.   
  
Vejita waited for her on the ground. When she landed he punched her forcing her to fall on her back. "Why didn't you defend yourself girl?"  
  
Usagi stood up with a minimal amount of trouble. "You didn't tell me to." She glared at him with her big blue eyes.  
  
"I don't have to tell you. An enemy doesn't walk up to you and tell you that he's going to hit you. Learn how to anticipate the actions of others. Always be on the lookout for an attack. I'm sure that idiot of a father has told you that before."  
  
Goku had in fact told her to anticipate attacks. "But you are not the enemy!"  
  
Vejita laughed softly to himself. "I'm not am I?"  
  
Usagi looked at him confused. "Huh?" She didn't like the way he sounded when he said that. He was up to something. She saw him move a little and quickly jumped out of his reach.   
  
"Oh, so now you think you are smart do you?" He walked over to where Usagi had jumped. She ran to the left and Vejita followed faster then she could move. He kicked her in the back and she fell forward. She caught herself before she fell to the ground. She looked back and frowned. "You see girl, you even have to anticipate what will happen after you dodge." She acted as if she was hurt. Vejita walked over to her. "What is it now brat? Don't tell me you're already done for the day. What a pitiful idiot."  
  
Usagi looked up at Vejita and smiled. "Not quite Vejita!" She made a fist and punched him in the chest.  
  
Vejita laughed. "You call that a punch? You are going to have to try harder than that if you want to hurt me." 'Actually, that wasn't that bad of a punch.' "How did Kakkorotto teach you to punch?"  
  
"Like this." Usagi punched Vejita in the arm this time.   
  
Vejita closed his eyes and shook his head. "There he goes again. He can't ever have any fun when he fights. Ok, I'm going to teach you an even better way to punch. Instead of punching with the front of your fist, punch with your knuckles like this." Vejita demonstrated on Usagi's stomach. She grabbed her stomach and bent over. Vejita laughed. "Do you get my point?" Usagi nodded. "Good, now let's fight."  
  
~*~*~  
  
By the time Vejita and Usagi were done for the day, Usagi could move around freely with her weighted cloths. It was no longer hard for her to move or stand up. Vejita watched as Usagi sat down. She had really taken a beating from him. She had bruises all over her body. She got a few good hits on him too. He had some blood drawn out of his arm. She had good strategy. She kept hitting in the same spot over and over again. 'That kid is going to be really strong one of these days.' Vejita thought as he wiped some blood off of his mouth.   
  
Usagi watched Vejita. He was a lot different then her father. Vejita had taken no mercy on her when they fought. "Are we done?"  
  
"Yes." Vejita walked over to Usagi and picked her up by her GI again. "I'm going as fast as possible. I want to get back and do some real training." Vejita flew home at and incredibly fast speed. Usagi couldn't even open her eyes because they were pushing against the air so fast.   
  
~*~*~  
  
When they arrived back at Capsule Corp. Goku and Minako were already there waiting for their return. Vejita dropped Usagi from the air and then flew to the other side of the building so he could use his gravity room.   
  
Chi-Chi looked up and saw her daughter falling from the sky. "GOKU! USAGI'S FALLING! CATCH HER!"  
  
Goku didn't do anything. He wanted to see if she knew what to do. Vejita had told him that he taught her this the day before. "She will be alright."  
  
Usagi assumed the correct position and landed like she had when she was practicing. She stood up and looked at her mother. "Hi you guys!"   
  
Chi-Chi kept herself from running to Usagi. She wanted to but she didn't want to upset her again. The last thing she wanted to do was be responsible for turning her daughter against her. "Hi!"  
  
Usagi walked up to Goku. "Look daddy, I don't have trouble with this uniform anymore."  
  
'Incredible. She's ready.' "That's great Usagi, in a couple of days you and Minako will be ready to fight each other."  
  
"Yay!" Usagi thought for a moment. "Hey daddy, can Minako and I go to that park we saw on the way here?"  
  
Goku knew exactly why she wanted to there. "I guess so since you guys are done training for the day."  
  
"Cool, come on Minako, daddy is going to take us to a park." Usagi wanted to meet the girl she saw at the park. She looked like a really good fighter.  
  
~*~*~  
  
When the three got to the park Usagi looked for the girl. She spotted her on a large concrete surface in between a pool and swings. She grabbed Minako's hand. "Come on."  
  
"Ok." Minako let Usagi pull her to the girl.  
  
Usagi let go of her friend's hand. She stared at the girl with the brown hair. She had green eyes that sparkled in the sunlight. "Hi. My name is Usagi and this is my friend Minako. I was watching you earlier and you look you really know how to fight."   
  
The girl just stared at her. She didn't know who she was, nor did she care. She noticed her tail. 'What a freak.' She frowned at Usagi. "I don't care who you are." She crossed her arms and walked away.  
  
Usagi followed her. "That was kind of rude don't you think?"   
  
The girl turned around. "Look, leave me alone alright?"  
  
"Come on. I just want to talk to you." Usagi couldn't believe how this girl was acting.  
  
"Tell you what. If you can fight and beat me, I'll talk to you. Ok?"  
  
"Deal." The two girls shook hands. Usagi turned around. "Hey Minako, I'm going to fight this girl so she'll talk to us ok?"  
  
Minako's eyes widened. "What? Are you nuts? You can't fight here."  
  
"Come on Minako!" Usagi pleaded.  
  
Minako crossed her arms. "Fine. But I'm staying here. I don't want to get my butt beat. I'm not confident like you yet."  
  
Usagi turned back to the girl in front of her. "Ok, let's get this done and over with fast." Usagi couldn't wait to test out her new skills. She knew that she was fighting someone who knew her stuff. She was excited.  
  
Goku watched from afar. He knew what was going on. He decided not to intervene. He too had seen her earlier and she could prove to be a challenge to Usagi. This could be a good learning experience for Usagi.  
  
The girl got herself ready for the fight. "Oh, by the way, my name is Makoto."  
(Ok, that's it for this chapter. Is it good, bad? Please review and tell me what you think. ^_^)  



	12. Part 11

Usagi watched every move that Makoto made. She was making sure that she wouldn't be caught off guard. She was totally ready for anything.   
  
Makoto stood tall. "Let's start this." She crouched on the ground and extended her leg. She swung it and tripped Usagi.  
  
Usagi fell backwards. She quickly stood back up and retaliated with a swift punch to Makoto's shoulder. Makoto failed to jump out of the way and was hit. She grabbed her shoulder. "You aren't supposed to hit with your knuckles." She performed a chopping hit at Usagi's side.  
  
Usagi grabbed her arm before it hit and twisted it. She took her other hand and dug her nails into the girl's arm. Makoto frowned. She kicked Usagi in the thigh.   
  
Usagi let go and stumbled over her feet. She quickly regained her composure. Usagi ducked to the ground. She put her hands in front of her and then charged for Makoto and crashed into her stomach with her head. Both girls fell to the ground.   
  
Goku watched from his spot. "Very impressive. Usagi has improved since the last time I sparred with her. This other girl has amazing fighting skill for being so young."   
  
Minako was amazed at what she just saw. Usagi was strong. She was much braver now then she was when she first met her.   
  
Makoto stood up. She held her hand out to Usagi. "You're good."  
  
Usagi grabbed Makoto's hand and allowed herself to be helped up by her. "Thanks. So are you. Where did you learn to fight like that?" Minako ran over to the two.  
  
Makoto looked at Minako and then back at Usagi. "I have been fighting since I was about three. I am currently a student in a Martial Arts class. Now let me ask you something. Where did you learn how to fight so well?"  
  
"My daddy taught me. I just started 5 days ago."   
  
Makoto didn't think she heard right. "Only 5 days ago? How did you get so strong?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "I dunno. My daddy says I'm going to be just as strong as him one day. He is the strongest man in the whole world."   
  
"Wow. The strongest man?" She turned to Minako. "Do you fight?"  
  
Minako nodded. "I just started yesterday. Her dad is training me too. He's really cool. Hey, what school do you go to?"  
  
"I go to meadows."   
  
Usagi's eyes widened. "Really? That's what school we go to!"  
  
"Really?" Makoto hadn't seen them there. "What class are you in?"  
  
"Miss Haruna's. We haven't seen you around at all." Minako looked back to see if Goku was still there.  
  
"That's because I just go here. I was on vacation with my mom. Why haven't I seen you guys around." Makoto rubbed her shoulder. It still hurt where Usagi punched her.  
  
Usagi and Minako looked at each other. They had wanted to put that day behind them. The wanted to forget about it. Minako saw that Usagi didn't really want to talk about it. "We got suspended. These two girls, Haruka and Michiru, were picking on Usagi. They started a fight with us."  
  
Makoto stopped rubbing her shoulder. "Did you just say Haruka and Michiru?"  
  
Usagi looked at Makoto. She saw uneasiness in her eyes. "Yes, why?"  
  
"They go to my Martial Arts school. They pick on everyone who is younger then them. They are ruthless. They think it's funny to put others in pain. Stay away from them. They will bring you nothing but trouble."  
  
Usagi's stomach turned as she listened to Makoto. "They stole something very dear to me. I plan on getting it back as soon as I get back to school in a week."  
  
Makoto shook her head. "Forget about it. It's gone. Believe me. Those are two people you don't want to get mixed up with."  
  
Usagi tensed up. Her eyes began to water. "You don't understand! I have to have my Dragon Ball back! My daddy gave it to me!" She let herself fall to the ground as she buried her face in her hands.  
  
Minako knelt by her and put her hand on her back. "It's ok Usagi. You will get it back."   
  
Goku walked up to his crying daughter. He had overheard the conversation. He sat down next to her and pulled her close to him. "Don't cry, Usagi. I'll get it back for you. Don't worry. I won't let them keep it. You will have your Dragon Ball back soon."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. She saw the sincerity in his eyes. "Promise?"  
  
"I promise. Don't you worry." Goku put his finger on her nose.   
  
Usagi hugged her father. She really did love him. He was always there for her. "Thank you daddy."  
  
Makoto watched as Goku comforted his daughter. She was interested in how he treated her. Her father never would have done that for her. He would have told her to stop, that fighters don't cry.   
  
Minako felt sorry for Usagi. She had been through so much in the past week. At least she had someone to count on for comfort.  
  
Goku stood up while Usagi stayed on the ground trying to collect herself. He looked at Makoto. He put his hand out to Makoto. "Hi, I'm Usagi's father, Goku."  
  
Makoto grabbed his hand. "Hi, I'm Makoto."  
  
Goku shook her hand. She had a firm grip. "I was watching you fight with Usagi. You were really good."  
  
Makoto blushed. She thought Goku was cute. She would "Thanks, my dad wants me to be able to defend myself. You taught Usagi well. Is it true that she only started 5 days ago?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes, she learns fast."  
  
"I'll say."  
  
Goku watched Usagi stand up by him. She grabbed his hand. He looked back to Makoto. "Listen, I would like to train you, if it's ok with you and your parents that is. You have great potential"  
  
Makoto didn't know what to say. She was speechless. "Wow, that would be great. My parents wouldn't mind. They want me to fight."  
  
"Well you are an advanced fighter so I wouldn't have to take extra time to train you on the basics. You can hold your own when it comes to that." He would start her with Usagi.   
  
Makoto smiled. "That would be great, but, I have school."  
  
Goku hadn't thought about that. There was only one other alternative. "Well, I guess we could do it after school. These two start school again in a week."  
  
Usagi didn't want to go back to school. She hated the kids there. At least she could stand up for herself now. She couldn't wait to train with Makoto. It would be so much fun.   
  
"I will start your training on Monday. We will pick you up after school." It was Saturday. Goku wanted to give Usagi and Minako a day of from training the next day.  
  
Makoto nodded. "Ok, that sounds cool. I can't wait."   
  
A white car drove into the parking lot and a man with short brown hair got out. He waved to Makoto. "Makoto, come on. Get in the car. It's time to go."   
  
"Ok!" She yelled. She turned back to Usagi and her father. "I'll see you guys on Monday then. Thank you for the fight Usagi. It was fun."  
  
"Good bye Makoto." Usagi looked at Makoto's father. He looked mean. His eyes were cold and uncaring. 'THAT'S her dad?' Usagi was glad that she had the dad that she did. She looked up at her father. "Thanks for bringing us here daddy."  
  
Goku looked down at his daughter. "No problem. We better be getting back before your mother has a conniption though."  
  
Usagi giggled. It wasn't hard to make her mother upset about something. "Ok. You're probably right." She turned to Minako. "What do you think of Makoto?"  
  
"I think she's really cool. I can't wait until Monday when we all get to fight with each other. It's going to be so much fun."  
  
"I know." Usagi's face gleamed with happiness.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku dropped Minako off at home before returning to Capsule Corp.  
  
Chi-Chi impatiently waited for the return of her husband and daughter. They were an hour and a half late. "Where could they be? Honestly. I think they enjoy making me worry." Chi-Chi paced Bulma's living room.   
  
Vejita sat in a chair in front of the TV flipping through channels. He was taking a break from training. "Quit your bitching woman. That's all you ever do."  
  
Chi-Chi put her hands on her waste. "Don't tell me what to do Vejita. I am not being bitchy. You just don't give a rip about your family where I do."  
  
Vejita snorted and took a sip from his can of soda. "That's not what I hear." He stood up from his chair and walked into the kitchen.   
  
Chi-Chi clenched her fists together. "Oooh, one of these days I'm going to…" At that moment Goku and Usagi walked in the door. "Where have you two been? I have been waiting forever for you two to get back."  
  
"I'm sorry Chi-Chi, we had business to take care of." Goku kissed his wife on the check hoping that that would calm her down before she had a fit.  
  
"Yeah mommy. We're really sorry." Usagi made her face as cute as possible.  
  
Chi-Chi just couldn't yell at a face like that. She looked at Goku and slapped him in the face.   
  
Goku rubbed his face. "What was that for?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "For keeping me waiting. You got off lucky. Now let's go." Chi-Chi stormed out of the house.  
  
Goku and Usagi stared at each other blankly. Usagi began to laugh. "What are you laughing at?"  
  
Usagi straightened her face and tried not to laugh anymore. "It's funny when mommy yells at you."  
  
Goku was embarrassed. He hated it when Chi-Chi did that kind of stuff in front of Usagi. "You would think it's funny." He picked Usagi up and carried her out sideways.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Monday…  
  
Usagi had not been woken up at 7:30 like she had for the past week. She was left alone to wake up whenever she wanted to. As a result she woke up at 9:12. She crawled out of bed in walked over to the window. It was another sunny day and it was already getting warm outside. She gazed into the trees that sat behind her room. She could see a deer and it's fawn feasting on some plants. She smiled. She loved animals.   
  
She turned back to her room and decided to get dressed. She put on her weighted GI even though she didn't have to train until Makoto was released from school. She wanted to have the extra training. She was now going for strength.   
  
During the day she was going to go with her father and watch him and her brother's spar. Maybe if she were lucky she would get to fight her brothers. That would be fun. She walked to her mirror and put her hair up into her two Odangos. She had finally figured out how to do it with out the help of her mother.   
  
She walked into the living room where she found her mother watching TV. Usagi sat down next to her mother to see what she watching. "Hi mommy."   
  
Chi-Chi barely even noticed Usagi. She was to into what she was watching. "Yeah, hi." She waved her hand at her to leave.   
  
Usagi looked the TV. There was a man and woman who were about to kiss. Usagi stuck out her tongue, "Yuck. How can you watch these things?" She stood up and walked into her parent's room where she found her father putting his shoes on. "Hi daddy!" She said in a chipper voice.  
  
Goku looked up to his daughter. "Hi sweetie. We are going to be leaving soon. Your mother is currently too pre-occupied in her show to make breakfast so we are going to eat out." Goku pulled his shoe on and stood up. He tied his belt around his waste.   
  
"I don't know what she likes so much about those things. Cartoons are much better." Usagi walked to the door.  
  
"You're telling me." Goku loved to sit down on Saturday mornings and watch cartoons with Usagi. It was sort of like a tradition for them. Goku walked out of the room with his daughter. "Chi-Chi, we are going to be leaving now. We won't be back until tonight." Chi-Chi didn't even hear his words. They went in one ear and out the other.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku called for Nimbus. Usagi grabbed her father's hand. "Daddy?"  
  
Goku looked down at Usagi. "What?"  
  
Usagi didn't know how to put her question. She didn't want to seem ungrateful for everything that she has learned. She didn't want her father to think that she wasn't satisfied with what he has already taught her. "Well, umm, when are you going to teach me how to fly and use Ki blast's like you?"  
  
'A reasonable question.' Goku thought, although he had never thought about when he would teach her before. "Well, I don't know really. It depends on when you are ready. I'm thinking if you keep up your pace of learning I should be able to teach you on Wednesday."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Cool, then I can fly on my own and I won't have to ride Nimbus all the time. Right?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Right." 'She's learning so fast. She reminds me of…well, me when I was her age.' Goku grinned.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku and Usagi decided to eat at the cheapest place they knew of, McDonalds. I realize they probably don't have McDonalds but what the heck. They walked up to the front counter. A lady in a black uniform walked up to them. "Welcome to McDonalds, can I take your order?"  
  
Goku stared at the menu for a while. He was having a hard time deciding what he wanted. He was starving and there were too many choices. He rubbed his chin. "Well let's see. I'll have five number 6's, three number 2's, and two number 1's." He turned to Usagi. "What do you want?"  
  
"I want two happy meals." Usagi always ate less then her father.   
  
Goku turned back to the lady behind the counter. "Did you get all that?'  
  
The lady just stared at the two Saiyans. "You must have a big family." Goku stared blankly at the lady. "This is for your family and not just you two right?" Goku still stared at her. He didn't quite understand what she was asking. The lady didn't know what to make out of the situation. She had never had someone order such a big order for only two people. Of course there wasn't a rule against ordering a lot of food. She rang it all up. "Will that be for here or to go?"  
  
That was one question that Goku could answer. "For here."  
  
"Ok, your total comes to $40." The lady walked back to the grill and began to assemble the meals. Goku pulled out some money and put it on the counter. She walked back to accept the money. "Ok, it will take a few minutes to prepare your meal. Take a seat and it will be delivered to you."  
  
Goku didn't want to wait but he knew that he had to. "Ok." He grabbed Usagi's arm and led her to a booth by the door.  
  
Usagi looked out the window. There were many people on the streets this day. It wasn't as many as Saturday though. Her eyes caught something in the parking lot behind a car. It looked like two girls. She leaned against the window as if she was trying to get a better look at them.  
  
Goku looked out the window too. He couldn't find anything THAT interesting out there. He leaned back in his chair. "What are you looking at Usagi?"  
  
Usagi didn't pull back from the window. "Something." She watched the car. Two figures emerged from behind it. Usagi could feel her heart begin to beat faster. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no. It can't be."  
  
Goku looked out the window again. This time he saw two girls. He didn't see what the problem was. "What? What's wrong Usagi?"  
  
Usagi finally pulled back from the window. She slouched in her chair. She wasn't ready for this. Goku curiously looked at his daughter for answers. "Usagi, please tell me what's wrong."  
  
Usagi didn't look up. "That's Haruka and Michiru, daddy." She fiddled with her tail. She was getting nervous. They were coming to the same place as her and her father.  
  
Goku frowned. He was going to settle things right then and there. He was going to ask for the Dragon Ball back. He waited for them to walk in the store and then stood up to go talk to them. Usagi watched as her father went to go talk to the girls. He tapped Haruka on the shoulder. "Excuse me."  
  
Haruka turned around. She looked at Goku and snorted. "Yes, what can I do for you?"  
  
"You have something of mine, actually, it's something of my daughter's."  
  
Haruka didn't know what this guy was talking about. She had never seen him before nor had she ever seen anyone that looked like him. "I think you have the wrong person."  
  
Goku shook his head. "No, I don't. You are Haruka right? Well you know my daughter, Usagi." He turned and pointed to Usagi.  
  
Usagi saw this and turned away. 'Don't do this daddy.'  
  
Haruka laughed. "Oh yeah, we know ol' Monkey girl. Don't we Michiru?"  
  
"Yeah, what a freak." Michiru joined her friend in the laughing.  
  
Goku stood there with a straight face. He didn't find it very funny. It was bad enough that they pick on her but now they were doing it in front of him. Not a good thing to do. "Look, you have my daughter's Dragon Ball and I would like you to give it back."  
  
Haruka grinned. Yeah, she COULD give it back. But the fact of the matter was that she really liked the thing. "I don't know what you are talking about." She looked behind him to see if he had a tail. 'Must be her mother that was the monkey.' She thought to herself.  
  
Goku didn't believe that for one minute. "You have to have it. My daughter has never lied to me before."  
  
Haruka would do anything to keep that ball even if it meant lying. "Well obviously she is lying to you now because I don't have it. You know you have real problem on your hands. Your daughter is very violent. You should seek some help for her." Haruka laughed.  
  
Goku tensed up. Getting the ball back would be harder then he thought. He couldn't just up and accuse her and he couldn't assault her if she challenged him. He would be sent to jail.   
  
"Look, I think you had better talk to your daughter about this a little more before you go and start making accusations about people. We have to go." Haruka didn't want to talk to Goku anymore. He was starting to get on her nerves and she didn't want him to find out that she really did have the Dragon Ball. Michiru and Haruka left the building to go find somewhere else to eat. They walked by Usagi as they were walking to the door. "See you later Monkey girl. I still have your stupid ball." Haruka laughed as she left.  
  
Goku walked back to Usagi who was frowning at the two girls. "Usagi, they say that they don't have the ball."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. "That's a lie! They just said that they had it! Didn't you hear them?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "I'm afraid I didn't."  
  
Usagi wanted to cry but didn't because she was in public. She didn't want everyone to think that she was a baby. "So what are you going to do now daddy?"  
  
"I don't know. I have to think of something." He thought about going to the principle but even then, if they said that they didn't have it, Mrs. Willings would not be able to do anything about it. "Try not to think about it, ok? I'll get it back."  
  
Usagi sighed. She tried to erase it from her mind but wasn't as easy to do as it was said. She looked up as the food was brought to the table.  
  
Goku's eyes shined with happiness. It was finally time to eat. He rubbed his hands together. "Time to dig in!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku and Usagi arrived where they were to meet Gohan and Goten. They were the last to arrive. The last time Usagi had seen her brothers was the Saturday before she started school. Usagi ran up to Gohan and hugged him. "Hi Gohan."  
  
Gohan hugged his sister back. "Hi Usagi." Gohan felt how strong his sister had become. "I hear you have been training with dad and Vejita."  
  
"Yep. Daddy says I'm getting really strong." She pulled herself away from Gohan and hugged Goten. He felt the increase in her power too.   
  
Goku walked over to Usagi. "We are going to begin now."   
  
Usagi knew what that meant. She was to leave and go sit up on a hill that over looked the field where her father and brothers would spar. "Ok." She ran up to the hill and sat down. She watched as they powered up. She couldn't wait until Wednesday when she would be able to learn how to control her energy and use Ki blasts.  
  
Usagi began to think let her mind wander as she watched the fight. She started to think about the run in with Haruka and Michiru. She couldn't believe that they had lied to her father. If he couldn't get it back she would have to take matters into her own hands. She was determined to get it back. Even if it meant another fight. Only this time she would have the upper hand. Usagi smiled to herself. It was a little thing that she liked to call sweet revenge.   
  
She reverted her attention back to the fight. The three of them were in the air and Gohan had just punched Goten in the face. She could see the blood fly from it. She squinted. "That had to hurt." Goten retaliated with a Ki blast. Gohan jumped out of the way and kicked him in the back. Goten fell to the ground. Goku took this opportunity to fire one of his own Ki blasts at Gohan. Gohan was caught off guard and was hit.   
  
~*~*~  
  
At 2:00 the spar was over and it was Usagi's turn to train for the day. They would have to pick up Minako and Makoto now. She stood up as her father flew up to her. "Are we going to go pick up Makoto and Minako now daddy?"  
  
Goku landed by Usagi. "Yes, are you ready to run for the day?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yep, I'm going to run in my weights today."  
  
"Ok, since we are already close to the city, we can just run from here. We will go and get Minako first since her house is closer than the school. Let's try to run faster today, ok?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Ok. I think I can handle that." Usagi started running before Goku even knew that she was ready. He jumped to his toes and ran up to her side. She was going faster then the day before be he would wait and see how long that would last.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku was quite amazed. It was only a day before that Usagi somewhat slowed down her pace and now, she didn't slow down at all. He stayed by her side. "You're doing great Usagi. Just a little bit further until we get to Minako's and then you can have a couple minutes to rest."  
  
Usagi didn't look at her father. She didn't want to get distracted. She wanted to keep up her pace. She smiled as she ran on. There were only two more blocks to Minako's. 'I can do this. I can do this. Don't slow down you're almost there.'  
  
Usagi turned a corner and were on Minako's street. Usagi could see her friend standing in her yard waiting for her. Minako waved to Usagi. "Hey Usagi."   
  
Usagi stopped when she got to Minako's yard. She was breathing heavily and gasping for air. She bent over and placed her hands on her knees. "I did it. I actually did it. That was so cool."  
  
Goku patted his daughter's back. "Good job Usagi. I'm very proud of you." He turned back to Minako. "So, do you want to try to run to the school?"  
  
Minako looked at Goku like he was crazy. She couldn't run nor did she want to, but it was all part of the training and she knew that she would have to do it sooner or later. The school was a mile away from her house. "Ok, I guess I can try."  
  
"That's the spirit. You should always try something before you give up and just say no." He turned back to Usagi who was just now able to breathe normally again. "What do you say, will you run with us?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Of course. I wouldn't have it any other way." She smiled. "Come on Minako. Lets go."   
  
Goku watched as the two girls dart out and make their way to the school. "At least Usagi has one really good friend." Goku ran and caught up to the two girls. Minako was the pace keeper now. He and Usagi would have to run according to her now.  
  
~*~*~  
  
When three got to Meadows Minako and Usagi were worn out. Minako especially. She had lost speed a few times but that was understandable. She pushed herself to keep going. She never stopped.   
  
Usagi let herself collapse onto the ground. She had just run 4 miles and was tired.   
  
Goku looked around for Makoto but couldn't find her. "That was really good Minako. You slowed down a few times but at least you didn't quit."  
  
Minako looked up at Goku. "Thanks." She noticed someone walking towards them.  
  
Makoto walked out of the school. She wore a GI like Usagi and Minako only it was green. She looked for her new friends. She spotted them in the parking lot. She ran over to them. "Hey you guys, you look tired."  
  
Usagi looked up at Makoto. "I just ran 4 miles and I totally need a rest."  
  
Minako panted. "Yeah, I'm ready for a nice long rest."  
  
Goku laughed softly to himself. "Well don't forget, you guys still have to train some more." Usagi and Minako looked at each other and let out a long groan. "Come on you guys, where's that fighting spirit you have?"  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. He sounded like an idiot. "It left and won't be back for about 30 minutes."   
  
Makoto laughed. "Well I don't mind waiting for you guys to rest. Maybe I'll spar with your dad Usagi. It may be fun. Look at what my dad bought me. When he saw you guys at the park on Saturday he asked who you were. I told him about how I'm going to be training with you and he said that I needed a proper uniform. Well I figured we that we could all look the same and make a fashion statement about fighting."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Cool, now we have a triplet." She stood up. "I guess we should get going before it gets too late."  
  
"Yeah, I guess so. Ok, I guess you two can use the flying Nimbus," Goku said as he pointed to Minako and Makoto, "And I'll take Usagi flying with me since there isn't enough room for more than two people on Nimbus." Goku called for Nimbus and picked Usagi up. He put her on his back and held her legs with his arms. Makoto and Minako crawled up onto Nimbus. Goku jumped into the air and let go of his daughter as she sat on his back. He turned back to look at her. "You can ride on my back." He began to fly and Usagi grabbed on to his shoulders so she wouldn't fall off.   
  
The air felt good against Usagi's face as they flew back to the field where she watched her brothers and father fight. She looked over to Minako and Makoto. "Hey you guys, daddy says we can learn how to fly on our own on Wednesday."  
  
Makoto looked over the edge of Nimbus and then back at Usagi. "Cool, I can't wait. This is fun."  
  
(Ok, that's it for this chapter. It's already 10 pages long on word. I think that's enough. Is this chapter good or bad? Please review it and tell me. Thank you ^_^ P.S. ok Hinotama-chan, just for you I didn't make this a cliffhanger. At least not by my standards. LoL ^_~ )  
  
  



	13. Part 12

Makoto peered over the edge of the flying Nimbus as they flew over the city. It was all so beautiful. She had never seen anything quite like it. All of the buildings were passing by so quickly. She had never flown before. She hadn't expected this. She always thought that the first time that she would fly would be on an airplane, not on some yellow flying cloud. She could see an opening in the amount of houses and the got closer to their destination.   
  
Goku decreased his altitude as he flew over the large field. Nimbus followed. He looked back at Usagi. "If you want to practice your falling go ahead and jump off now."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Ok." Usagi pushed herself off her father and fell to the ground.  
  
Makoto watched as Usagi hurled herself down. She looked like a tornado because she was spinning so fast. Makoto watched her technique. "Wow, she's really good."  
  
Minako also watched. "I know."  
  
"There's still one thing I want to ask her but I don't know if I should." Makoto watched Usagi land.  
  
Minako looked at her new friend. She had a pretty good hunch about what was making Makoto curious. "It's her tail isn't it?" Makoto nodded. "She told me that she had one because her daddy is a Saiyan."  
  
Makoto stared at Minako. "What's a Saiyan?"  
  
Minako shrugged. "I'm not sure. Usagi didn't really say, she said something about him being an alien."  
  
Makoto looked at Goku who was now on the ground. "He sure looks normal to me." She turned back to Minako. "You think we should ask him?"  
  
Nimbus landed by Goku and Usagi. The two girls stepped down off of the cloud. Makoto immediately began to stretch. Goku could see that Makoto was very serious about fighting. She had a distinct fighting aura about her. He could sense it. She would become very strong if trained right. He turned to his daughter. "Are you still tired?"  
  
Usagi pulled her leg behind her to stretch it. "Nope. I can fight." She put her foot down and started to stretch her arms.   
  
"I'm not tired anymore either, Goku." Minako piped in. "I'm good to go."  
  
Goku smiled and took a step back. "Ok then. Whenever you guys are ready. I want to see your different fighting styles put together." Goku walked farther back. He wanted to give them enough space. 'This ought to be good.' He thought to himself.  
  
Usagi stood and waited for Minako and Makoto to get ready. She somewhat knew Makoto's fighting style. She was fast and hit hard. She tended to use her legs a lot. She would have to watch her that. As for Minako, she knew nothing about the way she fought. She would really need to watch her for everything. It was like fighting blind. She had nothing to go on.   
  
Minako stopped stretching and looked at Usagi. She nodded to let her know that she was ready.   
  
Makoto took her time. She wanted to be as ready as possible. She wanted to be victorious. She stood tall when she was finished. She put her hands together and nodded to her two friends.  
  
Usagi took his as her invitation to begin the fight. She grinned. "This is going to be fun." She ran for Minako.  
  
"Yeah, you're telling me." Minako ran towards Usagi. They both ran for each other. Neither of them backed down.   
  
Usagi was feeling aggressive. She jumped for Minako with her hands. Minako just grinned and jumped to the side where she was met by Makoto's fist to her face. Minako grabbed Makoto's arm and dug her nails into it.   
  
Usagi piled into dirt. She quickly pushed herself off the ground and stood up in time to watch Minako kick Makoto in the stomach. She ran up behind Minako and grabbed her. Minako elbowed Usagi in the chest. Usagi didn't let go. Instead she retaliated by hitting her in the back with her knee. She let Minako fall to the ground. Little did she know that Makoto's fist was waiting from behind Minako. It met with Usagi's face.   
  
Usagi grabbed her face. When she pulled her hand away there was blood on her hands. She grinned. "Someone is going to get it now."  
  
Goku watched as his daughter and her friends sparred. He knew that they would be ready for the test on Wedsnday.   
  
Usagi got ready to shove her foot into Makoto's arm when Minako grabbed her. She nodded to Makoto. Usagi looked at Makoto and then back at Minako. She knew that they had planned something. She began to worry. Makoto grabbed onto her legs and Minako kept a hold of her upper body.  
  
Goku watched carefully. He studied their fighting patterns closely he didn't want to miss anything. He needed to be ready for them.   
  
Minako and Makoto now held Usagi off of the ground and were swinging her back and fourth. They increased their speed. Usagi wasn't sure that she was going to like what was about to happen. Minako and Makoto nodded to each other once again and pulled back farther than they had before. This time when they swung her forward they let go and hurled her across the field.   
  
"AHHHHH!" Usagi flailed as she flew through the air. She kept her eyes open. She watched as everything flew past so fast. She landed with her face in the ground. She picked her head up and spit out the dirt that had made it's way into her mouth. She looked up and saw her father standing over her. She calmly stood up and brushed herself off. She smiled. "THAT WAS SO COOL!! I WANNA DO IT AGAIN!" She ran back to where Minako and Makoto were still having it out.  
  
Goku laughed at his daughter. She was so energetic. He was glad that she was happy again. He was rather enjoying this fight.   
  
Usagi waited for the perfect time to jump back into the fight. She watched Minako dodge Makoto's punches. 'Daddy was right. She is really good.' One of Makoto's punches finally made contact to Minako's back. Usagi took this opportunity to join back in.  
  
Makoto looked at Usagi and grinned. "So nice of you to join us again Usagi." She ran up to Usagi.  
  
Usagi grabbed her by the arm and flipped her over onto the ground. She walked up to Makoto and looked down at her. "I'm so happy to be here." She turned around to fight with Minako some more.  
  
Makoto grinned. She shouldn't have done what she was about to do but she couldn't resist it. She turned over on her stomach and grabbed Usagi's tail.  
  
"AAAAHHHH!" A sharp pain shot up Usagi's back and slowly made its way into the rest of her body. She could feel her energy leaving her body as she fell to the ground. Her eyes begin to tear up. The pain was too great. She couldn't handle it. "Let go!"  
  
Minako watched her friend struggle. She could tell that she was in a lot of pain. She could have almost cried herself after she saw the look on her face.   
  
Makoto loosened her grip on Usagi's tail. "I'm sorry Usagi. I didn't know." Makoto felt bad. She hadn't meant to hurt her like she had. She honestly didn't know that her tail was so sensitive.  
  
Usagi let her energy return to her and then stood up. She looked down at Makoto who still lay on the ground. She looked like she was deep in though. Usagi frowned as she pulled her leg back.   
  
Goku grabbed his daughter from behind. He knew what she was about to do and he couldn't allow her to do it. He carried her over to an area of trees and set her down. He kneeled in front of her and looked her right in the eyes.   
  
Usagi looked back into her father's eyes. She knew that she had done something wrong. She didn't try to squirm out of his hold.   
  
"Usagi, you can't attack out of anger whenever your tail gets grabbed or pulled by someone. I let it slide before because it was me and I could handle it, but Makoto isn't as strong as me and you could have seriously hurt her. Your boots are weighted. That would have done some serious damage. You don't want to hurt your friend like that do you?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No, but it hurt so much daddy."  
  
"I know, I got my fair share of having my tail pulled when I was a kid, but you have to learn to control yourself, alright?" Goku hoped that she understood.  
  
Usagi put her head down. "Yes."  
  
Goku took one of his hands off of her arm so he could lift her head up. "I'm not mad at you, I just don't want you to do something that you may regret later." He knew that she still thought that he was mad at her. Her facial expression told the whole story of her feelings. 'She's so sensitive.' He grabbed her and pulled her close to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck.   
  
Goku stood up and looked back to the other girls. They had gone back to sparring with each other. Goku looked down at Usagi. She looked very upset. He hated it when he had to correct her. He tried avoiding it as much as possible but this time obviously could not be avoided. He blamed it on himself. He should have told her that from the start. He put his hand behind her shoulder and led her to the others.  
  
Makoto saw Usagi and stopped fighting. She walked up to her. "I'm really sorry Usagi. I didn't know that would happen."  
  
Usagi knew she didn't mean it bad. Her own actions weren't meant as something bad either. It was a reaction to the pain. "It's ok, Makoto. I know."  
  
"I think we should call it day." Goku picked Usagi and held her piggyback style again. "Nimbus!"  
  
Makoto was still curious about something and it was driving her nuts. "Umm, Goku… what's a Saiyan?"  
  
Goku turned around to Makoto. He knew that this question would surface one day. "Well, we are fighters from a planet called Vejita."  
  
"Why are we on earth daddy?" Usagi was getting tired.  
  
Goku turned his head back to look at his daughter who rested her head on his shoulder. "Well I was sent here as a baby to destroy earth but I hit my head and forgot my mission so here we are."  
  
Minako remembered something that Usagi told her on the first day of school. "Well what about that one guy, oh what was his name?" Minako thought for moment. "Oh yeah, Vejita. Why is he here?"  
  
"To make a long story short, he was taken away from his father, the king of Vejita, by a monster named Freiza. We killed him on a planet named Namek and Vejita came here."  
  
Minako and Makoto shook their heads. They had never heard of these Saiyans from their parents but they had to believe him. His daughter had the tail to prove that his story was true. When Nimbus arrived they climbed on it.  
  
Goku flew with the girls to make sure they got home all right.  
  
~*~*~  
  
When Usagi and Goku returned home, Usagi tried to go straight to her room but was stopped by her mother. Chi-Chi noticed that her daughter looked upset about something. "Usagi, what's wrong? What happened?" Usagi didn't really acknowledge that her mother had said something, or the fact that she was standing next to her. She just kept walking for her room. Chi-Chi turned to her husband. "Goku, what's wrong? I've never seen her so upset before."   
  
Goku watched as his daughter slowly pulled herself to her room. He knew that she thought he was mad at her. Even though he told her he wasn't. "She has been through a lot today. We ran into the two girls that she got in a fight with, Haruka and Michiru. I asked them for the Dragon Ball back but they insisted that they didn't have it. I guess they said something to Usagi on their way out of McDonalds but I didn't hear it. Then, while she was training with her friends, Makoto pulled her tail and Usagi just about kicked her in the face when she wasn't looking."  
  
"Oh my god Goku, what did you do?" Chi-Chi put a book down on a table that sat by the door of the kitchen.  
  
"Well, the only thing I could do. I pulled her aside and kind of yelled at her."  
  
Chi-Chi was shocked. She had never heard of Goku yelling at Usagi. "Goku, I'm sorry you that had to do that. No wonder why she's upset now."  
  
Goku looked back to his daughter who just turned into her room. "Now she thinks I'm mad at her. So, like I said, she's had a rough day."   
  
Chi-Chi felt sorry for both of them. She could see that Goku was troubled by Usagi's mood. She knew that he never wanted to be a source of conflict in Usagi's life. "Well maybe you should talk to her."  
  
"Maybe later. I want to give her time to calm down a little bit."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi had decided to take a bubble bath before she went to bed. She needed to relax and that was the best form of relaxation that she knew of. She sighed as she leaned back against the edge of the tub. "What a day. Daddy has never yelled at me like that before. Maybe he's getting tired of me being around all the time."  
  
She replayed the day over and over again in her mind. She couldn't stop thinking about Haruka and Michiru. Why had they lied about the Dragon Ball? They knew that they had it yet they said they didn't. Usagi never did understand why people lie. All it does is get you into even more trouble then you already are. She wondered if she would ever get the ball back. She would try her best to get it back.  
  
She scooted down further into the water. The bubbles tickled her chin. She let out a small giggle. Usagi was already becoming more relaxed. She began to forget about her worries and started to enjoy her bath. She started popping bubbles with her fingers as they rose up to the air.   
  
When Goku walked by the bathroom door he could here Usagi laughing inside. 'Good, she's happy again. I hope.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi was just about to get her mother to tuck her in when her father walked into her room. "Hi Usagi."  
  
"Hi daddy." Usagi watched her father sit on her bed. He motioned for her to sit next to him. She did.  
  
Goku put his arms around her. "You know, I'm really not mad at you about today."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. "But you never yelled at me like that before." She leaned into him.  
  
"I didn't mean to yell at you Usagi. Please believe me. I wasn't ever mad at you."   
  
Usagi started to believe him. She knew that he wouldn't lie to her. "Ok."  
  
Goku smiled. "Good, now, why don't we get you into bed? I'm sure you're very tired."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yeah, I am." She yawned and crawled up to the top of her bed.   
  
Goku pulled the covers over her. He leaned down and gave her a kiss. "Goodnight my sweet little Usagi."  
  
"Goodnight daddy. I love you." Usagi closed her eyes and curled up.  
  
Goku walked to the door. "I love you too." He turned out the lights and walked out of the room. When he turned around from closing the door Chi-Chi was standing behind him.  
  
"How did your little talk go?"   
  
"Good, I think she now understands that I am not mad at her." Goku put his arm around his wife. The two started walking to their room.  
  
"That's good."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Wednesday…  
  
When Usagi woke up, it was already 11:30 A.M. She rubbed her eyes because she thought she saw the clock wrong. But she didn't. "How could I have slept that late? Daddy likes to leave early." She hopped out of bed and scampered out of her room.   
  
She ran into her parent's room to see if he was in there. He wasn't. She figured that he would be in the kitchen since that's where he was whenever he wasn't training so she went there next. When she looked in her mother was cooking something. She looked to the table and then to the refrigerator. He wasn't there either. She walked up to her mother and tapped her on the back.   
  
Chi-Chi turned around and looked at her daughter. "What is it honey?"  
  
Usagi looked one more time around the room and then back at her mother. "Where's daddy?"  
  
"Oh, he already left." Chi-Chi turned back to her cooking.  
  
Usagi's eyes began to widen. "What? He left with out me? How could he do that? Why?" Chi-Chi didn't turn around. Usagi tugged on her dress. "Mommy, why did daddy leave with out me?"  
  
Chi-Chi turned back around. She looked annoyed this time. "Daddy didn't want to wake you up. You were so tired. He just didn't have the heart to." Chi-Chi expression softened. "That's ok though, we can have a day just for us girls until he comes back for you later."   
  
'Great.' Usagi watched her mother. She looked so happy. She didn't want to spoil her fun. She sighed and faked a smile. "YAY!" She would rather be with her father, training, or at least watching him spar.   
  
Chi-Chi turned back to her pot. "Just let me finish this. Then we can eat. And THEN, we can hang out. Why don't you go get dressed."   
  
"Ok." Usagi turned to go back into her room.  
  
"And no training cloths. I want you to wear your normal cloths." She watched her daughter walk back to her room. "Oh this is going to be so much fun. I get to spend the day with my baby."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi decided to take Usagi to Bulma's. She wanted to spend the day with just the three of them just as girls. With no worries. The three of them sat in the living room. Bulma and Chi-Chi were talking about the old days and Usagi was just plain bored. She didn't know anything about what happened in the past. She fiddled around with her fingers as the two adults talked to each other. She needed to have some fun. What she needed to do was find Vejita. "Umm, excuse me, Bulma?"  
  
Bulma stopped talking about the time when she first met Goku and turned to Usagi. "Yes, what is it dear?"  
  
"Well I was wondering if you could tell me where the bathroom is."   
  
Bulma pointed to a hall on her left. "Well sweetie, it's just down this hall and to the left. It's the 2 door down."  
  
Usagi smiled. Her plan had worked perfectly. "Ok, thanks." She got up from her chair and began walking down the hallway. She turned to the left because she knew that both of the women were watching her. "I wonder where Vejita is." She thought to herself for a moment. 'If I was Vejita, where would I be? Hmm.' She thought some more and finally it hit her. "I know, the gravity room that he is always talking about. That's where he would be." She looked around a bit. "Now I just have find out where it is."   
  
Usagi walked down the hall a little ways only to have to turn right into a hallway with windows as a wall. She peered out the windows. She saw a spaceship looking thing outside. "That has to be it." She ran to the end of the hallway where she found a door that led outside. She opened it and walked out.   
  
She walked up the ship's ramp that led to a door. By the door there was a light that was lit red. She turned the knob of the door and opened it. She stuck her head in to look around. Inside there was a big console in the middle of a huge room. "Cool."   
  
She stepped inside and immediately fell to the ground. She tried desperately to push herself up but couldn't. Her whole body was plastered to the floor. She couldn't even lift her head. "What's going on?" Her bones felt like they were going to break. She could barely breath. She closed her eyes as the force grew on her tiny body.   
  
When Usagi opened her eyes again she saw two feet in front of her. She would have looked up but she couldn't. "Tsk, Tsk, Usagi. I would have expected better from the daughter of Kakkorotto. Isn't he always teaching his brats to stay out of trouble and not create it? Don't you know the meaning of red lights? It means to STAY OUT!"  
  
Usagi smiled to herself. "Vejita. Help me please."   
  
"Well I guess I should. After all, I don't want to listen to your mother's complaining if every bone in your body was crushed to bits." Vejita walked over to the console that sat in the middle of the room.   
  
Usagi could hear him pressing some buttons. All of a sudden the pressure was released and Usagi could once again move. She stood up. "Thank you Vejita."  
  
Vejita snorted. "Yeah whatever. What do you want brat?" Vejita rubbed his arms with his hands.  
  
"My mom brought me over. I got bored so I came to find you." Usagi started to walk around to get a better look at the gravity room.  
  
"Am I supposed to feel honored?"   
  
Usagi turned around to look at Vejita. "No, not unless you want to be."  
  
"Are you not training today?"  
  
"I'm training, just not right now. I have to wait until Makoto gets out of school. Then we can all train. Daddy is gonna train us out how to use Ki blast's and how to fly today. I'm so excited about it. I can't wait." Usagi sat down on the ground. She still ached from all the gravity.  
  
'What a mysterious girl. She WANTS to learn how to fight. That's more than I can say for Bra.' "So you think you're ready for the big time fighting eh?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yep, daddy says I'm making good progress."  
  
Vejita raised an eyebrow. "Really?"  
  
Usagi was getting weirded out by Vejita. He was acting somewhat strange. "Uh, yeah."  
  
"Good." Vejita smirked and lunged for Usagi with his fist. Usagi definitely was not anticipating that. She didn't dodge it. She was throw to the wall. "Kakkorotto was lying to you girl. Tell him you're not ready. You need more training."   
  
Usagi stood up and rubbed her check where Vejita had just hit her. "That wasn't fair. I wasn't ready for that. We weren't even sparring."  
  
Vejita walked up to Usagi and pinned her against the wall. "It doesn't matter if we are not fighting, little girl. You need to be ready for EVERYTHING. You never know when someone is going to come up to you and hit you. That's probably the most important thing that you will ever need to learn. You got that?"  
  
Usagi cowered. She didn't know what Vejita was going to do to her. She nodded.  
  
Vejita pulled away and release Usagi from the wall. "Good now get out of my sight."  
  
Usagi ran past Vejita and then out of the room. She ran across the courtyard back into the building. She sighed as she leaned against the wall. "Maybe he's right, maybe I should watch everything more careful."  
  
"Of course you should, didn't I tell you that when we first started."  
  
Usagi looked down the hall and saw her father walking towards her. She smiled and ran for him. She jumped into his arms and hugged him. "Daddy!"  
  
Goku hugged his daughter and then set her back down on the ground. "Your mother and Bulma have been looking for you. You shouldn't worry them."  
  
Usagi looked down to the ground. "I know and I'm sorry, daddy. I won't do it again." She looked back up. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I went home to pick you up, but you weren't there to be picked up. So I came here. Are you ready to go and train?"  
  
A smile appeared on Usagi's face. "I sure am. But…"  
  
"What?"  
  
"We have to go back home first. I don't have my cloths with me. Mommy wanted me to wear normal cloths." Usagi sighed. She didn't want to go back home. She just wanted to go and learn how to fight the fun way.  
  
"Don't worry about that. I've got it covered. Since I have lived with your mother for so long I have learned many things about her. I didn't think that she would want you to come in your training GI so I went into your room and brought if for you. All you have to do now is go and change into it."  
  
"Cool, Thanks daddy."  
  
"No, problem."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku didn't make Usagi run to Minako's. He didn't want her tired for her training that day. It was important that she was in good condition for what he was going to put her through. He didn't make Minako run either when they left for the school.   
  
The three fighters stood outside Meadows and waited for Makoto again. She came out wearing he green GI. She ran to them while waving. "Hey guys!"  
  
Usagi waved back. "Hi Makoto."  
  
Two boys ran out from behind her. They were two boys from Usagi's class. They stopped running when they saw Usagi. The one with brown hair pointed at her. "Hey look its Monkey girl."  
  
The one with black hair looked around. "Where?"  
  
"There."  
  
"Oh, hey Monkey girl! Long time no see." Both boys laughed and ran away.   
  
Usagi chased after them. She easily caught up to them. She pulled back on the shoulder of the boy with the black hair. He turned around to look at her. "Who are you calling a monkey?" She made a fist with her hands.  
  
The boy laughed at her. "You, the freak." His friend joined in on the laughing.   
  
Usagi grinned. "You shouldn't laugh at me anymore. I can beat you guys up now so you better be nice to me."  
  
"Yeah right. You're just a girl. A monkey girl."   
  
Usagi pulled back her fist and was about to hit when she heard her father. "Usagi, NO!" Usagi stopped what she was doing. She turned around to her father. He looked more disappointed in her then angry. She had let him down again. Her eyes began to water as she walked back to him.  
  
The boys stuck their tongues out at Usagi as she walked away. "Daddy's girl. Go run back to your daddy!"  
  
Goku crossed his arms as he watched Usagi walk back. "Usagi, you have to learn to control your temper. You can't just go and beat everyone up who makes fun of you. If you did, you would be no better then Haruka and Michiru."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. "I'm sorry. I'll try harder." She didn't want to be anything like those two.  
  
Goku changed the subject as fast as he could. "Ok, I guess we should be on our way."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi, Minako, and Makoto stood in a line and awaited their new training. Goku paced back and fourth in front of them. He stopped in front of Minako. "Ok, now then, I will only teach you guys how to fight with Ki blast and how to fly on one condition. You have to show me that you can fight hand to hand combat well, first."  
  
"How do we do that daddy?" Usagi was stretching her legs behind her back.  
  
"You have to beat me in a sparring match. All three of you against me. That shouldn't be that hard if you know what you're doing, right?"  
  
(Ok, that's it for this chapter. Is it good or bad? Please review. Thank you ^_^)  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	14. Part 13

The girls stood and looked at Goku like he was crazy. Did he actually expect them to be able to beat him in a match? They could barely hold up against each other let alone fighting a veteran to the fighting world.   
  
Goku knew this would happen. "Come on girls. Don't chicken out on me yet. I know you can do it."  
  
Minako looked to Usagi for help. She hoped that Usagi could talk her father out of his craziness. Usagi looked at her father. "Umm, do we have to do this? We can't beat you. You are way too strong."  
  
Goku looked to his daughter. "Well I guess I could let you wimp out on me."  
  
Usagi's eyes began to sparkle. "Really? You mean we don't have to do this?"  
  
Goku laughed. "Are you kidding? Of course you have to do this. I said I COULD let you. I never said anything about actually doing it."  
  
Usagi went back to her disappointed state of mind. "Man." She shrugged her shoulders and turned back to her friends. "I guess we have to do it after all you guys."  
  
Minako and Makoto looked at each other and then back at the two Saiyans. "WHAT?!"  
  
Goku started to stretch his legs. "Believe in yourselves. I know you can do it. And besides, from what I hear you really want to learn how to fly and fight with energy blasts."  
  
Makoto agreed. "Yeah, that would be fun. I guess I can give it a try." She also began to try.  
  
Goku turned to Minako who was the only who had yet to agree. "What do you say Minako? Do you wanna join in on the festivities?"  
  
Minako still wasn't sure she wanted to but decided to go along with it anyways because she didn't want to fall behind her friends. "Ok, I guess I'm going to have to."  
  
Goku smiled. "That's the spirit." He continued his stretching. "Ok, whenever you three are ready we can begin."  
  
Usagi pulled her two friends over to the side away from her father so he couldn't hear anything that she said. "Hey you guys, Vejita said that we should always anticipate attacks."  
  
Minako nodded. "Yeah, your dad already told us that before Usagi."  
  
Makoto looked behind her to make sure that Goku wasn't trying to sneak up on them. "Get to the point Usagi."  
  
Usagi grinned. "Well, I say we don't even tell him when we are going to attack."  
  
"Huh? That would be wrong." Minako wasn't sure if that was such a good idea. "Wouldn't we be cheating if we just snuck up on him?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "Nope, Vejita says that a true fighter is always on guard. So let's test out how well my daddy watches for attacks."  
  
Makoto rubbed her hands together and grinned evilly. "That's too perfect Usagi. Let's see how well he can do hand to hand combat."  
  
"Right, so here is what we're gonna do you guys." Usagi grabbed the shoulder's of her freinds and began to come up with a plan to defeat her father.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku smirked when he saw the girls. "Look at them trying to come up with a plan. That's so cute. Oh well, I gotta give em' some credit for trying." Goku noticed Makoto looking back at him and quickly turned his head. He didn't want them to know that he was watching.  
  
The trio broke up and walked back to Goku who was temporarily their enemy. Goku looked at all of their faces. They seemed normal. "Are you ready yet?"  
  
Usagi looked at her father. "Daddy, can I fight with out my shoes and wristbands?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes, just for the fact that this is a test for you to beat me." He watched as his daughter took off her weights away from the place where they would spar.   
  
She walked back over to the group as slow as she could. She wanted to prolong what was going to end up happening anyways. She didn't want her father to get suspicious. She smiled to herself as she pulled her shoes off. "That's much better."  
  
Goku was getting tired of them stalling. "Are you ready now?"  
  
"Not yet daddy. We have to stretch some more." Usagi smiled to herself. She was secretly getting ready to attack her father. 'This is going to be too easy.'  
  
Goku sighed. "Girls."  
  
Usagi walked up to her father who was bending over to stretch his calves. She tapped him on the back and he turned around to look at her. Minako and Makoto stopped what they were doing and put their attention over to the two Saiyans. She smiled deviously and then went to punch her father in the face.  
  
With his fast reflexes, Goku caught her fist in his hand and punched her in the chest with his other. "Too slow Usagi."   
  
Usagi grabbed her chest and stumbled backwards. "That's not fair."  
  
Goku watched her for a moment. "Like what you did was really fair. And besides, everything is fair in this game." He turned back to Minako and Makoto and smiled. "I guess this means that you are all finished up right?" They barely shook their heads yes. They hadn't realized how fast he was. "Ok, I'm not going to go easy on you. You have to beat me for real."  
  
Makoto saw Goku coming for her. She jumped out of the way and briskly turned around. Before he turned around, she put her hands together to make a larger and harder hitting fist. She hit him down with it. "You aren't so tough."  
  
Usagi ran over to her friend. "He's harder than that."  
  
Goku lay on the ground and listened to the two girls. He grinned and then pushed himself up to a crouch. He spun around and kicked both girls down and then stood up. "That's right Usagi. I am harder to beat then just one little punch."  
  
Minako tried to sneak around Goku without him noticing. She quietly tiptoed up to him. 'He didn't even hear me. This is great.' She backed up a little and then dashed for him. She jumped in the air to kick him in the back and then he turned around. "Oh no!"  
  
Goku grabbed the girl's leg and flipped her over his back. She was thrown into Usagi and Makoto forcing them to fall back to the ground after they had just gotten up. "Come on, I know you guys can do better than that."  
  
Usagi pushed Minako off of her and looked up to her father. She started to stand up once again. "We could do better if you weren't so hard on us." While she was helping her friends up she heard a noise behind her. She quickly dropped Minako's hand and turned around. Her father was racing right for her. She put her fists in front of her. "Bring it on!" She started running for him. Right when she was about collide with him she ducked and slid under his legs. Behind her was Makoto ready to hit. She jumped up in the air and kicked him in the face.   
  
Goku was thrown to the side. He rubbed his check. Blood rubbed off onto his hands. He looked to Makoto and grinned. "Not bad. What, did you have that planned or something?"  
  
"Yes just like we had this planned." Usagi ran up from behind her father and kicked him in the back forcing him to fall face forward. Usagi jumped in the air. "Yay! I finally hit you daddy! In your face!" She stuck her tongue out at him.  
  
Goku laughed. 'Very good. They learn fast.' He looked to Minako who was running for him. He looked over his shoulder. Usagi and Makoto were running to him. He smiled. 'Let's see what will happen if I…" Just as all three girls were approaching him he jumped out of the way.   
  
They saw each other. "AAAHHH!" They plowed into each other and toppled onto the ground.   
  
Usagi looked up at her father and then back at her friends. "Ok, we have to do something about this you guys."  
  
Makoto rubbed her stomach where Minako's head landed. "I know, we have to beat him otherwise we won't be able to move on."  
  
Minako looked around to find Goku. She couldn't spot him. She looked back to her friends. "Uh-oh you guys. I don't see him anywhere."  
  
Usagi and Makoto looked around. They didn't see him either. Makoto looked back at Minako. "Well then we have to think of something quick."  
  
Minako nodded. "Right, but what could we do?"  
  
The three of them thought for a minute until Makoto thought of a plan. "I know, let's attack him at once. It worked before. Only this time let's keep attacking."  
  
Usagi spotted her father. He was standing right behind her with his arms crossed. She jumped back. "AAHH! What are you doing here? You aren't supposed to listen."  
  
"Well I just wanted to see what you guys were saying. I mean, you know, anything said on the battlefield is fair game. Your enemies aren't going to stand around and let you think of a good strategy to defeat them." Goku walked closer to the group. They all backed away.  
  
Usagi looked to her left and then to her right. "Ok, on 3. I've got his head." She whispered.   
  
Makoto looked at Usagi. "I've got his left leg."  
  
Minako looked at the two to her right. "I'll take the right leg then."  
  
They looked back to Goku who was still walking towards them. Usagi nodded to her friends. "Ok, One, Two, THREE!" The three girls bolted up from the ground and jumped onto Goku. Usagi climbed up to his face and then swung herself around to his shoulders and then put her hands over his eyes. He tried to pull her off but Minako and Makoto tipped him over by lifting his feet off of the ground. He fell back onto Usagi. Usagi tried to wriggle her way out from her father's back but he put all of his weight on her. She tried to kick but her feet we stuck in their place. "Hey you guys! You weren't supposed to trap me!"  
  
Goku laughed. "Ha, your plan backfired on you, huh?"   
  
Makoto moved up and sat on his chest. She looked him in the eyes and smiled. "Hehehe, we finally got you." Minako kicked him in the side as Makoto taunted him.  
  
Usagi was having a crisis of her own. "Let me go daddy! This isn't fair! You're too heavy!" Usagi beat her fists against the top of his head hoping that he would sit up for her.  
  
Goku laughed. "Well tell your friends to get off me and I'll get up." Goku knew that he could have pushed them away from him but he was rather enjoying himself.  
  
"Just get off." She tried lifting him up with her hands but he was still too heavy. She could feel her body becoming numb. "Please?" She said with a more sympathetic tone in her voice.  
  
Goku pushed Minako and Makoto off of him. He put his hand out for Usagi to grab.   
  
Usagi didn't trust him. "What are you trying to pull?"  
  
Goku didn't answer. He didn't even wait for her to grab his hand. Instead he just picked her up off the ground and set her on her feet. Usagi's leg wobbled beneath her as the numbness disappeared. Goku looked to his other two pupils. "You have done good today. I am proud of all of you."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father with happiness. "You mean we passed?"   
  
Goku nodded. "It's not everyday that someone gets me down like that. Of course I could have thrown you off anytime I wanted to but that's because you are just beginners. I was looking more for skill today then strength."  
  
Usagi ran to her friends. "This is so cool you guys! We actually passed." She turned back to her father. "So when do we learn how to fly and use Ki blasts?" Usagi was excited. She couldn't wait.  
  
"Tomorrow." Goku rubbed his check where Makoto had drawn blood. It was still kind of sore.  
  
Usagi's mouth nearly fell to the ground. "What? But you said…"  
  
"I know what I said, but you need to rest first." Goku saw the disappointment in the girls' faces. "I know you really wanted to learn today but I can't have you totally drained. Don't worry, tomorrow isn't as far away as it seems."  
  
Minako looked to her friends. "I guess he's right. At least we passed right?"  
  
Makoto agreed. "Yeah, we should learn when we are at our best."  
  
Usagi kicked a pile of dirt. "That's not fair. I wanted to learn today."  
  
Goku looked at his daughter. "Usagi, don't whine. You need your rest. It's better this way."  
  
~*~*~  
  
When Usagi got home with her father she went straight for the living room. She wanted to watch some TV. When she got there, however, her mother was already watching something so she decided to go into her room.  
  
"Where do you think you are going young lady?" Chi-Chi was still angry about what her daughter had pulled earlier in the day.  
  
Usagi cringed when she heard her mother. By the tone of voice she used she could tell that she was in trouble. "Yes mommy?" Usagi walked over to the sofa where her mother was sitting. She looked angry.  
  
Chi-Chi turned to look at her daughter. "What were you thinking today?" She crossed her arms and frowned.  
  
Usagi didn't know what she was talking about. "Huh?"  
  
Chi-Chi began to get angrier. "Don't act stupid with me! You told us that you were going to the bathroom at Bulma's, but instead, you ended up running off."  
  
Usagi remembered once her mother told her. "Oh. Oops."  
  
Chi-Chi's face started to turn red. "Oops? Oops is all you have to say? Listen, Bulma and I looked all over for you. You had us worried to death. And then we find out that you snuck into Vejita's gravity chamber. What were you thinking?"  
  
Usagi held her head low. She had never seen her mother so angry with her. She had seen her yell at Vejita and her father like this but never at her. She didn't know what to think. Tears started to come out of her eyes. "I'm sorry mommy. I won't do it again."  
  
Goku walked into the room. He had been in the kitchen and heard Chi-Chi yelling about something.  
As usual "What's going on?" Goku looked at his wife   
  
Chi-Chi put her arm over the back if the sofa as she turned to look at her husband. "We are talking about what Usagi did at Bulma's today. This is all your fault Goku."  
  
Goku blinked. He pointed his finger to his chest. "My fault? How is that my fault? I'm not the one who forced her to go somewhere and be boared." Goku walked across the living room to go into his room.  
  
Chi-Chi turned to her daughter. "Is that true? Did I force you to go? Is that what you told your father?"  
  
Usagi didn't lift her head. She held her hands behind her back. "Not exactly."  
  
Chi-Chi couldn't believe it. "So you lied to both me and your father." Goku stood in the doorway of his room and watched. He didn't want to interfere.  
  
Usagi nudged her chin up a little bit to the point where she could barely see her mother. "I didn't lie to you mommy." All Usagi wanted to do was go in her room. She wanted to hide from the outside world.  
  
Chi-Chi grabbed a pillow that sat next to her leg. She felt like ripping it apart. "I did NOT force you to go anywhere. I asked you if you wanted to and you said yes. That, young lady, is considered lying." She crossed her arms and turned her back to Usagi.  
  
Usagi lifted her head up. Tears streamed down her face. "Mommy…I…" She looked to her father. He looked at her with sympathetic eyes.  
  
"Don't even try it. If you don't want to be around me, you don't have to." She got up and started walking to her room. "I won't bother you anymore." She pushed Goku aside and walked in.  
  
Usagi ran for her mother. She was stopped by her father's hand on her chest. She looked up at him. "It would be better if you didn't bother her right now. She needs time alone."  
  
She looked up at her father. "I didn't mean to…"  
  
Goku shook his head. "I know."  
  
Usagi threw herself into him and wrapped her tail around his leg. "At least you don't hate me." He picked her up and let her cry into his shoulder.   
  
"Usagi, your mother doesn't hate you. She's just upset right now." Goku knew that she didn't understand. She probably wasn't even listening to him at the moment. She was too caught up in her own thoughts.  
  
She dug her nails into his back. "Yes she does. That's why she doesn't want me to talk to her. All because I had to be stupid."  
  
Goku rubbed his daughter's back. "You weren't being stupid. You were just being a kid. Give your mother a day and she will be over it."  
  
Usagi pulled her head off of her father's shoulder. "Are you sure?"  
  
Goku wiped the tears off of her check. "I'm sure, she always gets over things fast. Unless it has to do with something I did, but that's another story altogether. Don't worry about it. The only thing you need to worry about right now is getting yourself plenty of rest for tomorrow."  
  
Usagi sniffled a little bit. "Can I come with you tomorrow?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Of course you can." Goku looked at the clock. It was 7:30. "You should get some sleep. You have had a long day." Goku carried his daughter to her room. Usagi watched door to her mother's room get smaller and smaller as she was being carried away until it disappeared when she entered her room.  
  
~*~*~  
  
When Usagi woke up the next day she didn't want to get out of bed. She didn't want to have to face her mother again. She was afraid that she would still be mad at her. She sat in her bed and held her head in her hands. "What am I going to do?"  
  
The opening of her door interrupted Usagi's thoughts. She pulled her head out of her hands to see that it was her mother. 'Oh no. Here we go again.'  
  
Chi-Chi calmly walked into her daughter's room. She didn't want to overreact like she had the night before. She walked over to her bed and sat down next to Usagi. "Usagi…"  
  
Usagi looked at her mother's face. "Yes?" She was pretty sure that she was going to totally get yelled at again.   
  
Chi-Chi looked her daughter in the eyes. "I'm sorry about last night. I shouldn't have acted like that. I just don't want you to hate being with me."  
  
Usagi was relieved. Her mother didn't hate her after all. She smiled and hugged her arm. "I don't hate you mommy!"  
  
Chi-Chi smiled. "I'm happy to hear that." She stood up. "Your father is waiting for you. Why don't you get yourself together and come to the kitchen when you are ready. I'll have breakfast ready for you." She turned around and walked out of the room.  
  
A smile filled Usagi's face as she started to perform her daily ritual of getting herself ready to leave. She walked to the bathroom and took a quick bath. Then she got dressed and put her hair into her two Odangos. She sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror. She looked at her tail that lay behind her. "This whole mess is all your fault you stupid tail. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have to learn how to fight."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi met up with her father in the kitchen. He was still eating his breakfast. She sat down at the table and looked into the pot that sat in the middle of it. "There's nothing in here. What am I supposed to eat." Usagi looked to her father who was stuffing his face with what should be HER food.  
  
Chi-Chi pulled out a plate from the oven. "That's what happens when you don't get down her fast enough. Your father eats everything. Your brother, Goten, learned that the hard way." She put the plate on the table in front of Usagi.  
  
Usagi glared at her father as she began to eat. Goku looked up from his food when he was finished and saw Usagi's face. "What? I didn't do anything"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku and Usagi arrived at the sparring field before Goten but after Gohan. Usagi jumped off Nimbus before it landed and ran over to hug her brother. "Hi Gohan."  
  
Gohan knelt down to greet his sister. "That was impressive. Where did you learn how to do that?" Gohan stood up and shook hands with his father. "Hello father."  
  
"Hiya Gohan, where's your brother?" Goku looked around but couldn't find Goten.  
  
Gohan shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno." He turned back to his little sister. "So, did dad teach you how to land like that?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "Nope, Vejita showed me how to do it."  
  
Gohan turned to his father with a surprised expression on his face. "You let her train with Vejita? Are you out of your mind? How could you do a thing like that? She could have been killed." Gohan acted as if Usagi was HIS daughter.  
  
"Its ok Gohan. Vejita wouldn't hurt Usagi. And even if he did, he would have to deal with the aftermath, meaning me."   
  
Gohan still wasn't sure it was a good idea but since she wasn't his daughter he couldn't really say anything about it. "I hope you know what you're doing father." He looked back down to his wide-eyed sister. "You had better watch yourself when you are training with Vejita." He still didn't trust the man. Not after everything that he had been through with him. Gohan didn't understand how his father could trust him.  
  
"I know, Gohan." Usagi knew that Vejita would never hurt her on purpose. The only time he had ever really put her in pain was when she was sparring with him and you are supposed to be hurt when you spar.  
  
Goku stepped behind Usagi. "We are going to start. I don't think that Goten is going to be coming today. He would have been here by now if he was." Usagi started to walk up to the hill where she would watch. Goku put his hand on her shoulder. "Where do you think you're going? Aren't you going to join us today?"  
  
Usagi turned around to look at her father. "You mean I can spar with you guys today?" This is what Usagi had always wanted to do. She couldn't wait until the day that she could spar with the rest of her family. Goku nodded. "YAY!"  
  
"Father, shouldn't we wait until she gets a little bit stronger? I mean, she only started about a week and a half ago." His father had told him about how much progress Usagi was making but he didn't think that she was that far along. After all, it had taken him a year to learn and to become somewhat strong. And that was with training everyday and all day.  
  
"No, she's ready. Just don't use any Ki blasts. I haven' t taught her how to do those yet. And try to stick low to the ground. I haven't taught her how to fly yet either. That's our agenda for today, right Usagi?" He looked to his daughter. Her eyes sparkled with happiness. He turned back to Gohan. "So, what do you say, son? You wanna spar with your sister?"   
  
Gohan debated inside his mind for a moment. He would have to cut back on his power a little so he wouldn't hurt her. "Wouldn't it be kind of unfair? I mean, we are way stronger then she is. She wouldn't be able to hold up for too long."  
  
Goku hadn't thought about that. "Ok, then. I guess it can be you two against me then."  
  
That sounded good to Gohan. "Ah, father against children kind of spar. I like it." He turned to Usagi. "What do you say Usagi? Do you wanna kick dad's butt?"  
  
Usagi raised her fist to the sky. "Yeah! Let's show him what we are made of!" 'This is going to be so much fun. I can't wait to get started.'  
  
Goku crossed his arms. "All right you two. Anytime you're ready. I'll take both of you out."  
  
Gohan smirked. "We'll see about that." He grabbed his sister's arm and pulled her over to an area where their father would not be able to hear them. He knelt in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Ok, this could get intense, you know that right?" Usagi nodded. "You could get badly hurt." Usagi nodded her head. "I just want you to know that."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Gohan?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I have fought with daddy before."   
  
"I know that. I just want you to know that when WE spar, things heat up." Usagi laughed to herself. "What?"  
  
Usagi looked at her brother. "It's nothing really. You are just reminding me of mommy."  
  
Gohan's eyes began to widen. That was the last person that he wanted to be reminding his little sister of. "Thanks." He said sarcastically. He stood up and led Usagi back to where their father was still standing. 'I guess mom is annoying Usagi already.'   
  
Goku watched his two children walk towards him. "Are you ready yet?"  
  
Gohan and Usagi looked to each other and then back at their father. "Yes."  
  
Goku got into his fighting stance. "All right then, lets get this show on the road."  
  
(Ok, that's it for this chapter. How is it? Good? Bad? Please review. Thank you! ^_^)  



	15. Part 14

Goku stood in his fighting stance as he prepared himself for the fight against his son and daughter. This time he would have to hold back some. He didn't want to hurt Usagi. He pulled back his elbows and kept his lower arms horizontal to his side.   
  
Usagi watch her father's move carefully. She didn't want to be caught in one of his attacks. She looked up to her brother. He was also focusing on Goku. She realized that she had looked away from her target and began to turn her head back around.   
  
Too late. Before she had a chance to look back her father's fist was in her face. She was thrown down to the ground from the force. She rubbed her check with her hand and lifted her head just in time to see her brother and father fighting back and fourth. She pulled back her hand to reveal blood on it. "Owie!" She watched as Gohan threw punches at her father. Usagi watched in amazement as they fought. Her father dodged nearly every one of the punches that her brother had. She had never seen them fight close up like this. It was more then she could handle. They were much faster then she was and there was no way that she could keep up with them.  
  
Usagi stood up. She was going to try to re-enter the fight. She began to take one of her boots when she got a great idea. She grinned. 'Hehe' She looked at her boot and then at her father. She remembered what he told her the other day when she nearly kicked Makoto in the face. She walked over to where her father and brother were fighting with one boot in he hand and the other on her foot. They didn't seem to notice her. They were too caught up in the fight. "Perfect." Usagi began to force tears out of her eyes and then took in a deep breath. "WHAAAAAAA!"   
  
Usagi's crying interrupted Goku and Gohan's fight. Goku looked to his daughter. She had blood on her check where he had hit her. "Damn!" He quickly covered his mouth. He had just cursed in front of his daughter for the first time. 'Shit!' He quickly stopped thinking about that and went onto more important things. His daughter's bleeding face. He ran to her and knelt down in front of her. He pulled her hands away from her face. "Here, let daddy see it." He looked at the wound that he put on her face.   
  
Usagi looked up at her brother. He also looked really worried. She looked back to her father to make sure that he was still examining her face. When she saw that he was, she quickly glanced back up to Gohan and winked at him.   
  
Gohan was surprised. He knew then that Usagi was just faking it. 'She's got something planned. What a smart kid. Making a diversion with guilt. A kid's best weapon.' Gohan smiled to himself. 'When she makes her attack, I'll attack right after. That way we can get a double hit on him.'  
  
Usagi let her father look at her face a little longer. She was waiting for the perfect time to attack. Goku rubbed some of the blood off of her face. "Usagi, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you so hard." Goku could have kicked himself for being such and idiot.  
  
Usagi pulled herself away from her father and looked into his eyes. A smile appeared in her face. Usagi bent over to get eye level with her father. "You know daddy, you should never get this close to your enemy. It's not healthy." With that Usagi lifted her boot up in the air and smashed it into her father's head.  
  
Goku grabbed his head. "OWW! USAGI!"   
  
Usagi laughed and pointed at him. "Hahaha! You're funny daddy!"  
  
Gohan took his opportunity to attack. He jumped into the air and came down on his father's back, shoving his elbow into it. "Don't underestimate your daughter dad. She's a lot smarter then she looks."   
  
"AAHH!" Goku was being forced into the ground as his son was sitting on him digging his elbows into his back.   
  
Usagi walked in front of her father and lay down on her stomach. She rested her head in her hands and looked him in the eyes. "This is fun daddy! Can we do this again tomorrow?"  
  
Goku threw Gohan off of him and stared down at Usagi, once he stood up. "Let's see how fun we can make this!"  
  
Usagi's smile faded off of her face as she looked up. She didn't know what her father was talking about. She looked up at him. "Huh?"  
  
Goku bent over and picked Usagi up by her legs. She hung upside down as he carried her away from the battlefield. She beat against his chest with her tiny fists. He didn't feel a thing though. "This isn't fair! I can't pick you up!"  
  
Gohan jumped for his father. He planned on rescuing his sister. Goku took one of his hands off one of Usagi's legs, letting her dangle by one leg, and punched him in the face. He laid her down on the ground and put his foot on her back to hold her there when he got to his destination.   
  
Usagi tried to push against her father's foot but he put most of his weight on it. "Let me up." She tried hard but didn't succeed.   
  
Goku looked down at his struggling daughter. "Now, now, now, you had your fun. Let me have mine." He pulled a vine down off of a tree and lifted his foot off of Usagi. She tried to make a break away but Goku was too fast for her. He grabbed her by the back of her GI and shoved her up against the tree. He began to tie her to the tree with the vine.  
  
Usagi looked to her brother for help. He was just standing there laughing at her. "Don't just stand there, Gohan! Help me!" She began to kick her legs hoping that she may be able to wiggle her way out. Her father made his way around the tree again with the vine.  
  
Gohan couldn't help but laugh. She was so helpless. She really had herself in a bind. Of course, he knew his father wasn't doing this out of anger. He was just simply having some fun. Gohan tried to stop laughing. "I'm sorry Usagi, I'll come get you."  
  
Goku put his foot up against the tree and pulled the rope tight and then tied it into a huge knot. He noticed Gohan coming straight for him. Goku laughed. He put his foot out and let his son run into it. He kicked him up in the air and then punched him back down to the ground. He turned back to look at his daughter. "There you go Usagi. Now that's my idea of fun. You just sit tight there and wait for your brother to save you all right?"  
  
Usagi wiggled some more. She could only move her legs and her wrists. She looked at the vines. She thought that maybe she could bite her way free. She lowered her head but the vines were too low. She looked back to her father who was walking away towards Gohan. "This is a dirty joke daddy!" Goku didn't pay attention. "Come back here…please?" She didn't think it was very funny. The only way for it to be funny was if someone else was tied to the tree.  
  
Goku turned around. "If you don't like it you can either wait for your brother to come and get you after he defeats me, if he even defeats me. Or, you can find you own way out. It's your choice. " He laughed and turned back around to fight with Gohan. 'I just love these family fights. Usagi is right. We should do this again tomorrow.'  
  
Usagi watched him walk away. 'Oooh this is war. When he let's me go… I'm gonna… I'm gonna… well I don't know what I'll do yet but I'll think of something good.' Usagi looked at the vines once again. She tried to figure out a way that she could free herself from their hold. Her father wouldn't have said anything about freeing herself if there wasn't a way. They were too tightly wrapped around her for her to be able to squirm her way free. That was totally not an option at this point. "Maybe if I pull against it as hard as I can, I can break the vines." Usagi started to pull with all of her might in hopes to break the vines. She kept pulling until she wore herself out. 'Man, how am I going to get out?' Usagi's thoughts were interrupted by her brother being thrown into her. "Oww! Gohan! Watch it!" Usagi just realized whom she was talking to.   
  
Gohan stood up and turned back to his sister. He couldn't help but laugh a bit at the fact that she was still helplessly tied to the tree. "Sorry sis." He turned back around to return to the fight.  
  
"Gohan wait! Untie me first!" Usagi couldn't wait until she would be free. She couldn't wait until she could get her hands on he father.   
  
Gohan turned back around. "Fine." He ran back to the tree that his sister was still tied to. Just as he was about to release Usagi from her hold, a foot found it's way into his leg. He let go of the vines and turned around to stand face to face with his father.  
  
"You know the rules, Usagi will either release herself, or Gohan, you can do it after you defeat me." He looked to Usagi who was frowning at him. "This is your own fault Usagi. You're the one who started to play dirty first. Besides, this is fun."  
  
Gohan took his opportunity while he could. While Goku was talking to Usagi he attacked. He punched his father five times before he began to strike back.   
  
Usagi watched her father and brother punch the crap out of each other. 'This isn't fair, I want to play too.' She looked down to her leg when she felt something tickle it. "EEEEWWW GET IT OFF!" A spider with long legs slowly crept it's way up Usagi's leg. She furiously kicked her leg hoping that it would be thrown off. With it's sticky legs, it held on and endured the force in which Usagi was putting it through.   
  
Usagi stopped shaking her leg to see if it had come off and was surprised to see that it had not. "YUCK!" She decided to just flick it off with her tail instead. "Stupid spider. Wait a minute…" She looked at her tail and thought for a moment. "Maybe if I go like this." Usagi lifted her tail and began to untie the knot in the vine with it. "So this is what he meant by getting out by myself. Cool! Maybe a tail is good for SOME things." Usagi kept fiddling with the knot until she had completely freed herself. She let the vines fall to the ground and then she walked back to the battlefield to rejoin her brother.   
  
Usagi hid behind a tree so her father would not see her. She was afraid that if he did, he would just re-tie her to the tree again. She poked her head out from behind the tree just in time to see Gohan slam his head into the stomach of her father. She closed her eyes. "That looked like it really hurt." She foreced herself to reopened her eyes.  
  
Goku flipped backwards onto his feet, never letting his body fall to the ground. He retaliated back at Gohan with a swift punch to the jaw.   
  
Usagi watched as her father took the fight into the air. Gohan followed. They started the fight back up again. She stomped her feet on the ground. "Daddy! You said I could fight too. How could you forget about me?" Usagi whined. Now she couldn't fight with them anymore. Usagi started to walk to her hill where she always watched them fight. She was disappointed. She really did want to fight with them.   
  
Usagi sat down once she got to her hill. She put her hand to her forehead to shelter her eyes from the bright sun as she looked up to watch the fight. "This isn't fair. I want to play too. I wish I could fly." Usagi thought for a moment and then remembered that with the help of Nimbus she could fly. "Nimbus!"   
  
She waited for the yellow cloud to come to her. "This is going to be fun." Usagi climbed onto Nimbus when it landed at her feet. "Come on Nimbus! Let's go to the fight!" Usagi was thrown back to a sitting position as Nimbus took off in a flash. "Whoa!"  
  
Goku and Gohan were too pre-occupied with their fight to realize that Usagi was also there sitting on Nimbus. Goku was so caught up in the moment that he forgot that he was not supposed to use energy waves. He cupped his hands and pulled them to his side. "KA-ME…" A blue ball of energy formed in his hands.  
  
Gohan welcomed it. He knew he could block it, or at least hit it back to him. "Go ahead and try father." He grinned.  
  
Usagi took this opportunity to fly behind her father. "Here I go on One…Two… THREE!" Usagi closed her eyes and jumped from Nimbus onto her father's back. She wrapped her arms and legs around his body so she would not fall off.  
  
"What the…" Goku stopped his attack short. The energy ball faded away as he dropped his power level. He turned his head to see what had just attached itself to his back. He was a little bit surprised to see that it was his daughter. "Usagi?"  
  
Usagi giggled. "Hi daddy. I want to play too." Before she gave her father time to react she climbed up his back to sit on his shoulders. She strung her legs around his neck and pulled his head back by his hair.   
  
Goku didn't know what she was going to do but he was sure she didn't like it. "Usagi!" He raised his hands to pull her off of his shoulders.  
  
Gohan was curious as to what Usagi had planned for him. He noticed his father lifting his hands. 'Well we can't have little Usagi's plans ruined now can we?' He shoved his fist into his father's stomach. "Don't try anything dad. We've got you under control now." Gohan laughed to himself.  
  
Goku pulled his hands away from his daughter, just as he was about to grab her, and wrapped them around his stomach. "Gees you guys."  
  
Usagi was nearly thrown off of her father's shoulders as he bent over. She could feel herself slipping down his back. She looked below her. She was too far off the ground to make a safe landing. She began to get scared. She looked around and examined her options. She needed to act quickly. If she didn't she would either slip off or be thrown off by her father. She looked up and decided to use his hair as leverage. "Hehehe." She grabbed his hair and pulled herself back up with it.  
  
Goku's head was pulled back. "AAHHOOWW!"  
  
Usagi was back up on his shoulders again. She smiled to herself as she pulled his head back so she could look directly into his eyes. "Daddy, I know you're stronger than this." With that she made a fist and punched him in the face 5 times.  
  
Goku grabbed Usagi and held her in front of him so he could look at her face to face, when she stopped hitting him. "You know, you are getting strong." Goku grinned. Usagi coward. She knew he had something planned. "But not strong enough to beat me." With that being said, Goku threw Usagi to her brother.  
  
Gohan caught his little sister in his arms. "What are you doing dad?"  
  
"Take care of your sister. I'll be back in a little while. I'm going to get her friends so we can teach them how to use Ki blasts." Goku turned around and flew away in the direction of the city.  
  
Gohan hated it when he just up and stopped the fight without warning. He looked down at his sister, who was now nicely curled up in his arms. She reminded him of Pan when she was Usagi's age. So young, yet, so eager to learn how to fight. Gohan had never in his life expected to have a little sister, but he was happy that she was there.   
  
Gohan lowered himself to the ground and walked over to the tree where his father had tied Usagi up. He sat down and leaned against the tree with Usagi still in his arms. She was resting her head against him. "You look tired Usagi."  
  
Usagi didn't move her head. "I am."  
  
Gohan hugged Usagi closer to him. She was warm. He couldn't remember the last time he had held a child. It had been about 15 years probably. It brought back memories of when Pan was little. He couldn't hold her anymore for she was already 25 years old. Time had flown by so quickly. "Usagi, did dad teach you how to fight like that?"  
  
Usagi slightly lifted her head from her brother. "Like what?"  
  
"Well you know, how you climbed on him and everything. I'm sure you got that trick with your boot from Vejita's influence." Gohan was still laughing inside about that one.  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No, that was just something that I decided to do."   
  
"I wondered. I've never seen anyone do that before and I didn't think that dad would have taught you to fight like that. I was kind of funny actually. That could be pretty useful in the future." Gohan leaned his head against the tree. "Boy, I'm tired."  
  
Usagi leaned her head back into her brother's body. "So am I." Usagi let herself drift into her thoughts as she waited for her father to return with her friends. She had had so much fun that day. She finally got what she wanted. She got to fight with her brother and father. Although it hadn't gone the way she thought it would, she still had fun. "Gohan?"  
  
Gohan lifted his head back up to look at his sister. "Yeah?"  
  
"Am I any good at fighting?"   
  
"Of course you are. Dad wouldn't have let you spar with us today if he thought that you weren't good enough. Why? Do you think you're good."  
  
Usagi didn't know if she was good or not. She had mixed feelings about her skill. "I don't know. I always get beaten."  
  
Gohan thought back to when he was first training with Piccolo. He got beaten all the time at first too. Even when Vejita and Nappa came to earth he got himself beaten up pretty badly, but he still stuck with it. "Usagi, you aren't going to be a world class fighter overnight. These things take time. Don't worry. You are showing better progress than me when I first started."  
  
Usagi looked up at her brother. "You? But you're an awesome fighter."  
  
Gohan laughed. "I didn't start out this way. Believe me. It took hard work and years of training."  
  
Usagi didn't want it to take years. She wanted to be strong now, so she could get her Dragon Ball back. She closed her eyes as she started to drift off into a deep sleep. The spar had worn her out more than she thought.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku arrived back at the field with Minako and Makoto about an hour after he left. He had stopped off at home first to get something to eat. He didn't want to train anyone on and empty stomach.   
  
He landed with Nimbus and looked around for his children. They were no where in sight. "Where could they be? I told them I would be back." He turned to Minako and Makoto who were beginning to fight each other. "Stay here you guys. I have to go find Usagi and Gohan." Goku walked off in the direction of the trees. He could feel their energy signatures coming from there.  
  
Gohan was awaken by the sound of something tripping over a branch. He gently picked his sister up out of his lap and placed her on the ground next to him. He didn't want to wake her if he didn't have to. He walked towards the area where he heard the sound making sure that he didn't make any sound. He didn't want to make what ever it was angry and then attack Usagi while he wasn't around. He quickly ducked behind a tree when he saw movement. He poked his head out to get better look at what he was going to have to scare off.  
  
Goku noticed something moving from behind a tree. "Gohan? Is that you?"   
  
Gohan sighed in relief. It wasn't a predator at all. It was just his father. He walked out from behind the tree to greet his father. "Sorry dad. We fell asleep."  
  
Goku looked around for Usagi. He didn't see her anywhere. "That's ok. Where's your sister?"  
  
"She's asleep back there." Gohan pointed behind him. "I didn't want to wake her up. If I would have know it was you, I would have waken her up and brought her with me."  
  
"Ok. Well, I brought the other girls with back with me like I said I would. Why don't you go make sure that they are still there and haven't killed themselves yet and I'll get Usagi." Goku walked past his son.  
  
"All right dad." Gohan headed out of the trees. He was looking forward to meeting his sister's friends.  
  
Goku walked farther into the trees as he looked for his daughter. He could feel that he was getting closer and closer by the second. He followed her energy signature until he finally reached her. She was curled up by a tree and sound asleep. He hated to wake her up but she really wanted to learn how to use her energy for fighting.   
  
He walked over to her and knelt down next to her. He placed his hand on her back and softly shook her to wake her. "Usagi, come on. Naptime is over. It's time for you to wake up. Minako and Makoto are waiting for us."  
  
Usagi groggily opened her eyes. She couldn't make out a word that her father had just said. "What?"  
  
"It's time for you to learn how to fly and use Ki blasts." Goku picked Usagi up and placed her on her feet. "Come on, let's go. It will be fun."  
  
Usagi still wasn't quite awake. She grabbed her father's hand and began walking back to everyone else who were waiting for them. "Did I do good today daddy?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes, you did very well today. Although that was a dirty trick you pulled on me." He looked at her face where he had hit her. It still looked pretty bad but it was beginning to scab over.  
  
Usagi smiled. "Daddy?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"You said that everything is fair when you're fighting." Usagi leaned into her father's leg as she walked.  
  
Goku looked forward and wrapped his arm around Usagi. "I know what I said. I never said that it wasn't fair, I just said it was a dirty trick. I also liked how you used Nimbus to rejoin the fight. That was very clever."  
  
Usagi's smile grew on her face. "Thanks daddy. Why did you tie me to the tree?"  
  
Goku laughed. "For the same reason you hit me over the head with your shoe. One good trick deserves another. It's just a little thing I like to call payback."  
  
"I had fun today daddy."  
  
"I'm glad. Uh, Usagi, You didn't hear anything bad come out of daddy's mouth today, did you?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "Nope. Why did you say a bad word?"  
  
"No. Just wondering." 'Thank god."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Gohan watched as Minako and Makoto sparred with each other. They were good. He looked back over his shoulder and noticed that his father and Usagi coming out of the wooded area. He turned back to Minako and Makoto. "All right you guys. They're here."  
  
Minako and Makoto stopped fighting and looked towards Gohan's direction and saw Goku and Usagi.   
  
Usagi let go of her father's hand and ran to join her friends. "Hey you guys. This is sooo cool. We get to learn the fun way to fight."  
  
Makoto stared at her friend. She was a mess. "Usagi, what happened to you?"  
  
Minako looked at the wound on Usagi's face. "Yeah, you look all beat up."  
  
Usagi looked at down to her body. She was covered in dirt. "Oh this? I was fighting with my brother, Gohan, and daddy. We had fun."  
  
Makoto looked at Gohan and then Usagi. "That's your brother? Why do you have blonde hair and he doesn't"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "I dunno."  
  
Goku and Gohan walked up from behind Usagi. "All right you guys, let's get this show on the road. Minako, Makoto, I'm Gohan, Usagi's big brother."  
  
Goku walked by Minako and Makoto. "I'll be teaching you guys. Usagi, Gohan will be teaching you. It's easier for us if we don't have too many people that we have to teach at once and since he is YOUR brother, you can train with him. Minako, Makoto, come this way." He waved for them to follow them.  
  
Usagi watched as her friends left with he father. She looked up at her brother. "So Gohan, what are we going to do first?"  
  
Gohan looked down to his little sister. "Well first I'm going to teach you how to fly." Gohan knew that this was going to be interesting. It would be just like the time that he taught Videl how to fly. "Ok, the first thing you have to do is concentrate…"  
  
"Concentrate on what?"   
  
"If you would let me finish I would tell you. Ok, concentrate your energy in your body. After you have done that, concentrate on moving that energy around as it is still in your body. Try that."  
  
Usagi cleared her mind of her thoughts. She closed her eyes concentrated her energy in her body like Gohan had told her too.   
  
Gohan could feel her energy begin to build up. "Good. Now try to move it around."  
  
Usagi tried to concentrate the energy to move around. It didn't work so she concentrated harder.   
  
Gohan could see that she was struggling. "Come on Usagi. I know you can do it." Usagi felt the energy building up in her body. Gohan stared at his sister in shock.   
  
Usagi opened her eyes. "I can't do it Gohan. I just can't do it. It's too hard."  
  
"What are you talking about? You're doing it!" Gohan couldn't believe it. He had never seen anyone be able to learn how to hover off of the ground so fast.   
  
Usagi looked down. Her feet were not touching the ground. Gohan had not been lying to her. She looked at him. "I'm doing it' I'm actually doing Gohan!"  
  
Gohan saw the happiness in his sister's face. "Good job Usagi. All you need to do is practice this for a while and then try moving yourself around. Like going forwards and backwards and left to right and then the next thing you know, you're flying."  
  
Usagi fell to the ground and grabbed her head. "Oh, I'm dizzy now."  
  
Gohan ran to his sister's side. "Yeah, flying takes some of your energy away. But as you progress in your training, you will gain more energy." Gohan smiled down to his sister. "So, do you want to learn how to use Ki blasts now?"  
  
Usagi smiled. "Of course I do." She tried to shake the dizziness out of her head and stood up. She swayed a little.  
  
"Are you sure you can do this? Are you still dizzy?" Gohan didn't want to teach her how to use Ki blasts if she was low on energy.  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No, I'm fine."  
  
"All right." Gohan would have to keep on eye on her and make sure she was really okay. "Ki blasts are pretty much the same as flying." Gohan saw the look of confusion on his sister's face. "Well you know how you have to concentrate the energy in your body to fly?" Usagi nodded. "Well with Ki blasts, all you have to do is concentrate your energy in your hands to form a ball of energy in them."  
  
Usagi nodded. She slightly understood what he was talking about. "Ok, lemme try." She cupped her hands together like she had seen her father do many times. She began to concentrate her energy inside her hands. A golden ball of energy formed in her hands.  
  
Gohan watched in amazement. She once again proved her great learning skills to him. "That's great, now release that energy on me Usagi."  
  
Usagi looked at her brother. She brought her hands in front of her and released the energy ball at Gohan like she was told. She watched it as it smashed into his hand that he held out. It exploded when it made contact. "Wow did I do that?"  
  
Gohan nodded. "Yes, although it wasn't very powerful, but power comes with experience."  
  
Usagi frowned. "I can make it more powerful. Just watch." Usagi grinned as she re-cupped her hands. She would show him how strong she was. Another ball of energy formed in her hands faster than the last one. This time she concentrated all of her energy on the ball.   
  
Gohan watched as the ball grew larger and larger in her hands. 'Damn! Dad was right. She is going to be one strong fighter.' He felt her energy signature. It was quite large for a normal kid. Then again, Usagi wasn't a normal child. She was a Super Saiyan.  
  
When Usagi finally had filled her energy ball with enough of her energy she fired it at Gohan. She watched as he put his hands out to block it. The blast hit her brother and then her vision went black.   
  
(Ok, that's it for this chapter. This is a nice place to stop the chapter don't you think. After all, the chapter is already 10 pages long and I'm feeling really daring today anyways. So what do you think about this chapter? Is it good or Bad? You make the call. Please review. Thank you ^_^)  



	16. Part 15

  
  
Usagi felt her body go numb as her vision went black. She couldn't feel her energy within her anymore. She collapsed to the ground.  
  
Gohan blocked Usagi's blast with his hands. It was very powerful and he had never felt any Ki blast that strong come from a beginner. Even though she was a Saiyan, it was still too strong to be normal. He lowered his arms and looked in the direction of where is sister was standing. "Huh?" He didn't see her standing there anymore. "Where did she go?" He looked to his left and then to his right and still didn't see her. "What the…" He looked to the ground. He was horrified at what he saw. "OH SHIT!" He saw his baby sister lying on the ground. "No! She used too much of her energy. Usagi! Why did you tell me that you were fine?!"   
  
Gohan ran to his sister's side and shook her with his hands. "Usagi! Usagi wake up!" He put his ear to her chest to make sure she was still breathing. "Damn, she's barely breathing." He lifted her wrist to check her pulse. Her heart was still beating at the normal rate. Gohan picked up his sister from the ground and stood up. He looked at her face. She looked so helpless. "Dad is going to kill me. I was supposed to train her, not nearly kill her." Gohan raced to his father. Usagi needed help and she needed it fast.  
  
Goku saw Gohan running to where he was out of the corner of his eye. He looked at Minako who wasn't quite able to grasp the whole concentrate your energy in your body thing. "Stop trying Minako."  
  
Minako looked up at Goku. "Huh?" She couldn't understand why on earth he would tell her to stop. She looked past him and saw Gohan running towards them.  
  
Goku knew something was wrong. He turned around to see Gohan running towards him with Usagi in his arms. Goku's eyes began to widen as Gohan ran closer. Goku began to run to meet his son half way. He took one look at Usagi and freaked out. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED GOHAN!?" Goku took his daughter from his son and held her close to him in his arms. He looked to his son for answers.  
  
Gohan didn't know how to tell his father what had just happened. He didn't think that he would take it so bad. He had never seen his father so angry. "Well, Usagi was making great progress. She had already learned to fly the first time I told her how. She felt kind of dizzy afterwards." Gohan paused a moment to look down at his sister who lay in her father's arms.   
  
Minako and Makoto ran up to see what was going on. They both looked up to their sensei and saw the fear of a father in his eyes.  
  
Makoto looked to her friend and gasped. "Oh my gosh. What happened to Usagi?" She walked closer to get a better look. Usagi didn't seem to have any more wounds on her body then when she saw her earlier that day. She looked up at Gohan and frowned. 'He must have done something to her.'  
  
Goku didn't take his attention away from Gohan. "Please go on Gohan. I need to know what happened." Goku feared for Usagi's life.   
  
Gohan looked back into his father's black eyes. "I asked her if she was feeling alright. If she was up to going on to Ki blasts. She said she was fine and so I told her how to make a Ki blast. When she first made one, it was small, like any beginner's. I commented about it being small so she said she could make a bigger blast. I didn't see the harm in it so I let her. She built up a massive amount of energy and released it at me. I blocked up. When I looked to see her again, she was lying on the ground."  
  
Goku looked back down to his unconscious daughter. "She used too much energy." He pulled her closer to him and put his face to hers.  
  
Gohan felt horrible. If he had known that Usagi was low on energy, none of this would have ever happened. "Dad, I didn't think that this would happen. I'm sorry."  
  
Goku didn't look up. "It's all right. I blame myself. I should have been the one to teach her. I would have been able to tell if she was nearly tapped out." He jumped in the air and looked at Minako and Makoto. "I'm sorry but I have to leave girls." He looked over to Gohan. "Gohan please make sure that they get home safely for me. I'm going to take Usagi home. I have to get her some help. Bring a doctor with you." In a flash Goku was gone and out of sight.  
  
Gohan watched his father fly away with his sister. 'I hope she's ok. She's in good hands.' He looked back to Minako and Makoto once he couldn't see him anymore. "Guys, I'm sorry this had to happen."  
  
Minako looked at him with sympathy. "It's ok Gohan. We understand. Right Makoto?" She turned to her friend.  
  
Makoto looked at her friend. "Yeah. I just hope that Usagi is ok." She had already forgiven Gohan in her mind. She now knew that it wasn't his fault.  
  
Gohan looked back up to the sky. "Yeah, I hope so too."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku flew home as fast as he could. He didn't want to waste anytime. He wanted to get Usagi in a bed as soon as possible. He looked down at her. He hoped that she wasn't suffering from any kind of pain. "How could I have done that? Usagi has a special kind of power. I should have been the one to train her." Goku left a long trail of blue energy behind him as he speed up to his full speed.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi was lying on her bed talking to Bulma. She had the phone cord wrapped around her finger. "So Bulma how's…" Chi-Chi was interrupted by a crash in the family room.   
  
Bulma heard it over the phone. "What was that Chi-Chi?"  
  
Chi-Chi didn't have the foggiest idea of what could have made such a sound. She wasn't expecting Goku or Usagi home anytime soon. "I don't know Bulma. It sounded like somebody just kicked the front door in." Chi-Chi thought to herself for a moment. "Oh my god Bulma, what if it's a burglar. Or what if it's just someone who attacks people in their homes. I've heard of a lot of attacks like that. Oh no, and Goku isn't here to protect me. What am I going to do Bulma?"  
  
Bulma could hear Chi-Chi getting frantic over the line. "Chi-Chi, calm down. You can fight, remember?"  
  
Chi-Chi stood up from her bed. "That was years ago, but if I must protect my house, I will."  
  
"That's the spirit Chi-Chi." Bulma heard Chi-Chi throw the phone down on the ground. "I hope she can protect herself." Bulma hung up her phone.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi hid behind the wall that created the archway from the hallway into the family room. She could feel her heart beat rapidly in her chest as she stood there wondering, hoping that she could defend herself. 'Alright,' She thought to herself, 'It's now or never.'  
  
Chi-Chi jumped out from behind her protection and immediately got into a fighting stance. "All right who ever you are…" Chi-Chi relaxed when she saw that it was just Goku. "Goku what are you doing here so soon?" She looked down to the door. It looked like it had been kicked in. "Goku, what did you…" She paused when she saw her daughter lying unconscious in her husband's arms. She put her hands to her mouth. "What happened to my baby? Oh my god, I knew that this would happen. Didn't I tell you this would happen."  
  
Goku didn't reply. Instead he just walked past her and headed towards Usagi's room. He was worried. Usagi should have waken up by now.   
  
Chi-Chi followed her husband into her daughter's room. She watched as he lay her as gently as he could in her bed. "Goku…is she alright?"  
  
Goku looked to his wife. He knew she was worried. He too was worried. "I don't know." Goku saw the fear increase in her eyes when he said this. He hated that look. "Gohan will be here with a doctor soon. All we can do right now is wait." Goku pulled the chair from Usagi's desk and set it by her bed. He sat down in it and put his hand on her head.   
  
Chi-Chi walked up to the foot of Usagi's bed and sat down. She looked to Goku and put her hand on his knee. Goku was startled. He looked to his wife. He saw tears in her eyes. "It's all my fault Chi-Chi."  
  
Chi-Chi pulled back her hand. "Tell me what happened Goku. Tell me why my baby is unconscious."  
  
Goku sighed as he looked back to his daughter. She looked peaceful but he couldn't be sure. He wanted desperately to know what was wrong with her. "I let Gohan be the one to train her how to fly and use Ki blasts. I should have been the one to teach her. She told Gohan she was fine, that she had enough energy. In the end, she over exerted herself. I would have been able to tell if she was out of energy. It's all my fault." Goku made a fist with his hands and dug his nails into his skin.   
  
For once Chi-Chi wasn't mad at her husband. She understood. "Goku…It's not your fault. You didn't know that this would happen. There was no way to know. Don't blame yourself."  
  
Goku didn't look up to his wife. He just kept his eye on Usagi. He wanted to make sure her condition didn't worsen. "Thank you Chi-Chi. Gohan is nearing our house. I can feel him getting closer. Why don't you go and meet him. I'll stay here."  
  
Chi-Chi stood up from the bed. She could tell that Goku was having a harder time with this then herself. She felt so bad for him. There was nothing she could do for him either which made her feel even worse. "Ok Goku. I'll bring the doctor in the moment he gets here." Goku didn't turn around. 'He really does care about her.' She turned around and left the room.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Gohan landed with Usagi's doctor in front of his childhood house. He set the doctor down on the ground next to him. The doctor brushed himself off and looked around. "Whooo, what an experience."  
  
Chi-Chi ran out from her house. "Gohan, Dr. Carrington, I'm so happy that you are here. Usagi is still passed out."  
  
Gohan stared at his mother. "Still? She should have waken up by now." 'Oh god. What have I done?'  
  
Dr. Carrington looked at the woman before his eyes. "Why hello Mrs. Son, it's so nice to see you again. Where is the little patient?"  
  
"There is no time to talk. My little Usagi needs help." Chi-Chi grabbed the doctor's arm and pulled him into the house.  
  
Gohan followed the two inside. He wanted to see his sister again. He wanted to apologize to her and his parents. He felt responsible for what he had done. When he got into Usagi's room his father was sitting by her bed watching her. Not only could Gohan sense his father's pain, but he could see it too. "Father…"  
  
Goku turned his head to look up at his son. "Gohan, I'm glad you are here." He stood up and looked to the doctor. "I'll give you time alone with her." He walked towards the door and motioned for his wife and son to follow him out.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku's legs felt like putty beneath him. His whole body felt strange. He walked over to the sofa and sat down and just stared forward at the blank TV screen.  
  
Gohan sat next to his father. "Look, dad, I'm so sorry."  
  
Without turning his head, Goku put his hand on his son's knee. "It's alright, Gohan, it's not your fault. It's mine."  
  
Chi-Chi walked in front of the two men and put her hands on her waist. "It's neither of your faults. What's wrong with you two? There was no way of telling that she would have done that. It's not important whose fault it is. What is important is Usagi's safety. Now come on. Stop griping about whose fault it is and worry more about what we are going to do to prevent this from ever happening again."  
  
Goku stared up at his wife. For once, she was right. He stood up. "Chi-Chi, you are totally right. It was no one's fault. And next time she shows signs of exhaustion, we will just make her stop for the day. I don't ever want this to happen again."  
  
At that moment Dr. Carrington came out of Usagi's room. Chi-Chi ran over to him and grabbed his shoulders. She shook him. "Is she all right? Is my baby going to be ok?"  
  
The doctor pulled Chi-Chi's hands off of him and smiled. "She will be fine. She's just tired from the loss of energy. Her breathing, her heart beat rate, everything is fine. She will wake up when she has regained enough energy."  
  
Chi-Chi could have kissed the doctor when she heard his words. "Oh thank you Doctor. I'm so happy to hear that." She hugged him instead.  
  
Goku stood up. "Well now I will sleep a little better knowing that she's ok." He walked to the doctor and shook his hand. "Thank you for coming to examine her."  
  
Dr. Carrington smiled. He loved to see the happy faces of parents. "It was my pleasure. Anything to help a child." He looked at his watch. "I really must be leaving now, though."  
  
Gohan stood up. "I guess I can take you back. I have to be heading home anyways." He turned to his parents. "I'll be back tomorrow to see how she's doing." He hugged his mother. "Good bye you guys."  
  
"Good bye Gohan."   
  
"Good bye son." Goku shook hands with his son as a sign of respect.  
  
Chi-Chi turned to Goku and hugged him. "I'm so happy that she's going to be fine. I was really worried there."  
  
Goku ran his fingers through his wife's hair. "So was I, so was I."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Next day around 4:00 P.M.…  
  
Usagi opened her eyes for the first time since she had fainted and looked to her right. She saw her father sitting by her bed. He looked like he was nodding off to sleep. She turned over onto her side and rubbed her eyes. "Huh? Where am I?" She began to sit up.   
  
Goku forced himself awake when he heard his daughter. He gently put his hand on her back. Usagi looked up at her father. Goku shook his head. "Lay back down Usagi, you need your rest."  
  
Usagi did as she was told. She looked up at her father who, in return, looked down to her. "What happened daddy?"  
  
"Don't you remember what happened?" Goku hoped that she did. He wanted to ask her a few questions.  
  
"Not really." Usagi stared up at the ceiling of her room. She had a headache and felt quite weak. She slightly shook whenever she would try to move.  
  
"Would you mind telling me what you do remember?"  
  
Usagi thought for a moment. She tried to recall the things that had happened the day before. "I remember that we sparred yesterday. I remember that I learned how to fly. And I remember shooting a Ki blast at Gohan, then I don't remember anything." Usagi curled up beneath her covers.  
  
"Do you remember any loss of energy or anything like that?" Goku rubbed his hand down his daughter's check.  
  
"Kind of. After I shot my Ki blast at Gohan, I felt weak. Even before that, like after I had learned how to fly, I felt kind of light-headed." Usagi closed her eyes. Although she had just slept for about 24 hrs, she was still very tired.   
  
Goku could tell that she was still very tired. He would leave her room once he was finished talking to her. "Usagi, when you first feel a loss of energy, you should always stop and let yourself recuperate. It's always better to do it that way, then to be in a situation like this." Goku knew that if he didn't say anything quick, Usagi would think that he was mad at her. "I'm not mad at you Usagi. I was just worried about you."  
  
Usagi opened her eyes and looked at her father. "Really?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes, really. I love you and I don't want anything bad to ever happen to you. If anything ever did happen to you, I don't know what I would do." Goku leaned down to give his daughter a kiss. "I'll leave you to get some rest now. If you need anything just call and either your mother or I will come." Goku stood up and started walking to the door.  
  
"Ok. But one thing."   
  
Goku stopped and turned around. "Yes?"  
  
"What day is it?"  
  
Goku smiled. "It's Friday." He turned around and left the room.  
  
Usagi closed her eyes again. She breathed heavily as she began to drift of to sleep. Just as Usagi was nearly all the way asleep, Chi-Chi opened the door. Usagi sluggishly opened her eyes when she heard the door to her room close. She saw her mother walking towards her. "Mommy?"  
  
Chi-Chi walked to the chair that sat besides her daughter's bed. She sat down and put her hand on Usagi's leg. "You gave us all quite a scare yesterday."   
  
Usagi was tired and didn't want to deal with her mother at the moment. She knew that she would just obsess over something that didn't need to be obsessed over. "I'm sorry mommy."  
  
Chi-Chi was shocked at her daughter's reply. She hadn't accused her of anything. "It's not your fault Usagi." She waited for her daughter to say something. When it was apparent that she wasn't going to say anything, Chi-Chi decided to instead. "I just wanted to see how you were feeling."  
  
Usagi turned her head to look at her mother. Even that took a lot of effort. "I have a headache and my body feels weak. I'm really tired too."  
  
Chi-Chi took that as a sign that Usagi wanted her to leave. "Well that is to be expected. You pretty much tapped out your energy supply yesterday." She stood up. "I guess I should let you rest now." She walked out of her daughter's room. Before Chi-Chi had even left, Usagi had fallen fast asleep.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi woke up again the next day. She felt a lot stronger then she had the day before. She sat up in her bed and looked at the clock. "Wow, it's already 12:30. It must be Saturday already." She put her hand on her forehead. "Man, I slept through two days.  
  
Usagi climbed out of bed and looked at herself in the mirror that sat on her dresser. The place where her father had hit her on Thursday had almost completely turned into a bruise. She poked at it. Her stomach started to gurgle. "I'm hungry." Usagi left her room to go to the kitchen.   
  
Her father was sitting on the sofa watching TV just outside her room. He didn't seem to notice her. She sat down next to him. "What are you doing here daddy?"  
  
Goku looked at his daughter and smiled. "Oh hi sweetie. You feeling better?"  
  
Usagi nodded. She looked at the TV screen to see what he was watching. "You're watching cartoons without me?" Usagi curiously looked at her father.   
  
"Well I didn't want to wake you up. You needed your rest." Goku looked back to the TV.  
  
Usagi climbed onto her father's lap. "Shouldn't you be training Makoto and Minako?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "I gave them the day off. They trained with Vejita yesterday. They learned how to control their energy and are going to practice flying and using Ki blasts on their own." The truth was that he wanted to be home when Usagi got out of bed. He had Gohan training with Makoto and Minako that day.  
  
Usagi looked back at the TV. "Oh. Cool. So when do I get the day off too?"   
  
Goku once again shook his head. "Nope. You've just had your day off. You slept right through it. I'm going to train you today. Just let me finish this show first and then we can start."   
  
"Ok, but I want to get something to eat first. I'm starving." Usagi jumped off the sofa.  
  
"I'll bet." Goku watched his daughter run off to the kitchen.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Mommy…" Usagi yelled as she happily ran into her mother. "I'm hungry."  
  
Chi-Chi was just putting the dishes away from lunch. "Usagi, you've finally decided to wake up I see. You are just lucky that I saved you some lunch for when you woke up. If I hadn't, your father would have eaten it all."  
  
Usagi giggled. "As always." She sat down at the table as her mother put a plate out on the table for her.   
  
"Do you feel better today?" Chi-Chi served her daughter her food.  
  
"Yep. Daddy says he's gonna train with me after he watches a cartoon." She started eating her food.  
  
Chi-Chi couldn't believe it. Usagi had just recovered and now her husband was immediately going to take her out and train her some more. "Are you sure you can handle it?" Usagi nodded as she stuffed her face with food. "But you just woke up. Don't you think you should rest a little bit?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "Mommy, if I relax all the time, I'm never going to get strong like daddy."  
  
Usagi's statement hit her mother in the face. 'It's official, she's going to be fighter. I might as well give up now. I don't have the strength to fight her. As long as she stays safe.' "Be careful this time Usagi, all right?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku didn't take Usagi anywhere to fight that day. Because they weren't going to be doing any real fighting, they just stayed by the house instead.   
  
Goku stood face to face with his daughter. He would make sure that she didn't loose her energy again. "Ok Usagi, we are going to work on flying first. Do you remember how to do that?"  
  
"I think so. Do you want me to do it?" Goku nodded. "K!" Usagi noticed her mother standing by the house. "Hi mommy! Watch what I can do!" Usagi cleared her mind and began to concentrate her energy into her body.   
  
Goku felt the energy build up in his daughter's body. He grinned to himself. 'Impressive.' "Ok, now, use that energy to lift yourself off of the ground." Goku crossed his arms and watched his daughter.   
  
Usagi did as she was told. She could no longer feel the ground beneath her feet. She smiled. "Yay! I can still do it."  
  
Goku backed up. "Good. Now, what I want you to do is move yourself to me."  
  
Usagi concentrated her energy to move forward to her father. She slowly started to move. "Wow." She whispered to herself. She slowly flew to her father. She couldn't fly in a constant line. Her altitude would decrease and then increase again. She never fell to the ground.   
  
As Usagi got closer, Goku would back up, forcing her to keep flying. "Are you still ok? Are you getting dizzy or anything yet?"  
  
"No." Usagi swayed back and fourth.   
  
"Try to keep your energy at one constant. You will find that you can fly better that way. You won't be able to do it at first though so don't worry about getting it right the first time." Goku continued to back up. He would keep backing up until he felt that she could keep a straight enough line.  
  
"This is fun daddy." Usagi concentrated more energy and speed up. "Cool!"  
  
Goku laughed. "I guess it could be fun." He saw that she was starting to keep her altitude the same and stopped. "Ok good. Just a little bit further."  
  
Usagi continued to fly. She was getting the hang of it quite fast. She speed up a little bit right before she reached her father.  
  
"Don't over work yourself Usagi." He held out his arms and grabbed Usagi when she got close enough. He set her on the ground.  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. "I'm not daddy."  
  
Goku looked at his daughter. 'She really does learn fast.' "Ok, I think with a little bit more practice you will have flying down pat. Why don't we work on your energy attacks?"  
  
Usagi smiled. "Yeah!"   
  
Goku laughed at his daughter. She wasn't anything like his sons. The only reason why Gohan fought was because he had to. Goten didn't really like fighting. Goku had always had to force him to train. Usagi was different. She wanted to fight. This intrigued him. "Why don't you show me what you've got. I can't criticize you until I see what you can do."  
  
"Ok." Usagi put her hands together and concentrated energy in them like she had before. When she thought that she had gathered enough energy she released it at her father.  
  
A golden Ki blast came spiraling at Goku. He put his arms together and formed a cross with them. They would act as a shield. He let the attack smash into him. "Wow Usagi. That was really good."  
  
Usagi was surprised. She didn't think that it was all that good. "Really?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes. I wouldn't lie about something like this. I really don't have that much to say at this point. For a beginner, that was good. When you get older and have more experience, you will be very powerful."  
  
Usagi let her father's words sink into her head. "Really?" She couldn't wait until she got older so she could be stronger.  
  
"You are already strong. You are the first person I know of who learned how to fly as fast as you did and who learned how to make a Ki blast as fast as you did. That was a pretty strong Ki blast too. You are just like me when I was your age. I'm proud of you. You just need a little bit more practice." Goku saw the happiness in his daughter's eyes.  
  
Usagi was so overjoyed that she wanted to scream and yell. "This is so cool daddy." 'Wait until Haruka and Michiru see me on Monday.'  
  
(Ok, that's it for this chapter. What do you think? Is it good or bad? Please review. Thank you ^_^)  
  
  



	17. Part 16

"USAGI! HURRY UP AND GET READY!" Chi-Chi had been trying all day to get her daughter ready. They had a meeting that they had to be at in the afternoon. They were going to be meeting with Mrs. Willings, Usagi's school principal, about Usagi's re-entrance to school the next day.  
  
"Just a minute mommy." Usagi scrambled to get herself ready in time. She had waken up later than usual which threw her whole day off. She was just now getting herself dressed. She had been told by her mother not to wear her training cloths. Her mother didn't want her to look like a thug in front of the principal, so she decided to wear her favorite "normal" outfit. The Gohan looking thing again from the 5th part She ran out of her room and into her father. She pulled herself back and looked up at him. "Sorry daddy."  
  
Goku slightly laughed at his daughter. "Slow down Usagi. We have plenty of time to get there. Don't listen to your mother. She always thinks she's going to be late."  
  
Usagi appreciated her father's words. "Ok."  
  
Goku walked with his daughter out to the family room. He looked down at her. She was tense. "Don't be nervous, Usagi. You have nothing to worry about."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. "I can't help it daddy."   
  
Goku fully understood. Her anxiety had the better half of her. "It's all right. The best thing we can do now is just go and get it over with as soon as possible."  
  
Chi-Chi was standing against the wall with her arms crossed. She couldn't wait to get to the school and give this Mrs. Willings a piece of her mind. She still couldn't grasp the fact that they suspended her daughter just for getting herself beaten up by two kids who were five years older than her. She was still outraged by the policies of the school. Chi-Chi noticed her husband and daughter walking up the hallway of her home. "It's about time you two. I have been waiting forever. We are going to be late."  
  
Goku walked to the door that led outside and opened it. He watched as Chi-Chi and Usagi walked out. "It will be fine Chi-Chi. Don't worry, we don't have to be there for a couple of hours."  
  
Chi-Chi hated it when Goku tried talked back to her. She walked to the car and opened up the front passenger side. "Goku, it takes a long time to get to her school. Don't forget that we live somewhat far away. It's not like we are going to be flying there or anything."  
  
Goku rolled his eyes at his wife as he opened up his door and got in the car. He pulled his seatbelt over his shoulder and fastened it in its holder. "Chi-Chi, I have everything under control. We won't be late."  
  
Chi-Chi crossed her arms. "You had better not be thinking about speeding." She looked at her husband who was grinning. "You will not speed with your daughter in the car!" Chi-Chi was now frowning at her husband.   
  
Goku knew he was pushing it with her. "Chi-Chi, I know how to drive. I know how to handle this car at high speeds."  
  
Chi-Chi could have slapped him after that little remark. "I don't care. If you plan on speeding, then I'm getting out of this car right now and Usagi and I can walk." She looked into the back of the car and didn't see Usagi. "Where is that girl? She walked out here with us."  
  
Goku quickly forgot about the argument and turned his head. "I don't know. She probably forgot something and went back to get it."  
  
Chi-Chi sat back into her chair and crossed her arms again. "Well I wish she would hurry up."  
  
"She's coming." Goku turned back around and pulled a set of keys out of his pocket.  
  
Usagi ran to the car. She knew that when she got in that her mother would yell her at. She had forgotten her jacket though. It was either get yelled at for not having her jacket, or get yelled at for wasting time. Usagi chose to get yelled at for wasting time. She prepared herself to be yelled at as she climbed into the car. "Mommy, before you say anything I'm sorry but I forgot my jacket." She sat down in her seat and buckled herself in.  
  
"I hope you are happy. You just wasted 10 minutes of our valuable time." Chi-Chi looked forward.   
  
Goku snorted. "No she didn't. We were arguing. You just now realized that she wasn't in the car." Goku put the key in the ignition and turned it forward. The car began to rumble softly as it was turned on.  
  
Chi-Chi hit her husband's arm with the back of her hand. "You aren't supposed to tell her that. She has to learn some responsibility."  
  
Goku turned his head and started to back out of the driveway. "I don't want you to punish her for something she didn't do. It wasn't her fault that WE wasted ten minutes."  
  
Chi-Chi was shocked at her husband's behavior. So shocked that she didn't have anything to say. He had been getting more aggressive with her lately. She just sat there and kept quiet.  
  
Usagi giggled to herself as she looked at her father. For once he had put her mother in her place. She looked at her father who winked at her. She smiled. He was always on her side. That's one of the things that she liked about him the most. Usagi knew not to be too loud with her laughing. If she were to be loud, her mother would have conniption like she always did.  
  
She turned and looked out the window as her father drove. She watched all the trees and animals go by. They looked as if they had no worries in the world. She sighed as she watched a mother dear groom its baby. 'I hope I can make it through this day alive.'  
  
Chi-Chi looked at the speedometer. "Goku! The speed limit is 55 mph, you're going 65 mph."  
  
Goku looked at his wife. "So what's your point?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. Goku was challenging her and she didn't like it one bit. "SLOW DOWN OR LET US OUT!"  
  
Goku laughed. "Alright, alright. I'll slow down." Goku let up on the gas a little and decreased his speed to the speed limit.  
  
Chi-Chi looked back out her window. "Honestly Goku, I don't know why you have to be so difficult."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku turned into the parking lot about five minutes before the meeting was scheduled. He carefully parked the car in an open space and turned off the car. "Well, here we are." He turned back to look at his daughter. She was pale from being nervous. Almost as pale as she was when she was suspended two weeks before.   
  
Chi-Chi opened her door. "It's about time." She looked at her watch. "Look. We only have five minutes to get in. I told you we were going to be late. Come on. I need to have a few words with this Mrs. Willings."  
  
Usagi could feel her stomach turning. She just knew that something bad was going to happen in that meeting. She could feel it. She didn't want to get out of the car. She just wanted to stay in there while her parents went in. What she really wanted to do, though, was go back in time and stop this mess from ever happening. She knew that that was in no way possible. She would just have to live with her mistake.   
  
Slowly, she began to open her door and come out of the car. She walked to her parents, who had been waiting for her. She grabbed her father's hand and squeezed it as they proceeded to the door that led inside. With each step that they took closer, she felt her heart beat faster.  
  
Goku sensed Usagi's agony. He wished that she didn't have to go through this. He hated to see her in such pain. He hated the fact that Chi-Chi was coming even more. He didn't want her to come and find out what really happened the day of the fight. He didn't want her to find out that it was their own daughter who, in fact, started the fight.   
  
When the trio reached the front door, Goku opened it and let his wife and daughter in. They were greeted by the smiling face of Mrs. Willings.   
  
Seeing Mrs. Willings pretty much did it for Usagi. As soon as she laid eyes on her she felt her heart drop to the pit of her stomach. Her nightmare had finally become reality. Her mother would soon know the truth. She squeezed her father's hand harder.   
  
Goku didn't mind. He knew that she was having a hard time at the moment. He pulled her in front of him and held onto her shoulder with his free hand.  
  
Mrs. Willings held out her hand to Chi-Chi. "Hi. You must be Usagi's mother. It's a pleasure to meet you."  
  
Chi-Chi grabbed her hand and shook. She faked a smile. "It's nice to finally meet you too."  
  
Mrs. Willings then held out her hand to Goku. "Good afternoon Mr. Son. It's nice to see you again."  
  
Goku took his hand off of his daughter's shoulder and grabbed the woman's hand. "It's nice to see you again too." He immediately pulled his hand back and put it back on Usagi's shoulder.  
  
Mrs. Willings face grew somewhat cold as she looked down at Usagi. "Hello Usagi."  
  
Usagi noticed the dirty look that her principal had just given her. She kind of frowned in return. "Hello."  
  
Chi-Chi saw Usagi's face. She put her hands on her waist. "Usagi! Who do you think you are? She is your principal! You don't be disrespectful! Do you understand me? You weren't brought up to be rude."  
  
Usagi held her head low. "Sorry mommy."   
  
Mrs. Willings looked back up to Usagi's parents. "Well, I guess we should get started then." She turned around. "If you will just follow me, my office is right this way." She began walking into the main office.  
  
Chi-Chi looked away from her daughter and followed Mrs. Willings. Goku nudged his daughter to move forward. As they were walking, he leaned down and put his face by her ear. "I saw that look she gave you. You had a right to do that."  
  
Usagi smiled to herself as she walked. "Thank you daddy." The three of them walked into Mrs. Willings' office and shut the door behind them.  
  
~*~*~  
  
There were three chairs set up in front of Mrs. Willings' desk. Usagi sat in the chair that sat in the middle. Her parents sat in the two outside chairs. Usagi kept her attention on her principal as she sat down in front of her. Being in this room brought back horrible memories. Memories that she wanted to put behind her. At least this time, her father was on her side.  
  
Mrs. Willings picked up the same Manila folder from the top of her desk as she did the day that she suspended Usagi. She pulled some papers out of it. She began to look through them, reading every word that was on each paper. She sighed as she put the papers back down on her desk. She looked down at Usagi. "Have you learned anything in the past two weeks."  
  
Usagi thought for a moment. She could have been smart and told her that 'yes' she had in fact learned more than she would ever learn at school. But, she decided to leave her learning to fight out of this meeting. It would just reinforce the distrust that her principal had in her. "Yes."  
  
Mrs. Willings put her arms together out on her desk. "What exactly have you learned young lady?" She leaned forward and looked Usagi straight in the eyes.  
  
Goku slammed his hand on the table. "Excuse me, what does this have to do with letting Usagi back into school?" Goku was getting somewhat angry with the way she was treating his daughter. She didn't deserve this treatment and they both knew it.  
  
Mrs. Willings blinked at Goku. "I want to make sure that she will never do this again." She looked back into Usagi's eyes.   
  
Chi-Chi didn't quite understand what she meant by that last statement. "Never do what again?" She looked down at Usagi who was now slouching in her chair. Chi-Chi knew that she was hiding something.  
  
Mrs. Willings smiled. "Oh," She looked at Goku. "You mean, you never told her?" She was beginning to take pleasure in this situation. Here she would see a troublemaker brought to justice right before her very eyes.  
  
Chi-Chi looked back up to the principal. "Never told me what?" Chi-Chi was beginning to get upset. She wanted answers and she wanted them now.  
  
Mrs. Willings put her hands behind her head and leaned back into her chair. "Well your daughter started the fight."  
  
Chi-Chi could feel her face reden as her anger increased. She looked down at Usagi and slapped her as hard as she could. "YOU STARTED THE FIGHT? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? I KNOW YOU WERE NOT RAISED LIKE THAT! AND TO THINK I LET YOU LEARN HOW TO FIGHT THE LAST TWO WEEKS. DID YOU WANT TO LEARN SO YOU COULD START MORE FIGHTS? ANSWER ME!!"   
  
Usagi grabbed her face where her mother had just hit her. She could feel tears beginning to stream down her face. She didn't know what to say. Her mother had never hit her before. Out of all the times her mother had gotten mad at her, this was the worst. The pain in her face increased as she looked up at her mother. "I'm sorry mommy." Usagi coward away from her mother. She was afraid of her. More than she had ever been before.  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "YOU'RE SORRY? YOU AREN'T GETTING OUT OF THIS ONE THAT EASILY YOUNG LADY!" She began to raise her hand again.  
  
Goku couldn't take this anymore. "Chi-Chi stop." He pushed her hand away from his daughter. He glared at his wife. He never thought he would have to do that. Of course he never thought he'd see the day that Chi-Chi hit one of her children. It was his fault. He had lied to her. She shouldn't have taken her anger out on Usagi. She should have been hitting him if she felt the need to hit someone. He looked down at Usagi. He hated to see her cry.  
  
Chi-Chi looked up at her husband and pointed her finger at him. "You. You are the worst of all. You lied to me. You taught your little girl that it was all right to lie. Well I've got some news for you mister… IT'S NOT! I can't believe you Goku. You just don't know when to stop." She looked back down at Usagi who was crying even harder. "And you young lady, you should be happy that you only got suspended. And only for two weeks. If it were up to me, I would have made it longer, and then I would have given you detention." She crossed her arms. "But I guess this school is rather lenient. There will be further punishment from us though."  
  
Goku didn't want to see Usagi suffer anymore. He hated that Chi-Chi was putting her through this. It was bad enough that she had to endure it from the kids at school and the principal, but now she had to hear it from her own mother. Goku was going to put his foot down. "No. She has been through enough already. Just leave the girl alone." He knew that he was going to pay for that but he didn't care. She HAD been through so much in just one short day. Actually, in just two short weeks she had been through more then Gohan or Goten had been through the whole time that they were at school.  
  
Chi-Chi shot a deadly look at her husband. If looks could kill Goku would have died on the spot. When he was brought back to life he would have died again. Chi-Chi was too outraged to say anything in reply. She looked back at the principal.   
  
Mrs. Willings had no idea that Chi-Chi would react in such a way. If she would have known, she wouldn't have said anything. Although she likes to see troublemakers get what they deserve, Usagi definitely did not deserve that. No child did. "Please Mrs. Son, refrain from hitting your child in this school. We do not promote it." She now felt sorry for Usagi. She was sorry that she had to call this meeting, but it was school procedure. She had already met with the other three girls. She looked at Goku. "I have decided to allow little Usagi here to come back to school." She smiled at Usagi.   
  
Goku stood up from his chair and once again shook hands with her. "Thank you. We appreciate this very much." He looked down at Usagi. She was still crying and still holding her face. He remembered about the Dragon Ball and turned back around. "There is a little situation between Haruka, Michiru, and Usagi. It seems as though they have stolen something very special to Usagi and will not give it back."  
  
"There's not much that I can do except ask for it back. Would you like me to try that?"  
  
Goku nodded. Usagi's face still stung. 'It won't work,' she thought to herself, 'they lied before and they will lie again. I have to take things into my own hands if I want it back.' She was afraid to look over at her mother.  
  
Goku turned around and picked Usagi up out of the chair. She wrapped her tail around his arm as he poked Chi-Chi in the arm. "We should be leaving." He turned back around to Mrs. Willings, "Good bye."  
  
She waved at him. "Good bye. Have a good evening." She watched Usagi and her parents leave. She would hate to be in Usagi's shoes right about now. She would hate to be in Usagi's shoes anytime with the mother that she had. Luckily she had a sensible father. She hoped that Usagi would be all right. She felt partly responsible for Chi-Chi's outburst of anger. Partly? Try totally lady   
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi followed Goku out to the car. She kept her distance. She was still too furious to talk to him. She couldn't believe that her daughter started the fight. She couldn't believe that the two of them had lied to her to cover it up. She got a look at Usagi's face where she had hit her. It was as red as an apple. She felt horrible and wished that she could have taken that moment back. But it was too late and there was nothing she could do now. Even if she told her that she was sorry, Usagi would not have believed her.  
  
Usagi cried into her father's shoulder. She just wanted to get home as soon as possible. She never wanted to feel the way she was right now, ever again. She didn't once looked at her mother on the way back to the car. She was afraid that if she did, she would just end up getting yelled at again.  
  
Goku opened Usagi's door and set her in her seat, once he got to the car. "Don't worry Usagi. Like I said before, give your mother a couple of days to get over it. Just try to stay out of her way until then. Take it from an old pro." He looked at her cheek. It was still quite red. "We'll put something on your face when we get home."   
  
Usagi was grateful that her father was so understanding. It would have been twice as hard to endure without him. She watched her mother climb into the car and then her father. She leaned against the door and closed her eyes as they pulled out onto the road. She softly began to cry again. She had let her life go as low as it could in just two short weeks. She just wanted it to all end. She wanted to relax. She wanted her old life back. Her carefree life.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The three returned home at 6:45 P.M. that night. Chi-Chi was the first one out of the car. She needed time alone to think about how she was going to fix her current situation. On her way past the car, she noticed that Usagi had fallen asleep. Her face had gone down to a pale pink color. She put her hand on the window. "I'm sorry Usagi."   
  
Goku walked up from behind his wife and put his arms around her. He leaned himself on her back. "Are you truly sorry?"  
  
Chi-Chi was startled a little bit. She hadn't expected Goku to talk to her after what had happened. She relaxed and leaned into his warm body. She let out a small giggle. 'My Goku. Always full of love.' "Yes, Goku, I am truly sorry."  
  
Goku rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes. "Then why don't you tell her?"  
  
Chi-Chi thought about it for a moment. She really had wanted to tell her. "I don't know if she will accept an apology from me."   
  
"I disagree. It would really make her day if you apologized to her. Believe me. She wasn't crying because of the pain that was brought with that slap today. She was crying because of the reason. She thinks you hate her now. That was the first time that you have ever laid a hand on her like that." Goku nuzzled his nose into his wife's hair and then kissed her on her check.  
  
"I didn't mean to Goku. I was just mad. It was a reaction." Chi-Chi didn't want her daughter to think that she hated her. She didn't want them to fall farther apart then they already were. She peered down at her sleeping daughter. She was so peaceful. "I guess I should be going." She pulled away from Goku's grasp and walked inside. She felt horrible. She needed to rest before she could think anymore of the day's activities.  
  
Goku watched his wife and then looked back down at his daughter and sighed. "What a mess." He opened the car door slowly so Usagi would not fall out. She had been leaning on it. He unbuckled her seatbelt and delicately picked her up. He walked to the house with her curled up in her arms. He needed to get some medical cream on her face.   
  
He began to shake his arms as he walked towards the house. "Usagi, wake up."  
  
Usagi slightly opened her eyes to see her father's orange GI. "Huh?"  
  
"We're home. Come on, its time to wake up and get something on that face of yours."  
  
Usagi groaned when he mentioned her face. She had hoped that it was all just a sick dream that she had just waken up from. "Daddy? Is mommy still mad at me?"  
  
Goku didn't know what to tell her. He wanted Chi-Chi to talk to her. Not him to talk to her in his wife's place. He hesitated to tell her. He set her down once they got inside the house.  
  
Usagi curiously looked up at her father. "Is she mad at me?"  
  
Goku looked down at her. Reluctantly, he decided to answer her. "Well, you see, you are going to have to ask her yourself. I don't want to get in between your quarrels. I'm sorry."  
  
Usagi disappointedly looked down to the ground. "I understand daddy."   
  
Goku hated to disappoint her like that. But sometimes, it just had to be done in order to keep some kind of peace around the house. He grabbed her hand. "Come on. Let's go fix your face and get you into a bath. Then you have to go to bed. You have school in the morning."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Ok."   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi let herself soak in the bathtub. She scooted down as far as she could without letting her chin go under the water. She let her hair freely flow behind her. Normally she would keep it up in a cap until she was ready to wash it, but this night she didn't particularly care. She was in too bad of a mood to care.   
  
She replayed the day back in her mind. She kept seeing her mother's hand coming at her face and then making contact with it. She grabbed the wash cloth that was in the tub with her. She began to pull it with her hands. She was making herself upset just thinking about it. She hadn't meant to hurt her mother like she had. She just didn't want her to freak out. She wished that she hadn't had her father lie for her. Not only had she gotten herself in trouble, but she had gotten her father involved too. That alone made her feel worse. She leaned her head against the wall. 'I screw everything up. I don't know why mommy and daddy even let me stay here. I don't know why daddy ever bothers to let me be around him.'  
  
She stopped thinking about the day and started thinking about the past two weeks. She had had so much fun, yet, so many painful moments. She stared at the bar of soap that sat on the edge of the tub. She picked it up. "This is what I think of you Haruka." She squeezed it as hard as she could. It smashed apart in her hands. She laughed to herself and then quickly stopped. She abruptly opened her hands and let the pieces of soap fall into the water. 'What have I become?! I can't do this. Is it normal to feel this way?! I'm so confused.' Usagi put her face in her hand and closed her eyes. 'I have to control my anger. Daddy says I can't let it get the better of me.' She lifted her head and opened her eyes and looked around the bathroom. 'What will I do if someone makes fun of me tomorrow?' Usagi thought to herself for a while. 'I can't beat them up. Can I? Daddy wouldn't like that.'  
  
Usagi's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. "Usagi, are you ok in there? You have been in there for a long time."  
  
Usagi shot her attention to the door. "Yes daddy, I'm fine."  
  
"Ok, well, it's getting late. You should start thinking about getting yourself ready for bed." Goku was worried about Usagi. She hadn't said much since they returned home that evening. Also, she had never taken that long in the bath before. She had been in there for about forty-five minutes.  
  
Usagi stood up and let the water drip off of her body back into the tub of water beneath her. "Ok." Goku was satisfied with his daughter's answer and left. Usagi wrapped herself in her pink towel that she had gotten for her last birthday from Goten. She loved the towel and always used it. She wrapped her hair in another towel so it would not drip water all over the floor when she walked to her room.   
  
~*~*~  
  
She got into her pajamas as fast as possible. She looked at her door. Her mother would not be coming through that door tonight to tuck her in like she usually did. Usagi sighed. She walked out of her room. Her father was sitting on the sofa. She walked passed him without saying a word to him.  
  
Goku turned his head and watched her walk into his room. "She's up to something." He smiled.  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi slowly opened the door to her parents' room to reveal her mother sitting on her bed reading a book in a softly lit environment.   
  
Chi-Chi had her face hidden behind her book to notice that her daughter had entered the room.  
  
Usagi watched her mother read for a couple of minutes. She hoped that she wasn't going to regret what she was about to do. She knew that her father knew what he was talking about when he told her to give her mother a few days to come around, but Usagi couldn't wait that long. She needed to know. She quietly tiptoed her way to the bed where her mother was. She softly climbed onto the bed.   
  
Chi-Chi didn't turn her head. She just kept reading.  
  
Usagi crawled up onto the bed and towards her mother. She didn't want to fight with her anymore. She wanted things to go back to the way they were. When she reached her, she snuggled into her.  
  
Chi-Chi looked down at her daughter. She was smiling. "Can I help you little miss?"  
  
Usagi looked up to her mother. "Can you tuck me in?"  
  
Chi-Chi could have cried when she heard her daughter's words. For once she wasn't the one who had patch things up between them. This meant more to her than anything. She smiled a smile that only a mother could. "Of course I can Usagi. I love you."  
  
(My god, I can't believe I just wrote that. See what happens when you try to write a story when you're listening to classical music? Actually, now that I look at it, I think this part turned out all right. What do you think? Is it Good or bad? Please review and tell me. The next part is what you have all been waiting for. Thank you. ^_^)  



	18. Part 17

Usagi woke up to the sound of her alarm clock. It was screaming at her to wake up. She slowly opened her eyes as she sat up. She looked at her clock. "Who set my alarm for 6:30?" Normally, Usagi wouldn't have to wake up until 6:45. She rubbed her eyes to un-fog them. "Well, I guess I should get up." She tried to think of something that she would be doing that day that would motivate herself to get up. All of a sudden she remembered what day it was and she smirked to herself. "Oh, hehehe, it's Monday."  
  
Usagi jumped out of her bed. Although, she didn't particularly feel like going to school that day, knowing that she could stand up to her bullies was motivation enough to get her out of bed. She walked out of her room. She looked across the dark living room and saw one of her parents just coming out of their room. She walked farther into the room. She couldn't quite make out who it was so she walked to a small table that sat by the sofa and turned on a lamp that sat on it. The light revealed the figure as her father. "Daddy?"  
  
Goku looked up and saw his daughter standing pretty much right in front of him. "Oh, hi Usagi. I see your alarm went off on time."  
  
Usagi walked across the room and flipped a switch. A light on the ceiling turned on and lit the whole room. She looked to her father. "You were the one who set my alarm?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yep. We have to get an early start." Goku walked to a pantry in the hall and pulled a towel out.  
  
Usagi followed him down the hall. "Why?"  
  
Goku pulled out two towels. One for him, and the other for Usagi. He handed Usagi her towel. "Because, you may be going to school, but that doesn't mean your training stops. Now, you will be like Makoto. You will still have to train after school. But before school, I want you to practice flying. So you will fly to the outskirts of the city, and then we can take Nimbus the rest of the way until you are able to fly the whole way."  
  
Usagi hadn't thought of that before. "That's a good idea." She grabbed the towel that her father held out to her. "Should I bring my training gear?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes, we will train directly after school. Just stuff it in your book bag or something. We should stop talking so you can get ready." The two began to walk back up the hallway. Before they left each other, Goku turned to his daughter. "Now I don't want to get a phone call today saying that you got into a fight again, ok?" Usagi didn't say anything. "Ok, Usagi?"  
  
Usagi innocently looked up at her father and put her hands behind her back. "Ok daddy." She watched him turn around and walk back into his room. 'Hehehe, it depends. I WILL get my Dragon Ball back no matter what.' Usagi turned around and skipped off to her bathroom.  
  
She took her bath relatively fast. She pretty much only washed her hair since she hadn't the night before. She wanted to get ready as fast as possible so she could leave sooner. She wanted to allow herself as much time as possible to fly to the city.   
  
When she was done taking her bath, she wrapped herself in her towel and drained to tub. She began to walk to the door of the bathroom but was sidetracked by her reflection in the mirror. "I wonder if I'm as strong as daddy and Gohan say I am." With that she held up her arms to the mirror. She was amazed at what she saw. "Cool, I have some muscle. It's probably from all the weighted cloths and exercising I've been doing lately." She smiled to herself. 'I can't wait until later.' Usagi relaxed her arm. She didn't understand why the muscles in her arm only appeared when she flexed. She shrugged and left the bathroom.  
  
She noticed her mother coming out of her room. Had she been in there to wake her up? "Hi mommy."  
  
Chi-Chi turned to look at her daughter. "Oh hi sweetie. I just put your uniform in your room. I washed it for you." She turned around and started walking down the hall. "I'm making breakfast now so hurry up. Your father will be waiting."  
  
Usagi watched her mother walk down the hall. She was happy. Her mother hadn't even mentioned the night before. She now knew that she was no longer angry with her. She quickly remembered that she had to get ready for school and ran for her room.   
  
Usagi saw her school uniform sitting on her bed. She picked it up and looked at it. All of the dirt had been washed out of it from the day of the fight. She began to think of the fight. She didn't want to fight again. Usagi had the upper hand this time but she still didn't want to fight. She didn't want to get suspended again. There had to be another way then fighting. Usagi would try talking to Haruka before she made her decision. She began to get herself dressed and put her hair up in her usual hairstyle.   
  
~*~*~  
  
When Usagi walked into the kitchen her mother was just serving her father his food. She sat in her chair across the table from her father. "Hi guys."   
  
Goku was eating before Chi-Chi had even finished putting food on his plate. He looked up to see his daughter sitting across the table from him like she always had. "Hi Usagi. You seem happy this morning."  
  
Usagi got her own food. She didn't have time to wait for her mother to do it. "I am." Usagi felt like she was starting her first day of school. In a way she was but this time it was going to be done right. She wasn't going to let anyone pick on her. She would tell them just what she thought about them if they tried anything with her. "When do we leave?" Usagi couldn't wait to go fly again. She hadn't done it since Saturday. She also couldn't wait to see Minako and Makoto. She hadn't seen them since Thursday.  
  
Goku was on his third helping. "When we are finished eating."  
  
Chi-Chi sat down at the table in between the two Saiyans. She looked at her daughter who was eating quite fast. "Usagi, slow down. You don't have to rush. You are going to make yourself sick. Don't forget what happened the last time that you rushed like this. You were as sick as a dog."   
  
Usagi slowed down a bit. Her mother was right about that. She didn't want to go through something like that again. She was sick to her stomach for a whole day. She began to eat at her normal pace again. She was just so excited and she wanted to leave as soon as possible.  
  
Goku served himself his fifth helping. "Don't worry Usagi, I'm nearly finished."  
  
Chi-Chi looked at the dish of food that she had set out on the table and then back at her husband. "That's because there is nothing left."  
  
Goku laughed as he scratched his head. "Well what do ya know. I ate it all again. I hope neither of you wanted more."  
  
Chi-Chi playfully glared at her husband. "You are just lucky that I don't want any." She looked at Usagi who was already finished and waiting. "I don't think Usagi has any complaints either. You just want to leave don't you?"   
  
Usagi nodded. She jumped down off of her chair and went to stand by her father. She rested her head on the table and began to stare at him while he was eating.   
  
Goku could feel her eyes on him. He turned to look at her. "What?"  
  
Usagi grabbed his arm and tugged on it. "Can we PLEEEESE go daddy?" She couldn't stand it anymore. The anxiety was killing her. Her mood about going back to school had changed a considerably large amount since the night before.   
  
Goku laughed at his daughter and then looked at his bowl of food. It was nearly empty. He looked back down at Usagi who was begging him with her eyes. "All right, all right. We can go. Don't have a heart attack."  
  
Usagi jumped up and then ran to the family room where the main door out of the house was. "Yay!" She was stopped by her mother who put her arm out in front of her. Usagi turned her head to the right to look at her mother. "What? What did I do?"  
  
Chi-Chi laughed. "Doesn't your mother get a hug before you leave?"  
  
Usagi giggled. "Oops, sorry mommy. I'm just so happy." Usagi let her mother pull her close to her. She wrapped her arms her mother. "Bye mommy."  
  
Chi-Chi pulled her daughter away from her and looked into her eyes. "Now, don't be getting yourself in anymore trouble, ok?" Usagi nodded. "Ok, be good." Chi-Chi stood up and walked to the counter. She grabbed a pink bag and handed it to Usagi. "Here you go sweetie. This is your lunch." She picked Usagi's book bag up off the ground and put it in. She noticed Usagi's training gear. "So you are training after school today, Usagi?"   
  
Usagi nodded. "Yep."  
  
Goku grabbed his daughter by her arm and pulled her away from Chi-Chi. "Sorry Chi-Chi, but we have to leave now if we want to make it on time." He grabbed Usagi's book bag from Chi-Chi.  
  
"Ok, I love you Usagi." Chi-Chi stood up to start picking up the mess that Goku had made when he was eating, as she watched her daughter walk away from her.  
  
Usagi turned her head to her mother as her father was pushing her out of the kitchen. "I love you too mommy." Usagi was incredibly happy now. Everything was perfect in her eyes. Her mother wasn't mad at her now, and she was going to get her Dragon Ball back. She hoped.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Once outside, Goku let go of Usagi. "Ok Usagi, let's get you into training mode ok?" Goku held Usagi's bag out for her to take from him.  
  
Usagi grabbed her bag and put on her back. "Wow, this is a lot heavier with my training stuff in it."  
  
Goku hadn't thought of that before. "That's actually a good thing. Instead of having all of the extra weight distributed all over your body, you just have it all piled on your back. It will help you with your flying."  
  
Usagi groaned. She didn't even want to think of flying with all of the weight on her back, weighing her down. "Do I have to?"  
  
Goku frowned at his daughter. "Do you have to ask?"  
  
Usagi sighed. "No, you are gonna make me do it anyways huh?" She knew the answer to that question.  
  
Goku nodded. "Ok, let's go. Try to get a higher altitude today. I know it may be hard at first, but it's actually good training for you." Goku jumped in the air and turned around to make sure the Usagi did the same.  
  
Usagi looked up in the air. She wasn't sure how well she would do, but she wasn't going to give up just yet. She hadn't come this far just to give up. She quickly concentrated her energy into flying as she jumped to the air. She hadn't quite made it up as far as her father had. She looked up again. "I can't do it. It's too high."  
  
Goku looked down. "You can do it. Come on, just put more energy into it." Goku began to slowly move forward hoping that Usagi would follow.  
  
Usagi took a deep breath and tried using more of her energy. Slowly, she began to rise higher in the air until she was at the same height as her father. She smiled. "Yay! I did it."  
  
Goku flew backwards as he watched his daughter. "Good job, Usagi. Now, let's go." He turned around and flew faster towards their destination.  
  
Usagi flew as fast as she could. It wasn't as fast as her father was travelling, but it was still quite fast for a beginner. She was falling behind. "Daddy, wait, don't leave me!"  
  
Goku stopped and turned around. He didn't want to have another situation where Usagi was left on her own. He would have to treat this the same way he had when she was running. "Sorry Usagi. I'll go at your pace." Goku waited for his daughter to catch up to him.   
  
Usagi decided to use more energy so she could speed up a little. She stopped when she got to her father. "I think I figured out how to go faster."  
  
"Use more energy?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yep."  
  
Goku turned back in the direction of the city. "Shall we continue then?"  
  
Usagi was more than ready to leave. "Of course." This time she didn't wait for her father to start. She shot out in front of him and went at an incredibly fast speed.  
  
Goku watched his daughter in awe. 'How can she learn THAT fast? It's amazing.' Goku stopped thinking and gave himself a burst of speed to catch up to his daughter.   
  
~*~*~  
  
When they got to the city Goku stopped, Usagi did not. "Usagi, stop." Usagi looked over her shoulder with her eyes. Then she looked back in front of her and grinned. Goku didn't know what she thought she was doing. He had just told her to stop and yet she chose not to. "Usagi, I said STOP!"  
  
Usagi cringed when she heard her father use this tone of voice. It was almost as if he was scolding her. She stopped in a flash and turned around.   
  
Goku put his hands on his waist. "No come here."  
  
Usagi slowly flew back to her father. She knew she was going to get it this time. She looked up at him with her innocent face. "Yes?"  
  
Goku looked down at her. It was so hard to stay mad at her for too long. "I told you to stop. Why didn't you listen to me the first time?"  
  
Usagi shrugged her shoulders. "Because I didn't want to stop. I was having too much fun." Usagi didn't want to take Nimbus anymore.   
  
Goku smiled. "Why didn't you just say so? I'll let you keep going if you would like." He began to fly again, only this time at a faster pace then before. Usagi grinned as she flew towards her father. When she caught up to him she rammed herself into him. Goku looked over at his daughter. "What are you doing Usagi?"  
  
Usagi looked over to her father with a grin still on her face. "I'll race you daddy."  
  
Goku smirked. 'This is going to be easy.' "I accept your challenge. But be warned, I always win." With that Goku darted out in front of Usagi.  
  
Usagi used more of her energy to increase her speed. She kept up with her father. "So you always win do you? Looks like I'm keeping up with you."  
  
Goku looked over at Usagi. 'How can she do that?' "Not for long." He raised his power level and laughed. Usagi knew what he was doing and couldn't believe it. He would cheat just to win. Before he increased his speed she grabbed onto his legs. Goku looked back at Usagi. "Let's see how long you can keep that up." He turned his head back around and increased his speed to his fullest. 'This is actually a good strength exercise."  
  
Usagi held on for dear life. She had never gone so fast in her entire life. She took one of her hands of his feet and grabbed his upper leg with in. She did the same with her other hand. She slowly did this until she made her way up to his back. She rested her chin on his shoulder as she lay on his back. "Hi daddy. This is fun."  
  
Goku shot a glance at Usagi and then quickly looked forward again. He smiled to himself. "Hi Usagi. It's so nice of you to join me up here." 'How could she have done that at THIS speed? She really will surpass me if she keeps this up.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku landed in front of Usagi's school at 7:30, a half-hour before it started. He landed in the bus drop off zone in front of the school. "Here we are."  
  
Usagi jumped off of her father's back. She looked around at all of the screaming kids. She was reminded of the first day of school. This time she was going to do things right. She looked up at her father. "Thank you daddy." She hugged her father and ran to the school. She was stopped by her thoughts. She turned around. Her father had just jumped in the air to take off as she waved for him to come back down.   
  
Goku lowered himself back down to the ground. "What did you forget?"  
  
Usagi walked back to her father. "Umm… Can you be here a little later than usual after school? I want to get my work from the past two weeks." Usagi was lying. She knew that she wouldn't have any work. She was only in kindergarten. The only thing that she may have is a few papers to get signed by her parents.  
  
Goku knew there was something going on in her mind. "Usagi, you aren't planning on getting into a fight with Haruka after school are you?"  
  
Usagi's eye's widened. 'How does he know?' "Uh…umm…no."  
  
Goku crossed his arms. "Come on Usagi. Tell me the truth."  
  
Usagi squirmed. Why was he doing this to her? "Well…uh…not exactly anyways." She looked into her father's eyes for approval.  
  
Goku frowned. "Usagi, what did I tell you about controlling your anger. I didn't teach you how to fight just so you could go and pick fights with the other kids. The only time that you are to fight, is when you are defending yourself, understand?" Usagi hesitated to answer. She looked away. Goku knew it was hard for her. "Usagi!"  
  
Usagi shot her attention back up at her father's face. "Yes. I understand."  
  
Goku could see that she didn't. "Please Usagi. I know you don't understand the importance of what I'm saying right now, but believe me, one day, you will."  
  
Usagi had hoped that she would, because right now she was as confused as ever. She didn't know what the point to learning how to fight was, if she could never do it unless she was sparring with one of her friends. "I'm sorry daddy. I won't fight anyone unless I have to." This would put a crimp on her plans.  
  
"Don't be sorry. Just be smart for your own sake. I have to leave now. I'll be back later. Bye." Goku jumped in the air and flew away. He would be back later, but he wouldn't let Usagi know when he got there. He wanted to see what she had planned.  
  
Usagi was once again left alone at school. She rubbed her hands together. "What should I do first? Who shall I visit first?" Usagi looked to the right where the kindergarten wing was, and then to the left where all the other classes were. She was certain that Haruka and Michiru would be there. "Well, I guess I should get MY Dragon Ball back now." She happily skipped to her left and into through the gates that made the entrance to the older kids' playground.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Minako and Makoto had already found each other in their own playground and were talking about their training. Minako had just chased away a group of kids who were making fun of her. "So, Makoto, have you seen Usagi since she passed out?"  
  
Makoto shook her head. "Nope. She looked pretty bad. I wonder if she will be here today."  
  
Minako grinned. "Don't worry, she will be. She wouldn't pass up getting her Dragon Ball back for anything in the world. I'll bet she's already here and just trying to find Haruka and Michiru." Minako walked towards the gate that led into the main courtyard of the school.  
  
Makoto followed. "Where are we going Minako?" They walked out of the gates and across the courtyard.  
  
Minako looked at her friend. "We're going to find Usagi. I just know she's already here."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi walked deep into the playground. She couldn't find Haruka or Michiru anywhere. She sighed out of disappointment. "Great. Just great."  
  
"What's the matter little Monkey Girl? Did you forget where your class is?"  
  
Usagi knew that voice. She turned around and stood face to face with Haruka. "Haruka! Give me back my Dragon Ball!"  
  
Haruka frowned. She grabbed Usagi by the front of her uniform. "Don't ever talk to me like that again. You hear that?" She pushed Usagi to the ground and turned to a group of girls who stood behind her. "Look girls. It's the monkey. She has come back for another beating.  
  
Usagi stood up. She didn't feel the fall. She had been through much worse than that with her father and Vejita. She smirked. "Is that all you've got?"  
  
Haruka turned back to Usagi. "You want more? I'll give you more. Just wait a minute. I have something in my pocket that I don't want to break." She put her hand into the pocket on her jacket and dug around for something. When she finally found what she was looking for she pulled it out and held it up for Usagi to see.  
  
Usagi stared very carefully at the item in Haruka's hand. "That's mine."  
  
Haruka stopped looking at the ball in her hand. "If it's yours, why is it in my possession?" Haruka rubbed her hand over the ball.  
  
Usagi didn't take her eye off of the ball. "You stole it."  
  
A shocked expression appeared on Haruka's face. "You would dare to accuse me of such a dirty thing? Well that's it girl. I kicked your ass before, I can do it again." She threw the ball to Michiru, who stood behind her to the side.  
  
Usagi remembered what her father just told her. She wasn't supposed to fight unless it was to defend herself. "I don't want to fight you, Haruka." That was the truth too. She didn't really want to fight her until they could do it after school, in the main courtyard, where someone was sure to see Haruka throw the first punch.  
  
Haruka laughed. "What's wrong? Does the little chicken monkey want to run away again?" She turned to her friends. "Even her dad is a wimp. He's dumb too. I told him I didn't have the ball, and he believed me." The group of girls laughed as Haruka looked back at Usagi. "I bet everyone in your monkey family are wimps too."  
  
Usagi could feel her energy build up inside her. She wanted to take her out right then and there, but if she did, her father would be disappointed in her. She hated it when he was. "My family is the strongest family in the world."  
  
Michiru was cracking up. "Yeah, and mine is the richest in the world." She put the Dragon Ball in her book bag.  
  
Usagi clenched her hands into fists. "Shut up. I'm stronger than you'll ever be."  
  
Michiru stopped laughing for a short moment. "Man, if you're strong, I'd hate to see a weak person."  
  
Haruka looked back at her friend. "Good one Michiru."  
  
"Why don't you leave Usagi alone!"   
  
Haruka turned around to see two familiar faces. "Ahhhh, yes, I remember you. Makoto isn't it? Didn't I beat you up about a month ago?"  
  
Makoto growled at Haruka. She hated to admit that she was beaten by a person in a lower class then her. "Yeah, so what? You wouldn't be able to do it now." She smirked. "I've been training with some very powerful people."  
  
Haruka laughed. "Ooooh, powerful people, I'm scared." She got right up in Makoto's face. "They may be powerful, but you are not."  
  
Makoto frowned. She didn't have to take this from her. She made a fist and was about to hit Haruka when she felt Usagi's hand grab her arm. She looked over to Usagi. "What are you doing Usagi. We can take them out, and get your Dragon Ball back."  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No Makoto."  
  
Makoto studied Usagi's face very carefully. She saw a plan in her eyes. "All right, have it your way."  
  
Usagi smiled and then turned around to Haruka. "We have to get to class. We WILL continue this after school, in the main courtyard."  
  
Haruka didn't like the way Usagi was trying to order her around. "Oh, we will, will we? I don't think so." She began to walk away.  
  
Usagi had to think of a way to get Haruka to meet her after school. It was her only chance. She put her hands up to her mouth. "Well you know what? Who's the wimp now? I think I just beat you without having to lift a finger you big bully!" That got Haruka's attention.  
  
Haruka turned around. "What did you say? I'm not a wimp! You're on! I'll meet you after school. Prepare yourselves to get beaten up, AGAIN!" Haruka laughed as she turned around and walked away. Michiru followed closely behind.  
  
Minako looked to her friend. "Usagi? Do you know what you're doing?"  
  
Usagi kept her eyes on Haruka and smirked. "Don't worry Minako." She put her arm around her neck. "I have a plan that is sure to work." The three girls turned around and walked back to their class.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi, Makoto, and Minako barely made it to class on time. Usagi and Minako ran to their table in the back of the room and sat down. Makoto followed and sat across the table from Minako. "Wow, this is so cool. We sit at the same table."  
  
Usagi pulled out a pencil and paper and began to draw a picture of a cat. "Yeah I know. It's going to be fun this year."  
  
Minako looked down at the picture. Usagi had drawn a strange shape on the cat's forehead. "Usagi, why did you draw that moon looking figure on the cat?"  
  
Usagi put her pencil down and started rummaging around her bag until she found her box of crayons. She looked at the picture as she pulled out her black crayon. "It's the cat from my dreams."  
  
Makoto looked at the picture and then back at Usagi. "You dreamt about a cat with a moon on it's head" She found that to be a little strange.  
  
Usagi colored the cat's body black. "I didn't dream about the cat. It was just in my dream." When she was finished coloring with the black crayon she put it back in the box and pulled out the yellow crayon.  
  
Minako looked at the drawing of the cat. It was a very cute drawing. "What was the dream about?" She watched as Usagi began applying the yellow color to the moon on the cat's forehead.  
  
Usagi shrugged. "I don't really remember. All I know is that there was this cat running to me." Usagi had dreamt about it about three months ago.  
  
Miss Haruna interrupted their conversation. "Hello Minako, Usagi. It's nice to have you back with us. I see you've met your table partner, Makoto. She joined us the day after you left." She looked down at Usagi's drawing. "Oh what a cute little kitty. You are a good artist Usagi."  
  
Minako looked at her teacher. "It's a cat from Usagi's dream."  
  
Miss Haruna looked up at Minako and then back down at the picture. "Usagi, would you mind if I hung it up here in the classroom?" Usagi shook her head. "Great." Miss Haruna picked up the picture and hung it up by the door.  
  
Makoto looked around to make sure that no one was around. "So, Usagi what's this plan of yours to get your Dragon Ball back and repay Haruka and Michiru?" She was so anxious to hear it. She couldn't wait any longer then she already had.  
  
Usagi grinned. "Well, you see, my daddy told me only to fight if we are defending ourselves. So, That's what we will do. We will make Haruka and Michiru try to beat us up. Then when they do, we can move in. We won't hurt them though. I don't want to be like them. If we do it in front of the office, then someone may see them trying to beat us up before we even have to do anything. What do you guys think?" She looked around to her friends.  
  
Minako liked the idea. "That sounds good Usagi, but, knowing those two, we may just have to hurt them."  
  
Makoto thought for a moment. "Minako is right. They don't give up easily. They can take a real beating before they stop. That's how they beat me when I was fighting them in my class. I'm in a higher class then them too." Makoto had always wanted to get back at them for it.  
  
"But I don't want to hurt them." 'Daddy wouldn't hurt them if he didn't have to.'   
  
~*~*~  
  
Haruka sat in front of the principal's office waiting to be called in. She didn't know what she was in trouble for THIS time. She hadn't done anything since she got back.   
  
Mrs. Willings' door slammed open. "Miss Tenno!"  
  
Haruka stood up and walked into the office. She sat down in the chair that sat in front of Mrs. Willings' desk. "What am I here for? I haven't done anything."  
  
Mrs. Willings sat down in her chair and stared at Haruka. "Please Miss Tenno. Let me conduct this meeting. After all, I am the one who called you down here."  
  
Haruka rolled her eyes. "Fine." She got comfortable in the chair.  
  
Mrs. Willings pulled out a thick folder and set in on her desk. "Haruka, we have a problem here. You are the only person who is a regular in this office." Haruka snorted. "I know you never take anything I say seriously, but school isn't a game. It isn't a place for you to beat up on others."  
  
Haruka put her feet on Mrs. Willings desk. She looked her in the eye. "It is to me."  
  
Mrs. Willings could feel herself getting angry. "Don't talk like that to me young lady. I'm not the person you want to be talking to like that." She stood up and picked Haruka's feet, dropped them to the floor, and then sat down. "We have a complaint from Son Goku. Usagi's father. You remember Usagi don't you?"  
  
Haruka smirked. "Yeah, I remember her. She's that little pipsqueak I beat up. So what's she complaining about now?"  
  
Mrs. Willings glared at Haruka. She hated her attitude. "Well it seems as though you have something of hers. What did he call it? Oh yes, a Dragon Ball."  
  
Haruka knew that he would go to the principal. Her family was a bunch of whiners who couldn't solve their own problems. "I don't have it."  
  
Mrs. Willings raised her eyebrow. "You don't have it?"  
  
Haruka nodded. "I don't have it. Why is that so hard for you to understand?"  
  
Mrs. Willings stood up. "So if we searched you for it, we wouldn't find anything?"   
  
Haruka shook her head. Luckily, she had given the ball to Michiru that morning. "Not a thing." She stood up and stepped to the side of her chair. "Go ahead. Search me all that you want." She was challenging Mrs. Willings.  
  
Mrs. Willings searched Haruka's bag and person only to find nothing. Haruka grinned. "See, I told you. But no one believes me."  
  
Mrs. Willings sat back down at he desk. She knew that Haruka had it somewhere. She probably had it at home, but there was nothing more that she could do. She felt sorry for Usagi. She had tried to get the Dragon Ball back, but she failed. "You can leave now Haruka."  
  
~*~*~  
  
At lunch, Usagi, Minako, and Makoto ate lunch on the playground. They sat on a bench, which sat next to the swing set. Usagi pulled out her drink. She was dying of thirst. "So, did you guys bring your training cloths?" She opened her drink and took a big gulp of it.  
  
Minako pulled out he lunch bag. "I did." She turned to Makoto.   
  
"Of course I did. I've had to for the past week, remember? While you guys got to relax during the day last week, I have had to come to school and deal with these retards who call themselves humans?"  
  
Usagi looked at Makoto. She didn't quite understand what she was trying to say. "Makoto? Have they been making fu…"  
  
A group of boys walked up to the three girls. One grabbed Minako's lunch bag and threw it on the ground. "Hey freaks. How did you like getting yourselves beaten up?" He laughed as he stepped on the bag, which he had just thrown on the ground.   
  
Minako stood up. "Why don't you get out of my face before I loose my temper and show you what it felt like." Usagi stood up beside her friend ready to help her if she needed it.  
  
The dusty blonde hair kid laughed. "Stupid girl." He slapped her in the face. "Women shouldn't talk to men that way. We are superior to you."  
  
Minako was shocked at the treatment she had just received. She wasn't going to take that from him. "Well, you aren't a man." She made a fist and hit him in the stomach forcing him to fall to the ground.  
  
The kid grabbed his stomach. "What are you? You really are a freak if you can hit that hard." He looked to Usagi and smirked as he stood up. "Hey, look fellas. It's Monkey Girl."  
  
Usagi could feel herself tense up. "Don't ever, EVER call me that again! If you do, there will be trouble."  
  
The dusty blonde kid got up in her face and laughed as loud as he could. Makoto laughed too. "Obviously he didn't learn his lesson when Minako hit him."  
  
Usagi smirked. "Yeah, maybe he will learn it better from me." Right when she was about to knee him she thought of what her father told her about fighting. She put her knee back onto the ground. She couldn't hit him and not feel guilty about it. He had not hit her yet. "You know what? I'm going to let you off easy today. Instead of demonstrating it on you, my friends and I will just show you instead."   
  
Minako looked over at her friend. "Usagi, he deserves it."  
  
Usagi cupped her hands. "No, he didn't hit me. Daddy says to only fight when the other person starts it first. Come on, let me show them what I can really do to them. I won't make it big." Minako took one look at Usagi's hands and knew exactly what she was talking about. Usagi began concentrating her energy into her hands and a little golden ball formed between them. The group of boys stood in awe as the rest of the kids gathered around to watch what she was doing. "Ready Minako?" Minako nodded. With that, Usagi released her energy ball at Minako.   
  
Minako watched as the blast came rushing towards her. Right before it hit her, she kicked it into the air. Usagi decided to have little bit of fun so she jumped into the air and followed it up high into the sky. Minako put her hand to her forehead to block her eyes from the sun, as did all of the other children at lunch. "Wow, look Makoto, she can fly better then us."  
  
A girl with two pigtails walked up behind Minako as she too watched Usagi fly higher and higher into the sky. "You mean, you guys can fly?"  
  
Makoto could barely fly forward without staggering let alone fly fast like Usagi. "Yeah, her dad has been training us. I guess Usagi learned faster than us."  
  
Usagi flew up above the blast. She put her hands together to make one big fist and hit the ball of energy back down to Minako like a volleyball. "Incoming!"  
  
Makoto knew that, even though the ball was small, it had a lot of force behind it. If it was left to fall it could hurt someone, even Minako or herself. Right before the ball hit, she jumped up as high as she could and kicked it away from the school. It crashed into a tree. "Good job Usagi. That was cool."  
  
Usagi landed and everyone crowded around her. They all wanted to know how she did that. "You guys, I'm not talking to you." She crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "You all said that I was a freak, now beat it!" Usagi pushed her way out of the crowd and sat down on the bench again.  
  
The crowd of kids followed. The boy who had teased her walked up to her. "We take it back. You aren't a freak. Now, tell us how you did that."  
  
Usagi looked up at the boy. "NO!"  
  
The boy turned around to the crowd of kids that stood behind him. "She isn't going to tell us. Let's just leave the…" He turned his head back to Usagi, "FREAK alone." He laughed and walked away.  
  
Makoto and Minako sat back down on the bench. Makoto took out her sandwich that her mother had packed for her. "Why didn't you talk to them Usagi? They were being nice to you for a change."  
  
Usagi laughed. "You think I want to be their friends after the way they treated me? You have got to be kidding. Just knowing that I can beat them up if I wanted to is good enough for me. And besides, I already have two best friends." Usagi smiled as she looked over at Minako and Makoto.  
  
  
~*~*~  
  
After school Usagi and her friends rushed to the bathrooms so they could get themselves changed. They didn't want to make Haruka and Michiru think that they had chickened out. Usagi pulled her blue GI out of her bag and put it on. Then she pulled out her gray metal boots and slid them on her feet. They went all the way to her knees. She walked to the mirror and looked at herself. She was a true fighter now. She smiled to herself and then turned around. Minako and Makoto stood behind her. "Today is the day that we have all been waiting for, for a long time. We all have a reason to hate Haruka and Michiru, and now we can humiliate them. Girls," Usagi smirked. "Let's go."  
  
Minako and Makoto threw their fists in the air. "Yeah!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Haruka and Michiru impatiently waited for the three "freaks", as they put it. Haruka tossed the Dragon Ball from hand to hand as she waited. "Where are they? They said that they would be here. I want to beat them up and then leave. I'm getting really annoyed."  
  
"We are right here Haruka!" Usagi stood tall with her arms on her waist. She wore a frown on her face.   
  
Haruka turned around and carefully examined Usagi's outfit. "What are you guys supposed to be? Some sort of martial arts specialists?"  
  
If Usagi could have frowned harder she would have. She hated Haruka and wanted to take her out, right then and there. "Give me my Dragon Ball back Haruka, before I am forced to come and take it from you." Usagi readied herself.  
  
Haruka laughed. "You think you can take this from me? I'd like to see you try. Last time, I beat your ass into the ground. I will gladly do it again if you would like me to."  
  
"Why don't you try me and see what happens?" Usagi didn't know what she was saying. It was like she didn't have any control over what came out of her mouth. She turned back and looked into the office to see if anyone was watching.  
  
~*~*~*  
  
Little did Usagi know that she had a spectator. Goku sat behind a bush and quietly watched what was going on. He knew that Haruka had the ball. He could see it being tossed around in her hands. He decided he would wait to intervene. He wanted to see if Usagi could restrain herself from fighting for it. She wasn't doing too well of a job so far. He had told Usagi not to fight unless it was for defense. What he forgot to tell her was that she wasn't supposed to challenge either.  
  
Goku hated to just sit by and watch his daughter get teased and he knew that she hated it too. She seemed to be holding up on her own though.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Haruka stopped tossing the Dragon Ball from hand to hand and began tossing the ball up in the air. "You know, you had better watch what you're saying monkey girl. I may just take you up on it one of these days." She threw the ball back to Michiru and walked up to Makoto. "Come on kid, let's have a rematch. Right here, right now!"  
  
Makoto was very tempted to fight her. She got in her fighting stance. "I WILL beat you this time." She felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see that it was Usagi's hand. "Usagi?"  
  
Haruka frowned. She was getting really tired of Usagi trying to keep peace. "Look monkey girl. I'm getting tired of you always interfering. You aren't getting your stupid Dragon Ball back and that's final." Haruka raised her leg and kicked Usagi in the face, forcing her to fall to the ground.  
  
Usagi pushed her body up with her hands. She let her head hang down to the ground as she tried to get the blur out of her eyes. She could see well enough to see her blood dripping from her mouth onto her hand.   
  
Haruka laughed as she walked up to Usagi. "Here we go again. Does this seem familiar." She kicked Usagi in the stomach. "Oh yes, this reminds me of the time that I kicked the crap out of you so badly last time." Usagi fell flat on her face again.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku cringed with every kick that his daughter had to endure. He could feel her pain.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't just stand around and watch her friend get beaten up. "Why you little..." She ran for Haruka with her hands in front of her.  
  
Haruka turned around and saw Makoto running for her. "You guys just never learn do you?"   
  
Usagi stood up and wrapped her arms around Haruka. "Give me my Dragon Ball." She tightened her grip on Haruka. Usagi could feel her anger building up within herself.  
  
Haruka saw that Makoto stopped running for her. She looked over her shoulder to the girl who was squeezing her. "I will never give it back to you, you stupid monkey freak!" Usagi squeezed even harder. "AAAHHH! What are you some kind of freak."  
  
Usagi didn't let go of Haruka. "I'll say it once more, give me my Dragon Ball BACK NOW!"   
  
Haruka cried out in pain. "Michiru! Run! Don't let them have it. They are just stupid freaks! They don't deserve it." Michiru listened to her friend and tried to make a run for it.  
  
Usagi was not about to loose her Dragon Ball again. She let go of Haruka and let her fall to the ground. She quickly turned to Minako and Makoto, "Watch her!" With that she chased Michiru into the parking lot.  
  
Michiru ran as fast as she could. She looked behind her. Usagi was hot on her tail. She couldn't let herself get caught. If she did, Usagi would beat her up like she did Haruka. "Stay away from me you demon child!" She turned back around.  
  
"Give me my Dragon Ball!" Usagi jumped in the air. She could fly faster then she could run. 'I WILL have my Dragon Ball back'  
  
Michiru looked behind her again. She was surprised to see that Usagi was no longer behind her. She slowed down and eventually stopped. She panted heavily as she turned back around. "Oh my god! How did you do that!?" Michiru was startled by Usagi, who now stood right in front of her.   
  
Usagi laughed. "That's my little secret." She held out her hand and approached Michiru. "You have something of mine and I want it back."  
  
Michiru backed up as Usagi came closer. She fumbled around in her coat pocket until she found the Dragon Ball. She pulled it out of her pocket and placed it in Usagi's hands. "Please don't hurt me." Michiru was scared of Usagi. She had never seen anyone, especially a 5-year old, be able to make Haruka cry out like she had.  
  
Usagi smiled. "Thank you. Now you see, that wasn't so hard now was it?" She walked past Michiru and then ran back to her friends who were holding Haruka by the arms. "Ok you guys, you can let her go now. I got my Dragon Ball back." Usagi held it up for her friends to see. It shined in the bright sunlight. Usagi was proud of herself. Learning to fight had really paid off in the end. It made her stronger, and it brought up her self-esteem.   
  
Makoto looked at the ball. "Wow, it's beautiful Usagi."  
  
Minako looked over at their hostage. "What do you want us to do with her?"  
  
Usagi took her attention off of her Dragon Ball and looked at Haruka. She looked really scared. Usagi laughed. After everything that Haruka had done to her, she finally gotten her back. "Let her go. She has nothing that I want anymore."  
  
Makoto couldn't believe that Usagi was just going to let her go without doing anything to her. "But after everything that she's done to you…don't you want to get even?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "I guess I have a few things I want to say to her." She walked in front of Haruka and bent down so she would be eye level with her. "Now then, you will never call me "Monkey Girl" again. You will never tease me again, and you will never touch MY Dragon Ball ever again." She stood up. "Ok, I'm through."  
  
Makoto wasn't going to just let it go at that. She made a fist and punched her in the stomach. "Ok, I'm happy. You can go now."   
  
Makoto and Minako released their grip on Haruka and let her fall to the ground. They all laughed at her as she slowly crawled away.  
  
"Usagi…"  
  
Usagi turned around when she heard her father call her name. She ran up to him and jumped in his arms and wrapped her tail around his arm. "Look daddy. I got my Dragon Ball back." The other two girls walked up to the two Saiyans.  
  
Goku looked his daughter in the eyes. He knew that she was pleased with herself. "I know, I watched the whole thing. You handled yourself very well out there. There were many times when I was sure that you were going to loose it and start throwing punches."   
  
Usagi was confused. "But daddy, you told me not to unless it was in defense, so I didn't."   
  
Goku didn't know what to say. He didn't want his daughter to think that he didn't trust her. "Well I know, but many fighters loose their cool when they are being taunted."  
  
Usagi started to understand. "Oh. Have you ever 'lost your cool' daddy." Usagi leaned her head against his shoulder. She had worn herself out.  
  
"I'm sorry to say that I have. But I don't ever want you to. The results can be horrible." He looked down at Makoto. "You are just lucky she didn't have any strength left to strike back at you."  
  
Makoto blushed. She was embarrassed. "I'm sorry Goku. I won't let it happen again."  
  
Goku rubbed his hand on his daughter's back. "It's alright Makoto." He looked around at all of the girls. "You guys look tired."  
  
Usagi yawned. "We are. Well, I know I am."  
  
"Why don't I give you guys today off. You have had a long day. But on one condition. You have to fly home." He set Usagi down on the ground.  
  
She looked at her friends and then back up at her father. "I think we can deal with that, right girls?"   
Makoto and Minako nodded in agreeance. "Hear that daddy? You have a deal."  
  
Goku smiled as he jumped in the air. "All right, let's get you guys home then." He began flying to his destination. Usagi and her friends followed him into the air.   
  
(::puff, Wheeze:: gees writing a 15 page chapter really does take a lot out of a person. lol. So, what do you think? I finally finished chapter one and chapter two part one should be out on Monday. I told you this was going to be a long story. I would get it Chapter 2 Part 1 out tomorrow, but, with tomorrow being Easter, my parents want me to go to a family get together. Oh yeah, a little note from me. Some of you are asking if Ami and Rei will be in the story. Don't worry, they will be in the story soon. I already have the perfect place to put both of them in. And early in this part I wrote a part about Usagi having a dream about a black cat with a crescent moon on it's forehead, I realize that it's too early for her to be Sailor Moon. Don't worry about that either. She isn't Sailor Moon yet nor will she find out about it until she is older. I just like to set up my story so I can write a good one. I hate stories that have wholes in the plot line. Ok, enough from me, What do you think about this part? Was it good? Was it bad? Please review and tell me. Thank you ^_~)  



	19. The Power of an Innocent Heart Part1

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Sailor Moon OR Dragon Ball Z. If I did, you would probably see this story on TV. But since I don't, you never will. Oh well, I don't even own the teacher in this chapter. He is actually based on my Japanese teacher. I do own one thing here though. ::Grins:: This story! Yay! He, he ^_^ I guess I should shut up now and let you read now, ne?  
  
(One little note. I know I don't normally write notes at the beginning of my parts, but since this is a new chapter and all I thought I would just tell you a few things about it at first. Ok, Usagi is now six years old. I skipped a year for a reason. If I just kept her the same age, this story would be WAY longer then I already plan on making it. Don't worry, I will try and fill you in on what happened in the past year. Ok, on for the story for real. I hope you like this chapter. I got a really great idea for it.)  
  
It had been a year and six months since Usagi first began to learn how to train and she was about two and a half months away from turning seven. She still wasn't as good as her father at fighting, but in her mind, she was coming along quite nicely. She was now up to 30-pound boots and a 50-pound GI. She was proud of herself. She had learned a lot in such a short time. She thought back to the past year. It started out horrible, but as soon as she showed everyone what she could do, boy, everyone pretty much stayed away from her. She didn't really make any new friends because of this though. But she didn't mind. She had Minako and Makoto. They were enough for her. They had become considerably close over the past year. Nothing could tare them apart, as they were always together. They were the three-musketeers of the school. No one wanted to cross their paths, fearing what may happen to them if they did. There hadn't been much activity from Haruka and Michiru either. Usagi tried to avoid them as much as possible and it seemed as though, they did the same. The whole school heard about what happened that day after school. The day when Usagi took back what was rightfully hers. That's probably one of the main reasons why everyone tried to keep away from them. And Usagi liked it that way. She didn't need them. They had pushed her down and treated her like dirt.   
  
Shortly after Minako and Makoto mastered flying and using Ki blasts, Goku started training them with weights. They learned at an incredibly fast speed, like Usagi had.  
  
Usagi hunched over her part of the table that she sat at and scribbled a few words onto a piece of paper. Her penmanship wasn't very well. She had a hard time with writing and an even harder time with reading. She often had to get help from either her parents, or Minako or Makoto. Her assignment was to study for the big spelling test that they would be taking at the end of the week. Usagi was sure that she would fail. She never got anything above a C+ in spelling. Her mother wasn't too happy about that, but her father always praised her for it. He said that it just meant that she was average and that's the way that he liked her. Usagi smiled as she thought of her father. He was always there for her whenever she needed him and she had promised him that if he ever needed her for anything, that she would be there for him. Usagi could always tell that her mother was jealous with the relationship that she had with her father so she tried extra hard to get along with her. She knew that she was treading on thin ice when it came to her mother. It seemed as though, every little thing she did that her mother didn't like, her mother just automatically accused Usagi of hating her. Usagi learned very fast in her young life not to upset her mother.  
  
Usagi looked up from her paper to look around the room. For once it was quiet. On a normal day, the room would be bustling with noisy kids, all of who wanted an equal amount of each other's attention and would do anything to get it. The teacher had threatened to put anyone who talked that day in detention. He was fed up with his noisy class and couldn't handle the noise anymore. Usagi looked to her right where Minako was sitting. She looked like she knew what she was doing, like she had a handle on the words that they were meant to know. She wanted to ask her how to spell something, but knew if she did, she would be sent to the office. Usagi definitely did not want to get another lecture from her parents about respecting the rules of the classroom. She had been sent to the office 3 times that year for supposedly breaking the rules. Each time, her mother grounded her for two weeks while her father just lectured her about the importance of rules.  
  
Usagi quickly looked back down at her paper and started to write the rest of the words that she knew when she noticed the teacher, Mr. Koch, walk by. Sounds like coke. He was observing all of the children's writing skills. He stopped when he got to Usagi. Usagi could feel his eyes on her paper. She rolled her eyes. 'Here we go again.'  
  
He looked closely at her paper and frowned. "Usagi…" The whole class stopped what they were doing and looked to Usagi. Anything that was even remotely interesting, the kids would always stop for. He tried to make out what Usagi had written. "I can't read most of this. And the words that I can read," He leaned in closer to get a better look at the paper, "Are misspelled. Oh wait, there are some words that are spelled correctly." He looked to Usagi before he walked away. "Work on that penmanship ok?"  
  
Usagi watched as he walked away. She could hear the quiet laughter of her classmates. Except Minako and Makoto. They never laughed at her. Usagi shot a sharp glare at the class and they quickly quieted down fearing what would happen if they angered her. She smiled to herself. It felt good to have the upper hand. She leaned back into her chair as she studied her paper. She didn't see anything wrong with her writing. It looked totally readable. At least…to her it did. She looked up at the clock, which read 11:33. Two minutes until lunch. She couldn't wait. She was starving. Usagi looked to Minako and then to Makoto. They were already packing up for lunch.   
  
Usagi noticed Mr. Koch walk up to the front of the room. She put her pencil down in front of her on her paper that she had written all of her spelling words on. She pulled her lunch out of her book bag, which sat on the floor by her chair. "Ok class, at this time, you are dismissed to lunch. I expect you to be back in your seats and ready to continue where we are leaving off." He looked at Usagi, "And I expect you to write your words a little bit better."  
  
Usagi tried to hide her face. She hated it when he singled her out like that. He always picked on her. He knew that it was because she was different then everyone else. She knew that it was because she had a tail. He always picked on kids who were a little bit different. No one in she class seemed to be starring at her when she looked up. They were all to busy running out of the classroom to get their lunches and hang out with one another. Usagi was glad that he did it then, when everyone was too excited to take notice. She stood up from her chair and stretched. She looked to Minako. "I hate it when he does that. He always picks on me."  
  
Minako frowned as she looked at her teacher. "I know. It's like he likes to see you get in trouble. That's why he always sends you to the principal's office. I think he wants to see you beat someone up." She picked up her lunch bag off of the table and waited for Makoto.  
  
Makoto was digging through her bag. "I don't know why he doesn't do that to us. He has a thing against you." Makoto pulled her lunch out of her book bag and stood up. "Oh well, there's nothing we can do about it."  
  
Usagi shook her head. "I can try to tell my daddy. I tried telling mamma about it, but she just told me to 'obey his rules and there will be nothing for me to worry about.' She never listens to anything I have to say. She acts like I don't know what I'm talking about." Usagi began walking to the door with her friends. She wanted to get out of that classroom as soon as she could.   
  
Minako glared at Mr. Koch, right before they had gotten to the door, he threw himself in front of the door, preventing the girls from leaving. Usagi immediately knew that it was because of her. Mr. Koch looked at Usagi and then her two friends. "You two may leave. I want to speak to Usagi." Minako and Makoto didn't budge from their spots. Anything that he had to say to Usagi, he could tell them too. They would end up hearing about it from her anyways. He glared at the two girls. "Alone!"  
  
The girls rolled their eyes as the left the room. Before Minako was totally out of the door she turned around and looked at Usagi, "We will be waiting for you at the usual spot." Mr. Koch slammed the door in Minako's face. She stood outside the door and put her arms on her waist. "That was rude!" She yelled it so it could be heard down every hall way in the school. Before someone came Makoto grabbed her friend by the arm so they wouldn't get in trouble. She began to drag her down the hall and out onto the playground. Minako tried to kick her way out of Makoto's grasp. "Makoto, what are you doing? I wanted to listen!"  
  
Makoto let go of her friend's arm. "Don't worry. Usagi will tell us what he said. She always does. We pretty much know what he's saying anyways. He's just being a jerk like he always is." Minako nodded in agreeance. Makoto DID have a point.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi followed Mr. Koch as he walked to his desk. She didn't have any idea what he wanted to talk to her about, but she knew it was just going to be about something stupid like it always was. She stood in front of his desk and placed her hands on it. "Can we just get this over with? I'm really hungry." Usagi could feel her stomach begging to be fed.  
  
Mr. Koch looked up at Usagi. He hated it when she spoke to him like that. "As you have probably guessed, this is about your grades. They don't look to well right now." He pulled out a green grading book and opened it up to a page with all of Usagi's grades on it. "Now look here." He pointed to her name and then scrolled down the long list of assignments and grades. "You have basically a C to C plus average in all categories." Usagi followed his finger with her eyes. She didn't see what the big deal with a C was. It was good enough for her father and it was good enough for her. He looked up at her. "Most of the kids in this class have a B to A average. You, young lady, have to lowest grades. I'm sure your parents are not sending you to come to school just for you to scribble on your paper." Usagi opened her mouth to protest but he continued before she had a chance to say anything. "I can hardly read any of your writing. You have very poor penmanship."   
  
Usagi had heard this lecture before so she really didn't take any of his words to heart. He pulled out an envelope and Usagi grabbed it from him. She examined it and then looked at her teacher. "What's this?"  
  
Mr. Koch put his grade book in his desk. "It's a letter to your parents explaining you grades and your non-effort to improve them. I want one of your parents to sign it and then I want you to return it to me. If you fail to do this I will make sure you get detention." He grinned. He liked to get her in trouble.  
  
Usagi looked back down at the letter. She cringed at the thought of her mother reading it. She knew that she would make her stop training. She had already threatened her before if she didn't shape up in school. She decided that she wouldn't give it to her mother. Her father would do just fine. He always signed her progress reports. He didn't really care about grades. Just as long as she tried her best. She smiled at her teacher. "Ok. I can do that!" She said it in such a carefree way. She knew that it would make him made if she sounded like she didn't care and that's exactly why she did it. She loved to make people made when they deserved it. She turned around and skipped out of the classroom.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi met her friends out on the playground where they had eaten their lunches for the past 6 months. They were already digging into their lunches when Usagi sat down in-between them. She had a frown on her face. Makoto and Minako knew by her facial expression that their teacher had once again done something horrible to her. Usagi opened her lunch bag and pulled out a plastic container and looked up. "Man he makes me so mad! Why does he always have to pick on me? I never did anything to him." She smashed the container with her hand. "I wish he would just leave me alone."  
  
Sensing Usagi's anger, Minako decided that she had better say something before Usagi hurt someone. She placed her hand on her friend's shoulder. "Usagi, calm down. It's ok. Just tell your dad. I'm sure he'll do something about it." Minako knew she wasn't getting through to Usagi. She was just too stubborn to listen.  
  
A ball flew up and hit Usagi's knees forcing her to drop her lunch on the ground. She looked up and saw an older kid running towards her and then looked back down at the ball. She picked up her lunch and replaced it on her lap.  
  
"Hey! Could you kick that here?"   
  
Usagi looked back up to the kid. She was one of the kids that used to hang out with Haruka. One of the kids that laughed at her at the beginning of the year before. She smirked. "Yeah, I'll kick it there." She said quietly to herself. She stood up and put her lunch on the bench behind her. She tuned around and walked up to the ball. Still with a smirk on her face, Usagi kicked to ball as hard as she could to the girl. She watched as it missed it's target, flying right passed it, and hit a concrete pillar. It immediately popped when it hit. "Oops," She said with a slight hint of laughter in her voice. "Sorry about that!" She laughed as she turned around and sat down by her friends.  
  
Makoto starred at Usagi as she began eating her lunch. She had never seen Usagi pull anything like that before. "Usagi, what did Mr. Koch say to you?" He had to have said something awful to her. Otherwise she wouldn't have acted like that.  
  
Usagi ate as fast as she could. She was starving. She looked over to Makoto, who was starring at her with her big green eyes. "He gave me another letter to get daddy to sign. He said I'm not making an effort to raise my grades. He also said that I have the lowest grades in the class." Usagi go angrier just thinking about it.  
  
Makoto had no idea why their teacher was so mean to Usagi. He seemed to be taking pleasure in seeing Usagi suffer. Usagi had never done anything to him. She always respected his rules, she never spoke up in class, and she never had any sudden outbursts of energy. "Usagi, you should really tell your dad."  
  
Usagi shrugged, "Well see what happens."  
  
Makoto couldn't believe that Usagi was going to take that from a teacher. Just because he WAS a teacher, didn't mean he could treat her like that. She knew Usagi was suffering from it. She could see it everyday.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku arrived at his daughter's school when it ended. It was time to start their training for the day. He waited for them in the main courtyard, where he had witnessed Usagi show Haruka and Michiru just what she was made of. That was the day she had really gotten serious about fighting. It was like she craved the power that came with it. He was proud of her but she had a tendency to loose her temper. He worried about that. She was always picking fights with Vejita especially. She usually ended up getting beaten in the end. She wasn't at his level yet, and he worried that she may get herself hurt one of these days. Goku never could figure out why his daughter had taken so much to Vejita. He was always mean to her and said some pretty rude and obnoxious things but she still loved to be around him.   
  
Goku's thinking was interrupted when he noticed Usagi. She had already changed into her weighted GI and was running towards him with a white paper in her hands. Goku knew exactly what it was. It was a note from her teacher. She had been getting a lot of them lately, always saying the same thing. That his daughter was basically a troublemaker. That she was stupid. It never said it in those exact words, but that's the message he got out of it. He never did like her teacher. "Hi sweetie!" Goku scooped his daughter up off of the ground and held her in his arms. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and then set her down again. "What's this?" He asked as he grabbed the paper out of her hands.  
  
Usagi watched as her father opened the letter. "It's a letter from Mr. Koch, I think it's bad." Usagi hated to give him these letters. They were always bad news and he usually got pretty upset when he read them. The only reason why she even bothered giving them to him was because she needed to get them signed.   
  
Goku read the letter carefully. It wasn't something that he hadn't seen or heard before. His face became angry as he crumpled the paper in his hands. Goku looked down at his daughter. She didn't look stupid to him. Usagi backed away from her father. He had never reacted like that before. "Usagi, I'm not mad at you." He motioned for his daughter to come back to him. She obeyed. "I'm mad at this Mr. Koch fellow. I'm tired of him always sending these stupid letters home for us to sign. I don't care about your grades just as long as you get C's or better."  
  
"That's what we have been trying to tell her all along, Goku." Minako ran up from behind Goku with Makoto. They were watching the whole thing from behind the same bush that he had hidden behind when he watched Usagi teach Haruka who was boss.  
  
"Yeah, we've been telling her to tell you about how he treats her, but she won't listen to us." Makoto looked to Usagi. "It's kind of annoying when one of your best friends doesn't listen to you when you know and they know that you are right." Makoto was always blunt when it came to her feelings.  
  
Goku looked back at his daughter. "I'm not signing this. It outrageous and I know you aren't stupid so there is no need for me to sign it. You'll just have to tell him not to send any of these letters home anymore." He turned around and began to walk to the parking lot.  
  
Usagi got wide-eyed as she listened to her father. She would get at least a week's worth of detention if she told him that, let alone the detention for not returning the letter. She grabbed her father by the leg, stopping him. "No daddy! You have to sign it, if you don't, I'll get detention." She looked up at him, hoping that he would agree to sign it.  
  
Goku looked back and down to his daughter. He frowned. "What? So he's blackmailing you is he?" Goku couldn't just stand by and let him do that to his daughter. He wouldn't let it happen. Something had to be done about this. "Girls, come with me." He began walking back to Usagi's class. He knew exactly where it was, for he was just at an open house with Chi-Chi a few weeks before.  
  
Usagi let go of her father and planted herself on the concrete. "No. You can't. If you do, he'll be even more mean to me." She sat with her legs crossed as she also crossed her arms.  
  
Goku stopped and turned around. "Usagi, something has to be done. Now let's just go and be done with it." Usagi didn't say anything. She just closed her eyes and turned her head. Goku didn't know why she had to be so stubborn about everything. Vejita had warned him that girls are like that. It was just something that he would have to put up with from her.  
  
Minako walked up to Usagi and tapped her on the shoulder. "Come on Usagi. Let's just go. Your dad can't do anymore harm then good." She grabbed her arm and tugged on it. Usagi wouldn't budge from her place.  
  
Goku sighed. He would have to take her by force if she didn't go by will. He walked up to her and stood behind her. He wrapped his arms around her stomach and picked her up. "Let's go young lady."  
  
Usagi hung in her father's arms. She tried to kick him but she knew it was no use. He didn't feel a thing. She looked back over her shoulder. "I just want you to know how much I dislike you right now daddy."   
  
Goku smiled down at his daughter as he carried her to her classroom. "I love you too sweetie."   
  
Makoto and Minako laughed as they traveled behind Goku. Usagi looked behind her. "I'll remember this when you're being carried away against your will." She waved her arms around in the air as they approached the door. "This isn't fair!" Just as Usagi yelled this, they had reached their destination.   
  
Goku set his daughter down on the ground and held onto the back of her neck so she wouldn't stray away. He looked down at her. "Don't worry Usagi. This is for your own sanity." He opened the door and led his daughter in. Minako and Makoto followed them in and closed the door behind them.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mr. Koch looked up from what he was doing. At that moment he was writing the schedule for tomorrow's class. He saw Goku and remembered that he was Usagi's father. He stood up and took his glasses off and then walked towards his visitors. "Why hello Mr. Son, it's so nice of you to drop by. To what do I owe this visitation?" He looked down to the ground and saw that Usagi was trying to hide herself behind her father. Mr. Koch smiled. "Hello Usagi." Usagi poked her head out from behind her father. Once she made eye contact she quickly bobbed her head back behind his legs. Mr. Koch looked back up at Goku who didn't look too happy.  
  
"It's about this letter I got from my daughter today." He handed Mr. Koch the wadded up piece of paper.   
  
Mr. Koch frowned at the paper that sat in his hand and then at Minako and Makoto. He hated how they always had to be with Usagi, wherever she went. He looked back up at Goku. "Are they with you, or Usagi?"  
  
Goku looked at his daughter's friends and then back at her teacher. "They are with both of us." Goku could feel his daughter's hands clasp around his waist. He knew that she was really hating this right now, but in the long run, it was a good thing that he was doing this for her. He put his hand behind his back and rested it on her head.  
  
Mr. Koch frowned. He hated it when those two we able to listen to what he had to say to Usagi. "Ok, I take it you didn't appreciate this note?"   
  
Goku looked at Usagi's teacher like he was and idiot. Obviously he didn't appreciate it otherwise he would have been yelling at Usagi by now. "I don't agree with it, no."  
  
Mr. Koch didn't like Goku's attitude. "Are you saying you don't care if your daughter gets a good education?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "Of course I care. But I hardly think that C's are bad grades. And as for her effort to improve those grades, you don't know my daughter like I do. I know that she tries very hard to get good grades. She is just and average kid. Stop tying to make her something she is not. I'm tired of you always telling me that she is stupid." Goku was making himself angrier as he went on. He had now pulled himself out of Usagi's grasp and was in Mr. Koch's face. "And further more, I will not sign anymore of those stupid papers telling me how much you think that she is stupid, because I don't care if she is getting C's. I'm proud of her for that."  
  
Koch backed away from Goku. He didn't like how close he was getting so close to him. He laughed. "You are proud of her? How can you be proud of," He pointed to Usagi, "That?"  
  
That wasn't exactly the best thing in the world to do with Goku standing right there. He looked back to Usagi. She was about to cry. He could sense it. He turned back to her teacher and grabbed his arm. He slightly squeezed it. Of course, slightly squeezing to Goku is a major squeeze for 'normal' people. "Do not EVER do that again!"  
  
Mr. Koch struggled to get out of Goku's hold. He was cutting off blood circulation to his arm. "Let go or I will call security." Goku didn't want to start anything so he released the man's arm. Mr. Koch grabbed his arm and started rubbing it. "What are you? Some kind of demon?"  
  
Goku frowned as he shook his head. "No, just a Saiyan!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Saiyan?! The Prophecy is coming true. I must warn the others before it's too. The Saiyans are still alive!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku walked up closer to Mr. Koch, "If you ever harass my daughter again, your hide is going to be mine." Goku had kept up with the not cursing in front of his daughter. He had only slipped once and that time she didn't even hear him because she was too busy fake crying.  
  
Mr. Koch stared at Goku in the eyes. He feared him. He was strong. He didn't want to mess with the daughter of a man THAT strong. "Fine. Tell your daughter to write more legibly though. She has horrible handwriting." He rubbed his wrist. It still throbbed with pain.  
  
Goku could deal with that. It was true. She didn't write too well and most of the time he couldn't read her handwriting, but now wasn't the time to comment about it. He turned to Usagi who was leaning against the door with her hand on the handle. She was ready to leave at anytime. He laughed quietly. "See, that wasn't too bad now was it?"  
  
Usagi nodded. It was horrible. She never expected her father to threaten her teacher like he had. She was in for it even worse tomorrow for sure. Of course, if he messed with her, all she would have to do was tell her dad and he would patch things up nicely. "I guess not." She looked to Minako and Makoto. They were laughing hysterically.   
  
Goku walked to the door. "Come on girls, let's go get some training done. We don't want today to be a total waste do we?" Goku turned back to Makoto and Minako who were standing up from their chairs.  
  
Makoto was the first to the door. "Nope. I feel like fightin' today anyways." She made a fist and play swung at Usagi. Usagi blocked the hit with her arm and play hit Makoto in the stomach.  
  
Mr. Koch watched the two girls. He couldn't believe that Goku was training such young girls to be fighters. He looked at Usagi and then back at her tail. He had always wondered why she had a tail. Now he knew. Her father wasn't even human. He glared at the three girls as they walked out of the room. He would have to watch himself around them if he wanted to stay in good health.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku led the girls outside and stopped when they got to the parking lot. "Ok girls. Let's get running." The girls were now at the point in their training when they could run long distances and not get so worn out as much as they did when they had first started. "Come on, today you have to try and run faster. I'm upping my expectations on you."  
  
Minako rolled her eyes. It would be a piece of cake. She knew she could run faster then they had been going for the past couple of months. "Alright, I'm ready. Let's go."  
  
Usagi nodded to her friend. "Yeah, let's just get this over with. I'm going to beat you guys when we get there too." She started prepping herself for the run. Not that she needed it. She could run two miles in about ten minutes, sometimes even shorter. She went slowly to be with her friends though. Soon after her training began, she learned why she was so quick to learn new things. Her father had sat her down and told her how she was a Super Saiyan. When she had asked him why, he just blushed and told her that he would tell her when she got older. She couldn't wait to find out.  
  
Makoto snorted. "Yeah right Usagi, I can beat you. I beat you just last week." She stretched her legs. She had stopped taking her martial arts class after the incident with Haruka and Michiru. It was a waste of time. She learned more from training with Goku in a week then she had learned with her two years put in at that school. "I beat you before, and I'll do it again. Well, actually, Today." She smiled.  
  
Usagi grinned. "You really believe that don't you? Well, we'll see just who the better fighter is."  
  
Minako listened to her friends arguing. She couldn't just sit around and let them talk big with out her. "You guys are both full of it. I can beat both of you no problem." It was true too. Minako had, on more than one occasion, beaten them in a sparring match.  
  
Goku laughed as he listened to his pupils argue. He loved to watch them. It was like a big game to them. They had never been in a serious fight with anyone like Cell, or even Majin Buu. He hoped that they would never have to encounter that. "Come on ladies, let's stop talking big and actually show each other what you've all got." He watched them all look and glare at each other. He loved that. He could sense their hunger for a fight. "Let's go!" He didn't wait for them before he started running. He had set the pace faster then normal.  
  
Usagi, Minako, and Makoto stopped what they were doing and ran after Goku. He always stayed right in front of them so they could always have him clear in their view. Makoto and Minako kept up to the new pace very easily. Goku always kept the pace right at their level. He didn't want to overexert them. He didn't want that to happen after what happened to Usagi the year before.  
  
Goku looked back over his shoulder many times to make sure that he hadn't lost anyone. He didn't want that to happen again either. He smiled as he thought about his news. He couldn't wait to tell the girls. They would be so happy. They would finally get to try out their strength in a real fight. Usagi would especially be happy. She had been begging him to do it ever since she first heard about it. I'll tell you later. He, he, he He would wait until after their training for the day so they could fully concentrate on what they were doing.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Are you sure we should do it, Kiro. Are you sure it's the right thing to do?"  
  
"I'm sure. I hate to do it, but the prophecy has never been wrong before. We must. I'm sorry to have to do this. Let's do it the most peaceful way we can."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi shot a Ki blast at Makoto who barely dodged it and shot one back at her in retaliation. She looked down at her leg where it had nearly hit. "Almost Usagi, you have to work harder then that to hurt me thought."  
  
Usagi jumped up into the air to dodge the green blast and was greeted with Minako's hand. She wrapped her hand around Usagi's face. She had been waiting for someone to jump in the air for her to grab. "Got you now, Usagi." She laughed and lifted her knew to Usagi.   
  
Before Minako had a chance to make contact, Usagi stuck out her hand and blasted Minako. She couldn't see where she hit her. Minako released her hand and let Usagi go. Usagi was the one laughing now. "Don't mess with the master."   
  
"Yeah, that master would be me!" Makoto came up from behind Usagi and shot a Ki blast at her. Usagi didn't have time to dodge and was hit.  
  
"Oww!" She grabbed her back with her hand as she turned around to look at Makoto. "You shouldn't have done that." Usagi hurled herself at Makoto. She grabbed Makoto by the hair and started to pull it. Makoto yelled out in pain as she looked around for Usagi's hair that hung down from her Odangos. When she finally found some she pulled on it.  
  
Minako watched as her two best friends yelled and pulled on each other's hair. She smiled to herself. "They make this all way too easy." She concentrated all of her energy into one giant Ki blast and released it on her friends. She watched as it spiraled to them at full speed. It made a direct hit. Neither of them was watching Minako. They were too busy pulling their hair to realize. They fell to the ground, both with the other's hair still in their hands.  
  
They continued to go at it back and fourth even as they were falling. When they hit the ground, they were still going at it. Usagi would through a punch and it would hit its target. Then Makoto would throw a punch and hit her target. They both wrestled each other on the ground. They got into little spats like these often.  
  
Goku sat back and watched as Minako landed beside him. Goku looked to his left at the little girl who stood by him. "These two crack me up. This always happens. They always end up fighting for real. One gets mad at the other and it's all over. I just love these little cat fights."  
  
Minako laughed. "Yeah, but at least they aren't really mad at each other. They are over it as soon as the spar ends."  
  
"Yeah, after I pull them apart, which it looks like I'm going to have to, AGAIN." Goku had them fighting each other for about two hours now and it was time to quit. He walked up to them and softly kicked them. "Girls, it's time to stop for the day." They didn't listen to him. They just continued to roll around as they fought each other. Makoto had gotten a hold of Usagi's hair again, while Usagi was continuously kicking and punching at Makoto. Goku sighed. He waited until Usagi got top again and pulled her off. Or at least, he tried to. She didn't let go of Makoto and Makoto didn't let go of Usagi. Goku pulled both girls off of the ground. "God, not again." He shook Usagi up and down hoping that Makoto would get the picture and let go. She did. She let go and fell back to the ground. Goku held Usagi up as high as he could. "You aren't getting her Makoto." He could feel Usagi struggling to reach Makoto in his hand. Makoto jumped up to where Goku was holding Usagi up. Goku also jumped in the air. As she flew up, he also flew up. "Give it a rest Makoto."  
  
Makoto finally gave up and landed, Goku did the same. He knew better then to let Usagi down at that point though. Usagi looked down at Makoto and stuck out her tongue. "You can't get me na, na, na, na, na."   
  
Goku looked up at his daughter. "Usagi, cool it for a while." He set Usagi down. "Don't try anything." Usagi knew he was serious. He looked back at Minako and waved for her to come over, once it was safe. "I have some good news for you guys."  
  
Usagi loved surprises from her father. They were always good. "What?!"  
  
Goku looked down at the girls as they eagerly awaited his answer to her question. "I have entered you in the Budaki Tournament that will be taking place in the city in about tree weeks. It will prove just how much you have learned. It will also show your weak spots. That way, I will know what to train you on."  
  
(K! That's it for the first part of chapter 2. What do you think? Is it good? Is it bad? You tell me. Please review. Thank you ^_^)  



	20. Part 2

Usagi stared at her father with excitement. She hoped that she had heard him right. She thought about how many days she had spent begging him to let her enter the tournament. He had always said one thing, and one thing only to her and that was 'No.' She had thought that maybe he didn't think that she was good enough to go up against other fighters. She put her hands together in front of her face as her eyes twinkled with joy. "Really? You mean you're going to let me go to the tournament?" Usagi prayed that he was not just playing a dirty trick on her.  
  
Goku could tell that his daughter was incredibly happy. He loved to see her happy but he liked to be the one to make her happy even more. It made him feel good inside. He nodded as he looked down at his daughter, who was barely able to control her excitement. She looked as if she was about to burst. "Yes, I entered you. I didn't tell you until now because I wanted to see if it was something you really wanted to do."  
  
Usagi threw herself to her father's arms as she smiled. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you daddy! This is so perfect!" Usagi wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly.  
  
Goku leaned down to return his daughter's hug. "Your welcome sweetie." He lifted his head so he could look at Minako and Makoto. He hadn't heard them say anything. He hoped that they weren't upset about it. They had asked a few times with Usagi, but not nearly as many times as she had. He got the message that they too wanted to go. "What about you guys? Are you up to it? It's good training."  
  
Usagi pulled herself away from her father and turned to look at her friends. "Yeah, come on you guys. It will be fun. We can finally show everyone what we are made up."  
  
Minako and Makoto looked at each other. They didn't even have to think about it. They already knew what each other's answers were. Minako turned her head back to Usagi and smiled. "Of course we're going. We wouldn't miss this for the world." Minako spoke for Makoto.  
  
Usagi jumped up with her hands in the air. "Yes! Yay! We get to go to the Budaki Tournament. It's going to be so much fun. Yay! Yay! Yay." Usagi was now hoping around with excitement. She had finally burst and couldn't hold it in anymore.  
  
Goku laughed as he watched his daughter hop up and down. She was so energetic. More energetic then either of her two brothers were. He never knew where she got it. He, as a kid, had been very active, but never as active as she is. He loved her though. He loved everything about her. Her innocence, her energy, her love for life, and just her whole personality. She was a unique person indeed. He put his hand on her head to try and stop her hopping. "Usagi, calm down. If I brought you home this hyper, your mother would think I went out and got you drunk."  
  
Minako laughed. "Mrs. Chi-Chi sure is strange."  
  
Makoto rubbed her head. It still stung where Usagi pulled on her hair. "Yeah, and strict."  
  
Goku looked to Minako. "Yeah, but she's not a bad person. She may yell a lot, but her intentions are good. She just wants what's best for Usagi." Goku knew that the six-year-olds didn't understand what he was talking about. They didn't understand a lot of things yet for they were still very wet behind the ears. Goku all of a sudden felt a sensation that he had never felt before in his entire life. A tingling feeling struck his nose. He tried to hold back but a sneeze found it's way out.  
  
Usagi stopped her hopping and looked at her father. "Daddy? What was that?" Usagi had never seen her father sneeze when nothing was near his nose to tickle it.   
  
Goku looked at the ground. Nothing seemed to come out of his nose or mouth. "I think it was a sneeze." Goku scratched his nose.  
  
Minako and Makoto were as confused as ever. Makoto walked up to Goku as he was thinking and tugged on his GI. "Why are you so surprised? Everyone sneezes."  
  
Goku looked down to the curious girl. She had no idea that Saiyans just don't sneeze for no reason. "You know that I'm a Saiyan." Makoto nodded as Usagi and Minako joined her in front of Goku. Goku continued. "Saiyans don't get sick. Ever. For any reason at all. That means we don't sneeze either unless something tickles our noses. That's why you have never seen Usagi," Goku raised his and pointed to Usagi, "Ever get sick. We have better resistance then humans."  
  
Usagi listened to her father's words. He had never explained to her why she never got sick. It was just a fact of life that she didn't. "But you told me about the Trunks from the future and how he had to give you medicine."  
  
Goku focused on Usagi. "That was a little different. That was no ordinary disease and many people died from it. I was lucky that Trunks came." Goku could see that his daughter was getting nervous. "Don't worry Usagi, there is a cure now. But anyways girls, as I was saying, I had no reason to sneeze just now. It just came out."  
  
Usagi looked to the ground. "What does this mean? Is there another virus going around?" Her eyes widened as she grabbed her father's GI and pulled it as she looked up at him. "Are you going to die?" She could feel tears forming in her eyes.  
  
Goku knew he had to stop he quickly. This was not the place to get emotional. "Usagi, don't worry. It was just a sneeze. Nothing is going to happen. Maybe Saiyans can just get sick when they get older. Who knows." He grabbed her arms. "There is nothing to worry about. I promise."   
  
Usagi hoped that he was right. She didn't know what she would do without him. He was the person who held her together. The person who got her out of every bind that she had ever been in. She let go of his GI. "I'm hungry daddy."  
  
Makoto felt her stomach growling at her to feed it. "Yeah, so am I. I'm tired too." She wanted to go home and relax. She had had a long day.  
  
Goku looked down at the girls. He decided that he should let them stop for the day. He didn't want them to work when they were too tired and hungry to do so. It would have been too hard and they would have stopped caring. They wouldn't have done all that they could have. "Ok, I guess we should call it a day."   
  
Usagi didn't want to part with her friends. She was too excited. She wanted to talk about the tournament with them. "Daddy? Can they come over for dinner?"  
  
Goku rubbed his head. "Uh…I don't know about that." Goku didn't have a problem with it. He was worried about how Chi-Chi would react. Last time he just let them drop by, after they left, both him and Usagi got yelled at.   
  
Usagi looked up at her father with begging eyes. "Please? Pretty, pretty, please?" Usagi gave him her best "puppy dog face" that she could as she walked towards him. She knew he couldn't resist it and that's why she did it.  
  
Goku hated it when she did this to him. He just couldn't say 'no' to a face like that. She looked so cute. It had already been hard for him to say 'no' to her before, now she had to throw something like that on him. He put his hands out in front on him as he backed away from her. "Usagi, you know how much I hate it when you do that." Usagi didn't stop. "Usagi…" Goku really did not want to get yelled at by Chi-Chi again.   
  
Makoto and Minako laughed as they watched Usagi manipulate her father. He was like putty in her hands when she did this. Goku finally stopped. "Alright, alright. They can come over."  
  
Usagi stopped too and smiled. "Yay! Thank you daddy." She turned back to Minako and Makoto. "So, can you guys come over tonight?" Usagi hoped that they could. She knew her mother would get angry but she didn't care. She would just have to deal with getting yelled at. Usagi learned to deal with it some time ago.  
  
Minako was the first to speak. "Yeah, I don't think my parents care. They will probably just think I'm still training anyways." Minako loved to go to Usagi's house. They always had so much fun. They usually ended up making fun of her dad.  
  
Makoto wished she could but she couldn't. Her parents were very strict about what time she was to come home. The last time she had just up and gone to Usagi's without telling them, she was grounded for a week. "I'm sorry Usagi, my parents will go nuts if I go."  
  
Usagi was disappointed. She really wanted both of her friends to come over. "That's alright Makoto. I understand." At least she still had Minako going with her. "So are you going home now?"  
  
Makoto nodded. "Yeah. I guess I should." She jumped in the air. "Good bye Usagi, Good bye Minako, Good bye Goku! See you tomorrow." She waved goodbye to her friends and flew back to her home.  
  
Usagi and Minako waved to Makoto. They watched her as she disappeared into the sunset. Usagi turned around to her father. "So, are we going to go now?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yeah." He turned to Minako. "Be prepared. Usagi's mother may just be a little bit upset when we get home. Don't take it personally." Goku really didn't want to listen to her again. He was getting quite tired of it lately.  
  
Minako knew never to take any of Chi-Chi's yelling personally. She knew that she just had an anger problem. "Don't worry about it Goku. I'm never bothered by it." She turned to Usagi. "And if she does, I'll just tell her it was all your fault."  
  
"What!? How dare you!" Usagi was ready to pounce on Minako.  
  
"Usagi…" Goku buried his face in his hand. "Please don't start this right now." Usagi had a tendency to take things too far.  
  
Usagi stopped what she was doing. She knew he was upset about something. She could see it. She hoped that he wasn't mad at her. "I'm sorry."  
  
Goku picked his face up out of his hands and looked down at his daughter. "Don't be. Let's just get out of here."  
  
~*~*~  
  
When the trio arrived at the house, Goku made sure that the girls stayed outside. He wanted to tell Chi-Chi when Minako wasn't in the house. He found her in the kitchen, making dinner. She was humming a song to herself when he snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.   
  
Chi-Chi jumped. "Aaahhh!" Chi-Chi dropped her spoon in the pot of stew she was making. She turned her head to see who was there and smiled when she saw that it was just her husband. "Goku, don't sneak up on me like that. You can make someone go crazy like that." She looked back to her pot. "Now how am I supposed to get the spoon out?"  
  
Goku buried his face in her hair that lay on her shoulder. "I'm sorry Chi-Chi."  
  
Chi-Chi moved her eyes back to her husband. She knew he was up to something. He was never THIS loving unless something was wrong. Whether it is for good or for bad, she knew the SOMETHING was up. "Goku, what's wrong?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi and Minako watched them from a window of the kitchen. Usagi didn't know what they were doing. She had never seen her parents do that before. "Minako, what is daddy doing to mamma?"   
  
Minako looked over to Usagi. She couldn't believe that she didn't know what her father was doing. "He's hugging her. All parents do that. My parents call it "adult time" and I'm not allowed to be around when they have that time."  
  
Usagi was confused. Her mother should have been yelling at the top of her lungs by now. Instead they were hugging. "Well do you think it's safe to walk in? Mamma hasn't yelled yet, maybe she won't yell at all." A sound of hope came out with Usagi's words. She poked Minako in the arm, who was still looking in the window. "Come on, let's go."  
  
Minako pulled herself away from the window and stared at Usagi. "Are you sure we should?" She peered back in the window. They seemed to be talking now.  
  
Usagi grabbed her friends arm and pulled her. "It's fine. Let's just get inside. I have something I want to do. Hehehe." Usagi grinned evilly.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku stared at Chi-Chi's jet black eyes. He didn't want to make her angry. She was so happy and seemed content with him. "Nothing is wrong Chi-Chi, honest." Chi-Chi wasn't sure what was going on. She wasn't sure if she should believe him or not. Goku got closer to her face. His lips neared hers. She closed her eyes, ready for the kiss.  
  
"Hey mamma, hey daddy! What cha' doin?" Usagi burst into the room and ran to the table. Minako followed her in. She wasn't sure if she should be there. She didn't think that Goku had told Chi-Chi about her being there.  
  
Goku and Chi-Chi pulled away from each other, quickly. Chi-Chi went back to her stew while Goku turned around and glared at the intruders. Sometimes having a small child around the house was not a good thing. They could never do anything with them around. Goku bent over and rested his hands on the table. He lowered his head so he would be eye level with his daughter as she crawled up on the chair and sat on her knees. He had a hint of a smile on his face. "What are you doing in here? I thought I told you to stay outside."  
  
Usagi, wide eyed as ever, knew that they were trying to hide something from her. She looked at her father and then glanced over at her mother. "What were you guys doing in here?" She curiously looked back at her father.   
  
Minako tired to hold back a giggle. She knew what they were going to do. She also knew that if Usagi continued her questions her parents wouldn't be able to answer. Minako had asked her parents MANY questions a few months ago and her parents' faces turned beet red. She couldn't understand why. All she asked was where babies came from and they totally freaked out. They never even told her. It was from a moment like this that her question arose. That's when she learned about "Adult Time".  
  
Goku moved in closer to his daughter and put his finger on her nose. "That, young lady, is none of your business." She would find out soon enough. She didn't need to know now. He turned his head back to his wife. She hadn't seemed to notice that they had a guest. "Chi-Chi, I have something I want to tell you." He got up from the table. "Umm…you see…Usagi wanted to have Minako over for dinner…and well…I said she could." Goku backed up so he would not be within the firing range of her anger.  
  
Chi-Chi turned around to Minako and smiled. "Hello Minako." She turned to Goku. "I knew that already Goku. I'm not an idiot." She turned back to her cooking.  
  
Minako smiled. "Hello Mrs. Chi-Chi."  
Goku and Usagi were both relieved. They hadn't expected Chi-Chi to be calm about it. Goku sat down at the table again and sighed. 'I guess I made her really happy or something. Otherwise she would have gone ballistic.' He turned to his daughter who was still sitting on her knees. Minako stood behind her. "Usagi, tell your mother about your day at school."  
  
Usagi shot her eyes open as wide as they go. She turned her head to her father so she could look in straight in the eyes. "What? What are you doing daddy?" Usagi didn't want to tell her mother. She knew that she would just end up getting in trouble. She always did. In her mother's mind, the teacher was never wrong.  
  
Goku nodded. "Go ahead. If you don't, I will. Your mother needs to know."   
  
Chi-Chi turned around and crossed her arms. She stared at her daughter and husband. "What do I need to know?"  
  
Goku glanced at his wife and then back at his daughter. It was obvious that she wasn't going to say anything so he turned his head back so he could look at Chi-Chi while he spoke to her. "It seems as though her teacher has taken a liking to picking on Usagi. He keeps sending notes home for her to get signed telling us how stupid she is, and how she is the dumbest kid in the class." Goku could see the fire beginning in Chi-Chi's eyes.  
  
Usagi jumped off of her chair and ran behind her father and covered his mouth with her hands. She looked up at her mother and smiled. "He doesn't know what he's talking about, mamma."  
  
Chi-Chi was angry. She was angry with two people. Herself and her daughter's teacher. "Don't worry. I'm not going to yell at you. What did you do Goku?"  
  
Goku pulled his daughter's hands off of his mouth. "I did what any sensible parent would do. I told him if he doesn't stop harassing her, he would have to deal with me." Goku felt the tingling sensation in his nose again and sneezed. He rubbed his nose. "Excuse me."  
  
Chi-Chi was surprised. "Goku, did you just sneeze?"   
  
"Yeah, that's the second time today." Goku stood up and got some tissue from the family room and blew his nose.  
  
Chi-Chi and the girls followed him in. "Goku, you never sneeze. You aren't getting sick are you?" Chi-Chi never wanted to see him get sick again. She had been through that once before and hoped that she never had to do it again.  
  
Goku through the tissue away in a little garbage bin that sat on the floor next to the table that the phone sat on. "I know. I keep sneezing for some reason though. I'm not getting sick. Saiyans never get sick." He could feel his nose getting plugged up as he spoke. 'What's wrong with me?'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Half way home, Makoto stopped flying so she could walk. She wanted to enjoy the sunset while it lasted. The air smelled extra clean that day too. She was enjoying herself quite nicely. She passed the park where she had met Usagi. She remembered that day quite well. She remembered the match that she and Usagi fought. She remembered why she had called the match. That was probably one of the best things that she could have done. She got to meet some really strong people after she met her.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Is that the girl boss?" A man dressed in all black from head to toe lurked behind a tree as he watched Makoto walk by.  
  
"Yeah, she is the daughter of that Saiyan. She has to be. A saiyan is not capable of producing a golden haired offspring."  
  
"Right. We will keep her under close surveillance."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Minako sat in Usagi's room with her. She was playing with one of Usagi's hand held video games. "So, what did you want to do so badly that it just couldn't wait until after your dad talked to your mom?"  
  
Usagi got her evil grin back as she sat in her swivel chair. "I want to play a game with daddy." Usagi pulled a purple box out from underneath her bed.   
  
Minako took one look at the box and knew exactly what her friend was thinking inside her little head. She rubbed her hands together. "Let's have some fun, Usagi."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yeah." She walked to her window and saw her father doing some training by himself. "This WILL be fun." She turned back to her friend. "Ok. Let's go get him."   
  
Usagi and Minako left the room and walked down the hallway that led into the living room. Usagi noticed her mother in the kitchen. She was still standing over the stove stirring her stew. "Hi mamma. When is dinner going to be ready?" Usagi wanted to have enough time to do what she wanted to do.  
  
Chi-Chi turned her head and looked into the family room. "Hi Usagi, hi Minako. Dinner will be ready in about a half-hour. Tell your father for me. Tell him to get cleaned up too."  
  
Usagi turned to the door. "Ok! Come on Minako. Let's get daddy cleaned up for dinner."  
  
"Yeah, this should be REALLY fun." Minako followed Usagi out of the house. She saw Goku sparring with an imaginary partner. "Goku!"  
  
Goku turned and looked at the house. He saw Usagi and Minako running for him. He smiled. "Is dinner ready?" Goku was starving. He hadn't eaten since right before he picked up the girls for sparring practice. His nose was also still stuffed up.   
  
The girls each grabbed one of Goku's arms. Usagi started walking back to the house first. "Not yet, but come on. Mamma says we have to get you cleaned up for dinner." Minako began pulling on his other arm.  
  
Goku allowed his daughter and her friend to pull him closer to the house. He couldn't figure out why they were so eager to get him cleaned up though. He didn't think he was THAT dirty. "What's the rush girls?" Neither of them answered, they just pulled him faster as they giggled. He knew they were up to something.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Minako slammed the door shut when they finally got back to Usagi's room. She walked up to Usagi's pink swivel chair that sat at her desk. "Please Goku, sit down."  
  
Goku suspiciously looked at Usagi and Minako's face. He wasn't sure he wanted to sit down. "Shouldn't I wash up in the bathroom?" He turned to walk out of his daughter's room.  
  
Seeing this, Usagi raced past her father and blocked the door with her body. She didn't want her plan for fun ruined. She smiled as she looked up at her father. "Please sit down daddy. We just want to play a game with you. It won't be fun without you." He didn't seem to react. "Pleeeeese?"   
  
There was that face again. He just couldn't resist it. He knew he was going to live to regret his next action. "Alright." He sighed as he walked back to the chair and sat down in it. "What's this game called Usagi?" He looked into the mirror that sat in front of him. He had a pretty good hunch about what it would be called.  
  
Usagi walked up behind her father and smiled. "It's called 'Let's make daddy look pretty'." She opened the purple box that sat to his left.  
  
Goku was right. Usagi did want to put makeup on him. Vejita once warned him about this. He once told him to never be pulled into your daughter's room if they seem like they are up to something. Goku had been warned, and had not listened to the warning. 'Oh god. This is going to be interesting.' He looked in the box. In it was all the makeup that Bra had gotten her for her last birthday. He would have to thank her for it one of these days.   
  
Usagi picked up one of her brushes. "Ok daddy, first, I'm going to comb your hair. It's really messy." She began to run the brush through his wild hair. "While I'm doing this, Minako is going to put nail polish on your fingers."  
  
Goku wished that he hadn't agreed to this. If either of his sons saw him like this, it would be all over for him. He would never live this day down. He didn't even want to think about what Vejita would do. He looked over to Minako, who was applying bright red nail polish onto his fingers. His head was harshly pulled back by Usagi's brushing. "Usagi, take it easy. That hurts."  
  
Usagi set the brush down. "Sorry." She examined his hair for a few minutes. "Well, your hair doesn't want to be good, so I'll put it up in pig tails." She smiled. "Then you can look kind of like me. Wouldn't that be cool daddy."  
  
Goku rolled his eyes. "Yeah, real cool." 'What have I gotten myself into.' He looked over at Minako again, she had just finished up with his nails. "Are you finished now?"  
  
Minako stood up from kneeling. She shook her head. "Nope. I still have to put your makeup on." She rummaged through the box full of makeup and found the perfect colors. Her job was only do one side. Usagi wanted to do the other. She found a container of dark blue eye shadow. She held it up to his eyes. "This looks nice." She opened it up and began to put it on hie right eye.  
  
Goku was kicking himself inside. He couldn't believe he was letting them do this. He couldn't back out now. "How long is this going to take?" He looked straightforward into the mirror and saw that Usagi had finished with his hair. She had managed to put it up into two pigtails on the top of his head. 'Oh god, what will Chi-Chi think?'  
  
Usagi grabbed the box of makeup and looked through it. She noticed that Minako was already done with everything except for the lipstick, which she was applying at the moment. "I don't like the blue eye shadow…I like purple." She opened up the container of purple eye shadow and put on her father.  
  
Minako jumped back from Goku. "Done!" She explained to both of them. She looked at his face. "I think he looks cute, Usagi."  
  
Usagi stopped what she was doing and looked at her father's face. "He does. You hear that daddy, you look cute."  
  
Goku groaned as he looked at himself in the mirror. Usagi put orange blush on him while Minako had put on pink. Usagi was now putting on bright blue lipstick. Minako put on red. He looked like a clown. He would never let Usagi do this to him again. He would make sure of that. "Are you finished yet?"  
  
Usagi pulled back a ways, she wanted to look at her father from afar to see if it looked good. She smiled. "That looks cool daddy. But you're missing something." She pulled out a small compact and opened it. White powder sat inside under a small pad. She pulled the pad out and quickly applied the powder to her father's face making everything a little bit more pail, which was ok with Goku because all of the make up was on way to thick. Usagi stepped back again. She grabbed her chin. "Nope, still missing something. I know." She went to her jewelry box and pulled out a fake pearl necklace and fake pearl clip on earrings. Her mother wouldn't let her pierce her ears so she had to get clip on earrings. She ran back to her father and put on the earrings and necklace. She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the chair. She turned back to Minako. "What do you think?"   
  
"Perfect, just perfect."   
  
Goku stood with bright orange blush on one cheek, with bright pink on the other. He had one Blue eye and the other purple. One side of his lips was red and the other was blue. His hair was done up in pigtails. He looked at himself in the mirror and sighed. 'Girls. What a bother.'  
  
Usagi grabbed her father's arm. "Come on daddy. Let's go show mamma." Usagi pulled her father out of her room. Minako waited for them to leave before she left. She wanted to make sure that Goku didn't try to run away. She laughed as they walked to the kitchen.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi pulled her father into the kitchen. "Look mamma. Look at daddy!"  
  
Chi-Chi put some spices in the stew. "Honey I can't be bothered right now I…" She looked over at her daughter and was shocked at what she saw. "Oh my god…" She walked up to Goku to look at him closely. "What did they do to you Goku?"  
  
Goku wanted to get that crap off of his face as soon as possible. "They made me over."  
  
Chi-Chi stood back and laughed. "I guess so. You do look so beautiful though. I may have to get jealous if some man checks you out."  
  
Goku sarcastically laughed along with his wife. "That's right Chi-Chi, keep laughing. It will happen to you one of these days. Just you watch."  
  
Chi-Chi walked back to her stew. "Well, dinner is ready."  
  
Goku turned around to go to the bathroom. His daughter and Minako stopped him. "What?"  
  
Minako held her hand out. "Where do you think you're going?" Minako knew where he was going, she just wanted to catch him in the act.  
  
Goku hoped they didn't expect him to stay like that. "I'm going to wash all this off."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. "You don't like it?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "Of course I like it. I love it. I just don't want your mother to get jealous of someone who can attract more men then her." Goku looked back at his frowning wife. Usagi and Minako didn't have the foggiest idea what he meant by that.  
  
Chi-Chi put 4 plates on the table. "Oh that's ok dear. I think it's lovely. I think you should keep it on all night."  
  
Goku wanted to scream out 'no' but didn't because he didn't want to hurt his daughter and Minako's feelings. He knew that this was how Chi-Chi was getting him back for inviting Minako over. He knew he couldn't get off that easily. He faked a smile as he looked down at the two wide-eyed children. "Well I guess I have to…I mean get to stay beautiful." Out of no where, Goku sneezed again.  
  
(Ok, that's it for this chapter. What do you think of this part? Is it good or bad? Please review, thank you ^_^)  
  
  



	21. Part 3

Goku tossed and turned as he slept. He was sweating like mad. Chi-Chi lay awake next to her husband. She had never seen him so restless. She sat up and looked down at him. She could tell that he was getting sick, but she didn't know why. He had never gotten sick a day in his life. Well, he did come down with that heart virus, but that was an exception. From what Chi-Chi could tell, Goku was just coming down with a cold. She was beginning to get worried. 'Goku shouldn't be getting sick like this. Why is he getting sick? He's a Saiyan. Saiyans don't get sick.' She watched as he slept. He didn't look very peaceful. She put her hand on his forehead. He didn't feel like he had a fever. That was a good sign. At least he wasn't coming down with the flu. At least, she hoped that he wasn't.  
  
Goku opened his eyes. He found that he had to breathe with his mouth open. His nose was totally stuffed up. "Chi-Chi?" He sat up. He immediately felt an enormous pressure in his temples and eyes. He grabbed his head with his hand. "Ahhh!" Goku had never felt a pain like this before. It was more then he had ever imagined it would be.  
  
"Goku!" Chi-Chi grabbed him into her. She let him rest his head on her. She ran her fingers through his hair. "What's the matter Goku? What are you feeling?" It was unbelievable. Chi-Chi never imagined that she would have to do this with Goku.  
  
Goku grabbed his hair with his hand and pulled on it. He couldn't stand it. The pain was too great. "Pressure…in eyes. Pulsating beating…in my temples." Goku winced as a sharp pain shot through his head. He wanted it to go away. He made a fist and punched the wall. "Why won't it just go away?!"  
  
Chi-Chi didn't know what to do. She had never had to care for someone who was sick before. "Be quiet Goku. You will wake Usagi." Chi-Chi understood his pain. He had a migraine, something else Saiyans are lucky enough not to experience.  
  
At that moment, Goku didn't care if he woke up the entire city. He just wanted the pain to go away. There was something wrong with him. That had to be it. There was just simply something wrong with him. He was getting ill for the first time. "What's wrong with me? I shouldn't be getting sick." Goku picked his head up off of Chi-Chi when he heard the door squeak.  
  
"Mamma, daddy, what's wrong?" Usagi stood in the doorway with a blanket wrapped around her. She HAD been awaken by her father's voice after a loud pound. She looked at her father. He had beads of sweat running down his face and body. She gasped. "Daddy!" She ran to the bed.  
  
"Usagi, everything is fine. Daddy is just fine." Goku winced again when a sharp pain ran up the right side up his body. He leaned into his wife again.  
  
Usagi climbed onto the bed and looked at her father closer. She put her hand on his arm. "Daddy…" She could feel tears forming in her eyes. He was getting sick. She knew the only way for him to get sick was if it was a REALLY horrible virus.   
  
Chi-Chi looked down to her daughter. "Usagi, your father is going to be ok. He's just got a little cold right now." She put her hand on her face. "Your father is strong. Nothing can keep him down. He will be better in about a week. Just give it time." She could feel her husband taking fast heavy and breaths. 'You better be ok Goku, if not for me, then for your daughter.' She stared down at her husband.  
  
Usagi looked back at her father. She could tell by his small whimpers that he was in a lot of pain. "Isn't there anything you can do mamma?" Usagi didn't take her attention off of her father. She was really worried about him. Usagi finally looked over at her mother when she hadn't responded to her question. Her mother looked horrible. Like she too was about to cry. "Mamma!"  
  
Chi-Chi looked to her daughter. "I think so. I will try to give him some aspirin. Hopefully that will make the pain settle down a bit. I will bring in some cold pills too. It will help him sleep." Chi-Chi lifted her husband up off of her and crawled out from underneath him. She gently laid him down where she had been sitting. "Don't bother your father Usagi." Chi-Chi left the bedside and walked out of the room.  
  
Usagi watched as her mother left. She looked back down at her father. He lay on his side with his eyes closed. His arms thrown out in front of him while his body looked like that of a dead carcass in the wild. She listened to his heavy breathing as she sat on her knees. She didn't know what to think. This was all too much for her to take in at once. She crawled forward and placed her hand on his arm. His skin was clammy, not a good sign. Usagi was afraid that something was going to happen to him. She pulled her hand off of his arm and lay down by him.  
  
Goku opened his eyes. He saw his daughter lying in front of him. He knew she was scared. He was too. He had never felt this way in his entire life. This wasn't normal. He shouldn't be getting sick like this. He felt better when he was lying down, though. He extended his arm and wrapped it around Usagi. He pulled her close to him. "It's ok Usagi. There is no need to worry." Goku wasn't sure if he could believe himself on that one. He just didn't want Usagi to be scared. He hated doing this to her. What he didn't want to happen in her life, had. He may have to leave her like he didn't want to. He knew this would happen. It was as if he wasn't supposed to live a happy life with his children. Or worse, his children weren't supposed to live a happy life. Both Gohan and Goten hadn't lived great lives. They were ok, but not fantastic. Goku wasn't there for seven years of the boys' lives, and when he was, they were usually fighting or training for a fight. By the time the attacks on earth had stopped, Gohan was already grown, and Goten was at the age where he was becoming rebellious. He looked up just as Chi-Chi was walking into the room. She was carrying a glass of water in one hand, and a small box and a small round container in the other.  
  
"Here you go Goku." She turned on the light. She noticed her daughter lying with her husband. "Usagi, I told you not to bother your father. I know you're worried but…"  
  
Goku pulled his arm back and slowly sat up. His eyes were still trying to adjust to the newly formed light. He grabbed his head as the pain increased when he sat up and leaned against the headrest. "It's alright Chi-Chi. She wasn't bothering me. She was just comforting me." Goku grabbed Usagi and pulled her into his lap.  
  
Chi-Chi sat the medicine and water on the table by Goku's side of the bed. She opened a small white bottle. "I just wanted to make sure she wasn't annoying you." She pulled out two small white pills from the bottle and re-closed it. She picked up the glass of water and handed it to her husband, along with the pills. "Take these, they should make the headache go away, or at least take the edge off a bit."  
  
Goku reached over the head of his daughter and grabbed the pills and water. He put both pills in his mouth and washed them down with a big gulp of the water. He waited for a moment and looked to Chi-Chi as if something was wrong. "They aren't working."  
  
Chi-Chi laughed. "You have to wait for them to kick in. Don't worry, it shouldn't be too long. Here, now take these. They should allow you to sleep more soundly." Chi-Chi pulled out a silver holder from a blue box. She punched out two yellow pills from it and handed them to her husband.  
  
Goku grabbed the pills. He swallowed those too. "I hope these work. I feel horrible." Goku scooted down into the bed a little bit more, taking Usagi with him. He closed his eyes. "Chi-Chi, I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you live through illnesses like this."  
  
Chi-Chi sat down on the bed and shrugged. "Eh, I get around. It's not fun, but you do learn to live with it after a while." She grabbed Usagi off of her father. She held her in her arms and looked down at her. "Hopefully, you won't ever have to go through this." She looked back to Goku who was now resting his eyes. The medicine seemed to be starting to work. "I'll call Bulma in the morning. I want her to run some tests on you. You know, to see what's wrong with you."  
  
Usagi looked up at her mother. "Can I go too?" She wanted to find out what was wrong with her father as soon as possible.  
  
Chi-Chi shook her head. "No, you have school. You can't just take off a day."  
  
Usagi had a pretty good feeling that her mother would say that. "Please mamma, its only one day." Usagi really wanted to go. It wasn't fair. He was, after all, her father. She should be there with him.   
  
"No, don't ask me again. If I let you take off every day that you wanted to, you would be in school maybe once a week. I can't do that. You have yourself to worry about. Let me and your father worry about this." She put Usagi on the ground and stood up. "Now let's get you off to bed. You have to wake up early in the morning." She grabbed her daughter's hand and began walking to the door. "I'll be back Goku."  
  
Usagi turned her head as she walked. "Goodnight daddy."  
  
Goku lifted his head just in time to watch Usagi walk out of the room with his daughter. "Goodnight sweetie." He lay his head back down on the pillow beneath his head. The pressure in his head was beginning to dissipate and thanks to those cold pills he could breathe again. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to fall into a peaceful sleep.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi covered her daughter with her blankets. She rubbed her hand in her hair and smiled down to her. "Please try not to worry about your father Usagi. We will get to the bottom of this." 'I hope.'  
  
Usagi faked a smile for her mother. She wouldn't believe anything that she said until she saw results. She wanted them to go down to Bulma's now and test him, but she knew that that was entirely impossible. "But daddy isn't supposed to get sick. Something is wrong, I just know it." She could feel it. It was a horrible feeling. Something seemed out of place.  
  
Chi-Chi was now worried about her daughter too. If something were to happen to Goku, she was afraid that Usagi wouldn't know what to do with herself. She was too attached to her father for her own good. Just like Gohan had been. Gohan had suffered so much when his father had died. "Usagi, please. Don't think about it right now. The important thing is for you to get some sleep now. We can talk about it tomorrow after school. I want you to come to Bulma's. We will be waiting for you there. Now go to sleep little one." She bent over and kissed her daughter on her forehead. When she came back up she could see the fear in her eyes.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi woke up at 6:30 when her alarm was set to go off. She sat up and held her head in her hands. She groaned as she remembered what had taken place only a few hours ago. 'I don't want to go to school. This isn't fair.'  
  
She jumped out of her bed and walked to her door. She stopped when she got in front of her desk. On it sat her Dragon Ball. The same Dragon Ball that had started everything. She smiled when she thought of the day that she had taken it back from Michiru. She could still see the expression on her face clearly in her mind. She would never forget that day. She quickly got herself away from her thinking and walked into the living room. She saw her father sitting on the sofa with his head bent backwards so it could rest on the back. "Daddy, are you feeling any better yet?" She hoped he did.  
  
Goku picked his head up and looked at Usagi. She was still in her bed cloths and hadn't done her hair yet so it still hung down past her shoulder blades. He smiled. "Hey there Usagi. I'm feeling a little better this morning. Your mom's pills seemed to work pretty well. I just feel a little bit nauseous that's all. Did you sleep very well." Usagi shook her head. "I guess last night was pretty rough on all of us." He looked at the clock on the wall. "I guess you should get ready."  
  
"Are you still going with me to school?" Usagi didn't think that he would, but it was worth a try to ask.  
  
Goku wanted to, but he couldn't. "No, it's not safe for me to do anything that consumes too much energy. You are going to have to go on your own. I'm sorry sweetie."  
  
Usagi understood. She didn't want to put her father in anymore danger than he was already in. "That's ok daddy." She looked behind her at the bathroom door. "I guess I should go now. I don't want to be late." She turned around and walked into the bathroom so she could take her bath.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi was listening to her mother on the phone while she was eating her breakfast. She listened to what she was telling Bulma, who was on the other line.  
  
"So then last night, Goku woke up and was in some major pain. I had to give him some aspirin and cold pills to calm him down. I don't know what to do Bulma. He has never gotten sick like this. Not like a cold or flu anyways. Usagi is really worried about him. I had to lie to her and tell her that everything will be all right. Goku seems to be fine right now, but I want to know why he is getting sick."   
  
Bulma couldn't understand what would make him so sick either. "And you say it all started with a sneeze?" This interested Bulma.  
  
"Yes. What do you think it could be? Is there a new virus going around or something?" Chi-Chi wrapped the phone cord around her wrist.  
  
"I don't know, you see, the reason why I asked about the sneezing thing is because Vejita has been sneezing too. We were wondering about that too. But now that this thing with Goku has come up, I'm completely baffled about the whole thing. I think it WOULD be a good idea for the two of you to come down today. I want to do some tests on both Goku and Vejita so we can see if we can match anything up." Bulma wasn't sure if she would like what she would find but it had to be done. They had to find out what was wrong with their husbands. "I'll watch Vejita closely too."  
  
Chi-Chi's mood just got worse. Something WAS definitely wrong. It wasn't just Goku, but Vejita also. "Thank you Bulma. We will probably be down in a couple of hours. I have to make sure Usagi leaves in time and then we will be on our way."  
  
Usagi listened to her mother. 'She lied about daddy being all right?' Usagi all of a sudden didn't feel like eating anymore. She was too nervous now. Her stomach did flip flops inside her as she got up and put her plate on the counter. She turned around and saw her mother walk into the room.  
  
Chi-Chi looked at her daughter and then up to her half-eaten meal. "Usagi, you really should eat. You need the energy."   
  
Usagi stared at her mother. 'Why did you lie to me mamma?' "I'm not hungry. I can't eat anymore." She began to walk to the door. She wanted to leave. She was angry with her mother. She shouldn't have lied to her like she had.  
  
Chi-Chi walked to the counter and grabbed Usagi's lunch bag off of it. "Usagi, don't forget your lunch." She followed her daughter out into the living room. Usagi was putting her book bag on her back. Chi-Chi took her opportunity to open the bag on Usagi's back and stick her lunch in it. "I want you to at least try to eat something today. I don't want you to starve yourself."  
  
Usagi turned around to look at her mother. She decided not to make matters more complicated then they already were. "Ok mamma. I will." She tried to smile, but it's kind of hard to smile when your father has gotten sick for the first time and you don't know why.  
  
Chi-Chi understood what Usagi was going through for she, herself, was going through the same thing. She had been through it before. She knew a little bit about handling this kind of situation, but Usagi did not. It was totally new to her. "We will be waiting for you at Bulma's today. And please, come alone. Don't bring your friends toady."  
  
Usagi nodded as she walked to the door. "I better get going. I don't want to be late. Tell daddy I said good bye." With that she walked out the door. She looked up at the sky. The sun had risen and the birds were singing. She sighed as she jumped in the air and began to fly to her school.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Everyday, Makoto would walk to school. She only lived about a mile away and it didn't take her that long to walk it since she had been training with Usagi and her father. She enjoyed the time to herself. She was able to walk along the roads by herself with barely anyone else around. It gave her time to think without any distractions.   
  
A cool breeze blew against her as se walked. It felt good against her skin. She had been cooped up inside a hot house for the past 6 hours and a nice breeze felt wonderful. It was rather refreshing.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Two men followed Makoto very closely. They were undetected by her. She could not see them nor could she hear them. The taller being stopped. "Okori, check your computer. I don't think that this girl is Saiyan."  
  
The being named Okori pulled out a small red computer from his pocket. He began punching in buttons on it. A red screen with black words. The computer 'bleeped' at Okori. "Tarupa, this girl is species two-two-nine-one-zero-six."  
  
The being named Tarupa clenched his fists. "No good. She is clearly human. But that man, the Saiyan, he has a daughter."  
  
Okori stepped forward as he watched Makoto walk forward. "Maybe they adopted. I don't even see a tail on her. I didn't see a tail on the other two girls either. I guess we should move on with the process. We don't want the prophecy to come true again."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi arrived at school later then usual. She walked into her classroom with five minutes to spare. Mr. Koch just glared at her. On a normal day, he would have yelled at her for coming in so late. He always liked to take role early and hated it when students walked in that late. But today wasn't a normal day. He was afraid of what would happen if he messes with her again. After what her father had done to him the day before, he knew better then to harass her anymore.   
  
Usagi sat in her chair. Minako and Makoto had already been seated and were showing each other current issues of their favorite anime magazines. Sorry, I had to put that it Usagi slumped down into her chair with a rather loud thud. She crossed her arms on the table and buried her face in them.  
  
Minako and Makoto stopped what they were doing and looked to their friend, who seemed upset about something. Minako, being the sweet and loving person she is, wanted to help her if she could. "Usagi, what's the matter? I don't think I've seen you this upset since Mr. Koch sent you to the principal's office for supposedly talking back to him." Minako always worried about her friends. She didn't like to see them upset. Usagi mumbled something into her arm. Minako looked at Makoto. They were both confused. "Usagi, we couldn't understand that. Could you please repeat that for us?"  
  
Usagi lifted her head. "Daddy is sick. Really, REALLY sick. I heard mamma talking to Bulma. She said she had to lie to me about daddy being ok." Usagi didn't want to be at school that day.  
  
Makoto sympathetically looked at her friend. "Usagi, I thought your dad couldn't get sick." She could tell that that was the wrong thing to say to her. Right after she said that, Usagi's skin color in her face became pale.  
  
"I know that Makoto. That's why it's really bad that he's sick. He said that he felt better this morning, but he shouldn't be sick at all." She looked up at her friends. "I'm scared you guys. What if something really bad happens to him? What if he…" Usagi's eyes widened. "Dies?" She could feel her gut turning inside her. That was not something that she wanted to think about. She couldn't imagine her life without her father. Neither could I .   
  
Minako placed her hand on Usagi's shoulder. "Don't worry Usagi. Your dad isn't going to die. From what I hear, he's really strong." Minako couldn't understand how he had gotten so sick in such a small amount of time. He was fine when she was there. He was fine when they played their little game with him.  
  
Usagi thought about it for a little while. "Maybe he won't die. Maybe I'm just being silly about this whole thing. Maybe daddy is right, that he is ok. I hope he is."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi drove as fast as she could to Bulma's. Goku was in the back of the car, lying across the back seat. Right before they had left the house she had given him some more medication to keep the pain from rising up again. She could hear him whining behind her as she drove. "We will be there soon Goku just hand in there. Maybe Bulma can concoct something for you. Something that will work with Saiyans."  
  
Goku grabbed his head. "It's not the sickness. It's your driving. You're making me dizzy back here. You really should be more gentle when you drive."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Here I am, trying to do something nice for you, and all you do is make fun of me. Honestly Goku, even when you are in the worst situation you still make foolish jokes."  
  
Goku laughed as she drove on. He loved to do that to her. She was so easily pissed off. "You know I can't resist a good joke." Chi-Chi picked up a map from the seat beside her and threw it at her husband.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi sat and tried to listen to Mr. Koch's lecture about the class' last math test. He was going on about how poorly everyone did. "You guys never ask questions so I guess that you understand. If you don't understand something, you need to ask me questions." He looked around to the class. Most of the kids didn't even look like they were paying attention. He laid his eyes on Usagi who had her head down on her portion of the table. She was being the rudest of all. She had fallen asleep in his class. "Miss Son." No answer. "Miss Son! Answer me now!"   
  
Usagi slowly lifted her head. She knew that she deserved that but she was in no mood to listen to him go on about responsibility. She glared at him? With a sharp tone in her voice she replied to her teacher. "What!?"  
  
The whole class gasped. Usagi normally stayed quiet and took his crap from him. This was a first from Usagi. Actually, this was a first for anyone in the class. Not one single person in that room had ever talked back to a teacher like that before. Some of the kids laughed while others listened for more sass from their classmate. Makoto and Minako were especially shocked at Usagi's behavior. Normally, she respected authority. She must have really been upset to do THAT.  
  
Mr. Koch stared at Usagi. He knew that he had a REAL reason to discipline her now. "You know young lady, you have been very rude to me all day and this just tops it off." He looked around to the faces of his students again. They were all paying attention now. They wanted to see what happened next. He frowned. "I don't know why all of you have to be so rude."  
  
Now Usagi frowned. She was tired of him always trying to throw his weight around. Just because he was a teacher didn't excuse the fact that he was down right rude. She stood up. "Maybe because we are tired of you always yelling at us. Maybe because you're a jerk. All you do is talk. You are way boring and no one likes you." Usagi angrily waved her tail behind her. She couldn't believe what she had just done but she also didn't care. She wanted to get kicked out of class. She wanted to be in piece and quiet with no one else around. She needed time to calm herself down.  
  
Mr. Koch could hear the laughter of his students pouring in on him. His face turned red. If she was his daughter, he would have turned her over and let her have it real good for that. He pointed at the door. "Out in the hall, NOW!" He watched as Usagi threw her chair out from behind her and walked to the door. "Go back." Usagi turned around. The whole class was starring at her. "Go back and push in your chair." Usagi ignored him. She wanted to spite him, so she turned around and walked out the door, kicking it shut with her foot. Mr. Koch grabbed a ruler off of the chalkboard ledge and broke it in half. He turned to his class. "Behave while I am gone. I need to deal with her."  
  
Minako couldn't sit by and watch her friend get yelled at on top of her being upset. She stood up. "Please Mr. Koch, she is going through a rough time. Don't push her."  
  
Mr. Koch looked over at Minako. "Do you want to get kicked out too Miss Aino?" Minako couldn't believe it. He didn't care. She shook her head. "Then I suggest you sit down and shut up before you do."   
  
Minako sat down as she was told. She watched her teacher walk out of the room and then turned to Makoto. "I hope Usagi gives it to him good."  
  
Makoto nodded in agreeance. "Yeah, and in the mood she's in, there is no doubt that she will. I would do the same thing."  
  
A boy with short spiky hair stood up. "Well I think Usagi is cool for what she did. She is the only one who had the guts enough to say that to him. We all know it's true."  
  
~*~*~   
  
Usagi saw Mr. Koch standing by her out of the corner of her eyes as she sat in the hallway against the wall starring at the wall in front of her. "What do you want?"  
  
Mr. Koch crossed his arms. "You seem to be forgetting that I am the teacher and you need to respect me."  
  
Usagi snorted. "Respect?" She stood up and faced her teacher. "Why don't you start respecting us, and then we will start respecting you. You are the meanest teacher I have ever met." Usagi was now as close to Mr. Koch as she could get. She could feel her heart racing inside her. She knew that she was going to get into some major trouble and her parents would be notified. She wouldn't fight it either. She knew the consequences of what she was doing. She would accept her punishment and live with it.  
  
Mr. Koch had never in his life had a child speak to him like this before. He was shocked at her behavior. "Young lady, I suggest you shut your mouth before something happens." He stuck his index finger in her fact.  
  
Usagi smirked as she crossed her arms. She just wanted to be left alone. "Make me." That did it. By school rules he was allowed to take action now and her parents knew the rules so they couldn't get mad at him. He raised his hand and slapped her in the face. He expected her to start crying but she didn't. Instead, she just grabbed her face as she looked up at him. She seemed calm. "I deserved that."  
  
Mr. Koch was shocked. He definitely did not expect that response from her. "Yes you did."  
  
Usagi frowned. "You weren't supposed to agree with me."   
  
"You weren't supposed to talk back to me."  
  
"You weren't supposed to be an idiot like you were." She turned around so she didn't have to look at him anymore. "Why don't you just leave me alone? I don't want to deal with you right now."  
  
Mr. Koch didn't want to deal with her right then either. "Why don't you come back into the room. You will sit in the back of the room at the time out table for the rest of the day. I don't want to hear another word from you or else I will send you down to the principal's office and request a harsh punishment. After school, we will talk about your behavior and fill out a referral form. It will be sent in the mail to your home."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes. 'So what. This guy needs to stop running his mouth. I'll tell mamma and daddy about it today. If I tell them now, they won't care. They will be too caught up in what's wrong with daddy.' Usagi began thinking about her father again. She hoped that he was ok.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi and Goku arrived at Bulma's around 10:30 in the morning. Chi-Chi looked into the back of the car. Her husband was sound asleep. "Goku, wake up, we are here."  
  
Goku opened his eyes. His wife was hovering her face over him. "Hi sleepy head. We're here. Let's go see what's wrong with you."  
  
Goku sat up. His nose was becoming stuffed up again. "Good, I need something to blow my nose in. I can't breathe."  
  
Chi-Chi looked at Goku like he was a baby. He was so cute and he sounded cute with his plugged nose. That didn't excuse the fact that he was sick though. "Ok, well, I guess we should get in there then."  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. What do you think? Good or bad? Please review, thank you ^_~)  



	22. Part 4

Goku used Chi-Chi as a brace while he walked to the front door of the house part of Capsule Corp. He could walk just fine on his own except for the fact that he got light headed when he did. Chi-Chi offered to let him use her as a brace. Goku couldn't wait for the test results. He wanted to know what was wrong with him. He vaguely remembered Chi-Chi saying something about Vejita also being sick. He was half asleep when she told him. He could very well have been dreaming that she mentioned it. "Chi-Chi, did you say that Vejita was sick too?"  
  
Chi-Chi re-adjusted her husband on her shoulder. He was heavier then he looked but she didn't mind. At that point she would do anything to help him. "Yes, I did. Bulma is going to test both of you and then compare both of your results." They continued walking up the pathway to the front door. Chi-Chi took one of her hands off of her husband's shoulder and rang the bell.  
  
Goku stood up on his own so Chi-Chi wouldn't have to hold him anymore. "I hope this works. I hate not knowing what's going on." He leaned against the wall and waited for someone to answer the door. He couldn't believe that this had happened. Maybe the common colds and flu's were now evolving into stronger strains and they were stronger then a Saiyan's immune system. That was a possibility, but highly unlikely.   
  
The opening of the front door interrupted Goku's thoughts. He watched as it was slowly opened. Behind it, stood Vejita in a white T-shirt and blue sweat pants. He didn't look too happy. He didn't look too healthy either. He was almost as pale as Goku. "So you guys are finally here, good, let's get this over with so I can go to bed."  
  
'That wasn't at all like Vejita,' Goku thought to himself. 'He's always worried about training. I don't think I've ever heard of him wanting to sleep during the day.' Goku stood up from the wall. "I agree, I want to rest too." Goku once again used Chi-Chi for support as they walked into the building. He looked over at her. "I'm not too heavy for you, am I Chi-Chi?"  
  
Chi-Chi was being weighted down quite a bit, but she didn't mind. "No. Don't worry about it Goku. It's not important. The important thing is to see what's wrong with you." Chi-Chi followed Vejita down a number of hallways with Goku on resting himself on her shoulder. "How much further is the lab, Vejita?"  
  
"Not too far." Vejita could feel himself getting dizzy as he proceeded to Bulma's lab. He just wanted to stop right then and there. His whole body ached. He used the wall to hold himself up straight. He stopped in front of a blue door and turned around. "We're here. Bulma is waiting for us already." He looked at Goku. He looked worse then himself. 'What the hell is going on?' He turned to face the door and put his hand on the handle and turned it. He slightly pushed the door, forcing it to open up.  
  
Inside the room, Bulma was sitting at a table. In front of her was a large computer. She turned her head. She was a bit surprised. Vejita looked like he had gotten worse since she last saw him when they had waken up in the morning. She looked over at Goku. He looked horrible. "Hi you guys." She stood up. "I guess we should get started. If you guys will just come over here." She walked over to a couple of chairs. (They kind of look like the chairs from the dentist office.) "I want to take a sample of your blood."  
  
Had she said this any other time, Goku would have totally freaked out. He hated needles, but he was in no mood to protest. It needed to be done anyways. In order for him to find out what was wrong with him. He unwound his arm from being around Chi-Chi's neck and staggered over to the chairs and sat down in one. Vejita did the same.  
  
Bulma put on a pair of rubber gloves and smiled down at her patients. "This may hurt a bit, but it's well worth it." She pulled out two needles from a box that sat on a table in between the two chairs.   
  
Goku's eyes widened as he watched she inserted one of the needles into Vejita's arm. It looked painful. He looked up to Vejita's face. He didn't seem to be bothered by it.   
  
Bulma extracted some of Vejita's blood and put it in a tube and placed a cap on it. She turned to Goku. "Goku, I know how you hate needles so I will be as gentle as possible." She hovered the needle over his arm.  
  
Goku closed his eyes. He couldn't watch the needle go into his skin. He could feel it all to well though. He winced as he felt the needle pierce through all the layers of his skin until it reached his vein. He could feel himself becoming even more nauseous the more he thought about it.   
  
Once Bulma had all the blood from her Saiyan friend that she needed, she yanked the needle out as fast as possible. It would have been more painful then if she had done it slowly. She rubbed a moist cloth that she had dipped in peroxide over the place where the needle had previously been. "There now Goku, that wasn't so bad now was it?"  
  
Vejita sneered at Goku. "And you call yourself a Super Saiyan, Kakkorotto. You are pathetic."  
  
Goku ignored Vejita. He was in no mood to get into an argument. He was tired and hungry and just wanted to go to sleep. "How long is this going to take Bulma?"  
  
Bulma labeled the tubes of the blood samples and held them in her hand. She walked to a machine that sat on a table, which was connected to another computer. "It depends. I want to make sure your blood is still normal. Then I want to scan your body for viruses. It will take a while. I do know that." Goku sighed and leaned his head back in his chair. The part under his chair was soft and comfortable. He could have gone to sleep right then and there. He rubbed his hands over his face. Bulma put a small portion of Vejita's blood sample into the machine and typed in a few keys. "If you were wanting to go to sleep, go ahead. I'll wake you up when I need to."  
  
"Thanks Bulma." He turned his head over to look at Vejita. He looked as though he had already fallen asleep. "Being sick really wears you out."  
  
Chi-Chi walked over to her husband and sat down in a chair that sat besides him. She looked at his pale face. She rubbed her fingers through his hair. The front was moist from sweat. She turned to look back at Bulma. "Shouldn't we check their temperatures?"  
  
Bulma turned around. "I guess we should." She pulled a thermometer out a drawer and threw it to Chi-Chi. "Here you go. Wait to take Vejita's. He can be really grouchy when you wake him up. You should leave that to me." She turned back around and went back to her testing.  
  
"Here Goku, open your mouth. I want to check your temperature." Goku didn't respond. "Goku, don't be difficult. The sooner you open up, the sooner you can go to sleep." This got a response out of him. Goku opened his mouth and allowed his wife to take his temperature as if he was a child. Chi-Chi waited for a moment before she pulled out the thermometer from his mouth. She brought it up to her face and read the temperature. "Oh my god."  
  
Bulma turned around. "What? Was that meant to be good?"  
  
Chi-Chi could have jumped for joy when she read the thermometer. "It's normal." She grabbed Goku's head and hugged it. "You hear that? It's normal." She smiled. "This is perfect." She let go of Goku's head and stood up. "I'm going to call Gohan and Goten and tell them what's going on." She thought for a moment. "Oh god, I hope they too are not sick."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi was supposed to be thinking about her behavior and why it was so bad. She didn't care though. She had more important things to think about. Like her father for instance. She couldn't wait until she got out of school so she could see him. She wanted to ask him if he was ok. She couldn't get him out of her mind. She sighed as she turned her head around and looked around the empty classroom. Everyone had been excused to recess about five minutes before then. Mr. Koch had looked her in the room alone until he came back. She was to stay at the timeout desk. She put her head on the desk and looked back forward to the wall in front of her and sighed. "What a day."   
  
She began to think about the Budaki Tournament. She should have been happy about it, but couldn't find a reason to be at the moment. Right now, the bad outweighed the good. "I wonder if daddy will be better in time to take us. He should be. It's three weeks away. He should be better by then."   
  
The sound of her teacher opening up the door made her stop thinking about the tournament and her father. She turned around and glared at him. Mr. Koch saw this. "Wipe that glare off your face young lady."  
  
Usagi didn't obey. She didn't care anymore. She just didn't care. She was tired of him. She was tired of him always yelling at her for no reason. She wanted to give him a real reason to yell at her. She leaned backwards in her chair. She knew that he hated it when students did this. She looked back at him as she put her arms behind her head and smirked at him.  
  
Mr. Koch didn't know what he was going to do with her. "Just because your father came in here yesterday, doesn't give you the right to act up now. Appropriate action will be taken if you don't start behaving." He put his hands on his waist. "Do I make myself clear? Now put all four legs of the chair down."  
  
Usagi ignored him. "My daddy won't care." Not in the current condition he was in he wouldn't.  
  
"Your father will care. Believe me. You may think he doesn't, but he will. I don't know why you hate me so much."   
  
Usagi looked at him like he was an idiot. Of course to her, he WAS and idiot. She stood up, pushing her chair back to the ground. "I hate you because you are rude. You always have been. You always pick on me. You call me stupid to my face. You told my daddy that I was stupid. Do you expect me to just sit by and let you be mean to me? My daddy taught me never to let by and let someone attack me, whether it be with words or by fists." Usagi was angrier now at him then she had ever been. She was finally letting her feelings fly free. She was pleased with herself.  
  
"One day you will learn that you can not talk to your teachers like this. And when you do it is going to be too late. You will already be in jail. That's where bad little girls and boys go you know, jail." He crossed his arms and grinned. He loved to intimidate children who tried to act big and tough. "You are going to grow up to be a bum."  
  
Usagi clenched her hands into fists. "You better watch yourself."  
  
Mr. Koch raised one of his eyebrows. "Oh, is that a challenge young lady?"  
  
"You could say that." Usagi lost control of her actions and ran for her teacher, fists out in front of her. She stopped right when she was about to make contact with his stomach. She pulled her fists back in. 'I can't do this. Daddy would be angry.'  
  
Mr. Koch jumped back. "If you touch me, it's all over. You will be expelled and will not be able to re enter this district again. You will have to leave your little friends." He grinned. "Come on, hit me." Usagi didn't move. "Come on. You know you want to." He taunted Usagi with his hands.  
  
Usagi resisted her urge to hit her teacher. "You call yourself a teacher, now start acting like one." Usagi walked back to the time out table, picked her chair up off the ground, and sat down in it.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi had just gotten off of the phone with Goten. He was doing just fine. He wasn't sick nor had he shown any signs of being sick. She was grateful to god for that. She wanted her sons to be ok. She didn't want anything to happen to them. She put down the phone and then picked it up again so she could call Gohan. She dialed his number and waited for someone to answer.   
  
Videl hurried out of her room to pick up the phone. "Hello?"  
  
"Hello, Videl?"   
  
Videl could hear the fear in her mother-in-law's voice. "Yes, Chi-Chi? What's wrong?" She walked back into her bedroom where her husband, Gohan, was laying on the bed.  
  
"Is Gohan there with you?" Chi-Chi looked over to her husband. He was sleeping like a baby. She smiled. She was still so happy that he didn't have a fever.  
  
Videl looked at Gohan. He too was currently asleep. "Yes, did you want to talk to him? He's asleep right now."  
  
"No, that's ok. I just wanted to ask if he has gotten sick at all in the past couple of days."  
  
Videl didn't know what to say. "Well…Chi-Chi…yeah, he has. He started to get a cough yesterday. We don't know why. He is a Saiyan right?"  
  
"Yes." Chi-Chi felt like her heart was being ripped out of her body. 'How could Gohan have gotten sick?'  
  
"He told me that Saiyans don't get sick. When he woke up this morning, he was a wreck. That's why he is sleeping now. Why?" Videl knew something was going on. How else could Chi-Chi have know to call about Gohan being sick?  
  
"Well, Goku and Vejita seem to have come down with something too." Chi-Chi just wanted it all to end. She didn't want to go through this again, especially, not with her son.  
  
"What?! How!?" Videl looked down at Gohan.  
  
"I don't know. I'm at Bulma's right now. They are getting tested for any viruses. Do you think you could get Gohan down here?" Now she had two people to worry about. This was not turning out to be a good day.  
  
"I'll be down there as soon as possible Chi-Chi. Just let me wake up Gohan. I'll see you there. Bye."  
  
"Please hurry. Bye." Chi-Chi placed her phone back on the base.  
  
Videl hung up her phone when she heard the click on the other line. She sighed. 'What are we going to do?' She walked over to her bed and sat down next to Gohan. She put her hand on his chest and shook him. "Gohan, wake up. Wake up. We have to go to Bulma's."  
  
Gohan groaned, as he was being shaken awake. "Why?"   
  
"Your father and Vejita are sick too. Your mother wants you to go there so Bulma can run some tests on you. Now get up." She stood up and turned on the light.   
  
Gohan covered his eyes with his hands to cover them from the bright light. "Fine." He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. Gohan thought about his wife's words for a minute until what she had said had finally clicked inside his head. "What? Dad is sick too?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi sat outside eating lunch with her friends. She was actually hungry. She didn't think that she would be, but surprisingly, she was. She took a sip from her bottle of orange juice. "Man, I hate Mr. Koch."  
  
Minako looked at Usagi. "What has come over you toady Usagi?"  
  
Makoto picked at her sandwich before she put it in her mouth. "Yeah, I've never seen you like this before. It's weird. You have never talked to Mr. Koch like that before."  
  
Minako grabbed a baggie from her bag filled with chips. "I know he deserves it, but do you really have to be the one to tell him? Your mom is going to freak when she hears about what you did."  
  
Usagi put her drink on the ground and hunched over, resting her arms on her lap. "I know. I shouldn't have done it. But I'm tired of it. I shouldn't have to put up with it." She lowered her head.  
  
Makoto put her hand on Usagi's back. "This thing with your dad has gotten you more upset then you admit, Usagi."  
  
Usagi looked up at her friend. "So what?" Her attention was turned onto a group of kids who now stood in front of her. It was all of the kids from her class. "Can I help you?"  
  
One of the girls stepped out from the crowd. "We think what you did was totally cool."  
  
A boy with blonde hair walked up from behind the girl. "We just wanted to tell you, that we totally and fully stand behind you."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Thanks you guys. That makes me feel a lot better." She stood up. "I'm sorry, but can you leave? I need time alone with Minako and Makoto." The group of kids didn't mind. They could tell that something outside of school was troubling their classmate. They all turned around and, once again, became scattered around the playground. She turned around to her friends. "It's strange you know. Last year they were all mean to me. Now they all love me." She sat down again. Usagi watched everyone. They were all running around and screaming at each other. She became quite jealous of them all. They looked so happy. Like they hadn't had a care in the world since the day they were born.   
  
Minako sympathized for her. "Usagi, they don't know what they like. Don't listen to them. We learned last year not to listen to. And as for Mr. Koch, don't worry about what he says. Why care about what they say? You don't like them so why does it matter?"  
  
Usagi had never heard truer words spoken out of Minako's mouth. Although, she did care what the people around her thought about her. She also knew that Minako cared too. It was too easy to care. "I just want to go home. I don't want to be here anymore today."  
  
Makoto put her lunch bag on the ground to give herself more room to sit. "Only two more hours and you can go see your dad." She could tell just by looking at Usagi that knowing that wasn't enough. "Come on Usagi. Let's take your mind off of this whole thing. Let's do something fun."  
  
Usagi stared forward. "Like what?"  
  
Minako thought for a moment. "I know! Let's get rid of some energy!"  
  
Usagi's head bobbed up. She wouldn't mind wasting some energy. She had been sitting at the time out desk all day and was getting rather antsy. "That would be nice. Maybe we should run around the track."  
  
Makoto liked that idea. Since they obviously wouldn't be doing any training that day after school, running the track was a good idea. "Yeah, let's see how far we can run."  
  
Usagi stood up and stretched. "Ok, we can't stop before eight times around. That's two miles. I know you guys can run that much." She grinned. "I'll bet I can run further then you two."  
  
Minako stood up. "Yeah right, girl, I'll lap you twice before you are even done with one mile."   
  
Makoto stood up too. "You guys are too full of yourselves. I'm going to be the one doing all of the lapping here." She smiled. "Let's go. I'll race you guys to the track."  
  
Usagi bent down so she could get a burst of speed when she started. "You're on! Let's go!" Usagi and her friends ran to the track as fast as they could. All of the kids on the playground stopped what they were doing and watched in awe the girls as they passed. They had never seen anybody run so fast in their entire life. Usagi laughed as she ran. "This is great. I can run twice as fast without my weights on." She was already beginning to forget her worries.  
  
They stopped when they got to the middle of one of the straights. Makoto got herself ready for the run. "Ok you guys, at least eight times around." She lowered herself to the ground. "Ready, on three. One…"  
  
Usagi also lowered herself once again. She looked up to her side and saw that half of the kids were watching. She put her head forward to look straight again. "Two…"  
  
Minako smiled. She was going to have fun. "Three!" The girls were off for their two-mile run. They ran a steady pace so they wouldn't tire easily. Minako could see that Usagi was pulling in front of her. "Are you making this a race, Usagi?"   
  
Usagi smiled. A race sounded nice. "Yeah, sure, why not?" Usagi sped up.  
  
Minako couldn't have that. She looked over at Makoto, who, in return, also looked at her. They nodded and Minako looked forward again. She readied herself. "Prepare yourself, Usagi." She placed her hands together and formed a small orange Ki blast in them. She fired it at Usagi.  
  
Usagi had looked behind her and seen the blast coming for her. Just jumped in the air and let it fly out from beneath her feet to the fence. "You gotta try harder then that you guys." She laughed as she kept running.  
  
Makoto looked back to the playground. Every single kid was now watching them as they trained themselves. She smiled to herself. Even the teachers who were supposed to be keeping an eye on the students were amazed. "We have an audience you guys." Usagi and Minako turned their heads to look. Makoto took her opportunity while she could. She smashed herself into Minako's body and fired a quick Ki blast at Usagi. Both girls feel to the ground. Makoto passed Usagi.  
  
Usagi frowned as she stood up. She walked back to Minako and held her hand out for her to use to stand up. She looked over her shoulder to Makoto. "She will pay for that." She smirked. Minako knew exactly what Usagi was up to. "I don't think she understands what she just got herself into. Hehehe." She jumped into the air. Minako followed.  
  
Makoto looked across the field. She didn't see Usagi or Minako so she looked behind her. They weren't there either. She stopped. "Those guys…" She looked up to see Usagi falling from the sky with her feet out. She didn't have time to react.   
  
Usagi's feet plowed right into Makoto's chest. Both girls fell to the ground. Minako shot numerous Ki blasts at Usagi and Makoto. Usagi blocked them with her own. "We are on the same team Minako!"   
  
Minako laughed. "No we weren't."   
  
Usagi kept firing Ki blasts at Minako, who was still in the air. Usagi's attack stopped when Makoto pulled her hair, forcing her head back. "You dare try and stop me? I am unstoppable. Mwa ha ha ha." She let go of Usagi's hair.  
  
Minako landed on the ground in front of her friends. All three of them laughed. Usagi had totally forgotten about her problems, as she was having too much fun. Her friends had succeeded. They had made her completely happy.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi sat and watched as Bulma scanned her husband and son for any viruses or anything foreign in their bodies that could be making them sick. When she had taken Gohan's temperature, it was normal, just like Goku's. When Bulma had taken Vejita's, it was normal. So far they were just showing signs of having colds. The results from the blood test were good too. Their blood was as normal as it should be. She hadn't found anything in it. So far Bulma had not found anything wrong with them.  
  
Bulma rolled over a machine over to the chairs that the men were lying in. She looked down to Goku. "Uh…Goku…I'm going to have to stick some needles in you for this next test. Are you going to be able to stand it?"  
  
Goku groaned again. He hated needles. He got sick just thinking about them. Gohan looked over at his father. He remembered what happened when he thought he was going to get a needle on Namek. "Dad, just deal with it."  
  
Goku looked over at his son. "I never said I wasn't going to." He looked back up at Bulma. "Let's just get this done and over with. All this testing is making me even more tired." He coughed as he held his arm out for Bulma. He closed his eyes again as she put the needle into him. He could feel her taping it to his arm so it wouldn't fall out. He knew he was going to regret this one day.  
  
Bulma left Goku's side and walked to Vejita. He had his arms crossed over his chest. "Vejita, give me an arm."  
  
Vejita looked up at his wife. "I don't know why you need me now. You have Kakkorotto and his brat over there." He didn't move.  
  
Bulma put her hands on her waist and tapped her foot against the ground. "Don't tell me that you are afraid of needles. Goku is but he still got over it."  
  
Vejita frowned. "I'm not afraid of needles woman." He held out his arm for Bulma. He watched as she put the needle deep into his skin. She taped it to his skin to.   
  
Bulma did the same thing with Gohan. She walked in front of the chairs so they could all see her. "Ok you guys, I will be injecting some liquid into your body. It may sting but if there is anything in your body that is detectable, then it will show up in the results. Not only do these needles work to put liquid in, but when I flip this switch," She pointed to a switch, "I will be able to see what the reactions of the liquid is. I expect to get the results of the cold virus form you but you never know. Ok, here we go." Bulma pushed a button and liquid went from metal tubes down into the Saiyan's arms. The flinched a little once it reached. "Ok, it will take a lot of liquid to reach all around your body so we may be here for a while."  
  
Vejita created fists with his hands. "Woman, get this crap out of me."  
  
Bulma laughed. Being sick made Vejita act like a child. He was so cute. "Vejita, this will help you in the end."  
  
Chi-Chi watched Goku. He still had his eyes closed so he didn't have to see the needle in his skin. She felt so sorry for him. She looked to Gohan. He didn't seem to mind any of it. "My poor Goku and Gohan."  
  
Videl placed her hand on her mother-in-law's shoulder. It was twice as hard for her to be going through this. Her husband and son were sick, while just her husband was sick. "I hope they only have a cold."  
  
Chi-Chi put her hand on Videl's. "Let's hope for the best."   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi sat in the back of the room. She listened to the kids in her class laughing and talking. She knew that Mr. Koch was angry with them. He had told them over and over again to shut up, but no one listened. They had been more disrespectful to him after what Usagi had done earlier that day. She found herself laughing most of that day. She finally showed him what she was made of and she was proud of herself for that too. She turned around to look at the clock, which read 2:50. She turned back around. 'Ten minutes until I can leave. Wait.' Usagi groaned. 'I have to talk to Mr. Koch after school. Well he is just going to have to realize that I have somewhere I need to be.' Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Mr. Koch walking to the front of the class.  
  
"Everyone, Sit down, and SHUT UP!" He watched as all of the kids scurried around to their chairs and sat down. No one said a word. They could tell by his voice that he meant it. He looked around at everyone. "If you ever are this rude again, I will send you ALL down to the office. Do you understand!?" No one said anything. He knew he was scaring them but he didn't care. At least he had their attention. "I don't want to hear a peep out of any of you for the next ten minutes. If I do, then I will hold the whole class later then 3:00. I'm tired of you. Just because Usagi had to be stupid today, doesn't give you the right to do the same."  
  
Usagi could feel herself becoming angry. She stood up with a force. He chair flew out from behind her and fell to the ground with a big thud. "I'm not stupid! Stop calling me stupid. I'm tired of it and I don't deserve it. If you don't stop I will be forced to take action. I will get my daddy in here." She knew that wasn't possible at them moment. "And if I can't get him, I'll get my big brother Goten to talk to you." She knew she wouldn't have any luck if Gohan came in. He was too much like her mother. He would probably end up siding with Mr. Koch. Goten hated teachers and would do anything that Usagi wanted him to.   
  
Mr. Koch laughed. "And how old is your brother?" He wasn't afraid of a teenager.  
  
Usagi smiled. "39." He was 33 when she was born.   
  
Mr. Koch frowned. "Don't lie. Your brother is not 39."  
  
"I'm not lying." Usagi picked up her chair and sat down. She raised her hands and put them over her ears. She didn't want to listen to anything else that he had to say to her. She could kind of hear him talking but couldn't exactly make out what he was saying. "I'm not listening."   
  
Mr. Koch stopped talking and looked up at the clock. "It's close enough to 3:00. Just leave, all of you. Except Usagi." He glared back at Usagi, who was furiously waving her tail behind her. She did this whenever she was angry. He was too angry to deal with the rest of the students at the time. He looked around at them. They were still sitting in their seats. "JUST LEAVE!"  
  
The kids bolted out of their seats and ran for the door. They had never seen their teacher so angry before. Minako and Makoto just stared at each other. They didn't know what to do. They couldn't just leave Usagi there with him. He was crazy. Mr. Koch walked up to the girls. They were the only ones still sitting in their chairs. He put his hands on the table and leaned his head down. "You guys need to leave."  
  
Makoto grabbed her bag and stood up. "No! I have sat here all-day and watched you bet up on Usagi. It's not going to happen." She looked him in the eye.  
  
Minako also stood up. "Makoto, we can't do this." She looked over to Usagi. She still had her hands over here ears.   
  
Mr. Koch grabbed Minako and Makoto by the arms. "You two are leaving now." He pulled them to the door and kicked them out. He locked the door from the inside as they pounded on it to let them in. He walked back to Usagi. "Your parents have real problem on their hands." He grabbed Usagi by the wrists and pulled them down.   
  
She turned around and glared at him. "Well what do you want."  
  
Mr. Koch could see that something was wrong. This was not at all like Usagi. He sat on a table and crossed his arms. "We have to talk about your behavior. It's bad enough that you have decided to talk to me the way you have today, but it's even worse that you do it in front of your classmates. Now they think that they can talk to me the way you do."  
  
Usagi never looked away. She wasn't afraid to look him in the eye. "So what. How long is this going to take? I have somewhere important that I have to be at."  
  
"Ok, I'm just going to cut to the point. You are in MAJOR trouble. You have barked up the wrong tree and gotten yourself in deep. Too deep to get out. You can't even apologize at this point. You are getting a referral and tomorrow morning, you, the school counselor, and I have a meeting."  
  
Usagi snorted. "Is that all?"  
  
"What's wrong Usagi. I know you aren't just upset about me. Something else is bothering you."  
  
"I have to go. I need to see if daddy is ok." She walked past Mr. Koch and walked out of the room altogether.   
  
'Her father? Maybe that's what she is upset about.' Mr. Koch thought to himself.  
~*~*~  
  
She sighed. "It's great to get out of there." Usagi rolled her tail up under her skirt as she passed the school janitor.  
  
The janitor turned around to look at Usagi. "That's one of the girls who was with that Saiyan yesterday." He looked down to her feet, then around her waist where Saiyans usually keep their tales. "No tail. I told Tarupa that she couldn't be a Saiyan. She has golden hair. They must HAVE adopted. I guess we can move on then."  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. What do you think? Was it good, or bad? Please review. Thank you ^_^)  
  



	23. Part 5

(It seems as though some of you may be a little confused about why Usagi's tail was not seen. Sorry about that. Ok, the janitor guy didn't see Usagi's tail because she had already rolled it up under her skirt. K! The rest will be explained later. Ok, on with the story. ^_~)  
  
Usagi didn't even bother changing out of her school uniform before she began flying to Capsule Corp. She didn't care. The important thing was her going to see if her father was ok. She didn't even care about what she had just done either. She flew as fast as she could but it still wasn't fast enough. She wished that she could do her father's teleportation technique. Then she could be there right now, by her father's side. She wanted to know what was wrong with him, and if she could catch it too.   
  
~*~*~  
  
She arrived at her destination about ten minutes after she left her school. She landed by Vejita's gravity chamber. The red light wasn't on so she decided to go in. She had no idea where she was supposed to go and thought that maybe Vejita would be in there so he could tell her. When she opened the door it was dark inside. "Vejita?" There was no answer. "Vejita? Are you in here?" She walked in. The door slamming loudly behind her startled her. She looked around as she slowly walked forward. 'Where could he be?' She walked around behind the control panel. "I guess he's not in here." She started back to the door. "I wonder where he is. Maybe he is with Mamma, Bulma, and daddy." She opened the door and left Vejita's gravity chamber. She walked across the courtyard and into the house. The door from the gravity chamber to the house was always unlocked.  
  
The house was freezing when she entered. She held onto her arms trying to produce warmth for them with her hands. "Bur…why is it so cold in here?" She shivered as she walked down the hall. "Where could they be?" She decided to walk down to the living room. She thought that Vejita might be there, or maybe even in the kitchen getting something to eat.  
  
There was no one in the living room either. It was just as cold there as it was in the hallway. "Was it always this cold before?" She proceeded to look in the kitchen. There was no sign that anyone had been there in a while either. She sat down at the table. "Where is everyone. All I want is to see daddy."  
  
"Usagi? Is that you I hear in there?" Videl walked into the kitchen and saw Usagi sitting at the table. She looked upset. "Oh, it was you."  
  
Usagi looked up and smiled at what she saw. "Videl!" She jumped down from the table and hugged her sister-in-law. She looked up at her. "What are you doing here? And why is it so cold?"   
  
Videl's mood seemed to change in a split second. " The patients were hot that's why it's cold and the reason why I am here is because your brother, Gohan, has gotten sick. Just like your father." Videl could see the horror in Usagi's face. She knelt down and put her hands on her shoulders. "Usagi, it's ok. Bulma is testing them as we speak. But you must know…" Videl didn't want to tell her any more bad news, but she knew she had to. Usagi would have found out sooner or later anyways. "Well, it seems as though Vejita has gotten sick too."  
  
That did it for Usagi. She couldn't take it anymore. She began to cry. "No, no, no, NOOO! It can't be!"  
  
Videl felt horrible. She hadn't wanted to be the one to break the news to her. She pulled her in and held her tightly. "Shhhh…It's alright Usagi. Bulma is smart. She will find out a way to make your daddy and Gohan better." 'I just hope Pan isn't affected by this.'  
  
Usagi wrapped her arms around Videl's back. "What if something really bad happens to them? What if…What if…What if…" Usagi was too upset to even finish her sentence. She couldn't believe it. She wouldn't believe it. Her father would pull through. He just had to.   
  
Videl continued to hold Usagi. It brought back memories of when Pan was young like Usagi. She softly smiled to herself. 'So innocent.' "Don't worry little one." She whispered into Usagi's ear. She stood up and held her hand out to Usagi. "Come, let's go see your father."  
  
Usagi looked up and wiped her tears away with her arm. She smiled. "Ok." She grabbed the hand that Videl extended out to her. Usagi walked out of the kitchen with Videl. She stopped when she got into the living room. Something was still really bothering her. She pulled her hand away from Videl's.   
  
Videl stopped and looked down at Usagi. "What's the matter? Everyone is waiting for us in the lab." She saw sadness in Usagi's eyes.  
  
Usagi walked over to a rocking chair and sat down. She looked up at Videl. "Did you ever do something really, really bad when you were a kid?"  
  
Videl was taken by surprise by her sister-in-law's question. She walked to the sofa that was by the chair that Usagi was in and sat down. "Why?"  
  
Usagi didn't want to tell her why quite yet. First she wanted to see if Videl had done anything. "No reason. Just wondering."  
  
Videl knew that Usagi had done SOMETHING. She could sense it. "Well, there was the time that I snuck out of the house when I was twelve years old to meet a boy."  
  
Usagi wasn't sure that that was the same as what she had done. Usagi risked getting long-term suspension for what she had done. "What did your daddy do?"  
  
"Well you know my father. He is supposedly the best martial artist in the world. He told me that he couldn't have his daughter sneaking around. So he grounded me for about a month. I wasn't allowed to date again until I was fourteen." Videl tried to forget about that little mishap. "Usagi…I know you did something. Why don't you tell me what you did."  
  
Usagi sighed. She would get a worse punishment from her parents. Her mother would yell at the top of her lungs and her father would be disappointed. That was worse then anything else he could do. "Well, I sort of stood up to my teacher. I talked back to him in front of the class. I was out of line but, at the time, I didn't care then. Now I do. I feel horrible."  
  
Videl knew why she had done it. Usagi was normally the sweetest girl until she was upset. Then it was all down hill from there. "You were upset about your father weren't you?"   
  
Usagi nodded. "I'm really worried about him. And then Mr. Koch started telling us how stupid we are."  
  
Videl had never heard of a teacher calling his class stupid. "He called you guys stupid?" Videl could still see tears forming in Usagi's eyes.  
  
Usagi shook her head. "Not in those words. But that's how everyone takes it. Yesterday, he gave daddy a letter telling him how stupid I was. Then he called me stupid to daddy and he got mad." Usagi wished that she hadn't talked back to him. Now she would have to deal with her mother. She would also have to deal with it the next day at school.  
  
If Videl were Usagi's mother, she wouldn't discipline her. She would have done the same thing if she were in the same place. Usagi had every right to do what she did. "Usagi, your mother will be upset. But, your father will understand where you are coming from."  
  
Usagi looked at Videl and hoped that she was right. She would hate to have both of her parents mad at her. "Thanks Videl."  
  
Videl stood up. "So when are you going to tell them?"  
  
Usagi stood up and once again grabbed Videl's hand. "Tonight when we get home. I hope. I don't want them to hear it from my teacher. They would be madder at me then they already will be." She and Videl started walking down one of the many hallways of the house.  
  
"That's true. Pan tried that once. She got it good from Gohan when the school called. After that, she always told us straight up when she had down something bad." She stopped in front of a blue door. "This is it. Are you ready to see your family?" Usagi nodded. "Ok, here we go." She put her hand on the door handle and turned it while pushing with her other.   
  
Videl walked into the room while Usagi peered in before she advanced and went in. She saw her brother and father lying on chairs that resembled that of chairs from a dentist's office. "Daddy." She whispered. Seeing her father made Usagi want to enter the room. She closed the door behind her.  
  
"Usagi! My baby!" Chi-Chi ran and grabbed her daughter. She hugged her tightly. "I'm so glad that you are ok. I'm so glad that you aren't sick." She pulled back away from Usagi and looked her in the eyes. "You aren't sick are you?" Usagi shook her head. "I'm so happy." She hugged her again.  
  
Usagi wasn't really paying attention to her mother. She had her attention set on the three Saiyan's that lay in the chairs in front of her. Her eyes scanned the room and all of the equipment in it. "Is daddy and Gohan ok?"   
  
Chi-Chi let go of her daughter and stood up. "We haven't gotten the test results back yet. They should be ready in about ten minutes or so." She put her hand on Usagi's head. "Don't worry. So far, none of them have a fever and their blood is normal." Chi-Chi was grateful for that.  
  
Usagi walked up to her father. That was good news to her. But that still didn't explain why they had gotten sick. Usagi put her hands on her father's arm and she stood on her toes to look at his face. His eyes were closed. She figured that he was asleep. She smiled. 'He looks happy now.'  
  
Videl watched Usagi. She was so gentle. She couldn't imagine her yelling at her teacher. It was just not something that she could picture. Usagi was never one to talk back to those who were older then her. She watched as Usagi looked over her father. 'She really does love him.'  
  
Goku felt the hands on him. They were small and warm on his skin. He smiled. "Is that you Usagi?" He opened his eyes and turned his head and saw his daughter looking down at him. He could tell that had been crying. He sat up. "Hi sweetie. How are things with you?"  
  
Usagi looked up at her father and smiled. "Not too good. What about you?"  
  
Goku stretched his arms. "I've been better, yet I've been worse. I guess you could say I'm about normal?"  
  
Usagi didn't understand. "What are you talking about daddy? You are sick. You aren't normal." If this was his idea of a joke it wasn't working. He shouldn't be toying with her like this.  
  
"Actually, I feel a little better. Why aren't you ok?" His expression changed from carefree to worried. "You aren't sick are you?" He didn't know what he would do if she got sick. He didn't want her to go through what he was going through. He put his hand on her face and rubbed her chin with his thumb.  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No. Don't worry about me daddy. I'm fine." He looked horrible. Most of the color in his skin had disappeared. He was sniffling a lot too.   
  
Goku relaxed. He was happy to hear that she was ok. He hated to put her through this. He knew that she was worried about him. "I'm glad to hear that. Just promise me that you won't get sick."  
  
Chi-Chi walked up to the duo. She seemed to be more worried all of a sudden. "Goku, maybe Usagi shouldn't be around you for a while."   
  
Usagi turned her head to look at her mother. What was she saying? What was she trying to get at? She couldn't just make Usagi stop being around her father. "Mamma…"  
  
Chi-Chi looked down at her daughter. "Usagi, I don't want you to get sick too." She noticed Bulma walk out from her office with a pile of papers. "Bulma. What's wrong with them?"  
  
Gohan was awakened by his mother's voice. "Huh?" He sat up and looked around. His head was still throbbing with pain. "What's going on?" He looked over to Bulma who looked quite confused. "What? What is it Bulma? You can tell us."  
  
Usagi walked out to the end of her father's chair so she could see Bulma better. Goku turned his attention to the blue haired woman. "Bulma…"  
  
Bulma studied her papers carefully. "I don't believe it. How can this be?" She didn't understand. The papers had to be wrong.  
  
Videl walked over to her and looked over her shoulder so she too could look at the papers. "Oh my god…what does this mean?"  
  
Usagi walked up to Bulma and tugged on her pant leg. "Bulma…tell us. We need to know."  
  
Bulma looked down to the worried little girl and then back up to the crowd. "Let me wake up Vejita first." She walked over to her husband and hit him in the stomach. "Wake up Vejita."  
  
Vejita shot up. "What? What the hell is going on?" He looked around the room and then up at his wife. "What do you want woman. This had better be good. I was in the middle of a good dream. I was kicking Kakkorotto's ass in a bloddy fight. He was about to beg for mercy." He looked over to Goku and smirked.  
  
Goku frowned. "Watch your language. Little ears are listening." He turned over and looked at Usagi.   
  
Vejita snorted. "You send the child to public school right?" Goku nodded. "Then she has heard the words. That's where my brats learned it from."  
  
Bulma hit Vejita upside the head with the papers that she held in her hands. "No. They learned it from your vulgar mouth. Now let's not argue about this. This isn't the time nor the place. We have more important matters to discuss at this time. Now I hold here in my hand the results of your tests. And believe my when I tell you this. They aren't pretty."  
  
Usagi could feel her stomach turn inside her as she waited for Bulma to continue. She looked over to her brother. He looked worried. Her father didn't really have an expression on his face. She looked back up to Bulma.  
  
"It says here that there is nothing wrong with you. That you are completely normal. You guys shouldn't even be sick according to these results."  
  
Vejita grabbed the papers from Bulma. "Let me see these. You women always screw everything up." He held the papers in front of his eyes so he could read them. "My god, you're right. What the…"  
  
"Heck." Goku finished Vejita's sentence for him. Vejita turned and glared at Goku. Goku didn't care if he had just made Vejiat mad. He didn't want Usagi to pick up bad language.   
  
Gohan looked to his wife then back at Bulma. "Then why are we sick?"  
  
Bulma shrugged. "I have not idea. It's strange. According to the results you're as healthy as ever. I don't get it." Bulma grabbed the papers back and put them on a counter. "You guys are free to go home if you would like."  
  
Vejita jumped down off of his chair. "Good, I'm going to bed." He walked to the door and turned around. "If anyone wakes me up, there will be hell to pay." He opened the door and walked out of the room.  
  
Gohan hopped down out of his chair and stared at the door. "Vejita sure has some problems."  
  
Goku swung his legs over the edge of the chair and slowly slid down. "Yeah, but that's Vejita for you." He looked over to Chi-Chi. "Are you ready to go? I am. All this testing really wears a person down." He put his hand on his daughter's back.  
  
Chi-Chi looked to her son. "Are you going to be ok Gohan?" She didn't want to leave him but she knew she had to. It killed her that she couldn't stay with him and make sure he got healthy.  
  
Gohan nodded. "I'll be fine mom. I just need some rest."  
  
Bulma looked at her papers again. She stared in disbelief. "I just don't get it. What could be causing you to be sick when there is nothing in your body?" She put the papers back down and looked at the Son family. "I want you guys to watch yourselves very closely. Keep an eye on Usagi, Goku."  
  
Goku nodded and looked back to Gohan. "I'll see you later son. Stay safe alright?"  
  
Gohan nodded and smiled. "You to father." He knelt down in front of Usagi. "Make sure you keep yourself healthy alright? I don't want to find out that you have gotten sick."  
  
Usagi smiled. Gohan always seemed to be like a second father to her, always looking out for her and making sure she stayed safe when her father hadn't been able to. "I promise." She leaned forward and hugged him. "Good bye Gohan."  
  
"Good bye little sis." He pulled away and stood up. He still felt somewhat lightheaded but the pain was subsiding a bit. He then hugged his mother. "Bye mom."  
  
Chi-Chi wrapped her arms around her son. "Good bye Gohan. I'll call you tomorrow." She looked back to Videl. "Take care of my baby."  
  
Gohan rolled his eyes. 'Always treating me as if I were a child. I guess that's a mother's job though.'  
  
Usagi watched as everyone said their good-byes. There was only one thing that was really standing in her way now. She would have to tell her parents what she had done. She would wait until later that night though. She didn't want to go through the rest of the day with them angry with her.   
  
She watched as her father talked with Videl. She thought about the test results. She wanted to know how they came out the way they did. They were obviously sick, yet the papers that Bulma had said otherwise.   
  
~*~*~  
  
By the time Usagi got home with her parents, she was worn out. It had taken them a couple of hours to drive home. When they left Capsule Corp. it was already about 4:00, it was now going on 6:00 . Usagi would have two hours before she had to go to bed. In those two hours, she would have to tell her parents. She dreaded it, but it would have to be done. She did the crime, now she would have to pay. She would accept this, but not enjoy it.  
  
Goku went straight to bed. It was probably one of the only times in his life that he did not desire food when he got home. He needed sleep, or at least rest. He hadn't rested very well on the way back. The road was bumpy and he could not properly relax. He quickly changed into the shorts that he wore to bed and crawled under the covers.  
  
Usagi walked into the kitchen where she found her mother cutting up some vegetables. She walked up to her and watched her for a few minutes before speaking. Chi-Chi cut the vegetables very fast without over cutting her fingers."What are you doing mamma?"  
  
Chi-Chi didn't take her eye off of what she was doing. One false move could be the end or her hand, or at least a couple fingers. "I'm making your father dinner."  
  
Usagi eyed the food before her. She had gotten quite hungry on the way home. "Didn't daddy go to bed though?" Usagi wanted to reach out and grab the food.  
  
Chi-Chi pushed aside the lettuce that she had just cut up and placed two carrots in front of her. She began to splice one of them into equal slices. "I don't care. He needs to eat. And he will only eat healthy until he gets better again." She put her knife down and looked at her daughter. "Are you hungry?"  
  
Usagi was starving. "Do you even have to ask? It's been since 12:30 since I ate something. Then after I ate, me, Makoto, and Minako ran around the track." She wasn't about to tell her that they had gotten into a small spar.  
  
Chi-Chi walked to the freezer and pulled out a box. "I know I don't normally let you eat these, but I don't have time to make two dinners." She pulled out a small paper plate from the box and put it in the oven after setting it on. "You can have a frozen dinner tonight. Don't think I'm going to let this become a habit for you." Chi-Chi didn't approve of Usagi eating frozen dinners. She didn't believe that they were nourishing enough for a growing child. Especially if that child is half Saiyan and in training.  
  
Usagi didn't mind. She liked frozen dinners. "Cool." She turned around and skipped out of the kitchen. She went to her room so she could figure out just exactly how she would break the news to her parents. She knew that she was definitely going to wait until after she and her father had eaten.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi sat in with wet hair. She was already ready for bed. All she needed to do now was tell her parents and then she could rest up for the night. She sat on her bed and looked at the clock. She had a half-hour before she was to be in bed. She sighed as she stood up. 'Guess I better break the news. I hope they don't get too mad at me.' She walked to her door and left her room.  
  
She expected to see her mother sitting in the living room watching TV or working on some project, but she wasn't. She walked across the room to her parents' room. It was closed. She knocked on the door. She always knocked before she entered. Her parents told her that if she didn't that she would get in some serious trouble. She walked in a couple months ago and her parents yelled at her. They seemed to be trying to hide something. She didn't know what, but ever since then, she knocked to let them know that she was there. "Mamma, daddy, can I come in?"  
  
"Yes, come on in." Chi-Chi was flipping through channels on the TV that sat in front of their bed. The TV wasn't normally used but on this particular night, Chi-Chi wanted to be in the same room as her husband. She looked over to the door when she saw it moving. She smiled. "Hi Usagi. What can we do for you?"  
  
'We?' Usagi looked over to her father. He looked like he was asleep. "Is daddy awake?" She walked up to his side of the bed. He opened his eyes and looked over at her. She wasn't expecting him to look over and was startled. She jumped back.  
  
Goku laughed. For someone who was under his training, she sure was skittish. "I'm awake." He looked over at his clock. "What brings you in here at this later hour?" He was beginning to feel a little bit better. Chi-Chi had given him some Allerest for his nose. He could finally breathe again. She had given him Aleve for his body pain and headache.  
  
Usagi was a little reluctant to say what was on her mind. "I need to talk to you guys." She crawled up onto the bed and sat between her parents. Chi-Chi and Goku looked at each other. They knew that by her tone, Usagi had something bad to tell them. They didn't reply. They just looked down at their daughter and waited for her to continue.   
  
Usagi took a deep breath. This was it. She would have to confess right then and there. "I…" She couldn't say it. She couldn't find the words to say it. She tried again. "Today I…"  
  
Goku closed his eyes and sighed. He wished she would just spit it out. He knew it probably had something to do with her teacher again. He probably harassed her again. He reopened his eyes and looked down to his daughter. "Yes? You did what Usagi?"  
  
Usagi looked up and took another deep breath she closed her eyes. "TodayItalkedbacktomyteacherandgotkickedoutofcalssandgotinmajortroublebecauseofit. Nowihaveareferal." She reopened her eyes and looked to her parents. It wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.  
  
Goku and Chi-Chi exchanged expressions. They had barely been able to make a single word that Usagi had just spit out of her mouth. Chi-Chi had made out a few though. "Usagi, please say that again. Only slower so we can actually understand you. Ok?"  
  
Usagi groaned. She didn't want to say it so they could understand it. "Today, I talked back to my teacher and got kicked out of class and got in major trouble because of it. Now I have a referral." She looked to her mother first. She knew she would get the most yelling from her.  
  
Chi-Chi was surprisingly calm. She held her hands in her lap. "Usagi, please explain to my why you felt the need to talk back to your teacher."  
  
Usagi hadn't expected her mother to react quite like that. She expected her to yell and scream. "He's always so mean to me. And he was being mean. And I was already upset with daddy and everything. I couldn't help it. Mommy, please don't be mad. I'm sorry and I won't do it again."  
  
Chi-Chi opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Goku. "Chi-Chi, Usagi's teacher can be a bit overwhelming. He called her stupid to my face. Remember, I just told you this yesterday." He turned away and covered his mouth to cough.  
  
Chi-Chi knew that already. She wasn't even really that angry. "Usagi, I know you were upset about your father. I know your teacher can be rude in calling you guys stupid, but that does not give you an excuse to talk back to your teachers. What punishment did you get?"  
  
"I have a meeting with the counselor tomorrow. Other then that I don't know."   
  
Chi-Chi crossed her arms. "Well, what ever you get, I'm going to stand by with the school. You have no right to talk back to a teacher. I don't care if your teacher was Vejita. You still can't do that kind of stuff." Chi-Chi looked at Usagi. She had an expressionless face. "Now say goodnight to your father. It's time for bed." She stood up and walked to the door.  
  
Usagi looked at the clock. "But it's only 7:45. I still have fifteen minutes."  
  
"Not tonight you don't. This is your punishment. Now let's go." She turned around and walked out of the room.  
  
Goku watched in amazement as she walked out. "What was that? She was so calm. You barely got a punishment at all."  
  
Usagi smiled. He plan had worked. Get your mother when she's worried about other things, and nothing happens when you do something bad. She had expected a little more though. She looked at her father. "You aren't mad are you?"  
  
Goku turned around. "Nope. I think he deserved it. Of course I don't want you to think you can go around and do that all the time. If you do it again I may get mad. But after what he did yesterday, naw, I'm not mad." He grabbed Usagi and pulled her close to him. He hugged her tightly. "Good night, Usagi. I'll see you in the morning."  
  
Usagi wrapped her arms around her father. "Night daddy. Thanks for understanding. I hope you feel better in the morning."   
  
"USAGI HURRY UP!"  
  
Usagi turned her head to the door. "Mamma wants me to go to bed now." She pulled out of her father's arms and jumped off of the bed.   
  
Goku watched as his daughter ran to the door. "I love you Usagi. Sleep well." He smiled as she walked out. 'Such a strange kid.' He didn't understand how such a sweet child could be so strong. He was lucky to have her though. He leaned his head back onto his pillow and closed his eyes.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi lay in her bed in the dark and replayed the day's activities in her head. So much had happened. She went from having her normal life to chaos. Life was funny that way. One day everything is going great, and the next everything has gone to pot. She thought about her father, brother, and Vejita. What had been making them sick? Nothing was in their bodies. That was so confusing Usagi. She turned over on her side and stared at he Dragon Ball. The red light from her clock hit it just right, making it give off and orange red glare on her wall. She smiled. She could feel herself getting drowsy as she looked at it. Her eyes began to get very heavy so she closed them and let herself drift off into a deep sleep.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi flinched in her sleep. She was having a rather strange dream.  
  
~~Usagi's dream world~~  
  
Usagi stood in front a large fire. A girl whom she didn't even know sat closer yet to the fire. She wore a red Kimono and was kneeling in font of the fire with her hands put together as if she was praying to it. Usagi watched as the girl chanted words unknown to her. The fire grew larger and larger as the girl continued to chant, getting louder and faster as she went on. It became more fierce as it gained more power. All of a sudden the fire became too big to control and the girl turned around. Usagi tried to make out to face of the girl.  
  
~~Back to Reality~~   
  
Usagi opened her eyes and looked up to the ceiling of her room. She put her hand on her head. She was sweating. "What just happened?"  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part? What do ya think? Is it good or bad? Please review and tell me. It would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. ^_^)  



	24. Part 6

The next day…  
  
Usagi flew to her school at and amazingly slow speed the next morning. She dreaded what the school day would bring. It was Friday. Two things were happening. One, her big major spelling test that she had neglected to study for in the past few days for obvious reasons, and two, she had her little meeting that she was to be at when she arrived at school. She was going slowly on purpose. She didn't feel like getting there in a big rush. There was no reason too.   
  
Today, Usagi would hold her temper in. Whenever she felt the urge to say something, she would bite her tongue. That way, she would tending to her hurt tongue instead of arguing with her teacher. Although he deserved what he got the day before, her father was right, she couldn't make yelling at him a habit. Earlier, before Usagi left the house, her mother told her that it wasn't the students' place to tell the teacher when he is wrong, but it is the parents. Usagi took this as a warning from her mother. She could tell by the look in her face that she was not joking and she needed to take her seriously. She had been in a better mood today anyways. When she had gotten up, her father was up and walking around. He seemed to be feeling a little bit better.  
  
Usagi started to think about her dream as she neared the school. She didn't have a clue what it meant or why she even dreamt it. She had never seen that girl before, or anyone who looked like her. Of course, she couldn't make out her face when she turned around, but she had never seen anyone control fire like she had either. Usagi would tell her father about her dream later. When her mother was not around to freak out about it. Her mother seemed to do that a lot.  
  
When she had the school in her full vision, she slowly lowered herself to the parking lot where there was no activity of cars or people. Usagi hated to land around people. They always had questions for her about flying that she just didn't want to answer. She slowly made her way to the main office as she looked at all of the kids around her. She spotted Haruka and Michiru talking to a group of their friends. They were talking to a boy who looked rather strong for his age. Like he had been working out for a while. He had short black hair and looked to be their age. 'Strange, I've never seen him before. I wonder who he is.' She quickly shrugged off her curiosity and continued to walk forward. When she reached a pair of doors she took a deep breath. "Here goes nothin." She whispered to herself. She placed her hand on one of the handles and opened the door.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi was now at the main office. There were adults of all status running around the place. They were all yelling back and fourth to each other to do various activities. Usagi found this interesting. It was just like the playground outside. Only instead of kids, there were adults. She walked up to the main desk and rested her arms on it. She looked at the secretary who was currently on the phone. She was glad to wait. She had all the time in the world. Anything to prolong this so-called meeting that she was supposed to be at. She had over heard some older kids talking near the beginning of the year. These "meetings" that they like to call them, are just a place to bash kids over the head with. They were set up to gang up on kids and basically mold them to their liking. She looked up as the another secretary walked to the front desk.  
  
"Can I help you?"  
  
"Umm…Where is the counselor's office? I was supposed to meet my teacher in there."  
  
The secretary raised her eyebrow a bit. "Are you Son Usagi?" Usagi nodded. The secretary smiled. "Oh yes, Usagi. We heard all about you. Right down that hall there." She pointed to a hallway behind her. "Your teacher is awaiting your arrival."  
  
Usagi was a bit confused. She thought that this was supposed to be a confidential type situation. Mr. Koch was not supposed to tell anyone else about what happened. "Thank you." She said shyly. Soon after she walked down the hallway, she found the room she was looking for. She opened the door and walked in.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi sat down in a chair across from her teacher. To her left, sat the counselor at her desk. She smiled to make sure she didn't think she was just a rude little girl with no manners what so ever. Not only did that reflect poorly on her, but on her upbringing as well. "Good morning."  
  
Mr. Koch just glared at Usagi while she smiled at the counselor. He knew her true colors. He knew what a vicious little terror she could be. Or so he thought. He really knows nothing about her. He doesn't know who she is. He doesn't know what she's been through in her short life. He's just creating more trauma in her life then there needs to be. Shame on you "Hello Usagi." He looked to the counselor. "Let's get this started Mrs. Lariviera. I want to get to my class as soon as possible."  
  
"As you wish." She turned to Usagi who was currently looking at all of her credentials. "Usagi," She put her hands together on her desk as Usagi looked at her. "As I am reading over your referral you received from your teacher yesterday, I am appalled. I would not expect this from you. I know you had that little incident last year with those two girls, but that was not exactly entirely your fault. Now, I also see that this is not the first time you have been sent to the office from this teacher, am I right?"  
  
Usagi stared down at the ground. "Yes."  
  
The counselor flipped through the pages of Usagi's file again and sighed. She had never seen a student her age with such a record. "Usagi, yesterday, your teacher heard you say something about seeing if your father was ok. Would you like to explain to us what you meant by that?"  
  
Usagi wasn't sure if she felt comfortable telling them what was going on. It really wasn't any of their business. "You wouldn't understand."  
  
Mr. Koch and the counselor exchanged expressions with each other and looked back to Usagi. Mr. Koch knew something was bothering her. "Usagi, tell us now. If something bad is going on at home, you need to tell us now. I know how your mother gets. Is she beating you and your father?"  
  
Usagi was shocked that her teacher would think such a thing of her mother. She was even more shocked that he thought that her father would let her mother beat on him. "No! It's just, my daddy is sick right now. And you see, he hasn't gotten sick ever."  
  
Mr. Koch and the counselor were a little bit confused. "Never gotten sick? Is that possible?"  
  
"It is if you're a Saiyan. Saiyans don't get sick. We have a good immune system or what ever. Now daddy, Gohan, and Vejita are all sick and no one knows why. Bulma…"  
  
The counselor was still lost. "Bulma, the CEO of Capsule Corp.?" Usagi nodded. "And these other two you speak of who are sick, are they Saiyans too?"  
  
"Yes." Usagi watched as the woman in front of her wrote some notes down.  
  
"How many of you Saiyans are there?"  
  
Usagi didn't know what she was trying to get at. What did the amount of Saiyans on earth have to do with what she had done the previous day. "Well, there's me, daddy, Gohan, Goten, Vejita, Trunks, Bra, and Pan. Anyways, Bulma did some sort of test on daddy and Gohan and Vejita. It said that there was nothing wrong with them."  
  
After listening to that, Mr. Koch felt a little sorry for Usagi. He felt sorry that he had been such a jerk to her the day before. You better be He stood up. "Is this why you acted so out of line yesterday? Because you were upset about this?" Usagi nodded. "Well, because you seem so upset about this, I'm going to let you off with a strict warning. If it ever happens again, you will have to pay for it double. Now get out of here and get to class."  
  
Usagi hoped that she had just heard I'm right. "Really? You mean I'm not going to be in trouble or anything?  
  
"No, now get! Before I change my mind." He smiled as he watched her scamper out of the room. He looked over to the counselor. "I think I've got her right where I want her. She won't act up any more now that I have been nice to her."  
  
~*~*~  
  
1 hour before Usagi's school gets out….  
  
  
Usagi had just finished her big test and was now looking it over. She tried to write more neatly so her teacher wouldn't have a fit when she turned it in. She was also looking it over for spelling errors. She didn't seem to see any so she placed it face down on top of her desk as she was told to before the test had even taken place. She put her hands together on top of her desk and looked around to the rest of the class. Nearly everyone else had already finished and were talking about various things that were going on in their lives.  
  
She looked to Minako. She, too, was already finished. She leaned over to her. "How do you think you did?"  
  
Minako looked at Usagi. They weren't supposed to be talking and risked getting their tests ripped up if they did. "Usagi, this isn't the time to talk. Mr. Koch will yell at us if he sees us." She looked up to her teacher who just happened to be starring right at them. He just stood there and did nothing. "Why isn't he coming over here?"  
  
Makoto put her paper face down. She had just finished. She looked at her friends and then what they were looking at. "Is he starring at us?"  
  
Usagi fell out of her chair because she was leaning so far. She rubbed her head as she sat on the ground. "Oww…" The class giggled when they saw what had happened. She stood up and picked her chair up and then began to laugh too. "That was fun. I want to do it again." She really didn't appreciate being laughed at but she learned not to take it personally. The kids at her school would laugh at almost anything.   
  
"Alright class. Enough laughing. Back to your tests. You only have about five minutes to finish." Mr. Koch decided not to bother with scolding Usagi and her friends. He was tired of fighting with them to shut up.  
  
Usagi sat back in her chair. "After school, I have something I want to tell you guys."  
  
"Why don't you tell us now?" Makoto hated it when Usagi made them wait.   
  
"No. I don't want everyone else to hear." Usagi looked around to the class. Some nosy students were already listening as they spoke.   
  
"Fine." Makoto didn't have a clue about what it could be. She had already told them about her father and brother and how Bulma couldn't find anything wrong with them. Usagi had told everything there was to tell about the day before. It was a tired subject.  
  
~*~*~  
  
After school, Usagi was one of the firsts out of the class. As she always was. She always tired to run out the door before Mr. Koch had a chance to talk to her. She waited outside for Minako and Makoto. They usually didn't rush out the door. They had never had a reason to. She smiled when she saw them walking out. "Hey guys over here." She said as she waved her hand in the air so she could be seen.  
  
Minako and Makoto saw Usagi's hand and quickly pushed through the group of kids that blocked them from being able to freely walk to her. Makoto pushed the most. She used a lot of force. The older kids were rude. They would see them walking but didn't move out of the way. "Gees, these guys have not maaaneers." She said as she pushed another kid aside.  
  
Minako looked behind her. The kid glared at them. She glared back. She didn't take crap from other people, where Usagi did a lot. She looked forward again and could clearly see Usagi. She stood waiting for them. "There she is Makoto."  
  
Makoto ran to her once she could. "How does she get out here this fast?"  
  
Minako shrugged and ran forward. "She's a fast runner."  
  
Makoto laughed. "I guess so." They stopped when they finally reached her. "So, Usagi, I'm dying to know what you wanted to tell us." Usagi grinned. Now Usagi was in a playful mood. Makoto knew it was going to be hard to get it out of her now. "Come on Usagi, just tell us."  
  
Minako laughed. Makoto hated to wait for things. "Usagi, she is going to have a cow if you don't say anything."  
  
Usagi smiled and turned around. "Maybe later." She started to walk away, playfully waving her tail behind her as she went.  
  
Makoto stomped her feet. "Come on Usagi. This isn't fair. I want to know." She ran up and walked along side Usagi. She looked at her face. She was still smiling. Usagi knew that she hated it when she did this. That's why she did it. "Usagi, you wouldn't do this if…" She was cut off by running into something hard. "What the…" She looked up. "What are you doing here?" Minako ran up to the two. She was originally going watched Makoto try to drive out the words from Usagi, she didn't like to get involved in those things. It usually ended in a spar.  
  
Usagi stared in disbelief at the person who stood in front of her. "Daddy!" She ran up to her father and hugged him. She lifted her head to look up at his face. "What ARE you doing here? I thought you were sick."  
  
Goku smiled. "Well, I woke up after a nap today, and I felt great. I'm not sick anymore. I don't know why though. Your brother seems to be doing better. Vejita seems to be doing better too."  
  
Usagi was REALLY confused now. 'What's going on. First he's sick, and now he's totally better.' "This is too confusing daddy."  
  
Makoto still hadn't forgotten about Usagi's little secret. She pulled Usagi away from her father and placed her hands on her shoulders and began to shake her. "Usagi, tell me now!"  
  
Minako, too, wanted to know what Usagi had to say. She was also getting excited. "Usagi, just tell us please."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Fine, fine, fine." She though about how she wanted to put this. "Well, last night I had this really, really weird dream about a girl I have never met. She was controlling this fire with words. It was kind of cool. But then the fire got out of hand and we had to run."  
  
Makoto had never heard of a girl who could control fire before. "Well, did you see her face when she turned around to run?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "Nope. That's when I woke up. But it was weird, right before it grew, there was a picture in the fire. But I couldn't make it out."  
  
Minako couldn't think of anything that she had ever heard before that could connect to the dream. "That really is weird. What do you think Goku?" The girls all turned back around to Goku.   
  
"I don't know. I've never heard of a dream like that before. Usagi, did you go anywhere in the past few days that had something to do with fire or anything like that? Or maybe you saw something on TV."   
  
Usagi shook her head again. "No, I haven't watched TV lately. And I didn't go anywhere with a fire. It's really confusing."  
  
"I'll say. With this, you acting up in class yesterday, your dad getting sick and then getting better again, I'll say this is the weirdest week we have ever had." Makoto shifted the weight of her book bag on her shoulders.  
  
Goku didn't want to waste time thinking about this right now. "So, are you guys ready to train for today? You still have about a week and a half before the Budaki Tournament and we can't waste any time. It's on the Wednesday of, not next week, but the week after that."  
  
Usagi was a little startled by her father's question. "Train? But you just got over being sick. And we're still doing the tournament?"  
  
"First of all, I don't feel sick. I can train with you guys today. And second, I really want you guys to experience the tournament. We will leave for it on Tuesday night. You will have to miss a couple days of school for it."  
  
"We don't have our cloths to train for today though." If Minako came home with her uniform all dirty, she would be grounded for sure  
  
Usagi had a way around that little problem. There had been something that she wanted her father to teach them for a while. She turned to her father. "Daddy, can you teach us your teleporting trick?"  
  
"You want to learn how to teleport? That will be hard work. It took me a long time to learn."  
  
Usagi smiled. He didn't say 'no'. That was a good sign that he would be willing to teach them. "We don't care, do we?" She turned around to Minako and Makoto.  
  
Makoto had always wanted to learn it. She had seen him do it a couple of times. She thought it would be fun to teleport. "No, I don't mind." She turned to Minako who didn't seem to be protesting the idea. "Nope, we don't mind at all."  
  
Usagi turned back to her father. "So can you teach us? Can you, can you, can you? Huh, huh, huh?"  
  
Goku laughed at his daughter. Sometimes she really cracked him up. "Yes, I'll teach you. But you probably won't learn it right away. And it takes a lot of hard work and concentration. Can you do that?" The girls all nodded in unison. They were excited. "Ok. Shall we go then?"  
  
"Yep!" They all shouted at the same time.   
  
"Alright then, let's shove off."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Kiro, the Saiyans seem to be overpowering everything we do. We had them down for a while, but they came back and now they seem to be fine."  
  
Kiro sat across from three of his colleagues. "Well, they could prove to be a bigger problem then we had hoped that they would. They are Saiyans, after all. They are always big problems. But we can not let them get us down. We will prevail."  
  
"What did you have in mind Kiro?" A man in white came out from the shadows.  
  
Kiro smiled. "Taku, I didn't know that you were here. I thought you were still tending to the business of one of the Saiyans."  
  
The man named Taku had a plan. It would mean the death of him and his friends but it was worth it. "I say we stop playing games and do this for real. We must stop the Saiyans before they strike again."  
  
"I see your point." Kiro turned to Para, another one of his kind. "Para, where are Okori and Tarupa?"  
  
"They just tied up some loose strings. It seems that that one Saiyan had only adopted a daughter. None of the three girls proved to be Saiyan. They are now proceeding with operations."  
  
Kiro smiled. "Excellent. They will return in what, about two, maybe three days at the most? We will start when they return."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Bulma sat in her lab staring at a computer screen. She was looking over the formula of her test that she had done on Goku, Gohan, and Vejita the day before. She figured that she had done something wrong and needed to find out. Although something strange had happened. Overnight, Vejita returned to normal. He wasn't dizzy, he didn't have a headache, nor did he have a stuffed up nose. It was strange. Maybe it was a twenty-four hour type bug. But that didn't explain the test results. They had still gotten sick, and they were clearly sick when the results were made. She noticed something on the screen and moved in to get a better look at it. "What is that? That wasn't there before." The ringing of her phone interrupted her. She looked away from the screen and picked up the phone. "Hello?"  
  
"Hello, mom?"   
  
"Trunks? Is that you? What's wrong with your voice?" 'Oh god, no.'  
  
Trunks pulled the phone away from his mouth so he could cough. "Well, I seem to have gotten sick for some reason."  
  
Bulma didn't want to hear that. She was hoping that it would miss him. That whatever was attacking the rest of her friends had skipped over her children. "What? When did this happen Trunks?"  
  
"I realized I was sick this morning, when I woke up. Mom, why am I sick. I have never gotten sick before." Trunks could feel a sneeze coming on.  
  
"I don't know Trunks." Bulma put her head in her hands. "Your father, Goku, and Gohan are also sick. Well, actually, your father isn't sick anymore. I don't know about Goku or Gohan. I haven't talked to them since yesterday." Bulma turned back to her computer to look for the unknown bit of information that had made it's way into the rest of the formula. She couldn't find it again though.   
  
"What? What are you doing about it?"   
  
"I don't know. I tested them yesterday to see what was wrong with them. But when I did, the results said that they were perfectly normal. It's probably a waste of time to test you. You probably have the same thing as them." Bulma scrolled up and down her whole formula but couldn't find a trace of anything abnormal in it.  
  
"What? Oh my god. What the hell is going on?" Trunks had never heard of anything like this. He hadn't heard anything about it over the news about anyone getting deathly sick either and he was sure his mother hadn't either.  
  
Bulma sighed. She wished she knew. "I don't know. I'm trying like hell to find out what's going on with you guys. Have you heard from your sister about her being sick yet?"  
  
"No."  
  
The whole situation was distressing Bulma. "That's good. Well, if she calls, tell me ok? I have to go. Take care of yourself Trunks."  
  
"Alright mother. Good bye." Trunks hung up the phone. He went to go sit down. He was quite light headed.  
  
Bulma looked and looked through all the files regarding any information about her husband and the others. She thought that there might be some clues in them. Strange things popped up in one document, she guessed that they would pop up in another. She hoped they would. "This is great. Just great."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi sat on the ground with her legs crossed as she watched her father try to teach Makoto how to do his teleportation technique. Minako sat beside her. He was just about to demonstrate to her how to do it. Usagi leaned her head back and looked up at the sky. A flock of birds flew over her head. "I hope daddy doesn't get sick again."  
  
Minako pulled grass out of the ground and put in on her leg. She wanted to see how much grass it would take to cover her leg. "I don't think he will."  
  
Usagi brought her head back down and watched what Minako was doing. "I hope you're right. I think I'd go nuts if he did. I almost went nuts yesterday."  
  
Minako soon grew tired of putting grass on her leg and brushed it off. "Yeah, you nearly got yourself suspended yesterday. You are so lucky that Mr. Koch let you off as easily as he did."   
  
Usagi didn't reply. She just watched her father as he talked to Makoto. "I can't wait until the tournament."  
  
Minako smiled. "Me too. It's going to be fun. We finally get to show people what we can do. I heard that Haruka and Michiru and their new friend were all going to enter."  
  
Usagi looked to her friend. "You mean that boy?" Minako nodded. "He looks like he's kind of strong. But I don't know. I think I can take him." She looked back to Makoto. She was about to try to teleport. "Look, Makoto is going to try it." Usagi watched as Makoto put her fingers to her forehead. She barely faded and then fell to the ground. Usagi stood up. "What happened?!"  
  
Goku looked back to his daughter. He overheard her yelling. "It takes a lot of energy to do something like this. That's why I say, it will take a while for you guys to learn it." Goku helped Makoto up. "Are you done?"   
  
Makoto looked up at Goku and nodded. "That does take a lot of energy. I didn't even do anything and I'm worn out."  
  
Goku looked over to the two blondes. "Who's next?"  
  
Usagi stepped forward. "Me!" She smiled as she ran to her father. "What do I do?" She said very excitedly. She started to saw back and fourth.  
  
Goku laughed. "Well, first, you need to calm yourself down."  
  
Usagi stopped moving and giggled. "Oops. Sorry daddy."  
  
"Don't apologize. It's a good thing that you have so much energy. Just not when you are doing something like this. It takes a lot of concentration, like a said earlier." Usagi nodded. "Ok, well, it's kind of like flying. Only you use more energy and you use it a lot faster. Now, what you do, is you concentrate on someone else's energy. What I want you to do is concentrate on Minako, or Makoto's energy, ok?" Usagi nodded and complied with what he wanted her to do. She concentrated on Minako's energy. Makoto's was currently too low to work with. "Ok, now, concentrate your own energy over to theirs. And try to do this fast too."   
  
Usagi did as she was told. She could feel her energy moving, very slowly. She began to feel weak. Kind of like she had when she passed out the first time she learned how to fly and used her energy for blasts. She immediately stopped what she was doing and dropped to the ground. She had just done what Makoto had done. "I can't do it. It's too hard."  
  
Goku picked Usagi up and set her on her feet. Usagi nearly fell again so he just picked her up and held her in his arms. "You used more energy than Makoto. The reason why you are so weak is because you used so much energy, and because you did the energy transfer so slow. The faster you do it, the less energy you have to do. That's basically all you need to know about it." He walked over to where Makoto and Minako were sitting and sat Usagi down by them. "Come on Minako, let's get you started." He turned back to the others. "After this, we will get you guys home. You guys pretty much used up all of your energy for today."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku carried Usagi as her flew home. She was still too weak to fly on her own. He looked down at her. She had her eyes closed. She looked so sweet. Kind of like the day her brought her home from the hospital. All curled up in his arms. He had gotten really scared when he got sick. He didn't want to not be there for Usagi. He didn't want to put another one of his children through their life without him. He didn't want to miss out on seeing her grow like he had Goten and Gohan.   
  
Usagi opened her eyes and yawned. "Are we almost home yet?" She looked over the edge of his arms and saw her house.   
  
Goku nodded. "We're here actually." He landed in front of the door. "Do you think that you will be able to walk on your own?"  
  
Usagi shrugged her shoulders. "Dunno."   
  
Goku set his daughter on the ground on her feet. She swayed a bit but was pretty much able to stand on her own. "Good to see you've gain some of your energy back." Usagi put her arm around her father's waist as he opened the door. She used him as a brace. Her legs still felt like putty underneath her body.   
  
Chi-Chi sat in the family room, reading a magazine. She looked up when she saw her husband and daughter walk in the door. She smiled. "You two are home early. Dinner isn't ready. I wasn't expecting you." She looked to Usagi. "So, what punishment did you get?"  
  
Usagi smiled. "Nothing. I got a warning."  
  
"What? After what you pulled?" Chi-Chi didn't want to get into it right now with her daughter. She had something else on her mind. Something that was really bothering her. She looked up at her husband. "I called Gohan today. He's doing much better, like you."  
  
Goku smiled. "That's good news."   
  
Chi-Chi's expression changed. "Well, that's only half of what I have to say. It seems as though Goten has become sick now. Goku, this is scaring me. The only ones left to get sick are Usagi and Pan. You, Goten, and Gohan have all gotten sick now. Honestly, I don't know what's going on."  
  
Chi-Chi wasn't the only one who was worried. Goku too feared for his family's well being. He looked down at Usagi. She was walking towards her mother. 'I swear, if she gets sick…'  
  
Usagi climbed up on her mother, who was now crying. "Don't worry mommy. It will be ok."  
  
Chi-Chi hugged her daughter. "Thank you Usagi." She didn't know if it would be ok though. Everyone that was important to her was getting sick.  
  
(K! That's it for this part. What do you think? Good or bad? Please review. Thank ya! ^_^)  



	25. Part 7

Chi-Chi called Bulma shortly after she put Usagi to bed. She wanted to find out if she had found out anything new and also wanted to see if Vejita was any better. Goku and Gohan had just mysteriously become better out of no where. She called around 8:30. She knew better then to call when Usagi was awake. She would have asked her mother all sorts of questions that she couldn't answer. She waited for Bulma to pick up the phone. "Goku!" Chi-Chi shouted for Goku to come in. She wanted him on the other phone so they could both talk to Bulma at the same time.  
  
Bulma picked up her phone. "Hello"  
  
Chi-Chi stopped yelling for her husband and paid attention to Bulma. "Oh, hi, Bulma, we need to talk."  
  
Bulma was happy that Chi-Chi had called for she was just about to call the Son residence. "Oh, hi Chi-Chi. I was just about to call you. How is Goku doing today?"  
  
"Just a minute Bulma." Chi-Chi pulled the receiver away from her face and covered it with her hand. "Go…" She stopped when she saw her husband walk in the room. He had already gotten himself dressed for bed. 'Getting sick must have drained a lot of energy if he's already tired. Of course I'm a little tired myself. It's been a long week.'  
  
"Chi-Chi, Usagi is trying to sleep. Keep it down." He crossed his arms over his chest. "What do you want?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. She had forgotten that Usagi's room wasn't too far away from theirs. "Get the other phone. Bulma is on the line."  
  
Goku smiled. "Ok." He disappeared and then reappeared in the same spot. He returned with the cordless phone in his hand. He pressed a button to turn it on and put it up to his ear. Chi-Chi put her phone back up to her ear. "Hey Bulma."  
  
Bulma smiled. She was still laughing. She always found it funny when Goku corrected Chi-Chi. It was something new that he had just started around the time when they first found out that Usagi was born. "Hey Goku. Chi-Chi, are you still there?"  
  
"Yes, I'm still here. Now, we have something to tell you." Chi-Chi leaned back against the headrest of her bed.  
  
"Wait, is Goku feeling any better?" Bulma needed to know. It was strange enough that Vejita had gotten over his sickness already, but if Goku did too, it would be even more of a confusing situation then it already was.  
  
"Well, actually, to tell the truth, he seems to be totally over his illness. Gohan too."  
  
"What? Gohan too? Oh god, this is too strange." All three of them had mysteriously become normal again out of nowhere.   
  
"Bulma, what about Vejita." Goku was getting a bad feeling about this whole situation. He already had a bad feeling, now it was just getting worse.  
  
Bulma hesitated with her reply. "Well, you see, Vejita has also recovered from being sick. With out even being on medication. Yeah, he rested a lot yesterday, but that doesn't matter. A normal cold doesn't take only one day of rest to get over. And, well, Trunks has gotten sick now."  
  
Chi-Chi nearly freaked out when she heard Bulma tell her this. "Bulma, so has Goten. I called him to make sure he was still all right. It seems as though he had to stay home from work he was so sick. Bulma, you have to find out what's going on, and fast before I have a heart attack."  
  
"And she would too." Goku smiled at his wife as she just glared at him. "What, I was just trying to take some pressure off the situation."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Well it's not working so give it up. You're just making things worse Goku."  
  
"Goku, Chi-Chi is right. This is not something to joke about. It could come back and bite you in the ass. You may be fine now, but that's all now is. Now. It's not the future. Who knows what the future holds. This could just be the eye of the storm. You should watch yourself for any more abnormalities. And watch Usagi very closely. She is the only one of your kids who hasn't gotten sick and we haven't gotten to the bottom of this yet. She could very well be the next one in line. So please Goku. Take this seriously. If not for you, then for your family and friends."  
  
Goku listened to Bulma's speech. It was as if a light had been turned on in his head. She was entirely right. "I'm sorry Bulma. I will try to be more serious about this." Goku didn't want to think of Usagi getting sick. He didn't want to think of Gohan or Goten getting any more sick then they already were. He didn't care what happened to him. Just as long as his children were safe.  
  
Chi-Chi could see the worried look in her husband's face and decided that she should probably stop this conversation right then and there. "Bulma, it's getting late. I think we should call it a night. You should get some sleep. I should too. It's been a long three days for all of us."  
  
"You're right Chi-Chi. I didn't sleep a wink last night." Bulma had been up all night trying to contemplate what was going on with her friends.  
  
"I guess I'll talk to you tomorrow. We should keep in touch until this thing plays out."  
  
"Good bye Bulma."  
  
"Good bye Chi-Chi, good bye Goku." Bulma hung up the phone and stretched. She had had the longest day of them all and she was totally ready for bed.  
  
Chi-Chi looked to Goku. He looked like he was deep in thought. That speech Bulma gave him really put some sense into him. "Goku, I think we too should go to bed." She stood up. "I'm going to check on Usagi and make sure she is ok. I don't know why but I have a bad feeling that something is wrong." She began to walk to the door.   
  
Goku put his hand out in front of her to stop her. "Let me. You go on to bed. I'll be back in just a few minutes."   
  
Chi-Chi looked up at her husband. He was acting strange. "Goku…"  
  
Goku put his finger to her lips. "Don't worry. I just want to be the one to check on her. Just go to bed and I will be back in a while."   
  
Chi-Chi watched as he husband walked out of the room. "He must be really worried about her." She smiled. "At least I know he won't ever let anything bad happen to her. It was silly of me to ever think he would push her." She smiled to herself as she turned and crawled into her bed.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku slightly cracked the door to his daughter's room open so he could peer in on her. He opened the door further to allow himself to walk in when he saw that she was still asleep, although he didn't know how anyone could sleep in the position that she had herself in. Half of her body wasn't even on the bed. She lay on her stomach with her head, along with a good portion of her upper body, strung over her bed. He laughed as he walked over to her. He covers were a total mess, with half of them fully lying on the floor.  
  
Goku picked up his sleeping daughter and placed her back on her bed. He bent over to pick up the blankets that lay on the floor, and covered her back up with them. Usagi started to stir. She looked like she was having a bad dream. She was squinting a lot. Goku watched her as she slept. 'I wonder what she is dreaming about.'  
  
~~Usagi's dream world~~  
  
Usagi stood behind the girl with the fire again. She listened to her talk with the fire. This time she talked to it as if it had a life of it's own. This time, she could actually understand what she was saying.  
  
The girl sat on her knees, praying to the fire again. "Please oh great god of fire. Help us."  
  
'Us? Who is us' Usagi thought to herself. She looked around and couldn't see anything but two crows that flew over the girl.  
  
"Please. Help us in our time of need. Help us find the way." She closed her eyes and stood up. She began to chant to the fire like she had the night before. The fire roared back to the chants. Growing with every word. "We know something. Please, guide us to the answer we are looking for."  
  
Usagi looked around her a little bit. She was in an open field. 'What's happening?' She looked up to the fire. It had grown taller. All of a sudden a picture appeared in the fire. She couldn't quite make it out but it looked kind of like a circle. 'What is that?'  
  
The girl brought her hands down to her side. "I can not help any further. They great roaring fire has no answers now." She disappeared as did the fire and crows.  
  
Usagi ran for the girl. "Wait! Who are you?" No good. They were gone by the time she reached where they had been. She now stood in an all black room with no lighting. She was alone and scared. "Where's daddy?" She looked around. She saw something running towards her. It looked like a man in an all black suit. The only things that she could make out were his hands because they were the only things that weren't black. She began to run away. She looked over her shoulder. About seven more people or beings, whatever they were, were now chasing after her.  
  
~~Back to Reality~~  
  
"DADDY!" Usagi yelled as she kicked her legs. In her dream she was running, looking for her father, trying to get away from the people who chased her. "DADDY WHERE ARE YOU!?"  
  
Goku stopped watching her and quickly ran to her side. He grabbed her and gently shook her to wake her up. "Usagi. It's all right. I'm right here."   
  
Usagi opened her eyes. Goku stopped shaking her when he saw her eyes open. She looked up at him and wrapped her arms around his neck, tightly. She closed her eyes again. "Daddy!"  
  
Goku hugged back. He didn't know what kind of dream would make her yell out for him like that, but he knew it had to be something bad. "Usagi…" He said as he rubbed her back with his hands. "It's all right. I'm here. There's no need to be scared." He could feel her heart beating faster then normal.   
  
Usagi hugged her father as tightly as she could. She didn't understand what kind of dream she had just had. But she did know that it had scared her. The dream from the night before was strange, but this one was just down right frightening for her. "Daddy, it was scary." She dug her head into the side of his neck. She wanted to be as close to him as possible at that moment. She knew that he would protect her.  
  
Goku hated to see her like this. She didn't normally have many nightmares, but when she did, they were horrible. They would just scare her straight out of her mind. "Usagi, don't worry. I'm not going to leave you. Why don't you tell daddy what made you so scared?"  
  
Usagi didn't exactly want to tell him. She didn't want to think about the dream anymore. "I had the dream about the girl with they fire again. This time she actually talked to it. She said that it needed to help us. That it needed to give us answers. Then a picture appeared in the fire."  
  
Goku ran his fingers through his daughter's long silky blonde hair as he held her. She would always relaxed a bit whenever he would do this. "Do you know what it was a picture of?"  
  
She dug her fingers into his bare back as she thought about the rest of the dream. "No. It was a circle that's all I know. Then the girl said that the fire had no more answers and left. The fire left too."  
  
Goku didn't mind her digging into his back like she had. If it helped her, he would endure it. "Is that all?"  
  
"No." She tightened her grip on her father when she thought of what happened next. "I was all alone in a black room. Then a man started chasing me so I ran. I looked back and seven more people followed me. I couldn't see where I was going or anything. I could only see their hands because they had their faces covered up. Daddy I was so scared." Se began to cry softly as she moved her head from his neck down to his chest.   
  
Goku looked down at his daughter. 'What the hell kind of dream was that? I have never heard of such a dream. It's probably all the stress she has had lately. But what does all this mean?' "Usagi, you should go back to sleep."  
  
She looked up at her father as he started to pull away and lay her back in her bed. She grabbed onto his arm. "Don't leave me daddy! Please! I'm scared. What if I have another dream?"  
  
Goku didn't want her to be upset so he did the only thing that he could think of. He was too was tired and wanted to go to sleep and it was the only way to satisfy her. He picked her up and carried her to the door. "You can sleep with us then."  
  
Usagi smiled. Now if she had another bad dream, she would be with her parents. "Thank you daddy." She wrapped her tail around his wrist as he walked across the living room into his room.  
  
Goku didn't think Chi-Chi would mind if Usagi were to sleep with them given the circumstances. She usually never did mind. He looked in the room to see if Chi-Chi was asleep yet. He wasn't surprised to see that she was not. After Usagi and her screaming, he was a little surprised that she had not ran into the room trying to see what was wrong with 'her baby'. He smiled as he looked at her. He held Usagi in his arms. She rested her head on his shoulder and had her arms wrapped around his neck. "Usagi had a bad dream. She wants to sleep with us tonight."  
  
Chi-Chi climbed under the covers as Goku put Usagi on the bed. "That's fine with me." Usagi was already showing signs of drifting off to sleep. Chi-Chi looked up to her husband. "What was the dream about? I heard her yelling for you."  
  
Goku lifted the covers up and climbed under them. Her pulled Usagi under with him. "I'll tell you later." Usagi cuddled into her father as they all three lay in bed. She closed her eyes and yawned. Goku wrapped his arm around her to pull her in closer to him and smiled. With his other arm he turned off the last remaining light that was on in the room. He then scooted down further to get more comfortable. "Good night ladies."  
  
"Night daddy."  
  
"Good night Goku." Chi-Chi leaned over to kiss her husband. "Good night Usagi."  
  
"Night mommy." Usagi was completely happy now. She wouldn't have to worry about being alone again for the rest of the night.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi woke up around 8:00 the next morning. Normally, on Saturdays, she wouldn't wake up until later, but she had a hard time sleeping on this morning. Her dream had kept her awake, thinking about what it meant. She had maybe slept a maximum of five hours. She had spent around an hour and a half listening to her parents talk about everything that had been going on. They had thought that she was asleep, but actually, she just had her eyes closed, trying to fall asleep when they started. She decided to just listen to them. They talked about their conversation with Bulma. That's how she found out that Trunks was sick now.  
  
She sat up and rubbed her eyes. She looked to her left and then her right. Both of her parents were still asleep. She slid out from under the covers and slowly crawled to the end of the bed so she wouldn't wake them. When she jumped down off the bed, her feet made a small thump on the floor. She turned around, she had not waken her parents. She turned back around and quietly ran out of the room.  
  
Usagi closed the door behind her. The living room was cold. The heat had not been on at all since the day before. She grabbed a blanket that sat on the back of the sofa. She could feel her stomach rumbling inside her and realized that she was hungry. She walked down the hallway. Just as she entered the family room, the phone began to ring. She ran to it and picked it up. "Hello?"   
  
"Hello, Usagi, is that you?"  
  
Usagi couldn't tell who it was. "Yes, who is this?" The voice was somewhat muffled. All she could tell was that it was a female.  
  
"Usagi, this is Pan. Is grandma or grandpa there?" Pan was having a little bit of trouble speaking.  
  
"Uh-huh. Just a sec." Usagi placed her hand over the receiver and ran back to her parents' room, leaving her blanket behind. "Mommy, daddy!" She yelled as she busted into their room.   
  
Chi-Chi shot up from bed and franticly looked around the room. "What!? What's wrong?" She stopped when her eyes met with her daughter's. "Usagi…"  
  
Usagi jumped on the bed and held the phone out to her mother. "Here, it's Pan. She wants to talk to you."  
  
Chi-Chi grabbed the phone from her daughter. The phone in their room had not rang because they usually turn off the ringer when they go to bed. "Thank you dear." She put the phone up to her ear. "Hello? Pan?"  
  
Usagi looked over to her father as her mother spoke to Pan on the phone. He didn't seem to be awake. 'Daddy can sleep through anything.' She laid her body over his and looked up at his face. She smiled as she began to poke at him.   
  
Goku opened his eyes, startling Usagi. "What are you doing?" She had awakened him with her yelling, he just hadn't showed it when she first came in.  
  
Usagi continued to poke at him as she began to giggle. "Nothing."  
  
Goku smiled as he grabbed her by the arms and held her in the air as high as his arms would extend. "Oh really?" He kept her arms pinned against the rest of her body as she dangled over him.  
  
Usagi looked down at her father. "Yup, not doing anything. Just hanging around." She tried to wiggle free of his hold.  
  
Goku flipped her around in the air so her back was facing him and then quickly brought her back so she was lying on his stomach. At this point, he wrapped his arms around her so she couldn't get up. "Well, now you have something to do. You can try to get away from me."  
  
Usagi giggled some more. That wouldn't be an easy task. He was, after all, the strongest man in the world. She tired to pull her body up away from his. The harder she pulled, the tighter his grip became. She couldn't use her hands either. Goku had her arms curled up on top of her chest underneath his arms. "Daddy, I will do this."  
  
Goku laughed. "Maybe in a few years you will."   
  
Usagi planted her feet as far down the bed as she could. She then proceeded to try to pull her way down from his arms with her legs. "Gees." She soon stopped when she realized that it was impossible to break free. There was only one more way that she knew of that could work. She picked up her head and put it over her father's arms as she opened her mouth. "Hehe." She bit down into his skin.  
  
Goku jerked a bit when he felt the teeth of his daughter clamping around his skin. "Usagi, do you think you can hurt me by doing that?" Goku didn't feel all that much.  
  
Usagi sighed. "This isn't fair. I can't win with you can I?" She gave up. Now she was just going to go all out. She began to kick her feet against his legs. "Let me go." She kicked as fast and as hard as she could. She got a little carried away with her kicking, though, and accidentally hit her mother with her foot.  
  
Chi-Chi turned around from her conversation with Pan. She looked rather angry. "Would you two cool it for once? I am trying to have serious conversation here. If you two really want to play, go outside and do it."  
  
Goku released his grip on his daughter, allowing her to get up. "Sorry Chi-Chi."  
  
Usagi rolled over off of her father. "Yeah, sorry mamma."  
  
Chi-Chi turned back around. "Anyways Pan, I guess I'll meet you there later." Chi-Chi stood up. "I love you too. Good bye." She sat down the phone and looked back at the two Saiyans who stared back up at her. "That was Pan."  
  
Goku sat up. "Yeah Chi-Chi, we know that."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "If you would let me finish maybe I would tell you what she wanted instead of just stating who she was." Goku back away. He wasn't in a mood to argue this morning so he would just let Chi-Chi have her way. "Anyways, it seems as though she too has gotten sick. My poor little Pan. Almost everyone is sick now."  
  
"Mamma, why didn't she just call Gohan? He is her daddy and all." Usagi lay on her stomach with her head rested in her hands. She had her feet dangling over her father.  
  
"She tried to, but when she called this morning, neither of her parents were there. She doesn't know where they could be, so I told her to meet us at Capsule Corp. I'm going to call Goten to have him meet us there too. I want Bulma to run another test so we can find out what's wrong with you guys."  
  
Goku groaned. "I don't want to do another test. It's boring."  
  
Chi-Chi put her hands on her waist. "What's more important? Being entertained, or staying alive. You pick. I'll know your answer if you come or not." With that she walked into their bathroom. "I'm getting ready to leave!"  
  
Goku looked at Usagi, as she did the same. They both shrugged at each other went to get themselves ready to leave.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Once at Capsule Corp., Chi-Chi led her family to Bulma's lab. Before she opened the door she turned around to look at Goku and Usagi. "You two behave. We aren't here to play games. If you feel the need to play around in there, I'm going to send you out Usagi."  
  
Usagi opened her mouth to protest. "That's not fair!"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "It's not fair that you distract your father. He is always too tempted to play around with you."  
  
Usagi was a little disappointed. "Well, if I distract him so much, maybe I shouldn't go in at all." She crossed her arms and turned around.  
  
"Fine! It will be less time consuming. We won't have to stop to kick you out for getting in the way." Chi-Chi absolutely did not take any lip from her daughter. She didn't mean what she was saying, but it kept Usagi in line. She turned around and opened the door.  
  
Usagi was a bit surprised that her mother would agree with her. She had actually half expected her to say that she could come in but just be quiet. "No, I want to come in." Usagi turned around and tried to follow her mother and father in.  
  
Goku turned around and put his hand out. "Usagi, just let your mother have her way. She isn't in a mood to be played around with. And she is right. We do distract each other a lot." Goku turned around and closed the door behind him, leaving his daughter standing alone in the dark hallway.  
  
Usagi began to pout. "More like I distract you and you don't get anything done. I'm just always I the way aren't I!?" She frowned. "Well fine then. I'll leave! I don't need you anyways!" She turned around and stomped away as hard as she could, making sure her feet made loud sounds as they beat against the tile floor.  
  
Chi-Chi rolled her eyes as she watched Bulma get herself ready. "I hope she doesn't think she is going to come in here with that attitude."  
  
Goku sat down in a chair that was set up for him. "You have to admit Chi-Chi, she is going through a rough time with this too."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi stormed down the hallway. She was going to leave and find somewhere where she could have some fun and not be a distraction. She didn't see that she was about to hit Vejita and smashed right into him. She fell backwards. Vejita looked down at her with cold eyes. "Why don't you watch where you are going brat?!"  
  
Usagi looked up. "Sorry Vejita." She smiled to herself. Maybe he could entertain her. "Where are you going?"  
  
"The woman wants to put me through that stupid test again. I don't know what she plans to find." Vejita walked around Usagi, who was pushing herself up. "By the way, I saw your stupid brother, Gohan and his wife. He looked horrible."  
  
"What!?" Usagi turned her head away from Vejita and ran down the hall. 'Vejita said he looked horrible. No. Something bad has happened to him again.' She ran faster in the direction that Vejita had come from, hoping that she would find her big brother. "Gohan! Videl!" She looked in every direction for them until she found them in the living room. Her brother was lying on the sofa. He was making many quiet moans. He was definitely in pain. "Gohan!" She ran up to him.  
  
Videl had put a moist cloth on his forehead. "Usagi. You shouldn't be here. Your brother is burning up with a fever. You could get sick."  
  
Usagi looked up at Videl. "What? Videl, what happened."  
  
Videl didn't know what to tell the little girl in front of her. For she herself had no idea what had happened. "Well, he woke early this morning in major pain. I took his temperature and he had a fever of 102 degrees. So I brought him here. Any idea where Bulma is?"  
  
Usagi stared down at her brother. She had never seen him in so much pain in her life. It was like he had just been in a fight against someone and he lost big time. "Yeah. She is in her lab."  
  
Videl put Gohan's arm around her neck and helped him to his feet. "Thanks. You should stay out here though. I don't think your parents would appreciate me getting you sick." She turned her head to Gohan. "Come on. Let's get you some help."  
  
Gohan rolled his eyes into his head. "Uuuuuh."  
  
Usagi watched Videl carry her brother down the hall. "Videl, Pan should be here. She is sick too."  
  
Videl stopped. "Oh no…"  
  
Usagi turned around and began to walk to the front door. "See ya." She opened the door and walked out of the house.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi didn't know where she was going. She had been wandering the city for about twenty minutes. She didn't exactly care where she was going. All she knew was that she needed to get away from everything. She needed time alone. There was a part of her that wanted to know what was happening, but then there was another part of her who wanted to just run away from everything.   
  
She stopped walking when she came up to a skate park. She put her hands on the fence as she leaned into it to get a closer look at all the kids in it. There had to be at least fifteen kids there, if not more. Usagi had always been fascinated by skating. She had always wanted to be a part of a group of skaters. She often found herself thinking about how much fun it would be. There had been a group of skaters at her school that always showed off at recess. They were part of a skating organization and always went to competitions. Usagi would have joined, but she was too young at the time. She had just turned six about 5 months before and you had to be at least eight to join. She watched everyone, wishing that she could be a part of the fun.   
  
"Hey look. Its monkey girl…oh wait, I mean Usagi."  
  
Usagi slowly turned around, not wanting to know who was even behind her. She thought that her nickname days were long gone. "Haruka?!" She was a little surprised that Haruka was brave enough to talk to her. She had avoided her all year up until now.   
  
Haruka smiled. "Yep. So what have you been up to lately? I see you still have that tail of yours."   
  
Usagi wasn't sure if she was trying to be nice, or rude. She looked to the two people behind her. Michiru was there and the boy that she had seen them with just the day before. "What do you want? If it's a fight you want," Usagi grinned, "Then I'll just beat you like I did last year."  
  
Haruka smirked. "Actually, we are here to skate, but, my friend here, wants to know if he could have the pleasure of sparring you." She stepped out of the way so she could reveal a somewhat muscular boy with short black hair. He wore a sleeveless black T-shirt and baggy black pants. On his feet he wore pure black roller blades. "I told him about you and he is positive that he can beat you."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Oh he does, does he? Well, how much skill do you have?"  
  
The boy grinned. "Look little girl, I have been training since I was about five years old. That means that I have been fighting for about seven years because I am twelve now. My sensei is my father. He is strong. I can beat you with no problem what so ever."   
  
"Oh really? And who is your father?" Usagi was up for the spar. She was bored anyways and needed to blow off some steam.  
  
"I have been advised by my father not to tell anyone." The boy took off his skates and helmet and threw them to Michiru. "How well do you know how to fight girl?"  
  
Usagi smirked. "Good enough to beat the likes of you." She began to stretch. "Might I ask who you are? Or is that a secret too?"  
  
"Do you need to know my name for me to kick you butt?" He also began to stretch.  
  
"I guess not, in that case, I won't tell you my name either." Usagi laughed to herself. 'This is going to be too simple. I can't believe it. I am so going to make him wish he never thought of challenging me.' She smirked. "Shall we start?"  
  
(K! That's it for this part! What do ya think? Is it good or bad? Please review. Don't you just love how I set everything up and then make you wait to find out what's going on? ^_^ Oh yeah, over all what do you think of chapter two so far? Buh bye for now Minna san!)  
  
  



	26. Part 8

Usagi stood face to face with the mysterious boy that Haruka and Michiru brought for her to fight. She grinned. "Aren't we going to fight, or did you plan on beating me at a starring contest?"  
  
The boy smiled. "Laugh all you want now, but you will soon know that you can never beat me." He turned around and waved for Usagi to follow. "Follow me Odango."  
  
Usagi frowned. "My name is not Odango!" She crossed her arms. "I will not follow you if you insist on calling me that."  
  
The boy smiled. He knew how to get on her bad side now. Of course it didn't matter. He would soon show her just how strong he was anyways. "Well, that's what I'm going to call you. You know, since you didn't give me your name and all."  
  
Usagi clenched her teeth. "You didn't give me your name but I didn't insult you!"  
  
The boy rolled his eyes. "Call me what ever you like. I am not permitted to give out my name to lower class fighters like yourself. Now let's go, unless you want to chicken out on me." Haruka and Michiru laughed. They may have just met him a few weeks ago, but he was already one of their best friends. They had seen how strong this boy was and everything that he could do. They were pretty sure he could beat this little annoyance.  
  
Usagi decided to just leave the name subject alone for now. Once she had his face buried in the dirt, she would make him call her by her real name. "Fine." She followed the boy behind the Skate Park, where there was a large open space of concrete. It was an old parking lot, but ever since the park came to be, no one ever used it anymore. She tapped her foot on the ground as she watched him warm up some more. "I just want you to know I train with weighted clothing and that I am much stronger and faster without them, so you don't stand a chance against me," She grinned, "But don't worry, I'll go easy on you."  
  
The boy stood and looked at Usagi. A smiled formed in his lips. "What a coincidence. So do I. So, you see, now we are both stronger then normal. And I was taught never to go easy on anyone, even little girls. My father never went easy on me as a child."  
  
"What?! You use weighted cloths too?" Usagi stared at the boy in disbelief. She had never heard of anyone outside of her family and friends who trained with weighted clothing. 'Maybe this won't be as easy as I thought it was?' Usagi got into a fighting stance.  
  
"Oh yeah, did I mention that my dad is one hell of a fighter?" The boy got into his fighting stance, also.  
  
Usagi smirked. "So is mine." 'This boy is full of himself.'  
  
Michiru and Haruka sat on the side of the parking lot. Haruka looked over to Michiru. "This should be good. Monkey Girl will finally know what happens when you mess with us."  
  
Michiru laughed. "Yeah no kidding. This guy will take her out." She put her hands to her mouth. "Hey Odango, don't loose too badly. We want you to be alive afterwards so we can rub in your defeat."  
  
Haruka started to crack up. "My god Michiru, that was great. Why didn't I think of that."  
  
Usagi stared blankly at laughing girls and then turned back to look at her fighting partner. "Those are some really interesting people you are hanging out with." Usagi waited for him to respond. When he didn't, she decided it was her turn to give him a name. "Well, why don't I call you…"  
  
"Guardian…I like that name. That's what a lot of my friends call me."  
  
Usagi lifted her eyebrow. "Guardian? What kind of a name is that? Are you some kind of super hero?" Usagi couldn't help but laugh. That was the most ridiculous name that she had ever heard.  
  
The boy became angry at Usagi's incessant laughing. "Shut up. That's what my name means. Well kind of, it actually means protector but who cares?! Guardian sounds better. Now shut up Odango. Before I shove my hand through your stupid monkey face!"  
  
Usagi stopped laughing. She grinned. She was getting excited. "Is that a challenge, GUARDIAN?!" Usagi began to laugh again.  
  
"Guardian" could feel his anger rushing through his veins as Usagi laughed at him. "That's it!" He crouched down to the ground, touching his fingertips to the cold rigid concrete. He smirked. "That's it Odango, keep laughing." He pushed himself off the ground and into the air.  
  
Usagi stopped laughing when she saw him hovering over her. 'You can fly?!'   
  
As soon as he had gained an appropriate amount of altitude, he fired a golden Ki blast at Usagi. gold for a reason Usagi, who had anticipated an attack like this from him, flipped backwards to dodge it. She immediately hurled herself into the air because she was certain that he would try to sneak behind her and attack again. She learned that little trick from Goten. Before she looked to the ground to see if she had been right, she scanned the air to make sure he wasn't there to attack. She then looked to the ground, when she didn't see him anywhere in the air. Sure enough, he was on the ground just like she had thought.   
  
He smirked as he looked up to her. "Not bad Odango, but you are going to have to speed yourself up a bit. I'm much faster then that."  
  
Usagi didn't take the time out to listen to what he was saying. She didn't have the time. Instead, she fired one of her own Ki blasts back to him. "You ain't seen nothin yet, GUARDIAN!"   
  
Guardian rubbed his hands together. "Can't wait to see more." He didn't even try to dodge the blast that flew to him from the sky. He allowed it to hit his arms, which he held up in front of himself as a shield.  
  
Usagi was a little bit surprised that he could block the blast so easily. If Makoto or Minako had tried to block it, they would have been in some major pain by now. She wasn't expecting him to just stand there and take it like it was nothing. 'Who is this guy?'  
  
He brought his hands down to the height of his stomach to look at the damage. The front of his hands and arms were pitch black from the blast. It had burned them. The pain was great but he was strong. He wouldn't let such a small injury get him down. 'She IS strong. But not as strong as me.' He looked back up, but Usagi was no longer there.  
  
Usagi quietly giggled as she grabbed Guardian from behind. "Guess who?" Before Guardian had a chance to say anything, Usagi had lifted her knee and shoved it as hard as she could into his back. She watched as he stumbled forward a bit after she released him. She held out her hand in front of her. "Let's see you do better than this tough guy!" Usagi formed another Ki blast, only this time more powerful and fired it at the boy in black.  
  
Guardian didn't turn around. He just let the ball of gold energy hit his back. "OK!" He disappeared behind a cloud of smoke.  
  
Usagi took a step back. "Huh? He just stood there AGAIN."  
  
Guardian jumped out from the wall of smoke that separated him from Usagi and kicked her head on in the face before she knew what was going on. Usagi flew the opposite direction head first, meaning, her head was also the first part of her body to land on the concrete. Her body landed not to long after her head did. Usagi could feel her skin being ripped off of her face and body as she scraped across the hard ground. "AHHHH!" Usagi couldn't remember feeling anything as painful as she was now. There had been many times when she felt pain, but not THAT bad. She slowly pushed herself up off the ground and looked down at her right side. Her leg and arm were covered with blood. She put her hand to her face, a lot of the skin on it had also been peeled away, leaving warm blood in its place. She placed her hand on the right side of her stomach. Her shirt was moist. She looked down to it, it too was stained with her blood. She lifted her shirt to reveal her stomach, full of dirt in her wound. She looked to Guardian who was laughing at her. She wanted to cry out. The pain was horrible. "It's not funny." She looked to the side of the parking lot. Haruka and Michiru were also laughing.   
  
Guardian was laughing so hard that his eyes were watering. "Yes it is Odango. I thought you said that you were going to beat me." He turned into the direction of Haruka and Michiru. "I thought you said she was strong."  
  
Haruka stood up and brushed herself off. "I guess we were having an off day. Well, now that we can pick on you again Monkey Girl." She laughed harder.  
  
Usagi limped over to Guardian while he was turned away. She began to build up a rather large silver Ki blast in her one good hand. She didn't know how powerful it would be for the fact that her head hit pretty hard against the concrete. She knew it was bleeding badly. She could feel it running down her face. She had a scowl planted on it. "You stupid…"  
  
Guardian turned around just in time to see Usagi put her hand to his chest and release her Ki blast on him. He was thrown back by the impact of coming from so close. He lay on the ground all spread out. He lifted his head to look at his stomach, which now looked like Usagi's whole right side of her body. His shirt was torn revealing his stomach, which was also torn up. Usagi was a bit surprised when she saw his stomach. She hadn't expected to do that much damage. "You call that an attack?" He knew it was a good attack. He just didn't want to admit it to her.  
  
Usagi fell to her knees. That last attack had taken almost everything she had. She looked up at Guardian with scared eyes. She knew he was going to retaliate, she just wasn't sure how much though. Usagi couldn't even keep herself up on her knees. She fell face forward to the ground, unable to lift herself up again.  
  
He frowned as he stood up. "I call this an attack." He put two of his fingers to his forehead. They began to glow a golden color.  
  
"Mamoru, what do you think you are doing? Leave the girl alone!"   
  
Mamoru stopped his attack and turned around. He stood face to face with his father. "Father. This girl is unusually strong. I think you should take her into your training."  
  
The boy's father smiled. "I know she is. Leave her alone though. I don't need to train her. She already has a sensei." He turned around and began to walk away. "Let's go. You still have many things to learn before the Budaki Tournament."  
  
Usagi couldn't lift her head to see who the boy's father was. She couldn't even really make out anything of what he had just said. All she heard was the Budaki Tournament. She didn't know if she was ready for it yet. Not after what had just happened. Though he did seem to have a lot in common with her, with the Ki blasts, flying, and even weighted clothing.  
  
Mamoru looked back at Usagi. "I have to go Odango. It was nice to fight with you. I hope we can do it again. Maybe when you get stronger." He turned to Haruka and Michiru. "I'll see you guys on Monday." He picked up his skates and followed his father into the air.  
  
Haruka and Michiru walked up to Usagi's limp body. Michiru poked at her with her foot. "Pathetic. And I thought you were strong. I never should have given you that stupid ball back."  
  
Usagi didn't really feel the pokes from Michiru. Her body was pretty much numb all over. "I'm a lot stronger than you think."  
  
Haruka laughed. "Yeah right. You aren't strong. You aren't anything, but I'll make a deal with you. You don't bother us, and we don't bother you. We only have a couple of months left of school anyways and then we will be going to a different school next year. It won't be that hard. We have lasted this year without saying a word to each other." She looked up to Michiru. "Let's go. I want to get some skate boarding done before the day is wasted."  
  
Michiru nodded. "Good bye, Monkey Girl." She turned and walked away with Haruka, leaving Usagi all alone in the middle of the empty parking lot.  
  
Shots of pain spread throughout Usagi's body. She wasn't sure how she was going to get home or if anyone would even care to find her if she couldn't manage on her own. She had gotten the message from her mother that she was just a distraction to everyone, she was nothing more, nothing less. Even her father had gone along with it.  
  
The warmth of the sun's rays were quite soothing on Usagi's back as she lay on the cold concrete. She tried to stand herself up, but her arms were weak and could not really hold the weight of her body. She closed her eyes as the pain increased when she put pressure on her arms. Her arms didn't hold up for long. They collapsed underneath her, making her fall hard against the ground. "Ouch!" She looked to her side where she could see blood running onto the concrete. "What am I going to do? That kid's dad didn't even offer to help me." She squinted. "Daddy…" Usagi began to cry. She couldn't take it anymore. "Help me." Usagi could feel herself becoming light headed. "I can't fall asleep. I can't…fall...asleep." Usagi could feel her eyes wanting to close. But she couldn't fall asleep. If she did, she may never get home. "I have to get up." She once again tried to get herself up, but soon, found herself on the ground again. She began to drag herself to an area covered by trees. Although the sun felt good on her back, it would start to hurt if she stayed under it for too long.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku pulled away from Bulma right when she was about to put a needle into his skin. "Goku, we have been through this before. You know that you have to do this. It's vital that I test all of you. Now come on. Put your arm back."  
  
Goku looked up at Bulma. "I can't do this right now Bulma. I have something else I need to do."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Goku, I thought we went over this before we left the house. That's why I didn't let Usagi in here. So she wouldn't become a distraction for you. I thought that you would act a little bit more mature with her not in here. I guess I was wrong."  
  
Goku was getting disgusted with Chi-Chi always making stupid accusations. "Chi-Chi, it's about Usagi. All of a sudden, for some reason, her energy signature has become very faint."  
  
Bulma put the needle down. "What? Why? She isn't sparring with Vejita. It's not like he nearly killed her or anything. She should be around the house somewhere."  
  
Videl looked up from watching Gohan and her daughter. "Umm, Goku, I think she left the building."  
  
Goku looked over to Videl. "What? She what? When?" Goku hadn't let her venture out into the city alone since the day she had that little run in with the muggers in the alley. He swore to himself that he wouldn't let her until she was older. He didn't consider one year later old enough. Yes she was strong, but if she got scared, she wouldn't know what to do. Just like before.  
  
"Around the time I came in here." That was over 45 minutes ago. She could see that Goku was worried. "Look, I'm sorry Goku. It's my fault. I should have stopped her."  
  
Chi-Chi crossed her arms. "No Videl, it's our fault. This is what we get for trusting her. Here she is distracting us again."  
  
Goku frowned. "Don't say that Chi-Chi. Usagi is just a child. She is going to make mistakes. And this is NOT a matter of trust so don't even go there." Goku had always thought she came down too hard on Usagi.   
  
"Goku…I…Uh…No…I…Gees…" Chi-Chi didn't know what to say.   
  
Goku looked around to everyone and stopped at Bulma. "I'm sorry, but I have to go find her. She's in trouble."  
  
Goten sat up. "Dad, maybe she's just hiding her energy from us. Maybe she thinks we won't be able to find her."  
  
Chi-Chi walked closer to her husband. "Or maybe she's trying to get back at us for not letting her come in. Maybe she wants you to think that she's hurt."  
  
Goku was shocked. He never thought that Chi-Chi wood stoop so low as to say something like that about one of her own children. Of course, he never thought he would see the day when she hit one of her children, but she did and he would never forget that day either. "Chi-Chi, would you stop saying stuff like that already? It's getting on my nerves. Usagi is a good kid. She just has a hard time when something goes wrong."  
  
Bulma watched Chi-Chi's facial expressions as Goku spoke. She looked like she was getting angrier as he went on. "Chi-Chi, I think I'm going to have to side with Goku on this one. Usagi does seem to be more sensitive then her brothers. I think it's a girl thing. Bra was always more sensitive then Trunks."  
  
"And more whiny."  
  
Bulma looked back to her husband. "Shut up Vejita. You don't need to add to this."   
  
Vejita just snorted and turned onto his side. "Like I said before Kakkorotto, your brat is too rebellious for her own good."  
  
Goku wanted to punch Vejita in the face for that remark. It seems as though Bulma and himself were the only ones who were defending Usagi. Of course, if Gohan had been able to, he would have defended his little sister. But he was drugged up with all sorts of medications at the moment. "You guys can argue all you want but I'm going to find her." He looked back to Goten. "About her hiding her energy, I haven't taught her how to do that yet." He put his fingers up to his forehead and concentrated on his daughter's remaining energy.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku found himself in a large parking lot behind the city's skating park. The same parking lot where Usagi had just fought with Mamoru. He looked around for Usagi, not finding anything but the spot where she had collapsed. He saw the blood stained concrete where she had fallen. "Oh god no." He saw that there was a trail of blood leading from the bigger puddle. He started to follow it. He looked up as he continued to walk forward. What he saw horrified him. "Shit! What the hell happened here?" He ran forward to his daughter. She was lying on her stomach under some trees. He didn't see any blood on her until he got close enough to see her right side. "Usagi! Are you awake?!" Her eyes were closed but she could have still been awake. He knelt down and wrapped his hands around her shoulders. He gently pulled her up and leaned her against his leg. "Usagi. No." Goku held her head up with his hand and closed his eyes. "How could I let this happen again? I really am a bad father. I knew I would screw up again, if it's not one way, it's another."  
  
"No your not…" Usagi coughed.   
  
Goku opened his eyes and looked down at his daughter. "Usagi?!"  
  
Usagi barely opened her eyes enough to see a blurry picture of her father. "You aren't a bad father." She slightly smiled. "You're the best."  
  
Goku appreciated her words. That phrase, 'You're the best,' Wasn't just an observation coming from Bulma or Chi-Chi, but it was coming from a more important person. But he knew it wasn't true. He was a horrible father. A good father would never allow his children to be in as much danger as he had let his. A good father would not encourage fighting, like he had. "We should get you to Bulma's. When we get back, I want you to tell me who did this to you." 'Then I want to kick their ass for what they did to you.' Goku now knew what Gohan was talking about when he had once told him that 'some of the things that happen to Usagi will make him want to do things that he had never thought of doing before.' He said that it was just what every father did for his daughter. Goku finally knew what he was talking about. He normally wouldn't have had thoughts like this before, but then again, no one messes with his daughter and gets away with it. He carefully picked up Usagi so she lay in his arms. "Usagi, we are going to be teleporting now." Usagi gave a slight nod. "I just wanted you to know that when we return, your mother may freak out when she sees you."   
  
Usagi was well aware of that. She had prepared herself for that already. "I'm ready." If Usagi could have shown how happy she was to see her father, she would have.  
  
Goku put his two of his fingers to his head while still trying to balance his daughter in his arms. "Here we go." He concentrated on Chi-Chi's energy so he could teleport right to her. He knew that Bulma would be there with her too.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Tarupa, I just got the word from Kiro. Shift it into high gear."  
  
Tarupa smiled. He would gladly comply. It was a high risk factor on himself, but if it meant ridding the planet of Saiyans, he would do it. "Now you're talkin my style here."  
  
"Yeah, we can finally finish this soon. Kiro and the others will be joining in soon. We don't know when it will be over. These Saiyans are fisty. Even when we aren't directly fighting them."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku appeared with Usagi in his arms behind Chi-Chi. She didn't notice him because she was concentrating more on her sons and granddaughter. Actually, no one noticed him, until he spoke up. "Bulma, I know you're busy, but, Usagi needs help."  
  
Everyone, who was able to, turned around and looked at Goku. Bulma quickly shifted her eyes to Usagi once she saw the red on his orange GI. She gasped. "Oh god…What happened?"  
  
Chi-Chi quickly moved her eyes to her daughter and nearly screamed. "Usagi! My baby!" She ran to Usagi. She wanted to grab her out of her husband's arms but was afraid to. She didn't want to hurt her any more then she already was. "I'm sorry I said those mean things to you sweetie."  
  
Goten sat up and looked back to his sister. "Good god! What happened to her?" 'I thought she knew how to fight.' "Ok, who did this to her? When I find out who did, I'll kill em'. They'll wish they never laid a hand on my baby sister!"  
  
Goku laughed. Apparently he felt the same way he did. "Thanks for your concern Goten, but that's my job."   
  
Goten smiled. "I'll bet." All of a sudden Goten winced in pain. "Ahhh….Oww, Oww, Oww, Pain, Very bad pain in chest and head." Goten grabbed his chest with his hand and clasped his fingers on it. "Gees, where did this pain come from?" Goten began to feel even more lightheaded now then he had before. He started to have a hard time breathing too. "God, just make it stop." He began to punch the armrest of his chair with his fist.  
  
Videl watched in fear. That had been exactly what happened to Gohan earlier that morning. She put her hands to her face. "God…This is too weird."  
  
Bulma rushed over to Goten and wrapped something around his arm. She began to check his heart pressure. "What? This isn't right!" She ran over to the counter and pulled something out of the drawer beneath it. She ran back to Goten.   
  
Usagi starred at her brother. She was scared for him. "Goten…" As if it wasn't bad enough that she had just gotten herself beaten up by a 'superior fighter', her brother seemed to be getting worse.   
  
Bulma stuck a needle into Goten's arm without thought. She didn't even care if she hurt him. Any wasted time could have been catastrophic for the suffering Saiyan. "Hold on Goten. This should calm down that heart of yours." 'I just want to know what the hell is going on.' She began to inject a sedative into his body in hopes to calm him down. It seemed to work.   
  
Goten began to settle down. The pain was still there, but his body wasn't over reacting like it had before. He looked up at Bulma. "Thanks, now, do you have anything for this freakin pain?"  
  
Bulma pulled a bottle of pain relievers out of her pocket. "Here." She pulled one out of the bottle and handed it to Goten. "These should help you fall asleep too."  
  
Vejita snorted. "Why don't you learn to live with the pain brat?"  
  
Chi-Chi hit Vejita in the back of the head. "Why don't you just shut up and leave people alone?"  
  
Goku interrupted their quarrel before it began. He knew if he didn't stop it fast, it would turn into something big. "What are we going to do about Usagi?"  
  
Chi-Chi turned back to Goku and her daughter. "We need to take her to the infirmary, and quick."  
  
Usagi groaned. "Not the peroxide again."  
  
Goku looked down at his daughter. "I'm afraid so. But it's for the best. We need to clean you up." He turned to Chi-Chi. "You stay here with Goten and I'll take Usagi to get some help." 'This is great, now all my kids have something wrong with them.'  
  
"Feel free to use anything at the infirmary. I'll be in there as soon as possible to see if you need anything." Bulma put the bottle of pain relievers back into her pockets.  
  
Chi-Chi nodded. "That sounds good." She looked at her daughter's shirt. "Honestly Usagi. I just bought you that shirt and now you had to go and get it ruined.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Once at the infirmary, Goku set his daughter down on one of the many beds in the room. There was currently nobody occupying any of the beds, or any part of the room for that matter. It was a perfect environment for her. Although Usagi would have preferred noise at the moment. Anything to keep her awake. "Daddy…I'm sorry."  
  
Goku shook his head. "Don't be. It was your mother's and my fault. We should have just let you come into the room with us, but you know how your mother is."  
  
Usagi definitely knew how her mother was. But, although she seemed like she didn't give a rip about the things that Usagi wanted, she knew that her mother really did love her. That's just how she showed it. She looked down at her arm and then to her leg. "What are you going to do about that?" She was afraid to ask, fearing that he would say 'peroxide.'  
  
Goku stood up and walked to a counter. He pulled open a drawer and picked up the bottle of peroxide that sat in it and some paper towels from above the sink. "I think you know already. Let me just say ahead of time, I'm sorry."  
  
Usagi understood. It was for the better. She had heard that many times in the past year and a half. She would always come home with cuts and bruises and her father would pull out the peroxide. And when it wasn't the peroxide, it was rubbing alcohol. She watched as he sat down on a chair by the bed and pour some of the clear liquid onto a paper towel. She closed her eyes when she saw that he was nearing her face with the cloth.   
  
"This may hurt just a bit." Before he even had a chance to apply it to her face, Usagi jerked her head away. "Usagi, come on now. This has to be done." He put one of his hands behind her head so she wouldn't be able to move again.  
  
Usagi flinched when she felt the cloth touch her face. "Oww." She could feel it begin to fizz where there was dirt in her wound. The pain trickled it's way down her face.   
  
Goku let go of her head and brought his hand down to one of hers. He put her hand on the towel that covered the right part of her face. "Hold that there. I'm going to get the rest of you now." Usagi held the towel on her face as she was told.  
  
~*~*~  
  
By the time Goku was finished, almost every part of Usagi's body that had been hurt was wrapped in a bandage. He didn't leave a single spot open to the air. He had had to use cloth bandages for the fact that most of her cuts were too big for regular Band-Aids. He looked down at his daughter. She didn't look too happy. Of course, in her situation, who would be? "Don't worry Usagi, this won't last for long. A Saiyan doesn't take that long to heal. You should be out of those bandages by Monday. So, would you like to tell me who did this to you?"   
  
Usagi stiffly shifted herself so she could look up at her father. "Well…you see, I was walking around and stopped at the Skate Park where there were a bunch of kids. While I was watching, Haruka and Michiru walked up from behind me. I guess they were there to skate, but when they saw me, their friend said that he could fight me no problem."  
  
Goku didn't want to believe what he had just heard. "Haruka and Michiru we picking on you again?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No, their friend was. They were too afraid to do anything to me until after the fight."  
  
"I see, so who was this guy who did this to you? What was his name?" Goku played with some extra gauze in his hands.  
  
"Mamoru. He was the same age as Haruka and Michiru. He said that his dad trained him and that he was really strong. Daddy, he can fly and shoot Ki blasts and everything. He's faster then me I think."  
  
Goku thought for a moment. He didn't know anyone who was strong who had a son named Mamoru. "Did he tell you who his father was?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "Nope, all he said was that his dad won't let him tell people. He did say that he trains with weighted clothing, like me. His dad was there, but I didn't see him. I could barely hear anything that he said too. I did hear him say something about the Budaki Tournament."  
  
"Budaki Tournament huh? Well, I guess I'll have a talk with his father there then. Until then you will have to stay away from him. And I don't want you to go out into the city alone anymore, do you understand young lady? I thought I made myself clear of that before when I told you not to venture out on your own."  
  
Usagi lowered her head. "Sorry. I just needed to get away. I won't do it again." She looked back up. She could tell her father wasn't all that mad at her. "But what about the Tournament? If I can't beat him, then I can't beat anyone."  
  
"Well, that depends. I didn't enter you in the pro tournament, but I also didn't enter you in the beginner's either. It's hard to explain but let's just say that I didn't underestimate your skill. We don't know how long this other boy has been fighting bu…"  
  
"Seven years."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"He told me he has been fighting for seven years."  
  
Goku smiled. "Well you see. There's your problem. He has a few years on you. And if he has been fighting with Ki blasts and weighted clothing all his life, then he's more advanced then you. But don't worry, with your ability, you will surpass him one of these days. Heck, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, you will most likely surpass me too. I know you have it in you. You just have to want it to happen."   
  
Usagi knew he was right. She could make anything happen, just as long as she wanted. And now she had a new goal to shoot for. She would rise up over this Mamoru character.   
  
(K! That's it for this part. So, what do you think? Good or bad? Please review. Oh yeah, a little note. No Mamoru is not evil. You will find out more info about him later. You should know me by now and how I just absolutely love to set up my story before I dive right into writing it. LOL! Thank you! ^_^ P.S. a couple of people asked if she was going to be SM in this story and you know what I have to say to that? OF COURSE she is. I have every intention in my little body to make her SM, when she gets older, meaning, not until a later chapter. K? K. enough with me. I should let you be going now. Buh bye!)  



	27. Part 9

Later that night…  
  
Usagi looked out her window as she sat in her room. Bulma had given her some aspirin right before she had left so she was feeling a little better, but the pain was still there and still quite unbearable. She had to hold herself very still. Whenever she would make the slightest move, she could feel it all over her body. She sighed as she watched her parents outside in the dark. It was quite obvious. They stood outside, in the near dark lighting, talking about everything that was happening. She knew why they were doing it away from her too. They didn't want her to get upset. But maybe that wasn't it. Maybe they or her mother anyways, didn't want her to get in the way. But that wouldn't explain why they were outside. Maybe they were talking about her. She didn't think that she had done anything all that bad. She just stood up for herself. But then again, if she hadn't gone into the city, then she wouldn't have gotten into the fight. Then she wouldn't have distracted her father from his tests. But there was always the chance that she was just being paranoid about them trying to hide anything from her. That she was just blowing everything totally out of proportion. It was too confusing for Usagi and it hurt her head to just think about it.  
  
She leaned the unwounded part of her face on the window seal as she began to think about what DID take place earlier in the day. Who was Mamoru really? Why DID he want to fight her? Obviously it wasn't just to get back at her for what she had done to Haruka and Michiru. There had to be more. If he could use his own energy to fight, maybe he could sense power levels too. Maybe that's why he was so confident. But there was the fact that he was hanging out with Haruka and Michiru. They didn't need a reason to pick on her. Maybe this boy really was telling the truth about just wanting to get back. It didn't really matter. He had done a good job of beating on her and she now knew to stay away from him until she got stronger so she could at least defend herself.   
  
She looked back out the window at her parents. They looked to be fighting again. They seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Usually about her. This she knew this for a fact. 'If only I had been born earlier. Gohan says that there was a time when mamma only got mad if we didn't get good grades. She gets mad at me for everything I do.'  
  
There was a reason for that though. Chi-Chi, being the over protective mother that she is, wanted only what was best for her daughter. Even if that meant getting it done by force. Her children had a tendency of just doing what ever they pleased. Chi-Chi wasn't going to have that again. Not this time. No, this time around she would raise her child right. Little did she know that by doing this, it was pushing Usagi further away from her. Oh well, what ever floats your boat, ne   
  
Usagi snapped out of her thinking and focused back down at her parents, who seemed to be starring up at her. "Yikes." She pulled back so they couldn't see her anymore.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi hit her husband in the chest. "See what I mean? That's all your influence you know?!"  
  
Goku looked down at his wife. "What are you talking about? She wasn't doing anything wrong. She was just watching. Any kid would do that." Chi-Chi didn't say anything. She just frowned at him. "Are you saying that I'm not a good influence on Usagi?"  
  
"That's exactly what I'm saying."  
  
Now Goku was frowning. He had been listening to this kind of crap from his wife for over a year now and was quite frankly was getting fed up with it. "Chi-Chi, I don't think this is the right time to talk about something like this."  
  
Chi-Chi sarcastically smiled and let out a small laugh. "I should have known you would do this. You always run away from your responsibility."  
  
"I'm running away from responsibility? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"  
  
Chi-Chi began to tap her foot on the ground out of anger. "You know exactly what I mean."  
  
Goku hated it when Chi-Chi did this to him. She could never just come right out and say anything. She always had to make things difficult. "No Chi-Chi, I don't. How the HELL am I running away from responsibility. What I said was entirely true. With everyone sick, you think you would be more worried about you two sons who are sick from a disease that no one can detect, and here you are worried about how good of a father I am to Usagi. Well I've got news for you Chi-Chi, Usagi is fine."  
  
"Usagi is fine? Your daughter just got her ass beat by some guy hella stronger than her and you think she is FINE!? What the hell is wrong with you!?"  
  
This was not helping Goku's self esteem as a father. She was only adding to his doubt. "Usagi will be fine. So, I repeat, how am I running away from responsibility?"  
  
"Well, it's fairly obvious. You fight. That's how you run away. You don't have to be a real father when you are fighting. That's why it's so easy for you to run away and fight. That's why you are training Usagi. So you don't have to take care of her. That's your philosophy isn't it? Just train them to fight, and they practically raise themselves."  
  
Goku was a little hurt that Chi-Chi would say something like that about him. That's not the way he felt at all. He trained them so they could defend themselves if he wasn't there to do it. Goku hated the fact that he couldn't be there for his kids when they needed him. But since he trained them to be strong, they made do without him. "So that's what you think is it? I knew this would come up one of these days."  
  
"Yes that's what I think. It's true."  
  
Goku shook his head. "Honestly Chi-Chi, I would have thought that you would know me a little bit better by now. I mean how many years has it been already. If I really wanted to just run away from responsibility, do you think I would be standing here talking to you about this trying to defend myself? No, I think not. I would probably be somewhere in the Bahamas getting drunk and pimpin women."  
  
Chi-Chi couldn't believe her ears. She raised her hand and punched Goku Square in the face. "You son of a…"  
  
Goku raised his hand to his face where Chi-Chi just hit him. He deserved that. He was way out of line on that last comment. "Chi-Chi, I'm sorry, but it's true. I love you, Gohan, Goten, and Usagi with all my heart."  
  
Chi-Chi turned away. "You sure don't act like it."  
  
Goku put his hand on her shoulder. "If I hated you guys so much, I wouldn't have fought for the earth so much. I wouldn't have risked my life for you guys."  
  
Chi-Chi turned around. "What?"  
  
"Do you know what my motivation was whenever I was fighting?" Chi-Chi shook her head. He had never told her. "It was you. You and the kids. If I had failed, it would have been the end of all of you. That's why I fight. Not because I'm running away from responsibility. I fight because of my responsibilities. I love you Chi-Chi."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled. "I love you too Goku." She threw herself into his arms. Awwww… Yuck! Romance in my story? LOL! "I'm sorry."  
  
Goku rubbed his hand on her back. "I'm sorry I wasn't there. But that's all over now. I'm here to stay. Unless someone comes and threatens the planet. But you'll understand." He picked her up in his arms and began to carry her back to the house. He always loved it when they made up. It always left him feeling so warm and fuzzy inside.  
  
Chi-Chi giggled a bit. "Yes I will, a wise man told me your intentions."  
  
Goku smiled. "Is that so? Well kudos to him."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi was dealing with a bit of her own problem. After she had ducked so her parents could not see her it was all over. She found herself stuck to the floor in pain. As if that wasn't bad enough, a nice, long legged, hair spider decided that she was something to sit on. Usagi couldn't really do anything about it either. She could barely move. "Shoo, go away." Spiders had to be one of the things that she was afraid of the most. Them and their stupid long fuzzy legs. She especially hated it when they moved those legs. It was to gross for her. "Come on you stupid spider, get off. Please?" She tried to flick it off with her good hand, but she was lying on it and she couldn't get I out from underneath her. She would have used her tail, but when she tried that before, the spider just climbed onto her tail instead. "GET OFF YOU STUPID SPIDER!"  
  
Goku sat his wife down on the bed as he heard Usagi in her room. He shook his head and laughed. "Her and her fear of spiders. Gees, I swear, if she had her way, she would rid the world of spiders. I'll be back." Goku left Chi-Chi in her room. If he had things his way, he would have just stayed and left Usagi to fin for herself. But he knew he couldn't do that.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku opened the door to his daughter's room to see her lying by her bed with a rather large spider sitting on her waist. "Hey there kiddo."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. "Boy, am I glad to see you. Get this stupid spider off of me!"  
  
Goku laughed. She always cracked him up. "Ok. Don't worry. I got it under control." He walked over to her swatted the spider off of her leg with his hand. "There you go. Now why don't we get you in to bed?"  
  
Usagi looked at the clock. "But it's only 7:00. I still have an hour."  
  
Goku didn't want anymore disruptions that night. He wanted to spend some alone time with Chi-Chi. He wanted to make her realize that he meant it when he said that he loved her. "I know, but you have had a long day and you need your rest." As carefully and slowly as he could, Goku picked Usagi up off of the floor and gently placed her in her bed.   
  
Usagi wasn't even really tired. She just hurt. He was acting strange all of a sudden though. Like he was extra happy about something. Usagi found this a bit strange. She could have sworn that they had been yelling outside. "What were you and mamma yelling about? Was it about me?"  
  
Goku knew that she would ask that. In a way it was, but she didn't have to know that. It was only about her because of him. "No. It was about me." Another thing that their many fights had been about. "Don't worry Usagi. Mommy isn't mad at me anymore. I made her happy again. So you just close your eyes and go to sleep. And try not to move too much."  
  
That wasn't something that Usagi would have to worry about doing. Usagi forced herself not to move. "Goodnight daddy."  
  
"Goodnight Usagi."  
  
~*~*~  
  
4 days later (Wednesday)…  
  
Usagi hadn't really been all that active since Saturday. She hadn't really had that much a reason to. She did everything that she was supposed to, just not to her full extent. While she was normally, a chipper little girl, the past few days she had somewhat withdrawn from everything that was around her. She didn't fight as well as she could. She didn't really talk to anybody either. There was a reason for this withdrawal too. Her brothers were getting sicker by the day, Bra had gotten sick on Monday, and on Tuesday her health started to deteriorate at a horribly fast pace. Usagi didn't know what to do with herself anymore. Pan and Trunks seemed to be stable, her father and Vejita didn't seem to be getting sick again, but who knows how long that would hold up. After sparring, she was to go with Capsule Corp. to check on the others. She couldn't wait. She hadn't seen them since her visit on Sunday.  
  
She sighed as she rested her head on the table in front of her. At the time, she was meant to be listening to a guest speaker talk about how drugs affect people's bodies and how you should never do them. She didn't care about that though. There were too many other things to worry about.   
  
Makoto turned her head back to look at Usagi. She looked so sad and there was really nothing that she could do to help her. Usagi refused to talk to them about what was going on. She knew not to force it out of her either. It was probably about her family and was most likely too painful to talk about. She couldn't remember seeing Usagi so upset before and it made her want to cry whenever she looked at her. She knew that there was something wrong when Usagi wasn't aggressive in their daily spar sessions. She held back most of what she had. 'Gees, if this goes on, she won't be able to participate very well in the tournament. But she will have to. Goku will make her.' She looked up to the clock that sat by the door. 'Ten minutes till we get to leave. Thank god.'  
  
Usagi looked up at the D.A.R.E. officer who stood and talked in front of the class. She wasn't listening to a word that he had to say. She couldn't wait until she could just get out of there. She didn't care anymore. Nothing was more important that her friends right at the moment.  
  
"So, what do you do if someone offers you drugs?"  
  
"Just say 'No.'" The class said all at the same time.  
  
The officer seemed happy with the response he got. "Good." He smiled. "Well, I will see you all later. I've got to run. Thanks for having me." He turned to the door and left.  
  
Mr. Koch walked to the front of the class. "It looks like we only have a few minutes left of class. I'm going to give you a treat. Since you all did so well with listening, I'm going to just let you talk these last few minutes."  
  
Everyone turned to each other and smiled as they began to talk with each other. Minako turned to look at Usagi. She knew that it was probably not worth trying to talk to her. She would just barely say anything. She turned to Makoto. "So, did you learn anything new?"  
  
"Are you kidding? My parents have been filling my head about how bad drugs are since I was old enough to say 'mamma'. I know not to do them." Makoto put her bag on the table.  
  
"Yeah, mine too. Weren't some of these boys rude though? I mean really, you don't just sit here and talk while a police officer is talking to you. Can't you get arrested for that?"  
  
"I think so. If you disobey and officer I think you can."  
  
Usagi kept her head pressed against her chest as she looked down at her arm and then to her leg. She wasn't in pain from it anymore. The only things left were scabs. She looked up at her friends. "I'm sorry you guys."  
  
Minako and Makoto looked over to Usagi. "Huh? What are you talking about?"  
  
Usagi put her arms up on the table. "I haven't really talked to you at all the past couple of days. I haven't really been myself though."  
  
Minako leaned back in her chair. "Don't worry about it Usagi. We know you are going through a hard time."   
  
Mr. Koch pushed her chair forward from behind. "All legs of the chair stay on the floor Minako."  
  
Usagi made sure Mr. Koch was gone out of hearing distance before she continued. "Well, I'm really confused right now. I mean, on Monday, Bra got sick. Then, yesterday, she started to get worse. Like Goten and Gohan. They are getting worse too. Bulma told mamma that. I'm really worried about them. But not only about that. I'm worried that me and daddy will get sick too."  
  
"But Usagi, you haven't gotten sick yet." Minako made sure Mr. Koch wasn't watching and began to lean back in her chair again.   
  
"I know, but everyone says that I can still get sick. But it's weird. Only Saiyans are getting sick." Usagi looked up at the clock and realized that there were only two minutes left of class. She grabbed her book bag and put it on her back. "I just want it to end."  
  
"So, are you still going to do the Tournament next week?" That was all Makoto could think about at the moment. She also wanted to change the subject for Usagi's sake.  
  
Usagi smiled. "Of course I am. I wouldn't pass that up for anything. Unless I was sick, but that's not the point. The point is that I am going to go to the tournament and beat Mamoru. I'll show him what happens when you mess with Son Usagi. Hehe, I can't wait. Come on you guys, let's get out of this stuffy class room." Usagi felt better already. Just talking about it made her happy. Minako and Makoto always had a way of cheering her up, even if it seemed impossible for her to do so. "I'm getting better and my teleportation."  
  
Makoto smiled. "Not as good as me." She opened the door and walked outside with Usagi and Minako. "I'm the best and you all know it."  
  
"Yeah, whatever. You know that no one can be any better then me, Minako the great."  
  
Makoto laughed. "You're just jealous of my great power."  
  
Usagi put her arm around Makoto's neck. "Quite denying the truth."  
  
"And the truth would be…"  
  
Usagi turned when she heard her father's voice and smiled. "Hi daddy. The truth is that I'm better at teleporting then both of these guys here."  
  
Goku chuckled. They were always competing with each other for the best fighter. "You are all very good." He turned around. "We should go. We only have a week until the tournament."  
  
Usagi couldn't wait. "Yeah, I have one week to get stronger then Mamoru."  
  
"I thought he was entered into a higher level of fighting then us though." Minako jumped into the air.  
  
Usagi followed. "So, that doesn't mean I can't challenge him to a friendly fight."  
  
Usagi looked over at his daughter after he jumped into the air too. "Promise me you won't do anything too stupid." Usagi giggled as she took off without answering to her father. "There she goes again. She's in one of her moods."  
  
"At least she's not sad anymore." Makoto gave herself a burst of speed so she could catch up to Usagi.  
  
Minako looked to Goku before joining her friends. "Yeah. She has a point, Goku."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Although he was the last to leave, Goku was the first to arrive at their destination. Halfway to the field, Usagi had begun a race. He laughed as he landed. He watched the three girls land in front of him. "You guys lost."  
  
Usagi half-frowned. "That wasn't fair. You go faster then us."  
  
"Well, who was it that said that they could go faster then me? Hmm…I think it was a little girl named Usagi. Well, I think I just proved her wrong."  
  
Usagi laughed sarcastically. "Hahaha…ha…ha. Very funny. So what? You've been doing this longer then me. Just you wait. When I get older, I'm going to beat you. You just wait and see." She adjusted the belt of her GI to fit around her waist more comfortably.  
  
"You keep thinking that Usagi. But I think that I just beat you." Minako could see the embarrassment in her friend's face.  
  
Usagi had to think of an excuse, quickly. "Well…that's because you…uh…pushed me down. Yeah that's it. I would have beaten you if it wasn't for that." Usagi knew that she would buy it, but it was worth a try.  
  
"Get over yourself. Just admit it. I'm the best." Minako began posing for an imaginary audience like she had seen the women doing on TV. "I'm just so beautiful. Everybody wants me." Minako didn't have a clue what she was saying but she heard it from a movie that her mother was watching one day and thought it sounded pretty cool.  
  
Makoto rolled her eyes. "You get over YOURself Minako. Can we just fight now? I've got a lot of energy that I need to get rid of." Makoto started to jump from leg to leg.  
  
Goku rubbed his hands. "I'm good with that. But let's make this a little fun today. Let's say you all fight me. I want some action today. We haven't done this in a LONG time."  
  
Usagi smiled. "K!" Before anyone else was able to say anything, Usagi's foot found it's way into her father's leg.  
  
Goku, who was not ready for that, stumbled backwards. "Usagi!? What are you doing?" He quickly regained his composure just in time to dodge a Ki blast.  
  
Usagi giggled. "You should be ready for anything daddy." Usagi ran away from her spot. She was going to play difficult this time. She wouldn't hold still any longer then it took to attack.  
  
Goku grinned. "So you want to play that way do you?" Goku could tell that she was definitely in a playful mood now. "I can do that." Minako and Makoto looked at each other and nodded. They jumped in the air, both producing energy balls in each of their hands. Goku looked up to the duo. 'They will have to do better then that if they want to get me.' He waited until they shot at him to move out of the way.  
  
They watched him carefully making sure they followed every single one of his movements with their eyes. Right when they were about to fire at him, they say Usagi come out and hit him in the head with her elbow. She came out of no where. They took their chance to attack while he was on the ground and unable to see it. They watched as their attacks spiraled down to Goku. Halfway down, they merged together into one giant, powerful ball of a energy.   
  
Goku was hit in the back with one big blast. He looked up to the girls. 'What the hell was that? How did they combine their attack like that?' He grabbed his back with his hands as he stood up and looked behind him, expecting to see Usagi. He felt some rips in his GI. 'Where did she go?'   
  
He looked over his shoulder. He could sense her standing behind him. He grinned. 'Let's see how she likes this.' He bolted around as fast as he could with his fist out in front of him ready to attack. Usagi knew her father all too well though. At the first sight of movement from him, she ducked and pushed herself onto his leg. Goku looked down at her. "What are you doing? I can still attack like this." He lifted his leg in the air and began to swing it as fast as possible.  
  
Usagi snickered. 'I'm not trying to do anything but be a decoy.'  
  
Makoto smirked. "I can't believe he's falling for this Minako." She landed behind Goku, who was still furiously shaking his leg around. Usagi didn't know how much more she could take. She was getting quiet dizzy. "Just hold on a little bit longer." She whispered to herself. "Minako, are you ready?" She looked to Minako, who nodded. "Good." She put her hands out in front of her again to make another Ki blast. "This was too easy."  
  
Goku knew exactly what was going on behind him. He could feel Makoto building up for another attack. He grinned as he put his leg down and pulled Usagi up and held her in front of himself just in time for her to receive a kick from Minako. "Oww!"   
  
By the time Makoto figured out what was going on it was too late. As soon as she saw Minako attack, she released her energy onto Usagi. Luckily her aim was a bit off and it only hit her legs. She put her hand to her mouth. "Usagi, I'm so sorry."  
  
Goku dropped Usagi to the ground. "You should have more discipline when you're fighting. Then your friends won't get hurt."   
  
Usagi slowly stood to her feet. He legs were a bit wobbly beneath her though. She looked to her father and then to Makoto. She could have attacked her, she wanted to attack her, but she knew who was really at fault here. Her father. He just stood by and let her attack. She playfully frowned. 'Someone is going to get it now.' She ran as fast as she good and jumped up onto her father's back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and strung then down to his chest while digging her nails in as hard and as deep as she could. Then she wrapped her lags around his stomach/waist area and dug the heals of her feet in.  
  
Goku stopped walking and tried to grab Usagi from the back. She was positioned just in the right position for him to not be able to reach her and grab her off of him without hurting her. "Usagi, you and your girl way of fighting."  
  
Usagi smiled. "But I am a girl." She turned her head to look at Minako and Makoto who seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. They flew in front of him.   
  
Minako took his body, while Makoto took his face. They both began to wildly punch at him as fast and as hard as possible.   
  
Goku smiled. 'They are finally working as a team instead of coming for me all at once.' Usagi knew that he wasn't taking much damage so she decided it was time for her attack to come. She looked down at her hands as they began to glow a soft yellow. Goku also looked at her hands. "Usagi…" He wasn't sure what she was planning on doing.   
  
Usagi giggled. "I've got you know."  
  
Goku could feel her energy being contributed all around his body. It felt like little pins being pulled in and out of his skin over and over again. For once, his daughter was actually able to cause him some discomfort. If she were to try this on anyone but a Super Saiyan, it might actually do some damage. He could feel his muscles becoming numb as she continued. "Usagi…that's enough." Usagi didn't stop. She just continued with her 'attack.' "Usagi, I said that's ENOUGH!" He pulled her hands off of his chest and flipped her over onto her back, leaving her on the ground. He looked down at her.  
  
Minako and Makoto watched in amazement. They had never seen Usagi use that attack before. They didn't even know that she had the power to do that.  
  
Usagi grabbed her back in slight pain. She knew that he would try to pull her off, she just wasn't ready for him to do it like THAT. She looked up at him and smirked. "I finally got you."  
  
Goku smiled. He had to give her credit for that one. "Yes, you did. But, I need to ask you something." He bent down, picked Usagi up, and put her on her feet.   
  
"What?" She brushed the dirt off of her GI.  
  
"Where did you learn that attack? It was amazing." Goku couldn't imagine where she came up with it.  
  
Usagi shrugged. "Just something I came up with when I was playing around on Monday. I was practicing on a tree."  
  
Goku shook his head in astonishment. 'Already teaching herself her own attacks. Truly amazing.' "Well, you did a good job."  
  
"I'll say. Hey Usagi, can you teach me that?" Makoto was always interested in learning new things. Though she wasn't very good at making her own attacks, or so she thought.  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yeah, it's really easy too."  
  
"Well, it will have to wait for another day. We have to get to Bulma's to check on your brothers, kiddo."  
  
"Right, I nearly forgot about that. I guess I was having too much fun." She turned to Minako and Makoto. "I'll teach you how to do it tomorrow. I'll have to show you what else I can do too."  
  
(K! that's it for this part. Tell me what you think. Thanks.)  



	28. Part 10

When Goku arrived at the Capsule Corp. building with Usagi, he pretty much let himself in. Bulma had been expecting him and left the door unlocked. She knew that Vejita didn't want to be bothered with opening doors. Especially if it was to let Goku in. She would have let him in, but she was swamped with her Saiyan patients.   
  
Usagi grabbed her father's hand as she walked down the hall with him. She could feel herself becoming more and more nervous about seeing her brothers with each step that she took. She leaned into his leg as she thought about the 'virus'. She hoped that she couldn't get it. That was a big worry of hers.  
  
Goku stopped in front of the door and looked down at his daughter. "Usagi, you haven't really seen your brothers in a while. I don't want you to freak out when you see them all right? They wouldn't want you to do that. Try not to get emotional either." Goku knew that by telling her not to be emotional, he was basically telling her not to be herself. He knew that she probably would end up getting upset, but he had to try to keep her in line. If Gohan and Goten saw her crying over them, they too would be heart broken.  
  
Usagi nodded. "K. I'll try." Usagi watched as her father opened the door. She walked in before him, being careful not to be too loud just in case someone was trying to sleep.  
  
The sound of the door closing startled Bulma. "Who's there?" She turned around and smiled when she saw that it was just Goku and Usagi. "Hi you guys." She said as she stood up and looked over to Goten, Gohan, and Pan. "It looks like Pan and Goten are asleep right now."  
  
Usagi looked over the three Saiyans. They didn't look bad, yet at the same time, they didn't look great either. She walked up to Gohan and grabbed his hand while her father stood behind her. Gohan looked up and smiled. He was happy to have visitors. Videl had dropped by earlier and had already left. "Hey you guys. How's goin?"  
  
"Well, things are going ok for us. Guess I can't say the same about you can I?" Goku pulled up a chair and sat by the bed that his son lay in.  
  
Usagi hopped up onto her father's lap. "Are you feeling any better Gohan?"  
  
"Not really. Bulma says our conditions seem to be stabilizing a bit. That's good news, I guess."  
  
"What does Stay-ba-li-zing mean?"  
  
Gohan laughed. He remembered what it was like to always have to ask questions about words. Always being in the dark when it came to what was going on in the world around him. "Well, it means it's staying the same. Or even getting a little better."  
  
"Oh. Mamma says that she loves you and wishes that she could be here." Usagi looked to Pan when she heard a noise in her direction.   
  
Pan sat up when she heard voices. She looked over to her father and grandfather. "Hi guys, what's up." She immediately grabbed her head and lay back down. "Oh my head."  
  
Goku put Usagi back on the ground and stood up. "Pan? What's wrong?"  
  
"It's my head. Whenever I'm not lying down, it starts to throb."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. "Daddy, why haven't you and Vejita gotten sick again? And why haven't I gotten sick at all?"  
  
Goku wished that he had the answers for his daughter's questions. If he would have known them, he would have done something about it though. He wouldn't just be standing around and watching his family and friends deteriorate before his eyes. "I don't know sweetie. We are keeping and eye on the situation though. Bulma, have you found out anything yet?"  
  
"No, I have done multiple tests on these guys, but they always show the same results. That nothing is in them. Whatever is making them sick is really tricky and well hidden. I just don't know how it could go undetected for so long. I'm really stumped on this one you guys. And what's worse is my Trunks has come down with the same thing as the rest of the group."  
  
"What? When did this happen." Goku looked back at Trunks, who was sound asleep.  
  
"About noon today." Bulma looked to Pan. "Now the only one left to get really sick is Pan. Let's just pray that that doesn't happen." She looked back up at Goku. "I hope you guys don't get sick again. And I really hope that this thing skips you, Usagi."  
  
Goku put his hand on Usagi's shoulder. He didn't want to think about his daughter getting sick. "This has got to be the strangest thing that has ever happened."  
  
"Yeah no kidding dad. And we've been through some pretty strange things in our lives. Most which were hard on us. But, like you always say. We will pull through. We have never lost before. There have been many times when things look for the worst, but turn around and turn into something for the best." Gohan closed his eyes and put his arms behind his head.  
  
Goku nodded his head in aggreeance. "And I still stand by those words, too."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Tuesday of the next week. Gotta speed things up a bit.   
  
Kiro looked at his watch. "20 Minutes." He looked up to his partner, Taku. "Is everything set up for our departure?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"What about the Saiyan child?"  
  
"There is none. We think that the Saiyan may have adopted. Okori and Tarupa were investigating the situation and found that the brown haired child held no Saiyan genes. We didn't even bother to check the golden hair children since Saiyan's only give birth to dark haired offspring. Just to be on the safe side, Okori checked them both for tails. Both of them had no tail."  
  
"So what you are telling me is that we have located all of the Saiyans on this planet, right?"  
  
"Right. We are ready to leave as soon as you are ready sir."  
  
"Great. Finally, we can rid the universe of the Saiyan race. The prophecy may have come true a little too late, but it still came true. But, we will stop it before all of it comes true. Come Tarupa, it is time. Say goodbye to the earth. We shall die protecting it, along with our brothers. Our deaths shall not be in vain." Kiro shook the hand of Taku. "I shall see you in the afterlife."  
  
"Goodbye my friend. If anything goes wrong, I will see you before."   
  
Kiro and Taku took off into separate directions after they said their good-byes to each other, pretty sure that they would never see each other again. Kiro headed to the mountains, while Taku headed deeper into the city then they he already was to carry out his plans as advised.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi, Minako, and Makoto had been excited the whole day about the Budaki Tournament. They would be leaving directly after school so they could be there that night to watch the adult tournaments. Usagi still couldn't believe that she was going. For the longest time she couldn't figure out why her father would always say 'no' whenever she had asked. That didn't matter anymore though. None of it did. The next few days Usagi would try to forget all of her worries and just have a good time with her friends and father. That was the best thing for her right now anyways. She needed something to take her mind off everything that was happening. So far, she was lucky enough not to get caught by the 'virus'. Her father and Vejita had also been quite lucky. Neither of them had shown signs of getting sick. And those who were sick, seemed to get sick to a certain point, and then they pretty much stayed the same. Everyone was baffled by these events but life still went on. It had to. She looked up at the clock. "One minute to go. I can't wait."  
  
Makoto sat on the edge of her chair, ready to fly out of her chair and shoot out the door as soon as that clock said 3:00. "I know, it's killing me. Why won't he just let out us now? I mean, one minute won't make a difference."  
  
Minako pulled out her watch that counted the seconds. "Ok, in 7…6…5…4…3…2…1…we are outta here!"   
  
The three girls ran out of the room like insane maniacs. They pushed through everyone that got in their way as they made their way to the bathroom so they could change. Usagi probably pushed the most. She didn't want to loose anytime. She pushed and pushed until she ran into something hard. She thought it was a wall until she looked up. "Mamoru! What do you want." Minako and Makoto stopped shortly behind.  
  
Mamoru frowned. "Where are you going in such a hurry Odango?"  
  
Haruka walked out from behind him with Michiru. "Yeah Monkey Girl. I thought we told you to stay away from us. Mamoru, I think you should show her what happens when someone like her sorry self crosses us."  
  
Mamoru smirked. "Well, I would…but I think I'll wait for later. I actually want a challenge this time. You know, something you are not." He poked Usagi in the chest as he insulted her.  
  
Makoto frowned. "Are you going to take this from that jerk Usagi?"  
  
Usagi grinned. "Yeah, but that's just until the tournament. Once we are there I'm going to beat you worse then you could ever imagine. I've learned a few more tricks since we last met."  
  
Mamoru raised his eyebrow a bit. "Oh really? You are going to be joining the tournament? I hope your Sensei entered you in the tournament for weaklings, because you suck big time."  
  
Makoto clenched her hands into tight little fists. She wanted so badly to hit him, but knew it was no use. There were too many teachers around at the time and she didn't want to get suspended. "Why don't you shut your mouth? No one cares about what you have to say."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Yeah, who DOES care? I for one don't." She walked passed Mamoru. "Oh yeah, Haruka, why don't you stop hiding behind Mamoru? Or are you afraid of me?" She laughed as she continued to walk down the hall.  
  
Minako laughed as she passed the girl with short hair. "Yeah, you know we could beat you in a heart beat. You're just too chicken." Haruka went to punch Minako in the back as she walked further away. Minako had a pretty good feeling that she would try something like this. She turned around and caught Haruka's fist in her hand. With her free hand, she gave a little 'baby' punch to Haruka's shoulder.   
  
Haruka grabbed her shoulder as she pulled her fist away from Minako. "Where did such a pipsqueak like you acquire so much freaking power?"  
  
Minako evilly smiled. "Wouldn't you like to know." With that she turned around and joined her friends who had turned around and just seen what had happened. They were both cracking up and laughing as loud and as hard as they could.  
  
Haruka turned back to Mamoru. "Why didn't you stop her?"  
  
Mamoru turned around and began to walk away. "You need to lean to fight. Maybe my father could teach you."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi was the first to go outside and wait for her father to arrive. He was running a little late. He was probably just getting a few things straightened up with her mother before they left. She didn't seem to happy when Usagi and her father told her mother about her having to miss school for the tournament. Usagi just figured that they were in a fight again. Although, they hadn't really argued with each other after the day the Usagi had gotten herself beaten up.   
  
Usagi looked up at the sky. There was no sign of her father. "Where are you daddy?"  
  
"Usagi!" Minako ran out of the school with Makoto. They were both soaking wet.  
  
Usagi giggled. "I think I missed something good while I was out here."  
  
"Yeah, you did. Me and Minako had a water fight in the bathroom. It was so funny." Makoto rang some water out of the skirt of her GI. "There we were, splashing water onto each other, and a teacher walks in. She's all like, 'What are you two girls doing in here?'"   
  
"Yeah, and then we were all like, 'uh, nothing?' And the lady got all mad at us and started yelling at us. So Makoto put her finger over the faucet on the sprayed the water up into the ladies face." Minako tried to keep from laughing. "Then we ran out of the bathroom before we got caught."  
  
Usagi laughed along with her friends. "I wish I could have been there. Who was the teacher?"  
  
"Who knows. Some fourth grade teacher, I think." Makoto looked to the doors. Since they were glass, she could see someone running to them. She squinted her eyes so she could see the person better. "Uh oh you guys. I think she's coming right now. Let's split."  
  
"But daddy hasn't gotten here yet."  
  
Makoto jumped into the air. "Then you stay here. If me and Minako get caught, we are going to be in big trouble."  
  
Usagi looked into the air and then back at the teacher who was approaching them at a rather uncomfortable fast rate. "Man, I guess we will have to go home first after all." She jumped into the air to join her friends just as the teacher reached where she was previously standing. "Come on you guys. Let's go to my house. If daddy comes here and doesn't see us, he will most likely go back home first."  
  
The teacher looked up at the three fighters. She couldn't believe that they were flying. Although, she did remember a time when she watched others flying on TV when that character "Cell" was attacking earth. But Mr. Satan had told everyone it was a trick. Damn him Maybe it wasn't a trick after all. "You two get back here. I'm not finished with you."  
  
Minako looked over her shoulder. "Sometimes being able to fly has some really good points about it."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"So what did you want Goku?" Piccolo stood in the family room of the Son house. Goku had called him over there for a reason that he would not say. Piccolo looked somewhat angry, like he needed to be somewhere. "I don't have time for this."  
  
Goku sat in a chair. "Piccolo, you know about what's happening with the Saiyans don't you?"   
  
Piccolo nodded. "What does this have to do with me being here?"  
  
Goku slouched in his chair. He let his arms hang over the armrests. "Well, I can feel something coming on. I felt it not too long ago. Like my body is becoming sick. Like before. Only this time, I fear that it will be worse. I was supposed to pick Usagi and her friends up at school about fifteen minutes ago so we could go to the Budaki Tournament."  
  
"Where do I come into play?" Piccolo pretty much knew what the answer was going to be. Although he didn't really want to do it. He had other plans for the rest of the week.   
  
Goku coughed. "See what I mean? It's happening already. What I need you to do, is go to the school, pick Usagi up, and take her to the tournament."  
  
"What?! Why me?"   
  
"Please Piccolo? I can't pick someone else. You are the only one that I would trust with her. I know you. You pretty much took care of Gohan when I wasn't able to."  
  
Piccolo crossed his arms. What Goku was asking him to do was outrageous. Piccolo couldn't drop his plans. "I can't do it Goku. Usagi is old enough to go alone without the judges questioning her."  
  
"She doesn't know what she's doing. She has never been there before. If you don't take her, I don't know who else I can get." Goku's head was beginning to throb.  
  
Piccolo sighed. Goku was right. Usagi wouldn't know what she was doing. She wouldn't be able to handle the responsibility of looking after herself. "I just want you to know that this is a real stretch for me. You owe me BIG time."  
  
Goku leaned his head against the back of the chair. "Thank you Piccolo." Goku was startled by the sound of his front door being thrown against the wall. He looked up and saw his daughter standing in the doorway. "Usagi, what are you doing here?!" 'What the…I didn't even sense her coming. Nor did I sense Minako and Makoto.'  
  
Usagi looked at her father and then at Piccolo. Once again, she was confused. "I thought you were taking us to the tournament daddy. Why is Piccolo here?"  
  
Goku sighed. He didn't want her to be here. "Usagi, I can't take you. I'm getting sick again. I don't want you to be around me, otherwise, you might get sick too. So I've asked Piccolo to take you guys."  
  
Usagi didn't know what to make of what she just heard her father say. Piccolo wasn't supposed to take them, her father was. "Sick!? You can't be sick! And Piccolo can't take me. I don't even know him." Usagi had been a little bit afraid of Piccolo anyways. He pretty much ignored her and when they did talk, he always had something rude to say to her.  
  
Goku frowned. "Usagi, don't argue with me. I'm putting my foot down on this one. You are going with him and that's final."   
  
Usagi frowned. "I'm not going without you and THAT'S final." She put her bag down on the ground and ran to her room.  
  
Goku looked up to Piccolo as he stood up. "I'm sorry she's being so rude. I'll go get her." He walked back to his daughter's room.  
  
Piccolo didn't think he should have to take her. He didn't want to take her. The only reason why he was doing it because Goku had asked him to. She was acting like a brat. That's one of the reasons why he didn't really like her. She was too whiny.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku stood in front of his daughter's room and knocked on the door. "Usagi! Come on, I don't care what you want. You are going!"  
  
Usagi sat in the dark holding her pillow. "I don't care. I'm not going with Piccolo and you can't make me. I'll go if you go."  
  
"Usagi I'm not going. I can't go. I'm getting sick. Do you want to get sick because you were around me? That's what is going to happen. Now get out here before I come in there after you." Goku didn't normally just bust into her room. He respected the fact that she wanted her privacy and would wait for her to say that she was ready. But for occasions like this, he would have to just go in.   
  
Usagi didn't believe him. "Then I'm not going either."  
  
"Minako and Makoto want to go."  
  
"Then let them go." Usagi was lucky that her mother wasn't home. If she would have acted like that around her mother, she would have been in so much trouble.  
  
"Stop acting like a baby."  
  
"I am a baby."  
  
"No you aren't. Now I'm going to give you one more chance. Get out here NOW!" Usagi didn't reply. She didn't believe that he would make her. He rarely ever made her do anything that she didn't want to do. "Usagi, that's it, I'm coming in after you." He grabbed the handle and opened the door, letting it slam against the wall. He looked to Usagi, who was now grabbing on to one of her bedposts. "That's not going to help you." He walked over to her and wrapped one of his hands around her chest, and his other around her stomach.  
  
"No! I'm not going. Leave me alone!" She grabbed on as tightly as she could as her father tugged on her.  
  
Goku frowned. "You ARE going and you are going to lean from it. I didn't enter you in it for fun. Now let's go. Let go." He let go of her stomach and started to peel her fingers off of her bedpost. "Let go."  
  
"No!"  
  
"Usagi, let go." Once he would get one hand off he would go to the next. And once he did that, Usagi immediately put her hand back on. "Usagi, I'm getting angry. Now stop playing games!" Goku thought that her fit days were over once she started fighting. But he was wrong. 'I guess girls stay the same no matter what.' That was another thing that Vejita had been right about. He could have just yanked her off with no problem, but he didn't want to hurt her so he didn't. "Usagi…" He gave up on trying to pull her hands off and went back to tugging on her.   
  
"Let go daddy!"  
  
"Not until you stop this stupid attitude of yours. You should consider yourself lucky to be able to go with Piccolo. He is a great fighter."  
  
"I don't care! He's mean to me!"  
  
"No…he's…not!" Goku let Usagi go. "Fine, if you want to stop your training right here, then you don't have to go to the tournament." Goku turned around and sneezed. He could feel the pressure building up in his temples. This thing with Usagi was not helping it either.  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. "But…that's not fair. Just because I don't do this?" Goku nodded. "But I want to fight better."  
  
"Then go to the tournament." Goku could see the disappointment in his daughter's face. "You have to learn to do things that you don't want to do. Now let's get you ready to go. I don't want anymore of that whining from you."  
  
Usagi sighed and let go of her bedpost. She climbed off her bed and stood by her father. "What if something happens?"  
  
"Nothing is going to happen. Now out of this room." He made sure she left the room before him so she wouldn't try to fly out the window or anything.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Piccolo glared at Usagi when she walked out of the hallway with Goku behind her. He also looked somewhat angry. "Are you done whining?"  
  
Usagi frowned. "I wasn't whining." She walked passed him to stand with Minako and Makoto who had pretty much just given Piccolo the third degree. "I guess we have to go with him." Minako and Makoto didn't have a problem with that. They found that he wasn't all that bad of a guy and didn't see what Usagi was complaining about.  
  
Goku let himself fall down into his chair again. He was beginning to feel more and more sick by the minute. He would wait until Chi-Chi returned home to go to Bulma's. He didn't want her to think that he was with Usagi, and then find out that he was at Bulma's. He knew what would happen then. She would end up yelling at him for about and hour at least. He grabbed his forehead. "Usagi, don't sound so unenthusiastic about it."  
  
Usagi looked to her father. "Daddy, you know I don't know big words like that."  
  
"It means, don't sound so unhappy about it."   
  
"Oh, why didn't you just say so?" Usagi looked up at Piccolo. "Are we going to leave or just sit around?"  
  
Piccolo looked down at the blonde Saiyan and frowned. 'This is going to be a long tournament. I have to baby-sit three first grade girls.' "Yes we are going." He walked to the door and waved for the girls to follow him.  
  
Usagi watched her friends leave with Piccolo and then walked back to her father. He had his face in his hand. "Bye daddy."  
  
Goku looked up. "Good bye Usagi. Don't act up for Piccolo please. He's not bad. Give him a chance."  
  
"I'll try."  
  
"You will do more than try. If I hear that you didn't behave, then you will be in trouble. I'm serious about this one."  
  
Usagi didn't ever doubt that he wasn't. She knew that he rarely ever said that and when he did, he usually did mean it. "I won't."   
  
"You should probably leave now without getting too close to me. I don't want you getting sick."  
  
"USAGI! GET OUT HERE IF YOU WANT TO GO!"  
  
"Coming Piccolo. Bye daddy. See you in a few days." Usagi turned around and ran out the door.  
  
"Goody bye. Good luck!" Goku leaned his head back into the chair. He was finally alone. Not that he didn't like his daughter being around, he just had a splitting headache and wanted peace and quiet. He could feel his heart beating in his head. "Great, just great."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Piccolo glared at Usagi. "I don't want to have any trouble from you. I don't think I'll have a problem from your friends but I'm not sure about you."  
  
"I won't be a problem. I'm sorry about the way I acted." Usagi jumped into the air.  
  
Piccolo was pretty sure that Goku had told her to say that. 'I can't believe that she's Gohan's sister. She acts so different then he did when he was that age.' "I'm just making sure."  
  
~*~*~  
  
This year, the Budaki Tournament was being held in Tokyo. That's why Piccolo had to take them. They were going to be staying in a hotel. Piccolo looked back to make sure that the girls still followed him and to make sure that none of them were lagging behind. "Hurry up you guys."   
  
"You're going way to fast Piccolo." Makoto was already going her fullest speed.  
  
"No I'm not. You guys are just slacking. Just because you are human doesn't mean anything either. I've seen what humans can do." Piccolo didn't decrease his speed. The way he saw it, either they would keep up with him, or they would find their own way to the tournament.  
  
Minako looked below her. "Are we in Tokyo yet?"  
  
"Yes, the tournament isn't too far from here. We are staying about one mile away from it." Piccolo spotted a crowd of people below him. "We must be near. Follow me." Piccolo descended. He decided that they would walk the rest of the way.  
  
The girls followed as they were told. Usagi kept her distance from Piccolo. She could tell that he didn't like her. Just by the way he talked to her and the way he was always glaring at her. She walked behind him with Minako and Makoto as she looked around to all the different places. "This is cool."  
  
Piccolo stopped and turned around. "I know that I'm not walking to fast for you. Why do you insist on walking so far behind me?"  
  
Usagi looked to her friends. "Well…" She sighed. "I don't know." She knew that it was impossible to argue with him. "Fine, we can walk up with you."  
  
"I don't know why you have to be afraid of me. I'm not going to bite. I've put those days behind me."   
  
Makoto looked up to Piccolo. She didn't know much about him and definitely didn't know what he had meant by that. "What is that supposed to mean."  
  
"Yeah Piccolo."   
  
Piccolo looked over to Usagi. He had at least hoped that she would know about him. She was Goku's daughter. "Hasn't your father or brother told you anything about me Usagi?" She shook her head.  
  
"Why don't you tell us?" Minako grabbed Piccolo's arm.  
  
'It's happening again. Why do I always make kids like me so much?' He thought as he looked down at Minako. He wanted to pull his arm away, but didn't want to seem rude. "To make a long story short, I once tried to kill Goku and rule the world. Then I met Usagi's brother, Gohan, when he was four. I trained him for a year. In that year, I realized what a true friend was. That's what I mean by biting. If I hadn't met Gohan, I probably would still be trying to kill Goku."  
  
Usagi looked forward. "Oh. Ok! Ooh, ooh, ooh, is that the hotel we are staying at?" Usagi jumped up and down as she pointed to a building.  
  
Piccolo looked at the building that Usagi pointed to. It was a tall pale pink building decorated with rainbow colored flowers all around it. "I think so. It's on the right street."  
  
"It's so cute!" Minako burst into a run. She wanted to see the inside of the building. "Come on you guys. We gotta go. Come on. Come on."  
  
Usagi laughed as she ran to join her friend. "This is cool!"  
  
He watched as the two girls ran to the hotel. 'Those two are too alike for me.' He looked down at Makoto who was still walking at his side. "Aren't you going to obsess over that building, too?"  
  
"Nope. I've seen better. I mean, it's cute, but I've seen cuter. Have you ever seen the…"  
  
Piccolo looked up as he tuned Makoto out. 'Why did I even ask?'  
  
(K! That's it for this part. What do you think? Please review.)  



	29. Part 11

The front office of the hotel was decorated in light blue wallpaper with white trim. It was very relaxing. The hallways were outside hallways with covers over them to provide shading. Usagi found it to be a very nicely decorated hotel. It had many flowerbeds set around it. The walls of their room were an off white color. The bedspreads were the same blue from the front office. She plopped herself onto one of the two beds, once she got into the hotel room. She laid back into one of the white fluffy pillows and wrapped her arms around it. "This is nice."  
  
Meanwhile, Minako was busy checking out the bathroom. "Eeeeee! They have rose scented soap in here. And look at the shampoo." She smelled the shampoo. "It smells like lilacs." She poked her head out the door. "I love this place! I don't want to ever leave."  
  
Makoto walked into the bathroom. "Let me smell. I love lilacs." She grabbed the shampoo and took a big whiff of it. "Ahhh, there is nothing like the smell of fresh lilacs." She put the cap back on the bottle and put it under her arm.   
  
"Where are you going with that?" Minako wanted to use some in her hair to make her hair smell good for the next day.  
  
Makoto looked at her friend and then back down to the bottle. "What this? I want to take it home. It's not everyday you find shampoo like this."  
  
"But I wanted to use some. Give it to me." She grabbed for the bottle and tugged on it. "It's mine! I found it."  
  
"I don't care. I want it." She pressed her arm against the bottle as hard as she could so Minako couldn't take it away from her. "Find your own."  
  
"Just let me use it tomorrow then."  
  
"Fine. But it's mine." With that, she walked out of the bathroom, once again opening the bottle to smell its contents. "Boy that smells good." She had her nose plastered to the opening. She walked passed Piccolo, who was on the phone over to the window.  
  
Piccolo put the phone down on the table and grabbed the bottle from the brown haired girl. "I didn't bring you here to get high on shampoo. Now all of you shut up so I can make this quick phone call."  
  
Usagi sat up as Minako walked out of the bathroom. "Who does HE have to call?"  
  
"Maybe he's calling your dad. You know, to make sure he's alright." Minako could hear some yelling outside the hotel. "What's going on out there Makoto?" She walked to the window and peered out to the city below. They were on the top floor of the hotel, which happened to be the seventh floor.   
  
"I don't know. These two guys started moving all weird, like they were dizzy, and then they started hitting each other. I think they're drunk or something."   
  
Minako had dealt a lot with drunks in her short life. Her father was often drunk. "Yeah, they're drunk alright. Just like daddy. Hehehe, look, they're trying to fight. Hey Usagi, come look, quick." She waved her hand behind her.  
  
Usagi jumped off the bed and walked to the window. She looked down to the fight below. "Eeeewww, that guy just ripped the other guy's shirt off."  
  
"Look, he's got no muscles. He's a weakling." Makoto looked to the side of the fight. It looked as if half the city was watching. "I wonder what's gonna happen when the cops come."  
  
Minako smiled. "Maybe they'll fight them too. That would be funny."   
  
They continued to watch as some women entered the circle of people. "Are those women going to fight? They aren't even wearing any cloths." Usagi was a little bit wrong. They were wearing thong bikinis. "Why are the men howling at them?"   
  
All of a sudden, the curtains of the window were closed. The girls looked up to Piccolo, who had put his body in front of them. "You guys…you don't need to be watching that kind of stuff. Your parents would kill me if I let you."  
  
Usagi sat down on the floor. "Why?"  
  
"It's just wrong ok?" 'Gees, these guys are going to give me a headache.' "Look, I'm going to go down to the lobby and get a bottle of cold water. I'll be back. Don't look out the window, and don't do anything STUPID."  
  
"K! Bye Piccolo! See ya later!" Makoto waited for Piccolo to leave the room and then she climbed up onto the bed and started to hop up and down. "Hey you guys, I bet I could jump longer then both of you."  
  
"I bet you couldn't. I can jump the longest and the highest." Minako jumped up onto the bed and began to jump along with Makoto. With both girls bouncing, the bed was squeaking and shaking all about. "This is fun. Come on Usagi jump with us. It's fun."  
  
Usagi jumped to her feet. "K!" She got up onto the bed and jumped as high as she could. With each landing, she threw her friends higher, as they did the same to her. "This is fun!" Usagi decided to have a little bit of fun. "Let's try something different guys. Let's jump from bed to bed."  
  
Minako and Makoto looked at each other. "What a great idea!" The three young fighters began to hop from one bed to the other. With every landing came a big thump on the wall behind it, and on the floor beneath it.  
  
"This is like a trampoline." Usagi jumped off one bed and headed for the other. She felt hands wrap themselves around her waist before she reached the other side. She looked to her right and saw Piccolo as angry as ever. "Oops." She smiled. "Hehehe."  
  
Piccolo set Usagi down and did the same thing to the other girls. He grabbed them off the bed and lined them up in front of him. "What the hell were you guys thinking!? I could here that all the way down on the first floor! You don't come to a hotel, and then do that kind of crap."  
  
Usagi played with her tail. "Daddy says it's bad to say words like that. If he was here, he would yell at you for that."  
  
If Piccolo could have frowned harder then he already was, he would. "I don't care about that Usagi. Don't try to change the subject on me. Now, I know you guys don't have much discipline. You haven't had a reason to, but just calm down."  
  
Minako twirled her hair in her fingers. "What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
"You haven't really had to train for a major fight like everybody else has. You think that this is all a game. Well it's not. Goku told me that this tournament is a continuation of your training. So I want you all to act like you would if Goku was training you right now. And in your case Usagi, because I know you don't even take THAT seriously, act as if you were training with Vejita."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Ok!" She jumped onto Piccolo and started punching at his head.  
  
Piccolo grabbed Usagi and threw her onto the bed. "What are you doing?!"  
  
Minako and Makoto laughed. "You should know Usagi by now. That's how she acts when she's fighting with Vejita. She has to be aggressive like that." Minako could remember the first day she saw Usagi fighting with Vejita. It was an all out war between them. Both too thick headed to back down from each other's challenges. Their fights would usually last for a couple of hours or more, each taking quite a beating from the other. Usagi more so then Vejita, but that was to be expected.  
  
"Fine, Usagi, since you don't seem to want to act right, maybe I should call your father." Piccolo didn't want to be there, and he wouldn't take any lip from a spoiled brat. That's exactly what he thought about her too. That she was acting just like Gohan had. A sheltered child who was too spoiled for her own good. Luckily, he got to Gohan in time to fix that problem. To think, he gave up his plans for these three annoyances. "I don't think he would like that. Do you?"  
  
Usagi calmed down a little bit. "No, I'm sorry Piccolo. I'll try not to do it again."  
  
"Good, now, you three are going to sleep now. You are going to get up at 5:00 tomorrow morning and you need your sleep."  
  
Makoto dropped to her knees. "5:00?" Never in her life had she had a reason to get up so early.   
  
Piccolo nodded. "Yes, I want you guys good and warmed up before the tournament. Now all of you, hustle yourselves into bed." 'And give me some peace and quiet.' Piccolo watched as the girls all got themselves into one of the beds. It was just big enough to hold them all in comfortably. "Now go to sleep. I don't want to hear another word out of any of you." 'God, how do they do it? How did Gohan and Vejita raise girls? How can Goku stand to live with one? I'll never understand how they do it. Boys are much easier to get along with. Oh well, I can't back out of it now.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Next morning…  
  
Piccolo woke the girls up at five o'clock just like he said he would. He wanted to see what they could do before they fought in the tournament. "Come on you guys. Let's get ourselves out of here and into practicing mode."  
  
Minako groaned as she slowly sat up. "Can't we sleep a little longer? It's too early for this." She opened her eyes to see Piccolo standing in front of the bed. He didn't look angry now like he had the night before.  
  
"Nope, you have to get up now. I want you guys to practice a little bit before the tournament." Piccolo pulled to covers off of the bed, revealing Usagi curled up into a ball in the middle of the bed. "Come on guys. Let's go."  
  
Usagi opened her eyes when she felt the cold air, brush against her skin. She had been so warm under the soft blankets and now she was meant to get up. "What?" She lifted her head to look around the room. She wasn't sure if she was dreaming or if it was real.   
  
Makoto sat up and looked to Usagi. "He wants us to get up." She brought her hands up to her face and rubbed her eyes with them.  
  
Usagi uncurled herself and now lay on her side with her arms and legs in front of her. She knew to get up. She learned to get up when an adult told you to after her father pretty much destroyed her bed and made her clean it up. "Ok. Just let me gather up enough energy."  
  
Piccolo was a bit surprised that she didn't fight him about getting up. He had expected the most trouble from her. 'Maybe there IS hope for her yet.' "Good, I'll be waiting downstairs for you guys. Don't take more then and hour." Piccolo turned to leave the room.  
  
Minako leaned forward and put her face in the blankets the now lay at the end of the bed. "I'm too tired for this. Goku wouldn't have made us do this. It's not fair."  
  
Usagi groggily sat up as she yawned. "Don't worry about it. We just have to deal with it." 'Speaking of daddy, I wonder how he's doing. I hope he's ok.' Usagi stood up on the bed. She couldn't see straight from still being tired.   
  
Minako shot her head up from the blankets and looked to Makoto. "Hey! Where's that shampoo?" She grabbed Makoto by the arm. "You said I could use some."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Piccolo stood in the lobby and waited for the girls to come down. It had only been twenty minutes and he was already getting agitated. 'They are only small children. What could they be doing that takes them this long to get themselves ready?' He watched as a man walked passed him with what appeared to be his teenage son. He figured that they were going to be taking place in the tournament by the way they were dressed. The lobby was particularly busy on this morning. A lot of the people, who were taking part in the tournament, were staying at the hotel.   
  
"Piccolo!"   
  
Piccolo was distracted when he heard Usagi calling for him. He turned around but couldn't see anyone. He could feel their presence though. " I can't see you."  
  
"Over here Piccolo." Makoto raised her hand up as high as she could as she walked through the crowded room of people. "Wait there. We'll be there in a minute."  
  
"Fine." Piccolo had no intention of trying to find them. He would have made them come to him anyways. The way he saw it, they weren't babies and they should be able to fend for themselves by now. Especially since they were currently being trained by one of the strongest people in the world.   
  
He scanned the crowd of people for any sign of the girls. He could feel them moving closer and closer to him. The first person he saw was Minako, who was holding the hand of Makoto, who was holding the hand of Usagi. They were all bound together so they wouldn't get separated. "Finally. Let's get out of here. There are way too many people here."  
  
Usagi looked to the crowd that she had just gotten out of. "Where did they all come from?"  
  
"Those are all the people from the fight last night." Makoto recognized a lot of the people.   
  
"Are they fighters too?"  
  
Piccolo turned around and grabbed both girls' shoulders. "Come on you two. We must get going before it gets too late to do anything." He pulled them out of the hotel.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Piccolo led the girls to an out of the way area of the city. It lay just to the north of it in a small abandoned industrial park. He had scouted it the night before when the girls had finally gone to sleep. He waved for them to land with him.  
  
Usagi held her arms around her stomach as she looked around. "This place is kind of creepy Piccolo. Why do we have to fight here?" The buildings around were deteriorating, most of which were collapsing in on themselves. They had a certain eerie feeling to them that Usagi didn't trust.  
  
"Quit whining Usagi. Yes we have to fight here. Now let's get this started."  
  
Makoto watched as Piccolo looked like he was beginning to struggle with something. She leaned over to Usagi. "What's he doing? He looks like he was just beaten up."  
  
Piccolo spread his legs out as far as they would go while crossing his arms in front of his face. A pale yellow aura began to race around Piccolo as he gathered up energy. He grinned. "You guys wanna see something cool? Well here we go!" He closed his eyes.   
  
Usagi watched in awe as something began to emerge from every point of his body. "What the…He's splitting himself into two people."  
  
Minako backed away from the Namek. She wasn't sure what he was doing but she didn't want to stand around and find out it was an attack. "How can he be doing that?"  
  
Usagi crouched down into her fighting stance, ready for anything that Piccolo had in store for her. She smiled, never taking her eye off of the threat. "I don't know but I wish I could do it too."  
  
The second Piccolo jumped to the side of the original Piccolo. The original/real Piccolo smiled. "So you liked that huh? Well, it gets better. I can do it again." He began the process all over again.  
  
"This is too weird. How is he doing that?" Makoto was with Minako on this one. She too had an uneasy feeling in her stomach about what their temporary sensei was doing. "This isn't right."  
  
Usagi looked back at her friends. "You guys, what are you talking about? This is cool." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the Piccolo's jumping for her with its fist out ready to hit her. She quickly flipped to her side and looked over at it once she regained her footing on the ground. "Ready to start already?"  
  
Piccolo stood in his place. "Nope, just trying to see if you really know what you're doing."  
  
Usagi frowned as she put her hands to her waist. "Why do you think I'm that bad of a fighter? Daddy wouldn't be letting me do the tournament if I wasn't good enough." She grinned. She ran for him with both of her hands out in front of her not in the forms of fists. "Come here Piccolo, I want to show you something I can do."  
  
Piccolo stepped to the right as Usagi ran for him. "No, you can show me after we have started." He snapped his fingers and the two clones of himself walked up from behind him. "Now, I separated myself into three parts. Doing this, I have cut my power down into thirds which means I won't be as much of a challenge to either of you."  
  
Makoto stepped back to the group leaving Minako by herself. "Why did you do that?"  
  
"So I can study all of your fighting styles. I have never sparred with any of you before, nor have I seen you fighting with Goku. So to save time, I'm going to have you all fighting one of me at the same time. Once I merge back with these two, I will have their memories, meaning your fighting data."  
  
"So, when are we going to start?" Minako allowed herself to walk back to the group now that she knew Piccolo's intentions.  
  
"Right now. I will spar with Usagi. You two will spar with them." Piccolo said as he pointed over his shoulder.  
  
"Why do you want to fight with me?"  
  
"I want to see if you're as good as your father says you are. From what I can tell, you're just a whiny girl who tries to be a fight." Piccolo fully knew what he was saying. He knew that if he were to say that to Gohan, he would have proved him wrong. Now he wanted to see if it was the same With Usagi. He wanted to see her true power.  
  
Usagi frowned. 'I told daddy he was mean to me.' "I can fight. I'm probably going to be better than you one of these days."   
  
"Yeah right. Why don't you show me then?" He turned around and started to walk away. "You two can begin your sparring when you're ready. As for you Usagi, we're starting now."  
  
Usagi looked back to her friends. "Should I go?" Neither of them relied. "I guess I'm going to have to just go then." She turned back around to Piccolo and took a deep breath. "Well, here goes nothin." She began to walk forward. "Piccolo! Wait for me!" She sped her pace up to a slow run when she saw that he wasn't going to stop for her.   
  
Piccolo stopped when he got to a large open space. It was the place that had the fewest buildings around. He could feel Usagi's energy signature behind him. He smiled for this actually not the first time that he had seen her fighting. He knew that she was very capable of holding up on her own. Although she didn't know that he had seen her and he intended on keeping it that way. "Are you ready?"  
  
Usagi crouched down on the ground. "Wait a minute." Usagi was actually getting somewhat excited about this. She could finally pay Piccolo back for every mean thing that he had ever said to her. She bent down to pick up a rock the size of her hand and threw it at Piccolo's head.   
  
Since it wasn't a Ki blast or anything to do with energy, Piccolo hadn't felt it coming for him. If he had, he would have tried to dodge it. Instead, he let it smash right into the back of his head, causing a great deal of pain. "What was that?" He turned around, his eyes showing his anger.  
  
Usagi giggled. "A rock. And I call this an energy blast." She brought her hands in front of her stomach and prepared a Ki blast in them.   
  
Piccolo wasn't just going to sit around and let her attack. "So you want to play dirt do you? Well that can be arranged." He jumped in the air and started to fire multiple Ki blasts at Usagi.  
  
She dodged most of the blast while firing at others. She jumped into the air and started to throw punches at her enemy. "Hold still!"  
  
"That would be pointless." One of her punches found its way into his face. "You call that a hit? That was pathetic. I've seen babies who can punch harder then that."  
  
Usagi frowned as she continued to swing harder and faster. "You don't know what you're talking about." She started to kick at him after realizing that punching at him was pretty pointless. "Don't just block, do something."  
  
Piccolo grinned. "Ok." He put his hand in front of her forehead and blasted her in the face. She fell to the ground. "Was that too much for you?"   
  
Usagi sprang back to her feet before Piccolo landed. "No! I can take more then that. I'm not weak!" She lunged herself for him once he landed, her hands met with his. "I bet I'm stronger then you even."  
  
Piccolo laughed as he clasped his hands around hers. They both stood with their arms fully extended each pushing against the other's weight. "I wouldn't count on that."  
  
Usagi pushed as hard against him as she could. She was barely holding up against him. Every so often, her feet would slide back. "I can do this. I know I can."  
  
"Let's see how much you can hold this up."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Minako was thrown through a wall of one of the old concrete buildings. "Ouch!" She looked up just as one of the Piccolo clones was about to stab her arm with his nails. She rolled over, allowing the clone to smash his hand into the concrete. She looked over at it. "That would have hurt." She frowned as she kicked him in the stomach and then stood up. "You should never attack a lady like that."  
  
"You aren't a lady. You're a fighter."  
  
Minako forced her fingers together as close as they would go. "Oh really?" She shoved HER nails through HIS arm, piercing the flesh. "How do you like it?" She began to form a Ki blast with her other arm. "It doesn't feel so good does it?" She yanked her nails out of his skin, kicked him in the knee forcing it to pop backwards, and then fired her Ki blast at his head. She watched as he tripped over his feet and fell down onto his back. She walked up to him and looked down into his face. "You know, you should apologize for not calling me a lady. My mommy says I'm one." The clone didn't take notice to what she had just said. Instead he reached over and grabbed her leg out from underneath her. "Hey, what are you doing?"  
  
The clone stood up and swung Minako into another wall. He watched as it crumbled to the ground. "Yeah, not a very graceful one." He put his hands behind his head. "Masenka!" He brought them back in front of him and fired the giant blast at Minako, who was trying to push the ruble off of her legs.  
  
Minako looked to the blast. There was nothing that she was able to do about it. The concrete had her pinned in too much. She covered her head with her arms as much as possible and waited for impact.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile…  
  
Usagi still hand to hand with Piccolo. She could here all sorts of commotion going on behind her. She wanted badly to be able to turn around and see what was going on, but if she had, Piccolo would have won the challenge and then taken her out once and for all. She couldn't have that. She wanted to prove to him that she was worthy of being called a fighter. Then maybe he would respect her for who she is. "Piccolo…I'm going…to WIN!" She pushed back against his force with all her might. 'Even if I have to resort to a Ki attack.'  
  
Piccolo snickered. "Yeah right. You're barely able to hold up against me let alone even move my feet anywhere." Piccolo didn't even have to push that hard to keep from moving. Although he did have to push to make her move. She was actually quite strong for a six-year-old who thinks that fighting is just a game. At least that's the way he saw her.  
  
"You doubt me? Well, I have something for you then." Both of Usagi's hands began to glow a soft yellow. The glow started to move to Piccolo's hands and up his arms. "Let's see how you like this!" She increased her attack by feeding it more of her own energy which produced a serge that carried the glow all around Piccolo's body at a rapid pace.   
  
Piccolo tried to pull away from Usagi but it was no use. It was like the energy wouldn't let go of him. "What is this power?" His body began to throb with pain. It felt as if blasts were being thrown against him without him able to block them. He began to feel his energy being sucked out of him. "Let go!" One of his legs dropped to the ground as the pain grew.  
  
Usagi laughed. "Am I hurting you Piccolo? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."  
  
Piccolo didn't have much to say. He had to admit. She was doing a damn good job of an attack. "Just STOP!" He tried to pull away but every time he did, it was like the energy increased its hold on him.  
  
Usagi slowed her energy down until it came to a complete stop. She looked down at him. He was now fully on the ground. She pulled her hands out of his. "Like my attack I made?"  
  
Piccolo tried to catch his breath as he looked up at Usagi. "You made that attack!?" Usagi nodded. "That was amazing. Did your father help you or something?"  
  
"Nope. Daddy was surprised when in did it to him too." Usagi was pleased with herself now. For the first time, Piccolo had complimented her on something. Maybe their relationship would change now. "So, what did you think of it? Would it work against a real enemy?"  
  
"I'm pretty sure it would. How did you keep me in place though?" That was what interested him the most. How it kept a hold of him like it had.  
  
"You know, I really don't know. Maybe it works like glue."  
  
Piccolo had to laugh at that one. The mind of a six-year-old was so simple. "That's a nice way to put it Usagi."  
  
"So, are we done for the day?"  
  
"Yeah, that had to take a lot of energy. You're probably hungry by now. Let's go find your pals."  
  
Usagi smiled. 'Maybe he likes me now. That would be so cool if he did. Then I could tell daddy. He'll be happy with me.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto was still fighting. She was doing a pretty good job of defending herself. She didn't have too many scratches on her body. She was currently dodging and throwing punches at the clone in front of her. She stopped punching and jumped back from the fight. "Come on. Come and get me." The clone ran for her. She knew what she was doing though. She flipped backwards when he was in just the right place and kicked him in the chin with her foot. She landed on her hands and pushed herself back into the air so she could land properly. "How do you like that?"  
  
"Not bad. But I can do better." He disappeared.  
  
"Huh? Where'd he go?" He reappeared in front of her and before she knew it, she was flying head first towards a tree. "Ahhh!" 'Oh god, if I don't do something quick, I'm going to crash right into that tree.' She concentrated her energy inside her and then stopped it, making her stop in mid air. She slowly released the energy, dropping herself to the ground. "HA! Beat that you freak!"  
  
"That's enough for today."  
  
"Huh?" Makoto turned around to the faces of Usagi and Piccolo. Piccolo was standing with his arms crossed. They both looked pretty beaten up. "Oh hi you guys. I was just showing this guy what I've got. You know how good I am and all."  
  
"Not as good as me."  
  
"You wanna start something with me Usagi? I can make it happen. I'm stronger then you anyways."  
  
"In your dreams I'm better then you and you know it." Usagi stuck her tongue out at Makoto.  
  
Piccolo stood in between the girls. "Please. Don't argue. I don't want to listen to it. Let's just go find the other two so we can leave."  
  
Usagi's stomach began to growl. She looked down at it and began to giggle. "I guess I'm hungry."   
  
Piccolo rolled his eyes. "Just like your father."  
  
(K. That's it for this part. What do you think? Good or bad you decide. Thank you!)  



	30. Part 12

Ok, about the tournament thing, I don't exactly know how they go. I only know what I have read from the Buu saga Manga. So if I mess things up, that's why. Sorry bout that. I'll try to make it as realistic as possible.   
  
Chi-Chi opened her eyes to a dark room filled with nothing but silence. She could see some light trying to make its way into the room from behind a curtain that hung over a window. She stood up and stretched as she looked over at the clock, which read 7:27 AM. 'Did I really fall asleep here?' Chi-Chi had refused to go back home after she had brought Goku to Capsule Corp. She was too worried about him to go home. She wanted to be by his side, to make sure that he was safe. She didn't need him to die on her. Especially when she wasn't there. He had died so many times before, none of which she was able to be there for to say goodbye. She was going to make sure that that didn't happen again. 'I wonder what time I fell asleep.' The last thing she remembered was looking down at Goku while he was sleeping. He was the last of the Saiyan's to fall asleep. It had probably been about 1:00 in the morning.   
  
She looked around the room, barely being able to make out anything. Everything was just shadows to her. She walked over to the window and opened up the curtains; the bright sunlight from the day engulfed the darkness from the room, revealing all of the sick Saiyans. Chi-Chi covered her mouth to giggle at her husband. Goku lay with his legs over one edge of the bed. His arms were spread over the bed with his mouth wide open. 'He always did have a knack for acting like a child.' She looked over to her two sons. They were sweating quite a bit. More so then they had been in the past couple of days. She looked over to Pan and Bra, they also looked like they were suffering a bit more then usual. Although, Vejita and Goku seemed to be the same as the night before. Their symptoms had been pretty basic. Just a headache, nearly to the point of a migraine, and clogged up sinuses.   
  
Chi-Chi walked to the side of her husband's bed and sat down in her chair again. She placed her hand on his forehead as she looked down and studied his face. She tried to see by his facial expressions if he was suffering or not. She hated to see him like this again. She hoped that his days of getting sick were over. He was a Saiyan. He was not supposed to get sick. 'What's going on with you guys Goku?'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kiro sat in a dark environment with his index fingers on his temples. "Okori, status report."  
  
Okori was a bit startled by Kiro's word. He hadn't expected to be in contact with his commander again until after the job was done. He had been concentrating before he was interrupted. "Sir, things seem to be going good. The Saiyans don't seem to be have much of a chance. We have dug deep into our power sources and taken most of their immune systems. It is only a matter of days now."  
  
Kiro smiled. He had waited for seventy years to payback the Saiyans. It was finally happening. "I can't believe this is happening. I have waited so long. Finally, we can put this prophecy behind us. Okori, spread the words to the others. As soon as you guys finish up your job, Taku and I will move in at once."  
  
"Yes sir. I will do so immediately. I shall see you later. Hopefully in the afterlife."  
  
"You have been a good soldier."  
  
"I have been happy to serve you sir." Okori broke the connection right there. He didn't have a spare moment to waste. He had to tell his fellow soldiers of their commander's news. "Calling everyone. Commander Kiro has just told me to go ahead and finish as soon as possible. He will meet us all again shortly after we finish. This is our last fight against the Saiyan warriors, but it shall greatest and most remembered."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Wow." Usagi said in total and complete awe. She stood in front of the Budaki Tournament gates with her friends and Piccolo. Thousands of fighters walked in and out of its massive gates. Never in her life had she seen so many fighters. "This is awesome." Her eyes sparkled with joy. She couldn't believe that she had finally made it to the tournament. Here, she would learn many things. Not only would she get the chance to test out her own skills, but also, she would learn by watching the other fighters. She had imagined herself going with her father, but certain circumstances prevented that from happening. She would tell him everything that happened when she got back so he wouldn't miss a thing. Usagi was so caught up in watching everything around her, that she didn't notice that she was all alone. "Huh?" She looked around to her left, to her right, and then behind her. "Where did everyone go?" She turned around. "This is not good." She turned back around and slowly started to walk towards the gates that led inside. She turned her head and looked for the people she knew while she made her way. "Piccolo? Minako? Makoto? Where are you guys?" She stopped right before she entered. "Well, I guess I have to do this on my own then. I'll catch up with Piccolo and the others later." She looked into the gates and took a deep breath. "Well, here I go. I'm finally here. Now all I have to do is enjoy myself." She smiled as she ran through the gates.  
  
Usagi looked around with the widest eyes a little girl could get. She was too excited to realize that she should look for Piccolo and her friends. "I wish daddy was here to see this!" She quickly picked up her feet again and ran off to another part of the tournament. She was so excited that she couldn't even stand still for more than five minutes. This time she ran to the board in the main square. She wanted to find out two bits of information from it. First she wanted when she was supposed to fight, and then she wanted to find out when Mamoru would be there. She wanted to watch him. She would have to study his fighting patterns very closely if she wanted to be able to beat him any time soon. She was pretty sure that she was capable of doing it now, she even had Piccolo fallen to the ground with her new attack and Piccolo was by far a better fighter then him. She looked up at the board. "Let's see, where am I?" She quickly found her name and ran her finger across to the other side of the board. "Ok, my first match is at noon. That gives me an hour and a half to get ready." Usagi was startle by a sudden tap on her shoulder. "Huh?" She turned around to stand face to face with a man who looked to be in his early sixties. "Yes?"  
  
"Umm yes, well I noticed that you had a tail young lady." The man said as he pointed to Usagi's tail.  
  
Usagi looked to her side at her tail that happily swayed behind her legs. "Yeah, I have a tail." She looked back up at the man. She didn't know what he was getting at. She didn't think it was against the rules to have a tail.  
  
"Well, once, when I was a child, there was a fighter who participated in many of these tournaments. He too had a tail like you miss. His name was Goku. I always looked up to him. He was about six years older then I was. I always loved the way he fought. The first time I saw him I was four. He was probably about nine years old. He was spectacular. I adored his fighting skill and wanted to be just like him. My father owned the tournament so I was able to see him every year her participated. Now I am the co-owner of the place. I'm hoping he will show up again one of these days so I can see him fight one last time."  
  
Usagi was a bit relieved. She was sure that she was going to get kicked out. Like maybe there was a new rule banning tails. "Goku is my daddy. He's a Saiyan."  
  
The man raised his eyebrow a bit. Her father had to be in his sixties by now. Saiyans age slower, remember that they wished for the human friends to age as slow as they did with the Dragon Balls. "Well isn't that interesting. Goku is still having kids now, eh? Well, your father was a great fighter. He won many battles here. He was the champ for a while. Now Mr. Satan is the champ ever since he stopped coming. Damn that fact. "  
  
Usagi smiled wide. "I think I can take him. I know I can take him."  
  
The man chuckled. "I don't know. He's strong. He beat cell you know. But he is getting old too."  
  
"I know. My brother married his daughter." Usagi didn't care for him that much either. He was always showing off. Always taking credit for things he never did. She was always polite to him, but she still didn't like being around him.  
  
"Oh. Wow. What are the odds? Two great fighters' children marry? How nice. You know, he once beat an evil monster named cell."  
  
That was one of the things that angered Usagi the most about Mr. Satan. Her father had died in that fight to save her brother, Gohan. It was Gohan who used all of his strength to destroy cell. That was one thing she always heard from her mother. Usagi just smiled. She didn't want to destroy the faith that people had in Satan. "I know. I've heard all about it."  
  
"So, is your father here at all today?"  
  
Usagi looked to the ground. She had been trying all day to forget about him. But it was no use. All she could do was keep picturing him in bed, sick as can be. Her mother would be by him. "No, he's sick."  
  
"Oh, well, good luck. I have to go find my granddaughter. I'll try to come watch you fight. It would be nice to see the daughter of Goku in a spar. When are you scheduled to fight?"  
  
"Noon." Usagi watched as the man walked away.  
  
He stopped and turned back around before he got to far away. "Good bye…oh I'm sorry, I never got your name."  
  
"Oh, its Usagi."  
  
The man pondered to himself for a minute. "What a beautiful name. Just as beautiful as my granddaughter's name. Her name is Rei."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Thank you. Good bye." She turned back around to look at the board again. "I wonder where Mamoru's time slot is?" She looked under the M's on the board. She found him under one of the highest groups in the kids division. "Hehehe, he may be good, but he still has to fight with other kids. I hope he wins. Then maybe I can challenge him. That would be cool if I beat him in front of everyone. But, knowing my luck that would never happen. Oh well, I'll just ask daddy to put me up in a higher group next year. I'll be good enough…I hope." She looked onto the rest of the board. "I wonder if Haruka and Michiru are here. They probably are if they are hanging out with Mamoru." She looked back into her group. She didn't think that they would be any lower then her group. She was near the middle and she knew that they were better then beginners. "Ah, here they are. Whoa! I may have to fight Haruka. But, I don't see Michiru anywhere. This is strange. I thought that she was fighting too." She looked to the groups above hers, and couldn't find her. Then she looked to the groups below her. "What's this? Michiru isn't in my skill group? I thought she was a good fighter too." Usagi shrugged. "Oh well, at least I know I'm better then her now though."  
  
"You don't know that unless you actually fight her."  
  
Usagi stiffened her body when she heard these words. She knew exactly whom they were coming from. She slowly turned around. "Mamoru, what do you want? I don't want any trouble from you." Mamoru stood in front of her in an all black GI. His shoes were also black.  
  
"Relax Odango. I'm not going to start a fight here. There are way too many restraints and people to get in the way." He walked up to her and patted her on the head. "No little Odango, I want to be able to show you how much of a better fighter I am when I can go all out. When we can use out Ki blasts. Don't worry, you wouldn't be able to beat me anyways. I can sense your power. It's much lower then mine." He smirked.  
  
Usagi pulled her head away from his hand as she frowned. "Yeah right. I'm much stronger now. I even have a few tricks up my sleeve."  
  
"We'll see when it comes time to test your knowledge of fighting."  
  
"I'll see just how good you are today. I'm going to be watching you."  
  
"Come to see the master at work, eh?"   
  
"No, I want to see just how NOT good you fight."  
  
"As I recall, I'm the one who beat you to a bloody pulp last time we met."  
  
Usagi frowned. "Yes, that's true, but, my daddy will repay you for that. He was really mad about it. He wants to meet your dad to 'Talk to him'"  
  
"Oh really?" He let out a small 'Humph.' "Your dad would just end up getting his ass beat like you did."  
  
"That's definitely not true. Daddy is the strongest person in the world." Usagi wanted so badly to sock him in the jaw. But she had to control herself. She couldn't get kicked out before she even got a chance to fight. Her father would kill her if she did. She was told to be on her best behavior. And as hard as that was going to be for her, she would try her best to do so.  
  
"Yeah, well, you keep running your mouth and believe what you want. But I've got to go get ready for a REAL fight. See ya Odango." He waved to her as he ran off.  
  
Usagi could feel her anger level increasing. "Stop calling me Odango! My name is Usagi!" She turned back around to the schedule board to find Minako and Makoto's name.  
  
"There you are."  
  
Usagi, interrupted again, turned around. "Oh, hi Piccolo."  
  
Piccolo grabbed Usagi's arms and pulled him up to his face. "Don't you EVER wander off again! We have been looking for you everywhere. Your father didn't have me come with you just so you could run off on your on."  
  
"But…"  
  
"No buts! Now make sure you stay with me." He set her back on the ground. He wasn't meaning to be rude, he just didn't want to be separated again. He couldn't sense her that well. The atmosphere was being clogged up with the low power levels of everyone else. And for some reason, Usagi's power level stayed quite low, unless she was fighting, which made it even harder to pick her out.  
  
"I'm sorry Piccolo. I won't do it again." She looked up at him. He seemed a little more worried then angry. 'Maybe he doesn't hate me after all.' She smiled at the thought of him accepting her. She looked over to Minako and Makoto. "I fight at noon. Let's see when you guys fight."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Chi-Chi…" Goku picked up his hand and placed it on his wife's hand. She was beginning to drift back to sleep. "Chi-Chi, maybe you should go home. Bulma's got everything under control now. You look exhausted."  
  
Chi-Chi bobbed her head up. "What?" The skin under her eyes was puffy and black. She was barely able to keep her eyes open for they were heavy with being tired. "Goku, you're awake."  
  
Goku was concerned for his wife. If she didn't get some proper rest, she too would become sick. "Chi-Chi, please go home. I'm fine."  
  
"Goku, I can't leave you alone. I want to be with you. I need to be with you." It was true. Chi-Chi was tired of being left in the dark with these things. She had stayed by his side when he got the heart disease, and she would now stay with him through this disease. She didn't care.  
  
"But Chi-Chi…"  
  
"Kakkorotto, just let the damn woman stay here. I don't want to listen to your bickering." Vejita rolled over on his side so he could look at who he was talking to. He had a migraine and didn't want to listen to arguing.   
  
Goku looked back to the Saiyan prince. "Vejita, I know you don't understand stuff like this so just stay out. I'm not in a mood to listen to you."  
  
"And you think I'm ever in the mood to listen to you?" Vejita looked to the door as his wife walked in. "Woman, please tell the wife of Kakkorotto to leave here at once or tell Kakkorotto to shut up."  
  
Bulma looked up from the clipboard that she held in her hands. "Vejita, why don't you shut up?" She looked over to Chi-Chi. "Oh, look at you Chi-Chi. You need some rest." She walked over to her and grabbed her arm. "Come on, you can go sleep in the guest room. If anything happens I'll tell you."  
  
Chi-Chi complied. She knew she needed sleep and this way, she would be close enough to Goku and her sons if anything happens. "Call me the minute ANYTHING remotely bad happens."  
  
"Ok. I promise." She turned back to Goku. "Ok, well, are you ready to take your blood pressure?"  
  
Goku put one of his arms in the air. "Yup."  
  
"You know Kakkorotto, it amazes me how you can take something THIS serious, and still act as if it means nothing to you." He reached over and hit Trunks on the head. "Wake up brat, if I have to be awake, then so do you."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Piccolo and the girls studied the schedule very carefully. The maximum amount of fights that each girl would have that day would be four. If they won all those, then they would continue onto the next day and fight another fight to see who will go onto the final day. Then whoever went onto the final day would fight either one or two fights. There will only be three people on the final day. Two people will fight. The loser of it will fight the third person that made it to the final day as last chance to get to the final fight. Whoever wins there, will fight the person who won the first fight of the day. And whomever wins THAT fight, will win for the whole skill group. Thus, proving that they are capable of moving onto the next level.  
  
"Well, do you guys understand?" Piccolo had just finished explaining the whole concept to the girls. He wasn't sure if they would understand. From what he could tell, their brains hadn't fully developed yet and probably couldn't hold all that information.  
  
Makoto cocked her head to the side as she tried to read the master schedule of who would go on to what if they won or lost. "Well…kind of."  
  
"Piccolo, can't we just do whatever happens? Why do we have to plan everything out?" Usagi covered her eyes from the sun as she looked up at Piccolo.  
  
Piccolo sighed. He would probably end up doing that. He had already explained the whole thing to them twice already and they still didn't seem to get it. "Fine."  
  
"Cool, so, can we go watch some fights? I'm dying to watch this guy Mamoru."   
  
Minako put her hand on Usagi's shoulder. "You want to watch lover boy fail?"  
  
Usagi gave Minako a depressed look. "He is not my 'lover boy'. In fact, I hate him. He's so mean to me. And yes, I wouldn't mind it if he lost. Then I could rub it in." She looked up at Piccolo. "So, can we go?"  
  
Piccolo frowned down at Usagi. "Whatever!" He violently turned around and walked away.  
  
Usagi looked back to her friends. "Why did he get mad all of a sudden?" She turned her head back to him. 'He's really weird.' She started running for him. "So can we go Piccolo? Come on! I really want to go!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Grandpa, who are we watching now?" A small girl about the age of Usagi sat in the front row of the stands. She loved to watch the fights. She had heard her grandfather speak of a man named Goku many times and she hoped that one day she could see him fight. She was a little disappointed to hear that he was not going to be there.   
  
The girl's grandfather sat down next to her after handing her a cup of lemonade. "A boy named Mamoru. He is pretty strong. He usually comes out at the top of his level. He's not as good as Goku was, but he's close."  
  
The girl's long black hair blew behind her as the wind ran through it. "Did you feel that grandfather?"  
  
He looked over to her. "No, did you get one of those feelings again, Rei?"  
  
Rei nodded. "Yes. The feeling of evil is all around us. Something is going on. I just wish I knew what though."  
  
Rei's grandfather put his hand on her knee. "Its ok if you want to do something about it Rei. I have no objection over it."  
  
Rei smiled to her grandfather. He was the only one who understood her. Everyone at he school always looked down at her as if she was a freak. She had always felt different then other kids. She knew she was different too. She could sense things. She could sense disturbances like no other person. She was always the first to know when something was going to happen. "Thank you." She got up and excused herself from the stadium. She passed by a tall green man and three girls in fighting GI's. She felt like she had a special connection to the girl with Odangos. She couldn't figure out why though. She had never met her before. She shrugged it off and walked back to her temporary shrine. She wanted to consult with the spirits about this uneasiness that she felt inside her gut.  
  
Usagi stopped walking and turned around and watched Rei as she walked by. 'Why did she look at me like that?'  
  
"Usagi…"   
  
Usagi turned back around to see Piccolo holding his hand out to her. "Sorry Piccolo." She grabbed his hand and let him help her down the stands, turning her head around again to get one more look at the girl.   
  
Piccolo could tell something was bothering Usagi. He could sense it. "Come on. Relax. You are going to watch this fight and enjoy it."  
  
Usagi was a bit surprised by this remark. He actually said something nice to her. She smiled in appreciation for his words. "Ok." She sat down in between Minako and Makoto and put her feet up on the chair in front of her. She looked to her right across Makoto and Piccolo to see the old man that she had run into earlier. She waved to him when he looked over her way and he waved back.  
  
Makoto looked over at Usagi in confusion. "You know that old guy?"  
  
Usagi looked at her friend as she leaned back further into her chair to gain more comfort. "Yeah, I met him today before you guys came and got me. He said that he used to watch daddy fight when he was little. He said he's going to watch me fight today."  
  
"Your father was a great fighter when he was young. It's a shame I never could defeat him. Oh well."  
  
The girls looked up at Piccolo. They never expected him to say something like THAT. "Piccolo, can I call daddy before my fight?"  
  
"Yes." Piccolo pretty much knew why. She wanted to make sure he was ok. He was fine with that. Even Gohan would have wanted that. It was not an unreasonable request.  
  
"When is it going to start?" Minako leaned her head back over the back of the chair and looked up into the sky to a flock of birds that flew over them.   
  
"In about ten minutes. We'll just have to patient."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei sat in front of her shrine. She threw some dust into her fire, which made it grow. "Do you have a message for me this time? Will you show us more than a circle? Please, I know that something is wrong. I can feel it. You have never guided me wrong before, and I ask that you help me again." She lowered her head and put her hands together as she closed her eyes. She softly began to chant in a "spiritual language".  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen…What you have all been waiting for. We will be starting the fight between Chiba Mamoru and Para Yakuri." Do NOT ask about that name, lol.   
  
Minako looked around as the crowd went wild as Mamoru walked out of the back part of the stadium and entered the stage. "Looks like lots of people like him, huh?"  
  
"Well they should. He's an excellent fighter." Piccolo smiled as he looked down to the young fighter. He was one of the best in the skill group. He had watched him for years.   
  
"I'll be better them him one of these days." Usagi said, sounding quite sure of herself. She watched the other guy walked out. He didn't get as many cheers from the audience. "That guy must suck."  
  
"Naw, he's actually quite good. He could be good competition for you Usagi."   
  
"I still wish I knew who Mamoru's dad was. Then I would find out why he is so strong and why he is able to fight in the same way that daddy trains us." That was one of Usagi's main concerns. She didn't want there to be a new threat to her father.  
  
"Shhh…let's watch the fight." Makoto hated to try to watch something when the people around her were having a conversation.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru stood face to face with his temporary enemy. That's how he had been taught to look at everyone as. He was taught to see everyone he was fighting as his enemy. That's why it had been so easy for him to take out Usagi. He was brought up to fight. He was even meant to treat his father as an enemy when he fought. He smirked. "Are you ready to go down?"  
  
The boy rubbed his nose with his finger. "I think its you who is going down today Mamoru. You may have beaten me last year, but I will beat you this year. Don't worry." The boy wore a burgundy shirt with black pants and a black bandanna.   
  
"Yeah, in your dreams. I'm going to wipe that smile off of your face and then show you what real power is. So let's get this started." Mamoru looked to his left to see a judge walking out to them.  
  
"Ok, I don't want any dirty fighting. If I see any, the person who does it, will be disqualified and the other person will automatically win." The judge looked to Mamoru and then over to Yakuri. They were both trying to stare each other down. "Let's keep this fight under control boys." He backed away from the fight.  
  
Both boys stared at each other, waiting for the ok to begin. Mamoru could feel his Ki increasing as the anxiety inside him grew. He couldn't wait to lay into this guy and show him once and for all that he IS the better fighter. "Ok. You may begin!"  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Time for some hard core fun!"  
  
(K! That's it for this part? What do you think? Please review and tell me. Thank you! ^.^)  



	31. Part 13

Mamoru got into his fighting stance as he prepared himself for his battle. He didn't see it as something that had to be stressed over. He didn't loose very often because of his training. Not very many people who went to the tournament trained at the same intensity as he did. Heck, he didn't know anyone else who could fight with energy attacks like he had. He was a bit surprised when Usagi had. He smirked. "Let's just get this over with so I can go on to my next victim."  
  
Yakuri followed Mamoru's movements and placed his body in a fighting stance. He watched Mamoru for any sudden movements. He was always stronger and faster with each year. It wasn't exactly fair to place him in the kids division. But as soon as next year came around, Mamoru would go onto the adult division because he would finally be thirteen. "I'm going to make you take those words back in a few minutes."  
  
Mamoru looked to the spectators and grinned. Everyone was chanting his name. "Well, it looks like everyone wants me to win."  
  
"Well that will all change now!" Mamoru looked back to Yakuri and jumped at him. Yakuri, expecting this, rolled underneath him, barely missing a hit.  
  
Mamoru's fist hit the hard concrete of the ring. He stood up and turned around to Yakuri. "Not bad, I see you've been practicing."  
  
"Yeah…" He jumped up and swung his leg into Mamoru's face. He landed just as Mamoru hit the ground. "How do you like that?"  
  
Mamoru pushed himself off the ground and once again stood in front of Yakuri. "Very much so. It was good hit, though, not good enough." He lunged himself at Yakuri.  
  
'Damn, that was my best hit. What's up with this guy?' He put his hands out in front of him in a taunting fashion. "Come on, take your best shot."  
  
Mamoru snickered. "If you say so." He sped himself up to his fullest speed as Yakuri backed up. "Here we go!" He jumped into the air and over Yakuri. Now both fighters stood back to back. Before Yakuri had a chance to do anything, Mamoru's foot found its way into his back. He waited until he heard Yakuri smack against the ground and then turned around. "How do YOU like THAT?"  
  
"I liked it very much thank you." He grinned and grabbed Mamoru's legs. "Let's see how you like this." He tugged Mamoru's legs out from underneath him, forcing him to fall flat on his back. Yakuri quickly stood up and sat on Mamoru's stomach. "I'm going to beat you this time!" He began to punch Mamoru over and over in the chest.  
  
Mamoru lifted his legs in the air and quickly brought them down while pushing his upper body up, along with pushing Yakuri off of him. "So, you want to play that way do you? I can deal with that." He ran over to Yakuri's side and picked him up and held him over his head. "Here we go."  
  
Yakuri looked to the ground beneath him. "Oh god, what the hell?" Yakuri knew it was useless to struggle at this point.  
  
Mamoru pulled his arms back at far, as they would go without dropping Yakuri and quickly pushed them out as hard and fast as he could, hurling Yakuri across the ring. He ran up to Yakuri and looked down at him. He was grabbing his back from the impact of falling. "Are you out now? Or do you want to keep going?" He didn't reply. Mamoru looked over to the judges. "I think he's out." He looked back down to Yakuri, who didn't seem to be able to get up. "Good fight man."  
  
One of the judges walked back out to the ring after a couple of minutes and looked down at Yakuri. "It's been long enough. You're out Yakuri." He pulled a microphone out of his jacket. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner. Chiba Mamoru!" The judge held up Mamoru's arm. "He will be back in a couple of hours to fight his third fight of the day. Don't miss it."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto looked around as the crowd in the stands went wild. "I guess they really DO like him huh?"  
  
Usagi shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah. He's a good fighter and all, but he's still a bully. I don't like him. He's mean, and so is his dad."  
  
Piccolo stood up from his seat and evilly eyed Usagi. "That boy is not mean. And neither is his father. I have talked to them a few times and become somewhat friendly with them. You don't really know either of them otherwise you wouldn't say stupid comments like that. You're being close-minded, just like Vejita!. Your father told me about what happened between you and him a couple of weeks ago and I think you're just jealous that he beat you. You need to shut your mouth about things you know nothing about. You have no room to talk unless you know the true facts, which you do not."  
  
Usagi was a little hurt by Piccolo's words. None of her friends had ever talked to her like that in such an angry tone of voice before, and now, she considered Piccolo one of her friends. But maybe she was wrong. Maybe he still hated her. "I know plenty Piccolo. Maybe if you would just listen to what I have to say."  
  
Piccolo crossed his arms and frowned. "Fine. Go ahead and tell me what's on your mind. But I'm warning you…"  
  
Usagi wasn't sure what had gotten into Piccolo. He was just fine a couple of minutes before. But now, he was totally going off on her. Of course, this wasn't the first time he had done this to her. Whenever she stayed at Gohan's house when her parents wanted to go on a vacation, she would usually see Piccolo and even then, he was rude to her. Always telling her that she got in the way and if she wanted to do something useful she should learn how to fight or leave the area. "He only fights to hurt others, at least, that's why he fought me. He was just trying to show how much stronger then me he was. Daddy says you should only fight to defend yourself. Well, that's what I did. But I wasn't good enough and he rubbed it in my face. That's what daddy calls a 'Poor winner'. Then, after he beat me, he left me all alone to be kicked at by Haruka and Michiru. He knew I couldn't move. Even his dad left me. He was there after the fight. I was so scared. I didn't know if I would ever get home or not. I lay there for a long time before daddy came and got me. So I do know what I'm talking about Piccolo." Usagi wanted to cry just thinking about it. She tried not to think about it after it happened. She had been doing a pretty good job of it too. The only time it ever crossed her mind was when she saw Mamoru.   
  
Piccolo thought for a while before responding. "Are you saying that he doesn't fight for honor?" Usagi nodded. "Well is that so? Listen to me and listen carefully KID, life isn't fair, so deal with it!"  
  
Usagi stood up so she was facing Piccolo. "Life isn't fair, Piccolo? You're telling me that life isn't fair? I already knew that. I have had the worst time ever since last year. I was happy before I started school. Then I met Haruka and Michiru. You could say that they are the reason why I asked daddy to teach me how to fight. I want to be able to protect myself. I know people think I'm a freak because if my tail, but mommy and daddy say I have to accept it and I'm tying to do that the best that I can. So Piccolo, I agree, life is not fair, but that doesn't mean his dad had to leave me by myself. Life may not be fair, but people should. His dad was not being fair by just leaving me all alone, with not strength to do anything. Daddy says he's going to 'talk' to Mamoru's dad when he sees him. He's really mad about it. So are Goten and Gohan." Usagi could feel tears forming in her eyes. She didn't like to have to think about the previous school year, things had gotten better, but a lot of kids still made fun of her. And Mamoru had only added to the stress.  
  
Minako and Makoto stared at Usagi. They never DID hear the whole story about Mamoru. They definitely didn't know that that's how Usagi felt about the whole situation either. They knew that she was upset and angry about it, and that's about it. Makoto raised her face to look Piccolo in the face. He looked pretty angry. "Piccolo, Usagi is right about that one. His dad shouldn't have left her alone like he had. If he was a true fighter, he would have tried to help out a fellow fighter. But instead, he left her there."  
  
Piccolo looked over to Makoto. Now he had to listen to it from both girls. "Whatever you guys. All I have to say is, that until you REALLY get to know these two, your guys' critique is going in one ear, and out the other."  
  
Usagi frowned at Piccolo. How could he say such a mean thing to them? She had been the victim of Mamoru. She was pretty sure that she knew what she was talking about. Usagi wanted to go home. She didn't want to be around Piccolo anymore. Not if he was going to call them stupid, which is exactly how she was taking this argument. She interpreted it as him calling her stupid. "Piccolo, can I call daddy now?"  
  
"Fine, but make it quick. We don't have all day. Minako has to fight in about twenty minutes. I don't want you wondering off again." Piccolo stepped out of the row of seats. "Come on you guys. Let's go to the warm up pit. Usagi, you can call your parents there. There should be a phone back there somewhere."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Gohan sat up when a piercing pain shot through his body. "Arghhghhghh!" He grabbed his chest. He could feel his heart beating inside him faster then normal. "Shit!" She grabbed the side of his bed and dug his nails into it.   
  
Videl, who had arrived around 9:00, ran to her husband's side. She looked to his eyes, but they were closed due to the excessive pain that was being caused from within him. "Gohan, dear, what's the matter? Tell us?" Gohan didn't answer. He couldn't. His body was getting warm. Warmer then normal. His could feel his veins heating up at a rapid speed, almost to the point of burning. Videl turned her head. "BULMA! Come quick!"  
  
Bulma ran out of her small office and saw Gohan. "God!" She ran back in her office and grabbed something off of her desk and in a flash, ran back out into her lab. "Hold on Gohan." She ran to Gohan's side, pushing Videl aside so she could get to him easier.   
  
Videl looked down at her husband in pure horror. She didn't know what was going on. They had done several more tests, none of which proved anything new. "Gohan…no." She watched as Bulma pierced Gohan's skin with a needle. "Is that another sedative?"  
  
Bulma nodded, not taking her eye off Gohan. She had given them sedatives a lot lately. It seemed to be the only thing that calmed them down. She tried all sorts of medications. Nothing seemed to work. "Gohan seems to be getting everything first. I don't know why, You guys, be sure to prepare yourselves for this. Videl, call Chi-Chi down here please."  
  
For once Vejita was somewhat scared. As he lay and watched Gohan suffer, he was afraid of what it would feel like to go through something like that. He punched a bottle off of a table that sat by the head of his bed. "Damnit! Why do I just have to sit here and wait for death?"  
  
Goku took his eyes off of his son and looked over at Vejita. "Don't think of it that way Vejita. There is still hope. And who says that we're going to die?"  
  
Vejita frowned. "It's pretty obvious that we're going to die. Just look at your brat over there."   
  
Bulma backed away from Gohan. "There you go. Now that should help you rest a bit." She turned around when she heard the sound of the door opening behind her. "Chi-Chi…"  
  
Chi-Chi didn't pay any attention to Bulma. Instead, she ran right passed her and knelt down by her son. "Gohan, sweetie, are you ok? What happened." Chi-Chi had still been sleeping in the guestroom when Videl summoned for her. Waking up to the words, "Chi-Chi, wake up, something is happening to Gohan," is probably the worst possible way for Chi-Chi to wake up.   
  
Gohan looked up at his mother. He couldn't really make her picture out because of the sedatives. He felt like he was drunk now. "Hey ya ma!" He grabbed his head. He had a splitting headache from all the commotion.  
  
"Gohan, don't talk. Just rest." Chi-Chi was disturbed by a tap on the shoulder from Bulma. She turned around. "Yes?"   
  
Bulma held out a phone to Chi-Chi. "Usagi is on the line. She wants to talk to you guys."  
  
Chi-Chi snatched the phone from Bulma and put it up to her ear. "Hello? Usagi?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Mommy?" Usagi plugged her free ear with her finger. There was too much noise around her and she could barely hear her mother.  
  
"Usagi, how are you? Are you sick? If you're sick you are to come home right now!" Chi-Chi hoped that she wasn't sick. She didn't want all of her children to become sick. So far, she was the only Saiyan who had not become sick and she was hoping that it would stay that way.  
  
"No, I'm not sick. I just wanted to call and see how everyone is doing. I'm really worried." Usagi stepped to the side as a shoe came flying at her. She looked to where the shoe came from and noticed that a couple of people who appeared to be fighting with each other. "I'm trying to talk on the phone here!"  
  
The two people turned around and looked at Usagi. "Sorry bout that."  
  
Chi-Chi didn't know what was going on where Usagi was. She didn't like the sound of it though. She could hear all sorts of grunting and bashing in the background. "Usagi, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but things have gotten worse. Gohan just went into a worse state of being sick then before. Bulma had to give him more sedatives."  
  
Usagi felt uneasiness in her stomach all of a sudden. She didn't know how she could just act as if life was normal when everyone that she cared about were back at home with an illness that no one knew anything about. "Can I talk to daddy?"   
  
Chi-Chi looked over at her husband to see if he was still awake. "Sure." She handed the phone to him. "It's Usagi. She wants to talk to you."  
  
Goku grabbed the phone from her hands and put it up to his ear. "Hey sweetie." He tried to sound as cheerful as possible. He didn't want her to think that he was in pain, when he actually was.   
  
Usagi smiled. "Hi daddy. Are you ok?"  
  
Goku rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, I'm fine. So, what have you been doing? Have you been behaving for Piccolo?"  
  
"Yes. I just watched Mamoru fight. He won. And I haven't seen his dad yet." She paused a moment and looked around her to make sure Piccolo wasn't anywhere around to hear what she was saying. She saw him talking to Minako. She figured that he was prepping her for her fight. "Daddy, Piccolo is being mean to me. He yelled at me because I called Mamoru and his dad mean. He said I didn't have any information to go on or something."  
  
Goku sighed. "Usagi, please try to get along with him. He's not a bad guy." Goku wasn't in the mood for her to throw another fit. He would make her stay. Not only because it was a good learning experience, but also because he didn't want her anywhere near anyone who was sick.   
  
"But daddy…" Usagi whined.  
  
"Usagi, don't start. You already know how I feel about this. Just deal with it."   
  
"Yes daddy." She looked behind her at Piccolo again. "Are you sure you're ok? You don't want me to come home or anything?"  
  
Goku chuckled. He knew exactly what she was doing. "No, believe me, you'll thank me for this one day. Now relax, it's fun."  
  
Usagi leaned against a wall. She could hear something going on in the background on her father's side of the line. "Daddy, what's going on over there?" Goku hadn't really been listening to answer his daughter's question. All of a sudden out of no where Trunks started to go nuts. The same thing that had happened to Gohan was now happening to Trunks. All Usagi could hear was yelling. "Daddy…"  
  
"Usagi, I have to go. Don't worry about us. We'll be fine. You just worry about having fun. I've got to go. Good bye." Goku hung up. He didn't want to explain to her what was going on in fear that it may ruin her concentration.  
  
All Usagi heard was a click. She didn't even have time to respond. "Daddy…daddy.…" She pulled the phone away from her ear. "What the…he hung up on me." She put the phone back down on its base and walked over to Piccolo and Minako.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Everyone stared at Trunks as he gasped for breath. Vejita looked to Bulma who was fiddling with a needle. "Woman, hurry up, the brat needs help and you're just sitting there wasting time. Be more efficient. Come on, hurry up."  
  
As soon as Bulma finished refilling the needle with the proper sedatives she ran to her son's side and grabbed his arm. "This may hurt." She rolled his arm over and stabbed the needle into it. She couldn't really do it a safe way for the fact that he was moving too much. It didn't really matter though. As soon as the sedatives began to work, the pain would go away. Bulma had made her own sedative with two different purposes. One was to calm the person down, and the other purpose was to take any pain away. "Trunks, you're ok now."  
  
Trunks began to calm. He was sweating from the action. He breathed heavily. "That was too weird. I couldn't breath. My veins were heating up and my head felt like it was going to explode."  
  
Bulma looked down at her son. That was the first time that he had been through that. "You guys, it seems to be getting worse." She put down the needle and walked over to Vejita. "And you! I was working as fast as I could." She made a fist and hit him in the jaw with it.  
  
Vejita grabbed her by the wrist. "You would hit one of your own patients? Tsk…Tsk… You just wait until I'm able to get out of here. Then you're going to be sorry that you did that."  
  
Bulma rolled her eyes. "Oh shut up Vejita. You aren't as sick as the children."  
  
"What did you just say Bulma?"  
  
Bulma turned around to look at Goku. "I said that he isn't as sick at our kids. You know that's true neither of you are." She said as she put her hands on her waist and looked at both him and Vejita.   
  
"Have you guys noticed that this virus is taking longer to work on me and Vejita then our kids?"  
  
"Well of course it would Kakkorotto. We are pure Saiyans. They are only half. And in that girl's case," He pointed over to Pan, "She is only ¼ Saiyan."  
  
Goku looked back to his sleeping Granddaughter. She seemed to be sleeping a lot, which kind of worried Goku. It wasn't normal for girls her age to sleep all the time. There must have been something more going on inside of her. She was wheezing a lot in her sleep too. "That's true. But why would we be getting sick, and not Usagi. Like you just said, half Saiyans are more vulnerable to getting this disease. She hasn't gotten sick at all."  
  
Chi-Chi let her eyes scan across the room and over everyone who was sick. She stopped when her eyes met her husband's. "Well, maybe it's because she was born a Super Saiyan."  
  
That was the first time that Goku had ever heard Chi-Chi refer to their daughter that way. She didn't like to think that her sweet little Usagi had to power to become very powerful. Goku kept his eyes with his wife's. "I don't think so. We all have the power to become Super Saiyan. And as we found out before, the power of a Super Saiyan only speeds up the process. But I guess it doesn't matter. As long as she is safe I'm happy."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei sat in front of her great roaring fire. She looked up at it in fear. She feared what she saw. The fire actually proved to be useful this time. Her black eyes reflected the images. "A planet, space warriors, what does this all mean?" Rei went back to chanting to the fire in hopes that she would get the answers that she was looking for.   
  
The fire grew bigger as she put more dust into it. She was trying to give it more energy to provide her with much needed information. She looked back up to the fire to see another image. "What?!" It was an image of a man in black. "Who is that?" She picked up the bottom of her red Kimono and stood up. She felt lightheaded. "Do you have a message for me?" She sat back down and closed her eyes.   
  
She found herself looking over a room of men. They were talking but she couldn't make out a word that they said. "What is this?" The picture in her head disappeared. She opened her eyes. "Now I'm getting somewhere. But I don't feel the evil around any more." She looked to the fire. It had nearly gone out. "Is that all you have right now?" She put her hand in her bag of dust and fed the fire with it. The fire did not respond. She put her hands together and bowed. "Thank you for your help."  
  
  
~*~*~  
  
Minako, Makoto, and Usagi all stood in a circle. Makoto put her hand on Minako's shoulder. "You'll do fine. You're probably stronger then most of these freaks anyways."  
  
There were only about five minutes before it was Minako's turn to fight. She had become very nervous in the last ten minutes. She doubted her ability to fight. Piccolo wasn't of much help. He didn't provide her with any words of wisdom. "I don't know. After watching some of them fight, I just don't know."  
  
Usagi looked to the door, which led out to the ring. She noticed that one of the judges was walking towards them. "Minako, I think they want you to go now or something." Minako looked to the judge and then back at Usagi. Usagi smiled at her. "Don't worry. Makoto is right, you're a great fighter. Now, go wipe those smirks off your opponents' faces."  
  
Minako smiled. "Yeah. I'll show em whose boss around here. No one messes with me."  
  
"Yeah, and if you have to, picture Haruka's face on these guys." Makoto looked over to Usagi. "Come on, we should probably go join Piccolo in the stands." She looked back at Minako. "We'll meet you here after the fight to congratulate you on your victory."  
  
Usagi put her fist in the air. "Yeah! Your gonna kick butt!" Usagi turned around and walked to the door that led back up to the stands. Mr. Satan stopped her right before she went on. "What do you want?" She waved for Makoto to go on without her.  
  
"Well, I do this thing where, on the third day of the tournament, after everything is over, I challenge the winner of each skill level of the kids' division." He could see that he was boring Usagi. "Well, anytime someone from your family or that guys Vejita's family comes here, you win. Well I'm asking you, please, if you or your friends win, let me beat you."  
  
"What?! You mean you can't beat a little kid?"  
  
"Well, it would ruin my rep. You know?" Satan could see that just that didn't convince her. "Everyone else does it. Trunks did it when he had to fight me. 18 did it when I really had to fight her. So come on, let me win."  
  
Usagi grinned as she crossed her arms. "What's in it for me?"  
  
"I'll buy you all the candy you want."  
  
"Daddy already does that for me." Usagi wanted to hear him beg. But the candy thing was still true.  
  
"I'll buy you anything you want."  
  
"I would get in trouble. Mamma would think I was stealing everything." Usagi wasn't going to give in to anything THAT easily. It would have to be something REALLY good or else she would expose this fool for what he really was.  
  
"Do it because we are family?" He was getting a little put out with her responses. He didn't know why she wouldn't just be a good little girl and do as she was told.  
  
"I'm not your family. I have no relation to you. You are not my father-in-law just because my big brother married Videl." She was enjoying seeing him squirm. "And besides, I can't take anything from you. That would be like a bribe and daddy says it's bad to do stuff like that."  
  
Satan frowned. "Do you always listen to your father?"  
  
"Yes! Now I have to go. I'm not going to throw a fight just for you to keep your rep. Sorry. Whoever wins, will win for real. The only way you will be able to beat me, is if you are stronger then me." She stepped to the side and walked right past him. She didn't care if it ruined his rep. He shouldn't even have the rep that he had anyways and both of them knew it.  
  
Satan let out a small growl. "But your father trains you. That's not fair. And besides that, Mamoru and his father do it. And look at them. They are two of the greatest fighters here!"  
  
Usagi just kept walking forward. "In that case…I'm NOT DOING IT!" 'Why is he telling Mamoru and his father about the way that he really is?'  
  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi met Makoto and Piccolo back up in the seats that they had been in when they watched Mamoru's fight. Makoto sat on Piccolo's left, while Usagi sat on his right. "I can't wait to see her win. It's going to be so cool."  
  
Piccolo looked down at Usagi. "You really think she can win do you?"  
  
"Of course. She's really good."  
  
Makoto put her hand up to Piccolo's mouth and put her finger to her lips. "Shhh…they're starting."  
  
Piccolo slapped her hand away from his mouth and looked down to the ring where a man walked out with a microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, we will be starting the next fight now. It will be between Aino Minako and Kibou KiKi. This is the higher end of the intermediate skill level."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi sat forward in her chair. "What?! Higher level of intermediate? Daddy thins we're THAT good? But we just started. What was Mamoru in then?"  
  
"Pro I think." Piccolo had been following him ever since he started coming to these tournaments.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"So here we go!" The judge put the mic. in his pocket. "Ok girls, now, don't step out of the ring. If you do, you will be disqualified. Don't fight dirty, for if you do, you will be disqualified."  
  
Minako nodded. She already knew all the rules but one. "Are we not allowed to use Ki blasts?"  
  
The judge looked blankly at Minako. "Ki blasts?"  
  
"Never mind."  
  
"Ok, well, go ahead and start as soon as I'm clear and off the ring." He backed up away from the girls a bit and turned around to walk away.  
  
Minako stared at her opponent. She was built big. She looked very strong. But, since they didn't know what a Ki blast was, maybe she wouldn't be so strong. "Ready?" She asked as she crouched to her fighting stance. She held her hands out in front of her.  
  
The girl laughed at Minako. "You look stupid. But yeah, I'm ready."  
  
Minako grinned. "So am I!"   
  
Without further conversation, both girls jumped for each other. The met each other in the air with the locking of their hands. They landed on their feet, with their hands still locked with each other. Minako pushed with all of her weight against her opponent. She wasn't proving to be a very good challenge to Minako for she was sliding backwards. But the girl wasn't going to give up that easily. She grinned at Minako and kneed her in the stomach.  
  
Minako let go of KiKi's hands and took a step back. She grabbed her stomach with one of her arms. Although she had fought with Vejita and Goku many times, getting hit in the stomach still hurt. She noticed a fist coming straight for her. "Come on, you can be a little bit more sneaky then that." She grabbed KiKi's fist. With her other hand she punched her in the face.  
  
KiKi didn't let herself get discouraged. She had been up against worse then Minako before and still won. She was very confident that she would win this time, too. She didn't care that she had just been hit in the face. She couldn't afford to care. She kneeled down to the ground.  
  
Minako snickered. "What are you trying to do?" Minako knew that she could very well beat her opponent. It was quite obvious now. Minako was just going to play around now and see how much abuse the other girl could take. She stayed in her spot and looked up at Usagi and Makoto. They were cheering her on. She smiled and waved.  
  
KiKi crawled slowly and carefully over to Minako, trying not to be seen or heard. She was hoping that Minako wouldn't turn her head back and see her. She stopped at her feet. 'What a freak. I'm going to win this easily.' First she made a fist as tight as she could. Then she jumped up as hard as she could, with her fist extended out over her head, hitting Minako in the chin and up a ways off the ground.  
  
Minako slammed to the ground with a big thud that echoed throughout the stands. All she could hear were the spectator's 'awws.' She grabbed her tailbone and backed up as KiKi walked towards her. "That was a good trick."  
  
"Yes, I know, and you see, now I'm going to take you out and win this fight. All because you were stupid enough to take your eye off of your opponent."  
  
Minako smirked. "Is that a fact?" She waited until KiKi got close enough to her and flipped herself backwards off of the ground. She had just faked being hurt so KiKi would walk to her to make another hit on her. She could feel her feet hitting their target as they flew into the air. First KiKi's chest, and then her face. She looked back to KiKi when she landed on her feet. "You should never underestimate your opponent. That's why my sensei says."  
  
KiKi fell backwards to the ground. Minako's feet had hit something in her chest that had made a strange sensation in her body. She began to go numb. "Gees you hit a nerve." She could move, but she couldn't really feel what she was doing.   
  
When it was pretty obvious that KiKi wasn't going to get back up the judge came out with his mic again. "Ladies and Gentlemen…" He grabbed Minako's hand and raised it to the air. "The winner, Minako!"  
  
Minako looked to the stands where her friends were. They were yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs congratulating her. The fight hadn't been as bad as she thought and she couldn't wait to talk to them about it.   
  
(K! That's it for this part. What do you think? Good, or bad? Please review.)  



	32. Part 14

(Sorry I didn't get a part out yesterday but my power was out most of the day.::pouts:: oh well, here it is.)  
  
After she accepted her victory, Minako ran back into the warm up area of the arena. She was so excited. She had never felt such a rush of excitement like she had before. She couldn't wait to tell Usagi and Makoto what it was like.   
  
Usagi and Makoto were already in the warm up area when Minako arrived. They were there, yelling words of congratulations for her. "Yeah! Minako! We knew you could do it!"  
  
Minako smiled as she bent over and held her knees to catch her breath. "Thanks you guys. I just thought about what you said about how I'm a great fighter. And then I pretty much just acted as if it were just another spar. You know, like we were fighting each other." She stood up. "And you know, it was a lot easier that way. It was so much fun. I'm not even nervous about the next fight."  
  
"Yeah. I'm not nervous though. I've been in tournaments before because of that martial arts class I used to take, but I've never been in the Budaki before. I never thought I was good enough you know. But, that girl looked too easy for you Minako. I hope the person I have to fight isn't that easy." Makoto looked to her left, where the boy she was to fight next was getting himself prepared.   
  
Piccolo hadn't said much in the way of compliments to Minako. The way he saw it, people didn't need to be complimented. It just gave them a reason to become conceited. "You did ok, Minako. But it wasn't a test of your real strength. But don't think it's going to be that easy all the time. Some people enter themselves at a higher level then they need to be. Plus, it gets harder and harder as you proceed onto later fights. Don't think it's all just cake."  
  
Minako looked up at Piccolo. "Are you saying that me winning didn't prove my strength?"  
  
Piccolo didn't answer. He didn't want to get into it again with the "little girls", as he liked to think of them as. Instead, he grabbed Makoto by the arm and pulled her aside. "Look, you have to fight next ok? I don't want you to get distracted like your friend over there did. That causes un-necessary hits from the other person." He glared over in Minako's direction. "If you do, it could cause you the whole battle. So keep your eyes on your enemy…"  
  
"Opponent."  
  
"What?"  
  
"You said enemy. Don't you mean opponent."  
  
Piccolo let out a quiet growl to let Makoto know that he wasn't happy that she interrupted him for such a stupid reason. "Yeah whatever. Anyways, keep your eyes on your opponent, and you should be able to win. I've watched this guy fight before and from what I can tell, he's pretty good. He definitely deserves to be in this level of skill." He looked over his shoulder to a clock that hung on the wall. "Ok, you have about ten minutes to warm up. I'm going to go talk to someone." He turned around and walked away.  
  
Usagi started to follow him. "Let me come Piccolo!"  
  
Piccolo turned quickly turned around. "NO! Go back!" He turned back around and left.  
  
"Gees, fine, whatever. Don't get all upset over nothing." She turned back around and walked back to Minako and Makoto who were already in the middle of a conversation. "You guys, does Piccolo seem to be acting weird today?"  
  
Minako looked over at Usagi. "Yeah, kind of. I mean, the way he blew up at us and everything. It's kind of weird. It seems like he's got something on his mind."  
  
"I don't know you guys. I think he's just bored. I mean, he has to watch us fight. He can't watch whoever he wants to." Makoto put her arms behind her back so they would be stretched out for her fight.  
  
"Hey guys." Haruka walked up from behind Minako with Michiru. She was dressed in her martial arts GI. She placed her had on Minako's shoulder and put her head by hers. "Nice show Minako. But, that was pretty stupid how you let that loser of a fighter get a hit on you like that. I would have expected better from a spectacular fighter like yourself." She pulled her head up and pushed Minako to the ground. "Yeah right, like I meant any of that. You both sucked. That other fighter just happened to suck more then you."  
  
Usagi moved up in front of Haruka. "You're just jealous that we can fight better then you. Leave us alone."  
  
Haruka laughed. "Oh, Monkey Girl, you think you're better then us? I doubt that. Gee, who was it that got their ass beat by Mamoru? If I remember right it was…oh….I don't know, YOU!"  
  
Usagi frowned. "That doesn't mean I can't beat you. I'm much stronger then you! And if and when I have to fight you, I'm going to beat you so bad you're going to wish you never messed with me last year!" Usagi was mad now. Haruka, Michiru, and Mamoru were probably the only people she ever talked to like that. She didn't care though. They made her blood boil like no one else could.  
  
"When I fight you, I can beat you. I know your weak spot. I found that out right away about you. But don't worry little Monkey Girl," She went on as she patted Usagi's head, "I won't hurt you too bad. Maybe I'll just make you go unconscious."  
  
"No Haruka, I think you should make her be awake when you beat her. Then she will have to live with the pain." While Haruka was bent on dishing out pain, Michiru liked to watch people suffer through the pain. They were a perfect duo.  
  
Haruka smiled as she took her hand back. "Yeah, then I'll have to hold back a bit, but I guess I can do that."  
  
Makoto had heard just about enough at that point. She didn't understand how Usagi could just be so calm and take that from them. She pushed Usagi aside. "Look, Usagi is stronger then you and you know it. We are all stronger then you. You just wait until any of us are in the ring with you. You'll see."  
  
Haruka smiled. "We will all see." She looked around at all three of the girls' faces. She could tell that they were totally serious and stopped smiling. "Fine then. If you want it that way, you got it. None of us will hold back. But be warned, Mamoru trained us all last night and most of today. He has taught us how to use energy attacks. I know we are not allowed to use them, but, we have gotten a bit stronger by using them."  
  
Usagi grinned. "Just because you can do energy attacks, doesn't mean you can do them very good. And so what, we've been training for over a year now. We're still stronger then you are." It was a little surprising to her that they had been training with Mamoru.   
  
Minako glared at Haruka. She was one of the rudest people that she knew. "It seems like even losers can learn how to fight too." She knew she was taking a risk with that comment, but she didn't care. What could Haruka do to her? Minako was, after all, stronger then her.  
  
Haruka grabbed Minako by the front of the GI and pulled her up to her face. "Listen KID! I'm going to kick your ass for that! If we don't meet in the tournament, I will hunt you down, GOT IT!?" She threw Minako down to the ground and turned back to Michiru, who was laughing. "Come on, let's go find Mamoru."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei left her temporary shrine. She couldn't wait until she returned home to her temple with her grandfather. She loved going to the tournament each year and all, but this year she had other things on her mind. She was worried about all the feelings that she was receiving. They had been more intense then normal. She knew that something was going to go down soon. Each time she performed her ritual with the fire, she got more answers. With everyday that passed by, the evil that she felt grew, as did the rage of the fire.   
  
She always treated the fire like it was a person. Like it was a spirit to guide here. The visions she received from it always turned to be true. She sighed as she rested her head against the wall that formed the outside of the arena. "I hope whoever these people are, are ok. I wonder who that girl was earlier. I wonder why I felt a connection to her."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto stood face to face with her opponent. They were just told that they were allowed to start the fight. Makoto rubbed her fist in her hand as she tried to intimidate the boy that stood in front of her. The boy put one of his feet behind himself and darted at an exceptionally fast pace towards her. She stepped to the side and grabbed the boy's arm, stopping him. Before he had a chance to try to break free, with all her strength, she flipped him over onto his back.  
  
He jumped back to his feet and stopped Makoto's fist from hitting her again by grabbing it. He quickly began twisting it around, making her cry out in pain. "Think you can beat me do ya?" He grinned. Makoto wasn't able to do very much. He had her on her knees. She had her head cocked to the side with her eyes closed. "Perfect." He raised his foot to her chest and roughly kicked her back, letting go of her hand.  
  
Makoto grabbed her arm as she fell backwards to the ground. She looked up at her competitor. He was proving to be more of a challenge then Minako's opponent. But she didn't mind. She was rather enjoying herself. She wouldn't want it any other way. If she could beat a challenge, then she knew that she was worthy of being a fighter. She sat up and rubbed a couple of hairs out of her eye. "Come on, show me some more!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei walked back into the arena where she saw two people fighting. The crowd went wild one the female fighter threw the male fighter across the ring. "That was pretty good actually. It seems like the fighters get better and better each year." She began to walk down to the front of the stands where her grandfather was sitting. He seemed to be enjoying himself. She sat down next to him and looked forward to the fight that was going on.  
  
Her grandfather looked over to her. "Did you resolve anything, Rei?"  
  
Rei slightly nodded. She didn't know what happened. She hadn't expected such a response from her cries. She didn't know what to make of it. She wouldn't bother her grandfather with it at that moment though. She didn't want to pull him away from his fun. "Kind of."  
  
"Another blank eh?"  
  
"I guess you could say that." She watched as the female fighter kicked the male fighter in the back with her foot, forcing him to fall face first on the ground. "Ouch."  
  
"Rei," Rei looked up at her grandfather. He pointed to Usagi who sat across the aisle from them. "You see that girl there?"  
  
Rei looked over. 'It's that girl again.' "Yes?"  
  
"That's Son Goku's daughter. She will be fighting next. If she is anything like her father, we are in for a real treat."  
  
"Oh." Rei wasn't really paying attention to that right at the moment. She was more worried about other, more important things. 'What is this that I'm feeling whenever I am near her? Why do I feel like I've known her for sometime?' She let out a quiet gasp after she thought for a moment. 'Could it be…"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Minako rubbed some blood off of her lip. "Hehe, that was a good hit." The boy had just grabbed her by her face and thrown her down to the ground.   
  
He jumped to the side as Makoto tried her luck at hitting him. "Yeah, I know. So is this." He tensed his hand up into a tight fist and swung it at Makoto's chest, only to hit air.   
  
Makoto had jumped out of the way seconds before it hit. She put her hands together to form a double sized fist and hit the boy in the back of the neck, causing him to fall forward. She bent over and picked him up by the head and swung him around until she got dizzy and let go of him. All she could hear was a smack against the ground. She grabbed her head and tried to hold it still, but it didn't help. Her vision was all screwed up and there wasn't anything she could do about it at this time. All she could do was hope that the last attack on him had done it for him.  
  
She staggered around the ring for a while until she ran into something hard. "Uh-oh." She closed her eyes hard and then opened them again hoping that that would clear up her vision. It helped somewhat. What she saw was a man in a black suit. "Thank god for that."  
  
"We have a winner. It's this young lady right here. Makoto!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Bulma, you better hurry up over the quick. We have another crisis over here!" Videl and Chi-Chi had kind of taken up the jobs of being nurses for the Saiyans. Shortly after Gohan and Trunks had become sicker, Bra had become sick too. Goten was showing signs of becoming more sick, and now, Pan had gone into a little bit of a spasm. Videl looked down at her daughter she wasn't sure what she could do for her. They had run out of sedatives about ten minutes ago and Bulma was working on a stronger batch. The old batch didn't seem to be working all that well. She rubbed her daughter's bangs out of her face. "Pan, hold on sweetie, Bulma is getting something for you."  
  
Goku watched in fear at everything that was going on. He had never seen something like this in his entire life and it pained him to have to watch his family suffer. "Damnit!"  
  
Vejita didn't have any smart reply to say to Goku this time, for he too feared for his life. With every minute that passed, everyone moved into a worse condition. He didn't know what was going on. He didn't like not having control over his body. It brought back memories of being controlled by freiza. "Woman! Get your ass out here! The brats are in need of your god damned assistance." He was too mad to even control his language anymore. Bulma ran out of the room with a blue liquid and ran over to Pan. "What the hell is that?"  
  
Bulma didn't look away. She inserted the needle into Pan's arm. "It's the new sedative. It's stronger then the first one and therefore, should work longer." She pulled a few more needles out of her pocket and handed a packet of the blue liquid to Videl. "Here is some more liquid in case you need it." She pulled out another packet and handed it to Chi-Chi. "I hope you don't need this, but just in case."  
  
Chi-Chi took the packet from her friend and examined it carefully as if to make sure it wasn't going to harm her family. She looked over at Goten to see if he was still stable. He seemed to be ok, but only time would tell if he would stay that way. He looked as though he was having a hard time sleeping. She looked back over to her husband and then over at Vejita. "It just doesn't make any sense."  
  
Bulma had been telling herself that same thing ever since Goku and Vejita had first gotten sick. None of it made sense. Of course, when your best friends and husband are aliens that call themselves Saiyans, not much did make sense. Nothing had made much sense since she met Goku but she wouldn't change her life for the world. "I don't know, I've worn out every kind of test we can perform on these guys. It still says that there is nothing wrong with you guys. There isn't much I can do without actually knowing what is wrong with you guys."  
  
Videl looked up from watching her daughter calm down. "Well can't we get the Dragon Balls together and wish that the disease would go away."  
  
Bulma showed a slight hint of a sarcastic smile. "What disease?"  
  
"I guess you're right. But what if we knew what disease they had? Like if we found something in the next couple of days. We would do that, right?" Videl knew they most likely wouldn't find anything, but it was a valid question.  
  
Bulma just shook her head. "I suppose we could do that, but that probably won't happen. Don't get your hopes up to high."  
  
A look of disappointment spread across Videl's face as she looked back down to her now sleeping daughter. "I know. And that's what is really scary about this whole situation."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi sat against a wall with her legs pressed up against her body. She had her arms wrapped around her knees to keep them up against her body. She had just fought her second fight of the day and was pretty beaten up. She barely won. She looked up as Minako and Makoto stood over her. "What do you think they're talking about over there?"  
  
To Usagi's left Piccolo was talking to Mamoru. Mamoru had come up to Usagi, after her last fight, and tried to start a fight with her. He was enraged and neither of the girls knew why. Usagi had heard him say something about her supposedly saying something about him, but she wasn't sure. He was yelling so much that she hadn't been able to make much of anything out of what he had said. Piccolo looked like he was letting him have it, although, Usagi couldn't make out anything that he was saying. She so wished that she could. She wanted to know if he was defending her or not. "I hope it doesn't make him more mad at me."  
  
Minako was quite curious too. "I don't know. When he gets over here, we'll have to ask him though. I hope he's yelling at Mamoru though.  
  
"Usagi, you have to get ready for another fight." So far Makoto had already fought three of her fights. She had won all of them too. Each time they moved up, her opponents seemed to get stronger.  
  
Usagi looked up at the clock that sat in front of her. "Already?" She was too tired. She had just finished fighting only about fifteen minutes before. "But I don't want to. I want to rest."  
  
"You have to."   
  
Usagi turned her head to look up at Piccolo. "Fine." She knew not to argue with him. He would have just ended up going off on her and yelling at her for no reason at all. She stood up and brushed some dust off of her GI. "How long do I have?"  
  
"Five minutes. You had better get yourself out there." Piccolo watched as Usagi walked to the door that led to the ring where she would wait for her name to be called for her to enter. He smiled to himself. 'She will be able to hold up. I know it. Goku was right. She IS strong.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Rei," Rei's grandfather looked over to his granddaughter. "Are you actually going to watch Usagi fight time? I really think you should. She is just like her father was when he was her age. You'll enjoy it."  
  
Rei hadn't watched either of Usagi's previous fights. It wasn't that she didn't want to, she just started to get some bad feelings again. But when she went back to consult her fire, nothing happened. She didn't get any new answers. But she knew that something was building up. She just knew it. "Yes grandfather. I will watch this one. I am getting strong vibes, but so far they have met nothing." She really wanted to go back again. She wanted to keep trying to get answers, but she knew that her grandfather wanted her to stay and watch the fight.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Kiro, this is Okori, we are almost finished. You can start any time that you want."  
  
Kiro smiled. "So this is actually it. Thank you, I will tell Taku immediately. It should only take a few minutes to complete the process and then it will be over."  
  
"Right, I guess this is it then."  
  
"Yes. Kiro…out."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, we please welcome back Son Usagi for her third fight and Kokyu Shou for his last battle of the day. If he wins, he will go on to contend tomorrow, but, if Usagi wins, she will have to fight one more time today and win in order to get into tomorrow's activities." The judge put the mike into his pocket. "Ok, you guys know the rules. Let's have a good clean fight ok?"  
  
Usagi watched as the judge left the ring and then looked back at Shou. She sighed. She was just too tired to go on. She hadn't expected herself to be so tired. With getting up so early in the morning and having to spar with Piccolo and then fighting two battles against people who were at her same fighting level, if not better, she wasn't up to fighting anymore.   
  
Shou could see that Usagi was just plain exhausted. He, on the other hand, was no where near being tired. Well, maybe just a bit. But he would use Usagi's tiredness to his own advantage. He would win this for sure. "Come on little girl. Let's get this fight over with so I can go home and get some rest. I'm going to need it for tomorrow."  
  
"I can do this. Just you wait and see. I may look tired on the outside, but inside, I'm as hyper as I ever could be. So let's get this thing started." Usagi flipped backwards and stared at Shou. She expected him to follow. When he didn't she decided it was time to taunt him. "What's wrong, afraid you're going to get beaten by a girl?"  
  
Shou crossed his arms and smirked. "No, I'm just not going to fall for anything stupid."  
  
"Is that a fact?" Usagi ran for him.   
  
He jumped to the air and was met by the smiling face of Usagi. "What the…"  
  
"Didn't your sensei ever tell you to expect everything." With that, Usagi grabbed his shoulders and pushed him to the ground. She took a step back. If it's one thing that she learned from all this, it was that you should never stand by your opponent when they are on the ground. Actually, it was more like don't hold still for too long. Doing that could loose the whole battle. She learned that from watching various fights between adults. They were the most desirable to watch. They had more experience.   
  
Shou waited until Usagi was in the middle of jumping backwards to make his move. He quickly jumped to his feet and grabbed Usagi by the legs. Usagi began to kick as hard as she could, hoping that he would let go, but it was no use, he wouldn't let go. She wasn't struggling that much. He dug his nails into Usagi's soft skin, causing her to cry out in pain. His eyes traveled down to her tail that hung over one of her legs. "What's this?"  
  
Usagi, with her head and hands to the ground still, looked over her shoulder to the best of her ability. "Don't you dare touch it!"  
  
"Oh? A soft spot on the girly huh? Well, in that case…"   
  
Shou grinned a little to evilly for Usagi's liking. She knew exactly what was coming. "NO!" With all the strength that she could build up in her legs, Usagi pulled them back against Shou's grip, letting them slam into his chin on the way back to her own body. She let herself flip over on her back as she heard the footsteps of her opponent stumbling to regain their composure. She took this opportunity to regain some of her energy back. She panted heavily as she tried to raise herself to her feet once again. She got up very slowly this time. Her energy was greatly diminished. 'How can I go on? This is too hard.' She frowned. 'What am I thinking? Daddy wouldn't give up. He wouldn't let me give up either. He would just tell me to tough it out until it was over.' She took a big breath and charged at Shou, grabbing him by the front of his GI. 'This is the one time I can get mad about someone pulling my tail.' "No one pulls my tail. No one even TRIES to pull my tail!" She pulled her fist back as far as it would go.  
  
"Whatever!" He grabbed Usagi's wrist and squeezed it as hard as he could, forcing Usagi to let go of her grip that she had on it. She didn't let that stop her though. She swung her fist at him. Shou ducked just before it hit and kneed her in the stomach causing her to bend over in pain. He let her fall on his shoulder. "Come on, I know you can do better then this."  
  
"I could if I could fight with energy."   
  
Shou picked Usagi up and held her out in front of him. "Well, I'm going to let you go on a ride. Don't worry, it won't hurt much."  
  
Usagi smirked. "Really?" She grabbed his hair and pulled his head back. With her free hand, she poked both of his eyes.  
  
Shou dropped Usagi to the ground and grabbed his eye. He took a step back. "Ah, you stupid freak!"  
  
Usagi frowned. "Don't call me a freak!" She jumped up and did a roundhouse kick to his head. She landed in a fighting stance. "I'm ending this right here, right now! All I want to do is rest for longer then twenty minutes."  
  
Shou fell to the ground. He could feel blood running down his checks. He just had the crap kicked out of him by a girl with a tail. He couldn't believe it. And now, he couldn't even see straight from that last kick. He let his head fall back to the ground. "Good fight."  
  
Usagi relaxed her stance. "Huh?"  
  
"I can't go on like this."  
  
"Of course you can. Daddy says, if you really want something, there is always a way to get it. So come on. Fight me!" Usagi tried taunting him some more. She didn't know what she was saying. Her body was telling her to just stop and let the boy give up, but her mind was telling her to continue.  
  
"Sorry, I just can't." He closed his eyes.  
  
Usagi walked to his side and looked down at his face. "Did he faint?" She looked up to see a judge walking out to her. "I think he fainted." She said as she pointed down to Shou.  
  
"Then that means you won!" He pulled his mic out. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner. Son Usagi!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei stared in disbelief down at the golden haired fighter. "Grandfather, you were right. She is a good fighter."  
  
"Why don't you go and talk to her? You could learn some things about fighting from her."  
  
"Oh I don't know. I'm not that good, and I'm not THAT serious about fighting."  
  
He nudged his granddaughter. "Come on, I know you want to."  
  
Rei smiled. "Yeah, I guess I am. I guess I can go talk to her."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei waited for Usagi at the gate that led back into the warm up area. She couldn't wait to meet her. Usagi and her friends were the first people her age that she had seen get so far in the tournament at such a high skill level. She finally spotted Usagi. 'I'm getting that feeling again. Why?' She decided to ignore her feelings for once and go talk to Usagi.   
  
Her friends, including Piccolo surrounded Usagi. They were all congratulating her. She appreciated it, but she was just too tired to say anything. She was still quite out of breath and she still had another fight for the day. She looked up and saw Rei approaching her. She smiled to welcome her. "Hi." 'Where have I seen her before.   
  
Rei smiled. "Hi. My name is Rei. I think you met my grandfather. He his co owner of this place." She put her hand out to Usagi.  
  
Usagi grabbed Rei's hand and shook. "Yeah, I did. He's really nice."  
  
"I was watching your fight. It was amazing. I'm guessing your dad taught you all that."  
  
"Yup, daddy is really strong and he trains all of us. Oh yeah, by the way, this is Minako, Makoto, and Piccolo."   
  
"Hi. Pleased to meet you. You know Usagi, I didn't think you would be able to pull that last fight off. It looked like that guy had total control over the whole fight until the end there." All of a sudden Rei began to feel something very strange. Something that she had never felt before. 'What am I feeling? What is this evil? ' She began to tremble with fear as she became light headed.  
  
Piccolo could sense that something was wrong. "Are you all right?"  
  
Rei grabbed her head. "I'm not sure! I'm getting a really bad feeling. I don't know what it is." She began to get weak in the legs. She couldn't hold her weight much longer. "Its an evil I've never felt before."  
  
Usagi was, once again confused. "Rei, what are you talking about?"  
  
Rei closed her eyes. It was becoming painful. "Something is happening. I can feel it. Something evil."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened as she began to realize what was going on. "Oh no! You are…but…it can't be…wait a minute…" Usagi couldn't believe it. She finally knew who this girl was. "You're the girl from my dream aren't you?! But how?"  
  
(K, thats it for this part. What do you think? Is it good or bad. Please tell me. Thank you. ^_^) 


	33. Part 15

Usagi watched Rei in horror. She couldn't have been the girl from her dream. She didn't even know who she was. How could she possibly dream about someone she didn't know? She thought back to her dream for a moment. Both of her dreams actually. Both in which a mysterious girl with long black hair in a red Kimono, much like the one that Rei was wearing, was in. She didn't understand what was happening. It was much too overwhelming for a girl her age. She grabbed her head as it began to throb from fear. "No, no, no, no, NO! I won't believe it! It's not TRUE!"  
  
Piccolo watched as both Usagi and Rei were now having what seemed like nervous breakdowns. He didn't know what to do. Usagi was freaking out because she didn't want something to be true, while Rei was freaking out over an evil. That in itself was starting to worry Piccolo. He could tell she was suffering with something. It wasn't just a play. He didn't know what it could be though. He pushed his way between Minako and Makoto so he could stand in front of Rei. "Hey, what's happening? Can't you tell us?"  
  
"The fire is calling for me. It has answers. But what could it be?" She turned to Usagi who was still grabbing her head and covering her face with her arms. "Usagi, remember that circle that we saw?" Usagi didn't reply. She wasn't really listening. She didn't want to listen. She wanted to forget about the dream. She wanted life to return to normal. "Usagi, that circle that was saw the one night, it was a planet. Just today, it was revealed to me."  
  
Usagi let go of her head as she calmed down. "What? What are you saying?"  
  
Piccolo was a bit on the confused side. Goku had told him about Usagi's dreams, but they never did figure out what they meant. "Do you have the power to transmit dreams to people?"  
  
Rei looked up at Piccolo. "Sort of. I don't know how it works really. This is the first time I was able to do it. I never really saw Usagi, I just knew she was there, watching me. Then, all of today, I felt some sort of connection to her. Like I've known her for a while." She turned back to Usagi who was now fully paying attention. "I also saw warriors. Thousands of them, over this planet. I'm not sure what it was, but I'm getting an intense feeling that something is going to happen."  
  
Usagi dropped to her knees. It was all becoming so clear to her now. Everything that had gone on in the past three weeks. She knew that this had something to do with her father getting sick. It just had to be. She looked up at Rei. "Can you do your thingy with the fire again Rei? Please?"  
  
Rei nodded. "Of course. I do it every time I get this feeling. Though, this one is the most intense of them all. We should be going. Follow me." She slowly turned around. Her legs were still like putty beneath her body, and she had to use the wall as her guide.  
  
Piccolo picked Usagi up off the ground. He knew that she would just lag behind if he did not pick her up. He knew that she was probably going threw a rough time. He looked behind himself to make sure that Minako and Makoto were following. 'What a day.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
When they arrived at Rei's temporary shrine, Rei closed the doors so they would be closed off with no disruptions from the outside world. She walked to her fire. It was still going. She sat down and put her hands together and began to chant to it.  
  
Piccolo set Usagi down to her feet to his right while Minako and Makoto stood to his left. He watched as the fire grew with every word that came out of Rei's mouth. Usagi looked into the fire. Almost immediately, a picture appeared in the fire. She gasped. 'The circle…it is a planet. But what planet.' She continued to watch, taking careful mental notes of everything that she saw.   
  
Another, different image took the place of the planet. It was the picture of the warriors that Rei had spoken of not too long ago. They looked evil. There were thousands of them. They looked as if they were ready to attack. 'But, they look like…Saiyans.' She looked around the waist of the men. "AH!"  
  
Piccolo looked down at Usagi. He knew what she was surprised about. He too saw what she had seen. He saw the tails wrapped around their waists. "Usagi…hold your tongue for a while and let her concentrate."  
  
Usagi hadn't meant to just blurt out but it was a little surprising. She hadn't expected to see tails. 'Why do they look so evil?' She watched closer as the picture changed. The Saiyans were approaching the planet at a rapid speed. 'What the…' They stopped just short of entering its atmosphere.   
  
Rei jumped to her feet and backed up. "Watch out you guys. I'm sensing something big." Out of nowhere the fire exploded. Everyone hid their faces with their arms hoping not to get burnt if the fire grew too big. Rei ran as close to it as she could and tried to calm the raging beast.  
  
Usagi was getting scared. She didn't know what was going on. She wasn't sure that she wanted to either. 'What does this have to do with daddy?'  
  
When Rei finally got the fire under control again, another picture appeared in the fire. "This is the most that has ever been revealed. I don't understand."   
  
Usagi could have screamed when she comprehended what the picture was of. It was a live picture of her father. "Daddy!" He too had fallen subject to the so-called disease and was suffering dearly. Usagi ran up to Rei's side.   
  
Minako and Makoto tried to follow, but were stopped by Piccolo's hands grabbing their shoulders. They looked back at him and he just shook his head. It wasn't their business. Yes, he was like their friend, but he was her father and she needed to find out what was going on.  
  
Usagi looked over to Rei. "Rei, what's going on? Why is my daddy up there?"  
  
"I…I don't know Usagi. This has never happened before. It has never shown the real activities of the world. Always freeze-frames if anything. Like the last pictures we saw. It was kind of like a slide show, but this is just too weird."  
  
Usagi looked back up. Her mother was now standing over her father injecting him with something. 'Must be those sedatives or whatever they are.' But it didn't work as well as it normally did. She could still see her father's sufferings and she hated to see it. She wanted to look away, but at the same time watch to see if he would get better. Usagi began to cry. She didn't know what was going on. It appeared to her that her father was dying and probably everyone else was too. "No, NO! Daddy!"  
  
"Shh! Do you hear that?"  
  
Usagi stopped her whining. "Hear what?"  
  
"Voices."  
  
Usagi got quiet and listened. "That's Bulma's voice."  
  
'It's not working, Chi-Chi give him some more sedatives!'  
  
'That isn't going to help. I just gave him his fourth injection and he is still deteriorating.'  
  
'So are the rest of them. There's nothing we can do.'  
  
"NO!!!!!" Usagi fell to her knees. There was nothing she could do either. She was too far away from home, she didn't have enough strength left to fly home anyways. She was going to be forced to watch her father die before her very eyes. Everyone that she loved would be gone. She couldn't imagine a world without her family. Without her friends by her side. She stood up as she began to become enraged just thinking about it. Her sadness fed her anger. She clenched her fists as hard as she could. "Who is doing this?" She looked over at Rei and grabbed her and shook her. "WHO IS DOING THIS!? ASK!" She threw Rei away from her, causing her to loosed her footing and fall to the floor.  
  
Rei cautiously stood up, not wanting to cross Usagi's path. "Great fire, can you tell us what is happening to these people? You have told us so much already. Please continue. We must know." She threw some dust on it to help it along.   
  
Usagi stared up into the fire. A picture of a man with shoulder length black hair appeared by a picture of her father. "What is that?!" Minako and Makoto both could not believe what they were seeing. They were both totally blown out of their minds. Never in their lives did they think that something like this would happen. Usagi watched as the mysterious man and her father's bodies moved together until they overlapped one another. "What the?" The split apart and then merged again. "What is that supposed to mean?"  
  
"I've got it! They are inside the Saiyans!"  
  
Usagi turned back to look at Piccolo. "They? Who is they?"  
  
"Whoever is doing this to them. That's the only explanation I've got."  
  
"But the tests that Bulma did said that there was nothing in their bodies."  
  
"Disregard that! This is telling otherwise. What are you going to believe. You just saw your father, a live picture of your father. Now, tell, me what are you going to believe? Some stupid test results, or this?"  
  
Usagi thought for a moment. He had a part. She looked back up at the picture and frowned. "That's who they were."  
  
"Who?"  
  
Usagi didn't take her eye off of the picture. "Piccolo, did daddy tell you about all of my dream?" He didn't reply, Usagi took that as a no. "Well, after Rei left the second time, a whole bunch of men chased me. That's gotta be them. They are the ones in their bodies. If the body thing is true." She could feel her anger and fear building itself inside of her.  
  
Piccolo could feel Usagi's Ki skyrocketing. He had never felt such an enormous power from Usagi, or any child for that matter. Even Gohan wasn't as strong as her anger was making her. Of course, Goku had told him that she was born a Super Saiyan. "Usagi, there's nothing we can do about it right now. We have to fly."  
  
"I can't wait till then. I must warn them! I MUST WORN THEM BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!"  
  
"What good will it do?"  
  
"The Dragon Balls!" Minako remembered about the Dragon Balls and how Usagi had told her about the wishes. "But then you would have to give up your ball."  
  
"So, its only for a year. And at least everyone will be ok."  
  
"But Piccolo is right, it will take forever to get back to your house."  
  
"I DON'T CARE!" A golden aura spun out of Usagi as her rage increased. "I'm going NOW!" She began to concentrate her energy onto her father's energy. She had only tried this technique about three times, and each time, she never had enough energy to do so. But this time, she could feel the energy pulsing through her veins.   
  
Piccolo could sense what she was doing. "Usagi no! I can't let you go!" He could see Usagi disappearing before him. He didn't have enough time to get to her. She was just too far away. "Grab her Rei." Rei didn't know if she should. She wasn't sure what was going on. "Now!"  
  
Rei threw herself onto Usagi, who was already, half gone. "Usagi!"  
  
Piccolo watched as both girls disappeared before him. "She wasn't supposed to do that with out Goku's supervision. Now what am I going to tell him?"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi appeared with Rei in the right corner of the back of Bulma's lab. They watched as the three human women scurried around the room, trying to find out how they can help their families. Usagi couldn't move. She couldn't even feel her legs beneath her. Most of her energy had been drained by her teleportation.   
  
She took a deep breath before she ran out into the chaos. "Guys!"  
  
Videl stopped running. "Usagi! How did you get here? And who is that girl with you?" She asked as she pointed back to Rei who hadn't moved from the corner. She still wasn't sure what had just happened.  
  
Chi-Chi ran into Videl. "Usagi? Where?" She looked in the direction of Videl. "USAGI! What are you doing here?! Get out! I don't want you sick!"  
  
Usagi walked up to her father's bed and frowned down at him. "They aren't sick!"  
  
Chi-Chi grabbed her daughter. "Yes they are." She began to drag her away. "Come on, I want you out now!"  
  
"No!"  
  
Chi-Chi released her daughter. She had never refused to do anything before. 'It's all that hanging out with Piccolo.' "What did you just say young lady?"  
  
Usagi looked up at her mother. "You'll thank me for this later mommy." She ran back to her father and jumped up on his stomach. She frowned down at him.  
  
Goku smiled up at his daughter. He was a little worried though. He didn't have the slightest idea why she would be angry with him. "What's up Usagi? Daddy can't really talk right now."  
  
Usagi continued to frown. 'I know I'm going to hate myself for this but…I don't want him to die!' "You stupid alien thing! Get out of my daddy!" She began to slap her father's face as if the intruder inside could feel the pain distributed to him.  
  
Goku didn't have enough strength to push his daughter off. Her hits we felt harder then ever. "Usagi! What's that matter with you?! GET OFF ME! HAVE YOU GONE MAD?!"  
  
Usagi didn't listen to her father. She was convinced that the alien in his body could feel the hits. She could feel the tears streaming down her face. "COME ON OUT! YOU MISSED ONE!"  
  
Chi-Chi grabbed her daughter off of her husband and smacked her right across the face. "How dare you strike your father while he's in his current condition. Have you no shame young lady?!" She could see the tears on her daughter's face but she didn't care. She was in no mood to be messed with. "Now leave before you cause him to have a heart attack!"  
  
Usagi looked over to her father. He too was frowning at her. Telling her to leave with his expressions. She could see red marks on his face where she had just hit on him. "But you don't understand."  
  
"No! We clearly understand BRAT! You just tried to kill Kakorrotto! You're own father! Honestly, I never would have thought a child of Kakorrotto would ever try to kill him. You are not a Saiyan. You don't deserve that tail of yours." He grabbed his chest. "Shit!"  
  
Usagi watched as Bulma ran to her husband and injected him with more of the blue liquid. She looked around to the room. Everyone was glaring at her. "I will not give up!" She got into a fighting stance. "Come on out! I'm a Saiyan too. Why don't you come and get me too!"   
  
"She's gone delusional." Chi-Chi knew Usagi was upset about this whole Saiyans getting sick thing, but she never thought she would take it this far.  
  
"No she's not."  
  
Everyone turned their heads to Rei, who had finally decided to come out of hiding. She had seen Usagi suffer far too long. "She is not delusional. She is telling the truth. There is something inside their bodies. It is an evil of some sort."  
  
"That's entirely right little girl." A man dressed in pure black emerged from Goku's body. He walked over to Rei as she backed away. "My, you are a smart one aren't you?" He snapped his fingers and Goku cried out in pain as he grabbed his chest.  
  
"Daddy!" Usagi ran to her father's side. "Daddy, I'm sorry." She grabbed his free hand. She felt horrible about hitting him, but she didn't know how else to get the intruder out of him.  
  
Chi-Chi pushed her daughter to the side. "Goku!" She knelt by his side.  
  
Kiro looked over at Usagi, who was currently more, interested in her father's well being then himself. He frowned. "So there was a Saiyan child. I knew that Okori had to be wrong. Although his justifications were valid. I find it interesting that you have golden hair child. Please enlighten me by telling me why you have such a color of hair."  
  
Usagi gasped. He was talking to her. She had no idea what she was supposed to do now. She hadn't thought passed calling him out. She slowly turned her head to look at the man who was trying to kill her father. She could feel her body becoming numb with fear of what was going to happen. But she had to be strong. "I don't have to tell you anything. Why are you doing this to them?" She asked as she looked around the room. Everyone looked as if they were near death.  
  
Kiro smiled and let out a quiet 'humph'. "You are a Saiyan, correct?" He didn't let her answer. He knew she was a Saiyan by her tail, which viciously swayed back and fourth, behind her legs. "You know what I'm talking about then. Now I will get rid of you before I take care of the rest. You are a child who is Demi saiyan. You shouldn't be too hard to take out."   
  
Usagi looked to her father for help. She knew he wasn't in any kind of condition to help her physically, but even words of encouragement would work now. "What do I do?"  
  
What could Goku tell his daughter? Not much. There was only one thing. "Don't give up."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened. "I have to fight?" Goku nodded. "But…" Usagi stopped herself. She knew it was the only way. But, she would probably fail. She wasn't very good. At least, not good enough for a real battle. "Rei, can you help me?"  
  
Chi-Chi grabbed her daughter from behind. "You are not fighting this guy!"  
  
Kiro jumped at Chi-Chi and punched her to the ground. "I am saving you from these evil pirates."  
  
Usagi could feel herself trembling. She was too scared to do this alone. She looked back to her mother to make sure she was ok. Once she saw that she was, Usagi turned back to Kiro. "Don't touch mamma like that ever again." She put her fists out in front of her. She wouldn't go down without a fight.  
  
Kiro let out a rather taunting laugh. "You think you can fight me?" He could see the fire in her eyes and stopped laughing. "I can see that you are all too serious. Well then, fine, I shall take you out myself."  
  
"NOOOOO!" Rei hurled herself onto Kiro's back and dug her nails into the side of his head. He raised his hands to his back and grabbed onto her arms. "Usagi…a little help here."  
  
"Right!" She ran to him and kicked him as hard she could, causing him to release her arms as his knee locked up. "Leave her alone!"  
  
Kiro yelled out in pain. He ran backwards, ramming himself, along with Rei into the wall that was behind him. He wasn't really affected by the impact. Rei cushioned him. "You humans don't know what these Saiyans can do." He picked up a glass bottle from a table on his right and threw it at Usagi.   
  
She didn't dodge in time. As a result, she was hit in the arm. She grabbed it as tears spilled out of her eyes and down her checks. "Owie."  
  
Kiro frowned. "For a Saiyan, you sure are week."  
  
"Don't listen to him Usagi. You can do it."  
  
Usagi looked back at Gohan and smiled. 'I hope you're right.' She put her hands out in front of her. They began to emit a soft yellow glow. "Go away NOW!" She yelled as she charged for him.  
  
Kiro just smirked. 'Persistent little thing.' He decided to just let her come to him. He could feel her energy and how low it was. She wasn't an immediate threat to him. "Come on, you can run faster than that girl."  
  
Usagi clasped her hands around his legs and immediately went into her attack. She couldn't waste time. A waste of time could mean the end of her life. She could feel her energy leaving her body and being distributed all around Kiro's. She was weak and didn't know how long she could hold up. She was tired, beat up from the tournament, and hungry. These big factors did now help at all. She wished Minako and Makoto were with her. They would have been of great help for her. But she couldn't give up. She had to give it her all.  
  
Kiro looked down at Usagi. He could feel her energy. He couldn't move. 'How can such a small girl, have such a strong attack? I don't get it.' "Get off me!" He tried to kick his leg at her, but the attack kept him against the wall.  
  
Goku watched his daughter in fear and in anger. He feared what was about to happen. Her energy was rapidly deteriorating and he knew that she would soon have to stop, not from choice, but from over exertion. He was angry with himself. He was angry that he couldn't help her. He never wanted to see the day that he couldn't help her. He had always told himself, since the day that she was born that he would always be there to help her when she needed it, and now, here he lay watching her. He was totally useless. "Usagi…don't give up sweetie. You can do this."  
  
Usagi wanted to believe him but she could feel herself slipping away. Her vision was becoming fuzzy and her body was becoming numb. She pulled away and fell to the floor, breathing in and out heavily. "I can't go on. I'm sorry. I'm not strong enough."  
  
Chi-Chi stood to her feet. She wanted to run to her daughter, but she knew that Kiro guy wouldn't let her get near her. "USAGI!"  
  
Kiro stood over Usagi with on foot on her left and one foot on her right. He scowled down at her. No one had ever been able to stop him like she had and he knew that if she had more power, she would have probably killed him. She was a real threat and there was no way that he could let her live. He would have to do away with her now. "You are strong enough to do some damage SAIYAN!" He reached down and grabbed her by the throat. "Your fun ends now. I see that I can not kill you from the outside, you have been trained to well for that. But, inside, you are vulnerable." He smiled evilly. "It's time to say good bye to your family and friends because you are going to be the first to go."  
  
"NO!" Without even thinking what about what he was doing, Goku built up the biggest Ki blast that he could and fired it at Kiro. He didn't care if he was to retaliate on him. He would rather have Kiro kill him then his daughter. While Kiro looked away, Usagi would be able to run away.  
  
The blast spiraled towards Kiro. Without even looking away, he stopped it with a blast of him own. It was weak and didn't take much energy to stop. "It's time to go." He dropped Usagi's neck and became transparent. He looked over to the rest of the gang. They just stood there for they knew there wasn't much that they could do at this point. "Now you will watch your own kind die, as I watched my father die." He turned around and lay on top of Usagi, becoming one with her.  
  
Rei groaned as she began to wake. She grabbed her head. It throbbed from being hit against the wall like it had. "What happened?" She looked at Usagi, who lay on the ground. "Usagi! Oh no! Something is happening again isn't it?" She once again felt the evil that she had felt before. "He's in her isn't he?!"  
  
Chi-Chi ran to her daughter and looked down into her eyes. "Usagi! USAGI!" She picked her head up and sat it on her lap. Usagi was unable to do anything. Including speak. She was frightened. She could feel herself becoming weaker by the second as Kiro roamed her body, destroying everything in it. She buried her face into her mother's lap as she cried. She didn't really mind the fact that she was going to die. The way she saw it, everyone would be there with her anyways. Her only regret was that she wouldn't get a chance to show Mamoru whose boss. Chi-Chi looked back at her husband. "Isn't there anything we can do Goku?"  
  
Usagi flinched as she contracted her limbs to her body. She began to breath harder and harder, it almost as if she was wheezing. She looked up at her mother and tried to smile. "Don't worry mommy. Maybe you can wish me back?" She closed her eyes as a sharp pain shot its way through her body up to her head.  
  
"Usagi, you aren't going to die! Snap out of it." She didn't want it to be true. There was nothing that they could do now.  
  
Goku could feel a tear trickle down his cheek. He knew that something like this would happen. He knew before she was born. He wasn't allowed to have a normal life. He felt responsible for this. Although he knew he had no way of controlling this.  
  
Usagi kept her eyes close. She felt very faint as she grabbed her mother's hand. "I love you mommy. I love you too daddy, Gohan, Goten." Usagi's body began to glow silver. She opened her eyes as she felt a new source of energy within her.  
  
Goku watched Usagi. 'What is that? I've never felt that before. But, it's coming from her. How?' He kept watching her and saw a black figure arise from her body. "Kiro! I'll kill you!"  
  
Kiro closed his eyes and put his hands to his temples. "Come on out guys."  
  
Goku was a bit confused. Usagi wasn't gone, yet he came out. "What's going on?" He watched as Usagi's glowing left. He didn't feel the new power anymore. She was completely herself again, only, all of her energy was back to normal. He looked around to his sons, where he saw figures emerging from their bodies. "Good god. What the…"  
  
Kiro bowed his head. "I am terribly sorry, Goku." He looked up and around the room where he was met with the angry faces of the Saiyans. They had all been re-energized by his soldiers. "I suppose you want answers." He looked back at Usagi. "Thank you for showing me what big of a mistake I would have been making by killing you guys."  
  
Usagi looked back at him, very confused? "I showed you?"  
  
Kiro nodded. "Yes. I felt that power. It was warm, too sweet to be a power used for killing. Not the power of a Saiyan."  
  
Goku looked curiously at Kiro. "Not that of a Saiyan? That's impossible? What other power could she possibly hold?"  
  
"Kakorrotto, that isn't important, What is important is killing these guys." Vejita jumped off his bed and got into a fighting stance. No one messed with him and his family and got away with it.  
  
Goku glared back at Vejita. "Stop! Can't you see, they know we aren't going to try and fight! Don't ruin things!" He turned back to Kiro. "But I would like to know why you attacked us."  
  
"We are very sorry about that. You see, we come from another planet. We aren't even human. We came here because, you, the Saiyan's attacked us about 70 years ago and blew up out planet. The survivors were forced to come and live here. It was the only planet we could find. Many of us were weak and needed to rest, so we made this our permanent home. We have grown very fond of it."  
  
"Yes," Taku interrupted, "And our prophecy states that no matter where we go, the Saiyans will always be there to attack and destroy our planet. They want us dead. This has been going on for over a thousand years. We leave and colonize on a new planet, and the Saiyans just follow us. We thought that you were sent here to destroy our planet again. This time, the humans were also in danger. We had to take action before you were able to."  
  
Vejita snorted. "Well, Kakorrotto has been on this planet for about 60 years. I'm surprised you didn't sense him. Or are you feeding us a bunch of crap?"  
  
"What?! You have all been here for longer then three weeks?!" Kiro couldn't believe it. 60 years had gone by and he hadn't seen a single Saiyan.  
  
Goku scratched his head. "Yeah, I guess I have been here that long. Time flies, huh? But I was sent here to destroy earth, then I hit my head and forgot. Raditz came here about 25 years after me and tried to destroy it, then I stopped him."  
  
"I don't know why we didn't know of your presence. I knew it! You Saiyans always followed us around. I just hope we don't get anymore Saiyans coming here."  
  
Vejita frowned. "Don't worry about that. We are the only Saiyans left in the universe. Freiza blew Vejita-Sai up." Vejita still hated him for it. He took him away from his father and then blew his home planet up. He never had a chance to become king.   
  
"What? That's great!" He saw the look of anger on Vejita's face and cleared his throat. "I mean, uh, how horrible."  
  
"Yes, yes, that's really what you wanted to say isn't it? You think it's great. Don't worry, I've gotten over it already."  
  
"Well we clearly see now that you will not harm us. You have fought for the earth…"  
  
"On numerous occasions." Goten piped in.  
  
Kiro glared at Goten for butting in. "Yes, of course." He turned to look at Goku. "Goku, your daughter has a power like no other. Her innocence helps that power. Never let her loose sight of it, or else, the power will leave and find someone else." Kiro turned to Usagi, "And you, you have a warm caring heart that your power feeds off of. When you thought you were about to die, your heart became pure and free of anger and hatred towards us. You thought of nothing but saying good bye to your family."  
  
Usagi looked up at Kiro. She wasn't sure what he was talking about but she had felt the strange power inside her. Something that she had never felt before. "What was the power."  
  
Kiro smiled and shook his head. "Some day when you are able to harness your power, you will understand, until then, never change. You have a pure and innocent heart. Right now, we must leave you. We have caused enough trouble here."  
  
"What will you do?"  
  
Kiro looked down at the inquisitive little girl; "We are going to leave this planet. Now that we don't have to worry about the Saiyans, we can have our own planet again."  
  
Usagi smiled and stood up. "That's so great." She hugged him. "Thank you for not killing us!"  
  
Chi-Chi grabbed Usagi away from him. She still wasn't sure that Kiro could be trusted. Kiro didn't mind. He knew the heart of a mother. "Come on guys. We have to go."  
  
"One thing." Bulma was still very curious about something. She couldn't live any longer unless she knew. "We did multiple tests on these guys. Why couldn't we find detect you guys? And what were you doing to them."  
  
Kiro smiled. He knew these questions would come out sooner or later. "Well, we entered their bodies as you know. We attacked their immune systems from the inside. By us attacking the immune system, it allowed them to become sick. It was the only way we knew to do it without getting ourselves killed. We are very sorry for all the pain that we caused you. In order for us to go undetected, we sent out a chemical that told the body that there was nothing wrong with it." He turned around to the door. "We would have been killed with you. We would have died to protect the people of this planet."  
  
"Wow, he's a lot like you daddy."   
  
Kiro smiled. "Maybe you're right. Come men, let's go collect our families and get out of here."   
  
Usagi watched as the eight soldiers walked out of the room. As soon as they were gone, she pulled away from her mother and ran to her father and jumped onto the bed with him. "Daddy!" She yelled as she threw her arms around his neck. "I'm so glad you're ok."  
  
Goku smiled as he grabbed her and held her tightly. "I'm glad you're ok too." He looked around to his family and friends. "I'm glad you're all ok too." He rubbed his daughter's back. "You did very well today. I'm very proud of you."  
  
Usagi dug her face into his chest. "I don't ever want to do that again. Not with out you anyways. I was so scared."  
  
Chi-Chi stood in the front of the room. Everyone was talking about what just happened, except for the girl who had mysteriously come with Usagi. She walked over to her. "Excuse me, who are you?"  
  
Rei looked up at Chi-Chi as she rubbed her neck. It still hurt from being beat against the wall like she had. "I'm Rei, I showed Usagi what was happening. I'm the one who sent her those dreams." She looked over at Usagi. "Piccolo told me to grab onto her before she disappeared."  
  
Goku looked down at his daughter when he heard that. "Disappear? Usagi, is there anything that you would like to tell me? Like how you got here?"  
  
Usagi picked her head up out of her father's chest. "Teleportation."  
  
"What?! How!?" Goku had been trying to teach her how to do that technique for the past two weeks and every time she had failed.   
  
"I don't know. I got really mad and I felt like I had a lot of energy. I wanted to come here really bad."  
  
"Yeah, and she started to glow too. It was weird. But not silver, it was gold then."  
  
Goku smiled. "I told you that you would learn a lot from the tournament."  
  
"I think I learned a little more then I wanted to." She yawned. She was still very tired even though her energy had been restored. "Daddy, today I was really scared. I didn't know if I would get to see you again before you died. That's why I got that energy boost I think."  
  
"Like adrenaline, right dad? Only for a Saiyan it's different."  
  
"Right Gohan."  
  
"Daddy, I love you. I don't know what I would do with out you."  
  
Goku smiled. He felt the same. "I love you too Usagi."  
  
(K! That's the end of this part! What do you think? Actually that's the end of chapter two. What do you think of chapter two? Don't worry, the beginning of chapter 3 three will crossover into the aftermath this. Then it will branch off into its own thing. Don't think I would just leave you hanging as to what happened to Minako, Makoto and Piccolo and the tournament and all that good stuff. Ok, now, really, what do you think of this chapter. Please review. Thank you! ^_^)  



	34. The secret of Mamoru Part 1

(Hi again! Just a little note from me! Ok, this chapter is going to be considerably smaller then the other two for the fact that this whole chapter has a whole purpose to its self. I'm pretty sure you all know what it's about from the name of it. Since you all wanted to know so badly who Mamoru's father is, I'm making a chapter just for that. ^_^ But just to let you all know, in case you forgot or didn't read the note I left in the last chapter, this chapter starts out where the other one left off. Don't worry, this isn't just the aftermath, it actually has something to do with this next chapter. Ok, on with the story, ne.)  
  
Usagi sat outside Capsule Corp. with Rei waiting for her father and brothers so they could go back to the tournament. Usagi knew that she couldn't fight anymore. She had been gone for far too long. Her fourth fight had already passed. He mother had made a fuss about her going back, but she wanted to see Mamoru again. She wanted to show him that she could hold her own against him. She was refreshed. It took some begging, but her mother finally agreed to let her go. She looked over at Rei. "Do you live around here?"  
  
Rei was in a daze. She hadn't really heard Usagi's words too much. She was thinking about what had just happened. It was amazing. She had seen many fights in her short life, she had seen many people get beaten up, but she had never seen anything like that. It fascinated her to the full extent. She wanted to know more about them. She wanted to know how they were able to take such beatings. She wanted to know how Usagi was able to glow, she wanted to know how she had been able to use her energy to attack the man named Kiro. She had so many questions. She looked over at Usagi, who was curiously staring back at her. "Huh? Did you say something?"  
  
"Yeah, I asked if you lived around here. Or do you live in Tokyo?" Usagi kind of hoped that she lived around here. Rei was a very interesting person to her and she wanted to learn more about her. She wanted to stay friends.  
  
"Me? I live at the Hikawa shrine. It's not too far away from here. Do you know where it is?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yeah, me and my class went there this year for a field trip to learn more about our culture. It was pretty cool. Is that why you are able to talk to and control fire like you do?"  
  
Rei shook her head. "No. I actually don't know why I am able to do that. It's really weird. I'm the only one in my family who can do it. Everyone at school thinks I'm weird because I always get weird feelings."  
  
Usagi knew the feeling of being though of as weird all too well. "Everyone at my school thinks I'm weird because I have a tail. Except Minako and Makoto."  
  
"Why do you have a tail anyways? If you don't mind me asking. Is it because you're one of those Saiyans?"  
  
"Yep. Daddy says, that if there was a moon and I looked at it, then I would turn into this big giant monkey ape thingy and try to kill everyone." Usagi couldn't imagine herself as a giant monkey. She couldn't imagine anyone as a giant monkey. "But I don't really mind being teased anymore. I got used to it."  
  
"You kind of have to when you're around it everyday."  
  
Usagi just kind of nodded in reply. "So, where do you go to school?"  
  
"I go to a private all girls school. It's kind of boring. You aren't allowed to do anything fun there and there are way to many rules." Rei longed to go to public schools. Many of her friends went to public schools and she wished that she could join them.   
  
"That's too bad. Too bad you don't go to our school. That would be cool. Then we could talk to each other every day."  
  
Rei looked down at the ground. She wanted to stay friends with Usagi, but that would be really hard to do if they didn't go to the same school. "Yeah it would."  
  
"Do you fight?"  
  
"Huh" Rei looked up at Usagi.  
  
"Do you fight?"  
  
"Not really. I haven't had anyone to teach me really." Rei knew somewhat how to fight, but only the basic stuff that she had picked up from watching the tournaments.   
  
"Maybe we can teach you. You know, Minako Makoto, daddy, and Me. It would be fun." It was perfect. Usagi had found the perfect way for them to stay in touch with Rei.  
  
"I don't know if grandfather would let me. He might though, since he's such a big fan of your dad's."  
  
"Who's a big fan of mine?" Goku asked as he came out with a towel wrapped around his neck. His hair was dripping wet with water. He had just finished taking a shower and was now ready to take a shower.  
  
Rei looked up at Goku. "My grandfather. He's been watching you fight ever since he was about four years old. He's a little disappointed that you haven't been there in a few years. But he was really happy when Usagi told him that she was fighting."  
  
Gohan walked out from behind his father and picked up Usagi. "Speaking of tournaments, how did you do?"  
  
Usagi's face filled with a giant smile as she remembered the tournament. "I won every fight I fought. Which is three."  
  
Gohan smiled. "That's really good Usagi. You are really turning into a good fighter you know that?"  
  
"Thanks Gohan. And guess what, they were really hard to beat too. I nearly lost the last fight, then they person almost grabbed my tail and I got mad so I kicked him which knocked him out. I showed him who was boss." Usagi giggled. She liked the thought of winning against someone who was bigger then her.   
  
Gohan laughed as he set his sister back on the ground. "Well little sis, it sounds like you've accomplished a lot. You won three fights and single handedly saved all of us."  
  
Usagi looked up at her brother who seemed totally serious about what he just said. She pointed to herself. "I…I…I did what?" Usagi hadn't thought of it that way. She saw it as her being attacked and then Kiro stumbling over something. "I didn't do anything."  
  
"Gohan is right," Goten walked out of Capsule Corp. to join his family. "What you did was save us all today. It was your power."  
  
"Speaking of power," Everyone turned their attention to Goku. "Usagi, do you know what happened to you today?" Usagi shook her head. She had no idea what that was that came out of her but she had herself convinced that it wasn't her. "Neither do I. That wasn't your normal energy that we felt today. That was an energy greater then your own. But we will worry about that later. Right now we need to get back to the tournament and tell the others what happened."  
  
Rei couldn't wait to get back to tell her grandfather what had just happened. She finally figured out what all that evil that she was sensing was. She was a little relieved. For a while there, she was getting intense feelings that she didn't know what to do with. "Great, I think we can find them if we find grandfather. They might have gone to him to tell him what happened to me. We can probably find him at the fights."  
  
"Great, you wouldn't know how to fly would you?" Goku knew she probably didn't, She looked rather surprised when Usagi used her Ki attack on Kiro.   
  
"Uh, no." Another mysterious and interesting fact that she learned that day. People can fly and shoot things at other people using their own energy. 'What else am I going to have to learn about these people before I even begin to understand them? This is too confusing. Oh well, at least I'm not getting a negetive feedback from them. They aren't evil. We have already established that.'  
  
"I guess you'll have to use Nimbus then." Goku called for Nimbus to come.  
  
Rei stared at the yellow cloud before her. Did he really expect her to ride it? He had to be crazy. It looked like a giant ball of cotton candy. "Is it safe?"  
  
"Of course, watch." He picked Rei up and sat her down on the cloud. "You must have pure heart because Nimbus is letting you sit on it. Only pure hearted people can sit on it."  
  
Rei began to poke at the cloud for a moment. It seemed sturdy enough. "I guess I can do this. It looks like it could be fun."  
  
Goku looked down to his daughter. "You tired?" Usagi looked up and nodded her head. Although her energy had been replenished, she was still worn out and didn't want to do anything more for the next week. "Ok, climb onto my back."  
  
Usagi smiled. She loved to fly on her father's back. He always went extra fast for her. The faster the speed the more she loved it. "Cool." She jumped onto her father's back and wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist so she wouldn't slip off. "Let's go!"  
  
"Ok." Goku jumped into the air and Usagi quickly repositioned herself so she was sitting on his back. He looked over to Rei, who looked like she was having a good time. "I told you it would it's safe. Now look at your, you're having fun." Rei smiled over at Goku. He was entirely right about that. She had had so many new experiences in one day it was a little on the overwhelming side.  
  
~*~*~  
  
They landed in the front of the stadium, where there were still plenty of people running around like maniacs and they would continue it until late that night. Goku stood still long enough to let Usagi slide down. "Let's go to the arena first."  
  
Gohan and Goten nodded in agreement. They followed their father across a large. Gohan couldn't wait to tell Piccolo what had happened. Piccolo would surely have to like his little sister now. He knew that the main reason that Piccolo didn't like Usagi was because she couldn't fight and he couldn't train her to be a better fighter either. He knew it was up to Goku to do that. But now that Usagi had proven that she had a great power deep within her, Piccolo had no choice but to like her now. He looked down at his sister. She looked as if she hadn't had a care in the world. She acted like nothing had happened. She was just talking and laughing with her new friend Rei. He walked up to his father's side. "Dad, do you think she will be ok?"  
  
Goku looked over to his son. "What do you mean Gohan?"  
  
"Dad, Usagi just went through a very traumatizing experience. That was her first experience with something like that. I know she looks fine on the outside, but I know that deep down, she is probably still scared. I know I was when we first fought Vejita and Nappa. I tried to act like I was fine, but I was still scared."  
  
Goku looked forward again so he wouldn't run into anything. "I know she probably still very frightened. But that's a fighter's life. She will learn to cope with it, just as you did. Don't worry about her. She will be fine. Not many things are able to keep Usagi down for too long."   
  
"I hope you're right." Gohan said as he looked back to his sister.   
  
~*~*~  
  
When they arrived at the arena, Rei led everyone down to the front where her grandfather and she usually sit when they view the fights. Sure enough, he was there, where she was expected him to be. She looked to his right where Piccolo, Minako, and Makoto sat. The girls looked rather pale. Probably from everything that had just taken place not too long ago. "Grandpa!"  
  
The four looked over. Piccolo literally jumped out of his chair from being startled. He looked at Goku and smiled. "So, you're ok now."  
  
Goku smiled back at him. "Yup!" He put his hand on his daughter's head. "All thanks to Usagi here."   
  
Piccolo looked down at Usagi. "What?"  
  
"It's true. Grandpa, all those bad feelings I was getting were because of these people right here. Someone was trying to kill them."  
  
Her grandfather looked down at her. Minako and Makoto tried to explain to him what had happened but most of what they said he could never make out. He had asked them over and over but they were too excited and spoke too fast. He didn't bother asking Piccolo; he was a bit intimidated by him. "Oh?" He looked at Goku and his face immediately began to glow with happiness. He put his hand out. "You must be Goku."  
  
Goku returned the greeting and put his hand out and smiled. "Hi. Yeah I am. Rei here says you like to watch me fight."  
  
"That's true. You are a wonderful fighter and I've been watching you ever since you were little. I watched little Usagi here, she takes after you, a lot."  
  
Goku looked down at her and then back up at the man whom he had just me. "She is becoming great. She saved us all today."  
  
"About that Goku…" Makoto was quite curious on how she had managed to win any fight against anyone. "How did she do it? Why were they doing it?"   
  
Usagi listened as he father began to explain to everyone what she had done. She looked around for Mamoru, but did not see him. She knew he was still at the tournament, she could feel his Ki. She wished that she knew how high his level was, but her father had not taught her how to know how strong someone is. He hadn't gotten to that part of her training yet. All she could do was recognize the person's energy signature. He taught her that just in case they ever got separated and she needed to find him. In light of not being able to know how strong Mamoru was, Usagi was still pretty sure that she could beat him now. She looked around to everyone. They all looked like they were too deep into her father's story to pay attention to her, which is exactly what she wanted. First she tested out a few things. She took a few steps back away from the group. No one noticed so she took a few more steps. Still, no one noticed so she turned around and ran away from the group, out of the arena.  
  
Usagi looked around the main quad of the stadium for Mamoru. She could feel that he was close to her but she just couldn't put her finger on where he could be. There were too many people around too. It was now busier than it was earlier in the day. There were too many adults around and Usagi could not see past any of them. "Great, how am I supposed to find him now?" She walked to the wall that formed to boundary of the quad where there were fewer people. She scanned the area with her eyes, being careful to make sure that she didn't miss a spot. She squinted when she saw a figure in black walking towards the arena. "There he is. That's gotta be him." She left her spot by the wall and ran back into the crowd, this time she knew exactly where she was going. Usagi saw him walking not ten feet in front of her. She pushed through the crowd as fast as she could. "Mamoru! Wait up!"  
  
  
Mamoru stopped dead in his tracks. He knew exactly who was calling for him to stop. He turned around. "Odango." He sneered. "What do you want?"  
  
Usagi stopped herself before she crashed into Mamoru. "I've come to finally show you that I can beat you."  
  
Mamoru laughed at her. "Oh? Well, if I recall right, you didn't show up for your last fight today. That shows how chicken you are. I don't think, no wait, I KNOW you can't beat me. So just buzz off. I have a fight in fifteen minutes that I want to prepare for."  
  
Usagi frowned. If only she could tell him why she had to miss her fight he would understand. But he didn't need to know. That was her business. "I can beat you. I just couldn't make it to my last fight." She got into her fighting stance and waved for him to do the same. "Come on. Let's go. Right here, right now."  
  
"Look, I know you want to fight me, but I don't want to fight you right now. It wouldn't be any fun for me. Well, the fact that beating you into a bloody pulp is rather entertaining, but I want a challenge. So just get out of here. I'll kick your ass later. When I have more time and when you become a greater challenge to me." Mamoru turned around.  
  
Usagi scowled at him. She had not come back just for him to walk away. She was going to fight him and show him just how much stronger then him she was. "Come on, afraid I'll beat you? That's why you won't fight me isn't it?" She put her thumbs to her head and stuck her tongue at him while she waved her hands around. "Mamoru's chicken. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na…"  
  
"That's it!" He spun around while building up at Ki blast around his fist and let Usagi have it right in the jaw, causing her to stop her taunting.  
  
Usagi fell backwards and landed on her back. She rubbed her jaw with her hand as she looked up at Mamoru, who had raised his leg and was about to kick her. 'Uh-oh…' She closed her eyes and awaited the hit. All of a sudden, she felt her brothers and father's Ki. She opened her eyes and her father was now standing in front of her, acting as a barrier between her and Mamoru. To his left was Goten, and to his right was Goten. "Daddy!"  
  
Goku didn't turn his head. He just kept scowling at Mamoru. He had watched him hit Usagi. That didn't help his anger towards Mamoru. It made things worse then they already had been. "Are you Mamoru?"  
  
Mamoru smirked as he looked up at Goku. "Who wants to know?" 'What a freak. Look at this guy's hair."  
  
Goten grabbed Mamoru by the front of his GI. "Just answer the question kid!"  
  
Goku placed his hand on Goten's shoulder. "Don't resort to this right now Goten. I still haven't talked to his father." He looked to Mamoru. "Look, I'm Usagi's father and I wanted to talk to you about what you did to her. That wasn't very nice."  
  
"Yeah, and we're still really pis…I mean angry." Goten probably would have laid into Mamoru right there if his father wasn't there. He had seen Usagi when she first came to Capsule Corp. with her wounds and still had a fresh picture of it in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more he became angry with Mamoru. He considered Gohan lucky for being asleep when it happened. He wished that he did not have to see her like that either.   
  
Mamoru looked up at Goten. He didn't see him as a threat, actually he didn't see any of them as a threat. He could read their power levels and they were all considerably low. But what he didn't know, is that they had the power to hide their energy. "Look, Odango there is a little wimp. She couldn't fight if her life depended on it."  
  
Usagi stood up and stayed behind her father. She grabbed his leg and poked her head out just enough to see Mamoru. "You just wait and see how good I can fight. I'll take you on right now."  
  
Gohan looked back at his sister. He knew that she was serious. When he was sick at Capsule Corp., he had heard her talking about how she wanted to beat him up very badly. "Usagi, you can't fight him right now, ok?"  
  
"Look, my daughter has a name and it's Usagi. Not Odango. Got that?!" Goku was getting a little agitated and was ready to talk to the boy's father. "Look, just tell us who your dad is and we…"  
  
Mamoru crossed his arms. "I can't do that. My father won't let me tell anyone who he is. So, just run along and leave me alone. And take that dumb ass with you all right?"  
  
Well, that was about all that Goku was going to listen to from this boy. No one swore about his daughter in his presence and got away with it. Before he really knew what he was doing, he tightened his hand up into a nice little fist and punched Mamoru right in the cheek. He watched as he fell back to the ground.  
  
Usagi smiled, as she was also VERY surprised that her father would ever do something like that. "Daddy…I thought you aren't supposed to hit someone unless they hit you first."  
  
Goku frowned. "Usagi?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"You didn't see that." He lowered his fist to his side. He didn't feel regret for what he had just done for Mamoru had done far worse on Usagi and was about to try it again.  
  
Usagi was a bit confused as to why he told her that she hadn't just seen what she knew she very well had. "But, yes I did."  
  
"No you didn't."  
  
Goten patted his father on the back. "Way to go dad. Way to show him whose boss." He tried to keep his laughter from surfacing, he couldn't. That was probably the most humorous thing that he had seen in a long time. He never thought that his father would do something like that. Of course, Mamoru had pretty much degraded Usagi.  
  
"Dad, seriously, that was awesome." Gohan himself was even astounded that his father would do that. Although he hadn't seen Usagi after her fight with Mamoru, he was still pretty mad about it. Usagi didn't deserve to be beaten up. He saw her when she was bandaged and he saw her scabs too. From what he could tell, she had to have been in a lot of pain.  
  
Mamoru slowly stood back to his feet. His face stung with pain. He hadn't expected someone with such a low power level, to be able to hit so hard. "Wait until my father finds out about this. He's going to show you what happens when someone messes with me."  
  
Goku continued to scowl at Mamoru, never taking his eyes off him. "You go ahead and do that. Now YOU get out of here and never bother us again."  
  
Mamoru didn't want to risk being hit again and complied with Goku. "You will never live this down Odango!" He turned around and ran away.  
  
"Usagi, I don't want you to talk to him anymore. I want you to avoid him at all costs. Understand?" Goku watched to make sure that Mamoru didn't turn back.  
  
"But daddy, I want to fight him."  
  
"No!" Goku snapped. "You can't beat him. Right now, he is stronger then you. I don't want you to go anywhere near him. If you do, he will probably hurt you again. Until I know that you are stronger then him, I forbid you to go anywhere near him if avoidable."  
  
"But…"  
  
"Don't argue with dad, Usagi." Gohan had learned that when his father was mad and he told you to do something, that you had better do it without and buts. He learned that the hard way when they were fighting Freiza, right after he had first become a Super Saiyan.  
  
She looked to her brother. "All right. I won't." 'I guess that I will just have to get stronger sooner then.'  
  
"Let's go back to the others." Goku was relieved that Usagi didn't find Mamoru earlier. One more second and she would have fallen victim to another one of his attacks. He would have totally gone ballistic then. But, he felt pretty comfortable with what he had done to him. In a way, he deserved it. He was just looking out for Usagi.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Back at the arena Rei was telling Makoto and Makoto what she saw. "So anyway, after I opened my eyes, I saw Usagi lying in her mom's lap. One minute she was crying, and the next thing we all know she's glowing silver. It was kind of cool actually." She looked over her shoulder to see Usagi returning with her family. "Hey guys!"  
  
Piccolo, who was watching the current fight, turned to see Goku. "Am I needed here anymore?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "You can go. I know you had other plans for this week. Sorry about all this."  
  
Piccolo smiled down at Usagi for once. It was a real genuine smile. "You did well today kid. Keep up the good work."  
  
"Bye Piccolo!" Usagi chirped. Piccolo said his goodbyes to everyone and jumped into the air. "I think he actually likes me now."  
  
Minako smiled. "That's so cool. And to think, just earlier, he was so mean to us. Now he's even complimenting you Usagi."  
  
"Yeah, I guess he's all right." Makoto found Piccolo to be a person of many mysteries. There was something about him that she found strange, yet, interesting at the same time. "I hope we meet again."  
She looked over to Rei. "So, what are you going to do now, Rei?"  
  
She shrugged. "I don't know. What happened today was really weird, but for some reason, I feel like I have really accomplished something. Like I have fulfilled something." She looked around at her three new friends. "I hope this isn't goodbye. You guys seem really cool, and powerful to boot."  
  
"Of course it's not goodbye. Remember, we were going to ask daddy if he could train you." Usagi turned around to look up at her father. "Can you daddy? She already kind of knows how to fight."  
  
"Key words in there being KIND OF." Rei didn't want to make Goku mad at her for wanting to learn how to fight. "I don't need to know much. I just want to learn the basics. You know, just so I can defend myself."  
  
Goku smiled. "I'd be happy to teach you. It won't take that long, but don't you want to learn how to fight with Ki blasts." Goku couldn't imagine anyone not wanting to learn how to fight with Ki blasts, but, it was her choice and he wouldn't force her into anything she didn't want to do.  
  
"Well, I guess I'll have to find out what happens. But, you will teach me, right?" Rei was getting somewhat excited about that. She would get to keep being friends with Makoto, Minako, and Usagi.  
  
"Ok. That's understandable. And, yes, I will teach you. We can start next week. I think I want to relax for a week. I think Usagi wants to rest too. We have all been through an awful lot in the past few weeks." He wrapped his arm around Usagi's shoulders. "What do ya say to a weeks vacation?"  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. "I say 'yippee!'."  
  
(Ok that's it for this part. Now, the next part will really be getting into chapter 3. So, what do you think? Please review. Thank you!)  



	35. Part 2

One year later…(Usagi is now nearly eight years old.)  
  
Not much had happened since Kiro and his gang attacked the Saiyans. After that day, everyone pretty much went on with their lives. Rei learned how to fight with the help of Goku's training. She finally gave into letting him teach her how to fight using energy. She actually enjoyed it quite a bit and found fighting a good way to get away from the stress of everyday life. She, Minako, Makoto, and Usagi were now inseparable. They would not go anywhere unless they were all together. They had begged Rei's grandfather to let her go to the public school. But he insisted that she wouldn't learn anything from going to a public school.   
  
Usagi had done as her father told her and stayed away from Mamoru. It wasn't that hard this past year for the fact that him, Haruka, and Michiru had left the school she was at, and left to go to middle school, which overjoyed her. She no longer had to put up with their harassment. She knew that he was right about her being weaker then him. He had finally taught them how to read power levels. The first person that Usagi read was Mamoru's. And he had an exceptionally larger power level then her own. But just because her father wouldn't let her go near Mamoru now, didn't mean that she would NEVER be able to go near him. Usagi waited in anticipation for the day that she could pay Mamoru back. She was getting stronger and stronger every day and knew that one day very soon, she would surpass him. It was inevitable.  
  
Usagi sat outside her house, in the dark, trying to figure out how to configure her attack into a long range attack instead of her having to grab the person and holding her energy. She wasn't quite sure how she was going to do it. She didn't even know how she created it in the first place. She had kind of just stumbled on it.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku looked out the window of his room and watched his daughter outside. 'She's grown so much.' He remembered back to when she was only five. Back to when she first started school. Back to when she first learned how to fight. He couldn't believe how much she had learned in just two and half-short years. It was amazing. He was very proud of her. Even her friends were making great progress. They were making more progress then he had ever seen any humans do though. One thing still bothered him though. He still wanted to know what kind of power Usagi really had in her. He often found himself wondering about that. The power that he felt coming from her that day was enormous. He backed away from the window and turned around to see Chi-Chi sitting on the bed.   
  
"Is she still out there playing with her attack?" Chi-Chi sat on the bed, reading a magazine about decorating.  
  
Goku walked to the bed and sat down. He looked at the clock. "Yes. It's 7:30 already. I'm going to have to go and get her soon." He lay his head on the pillow behind him.   
  
"I wish she wouldn't spend all her time out there." Chi-Chi was disgusted with the fact that her daughter spent most of the nights outside with her attacks. For the past month or so, it seemed like five nights a week she was out there.  
  
"Chi-Chi, there's nothing wrong with it. It's not like she's hurting herself out there. She knows what she's doing. Just let her have her fun." Goku knew what she was doing. She was preparing herself for Mamoru. He knew that she knew that he was going to allow her to contact Mamoru soon. She was getting strong enough to over power him.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi sat with her back to a tree with her hands in the air in front of her. A little golden bar of energy sat in between her hands. She began moving one of her hands up, while she moved her other hand down, stretching and twisting the energy with each hand. She stopped for just a moment and then quickly pulled both of her hands together, tearing the energy into two parts. Now she had a ball of energy in each hand. She could feel the resistance in her hands. The energy was trying to pull itself back together. Usagi pulled against it as hard as she could, but she wasn't able to hold up for too long. The resistance was too much for her. He hands slammed into each other, causing the Ki attack to touch her arms. "Ahhh! Owww!" Her own attack had backfired onto her and was now being equally distributed throughout her body. She felt like she was being electrocuted. She tried to pull her hands away from each other but couldn't. It was like the time she that had used her attack on Piccolo and Kiro. The energy clasped onto her and wouldn't let go. She could barely move. "Owe, owe, owe, hot, hot, hot." She quickly discontinued her energy flow, stopping her attack on herself. She fell over onto her side in pain as smoke arose from her body. "What a rush." She looked down to her legs at her tail, which was strung over them. The fur on it was standing straight up from the electrical current that had just run through it. "Whoa. I did that?" She sat up and poked at her hair. It was also frizzy from the attack. "Hmm…that was weird how the attack pulled itself back together. It was like a magnet. Maybe I can use that to my advantage." She stood up and faced the tree. "Now, if I can find some way to control this." She put her hands together and once again formed a Ki blast between her hands. She slowly pulled her hands apart just to the point of resistance. She took a deep breath. "Here we go." She quickly pulled her hands apart as far as they would go, once again feeling the resistance between her arms. She put one of her hands out in front of her and fired one of the blasts. It looked kind of like a boomerang. She watched as it swung back at her and headed straight for the tree. As soon as it did that, she released the Ki blast that sat in her other hand. Both blasts spun towards each other at an amazingly fast speed.   
  
They met each other at their target, the tree. When they came together, they didn't really explode the tree like Usagi had expected them to. Instead, it engulfed the tree in a great golden light, lighting up the sky. The light stayed around the tree. "Is that my attack?" She walked up to it. She could feel its power. She put her finger on it and was immediately caught in the attack. It traveled to her body. She was being jolted around. "N…o…o…o…t…a…a…g…ain!" She once again could not move away. This time she had no control over the attack. She would just have to hold on until it wore out, which she didn't know when would happen. She had put a lot of energy into the attack.  
  
Out of no where, a blue blast hit the tree high about her head, making terminating the serge of energy that ran through it. Usagi fell back to the ground. This time she felt horrible. She could still feel the energy racing through her veins. She looked up at the tree. The part that was still standing was now burnt to a crisp. She noticed something black standing over her. It was too dark to make out who it was. "Who's there?"  
  
"Just me Usagi." Goku turned on a flashlight. He hadn't needed it before. The tree kept the area well lighted. He knew that Chi-Chi was probably going ballistic by now. He bent down at picked up his daughter and began carrying her back to the house. "You really should be more careful when testing out your attacks."  
  
"Well, you see…I…uh…didn't know what it was doing." She wrapped her frizzy little tail around her father's arm. "I didn't know you were coming out here. I guess that attack messed up my senses or something."  
  
"Yeah, things like that happen when you've got energy like that around you. But, I do have to say that was a pretty good attack you've got there. It's pretty affected." Goku opened the door and set Usagi down after he turned the flashlight off. "You should get ready for bed, you have about fifteen minutes."  
  
"Do I have to?" Usagi hated her 8:00 bed time. She wanted to stay up with her parents. Rei and Makoto were allowed to stay up until nine. When she told her mother that, all she had to say was, 'Well, you aren't Rei or Makoto.'   
  
"You know the rules. Your mother would kill me if I let you stay up past eight. I'm sorry Usagi. When you get older you can stay up." If it were up to him, she would be able to stay up as late as she would like but, he and Chi-Chi had been through many fights about how to raise Usagi and he didn't want to get into another one over bed times.   
  
"Fine." Usagi slowly walked passed her father with her head down to the ground. She was trying to look as pathetic as possible so he would feel guilty and let her stay up. It had worked many times. Her father never could resist her guilt trips. He usually fell for them.  
  
At that moment, Chi-Chi walked out of the hallway, seeing her daughter. She frowned as she put her hands to her waist. "Usagi! Don't do that to your father. You know how I feel about you begging." Usagi opened her mouth to protest, but, before she could even say anything, her mother continued. "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that you're not begging. Well, yes you are. That guilt stuff is just another way of begging. So stop it before we get mad." She looked up at her husband. She knew he wouldn't get mad, but she was hoping that he would go along with her.  
  
Usagi stopped her pouting. "But I want to stay up."  
  
"No. Now just go to bed, please." Chi-Chi found that she could get Usagi to do the things that she wanted if she just said please every now and then.   
  
"Ok mom. I will." Usagi walked passed her mother and down the hallway. "Don't forget to come tuck me in."  
  
"All right." She looked up at Goku, who was smiling. "Did I do good?"  
  
Goku nodded. A couple months back, he had told her about how Usagi thought that her mother hated her. Since then, Chi-Chi had tried to make more of an effort to be nice to Usagi and show her that she didn't hate her. "Yes, you did great."  
  
"So, what was that light I saw? And why was Usagi's hair and tail so puffy?" Chi-Chi wanted to laugh when she first saw her daughter but she didn't want to hurt her feelings.  
  
Goku chuckled as he remembered what had just happened. He himself even found it a little bit funny. But he wouldn't dare laugh about it in front of Usagi. "Well, she was making her attack outside. Somehow she found a way to make it stick onto a tree. She didn't know what it was doing, so she stuck her finger to it."  
  
Chi-Chi didn't have to hear anymore. She pretty much knew what happened after that. She burst out laughing. "My god. That's funny. She looks like she touched an electric wire and lived to tell about it." She looked behind her to make sure Usagi wasn't there behind her.  
  
Goku couldn't help but laugh. He had to admit. She did look pretty ridiculous with her hair all frizzed up. "At least she wasn't hurt. She just got the wind knocked out of her. I guess we should stop talking about it though, she may walk in here and hear us laughing about it. I don't think that she would appreciate that."  
  
"I think you're probably right." Chi-Chi calmed her laughter down to a quiet giggle.   
  
~*~*~  
  
The next day…  
  
Usagi scratched her head as she sleepily staggered into the kitchen. She had wakened up later then usual. Her mother had already made breakfast for them and she had to eat before she did anything else. If she didn't, there would be no food left for her to eat for her father would devour it all without a second thought. She sat down at the table, across from her father, and ran her fingers through her hair. It was still quite frizzy from the night before and it was driving her nuts. She couldn't wait until she could take a bath and make it straight again. "What's for breakfast mamma?" Usagi asked hungrily as she looked to her mother for answers.  
  
"Food." Chi-Chi was too busy to answer the questions of her inquisitive daughter.   
  
Usagi sighed as she put her head on the table in front of her. "Gees, like I couldn't have guessed that." She looked up at her father who stared blankly back at her. He never was himself until he had his first meal of the day.   
  
"Usagi. I have a special surprise for you that I think you will enjoy."  
  
Usagi's ears perked up as they always did whenever someone said that they had something for her. Her eyes began to sparkle with excitement. "Ooh, ooh, ooh, what is it? Tell me." He face was consumed with a giant smile.  
  
Goku laughed to himself. 'Here I go getting her excited again.' "You'll find out after school."  
  
Usagi got a pouty look on her face. "Awe, but why can't you tell me now?" She got on what she liked to call her 'puppy dog face'.  
  
"Because I don't want you to do anything that you may regret today." Goku could see that his daughter was getting impatient with him. "Don't worry, you'll learn soon enough."   
  
He smiled at Usagi, which made her even more agitated. He always kept things from her. She was certain that he loved toying with her. She faked a big smile. "Ok daddy."   
  
"No need to get angry Usagi."  
  
Usagi dropped the smile. She knew that was his way of scolding her. "Sorry."  
  
"Sorry to interrupt," Chi-Chi turned around with a tray and sat it on the table, "But I think that food is a little bit more important at this point. Dig in."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi arrived at school five minutes before it started. She had made a very bad habit of arriving late ever since her father let her fly herself to school. She always lost track of time. She landed in the front courtyard and ran through the main doors, hoping that she wouldn't get late to class. She ran down the winding halls of her schools. She watched her back carefully, making sure no teachers were in sight. She looked over her shoulder when she heard something tapping behind her. "Whew, no one there." Before she had a chance to move her head back, she ran into something. With her hand, she began to poke around it. "Uh-oh." She backed up to see a sixth grade 'hall monster', as the kids called the hall monitors at the school. "Yes?"  
  
"You were running in the hall. That's a serious infraction." The kid pulled out his notebook. "Please give me your name."  
  
Usagi got a devious grin on her face. "My name? Well, you see, my name is Haruka Tenno."   
  
The kid wrote down the name. "Ok. This is a referral. You will be doing some hard time. Now get to class."  
  
Usagi walked passed the kid as she giggled. 'That's what you think.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi walked into the class just as the last bell was ringing. She ran back to her seat. The teacher looked up at the clock. It was 8:00, the time that school started. By other teacher's standards, Usagi would have been late. But this particular teacher had different standards. She understood that kids sometime get late so she gave them until 8:01 to be on time. "Oooh, you nearly got here too late Usagi. I don't like to count you late, but it's school rules. Please try to make more of an effort to get here on time."  
  
Usagi nodded. She loved her teacher's rules. She was so fair with them and didn't really enforce too many of the rules that most kids found too silly to have around. She was Usagi's favorite teacher yet. "Ok Ms. Erickson. I will try harder." She took her seat by Minako and Makoto, which she had been begging all year to sit by and just recently got moved by. "You guys, guess what? Daddy has a surprise for me and he won't tell me what it is until after school."  
  
Minako began to get excited. Usually, when Goku had a surprise, it was a good one. "What do you think it is?!"  
  
Usagi could hardly sit still in her chair. Just talking about it made her more antsy to find out what it was. "I don't know. But he knows how I hate secrets. How could he do this to me? I'll die if I don't find out what it is soon."   
  
Makoto, on the other hand, didn't mind secrets that much. She had always been the more calm kid out of the three. "You guys should calm down. You're going to have to wait."  
  
Minako got up in Makoto's face. "Come on Makoto. You can't just sit there and tell us that you have no feeling what so ever about this? Are you telling us that you don't want to know what the surprise is?"  
  
Makoto thought about it for a moment and then smiled. "Of course I want to know what it is. I just don't want to think about it. The more I think about it, the more I want it. You guys know the feeling."  
  
Yes, the definitely did. "Ok class. Please quiet down. I have an announcement to make." Everyone in the class stopped their conversations and turned their attention to the front of the class where their teacher was standing. She smiled. "Thanks you guys. You're so wonderfully behaved. It's amazing. Anyways, I have someone I want to introduce you to." She walked to the door and opened it and waved for someone to come in. "Come on. Don't be shy." She backed up and was followed in by a girl with short blue hair. "This is Mizuno Ami." She looked down at the little girl. "Would you like to tell us anything about yourself?"  
  
Usagi looked at the girl. She could sense her shyness. Ami scanned the class with her eyes. "Um…I just moved here from Tokyo with my mom and siblings." The class laughed when she said that last word. They always laughed when someone was smart. Ami tried to shrug it off. "My mom works at the hospital and has a part time job as a doctor at Capsule Corp. for the people who work there and she is really smart."  
  
"Thank you Ami. You can take your seat over then in the back of the room." Ms. Erickson pointed to the tabled on the right of Usagi's.   
  
Ami obeyed and sat in the only empty chair at the table. She held her head low. She knew people were making fun of her. The always did. She was always so much smarter then everyone else in her classes. She sat in the chair on the end of the table, behind Usagi's.  
  
Usagi frowned around at all the people in the class. Her Saiyan hearing was picking up every rude comment that the people were whispering. She felt sorry for the girl. She was so unsure of herself. Usagi knew what she was feeling for she too was subject to the taunting and ridiculing of the kids in that school. 'These guys are way too mean. One of these days they are going to laugh at the wrong person.'  
  
Minako stared at the new girl. She looked like she had been made fun of a lot. She carried herself a lot like Usagi had the first couple of days of their kindergarten year. She spoke with her face to the ground and didn't look anyone in the eye as she was walking back to her seat. "You guys, she's too depressed to be a kid."  
  
Makoto had also noticed all the same things about the girl that Minako had. "Yeah. I hope she doesn't stay like that forever."  
  
Usagi stopped listening to the chatter of her classmates. "Maybe we should try to talk to her."  
  
~*~*~  
  
At lunch, Usagi and her friends sat in the grass under the sun. It was a beautiful spring afternoon and they often sat out in the big grassy field by the playground. Most kids did this activity. Makoto looked around the playground. "Where do you think that new kid Ami is?"  
  
Usagi looked up from stuffing her face with her lunch. She was beginning to pick up some of her father's eating habits. But not quite as bad. She only ate fast when she was really hungry. "If she's anything like I was, then she's probably staying inside the classroom."  
  
"Usagi's right Makoto. She doesn't have any friend here yet and is probably really uncomfortable eating out here with all of us. We should go find her…"  
  
"After we eat," Usagi interrupted. "I'm starving right now."  
  
Minako glared at Usagi. She hated it when people interrupted her. "Fine. We can eat first."  
  
Usagi smiled. She hated to miss a meal. "You guys, the coolest thing happened last night. You know my attack where I stun the person with my energy?" Minako and Makoto nodded. They were too busy chewing to reply. "Well, I found a way to make this really cool attack with it. You wanna see it?"  
  
Makoto nearly spit her food out. The last time they had tried sparring at school, they nearly got suspended for fighting. They had each other beaten up pretty well. They had all been told by their parents that they were never to fight each other at school again. "We aren't allowed to. Remember? Your mom wasn't too happy when she found out what happened. Neither was my dad. He really laid into me when I got home. Remember? I told you how I got grounded."   
  
"So. They said we couldn't fight each other, they never said we couldn't show each other things." Usagi always found ways around systems. She was good at manipulating the words of others without changing them.  
  
Makoto wasn't sure if she should go along with it. She looked over to Minako. "What do you think?"  
  
"Wouldn't hurt. It's true. They never said that we couldn't show things. But to be on the safe side, why don't you show us behind the school. Where no body ever goes." Minako didn't want to get suspended again. She didn't want another suspension going on her record.  
  
Usagi jumped to her feet. "K! let's go." Usagi held onto a cookie in her mouth while she stuffed the rest of her lunch in her book bag. She waved for her friends to follow her as she ran off into the direction of the back of the school.  
  
Makoto sighed as she stood up. "You just had to agree with her didn't you Minako?"  
  
"Yup. Don't worry Makoto. Nothing is going to happen."   
  
~*~*~  
  
Once behind the school, Usagi powered up enough to get her attack started. "Now watch closely, this is cool." She pulled her hands apart again just to the point of resistance. "Here we go." She quickly pulled her hands apart as far as they would go, once again, and tried as hard as she could to hold them apart. She would have to finish quickly, for if she did not, her father would come there, wondering why she had powered up. She fired one of the halves and as it spun, it turned into a boomerang shape. It quickly began to spin back at her. Once she saw it do that, she fired the other halve of the blast. They all watched as the two halves hit their target, a tree. The tree was immediately consumed by the energy. Minako walked up to with great curiosity. She put her hand out. It was warm. Usagi stepped forward. "Don't touch it!"  
  
Minako was startled and jumped back. "What?"  
  
"Believe me. You don't want to touch it. Huh?" Usagi all of a sudden felt Piccolo's Ki. She looked up to the sky. 'Uh-oh, did he feel my energy go up?' "You guys, look, it's Piccolo." She pointed to the sky where he was flying overhead.   
  
Minako and Makoto looked up. Makoto shaded her eyes with her hand. "What? Why is he here in the city? Isn't he somewhat of a loner?" She looked back down to Usagi.  
  
"Yeah. He hates being around people unless it's with our little group of fighters. This is kind of strange." Usagi had never seen Piccolo go into the city on his own free will. He only went if there was a fight, tournament, or if it was to go to Gohan's.  
  
Minako shrugged it off. "Oh well, it's not like we can leave. So, let's go talk to the new girl."  
  
Usagi looked back to Minako. "Ok." She turned around and began to walk back to the playground so they could go to their class. Minako and Makoto followed.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Just as Usagi had suggested, Ami was sitting in the classroom, alone and reading a book. She looked so lonely to Minako. She felt sorry for her. She looked back to Makoto and Usagi. They looked as though they wanted her to lead the way. "Fine." She walked into the classroom and down the aisle. She looked over her shoulder to make sure her friends were following her. She was glad to see that they were. She stopped when she got to Ami's side. "Uh…hi. I'm Minako and this is Usagi, and this is Makoto." She pointed to each of her friends as she introduced them.  
  
Ami looked to Minako and then behind her to the two girls who stood behind her. She didn't know if they were seriously trying to be nice to her, or just make her think they were her friend so they could later, stomp all over her feelings. She had never really had a real friend. No one had ever taken the time to become friends with her. She was always made fun of for being too smart. "What do you want?" She didn't say it to be mean. She just wanted to make sure they weren't trying to be rude to her. She always made sure. She would have rather had no friends then friends who would just use her for her brains or just use her for someone to make fun of.  
  
"Hey, is that any way to make a friend?"  
  
Ami had heard that many times. Most of the time, it was meant as something rude. She lowered her body and turned back to the table so she didn't have to look at Minako and her friends any more. "I don't care if I have friends. You are all a bunch of mean people anyways."  
  
Usagi could tell that this girl was really hurting. She had to have gone through a rough time at her previous school. "Look, everyone needs friends."  
  
"I don't. Especially people like you."  
  
Usagi gasped a bit. "What? What did we do?"  
  
"I know your kind. Always trying to become my friend to use me. I don't appreciate it. Just leave me alone."  
  
Usagi was a little hurt by Ami's words. "You don't even know us. How can you say this?" All she was trying to do was be nice to her, which obviously no body ever did.  
  
"Your all the same." Ami had never had anybody ever try to be her friend outside of school. That's how she knew people used her. Once she wouldn't let them copy off her work, she would be made fun of. She would just rather prefer to not go through it all again.  
  
Usagi didn't mind that Ami was talking to her like she had. She understood. Usagi had pretty much been the same the year before. But with time, she learned to be a bit more trusting of people. "Ok. I'll leave you alone, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to stop trying to be your friend."  
  
"Yeah. Sure." Ami crossed her arms on the table in front of her and buried her face in them.  
  
"Come on. Let's go." Usagi turned around and began to leave the room. Minako and Makoto followed closely behind.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi and her friends quickly changed into their GI's after school. They couldn't wait until they found out what Goku had for Usagi. It had to have been something good or else he would have told her before she went to school that morning. "Come on you guys! Let's go!" Usagi waited impatiently for her friends to change.  
  
Makoto hit her had against one of the changing room doors. "I'm going as fast as I can. Gee's. I'm just as excited as you are."  
  
"Sorry guys. I just really want to find out what my surprise it. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited." Usagi felt like she was going to burst from being over excited. She always did have a problem with containing her emotions. But she didn't care. She wanted to know what she was getting.  
  
Minako and Makoto pretty much raced out of their changing rooms at the same time, both with wide eyes. All three girls looked at each other. "Let's go see what it is!" It was as if they knew what each other were going to say so they all said it at the same time. After that, it was like a race to the door. They all darted at it at the same time.   
  
Once out of the girls' locker room, they ran down the halls. They didn't care if they were going to get in trouble for running. They probably wouldn't have stopped for anyone anyways. "We're almost there!" Usagi yelled as she approached the main doors. With each step she took, the more excited she became.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku noticed his daughter and her friends running towards him as he stood out in the courtyard in front of the school. He could sense how incredibly excited they all were. "Hey girls!" He began walking towards them and met them halfway. He looked down at the excited girls who stood before him. "Hey. How's it goin?"  
  
Usagi grabbed the front of her father's GI. "Enough with the small talk daddy. Just tell me what the surpirse is. I'm dying here."  
  
Goku laughed. He knew she wouldn't be able to go the whole school day without getting herself all hyped up about it. "Well, I have been studying your progress closely these past few months."  
  
"Yes, yes…"  
  
"Let me talk Usagi. Anyways, you have become very strong and I am proud of you. And I told you that once you get strong enough, you can challenge Mamoru if you wanted to." Usagi's mouth flew open. She knew exactly where this was going. "And, I believe that you are strong enough to do so. So, I now permit you to talk to him again."  
  
Usagi hugged her father. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" She couldn't wait to fight him and show him once and for all that she is able to beat him.  
  
Minako and Makoto were pretty excited too. They couldn't wait for the day when he would get himself beaten up. Minako put her hand on Usagi's back. "Way to go Usagi."  
  
(K! That's it for this part. What do you think? Good or Bad? Please review. Thank you. ^_^)  



	36. Part 3

Usagi released her grip on her father's GI and stood still for a moment, trying to figure out how she would go about challenging Mamoru. She looked up at her father in pure happiness. She couldn't hold her excitement much longer. She wanted to show Mamoru how much she had learned. She wanted to show him that she could beat him once and for all. "Do we have to train today daddy?" Usagi could feel her excitement building up inside her.  
  
Goku shook his head. "Not exactly."  
  
Usagi jumped for joy. He just released the pressure on her. Now she could go and do what she had been longing to do for a year now. "Great. Well I'll be seeing you guys then." She turned around to jump in the air and go her separate way.  
  
Goku extended his arms and grabbed the back of his daughter's GI. "I said you didn't have to train, I never said that you could go anywhere." Goku knew she was anxious to fight Mamoru, he could sense it. He was fully prepared to allow her to do that, but he had other plans made out for that day.   
  
Usagi hunched her shoulders as she groaned. "But daddy…I wanted to go fight Mamoru now." Usagi began to whine. She hated it when she didn't get her way. But she wasn't obnoxious about it like most kids were.  
  
Goku glared at Usagi. He hated it when she whined. He still wasn't used to a girl's whining habits and he didn't think that he would ever be. "Usagi, don't whine please. There will be plenty of time for that later. Right now, we have to go pick Rei and then go to Capsule Corp. There is someone there that Bulma would like you to meet."  
  
"Ooh, another surprise? Who is it?" Minako walked closer to Goku so he would tell her.   
  
"Boy, you all sure are nosey aren't you? You'll just have to wait to find out. I haven't even met this person yet."  
  
"Fine then." Minako hated secrets just about as much as Usagi did. But, the less she argued, the sooner she would find out who Bulma wanted them to meet. "Let's not sit here and talk about it any more. Let's go meet this mystery person."  
  
"Yeah. Let's get out of here. I don't want to be here anymore anyways." Usagi leaped into the air. She hated school more then anything. She didn't see it as anything that she really benefited from. She just saw it as a place that took up all her free time. A place for other kids to get together and make fun of the weak. She tried to keep away from those types of people as much as possible. She didn't care about what others thought of her anymore either. She could now see past all their judgements on her. She pretty much tried to ovoid contact with other kids as much as possible. She had been through too much with kids to trust them. Usagi learned at a very young age that life is hard and she had been living with that fact for a long time now. But now, now she would be able to show Mamoru just what she learned. She would teach him a few things about life.   
  
Usagi looked over her shoulder to her father. "Guess what?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Today there was this new girl at school. We tried to talk to her, but she said that we just wanted to use her or something." Usagi still didn't understand why Ami had acted that way. She just figured that she had to have been through a lot at her old school. That was the only explanation that she could come up with.  
  
"Well, maybe she's just had a hard time." Goku remembered back to when Usagi had been teased at school. She was a wreck. He thought about the day when he had to pick her up from school the day that she had been suspended. He could sense her sadness and fear the moment that he walked into the same room as her. If it wasn't for him teaching her how to fight, and Minako to be there with her, he didn't think that she would have survived going through the torment that the other kids put her through. He had witnessed it. He knew it wasn't just an over exaggeration.   
  
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking." Usagi slowed down her speed so she could be by her father's side. "I told her that I was going to keep trying to be her friend whether she liked it or not. I heard the other kids making fun of her. I know what it's like to go through that and I don't want her to have to go through it anymore then she has to."  
  
"Yeah, I guess you could kind of call our group of friends the outcasts." Minako added, which had some justification behind it. Usagi was considered a freak among the school because she had a tail. Minako was considered a freak because she was to outspoken and because she hung out with Usagi. Makoto was considered a tomboy. Rei was considered weird because she has special physic powers.  
  
Goku showed a hint of a frown. "You guys aren't outcasts. There is no such thing as anyone being more popular then anyone else. You are always popular with your friends and family." Goku didn't like to listen to them talking like this. He knew they weren't freaks, yet they always looked down on themselves like they were. Although they said they never listen to the teasing of other kids, it was quite obviously that they did without even realizing it. That was one thing he was trying to convince them of. That they were just as normal as the next person was.   
  
Usagi shrugged. She sort of believed that, but that didn't mean that the other kids did. Haruka and Michiru had pretty much ruined her chance of ever having a normal reputation at school. But she was getting to the point where she just didn't care anymore. "Oh well, it doesn't really matter. I'm still going to try to be her friend."  
  
"Usagi, don't force the issue. You could make her angry with you. You wouldn't want to do that would you? Don't make her be your friend."  
  
"Sure."   
  
Goku knew better than to take her 'sure' seriously. He knew her mind was made up. It's not like he could make her not talk to the girl. She wasn't hurting herself, nor was she hurting the other girl. "Just be careful not to hurt her feelings."  
  
"You got it! Right Minako and Makoto? We won't hurt her feelings." Usagi had never planned on doing such a thing. She just wanted to make friends with her. She looked over to her left, where her two friends were. The nodded to her in agreeance.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei sat on the stairs in front of her school and waited for the arrival of Goku and her friends, like she had been doing for nearly a year. She was dressed in a red GI much like Usagi's. Of course it's going to be red. She looked around the schoolyard to all the kids who had after school activities. There were mostly fifth and sixth graders around. There weren't very many activities for any of the other grades. She looked over to the baseball field to the right of the school where the team was practicing for an upcoming game. She didn't care too much for baseball. She always had to play it in her P.E. class and was never very good at it. That was one of the main reasons why she hated the sport. She actually didn't like too many sports. Every time she would make a wrong move, her classmates would yell her at. She would just rather stick to fighting then to play normal sports. Now fighting was something that she had gotten quite good at over the past year. Goku had taken her training as slow as she needed it. He didn't rush her, or push her into anything that she couldn't handle. That's the way she liked it. She knew Martial Arts teachers that didn't care one way or the other. They would move on with or without their students.   
  
She rather liked fighting though. It was a fun activity and it had given her a reason to continue being friends with Usagi and the others. She couldn't imagine her life without either fighting, or her friends. Although at first she didn't want to fight with energy attacks, she liked it now. Once she started with the basics, she was left wanting more. She wanted to learn as much as she could.  
  
Rei looked up to the sky. She could feel her friends approaching at a fast speed. She stood up. 'Yes. They're finally here. Now I can have some fun.' Rei didn't feel complete until she had her daily spar with Minako, Makoto, and Usagi. She spotted them not too far from her position. "Hey guys…over here!" She waved her hand up high over her head so they could see her.  
  
"Hey Rei!" Usagi shouted back. She sped up a bit, letting the others know that she wanted to hurry up, get Rei, and leave to Bulma's so they could meet the mystery girl. The others sped up along with her. They knew she couldn't wait.   
  
Usagi landed next to Rei. "Guess what, guess what, guess what?"  
  
Rei laughed at Usagi. "What?"  
  
"DaddysaysicanfightMamorunowandthatwegettomeetsomeonenewandicantwaitsoletsgook?" She didn't even give Rei a chance to reply before she bounced back into the air.  
  
Rei stared blankly at Usagi. She hadn't understood a word that just came out of Usagi's mouth. She looked to Makoto. "What did she say?"  
  
"I'm not sure, but let me tell you why she's happy. She's happy because Goku said she can fight Mamoru again."  
  
"Oh. That's so cool! Usagi is going to kick the pants off that stupid guy. He's so mean!" Rei only met him for a few minutes the day of the tournament before she met Usagi and didn't really like him. He had a 'I'm better then you so stay out of my way,' type of attitude.  
  
"Yeah, and that's not all. We aren't going to train today because Bulma wants us to meet someone special. We don't know who it is, but we really want to find out soon." Makoto's curiosity was growing inside of her. She really wanted to know who she was going to meet.  
  
"Well then, let's go. I'm always up for meeting someone new. As long as they're nice." Rei joined Usagi in the air and soon, Makoto, Minako, and Goku were there too.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Bulma walked into the living room of her home and stared at the little girl that sat on her sofa. The girl stared at Bulma with big blue eyes full of curiosity. Bulma smiled. "You're really going to like these girls. They are the nicest people I have ever met." The girl said nothing in reply. She just watched avidly out the window. She couldn't wait to meet the girls. Bulma had told her so much about them. Bulma sat down in the chair that sat next to the girl as she looked down at her watch. "I don't know what's taking them so long. They should be here by now."  
  
"It's all right Mrs. Bulma. I don't mind waiting."   
  
Bulma smiled to herself. 'Such a nice polite little girl. I wish more children were this respectful.' "You don't have to call me Mrs. Bulma. You can just call me Bulma. I don't mind."  
  
The girl looked down to the ground. "Sorry Mrs. Bulma…I mean Bulma." She laughed quietly to herself.  
  
Bulma looked out the window that sat behind her. She noticed four figures in the sky not too far from the house. "Hey. Look they're here." She stood up and walked to the door. Before she opened it, she turned back to the girl. "Relax. Don't be nervous around these people." She could tell that the girl was stressing out. But with Goku and Usagi's personalities, she knew the girl would loosen right up. It was impossible to be unhappy when those two were around.   
  
Bulma opened the door right before either of the four fighters had a chance to knock on it or ring the bell. She greeted them with a warm smile. "Hi you guys."  
  
Goku got a big goofy smile on his face. "Hiya Bulma. What's shakin?"  
  
Usagi looked up at Bulma. "Yeah! What's shakin?" Usagi was in an exceptionally happy mood at that moment. She couldn't wait to meet the new girl that Bulma wanted so badly for her to meet. She walked in the doorway and looked over to her right to see Ami sitting on the sofa, starring back at her.   
  
Usagi suddenly stopped when she realized who it was, causing Rei to run right into her. "Usagi! Don't just stop short like that. Gees." She grabbed her nose. It was sore from running into Usagi's head.  
  
Minako walked to the side of Rei and Usagi to see what the hold up was. She looked to Usagi and then to what, rather, who she was starring at. She smiled when she noticed that it was the new girl from school. "Ami! I didn't know that you knew Bulma." Being the people person that she is, Minako pushed passed Usagi and Rei and immediately went to sit by Ami.  
  
Bulma closed the door after Goku and Makoto had gotten through it. "Oh? You guys already know each other?"   
  
Usagi walked up to Ami. "Hi again!" She said as she waved to her. "Remember us?"  
  
Ami began to blush. She was a bit embarrassed now. She had pretty much told them earlier in the day that she wanted nothing to do with them, and here they were, some of the nicest people that her mother's boss knew. "Uh…hi?" She held her head low so they wouldn't yell at her.  
  
Makoto and Rei joined the three girls. "Hi. I'm Makoto remember? And this is Rei. She goes to a private school. She can talk to spirits. It's really cool." Makoto explained as she pointed to Rei.  
  
Rei held out her hand to Ami. "Nice to meet you. I can't exactly talk to spirits…I just get feelings. And I can control fire, I guess." Rei was always modest when it came to her special abilities. She didn't exactly like to admit them to everybody either. She didn't really want to tell Ami until she found out she wasn't going to make fun of her for it, but Makoto kind of spoiled that.  
  
Ami kept her head down and tried not to make eye contact with anyone. She slowly raised her hand to shake with Rei. "Nice to meet you all. I'm sorry about earlier you guys."  
  
Goku found the girl a little bit strange. She had to be eight years old, or nearly eight and here she was, not acting like it. She was the calmest kid he had ever laid eyes on. He was used to his daughter and her friends and their wild habits. He walked up to her. "Hey, don't be so shy. We are all friends here. No one is better then any one else. So calm down." He extended his hand to her chin and slowly pushed it up, causing her to raise her face for everyone to see. "See, you've got a pretty little face. You shouldn't hide it."  
  
Ami smiled to herself. No one had really ever said something like that to her before. She appreciated it. "Thanks." She began to feel more relaxed once she knew that they weren't going to yell at her for what she had done earlier.   
  
Goku smiled. He could sense her becoming calmer. She was quite tense before. "Well, my name is Goku and I'm Usagi's dad." He said cheerfully.  
  
"Well," Bulma interrupted, "Now that we have introductions done, you all know this is Ami." She sat on the side of Ami that Minako was not and put her arms around her shoulders. "She is very gifted. She is one of the smartest people her age. In Tokyo, she was enrolled in 'cram schools' Remember all those schools she went to in the Anime after school? Those were cram schools. But here, we don't have 'cram schools.' There isn't a big enough demand for them. So I'm teaching her. I know her mother because she works here to do check ups on the employees as a part time job. She told me about little Ami here and was complaining that there were no 'cram schools'. So, I offered to take her in. That's why I wanted you to come and meet her. I wanted her to get to know people. Maybe you could show her around the city a bit?"  
  
"Sure, we can show her the ropes. It would be fun." There went Minako again. She had a habit of volunteering everyone. "It will be fun. What do you say Ami?"  
  
'Nooooooooo!' Usagi couldn't show her around. She wanted to challenge Mamoru to a fight. She wanted to do it that day. She wanted to show him once and for all. Unless… "Sure, we can show her around." Usagi looked up at her father. "Can we? Today?"   
  
Goku thought for a few seconds. He hadn't expected to be out that late. Chi-Chi hadn't expected him to be out that late. He promised her that he would be home that night. He rarely ever was. She had been complaining a lot lately about his absence from the house. "I don't know Usagi. Your mother wants me to spend more time at home with her."  
  
Usagi got her begging look on her face again as she put her hands up under her chin and rolled her bottom lip. "Pretty, pretty please with sugar on top? We can go without you." Usagi could tell that her father did not like that idea just by the expression on his face. He hadn't let her travel alone in the city since the day she met Mamoru. She had to think of something to tell him, and quick. "Uh…there's five of us. We can take care of ourselves. Please daddy?"  
  
Goku wasn't sure that that was such a great idea. Granted there were five of them, but only four knew how to fight. But, he couldn't say 'no' to that face and she knew it. She loved to torture him with that face. "Usagi…" He sighed. He couldn't disagree. She wouldn't let him. 'Oh well, at least I'll finally get some alone time with Chi-Chi if I let her go.' Goku hadn't spent time alone with his wife in a couple of months. Usagi was always with them or they were apart. He missed the time he spent with her. "Fine. But if anything happens…"  
  
Usagi squealed with joy. "Thank you! And don't worry, nothing bad will happen. I promise." She jumped up and wrapped herself around her father and gave him a quick kiss on the check. She turned around to her friends after she jumped back down. "This is going to be fun." She smiled very deviously. Minako and Makoto knew Usagi well enough to know that this was a bad sign. She had something planned and they were pretty sure they knew what it was. They looked at each other and sighed.  
  
"Ok. Be careful you guys. I guess I'll see you later then." He turned to the door. He stopped before he opened it. "Usagi, I want you home before dark." He turned his head to look over his shoulder. "Good bye Bulma. Good bye Ami. It was nice to meet you."  
  
  
Usagi watched her father leave and turned back to his friends. "Well, let's get this show on the road shall we?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
All five girls walked in the heart of the city. They had been walking around for about an hour. Ami was in awe. The city was spectacular in her eyes. She thought that Tokyo was great. This city had everything. There weren't really any airships in Tokyo, yet here, they were all over the place. "You guys, this city is perfect."  
  
Usagi stopped in front of a dark brown building. "Yeah. It's got its good points, while at the same time, its got its downs." Speaking of downs, Usagi was currently looking at the home of one. "He's here you guys."  
  
"Who's here?" Ami hadn't been informed about Usagi's background with Mamoru, Haruka, and Michiru. She stared at the building in which Usagi was. "Usagi, do you know people in middle school?" With small kids, if you knew anyone older then yourself and they weren't your older sibling's friend, you were considered someone of high status.  
  
Makoto sighed. She knew what Usagi was going to do. She also knew there was no way to stop it. Once Usagi made up her decision, it could not be changed. "Ami, Usagi has a little conflict going on with three people who go to this school. It's been going on for three years now. The boy of the group, Mamoru, pretty much left Usagi for dead last year in a battle. Now Usagi wants to repay him the favor. Usagi…don't do anything stupid, alright?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Don't worry. I won't do anything that daddy wouldn't want me to." She began to walk forward into the parking lot. "Come on. I want to settle the score once and for all. I want to know who actually IS the better fighter."  
  
Rei looked to Ami as they all began to walk forward. She looked frightened. "Um Ami, I can take you home if you want. You don't have to watch this. Our fights kind of get a little on the intense side."  
  
Ami kept her eyes straight and continued to walk forward with the rest of the group. "No, I'm interested to learn about you guys. I want to see you guys fight. It might be fun."  
  
Rei shrugged her shoulders. "All right. I don't mind." She continued to walk. "I can feel Haruka and Michiru too. I think they're sparring right now."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi found Mamoru in the football field of the school, sparring with Haruka and Michiru just like Rei had predicted. She stopped at the track that outlined the field and crossed her arms as she shook her head. "Pathetic!" Her friends stopped behind her.  
  
Mamoru finished his drop kick on Haruka and turned to look at Usagi. He walked close to Usagi so he was within talking distance. "Odango! What are you doing here? I see you brought your circus of freakish friends with you."   
  
Makoto frowned. "We aren't circus freaks!" She hated Mamoru. He always had some rude comment to say to them whenever he saw them.  
  
Mamoru rolled his eyes. "Yeah whatever. So Odango…what brings you here after a year? I thought you were afraid of me. You had to get your daddy to beat me up last time."   
  
Usagi scowled at Mamoru. "You keep running your mouth, but I'll show you once and for all that I can beat you on my own. I've been training for this day."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "So you wanna fight me again huh? Why don't you just give up already? You can never win against me." Mamoru couldn't even feel her Ki. It felt the same now as it did the day he met her.  
  
"Monkey Girl, give it up already!" Haruka could now back up her words. She and Michiru had been training with Mamoru for the past year. They could now hold their own against basic Ki attacks. But they wouldn't stand a chance against Usagi or any of the other girls.   
  
Usagi began to take off her boots and her wristbands to relieve some weight from her body. She wanted to be as close to her full potential as possible. She needed every bit of her strength if she wanted to beat Mamoru. "Why don't we get this show on the road if we're going to do it?"  
  
Mamoru got into his fighting stance. "Great idea Odango." He turned his head over his shoulder in the direction of Haruka and Michiru. "You two stay back. This could get gruesome again. For Usagi that is." He smirked. He knew he wasn't going to have a problem with Usagi.  
  
"Yeah you guys. You should get back too. I don't want you guys to get hurt." Usagi's friends complied. They knew it would get fierce. Usagi was powerful. She had surpassed them even.   
  
Rei stayed close to Ami. "Be careful Usagi."  
  
Usagi grinned. "Don't worry about me. Just get out of here if it gets to bad." She kept her eyes on Mamoru and watched for any sudden movement. "Let's get this thing started shall we?"  
  
"Yes, let's. That is a great idea." Mamoru, smirked with an obviously large amount of arrogance, was supremely confident of his victory. He had beaten Usagi before and he would do it again. It was only a year's difference. She couldn't have improved all that much. It was impossible for her to beat him with such an insufficient power level anyways. He had always been taught to only fight when you knew you could win, or when the earth was at stake, in this case, he was fighting to show his 'obvious' superiority to the younger fighter who stood, glaring at him.  
  
"The winner is the last one able to stand or when the other begs the other for mercy." Usagi knew exactly what she was doing. She knew that she could beat him. Her father wouldn't have allowed her to talk to him unless he knew that she could do it.  
  
Mamoru Smirked; "Agreed, Odango. I guess I'll be looking down at you while you are on the ground crying again. Really Odango, do you think you can beat me?" He said as he stretched out his arms, cocking his head from side to side. He regarded her as a piece of cake. He would quickly take her out and then proceed with the rest of his day as planned.  
  
Usagi's eyes flashed gold as she felt her anxiousness rising in her. "Well, I guess we can see what happens. But I doubt that I will loose. Daddy says I'm strong."  
  
Mamoru snickered. "Your father? Your father is just as weak as you are." Mamoru knew he just took a low shot, but hey, you take all you can get.   
  
Usagi frowned. "He's stronger then you are. That's why you ran away after he hit you. And he'll do it again if he has to." She looked over to her friends. They all looked indifferent about the situation. Except Ami. Her eyes were full of fear. 'Sorry you have to see this Ami.' She turned to look back at Mamoru.  
  
Both fighters stared at each other. Both with totally different views on why people fight. Usagi fought for the fun of it, while Mamoru fought to hurt people. That was why her father fought, to save the world from people like him. Maybe that's why she fought too. Maybe she just didn't realize it until now. Haruka glared at Usagi and shouted; "Begin, and kick her ass Mamoru."  
  
As though agreed upon from the beginning, though no words had been spoken, they started off with hand-to-hand combat. Usagi, having long since learned from her father that simply running right at an opponent would only leave her vulnerable, slowly began to circle Mamoru, looking for an opening while reading his ki level. Despite herself she was impressed with the power radiating off him, but knew she was at least his equal. She began to raise her Ki also. She didn't want him to think that she was still weak. She wanted her strength out in the open, and since she took some of her weights off, her power was a bit higher.  
  
Mamoru was a bit shocked by Usagi's high power level. He hadn't expected her power to grow so much in such a short time. "So, I see you've been training a bit Odango." 'Gee's, what has this girl been doing in the past year? She's almost as strong as I am and I have been training since I was five.' He began to raise his power level to its highest, getting the same response from his enemy. The faster he would raise it, the faster she would. He grinned to himself. "So, you think you're better then me do you?" He didn't get a response.  
  
Mamoru soon grew tired of the power lever contest. He was now ready for some action. He began to launch a series of roundhouse kicks at Usagi's head, she acted quickly and jumped to the side. But not quite fast enough. She was hit in the arm, nothing to serious. She grabbed a hold of his leg, adding her momentum to it, and threw him to the ground.  
  
Mamoru was a bit startled by her speed. He took his mind off his thoughts just in time to almost be hit by Usagi's follow up jump kick. Right before her foot made its mark in his face, he managed to roll away and jump to his feet. He stared at her for a moment as he remembered his father's words not to EVER underestimate an enemy, and that especially included Usagi. He had underestimated her. For the rest of this fight, he would act as if she had to potential to beat him. He grinned evilly at her. "Humph, Odango, you might actually be a bit of a challenge."  
  
Usagi stared right back into his eyes, never letting her guard down. "I COULD be a challenge? How about I am?"  
  
Mamoru growled at Usagi. He didn't want to admit that she was right. He hadn't really been able to make very many hits on her. Throwing a hard close fist punch at her, she deflected it with her forearm and attempted to sweep his legs from under him. He back flipped over her sweep and lashed out with his foot while in midair, catching her off guard, slamming it into her jaw. Stunned, Usagi hit the ground, but this time she rolled past Mamoru as he tried to follow up his hit with a stomp to her chest. Rolling on the ground, barely avoiding Mamoru's blows, Usagi suddenly reversed the direction of her roll back on him, grabbing his foot that had just landed near her head and hurling him away from her. Both instantly sprang to their feet, and Mamoru glared at Usagi, and suddenly laughed. "First blood is mine." He pointed to the blood that dripped from her lip.  
  
Usagi knew what he was talking about. She could feel the stinging sensation on her lip. She raised her hand to wipe it away. It didn't hurt her that much. She had been through worse with her father. He had even broken a few of her bones a few times on accident when they were sparring. She didn't even have the use of Senzu beans at the time so she had to let it heal itself. Lucky for Usagi, she was Saiyan and she healed much faster then a human. "Its just a little cut. You can't beat me with just a cut. You'll have to do better then that to beat me."  
  
"Seems that I'm already beating you Odango, you just..."  
  
Usagi had had enough of Mamoru's ranting. She didn't want to listen to it anymore. Usagi decided it was time to her own attack. Throwing punch after punch, she managed to make him fall back with the strength of the blows she throwing.  
  
"Shit." Mamoru  
  
"It's…not…nice…to…swear…so…stop!" With every word, came another punch from Usagi. Each punch was harder then the one before it.  
  
"Make me Odan…." One of Usagi's punches get through his defenses before he could finish, and this time Mamoru was sporting a bloody lip. He was thoroughly shocked with Usagi's performance, 'how can this little girl be that strong.' He began to loose his temper. It was now time to bring out the big weapons. He began to fire Ki blasts at the golden haired warrior. Reacting quickly, she leaped over his blast and throws a quickly make Ki blast of her own at him, hitting him in the chest, knocking him back, nearly off his feet.  
  
Usagi, grinned and taunted Mamoru; "This time I got the first shot in." 'Wow, daddy was right, I am up to his level of skill. COOL!'  
  
Mamoru replied with a sharp growl, He could feel his anger increasing inside him. It was overcoming his reasoning. He started to increase the level of his Ki attacks, launching one after another at Usagi, not really paying attention to where they were going. He was too angry to try to be stratigical about this anymore. She was too fast for him.  
  
She barley missed being hit by the first blow and retaliated with her own attracts, matching him blast for blast. She grinned. She was rather enjoying herself. She could sense his anger rising. She had the upper hand and they both knew it. The fight continued like this for over twenty minutes, each launching attacks at the other and all being met with their opponents Ki blast. The battle didn't even stay on the ground, into the air, on the ground, both fought with all the skill and power they possess.  
  
They both began to get worn out from all the intense fighting and landed on the ground at the same time, both panted heavily as they attempted to stare the other down. Minako, Makoto, and Rei watched the two warriors. They had never seen Usagi fight with such skill before. They now knew that she was holding back whenever they sparred. They were no where near her level. Of course, she was Saiyan and they were humans. They would have to wait for power like that, just as Mamoru had. Ami, on the other hand, was rather excited about the fight. She was enjoying it.  
  
Mamoru, for the first time, started to wonder if he would even win this match. She seemed to be putting up a great fight and matched nearly every move that he had to give. He was totally and utterly confused. This thought increased his anger a hundred fold. Thinking of what his father had told him to use his enemies' weakness against them, Mamoru grinned. He had a pretty good hunch about what Usagi's weakness was. She always kept her tail away from him. He quickly ran to Usagi and stomped on her tail before she had a chance to do anything.  
  
"AAAHHHHOHOWW!" She could feel all her energy leaving her body as she fell to the ground. She couldn't do anything. As she fell, though, she used all her remaining energy and punched him in his sensitive area.  
  
His breath caught in his throat as her fell to his knees and grabbed himself. "You BITCH!" He howled in pain. Both lay on the ground and cried out in pain.  
  
Usagi glanced over at him. "Surrender?"  
  
Mamoru defiantly looks over to his enemy with even more hate then before. "Never."  
Both slowly rose to their feet, never taking their eyes off the other, protecting their tender area. Usagi would now know better then to leave her back unguarded. It was time to start the fight once again. Both fighters began to glow as they glared at each other. Mamoru focused all his energy, his fury, his hate, his for Usagi, and summoned this into one concentrated Ki ball surrounding his fist. 'No mercy, enemies must be destroyed.'  
  
Usagi could sense his hate filled attack growing stronger with each second that went by. She began to fear him. The hate building up in him was indeed some intense power. She got scared and began to build up her own fury in a Ki ball around her own fist. Usagi gasped and stopped her attack. 'What am I doing? I can't do this? I can't fight out of hate.' She began to remember what Kiro had said about her. That her true power was a great power. That she should never loose sight of her innocence. Her true power was free of anger and hatred. 'What do I fight for anyways? I fight for peace? I fight for…for…for…love. To protect and not destroy. For life. He is what I want to be the champion of. I want to protect people from his hate.' She closed her eyes for a second, though in her mind it was like an eternity, Usagi re-opened her eyes. Her face had the look of utter peace, calm, SERENITY. She began to summon her energy to her fist again. This time it was made with pure love and the sense of justice. This time, it glowed silver again. Usagi was a bit startled by this, but didn't really think to much past being startled. She had other things that needed to be done.  
  
Both warriors locked eyes with each other. Mamoru's radiated hate, Usagi's radiated love and compassion. At the same exact time, they both charged at each other with their fists out. Their fists hit each other and created a huge explosion that shook the ground beneath them. The spectators were thrown off their feet from the vicious force that had been created.  
  
When the attack was over, Usagi and Mamoru stood, both hunched over, and panting heavier then before. Mamoru glared at Usagi, with a hint of a smile on his face. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fall backwards onto the ground. Usagi stood over him. "I guess I won this round." She collapsed over him. Still halfway conscious, she could hear the footsteps of someone near her head.   
  
The boy's father looked down at the two fighters. "Well, now that you have been beaten by a little girl Mamoru! And by HER for god's sake!"  
  
Usagi barely lifted her head just enough to see who his father was. She gasped. "It's you?!" With that, she had no strength left. She closed her eyes and let her head slam against Mamoru's chest.   
  
(The fight seen wasn't all MY idea. It was an integration of my ideas, and Comet Moon's ideas. A lot of the ideas were his. He sent me a document of what he thought should happen in the fight and man, I was blown away by the greatness of it I just had to use some of it. K! That's it for this part! So what do you all think? Good or bad? Please review and tell me what you think)  



	37. Part 4

Mamoru's father picked Usagi up off of his son and carried him away. Rei, Minako, Makoto, and Ami ran to Usagi's side after they watched Mamoru's father leave with Mamoru. They couldn't believe who his father was. They would never have guessed. You'll find out later in this part Rei knelt down by Usagi and looked down at her face. "You guys, what should we do?"  
  
Ami sat down by Rei and picked up Usagi's arm. "First, we have to make sure that her heart rate is normal." She placed her index and middle fingers over Usagi's wrist. She had learned basic medical skills from her mother. She was even certified for giving CPR. She brought her own wrist up to her face and took Usagi' heart rate for one minute. The other three girls stared at her in awe. They had never met anyone their own age that knew anything about things like this. She placed Usagi's arm back on her chest. "Well, she seems to be fine with concern of heart rates. Her breathing seems sufficient. We should get her to the hospital though. She has a numerous amount of wounds all over her body. My mom can help her." She stood up and looked around the field. "I don't know how we are going to get her there though."  
  
Makoto looked across the field to where Haruka and Michiru had been previously standing. But, they had already left. "Cowards. Can't even stay when something like this happens."  
  
Rei looked to Makoto and then over at what she was looking at. "Just let them run. Now that they don't have anything to back up their words they will finally shut up. We probably won't hear from them ever again." She looked back down to her fainted friend. "I guess we could call Goku. He can take Usagi to the hospital."  
  
"Or we can use the flying Nimbus. We can fly there, while Ami tends to Usagi and makes sure that she is ok. She seems to know her medical stuff." Minako looked over to Ami. "Right Ami?"  
  
"Yeah, my mom teaches me stuff. But…what is a flying Nimbus?" Ami had a pretty good feeling that she was soon going to find out what a flying Nimbus was. She had been through more this day then she had been in her life. She had a feeling that she wasn't done learning yet either. She watched as a yellow cloud came falling down from the sky, after Minako had had called for it. "That is a 'flying Nimbus?'"  
  
Makoto bent down to help Rei pick up Usagi. "Yeah, it only let's pure hearted people fly on it." She could see the look of confusion in Ami's blue eyes. "Don't worry, you won't have a problem getting on it. I know for a fact that you have a pure heart." She put her hands under Usagi's upper back and head, while Rei put her hands under Usagi's legs and lower back. "Ready?" Rei nodded. "Ok, on three. One…two…three. Go." She and Rei lifted at the same time. They didn't have that much of a problem lifting her. They were used to heavier things. "Are we going to tell Goku who Mamoru's father is?"  
  
Rei moved to her left towards Nimbus. "Oh, I hadn't thought that far ahead. I don't know if we should, considering who he is and all." She had been very surprised when she saw his father. Aren't I just evil?   
  
Makoto lifted Usagi up onto Nimbus and made sure her arms, legs, and tail were fully on it. "Well, I don't know. Maybe we should let Usagi. It kind of has more to do with those two, then it does with us. Although, it's really weird to think of HIM as a dad."  
  
Ami looked up at the sky. "You guys, we should hurry up. It's getting really late and the sun is beginning to set. Usagi's dad said for her to be home before dark. Is he going to be mad that Usagi is like this?"  
  
Minako began to let herself rise into the air, very slowly. She looked down at Ami. "Well, Goku doesn't really ever get mad. He just gets upset if something happens to his friends or family. I've noticed that he's extra protective of Usagi though. I guess it's that daddy daughter relationship thing. Anyways, he probably won't get too upset. Usagi DID beat Mamoru and all. As long as we tell him right away he shouldn't be upset. But, he probably won't let her go into the city without him again. She has had the worst luck here. Whenever she goes without, she usually ends up getting hurt."  
  
"We can call him at the hospital then." Ami climbed up onto Nimbus and put Usagi's head on her lap. She held onto Usagi tightly so she wouldn't slip off. "Let's go. We need to get her cleaned up before we do anything else."  
  
Rei and Makoto leaped into the air and were followed by Ami and Usagi on Nimbus. Makoto flew to the side of Nimbus. "Minako, you get behind, Rei, you go on the other side. I'll stay over here. That way, we can all keep and eye on Usagi." Makoto began to think about the last time that Usagi had fought with Mamoru. They had only heard about it from her. "It looks like his dad did it again. He left Usagi to fend for herself. I wonder if she even remembers who his dad is." The girls knew that Usagi had seen the boy's father right before she passed out. They saw her head pick up right before they felt her energy decrease.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru's father placed him in his bed, once they returned home. He stared down at his son in disgust. "You're pitiful Mamoru. You can't even take out a little girl. Even if she is a Saiyan, her skill couldn't have grown that much over the course of one year." He scowled down at his son as he backhanded him in the face. "Wake up! You have training to do boy! I know you have more power bottled up inside you. It's just a matter of releasing it."  
  
Mamoru softly groaned as he began to stir. He raised his hand to his face. "Oh. God what happened?" He had a splitting headache. He looked up. "Dad!" 'Shit, he saw me loose to that stupid brat.' His father didn't look too happy with him. He looked as if he had a permanent scowl planted on his face. Mamoru backed up until he felt the hard wall against his back. He was afraid that his father might act on his anger. "Father, please let me explain."  
  
"Silence! There is nothing to explain here Mamoru. You lost your first battle. That was bound to happen. I knew that this day would come ever since the child was born. I could feel it in her. I just didn't think that you would be defeated so soon. But, I know that you too have a special power inside you. That's why I train you. I want you to be able to use that power. That is why I am intensifying your training from this day forward."  
  
Mamoru climbed down off his bed, once he knew his father would not hit him. "Yes sir! I am willing to do all that it takes."  
  
"Usagi is your equal. Her power will keep rising and there is nothing we can do about that. I don't want you talking to her unless she starts talking to you first. Now that our secret is out." Mamoru's father sipped some water from a bottle.  
  
"Father, I was never to clear on why you don't want me to tell her who you were." Mamoru could see the look of anger in his father's eyes. He could tell that he had just said the wrong thing.  
  
"You will find out soon. I'm am certain."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku sat on the sofa of his living room in front of the TV with Chi-Chi. As much as he enjoyed having Usagi around, he was enjoying the peace and quiet. He was enjoying his time alone with his wife. He knew that Chi-Chi felt the same way. They had missed their time together. Their time alone together was a rare activity and they both savored every moment of it.   
  
Chi-Chi leaned into her husband. "Goku, you should send Usagi out alone more often." For once, Chi-Chi was not thinking about the safety of her daughter. She still cared; but she was just having too much fun with her husband at the moment. And besides, she knew Usagi was strong. As much as she hated to admit, her daughter could take care of herself. She had been trained by the best.  
  
As much as Goku was enjoying himself, part of him told him that what he had let Usagi do was wrong. He knew what she had planned. He should have been there to watch. He wanted to make sure that nothing bad would happen. He should have stayed with her, but he knew it was too late for that now. He knew the fight was over. He had sensed both power levels skyrocket. Now, there was nothing. Both his daughter and Mamoru's power levels had gone back to their normal state. He didn't know who had won. Both power levels had gone down at the same time.   
  
Goku looked down to his wife and smiled. "Is this your way of telling me that I did something good?" He played with her hair in his fingers.   
  
"Of course. It's to have you home sometimes. I miss you when you're gone. During the day, you train with Gohan and Goten. Then, at night, you train with Usagi and her friends. I only see you around dinner and later in the night. I'm lucky enough to see you during the weekends."  
  
"Chi-Chi…" Goku was cut off by the ringing of the phone. "Damn!" He lifted his wife's head from leaning into him, and stood up. "I'll be right back." He walked into his room, to the nearest phone.  
  
Chi-Chi stayed on the sofa and sort of pouted. There were always distractions. It was as if she wasn't allowed to have time alone with her husband.   
  
Goku picked up the phone that screamed to be answered and put it to his ear. "Hello?" His voice let the caller know that he was a little put out with their timing. He didn't get a reply. "Hello!?" He wasn't in the mood for prank calls. He could hear some faint talking in the background. Still, no answer. "Hello?! Look, I don't know what kind of games you're trying to play but…"  
  
"Hello? Goku? Is that you? This is Rei."   
  
Goku's mood softened when she said her name. "Oh, hi Rei." He looked out the window. The sun was already setting. Usagi should have been home already. "What's happening? It's getting late. Tell Usagi I want her to come home for me."  
  
Rei looked over to her friend, who lay in a large bed in a rather small room on the children's floor of the city hospital. She was surrounded by Ami, her mother, Makoto, and Minako. "Well, you see, that may not be possible right at the moment. Usagi kind of fought Mamoru today. As you probably know because you just HAD to have felt their energy. Anyways, it got kind of big, and well, they knocked each other out." Rei could hear Goku quietly growling on the other side of the line. "We're at the hospital right now. Ami's mother is taking care of her wounds."  
  
"Rei, please tell me what happened." He had done it again. He just wasn't thinking. He led Usagi right into danger.   
  
"Well," She winced as she watched a needle being inserted into Usagi's leg. "You see, they were fighting and all for a real long time. Then, at the end, they both built up all their remaining energy and attacked head on and well, they both fell unconscious." Rei specifically remembered not to tell Goku who Mamoru's father was. That was for Usagi to tell. Although, she was anxious to find out what her reaction was. "She's not hurt too bad. She's just got a few scratches here and there. Mrs. Mizuno thinks that you should come and get her. She says that she needs to rest for the rest of the night."  
  
Goku sighed in relief. 'At least she wasn't hurt too bad.' "All right. I'll come. Is she awake?"  
  
"No." She looked back at Usagi. "I've gotta go. I'll see you in a few minutes I guess."  
  
"Yeah. Bye." Goku hung up the phone and looked at the door that led back to the living room, where his wife was. 'How am I going to tell her. She was so happy. I'll just get Usagi quickly and come back home.' He slowly walked out of the room, not wanting to tell his wife that he had to leave.  
  
"Chi-Chi…"  
  
Chi-Chi smiled and looked over to her husband. She could tell that something was on his mind. Just by looking into his eyes she knew that the phone call had to have been bad. "Who was that?"  
  
"That was Rei. Usagi had a fight with Mamoru and is being taken care of by one of her new friend's mom. She is at the hospital," Goku saw the look of concern on Chi-Chi's face and immediately knew that he had to tell her more fast. "She's ok. She just has some cuts and bruises. Nothing worse then what I've ever done to her."  
  
Chi-Chi that he was right. Goku had given their daughter some pretty horrid wounds. Her expressions softened. "I guess we'll have to wait till later to have some fun then."  
  
Goku playfully smiled. "Not too long. I'll be back soon. I'm just going to teleport right over there." He pressed his fingers to his forehead and concentrated his energy to his daughter's, well, what was left of it anyways.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku appeared in the front of his daughter's hospital room. In front of him lay Usagi with all her friends and Ami's mother around the bed. They seemed to be taking notice that Usagi was beginning to wake up. He walked to the end of the bed by Ami. "How is she doing?"   
  
Ami jumped away from Goku. Her heart was racing deep inside her chest. "H…h…how did you get here so fast? I didn't even hear you come in?"   
  
Goku curiously looked over at Ami, who was now obviously scared of him. "Oh, you don't know? I can teleport by focusing on someone's energy. I use it when I want to get around fast. It's really helpful in times like this." He looked up to the blue haired doctor who was staring at him.  
  
"Who are you?" She was always very protective of her patients. She had to be. Many times, people would come in and harass her patients. She always found it to be a good idea to always know what relation a visitor has with the patient.  
  
"I'm Usagi's father. Are you Ami's mother?" Goku looked down at Usagi. Aside from a few bruises, a big gash trailing down her left leg, and other various cuts on her body, she looked pretty normal. He was relieved about that. He was happy that he didn't have to see her in the condition that she had been in the last time she encountered Mamoru. Next time, he would have better feelings about letting Usagi venture out into the city without him. If she could take Mamoru out, she could handle to city.  
  
"Yes, I am. Usagi here is pretty lucky that she didn't suffer a concussion of any sort. The girls here told me about what happened. How can you let your little daughter fight like this? What kind of father are you? Just look at her. It's wrong and you should be ashamed of yourself. And worse, you are training these other poor innocent girls to fight just the same." Ami's mother was completely against fighting. She was appalled when her daughter brought Usagi to her in such a condition. She was even more shocked to hear that the other three girls who came with her also fought.   
  
Goku could feel himself becoming somewhat angry with Ami's mother. She didn't know what she was talking about. She had never seen these girls in action. "Look, what I let my daughter do is not of your concern. She can take it. She has been through much worse. And further more, as far as the other's go, they are great fighters. Probably the greatest human fighters I have ever had the pleasure of fighting with." Goku looked around to Rei, Minako, and Makoto, smiling as he scanned over each of their faces. They smiled back at him.   
  
Mrs. Mizuno lifted an eyebrow at Goku. "Human? Why did you just say human?" She knew that there was something odd about Usagi. She did, after all, have a tail. "Are you people some sort of aliens?" Ami could tell that her mother was beginning to get put out with Goku.  
  
"Well, I am an alien." Goku could see the look of fear in Ami's mother's eyes. He didn't see anything wrong with being an alien. No one else seemed to either. "I'm a Saiyan to be exact. Usagi is half Saiyan, half human. That's why she has a tail."  
  
Mrs. Mizuno would just have to get used to that. She didn't mind that fact. She was just strongly against fighting. "Don't think that just because she is a Saiyan, that it changes the fact that she is just a little girl."  
  
Goku didn't exactly want to listen to this woman's ranting about his upbringing of his own daughter. It wasn't any of her business. He had raised his sons around fighting, and Usagi was far stronger then they were at her age. "Look, I know what her limits are. I don't push her into anything. I love her and I don't put her in danger that I know she can't overcome. I have raised kids before." 'This time I'm going to do it right.'  
  
Mrs. Mizuno frowned at Goku. They obviously didn't see eye to eye on the subject and she wasn't going to argue with him. She had no control over what he did with his own daughter. She only had control over Ami. She didn't even have any say in what the others did. "Well, fine. I won't argue with you. She is, after all, your daughter. But, you could loose her one of these days." She looked over to the sleeping Saiyan, who began to groan. "She's waking." She ran over to Usagi's side and knelt down as she grabbed her hand.   
  
Goku sat down on the foot of the bed and looked down at his daughter. He placed his hand on the leg that was not cut. "Hey there kiddo. How ya doin?"  
  
Usagi slowly and groggily opened her eyes. She felt like she had just been hit upside the head with a metal pole. She grabbed her head in pain as she lifted it up. "Owe." She looked around to all the faces of the people she knew and then to the walls that surrounded her. "Huh? Where am I?" She stopped looking around the room when she laid eyes on her father. "Daddy?"  
  
Goku put leaned forward and cupped his hand around his daughter's face. "You just relax. You have the whole night to recuperate. Rei told me what happened." He smiled. "I'm very proud of you. I knew you had enough power to defeat Mamoru."  
  
Usagi let her had fall back onto the pillow underneath. "Mamoru?" She remembered back to the fight she just fought with him and smiled. She was incredibly happy. She finally beat him. She felt a sense of completion. She had been waiting for a long time to beat him, and now, it had finally happened. She gasped with realization when she remembered to the moment right before she passed out. "PICCOLO!" stick with me on this one. I know what I'm doing   
  
Goku was somewhat startled by Usagi's sudden outburst. "Usagi. Are you alright?" He couldn't imagine what might bring Usagi to yell out Piccolo's name so impulsively.  
  
Usagi looked over to the side of her bed at Minako and Makoto. "Was I seeing things guys? Tell me I was. Please." Usagi didn't want to believe it. She wouldn't believe it. Makoto and Minako just nodded their heads, letting her know that it was entirely true. "But, how?! Piccolo is a…Namek. Isn't he daddy?" Usagi looked to her father.  
  
Goku was still utterly confused. He had no idea what his daughter was rambling on about. "Usagi, yes, Piccolo is a Namek, but, please, let your dear ol' dad know what you're talking about?"  
  
"Daddy, I think Piccolo is Mamoru's dad. I saw him right before I passed out. He said that Mamoru was weak or something like that because I beat him. How can that be though? How can he be Mamoru's dad?" Usagi began to hurt her head even more trying to figure it out.  
  
Goku's eyes widened. "No, Piccolo can't be his father. Nameks don't give birth to humans. And, Piccolo hasn't said anything about having a son. This Mamoru guy is about thirteen years old. Piccolo would have told us by now."  
  
"But daddy, he can fight like us. With ki blasts, and weighted cloths." Usagi was scaring herself. She had let Piccolo take care of her the year before at the Budaki Tournament and hadn't even known that he was Mamoru's father. "Maybe that's why we never met his dad last year. Maybe that's why Mamoru wasn't allowed to tell me his dad was. Because Piccolo didn't want us to know."  
  
Goku began to see where his daughter was going. "Usagi…you could be onto something. I think that the only way we are going to find out is if we ask him ourselves." Goku stood up from the bed. "Usagi, you're coming with me."  
  
"What?! I can't go with you! Are you out of your mind." Usagi didn't want to ever see Mamoru again. And if Piccolo WAS in fact Mamoru's father, she didn't care to ever see him again either. She didn't want to have to put up with either of them.  
  
Goku frowned. "Usagi, don't be difficult. It won't hurt you to go." He looked up at Mrs. Mizuno, who was glaring at him. "Look, I'm not pushing her into anything dangerous."  
  
Usagi grinned. "Yes he is. Don't let him make me go! Please!" She jumped out of her bed onto Ami's mother and held on tightly.  
  
Goku frowned down to his daughter. "Usagi! If you ever do that again! I am not forcing you to do anything dangerous and you very well know it. Don't try to make me look bad. If you do that, someone can call social services and have you taken away from you mother and I. You know for a fact that if anything happens, I can take care of it. Now stop this attitude and let's go!" 'Here she goes again.' "You can't whine and throw a fit every time something doesn't go your way."  
  
Usagi let go of Mrs. Mizuno and held her face to the ground. "Sorry daddy. I'll try not to do it again." She didn't want to be taken away from her home. She looked around to her friends and then up at her father, who was still frowning at her. "Can they come?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "No. This doesn't really concern them too much. You're the one Mamoru fought with." He looked around the room at the girls. "Sorry guys."  
  
"No problem, I'm sure grandpa wants me back at the temple anyways. It's getting late an already dark."  
  
Makoto groaned as she looked at the clock. "Man…I was supposed to be home already. I'm going to get it now. My dad hates it when I'm late."  
  
"Yeah, my parents are probably worried about me too." Minako began to head to the door with Rei and Makoto. "See you later Usagi. It was nice meeting you Ami."  
  
"Bye guys!" Ami waved to her new friends. She was happier now then she had ever been. She had never had such nice friends before.  
  
"Come here Usagi." Goku was still pretty upset with Usagi. He couldn't believe that she would pull a stunt like that just to get out of doing something that she didn't want to do. She had to learn to get over that. He knew that he would end up having to teach her the hard way one of these days. She had pulled so many stunts similar to that. He was getting fed up with them. Usagi slowly approached her father, not sure what his intentions were. She could still sense slight anger from him. She innocently looked up at him once she stood in front of him. Goku could feel her tenseness. This time he wouldn't apologize for being stern. She couldn't get the idea that she could just walk all over him.  
  
Goku pressed his fingers to his forehead as he grabbed his daughter's hand. "Bye guys." With that, he and Usagi were no longer in the room.   
  
Ami's mother sighed. "That man is going to kill that girl one of these days."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku re-appeared in the forest where Piccolo was currently living. He was a little surprised to see that he had up-graded to an actual house. 'I thought Piccolo liked to rough it. Is he getting soft?' He slightly squeezed Usagi's hand to let her know that they were going to be walking straight. He knew better then to let go of her hand. She probably would have tried to run away.  
  
The two Saiyans approached the house with caution. "Usagi, I don't want you to say anything ok? Let me do all the talking." He rang the doorbell, once they got to the front door.   
  
The door began to open a bit to reveal Piccolo. He frowned at the duo. "What are you guys doing here?" Goku looked behind Piccolo into the house. He didn't see anything strange inside. Piccolo began to get agitated with Goku's snooping. "Is there any particular reason why you are here Goku? Or are you just wanting to piss me off/"  
  
"Hey, hey, watch the language." He looked down at Usagi who was scowling at Piccolo. He tightened his grip, telling her to knock it off, which she did. "Well, uh, I have sort of a strange question. Today Usagi fought Mamoru and well, after the fight, she saw you. She said that you talked to Mamoru. She thinks you're his father."  
  
Piccolo looked down at Usagi and sighed. He backed away from the door. "Come in." He watched as Usagi and her father walked into his home and shut the door behind them. He led them into a room with a table and two chairs. "Sit down. I'll be right back."  
  
Goku let go of his daughter's hand and pointed for her to sit. He sat across the table from her and stared at her. For the first time in two years, he took the time to notice the changes in his daughter. She was a lot taller now. She came up just past his waist now. Her hair trailed down to the middle of her back. Her face lost most of its baby fat.   
  
Usagi stared into her father's eyes. She couldn't really read them. She didn't know if he was still mad at her. She didn't really want to ask because if he was, she didn't want to get yelled at. He hadn't really said much to her since she was scolded. She rested her head on the table as she waited for Piccolo to return.  
  
"Odango! Didn't expect you to come by. Ready for another round?"  
  
Usagi's head shot up from her place on the table. She gazed over at Mamoru, who was standing in front of Piccolo. "I knew it!" Usagi looked to her father, who had a shocked look on his face.  
  
Piccolo sighed. "Get a chair boy."  
  
"Piccolo, would you please explain to me why Mamoru is your son?!" A thousand thoughts were running through Goku's head. He didn't know which ones were more important to ask. There was one that stood out in his mind the most. "Why the hell did you let Usagi stay on her own last year after your kid beat her nearly to death!?" Goku knew that he had just sworn in front of Usagi, but he didn't care at that point. He was more interested in getting answers from Piccolo.  
  
Piccolo didn't know how to answer the question. He didn't know why he had left her on her own. He could sense Goku's energy building up with each second that he didn't reply. "I don't know. I didn't want to blow my cover." He noticed Mamoru walking back into the room with two chairs.   
  
Goku nearly blew his top with that little statement. "You didn't want to blow your cover? What is more important? Your stupid cover, or my daughter's life!? You know I would never leave your kid by himself!"  
  
"Goku, please, calm down." Piccolo was strong, but not strong enough to beat Goku. He didn't want to start any fight with him. "Look Usagi survived. I knew that she would survive." He sat down and directed his son to do the same.  
  
"Father, why are you trying to get on their good sides? You can take them out. Together we can take them out. I can beat Odango here. I was just off today." Mamoru cocked his head from side to side.  
  
Piccolo put his hand on his shoulder. "No. These are my friends."  
  
Goku snorted. "Some friend. You never cared about Usagi. And to think, I trusted you with her. What happened to you Piccolo? You were so good with Gohan." He wasn't sure if he could trust Piccolo with Usagi anymore.   
  
Piccolo hated this. He knew what he had done was bad. He felt horrible for it. "Look, I'm sorry. I would never intentionally let anything bad happen to Usagi. She IS your daughter. She should have been able to take it."  
  
"You should control your son a little bit better."   
  
Usagi glared at Mamoru, while he glared back at her. They could feel each others hate for one another.  
Mamoru turned his attention to Goku. "Look, my father doesn't need to control me! This is how I was trained. No mercy. If your stupid daughter can't handle it, she shouldn't fight."  
  
Goku shot up from his chair, letting it fly out behind him and grabbed Mamoru by the throat before he knew what he was doing. "Usagi is not stupid! She is a great fighter!" He stared into Mamoru's coal black eyes and could see the fear. Goku quickly realized what he was doing and released the boy. "Piccolo, I think we should kill this subject before any more anger arises from it." He knew that if it wasn't stopped soon, someone would get hurt, and he knew it wouldn't be him or Usagi. He walked back to the table, picked up the chair, and sat down in it once again. "Please, tell us how Mamoru came to be your son."  
  
Piccolo took a deep breath. "Ok, but this is kind of an interesting story. I brought him into my home about eight years ago. I was sparring with myself using my splitting technique. Well, I was on the mountainside and out of no where I heard an explosion. I didn't know what it was. I thought that maybe it was a new enemy, so I went to investigate. When I got to where I heard the blast, I didn't see anything except a car that was on fire. I felt a tremendous power coming from the car. I was curious so I went closer. I was frightened by what I saw inside the car."   
  
Mamoru listened to every single one of his father's words. He had never heard this story before. He didn't remember anything before the age of four. He began training when he was five. He didn't even remember his real parents. Whenever he asked his father about why he lived with him, all that he got in reply was, 'Because I adopted you.' "What did you see father?"  
  
Piccolo continued. "Well, what I saw you and your parents inside the burning car. You were crying out, with a few cuts, while your parents were burning up in flames." He didn't go into much more detail then that. He didn't think that Goku would appreciate him going into bloody details in front of Usagi. "Your power was calling to me. I had never felt such a strong power from a human. So I decided to take you in and teach you to use that power. I asked you what your name was, but you didn't know. So I picked out a name for him."  
  
Mamoru didn't know what to think. "You lied to me all that time?"  
  
"No. I didn't lie to you. I just didn't want to tell you what really happened to your parents. It would have crushed you." He could tell that his son was having a hard time with the truth. "This is exactly why I didn't tell you."  
  
"Then why didn't you tell us Piccolo?"   
  
Piccolo turned his attention to Usagi. "I didn't think it was important. I didn't want you guys to know."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Just because all right? Now leave me alone!" Piccolo was upset with himself. He should have told everyone, but he couldn't. He didn't want people to know about Mamoru. He wanted to train him with out other peoples' influence.   
  
Goku stood up. He didn't want to burden Piccolo by being there. He knew that he and Mamoru had some talking to do. He looked over at Usagi. "Let's take off. Your mother is expecting us home."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. She knew not to argue with him. But, she wanted to know more. She wanted to learn more about Mamoru. Now that she understood a little bit about him. She now saw him in a totally different way. He had been taught by Piccolo. He had been taught to fight with hatred. He had been taught that power was everything. "Ok." She stood up and walked over to Mamoru who was deep in his thoughts. "Mamoru, when you find your special power, come fight me, ok?"  
  
Mamoru grinned as he stared into the young Saiyan's eyes. "You're on."  
  
She turned back to her father, who was smiling at her, She knew that she had done something good. "I'm ready daddy." She grabbed onto his leg. "Bye guys."   
  
(K! That's it for this whole chapter. See? I told you it was going to be WAY shorter then chapters one and two. So, what did you think of this part? Good? Or Bad? Please review. Thank you!)  



	38. Part 5

  
  
(You know what? I lied. I said that part 4 was the last part of chapter 3, well, I decided to add a little bit to it, this will be the last part to chapter 3. Oh yeah, this part is going to be smaller then the others too. It will still be somewhat long. Ok, bye for now)  
  
Mamoru sat silent for about five minutes after Usagi and her father left. There were so many questions overwhelming his brain. He didn't know what to ask first. He couldn't really sense his father's feelings. All he knew was that he was breathing heavily. He could feel his eyes on him. He looked over. Their eyes met and locked. "Father, why didn't you ever tell me the truth? Why didn't you tell me that you were good friends with Usagi and her family?"  
  
Piccolo sighed. He hoped that this day would never arrive. He had wanted to keep Mamoru a secret from everyone. "I have already told you why I never told you about your parents."  
  
"No, you just said I would be crushed, which leads to curiosity. I want to know WHAT happened to my parents. I want to know who they were. I want to know why you kept me. Why you felt my power and no one else did." Mamoru had often wondered who his real parents were. He had often wondered why they would abandon him.  
  
Piccolo growled. Although he didn't really care for the boy when he first found him, he had grown to love him over the years. He didn't want to tell him. He didn't want him to be sad and get depressed. But, if he didn't tell him, his son would hate him. "Look, when I found you, you were nearly strangled to death with your seatbelt. The car was hanging out of a tree on the side of a mountain. Your parents were on fire, burning to death. They were crying out. The last words of your mother were, 'Save my baby'. The fire then consumed her after these last words. You were crying out for help. You were crying for your mother to help you. You didn't know that she was already gone. I ripped your door open and pulled your seat belt away from your throat and the grabbed you out. You were badly injured with burns all over your body. You had a giant gash on you forehead. I was surprised to find that you were still alive. So I brought you to where I was living and put water all over your body to keep you skin from burning even more. That's when I felt it. Your power. To tell you the truth, I wasn't going to keep you at first. I was going to give you to one of my friends to take care of. But after I felt your power inside you, I decided to take you in, as my son, and care for you. And now, I wouldn't change that for the world. You fell asleep, and when you awoke, you didn't remember anything. You had amnesia."  
  
Mamoru didn't know what to think. It was true that he had had amnesia. He knew that THAT was true. He didn't remember any of the activities that his father just explained to him. He could feel himself becoming sick just thinking about his two parents, burning to death. His father was right, he shouldn't have been told the truth. But he had to know.   
  
"So in other words, you don't really care about me. You just wanted me to be able to have power, right?" Mamoru frowned at his father. He couldn't believe it. His life had been a lie.  
  
"No, of course not. I…I…," Piccolo found it hard to say anything nice towards people. "I guess, I love you."   
  
Mamoru's eyes widened when he heard those words come out of his father's mouth. Those words had never been spoken to him EVER in his life. There had always been words of encouragement, but never words of love. He smiled. "Thanks, dad. I love you too."   
  
Mamoru felt somewhat strange. For the first time in his life, he felt a love towards something. For the first time, he actually felt loved. He started to realize why Usagi's father was so protective of her. 'He must really love her. Maybe I was wrong in what I did?' "Father, why didn't you tell me about Usagi?"  
  
"I didn't want you to get involved with all those people. I didn't want you to get soft. But I guess that probably would have been better. Goku is right. I do need to control you a little better. But not really control in that sense. I think what I need to do is teach you something about fighting for the right reasons." Piccolo knew that he had lost his son. He could tell that he was dazed and confused. "When we were at the Budaki, she told me that you fight to hurt people, which is true. I taught you that way, but I know now that I shouldn't have. Mamoru, you should always keep in mind, that fighting isn't as serious as I make it seem. I mean, don't get me wrong, fighting is a very serious thing, but only when there is an immediate threat."  
  
Mamoru seemed to understand a bit. "Oh, I see. So you want me to be like Usagi?" In his mind, that was just and absurd way of fighting. She fought with 'love'. "You don't get anywhere fighting like her. She fights for all the wrong reasons. She fights for fun."  
  
Piccolo grabbed his head. "I see it's going to be hard for you to see this. I don't like this any better then you do, but I have learned, that if you want to get around in the world, you have to learn some virtues of love, which I have failed to teach you. I used to fight with hate. I used to fight just to hurt people. I didn't get very far, nor did I get very strong. I used to fight Usagi's dad, Goku. We fought for real. I wanted to take over the world, but every time, he would beat me because his heart was not in the fight for hate. He wanted to protect earth. That's what happened with you and Usagi. You fought for hate; she fought to protect herself and her reputation. She wanted to prove herself worthy. She fought with love and compassion. Don't think I didn't feel it. You could learn a lot from her."  
  
Mamoru snorted. He didn't think he could learn much from her. "Fine, fine, I'll give it a try."  
  
Piccolo wasn't sure that he would, but he couldn't argue. He would change over time. 'I can't believe I did this to him.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
One month later…  
  
One month had passed since everyone found out that Piccolo was Mamoru's father. Gohan hadn't been too happy. In fact, he had a nice LONG talk with Piccolo, which nearly led to a fight. But Piccolo explained everything to him that he had explained to Mamoru. Piccolo was now trying his hardest to try and change his son's way of thinking, but was having a hard time. Mamoru just didn't want to listen. He was stuck in his own ways, but was making SOME progress. He could now actually admit that Usagi was stronger them him.   
  
There had been no contact between Goku's family and Piccolo and Mamoru since Gohan had gone over to their house and nearly beat the hell out of them. The two families didn't really have anything to say to each other. Chi-Chi had been so outraged, that she forbade Usagi from ever talking to either of the two again.  
  
"Usagi! Come out here! We have plans to make!" Chi-Chi had been trying for a week to get Usagi to help make plans for her birthday party that was to take place at Bulma and Vejita's in five days. Usagi always seemed to be busy with other things though. Like playing with her friends or sparring.  
  
She didn't get a reply from her daughter. "Usagi, if you don't get out here now, there will be NO party. We don't even have invitations sent out yet."  
  
"Coming mom!" Usagi dashed out of her room. She knew that her mother would cancel the party if she didn't. Her mother always put her foot down in situations like this. She ran into the kitchen where she saw her father rummaging through the refrigerator and her mother sitting at the table, frowning at her. "Sorry mom. I was brushing my hair." She sat down in the chair on the end of the table, just to the right of her mother.  
  
Chi-Chi softly smiled. She was glad that her daughter wasn't a total tomboy. That she still had some girl in her. "That's ok sweetie. We just need to make some invitations out. Now, who do you want to invite?"  
  
Usagi thought for a moment. She knew exactly who she wanted to invite, but didn't know if her mother would let her. "Everyone."  
  
"Ok, that can be done." She began to write down the names of all the people that Usagi knew well enough to go to the party on a white paper that sat in front of her. "Goku, come here and tell me if I'm missing anybody."  
  
Goku, who now sat at the opposite end of the table of Usagi with a pile of various foods in front of him, stood up and walked over to his wife. He took a bite of a sandwich and bent down to get a good look at the paper. "Let's see, you've got Minako, Rei, Ami, Makoto, Vejita, Bulma, Bra, Goten, Trunks, Gohan, Videl, Pan, Yamcha, Krillin, Marron, and 18. I think that's all of them."  
  
"No. That's not all of them." Usagi watched her parents cock their heads to look at her. They looked at her with confusion. "What about Piccolo and Mamoru."  
  
Chi-Chi's jaw nearly dropped. "What?! Those two are NOT coming to your party! In case you forgot, you are not allowed to see them anymore! Am I understood?!" Chi-Chi couldn't understand why Usagi would want them at her party. She had received more abuse from Mamoru then she did from anyone else.  
  
Usagi frowned. "But it's MY party. I want them there." Usagi didn't care how much she would have to beg or whine. She WOULD have them at her party.  
  
Goku, was a bit more understanding. He had to be. He always had to be the mediator between the two. They were always fighting with each other. It was as if they were siblings. He remembered Vejita telling him that he would have to get used to them fighting all the time. He said it was a female thing. That females never got along, especially if it was a mother and daughter fighting. The daughter always had to challenge the mother. "Please you guys. Don't do this now." Usagi and Chi-Chi stopped fighting and just glared at one another. He looked to his daughter. "Look, your mother is right. You shouldn't be around those two."  
  
Usagi stopped glaring at her mother and turned to her father. She opened her mouth to protest. "But that's not fair. Like you always say daddy, people make mistakes all the time. Remember when I got in trouble at school? You gave me a chance. You didn't just decide to hate me because I made a mistake. I've made tons of mistakes before and you don't hate me."  
  
"That's different Usagi. Your father and I love you because you are our child. We could never hate you. But, we can dislike someone for hurting you."   
  
Usagi turned her attention to her mother. She didn't understand how it was any different. "It's not different. You have to give people a chance. They just made a mistake." She turned to her father. "Are you just going to throw away your friendship with Piccolo because of something that happened between me and Mamoru? Daddy, come on. Please. Just give them a chance. I know they're good."  
  
Goku knew she was right. He had felt bad about not contacting Piccolo in the past month. He himself hadn't seen Piccolo since the night he found out that he was Mamoru's father. He just didn't know how he was going to convince his wife otherwise. "Chi-Chi, Usagi is right. We do need to give them another chance before we make any decisions. We could live to regret this." Usagi smiled. She knew she could get them to understand.  
  
Chi-Chi sighed. It was two against one. She knew that they would make her let them come. "Fine, but, the first time that they try something, they are out. And you never see them again. You got that Usagi? I don't want you coming home full of blood again." Chi-Chi wrote down Piccolo and Mamoru's name on the paper.   
  
Usagi jumped down off her chair and hugged her mother. "Thanks mom. You won't regret this." She pulled back and skipped off to her room.   
  
Chi-Chi glared up at her husband. "I'm holding you personally responsible if something happens to her."  
  
Goku walked back to his food. "Don't worry. Piccolo won't let anything bad happen."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Later that night…  
  
Mamoru arrived home after dark from sparring with Haruka and Michiru. He didn't do too well. Ever since he found out what had really happened, why he was really under the care of his father, he had lost some of his fighting spirit. He walked up to the door, where there was a white envelope taped to the door. He pulled it off and read the front of it. It was addressed to him and his father. 'Since when do we get mail? We don't even really have an address.' He ripped the seal open, anxious to read what was inside. He pulled out the card that was in it. He opened it up and began reading it. "What the…Usagi is inviting us to her birthday party? But why? I thought she hated me."   
  
He shrugged of his curiosity and walked into the house. He thew his bag on the floor by the door and ran to the kitchen to get something to eat. He was starving. He found his father in the dinning room. "Dad, this was on the door." He put the invitation on the table and walked across the room to the kitchen.  
  
Piccolo slid the envelope closer to him with his hand and then opened it. "What is this?" He looked up to his son.  
  
"Some invitation I think." He pulled out a frozen pizza for himself and set it on the counter.   
  
Piccolo proceeded to pull the card out of the envelope and began to read it. "Yeah, it's an invitation." He read who it was from. "TO USAGI'S PARTY? What the hell are they trying to pull. I thought they hated us. If I go Gohan will probably get pissed off at me." Not only did he feel horrible that he hurt Usagi, but he felt worse knowing that his best friend was mad at him. He hurt too many people because of the secrets that he kept thinking that he was protecting them.   
  
Mamoru poured himself a glass of soda. "Should we go?"  
  
Piccolo put the envelope with the invitation back down on the table. "I don't know. Usagi obviously isn't mad at us. Goku must not be either. He would have insisted that we not go. But, I don't know how everyone else would feel. I'm going to have to think about this one."  
  
Mamoru didn't really care if he went. He had done something thinking lately and came to realize that what he had done to Usagi was indeed wrong. He began to think of her as a human being, and not just someone that he could push around. He didn't dare tell Michiru and Haruka though. They still hated her. He still didn't care too much for her for the fact that he beat her. He would have to get strong so he could beat her. But the next time they fought wouldn't be for revenge. "Well, do as you wish father."  
  
~*~*~  
  
One week later… Doing a lot of time jumping here   
  
Usagi arrived at Bulma's about a half-hour before her party started. Her mother bought her a baby blue dress for the occasion. It was a sleeveless dress that cut off at her knees. A belt that was part of the dress, came out from each side of the dress, and was tightly tied behind her into a neat little bow.   
  
She walked into the kitchen, where Bulma and her mother were cooking something. She sat down at the table, then quickly got back up and walked over to Bulma and looked at what she was doing. She was cutting something. "What's that for?"  
  
Bulma smiled down to Usagi. "Weren't you just in here about five minutes ago? And didn't you say that you were going to find Vejita?"  
  
Usagi walked over to her mother. "I found him, then came back here." She looked at her mother as she frosted the cake. "What cha doin?"  
  
"Usagi, please. I know you're excited, but calm down. I still have a lot of things that I have to do to get prepared. I have told this already today. Please, go bother your father and Vejita some more." Chi-Chi pushed her daughter away so she could have more room to work.  
  
Usagi didn't really care that her mother didn't want her around. She was too happy to care. She scampered out of the kitchen and decided that she would go and bug Vejita and her father again. She ran into the living room, where she had found him before, and sat down next to him.   
  
Vejita glared down at her. "What do you want kid?"  
  
Usagi smiled up at him as she grabbed his arm. "I just want to be with you." She leaned her head into his arm. She knew that he really hated it when she did that.   
  
Vejita looked up to Goku. "Kakkorotto, please take your kid off of my arm." He tugged on his arm, but with each tug, Usagi only responded by tightening her grip. "Get off. Go bug the women."  
  
Goku laughed at Vejita. Usagi always had a way of making Vejita go nuts. "I don't know Vejita. I think she's really attached to you. I think you two should get married now." He rocked back and fourth in the rocking chair that he sat in.  
  
Vejita glared up at Goku. He knew how girls react when they hear the word married. "You complete idiot! What's wrong with you?"  
  
Usagi smiled even more wide. "I think you're right daddy. I think me and Vejita should get married. And what a day to do it. On my birthday." She let go of his arm and stood up on the sofa. "Let's go Vejita."  
  
Vejita didn't stand up. He knew how to shut her up. "I don't think Bulma would be too happy if I married you."  
  
Goku grinned. It was time for him to have some fun. "Oh, but Vejita, I was talking to Bulma this morning, and, well, she thought it was a wonderful idea. She said that she would love it if you got married to little Usagi."   
  
Vejita stood up. "What are you doing kakkorotto? I am NOT marrying your daughter!"  
  
Usagi jumped onto Vejita's back, making him nearly fall flat on his face. "Come on Vejita! Let's get married! Daddy can be the preacher guy! It'll be fun!" Usagi had her arms wrapped around Vejita's neck and her legs wrapped around his waist.   
  
Vejita growled in anger. "Get off me! I'm not marrying you, brat!" He reached up to her arms and pulled them off of him. "If you don't want her to fall, I suggest you come and grab her Kakkorotto." He held Usagi's wrists in one hand. With his other, he pulled her legs away from his waist. He released her wrists and felt her slid down.  
  
Before Usagi had a chance to react, she felt long slender fingers wrap around her ribs. She turned her head and smiled once she saw who it was. "Bra!"  
  
Bra set Usagi down on the ground. "Hey Usagi. Happy birthday! How does it feel to be eight now?"  
  
"Better then it did when I was seven. I feel older now." Usagi sat down on the ground and crossed her legs as she looked up to Vejita. "He won't marry me."  
  
Bra looked at her father and giggled. "Dad, I think you should marry her. It is her birthday, after all."  
  
Vejita frowned at his daughter. "Don't you start in to." He looked behind her. "Where's that good for nothing man of yours?"  
  
"He didn't come because he was afraid that you would do something to him again. Remember last time he came over?"  
  
Vejita snickered. "I didn't do that much to him."  
  
"Dad, you set his hair on fire because he gave me a kiss on the check. I think that that qualifies as a lot." Bra walked around her father and sat down on the sofa. She looked up at Goku. "So, how have you guys been? Goten told me about Piccolo. Are you still mad at him?"  
  
Goku leaned back in his chair as Usagi climbed up on his lap. "Well, yes and no. I'm still upset that he just let Usagi stay by herself after Mamoru beat her up, but I still understand why he did it. Usagi pointed out that people just make mistakes and that we should give them a chance. So we invited them to the party."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Two hours later…  
  
Everyone sat, talking, in the living room. Usagi sat on the floor around the coffee table with Rei, Minako, Makoto, and Ami. They were busy looking at all of the new stuff that Usagi had received as gifts from everyone. There were boxes and twist ties all over the place. Usagi looked around the room at everyone and sighed. She was a little upset that Mamoru and Piccolo hadn't shown up. She was really hoping that they would have. She figured that they just hated her.  
  
Bulma walked out of the kitchen. "Everybody, we are going to have cake and ice cream now. So come on into the kitchen so we can sing to Usagi." She watched Usagi bolted up and ran into the kitchen, followed by her friends. She noticed that Vejita still sat in his spot of the sofa and frowned. "Vejita! Get over here now!"  
  
Vejita crossed his arms. "I'm not singing for anybody!"  
  
"Fine then! I'll get Goku to tell Usagi that she should marry you again."  
  
"How did you know about that?"  
  
Bulma giggled. "I do have ears you know. I'm not totally deaf. Now come on."  
  
Vejita growled as he stood up. He hated to sing at birthdays, and Bulma always made him. "Fine. Just don't get that stupid brat to annoy me again." 'Every single one of these girl's birthdays, that woman always makes me do something stupid.' He walked into the kitchen where Goku was lighting the candles. He leaned against the wall as he crossed his arms. "Hurry up already."  
  
Goku pulled his hand away as soon as the candles were lit. "Ok. I'm done."  
  
"Happy birthday to you, happy…" Usagi let her mind wander as everyone started singing to her. She had really wanted Piccolo and Mamoru to come. She wanted to prove to everyone that they weren't bad people. Although Mamoru had been mean to her, she knew that deep down he was a good guy. He just needed a chance to prove it. She looked up to the faces that surrounded her and scanned over each and every one of them. She stopped when she laid her eyes on someone new. He stared back at her. She smiled just as everyone finished the song. "Mamoru, Piccolo! You came!"  
  
Everyone turned to look in the direction that Usagi was to see Piccolo and Mamoru. Piccolo smiled. "Yeah kid. We came because you wanted us to."  
  
"I didn't think you would come."  
  
"Hey, you gotta have more faith in us then that Odango."  
  
Usagi frowned. She hated that name, but it was stuck in his mind and there wasn't anything she could do to change that. "Thanks guys."  
  
Gohan looked at his sister and saw happiness in her eyes. He didn't object to Piccolo being there as long as Usagi wasn't upset. He had forgiven Piccolo for what he had done after he knew why Mamoru was the way he was. He still didn't care too much for Mamoru, but that's the price he had to pay to be Piccolo's friend. He put his hand on his shoulder. "We're glad you could make it Piccolo."  
  
Piccolo looked over at Gohan. "Thanks. You truly are a great friend."  
  
Mamoru walked over to Usagi. "I thought we had an agreement. You hate me, I hate you."  
  
"Hate is bad. Love and friendship is good." She reached over and grabbed a fist full of cake. "Have some cake." She lifted her hand and smeared the cake in his face. She began to laugh. Everyone just stared at the two. They weren't sure if Mamoru was going to get mad and retaliate.   
  
Mamoru grinned as he wiped some of the cake off his face. "You too Odango." He flung it onto her face and started to laugh too.   
  
(K. Now this is the last part to chapter 3. This time I'm not lying. Ok, so what did you think? Good? Or bad? Please review and tell me. Thank you!)  



	39. First Encounters Part 1

  
6 months later…  
  
Every Student in the class had their eyes glued to the clock, watching the last few minutes of school pass by. They had all anxiously been waiting for this day to come ever since school started back in September. Each and every student sat in their seats, waiting for the last five minutes of the school day to end. Once the day was out, they would have two weeks of freedom. They would have two long weeks of winter vacation and wouldn't have to worry about the stress of school.  
  
Usagi was one of the most excited out of the whole group. She was going to be able to have two weeks of relaxation. Her father had told her that she didn't have to train for the two-week vacation. She hadn't protested either. She was ready for the break to just sit around and do nothing. Most of the time, she had weekends to do nothing. But even then, it just wasn't enough for the young fighter. A two-day break wasn't much. Now she would be able to spend a longer period relaxing. At the end of the break, she would be refreshed and ready to train with full use of her energy. She just couldn't wait.  
  
She leaned her chest of her table and put her arms out in front of her. "Come on clock, only four more minutes. Four little minutes. Please, just hurry up and hit three o'clock." Usagi looked forward to every vacation. She usually got quite hyper when one was nearing. Especially around spring vacation.  
  
"Usagi, the time isn't going to speed itself up just because everyone wants to go home. Just calm yourself. If you don't watch the clock, the time will go by faster."   
  
Usagi looked over to Ami. Usagi had always thought that Ami had acted much like an adult. She didn't think it was normal. There had been many occasions when Usagi would try to get her to do something fun, yet Ami insisted on studying instead. She couldn't figure out for the life of her what her friend found so interesting about studying. She hated it. She found no use for it in her life, which made her mother angry with her, but she didn't mind. She turned her head to Ami. "Ami, loosen up."  
  
Ami didn't have anything to say to that. She never really did have anything to reply to Usagi about those sorts of things. She found that it usually just caused an argument when she did. Usagi would usually end up winning because she could be louder and more obnoxious. But she still liked Usagi. There was something about her that made Ami feel carefree whenever she was around her, yet there were other times when Usagi felt like she had to act as a parent. From what she had learned from being with her for the past seven months, Usagi was a kind hearted, fun loving, carefree person. She didn't like work too much and always wanted to play. Her idea of play was hanging out or taking part in a good spar. She had even tried to get Ami to fight, but her mother wouldn't have it. She was strongly against the idea of children fighting. Ami pretty much went along with it. Although fighting interested her, she didn't want to upset her mother by disobeying her. Usagi had begged Ami's mother on numerous occasions to allow her to fight, but every time, the answer was the same. Ami told Usagi to just hold off for a while and that she would try asking at a later date, once she shows her mother that fighting isn't all that bad.   
  
Usagi turned her head back to the clock and realized that she only had two minutes left to go. "Yes! I can't wait to get home! First thing I'm doing is watch TV." Usagi never watched TV on weekdays. She never had time. She missed watching all her favorite shows.  
  
Minako was also letting her anxiety get the best of her. "Usagi. This is going to be so much fun. And guess what?! My mom enrolled me in a dance class. Isn't that cool?! I can't wait to go! I start on Monday." Minako had begged and begged her mother for months to enroll her in a dance class. She had always wanted to dance, ever since she went to one of her cousin's ballet recitals when she was four years old. Although, she didn't exactly want to do ballet. She wanted to do something a little more up beat. She wasn't sure exactly WHAT, she would find out once she got to class and had a chance to see the types of dance that were offered.   
  
"That's so cool Minako! Dancing would be fun. Too bad my dad wouldn't let me dance. He's so keen on fighting. If I weren't training with Goku and you guys, I would have to go back to that stupid martial arts class. My dad always treats me as if I'm a boy." It wasn't that Makoto didn't like fighting, she just wished that her father wouldn't always push her into it. She wanted it to be her decision. And although Goku elected to give the girls a break from fighting for the two weeks, her father did not approve of it. He didn't want her to get out of shape, so he enrolled her in one of Mr. Satan's martial arts class for the next two weeks. She was a bit disappointed for two reasons. She wouldn't get to hang out with her friends as often as she would have liked to, plus, she won't learn anything. She will be totally ahead of everyone there. When she told her friends, they were also disappointed.   
  
Usagi turned back to look at Minako. "Wait, that means you're going to be gone during the day too? That's not fair though. I want us all to be able to hang out." Usagi was already disappointed that Makoto was going to be gone during the day. "And what about when vacation is over? You will have to go after school."  
  
"No I won't. Mom worked it out to where I will be able to go on the weekends when school returns. And don't worry about hanging out, class gets out at 2:30 anyways. I'll still be able to hang out with you guys for the rest of the days anyways." Minako noted that there was only a minute left until they were released from school and picked up her bag as she stood up. "Come on, we only have a minute left."  
  
Usagi sighed as she picked up her stuff. She would have to except the fact that two of her friends would have other things that they would have to do over winter break. At least she wouldn't totally be alone. She would still be able to hang out with Ami and Rei. They could still go places together. She looked up at the clock in anticipation. "Ok you guys, here it goes. Five…four…three…two…one…let's get ourselves out of here and say good bye to this stupid place for two whole weeks!" Usagi didn't even let herself finish her sentence before she was already dashing out the door, leaving Minako, Makoto, and Ami behind.  
  
Minako looked to her friends and giggled. "There she goes again. She must really hate school." She didn't like schooling either, but she still did her work, unlike Usagi, who detested doing anything schoolwork related. Doesn't that just sound like Usagi?   
  
Makoto put her chair up on her desk and looked around to the kids around her as they yelled across the room to each other and ran out the door. "Yeah. It's pretty obvious. Here mom is really mad at her too because she doesn't get good marks. But from what Gohan has told me, Chi-Chi said that studying is more important the saving the world."  
  
"Well, studying is important you guys, but if the world is at stake, I think fighting is the better way to go. I've noticed that my mother and Usagi's mother have quite a bit in common. They are both against fighting. But, Chi-Chi has Goku to talk her into letting Usagi into fighting, while my mom has not husband." Ami's father had died of cancer when she was only five years old. I know that never happened. But you know I've changed so much already, I may as well change that too. "My mother wants me to be safe. That's why she will not allow me to fight, while it is the same case with Usagi's mother. So you guys, that's why it's going to take me a little while to talk my mom into letting me fight. I don't have the luxury of a father coaxing my mother into letting me fight."  
  
Minako and Makoto just stared at Ami. She was always using big words that they didn't know. They kind of had the basic gist of what she was saying, but not always sure. In this case they didn't really need to know what the words meant to know what she was saying. Makoto looked around the room to see that virtually every kid in their right mind had already left the room. They were the only ones left. "Come on you guys. Let's get out of here before Usagi has a cow and starts yelling at us for making her wait."  
  
Too late. Usagi had decided that she was tired of waiting on them and poked her head in the door. "Come on you guys! I want to get home. Let's go already." She immediately took her head out of the door and waited for her friends.  
  
She crossed her arms, grabbing each arm with the opposite hand to produce warmth. It was the middle of December and the weather was icy. She was freezing, even with her coat on. "Bur…" Her teeth began to chatter. She turned her head over to the door when she heard the sound of her friends talking coming in that direction. "Took you guys long enough." She playfully smiled to her friends as she stepped forward. She looked up to the sky when she felt something fall on her nose. "Ooooh. Look you guys. It's snowing."  
Ami covered her eyes with her hand as she too looked to the sky. "Wow, this is so cool. Maybe we will get a lot of snow this year instead of getting barely any." In previous years, there had been very little snow in the winter. They would get some, but maybe just a few inches here and there. Nothing too big. All the girls had always wanted to have lots of snow to play in.   
  
Minako put the hood of her jacket over her head. "You guys, it's getting really cold. I think we should be getting home. My parents are expecting me home early anyways." Her hair was being thrown around her as the wind started to pick up. "I'll talk to you guys later. Maybe we can go somewhere tomorrow or something."  
  
Ami began to walk to the fence that led out of the playground and into the parking lot. "I'll see you all later. I have to go to Bulma's tonight and tomorrow. We're working on a really cool new project together and we're almost finished. It should be done by Tuesday. You guys should come by and see it. I can't stay and talk about it now though, Bulma should be here already." Everyday after school, Bulma would come by and pick Ami up to go to her house so she could teach her things. Most of the work was hands on as Bulma knew that when you work with your hands and other items, you usually learn faster then if you just read books and did worksheets.  
  
"Bye Ami! See you later!" Usagi watched as Ami left the playground and then looked around. She shivered as she began to feel the cold air creeping up her jacket and around her legs. "You guys, it's getting REALLY cold. And we're pretty much the only ones left here. I think Minako's right. We should be getting home. My mom is going to worry about me if I it starts snowing harder and gets more windy if I'm not home. I'll be in major trouble if she has to tell dad to come and find me and I'm all right. She'll just say that I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing, as always." Usagi hated to get scolded by her mother. Anything she did, just wasn't good enough for her.   
  
Minako, who was already in the air slowly began to fly forward. "Hey you guys, when you fly, it makes you warmer. You should try it."  
  
Usagi and Makoto nodded at each other and then jumped into the air. They both began to fly forward a bit. Makoto headed left, though, towards her house. "You're right. It does warm us up. Probably because we're being active." She began moving faster and turned her head to her friends. "See you later. Bye you guys."  
  
Usagi turned around. "Bye Makoto. I'll call you tomorrow!" She looked forward to Minako and could barely see her because the snow was now falling at an even faster pace. They both began flying forward. "Great. It's coming down harder now. This would be perfect if I didn't have to fly in it." She put her arm in front of her face to try and block some of the snow rushing into her.  
  
Minako sped up her face, with Usagi following closely behind. "Yeah, and you have further to go then I do. You should go as fast as you can. Don't worry about staying with me. I'll be fine by myself. I don't have to much more to go."  
  
Usagi nodded and complied with her friend. She knew she was right. She needed to get back home as soon as possible. "By Minako. See ya tomorrow hopefully." She waved goodbye and turned forward, increasing her speed to her fullest. The icy snow hitting against her body sent cold chills up and down her body. 'Why do we have to have our first snow storm NOW?'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi stood in front of the window to her family room. She was beginning to get worried. It had been a half-hour since her daughter was released from school. She didn't know how long it would take her to get home. She didn't know how close to home she was. The snow was violently coming down from the sky due to the wind. It was too thick to see anymore then ten feet in front of the house. 'I wish you would get home soon Usagi.' She turned around and proceeded to walk down the hallway and into the living room, where her husband was watching cartoons. She leaned over the back of the sofa by his head. "Goku, is Usagi close to being home yet?"  
  
Goku took his eyes off the TV but didn't turn his head. He could feel his daughter's Ki coming towards the house at quite a fast speed. "She should be home any minute now. Don't worry. She can navigate through the snow. If she all of a sudden stops for any reason, I'll go get her."  
  
"Well, maybe you should go and get her now. I'm worried. She should have been home by now, and the wind is picking up. She has never been in a snowstorm before. She might not know what to do."  
  
"Chi-Chi…" He turned his head to look over at his wife. She had the look of a worried mother on her face. If it were up to him, he would have just let Usagi come home on her own. She was older now and could hold her own in a snowstorm. "Don't worry. She won't have a problem coming home. You can't baby her forever. You have to let her do things on her own. If you don't, she will never be ready to take care of herself. What do you think I've been doing with her for the past couple of years. If I know she can do it, then I let her. But if I know it exceeds her limits, I don't make her do it. Just like with Mamoru. I know what I'm doing Chi-Chi."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned at this little speech of his. "She is just a little girl Goku. She may be able to handle it, but you shouldn't let her just because of this. I don't want her to grow up before she has to. I want her to enjoy her childhood. Gohan didn't get to. He was always fighting. Ever since he was four. He was forced into it. He was forced to fend for himself in the wilderness for half a year. The other half Piccolo trained him. And what did the fighting get him? A dead father. Goten was lucky enough to have half a happy childhood. A normal childhood." Chi-Chi took one look at her husband's face and knew that she had crossed the line.  
  
Goku looked forward and clenched his fists. "Do you think I like the fact that I had to leave you guys? If you do, you're sadly mistakin. There is nothing that I wouldn't do to be able to turn back the clock and kill Raditz in another time." Goku paused for a reply from Chi-Chi, but didn't get one. "Look, do you remember when you were in labor with Usagi? You asked me if I was alright with having another child." He looked back to his wife as she nodded without a word. "Well, I told you I was. But really, I wasn't sure if I was or not. Part of me wanted her, but there was another part of me that didn't want to have another child. I didn't want to shatter another innocent life. I hate myself for what I did to Gohan and Goten. I didn't want that to happen again."  
  
Chi-Chi couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Why didn't you ever tell me this Goku?"  
  
"Because you were so happy when you found out that you were pregnant. I didn't want to make you unhappy. I hadn't planned on telling you ever, but so many things have pushed me to do it. So manNot only did I hurt Gohan by leaving so many times, but I thought I was doing everyone a favor by staying dead after cell was defeated. But really, I was just shattering another innocent life, Goten's. Everyone is right. I'm a horrible father." Goku rested his face in his hands as he continued thinking about how a total failure as a father he was.   
  
Chi-Chi walked around the sofa and sat next to her husband. She could tell that this was something that he had been thinking about for a long time. He had to have. No one like Goku just comes up with thoughts like that. She rubbed her hand on his back. "Look, Goku, you aren't a bad father. Do you think I would have had anymore children then Gohan with you if I didn't think you were a good father? Do you think I would trust you with Usagi if I didn't think you were a good father? Granted you weren't the best father when Gohan was a baby, I mean really, you nearly let him run into a tree. But, you have grown since then. We were both young and didn't really know what parenting was all about back then. I think you have grown the most. I didn't mean what I said earlier. You know me, I go off all the time, and most the time, I don't even know what I'm saying. I know I get angry a lot. But that's just me. If you had feelings like this, you should have told me so we could have gone through this together."  
  
Goku looked over to his wife. She was right that she didn't know what she was saying half the time, but he still felt horrible. He had put all of his kids through so much that it just made him sick to think about it. "I guess the important thing is that they have never died once, right?"   
  
Chi-Chi could detect a hint of laughter from her husband. "That's right. I mean look at Gohan, he's successful and has raised a family. Goten, on the other hand, is well, just successful. But that's good."  
  
Goku smiled. Talking about it made him feel better. "Thanks Chi-Chi."  
  
"No more doubts right?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Right. From now on, it's all your fault if they mess up."  
  
Now Chi-Chi was smiling. "Why you little." She grabbed onto his arms and started to squeeze them as hard as she could.  
  
Goku continued to smile down at her. "You think that you can hurt me? Silly woman." He bent over as he pulled his arms away and kissed her. He was happy now. She always did have a way of cheering him up when he was down. He pulled away from her. "Usagi is home."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi burst into the house and closed the door behind her with a big thud. She looked around the brightly-lit family room and half expected to see her mother sitting in the chair by the hall worried sick about her. She began brushing the snow off her cloths and out of her hair. "Mom?" She looked down the hallway to see her mother running at her.   
  
"Usagi, look at you. You're all wet. Come here, let's get you into some dry cloths." She ran up to her daughter and immediately began to take off her coat. "Take off your shoes and leave them by the door."  
  
Usagi did as her mother told her. She was more then ready to change into cloths that weren't wet. "Is this a real snow storm mom?" She grabbed her coat from her mother and threw it down on top of her shoes.  
  
Chi-Chi grabbed her daughter's hand and began leading her down the hall. "Yes. We haven't seen one of these in years. They are so rare. Although, it's refreshing to see something new instead of having the same old weather." Chi-Chi let go of her daughter's hand when the phone began to ring. "Usagi, go and change. I'm going to answer the phone. Try not to upset your father please." She ran back to the phone in the family room to make sure she answered it before it stopped ringing. She got to it just before the person on the other line hung up. "Hello?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi continued to walk down the hallway so she could go to her room. 'I wonder why mom told me not to upset daddy. I wonder if something happened.' She stopped walking just as she reached the living room, where her father was watching TV. She shrugged. 'Looks normal to me.' "Hey daddy." She began walking to her room again.  
  
Goku turned around and smiled at his daughter. "Hey. How's it goin?"  
  
"Well, let's see, I'm cold, wet, I just came from school, hmmm…I think I'm doing just dandy thank you." She smiled and walked into her room. She immediately began to undress as soon as she got in. Her skin was beginning to prune up from being so wet. She was thankful for her Saiyan genes and the fact that she couldn't get sick. If she had been all human, she probably would have caught phenomena. Although it was still quiet early and she didn't have to go to bed until 8:30 and it was only 4:45, she decided just to get totally comfortable and get into her bed cloths. She didn't really care. It wasn't like was going anywhere anyways. And hey, it was, after all, her vacation.  
  
Once she was in dry cloths, she walked to her mirror that sat on her dresser and took down her hair from its normal hairstyle. It was full of tangles and was pretty frizzy from the wind. She let it fall to just below her waist as she began to brush through it. 'Wow, snow is kind of cool actually. I wonder if I can get daddy to go play in it with me.' She got her devious smile on her face again. "Daddy…" She put her brush down and turned around and walked out of her room.  
  
She walked up to the side of the sofa and leaned against the armrest. "Daddy, can you go outside and play with me? Pleeeese?" Usagi looked up to her father's face.  
  
Goku looked down at his daughter and smiled. "Not tonight Usagi. It's too windy outside and it's already dark."  
  
"But daddy…"  
  
"Usagi! Get out here NOW!"   
  
Usagi shot her head up. "Uh-oh. What did I do now?" She backed away from the sofa and began to walk down the hallway. "Coming mom!" When she got out to the family room, she was greeted by the angry face of her mother, glaring at her. She didn't get too close. "Yes?" She squeaked out.  
  
Chi-Chi had her arms crossed in front of her and tapped her foot on the ground. She found that by tapping her foot, she calmed down a little bit and was less likely to lash out at someone. "I just got a phone call from your teacher. She says you're nearly failing two subjects. Do you know what those subjects might be?" Usagi shook her head. "Well, it seems you're failing the reading and writing subject, and math. You've got D's in those two subjects. In spelling, surprisingly you have a C, and in science and history you have C pluses. Do you have an explanation for this young lady?" Usagi shook her head again. "Well, there is hope for you yet. I just called Ami's mother, and asked her if she could have Ami tutor you over winter Vacation. I don't want your mind to go any more sour then it already is."  
  
If Usagi's jaw could have dropped to the floor, it would have. "But mom, I was looking forward to having a vacation. That isn't fair." 'Although, it's just Ami. I can do whatever I want. She'll let me. She is my friend and all.'  
  
"Look, it's not fair that you let your studies drop like you do. I've looked over the C's, but D's will just not do. No child of mine will have D's. Your teacher said that you could do some extra credit to bring up your reading and writing skills. She suggested an essay about something you know about. So, you will go park yourself in your room and write an essay about the most interesting part of our family history. And you will not be able to go anywhere until you have it done."  
  
"Mom, you've got to be kidding." Usagi looked into her mother's eyes and could tell that she was very well serious. "I can't believe this, it's my vacation and I have to work."  
  
"I suggest you march yourself back to your room and get busy. And I want to read it before you do anything else."  
  
"I don't know much about the family history. I only know bits and pieces." Usagi was not going to look forward to writing this essay. And she knew she couldn't just write a quick essay. Her mother would be reading over it to make sure it was good enough to turn in.  
  
"You know enough to do an essay. And what you don't know, ask your father." Chi-Chi turned around and walked into the kitchen so she could start on dinner.  
  
Usagi grabbed her bag from sitting by the door and walked into the living room. Her father was still watching cartoons. She decided not to do the essay in her room, but instead do it in the living room. Her mother wouldn't know the difference. She would be busy in the kitchen for a while. She sat down at the end of the coffee table that sat in between the sofa and the TV and pulled out a notebook and a pencil from her school bag and began writing her extra credit essay. 'This is so stupid. I would rather be fighting then write this stupid thing. Stupid teacher. Always calling home whenever I don't get good marks. Gees I hate this.' She began to scribble a few words in her notebook. 'Let's see…'  
  
~~What's she writing~~  
'My family is one of the strongest familys in the world. My dad is Goku, the strongest man in the world. My mom is Chi-Chi the nisest lady in the world. My oldest brother is Gohan and my other brothers name is Goten. My dad has saved the earth from distrucshion lotsa times. There was this 1 time, wen this guy named cell came to earth and made my brother go Super Sayan level two. Before that happened, someone from the futer came and told dad that he would have a heart diseese.'  
  
~~Back to reality~~  
  
Usagi ripped the paper out of her notebook and crumpled it up. "That's no good." She rested her head in her hand.   
  
Goku looked down to his daughter. "What's wrong kiddo?"  
  
Usagi looked up. "Mom is making me write this stupid paper for extra credit about something interesting about our family's history. I know a little bit, but not that much. Can you tell me about Cell?"  
  
Goku turned off the TV. "Sure, why don't you come sit up here and I'll tell you the basics of a very complicated situation."  
  
Usagi smiled. "K!" She hopped up from the ground and sat on her father's lap. "K! I'm ready. Go ahead and tell me what happened! Tell me everything to refresh my memory."  
  
"Ok, well, it all started when I finally returned to earth from fighting Freiza. I was greeted by everyone I knew and loved, except there was a new guy there. His name was Trunks. Well, Trunks told me about his future and how everyone had died by the hands of androids 17 and 18. He told me about that heart virus and gave me the medicine and left. Well, after he left, not much happened. Everything went on as normal for the next three years. Then, when the time came…" Blah, Blah, so on so fourth. I think you all know what happens in that saga since they just played it on Cartoon network twice in a row. "And that's pretty much all there is to know about Cell."  
  
At the end of a half-hour explanation of what happened with the androids and cell, Usagi was full of questions. One stuck out in her mind above all others though. "Well, daddy, since the Trunks here, never lived alone, and never went through all that stuff with the androids that the Trunks from the future, what will happen to the past? I mean, without a Trunks from the future going to the past, the past will be messed up and everyone will die."  
  
"Well, I never thought of that before. I guess the past will travel a different timeline then ours. Maybe it just keeps going in circles. The Trunks that is in the past right now, will live like the Trunks that came to us from the future. Then the Trunks that is in the past right now, will go to his past and warn everyone, just as we were warned.. Wow, there I go again. Not making any sense.   
  
"You mean, I won't be born in the past?" 'I wonder if there's anyway to stop that from happening all together.'  
  
"There is really no need to worry about it though. We won't be in anyway affected by this. Remember what I said? Each timeline is like a different dimension. So what you do in the past or future, never affects your real timeline."  
  
"But the other dimension still suffers. That's not fair to them. Isn't there anything we can do?" This seemed outrageous to Usagi. She wouldn't be born in the other timeline and everyone would be dead. She wished that there were some way that she could help. But is that the way things really were? Would time just keep going in circles? Or would the androids just not exist anymore. This conversation had left Usagi still quite curious about the subject.  
  
Goku shook his head. "I'm afraid not. This is just the way things work out."  
  
(K! That's it for this part. I know it's kind of boring but I was setting up my chapter in this part. So, what did you think? Did I confuse you? I confused myself. LOL. Anyways, please tell me what you thought. Thank you!)  



	40. Part 2

  
  
Usagi sat in her room, hunched over her desk, and wrote her extra credit essay. She couldn't really concentrate on what she was doing. As a result, she only had a few sentences written down. But she couldn't help it. Her question raced through her mind over and over again, causing her to stop and think about the consequences of her timeline being altered like it had. Once she got to thinking about the Trunks from her future, she began to think about his future. His future must have been like her life. Like the present. It must have been peaceful. But, the Trunks from his future, didn't go to the past. She had come to the conclusion that her father was right. Time did go in circles. She wanted badly to go to the past now. She wanted to warn them of the dangers. But there was no way to do that. There had been no need to build a time machine in her time.   
  
She sighed as she put her head straight down on her desk and closed her eyes. "Why did I have to pick Cell as the most interesting time in my family's history? I could have picked Buu. Goten said that he turned people into candy. But no, I had to pick Cell and now I'm worried about the past. It isn't fair to them." She picked her head up and looked outside. She couldn't see five feet out her window. The snow was coming down at a remarkably fast speed. She had never seen such a thing. The flakes were huge. "I wish I could go outside and play in it."  
  
Usagi turned her head around when she heard her door squeaking open. She hoped that it was her father. If her mother were to come in and see her paper unwritten, she would have freaked. 'Aww man…' She turned her head back around to her desk when she saw her mother's face. "Hi mom." She put her arms over her paper in hopes that she wouldn't see the lack of worked that had been produced.  
  
Chi-Chi walked to her daughter's desk. "You've been in here for a while, I just wanted to see how much progress you've made." She grabbed her daughter's arm and proceeded to lift it up off the paper. She wasn't in the least bit surprised to see that there were barely any words on the paper. Her daughter had to seem to have a lack of attention when it came to school. "Usagi, you need to work faster. I'm sticking by what I said. No playing until you have your work done. I know it may seem harsh now, but when you're older and moved out of the house, you will thank me."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes. She didn't see how learning to write would help her when she grew up. She didn't plan on being a writer. "Yes mom." She knew to agree with her mother. If she had not, she would have been in even more trouble, which she didn't want. She didn't want to waste any more of her vacation then she would already have to. It was bad enough that she would have to study with Ami. She didn't mind being with Ami; she just didn't want to have to study.  
  
"Ok, well, it's already 8:15. I want you to at least have a rough draft finished before you go to bed tonight. It you have to stay up past your bedtime, then that's something we are going to have to let you do. But, I want this essay done before Monday. Oh, and I want it to be at least five pages long. You know our family, one enemy alone is worth more then five pages, but because it's just extra credit, I'll let it go at five. And please use a dictionary. I read your paper that you crumpled up out there." She began to walk towards the door to leave the room. 'I hope she doesn't turn out to be a bum.'  
  
Usagi watched as her mother walked out of her room. She had to. Once she was sure that he door was shut all the way, she opened one of the drawers to her desk and pulled out her CD player. She put her headphones on and turned the power on. She immediately began to scribble words down on her paper in front of her.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Fifteen whole minutes later…  
  
Goku opened the door to his daughter's room and peered in on her. He frowned when he saw what she was doing. She was listening to music while doing her work again. She had been told many times before that, not to listen to music while studying, yet, every chance she got, she insisted on disobeying her parents. He slowly crept up from behind her and looked over her shoulder. She had two pages written in fifteen minutes. He quite impressed. He knew she had a hard time with homework. She was really getting into the right attitude about school. She gently put his hands over the ear part of the headphones and lifted them up, causing his daughter to be startled.   
  
Usagi jumped out of her chair as she felt her headphones being pulled off her ears. Usagi turned around, with her heart rapidly beating inside her chest. "Daddy, don't scare me like that. I didn't know you were in here."  
  
"I'm sorry, but you would have known I was here if…"  
  
Usagi cut her father off. "I know, I know. You guys tell me all the time. I would have known if I wouldn't have been listening to my music. I also know that you guys don't want me to 'blast my ear drums out by listening to it so loud'." Usagi had heard the same lecture from her parents many times. "I also know I'm not supposed to listen my music when I'm studying."  
  
Goku picked up his daughter's CD player and added it to the headphones in his hand. "Well, if you know all this, why do you do it?" Usagi just shrugged. "Look, I know you don't like the rule, but it IS a rule none the less. I know it's more your mother's rule then mine, but she has pointed out that it does tend to make people less attentive. So we both don't get in trouble, I'm just going to take this until you finish."   
  
Usagi sat back down in her chair. 'This isn't fair.' "But daddy, it…"  
  
"No buts, you're lucky I'm not telling mom. Now, if you want to do anything fun anytime soon, I suggest you get that paper done. I was talking to mom and she seems like she's really not going to let you do anything until you get it done. I would help, but I'm no good at this kind of stuff." He turned around and started for the door. "Well, tell us when you finish. Mom wants to read over it before she says its ok." Usagi went back to working on her paper. Once again, her mind began to wander onto other things. Things that seemed more important to her. Definitely not things about school.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Two days later… (Monday)  
  
Usagi awoke to the cold air of her room. It was unusually cold. She sat up and cocked her head to look out the window. It wasn't snowing, not was it windy. There was no reason for it to be so cold. She pulled a spare blanket off her bed as she climbed out of bed. She wrapped the blanket around her body as she ran out of the room to find her parents.  
  
Just as she walked out of her room, her father walked out of his room. "Daddy, why is it so cold in here?"  
  
Goku looked over to his daughter. He was just about to leave for Gohan's to train with him and Piccolo. "Well, the power went out, there's no heat. I'm going to Gohan's if you wanted to come along. He has power. I just talked to him this morning. Your mother is going to Bulma's. She was going to take you along so you could study with Ami though. Maybe you can't come."  
  
Usagi got disappointed. She had barely finished her essay the night before. She just wanted to have a break from work. Her mother was burning her out with work. "Can't me and Ami study at Gohan's? If mom there, then we definitely have to study."  
  
"Usagi, you will have to study if you come to Gohan's with me, but, yes, I will give you a break. But, you have to ask your mother, it's all up to her. I don't mind. But you had better hurry up. Gohan and Piccolo are expecting me there soon." Goku walked down the hallway, where he would await for his daughter to tell him if she was leaving with him.   
  
Usagi walked across the living room, into her mother's room, where she was sitting on the bed talking on the phone. She figured that she was talking to Bulma. "Mom." She walked over to the bed and jumped up on it. "Mom, can I…"  
  
Chi-Chi pulled the phone away from her mouth and covered up the receiver with her hand. "Shh, Usagi, I'm talking on the phone."   
  
"But mom, I just want to ask you something." Usagi sat on her knees as she whined to her mother.  
  
"Just a minute Bulma. Usagi wants to talk to me." She re-pulled the phone away from her mouth. "What is it Usagi? I'm in the middle of a conversation."  
  
Usagi smiled. "I just wanted to know if I could go with daddy to Gohan and Piccolo's to study today. You know, Ami would come over too. I just thought maybe Ami wouldn't want to study in the same place all the time." Usagi knew very well that that wasn't the reason why she wanted to go to Gohan's, but that didn't matter.   
  
Chi-Chi faked a smile for her daughter. She knew that that wasn't her intention, but she also knew that she couldn't call her on it. Usagi would just tell her that she wouldn't think of disobeying her. Chi-Chi had to catch her in the act of doing it. "Fine." And what a perfect way to catch her. She knew that Goku wouldn't be watching her and Usagi would just end up going off and doing what ever. She put the phone back up to her ear. "Bulma, I guess the girls are going to be studying at Gohan's today. Goku and Usagi will be by shortly to pick up Ami."  
  
Usagi couldn't believe it. She hadn't expected her mother to just say yes. She had half expected to have an argument, and then end up getting yelled at. But she was grateful that she hadn't had to fight her for it. She smiled as she jumped off the bed. "Thanks mom." She scampered out of the room. "Daddy! Mom said I could come with you!"  
  
Goku pulled a two-liter bottle of soda out of the refrigerator and downed it. "Ok. Hurry up and get dressed then." Usagi got dressed as fast as she could. She threw on a pale lavender fleece sweater and some overalls. Goku waited for her in the family room when she ran out of the hall. "That was fast."  
  
Usagi ran to the door where her boots sat. She didn't normally need them, but for obvious reasons, she now needed them. "I just want to get away from this house. I'm bored. Writing that paper was boring."  
  
Goku walked to the closet and grabbed his jacket and Usagi's jacket out. He handed her, her jacket and then put his on. "Yeah, I've decided that I'm only going to make you study for a couple of hours." He saw that Usagi was about to ague. "Tell me, would you rather study for two hours at Gohan's, or all day at Bulma's?"  
  
Usagi couldn't argue with that. He had a point. She definitely wanted to study as little as possible. "Fine. Are we going to pick up Ami now?" She picked up her school bag and put it on her back. Inside, she had her GI, just in case she decided to join in on the fight.  
  
"I'm going to drop you off at Gohan's first. I can fly faster then you, I don't want you guys out in the cold any longer then you have to be. Especially Ami. She is human and can easily become sick." He walked to the front door and opened it up. "You do know that Mamoru is going to be there, right?"  
  
"Of course. He's always with Piccolo." Usagi didn't really hate Mamoru that much anymore. She didn't care too much for him though. They were always arguing with each other over silly little things. She hated arguing with him. He always had to critique her every move. But that was something she had began to learn to live with.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi arrived at her brother's house with her father around noon. In a field behind the house, she could see Gohan and Piccolo sparring with each other. 'I wonder where Mamoru is. Wait a minute, why do I care?' She quickly shook her curiosity out of her head as she was being nudged forward by her father's hand.   
  
"Come on Usagi. Let's get you situated inside." He opened to door to his son's house, which was conveniently left open for him to enter at his own free will. He led Usagi into the dinning room, where she would be able to have a large space to study in. "Ok, well, because your mother wants you to study, I have to make you. But like I said, you only have to study for a couple of hours."  
  
Usagi climbed up onto one of the chairs. "All right. I guess that's a fair deal." She looked out a window to her right at the white sparkling snow. "Then can I go play outside?" She had been dying to go outside ever since it started snowing just two days ago. Usually, when it snowed, it was really wet snow, and therefore turned to slush before she had a chance to go out in it.  
  
"I don't care. Just as long as you stick close to the house." He turned around and began to walk away. "If Gohan asks, tell him I went to pick up Ami. He may be a little surprised to see you because he didn't know I was bringing you. I'll be back in about ten minutes or so."  
  
Usagi watched as her father walked back out of the house into the cold outside. She stood up and walked to the glass sliding door and gazed into the field where Piccolo and her brother were sparring.   
  
"Hey Odango. I didn't know you were coming."  
  
Usagi frowned as she turned around to see Mamoru. "Stop calling me that already! You know my name. You also know how I hate it when you call me that."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "But I thought Odango was your name. After all, I've been calling you it for so long. Didn't your parents get you a legal name change? I don't know. I could have sworn Gohan saying something about that." He laughed. He knew very well that his nickname for her was the one thing that really made her blood boil.  
  
"Stop it! Stop laughing at me! You wouldn't like it if I laughed at you!" She clenched her fists when he didn't stop. "I said STOP!" She put her hands out and charged for the laughing boy. He was so busy laughing that he didn't notice. As a result, her hands crashed into his stomach, forcing him to fall backwards. "Now stop it already." She held her hand out to help him up.  
  
Mamoru glared at her. "I don't need your help. You're the one who pushed me down anyways. Why should I trust you?" He put his hands on either side of his legs and pushed himself up, ignoring Usagi's extended had to him. "So why are you here anyways?"  
  
Usagi went back to the window just in time to see Gohan kick Piccolo in the neck. "Because my mom wants me to study all day. If I went with her to Bulma's, then I would have had to study here. But my dad said that if I come here, I only have to study for two hours. He's getting Ami right now."  
  
"Ah yes, the little genius." Mamoru was a little bit envious of Ami She was smarter than he was. She was only in fourth grade, while he was in eighth. There was a four-grade difference. He didn't like the fact that someone much younger then him was much smarter. "Well, I hope you have fun Odango. I'm here strictly to watch a good fight. I'm not up at dad and Gohan's level. And from what I hear, I'm definitely up to your dad's level of skill. It would be really neat to see it though."  
  
Usagi turned around. That had to be the first time that she had ever heard a compliment Mamoru's mouth. "I've never seen his true skill either. In fact, I've never seen him go Super Saiyan before. He's never had a need to."  
  
"Super Saiyan?" Mamoru knew that they were not human, but Saiyan. But he had never heard the term 'Super Saiyan.'  
  
"Yeah, dad told me that Super Saiyans have blonde hair and are really powerful. He said that he used to have to turn Super Saiyan to win battles for the earth. But he doesn't have to anymore because no one ever attacks earth."   
  
"Weird, but you have blonde hair. You're the only Saiyan I know who has blonde hair. I've met all of you before. Why do you have blonde hair?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. She honestly didn't know. Her father had never told her about it. She had never thought about it before. She didn't really pay attention to things like that. It just didn't seem important to her. "Dunno."  
  
"Maybe you're just weird. I mean look at you."  
  
Usagi put her hands on her waist. "What's wrong with the way I look?"  
  
Mamoru snickered. "What isn't?" Mamoru knew that that was low. But he couldn't resist. It was a perfect comeback. "I mean, let's start with the hair. Do I really need to explain that? I mean really. And you wonder why I call you Odango. You're kind of scrawny. And, then, you have a tail. That tops it all off."  
  
Usagi frowned, but quickly changed her emotion to sadness. No one had really made fun of her for having a tail in the past couple of years. It brought back horrible memories of her early school years. She wanted to cry just thinking about it. Tears began to form up in the base of her eyes. "I hate you Mamoru!" She pushed him out of the way and quickly ran passed him.  
  
Mamoru turned to watch her. "Gees, talk about touchy. Can't even take a joke."  
  
Usagi ran into Pan's old room, which was turned into the guestroom after she moved out. She jumped up onto the bed and sat with her arms holding her legs against her chest. Tears streaked down her face. Mamoru's comment had hurt her more then she had thought. It had been so long since someone had made fun of her. She nearly forgot what it felt like. She wasn't prepared for him to say something like that though. "Why do I always have to be the one to be made fun of? No one likes me."  
  
"That's not true."  
  
Usagi looked up to see Gohan leaning against the arch of the doorway. She wiped her face. "Gohan, how did you know I was here?"  
  
Gohan chuckled. "Well, when you feel your sister's Ki rise and then start moving around inside YOUR house all of a sudden, you start to realize things." He could see a smile begin to form on his sister's face. "Now, tell me what's wrong." He walked over to the bed and sat down in front of Usagi. He had plenty of practice trying to calm girls down and was pretty sure that he could have his sister happy again in no time.  
  
"Well, Mamoru made fun of me. He said I was weird and looked funny. Then he said that the thing that made me most weird is my tail."  
  
"Usagi, come on. You've been through this before. You know how to handle people who make fun of you. You ignore them. And you know Mamoru. He always tries to make fun of you. He gets a very sick pleasure out of it. But in time, he will grow out of it." He could tell that his words weren't helping any. "Cheer up. I hate to see you sad."  
  
Usagi looked up to her brother. "Really? You mean, you don't think I'm just a little weird for having a tail?" Her self-esteem was quite low. It was taking a long time for her to heal from all the abuse she had been put through by her peers. And every time someone did make fun of her, it just brought it down that much further.   
  
"Of course not. All Saiyans are born with tails. You know this already. You know I had a tail. And dad had a tail. So did Goten and everyone else. It's natural, so don't sweat over it." He stood up. "Look, I can feel dad's energy. He should be here soon. I think he has Ami with him."  
  
"He does."  
  
"Ok, well, I've got to go back outside. You just stay away from Mamoru if you don't feel comfortable talking to him again."  
  
~*~*~  
  
One and a half hours later…  
  
Usagi leaned back in her chair as she listened to Ami explain how to do long division, which she had been struggling with for the whole year. No matter how many times she had had it explained, she just still didn't get it. She had it explained in so many different many ways, she got most of them confused and usually ended up putting step from different techniques together to solve one problem, which ended up making it wrong. "Let's just face it Ami. It's hopeless. I'm a lost cause. I'll never get this stuff."  
  
Ami turned her head back to Usagi. "No. You'll understand it one day. You just need more time." She looked over to the clock. "We still have an half an hour left of studying." She wished that Goku hadn't said that Usagi could just do whatever after two hours. Usagi needed way more time to study then just two hours. She was pretty sure that she had figured out why Usagi wasn't able to study though. She noticed that whenever Usagi didn't think that something was fun, she would begin to let her mind wander. In other words, she had a short attention span. Ami's goal now was to think of something to keep Usagi's mind focused on what she was supposed to be doing. "Now that you've just seen what I did, I want you to try a few problems." She wrote down some relatively easy long division problems on a piece of paper and handed it to Usagi.  
  
Usagi stopped leaning in her chair and looked at the writing. She began to work the problems out while Ami watched. When she finished about fifteen minutes later, she handed to paper back to Ami. "Is this right?"  
  
Ami took the paper. "No. You see, here's where you made your mistake…"  
  
Usagi went back into her thoughts. She didn't care about math. She didn't see any point to it. Especially long division. 'Whatever. Why does mom have to make my vacation miserable?' "Ami?"  
  
Ami stopped explaining. She was getting tired of Usagi's frequent interruptions. "What?"  
  
"Remember how on Friday you said that you and Bulma were making something?"  
  
"Yeah. What about it?"  
  
"Did you finish?"  
  
"Not quite. It should be finished tonight."  
  
"What is it?" Usagi leaned her head on the table. She could hear intense fighting going on outside.   
  
"I can't tell you. I want it to be a surprise." She really wanted to tell Usagi, but she wanted to tell everyone at the same time. She didn't know if she would succeed in being able to keep it a secret. She knew how Usagi had a knack for prying secrets out of people.  
  
"Come on. You know you want to. That grin is telling me that you really want to. Please?" No answer. "Come on. Please. You can tell me. Just one incy wincy little hint even? I can go on forever. You know I can." She could see that Ami's mouth was beginning to open. She was starting to crack. "Oh, now I know you want to tell me. So come on. Out with it. Tell me or I'll…"  
  
"All right. All right. I'll tell you. It's like a little time jumper thing."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened. "Time…jumper?" She smiled to herself.   
  
"It's just a little thing that Bulma and I came up with. It's based on the room of Spirit of Time. Bulma told me about that room."  
  
Usagi's eyes sparkled with happiness. Maybe there was a way to answer her questions. "How does it work Ami?"  
  
Ami wasn't sure she liked the tone in her friend's voice. It sounded too eager. "Well, you know how the room of Spirit and Time allows you to live one year inside, while only one day passes out here? That's kind of how our time jumper works. You can stay in the past for a year, and only one day would pass out here."  
  
"Wouldn't you age though?"  
  
"You see, I had that same question. So Bulma made these little bands, that she calls 'time bands'. They basically keep your cells the same by injecting it with some sort of serum ever year or something like that. I don't exactly know. You'll have to ask Bulma. And it's set up to where you will only go if you are wearing a band because it isn't a time machine. It's like a control pad. We've been working on it for months."  
  
"So, why did you guys decide to make this? Is there an actual purpose?" Things were looking up for Usagi.  
  
Ami shook her head. "Nope, we just did it for fun."  
  
"Does it work?"  
  
"We're pretty sure of it. We are going to test it tomorrow. All of us. That's why I didn't want to tell you about it until Rei, Minako, and Makoto were here too. But you and your begging."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Well, can we go today to test it out, without Bulma. I know it's not totally done, but, I trust you" She didn't care. She wanted to go to the past and save her past, so she would be born. She knew that if Bulma were to go, she wouldn't be able to do anything that she wanted to.  
  
"NO! It's not done yet. We can't go. Are you crazy? Even if we could go, if something went wrong, Bulma wouldn't be there to fix it."  
  
"Well, what do you have to do on it?"  
  
"We have to make sure there are no flaws in it. We can go tomorrow."  
  
"But I want to go now." Usagi whined. She couldn't wait any longer. She had been bugged by the whole past thing ever since Friday. "It's not like it's not totally built yet. We can get Rei, and test it out. Then go with Bulma, Minako, and Makoto tomorrow. You know, since Minako is at dance class and Makoto is at that stupid Martial Arts class they can't come."  
  
Ami sighed. She knew Usagi's persuasive ways. "You aren't going to stop asking are you?" Usagi shook her head. "Fine. But if anything happens, I don't know what we'll do."  
  
"Ami, all you have to do is do some checking on it. It's nothing that big. Like I said, you have to relax. I just want to go to the past. It won't take that long." She jumped up from her chair and hugged Ami when she realized that she wasn't going to change her mind. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is so cool. All we have to do is go and get Rei now."  
  
"Wait. You don't think I'd let you go now do I? I don't think your dad would like the idea of you going to the past Odango. In fact, I think he would actually punish you for that one. He would just get mad at you for even thinking of going to the past alone." Mamoru walked into the dinning room with a big smirk on his face.  
  
Usagi turned to look at Mamoru and frowned. "You wouldn't dare tell him."  
  
"Oh, I wouldn't would I? Well, I think I would. In fact, I know I am." He walked to the glass sliding door and opened it.  
  
Usagi stepped forward. "Wait!" Mamoru turned around. "What can we do to get you to keep your mouth shut?"  
  
Mamoru thought long and hard, but he pretty much knew what he wanted. He knew how the time device worked. He had eavesdropped on their conversation. "Well, I want to go with you. You are going to the past. I want to see Goku's true power. You said you are going to save him from the virus. Well, my dad told me about that fight. The fight with Cell if I'm not mistaken."  
  
"What!? You can't come with us! You would ruin everything!" Usagi really did not want Mamoru to come along. What she wanted to do really wasn't any of his business.  
  
Mamoru smiled. "Fine then." He turned back to the door. "I'll just be telling your dad then. I'll also tell him how you tried to bribe me."  
  
Usagi couldn't have him do that. She knew that he was right. She would have a long lecture from her father about doing things without his permission. "Fine. You can come along."  
  
Mamoru closed the door. "That's more like it." He walked up to the table and put his hands on it. "So when do we leave to get Rei? I want to get to the past as soon as possible."  
  
Usagi turned to Ami, while Ami stood up. "Well, if we leave now, and then go straight to the lab and get the time jumper, then we will have about 2 months to play around with in the past. If we even want to stay that long. But I'm still not sure we want to do this guys. There are so many risks. Plus, I don't feel comfortable with taking it without permission."  
  
Usagi walked out from behind the table over to Mamoru. "Lighten up Ami. Relax and live a little. It will be fun. We can go see what everyone was like before we were born. But, we can't talk to them. That could screw things up."  
  
Ami sighed. It was two against one. She knew that if she didn't go along with it, Usagi would whine, and Mamoru would get them in trouble. "Ok. But Usagi, your dad can sense your energy. How are we going to get around without him realizing you're gone?"  
  
"Well, I've got it covered. Nimbus can fly us. Dad will be too into his fighting to realize that I'm not at the house anymore. In order for me to fly, I have to raise my energy level, which he would notice. That's why we will take Nimbus." She turned to Mamoru. "Are you flying?"  
  
Mamoru shook his head. "No way. My dad would freak if I left. I'm under strict orders to stay here. So I guess I have to ride Nimbus with you two freaks."  
  
Usagi frowned. "We aren't freaks." She picked up her bag and began walking towards Pan's old room again.  
  
"Sure you aren't."  
  
'This is going to be a long two months if we stay the whole time.' "Look, I'm going to change into my GI. I'll be out in a minute."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei sat in her room and watched TV. She was the only person out of her group of friends who had a TV. And also the only person out of her friends who didn't have anything to do during the day. It had only been one day since she talked to any of her friends and she was already bored stiff. She didn't know what to do with herself. "There's nothing on TV during the day. This is so stupid."  
  
"Rei! Your friends are here!"  
  
Rei turned off the TV at the sound of her grandfather's voice. "What? Why are they here? I wasn't expecting anybody today." She got up from her bed and poked her head out the door. "Who is it?"  
  
"Usagi, Ami, and some boy."  
  
'A boy? What boy would they be hanging out with?' "Coming grandfather!" She fully emerged from her room and walked into the main hall, where she was greeted by the smiling faces of her friends, and the face of another. Someone she didn't really care for. "Hey guys." She didn't look at Mamoru. "What's up. Aren't you guys supposed to be studying?" She motioned for her grandfather to leave, which he did.   
  
Usagi was stilling smiling. She couldn't believe she would actually be able to her question. "Well, Ami and Bulma made a time machine type thing, and we want you to come to the past with us."  
  
Rei looked at Usagi and started laughing. "That's a good one Usagi. You really had me going, now really, why are you guys here? Did you need something?"  
  
"Rei, I'm not joking." Usagi was pretty sure that Rei wouldn't believe her.  
  
Rei studied Usagi's face, and then Ami's. "You really aren't joking are you? Ami, that's amazing! You really made a time machine? Of course I want to go! But, why is Mamoru here?"   
  
Usagi looked over to Mamoru, who was frowning. He was taking a beating from both herself and Rei. Both showed that they didn't want him to come. "Well, he has to come. Otherwise he'll tell my dad and we won't be able to go. So you'll really go?"  
  
Rei furiously nodded her head. "Of course I want to go. It'll be so cool to go. But, won't people notice if we're gone?"  
  
Ami shook her head. "Nope, while a year may have passed in the past, only a day would have passed here for us. We based it on the room of Spirit and Time. Bulma put some sort of chemicals in it to make it work. And we won't even age." She didn't want to tell her that it wasn't quite finished.   
  
"Well, then. What are we waiting for? Let's get out of here. I'm totally bored. Just let me change out of these pajamas alright?" She ran back to her room. She couldn't wait to go back in time.  
  
Usagi started to think again. She started to think about the Future Trunks' future. Another question arose in her head. She wondered why his time line was so bad. If time repeated itself, then why had his timeline been so horrible? If the time circle theory was true then wouldn't her future self gone to the past to warn her father from the past about what was going to happen? Maybe the theory was wrong. Or maybe this was the first time that this would be happening. Or maybe something drastically wrong would happen before they went back in time. There was no way to tell until she just did it. She decided to keep her question to herself, so she wouldn't worry her friends.  
  
(K! That's it for this part. Sorry that it seams kind of simple right now. It will get better soon. So, what did you think? Was it good or bad? Please review and tell me. Thanks!)  



	41. Part 3

Rei, Ami, Usagi, and Mamoru all crept around the business portion of Capsule Corp. The 'time jumper', as Ami referred to it, was being held in a top-secret lab. Bulma had put it there because she didn't trust Vejita. He always had a tendency to snoop around her lab in her home and she couldn't trust him with it. They had worked too long and hard for him to go around and try to break it. Ami led them down hall after hall, having to stop and hide every time someone came even remotely close to seeing them. She was not supposed to be in that part of Capsule Corp. without Bulma and knew she would be in trouble if they were to be caught. She hated taking risks like this. She hated the fact that she had let Usagi talk her into going. She wasn't someone to disobey orders. It wasn't like her, and if they were to be caught, her mother would throw a fit. She had gotten herself into more trouble in the past six months, then she had ever gotten into in her life. It was Usagi's influences. She liked her; she just didn't like her persuasive skills.  
  
She poked her head around a corner. "You guys, I don't see anyone." She looked back at her friends and put her finger to her mouth, telling them to be quiet. "Stay low. This is the hall that Bulma's office is. There may be someone in there." She turned around and got on her knees. The others did the same. "Let's move out." She put one hand out in front of her on the ground, and quickly and quietly did the same with one of her legs.  
  
Usagi was the last in line, behind Rei. She knew that she couldn't turn back now. There was no way that she could. She was too close to reaching her goal of going into the past. She was too excited to even think of the consequences of her actions. She had briefly thought about them while she was at Rei's, waiting for her to get herself ready. She was pretty sure what would happen to her. Her father would be both angry and disappointed. She figured that he would be more disappointed then angry. She was pretty sure he wouldn't act on his anger. He hadn't when she got suspended. He never really did act on his anger anyways. Her mother would just yell at her and probably ground her for a while, which wasn't anything that she couldn't handle. She had been grounded for more times then she could count all of which she believed to be stupid reasons. Bulma would probably go off on Ami, but she had decided that she would tell Bulma that she forced Ami into making them go. She would take the fall for her. After all, she knew that Ami wasn't comfortable with doing this. She knew exactly what would happen after that, she would get a big lecture from her parents about responsibility, and then Bulma wouldn't trust her. But she didn't care; she just wanted to find out what would happen without a Trunks from the future. She wanted to make sure she would be born. But there was still that nagging questions in the back of her head. Would something go wrong? Obviously the Usagi from the future Trunks' future didn't go to the past. Or maybe she just didn't make it.  
  
She stopped by Bulma's office door when it shot open. Her body froze. She wasn't really able to move. She knew who was in there. Inside, she heard the voices of her mother and Bulma. 'Oh no, what if they see me? I can't move forward. The door is open.' She looked across the doorway to her friends. 'Great, they don't even know I'm not with them.' Usagi held her breath as she awaited being caught.  
  
"Wait, Bulma, is this what you were looking for?"  
  
Usagi let go of her breath and slowly began to breathe again. She looked for options to escape. She thought about going back the way she came but knew that was out of the question. She could hear two executives talking in the hall. 'Great. It's not like I can fly over the door either. Then daddy would feel my energy level changing.' She began to panic. It would have been one thing to actually go to the past and get busted, but it was a whole different situation to get in trouble for nearly going. If she knew her mother right, she would get a greater punishment for nearly going, then actually going. At least Usagi would have a couple of months before she would get in trouble for going. She wouldn't have to worry about it for a while.  
  
Bulma turned away from the door and walked to her desk to some blue prints for the time distorter, as she preferred to call it. She had designed it along the same lines as the room of Spirit and Time. Although, she didn't like the idea that a person would age in it. Ami had been right about Bulma designing the wristbands that didn't let you age while in another time, but she had been wrong about the chemical. Originally, Bulma had tried to concoct a chemical to keep people young. But, even though she is very smart, she wasn't smart enough to figure out how to make this chemical. So instead, she made a wristband that, when worn, makes a time field around the person makes them age at the same time as they left. If they take it off in the different time, they will age as fast as the time is going. The only way a person can jump times is if they are wearing the bands. "Oh! This is it! This is the blue print for the wristbands. I wanted to show Ami these tonight while we run our last check on the system. I never did tell her how I designed these."  
  
"Bulma, I'm sure I want Usagi to go into the past. I know that it's your invention and you're very smart and all, I just want my baby to be safe. I don't want anything bad to happen to her." Chi-Chi leaned against the window behind Bulma's desk.  
  
"Don't worry Chi-Chi, it's fine. I've never gotten any of your kids killed before. So don't sweat it. All I have to do is make sure that there are no flaws in the system." Bulma could tell that Chi-Chi was not convinced. "Here, if you want, I can explain it to you."  
  
Usagi still sat against the wall. She was grateful that Bulma was going to occupied with explaining things to her mother. That would give her time to sneak past the doorway and catch up with the others. She just hoped that she wouldn't run into anybody on her way. She took a deep breath and quickly crawled past Bulma's open door. She was relieved when she cleared the door. She stood up and brushed herself off. "This is too stressful."  
  
"Is it now? Would you mind telling me what you're doing in here, brat?"  
  
Usagi's eyes got wide to their fullest. She especially didn't want to get caught by Vejita. She turned around, and saw him glaring down at her, his eyes filled with fire. "Uh…hi Vejita." She smiled wide. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Well, I asked you what you were doing first. Bulma hates it when children come in here without her consent. Something tells me that you're up to something kid."  
  
Usagi didn't know what to do. Her heart was beating faster within her as she began to get scared. She looked behind her and then back to Vejita. "Well, I, uh, she said that we could be here?"  
  
Vejita raised an eyebrow. "You are such a bad liar kid."  
  
Usagi gulped. She knew that she was in for it now. Vejita would call for Bulma and her mother, and she would never see the light of day again. "Vejita, I'm not lying."  
  
Vejita frowned. "Look, I know how kids work, and I know you're up to something. So just spit it out and I won't beat the crap out of you."  
  
Usagi backed up. She knew very well that he would do it too. "Um, Ami just wanted to show us something that she's been working on with Bulma." Usagi looked him in the eyes. She always looked adults in the eyes when she wasn't lying so they would know she was telling the truth.  
  
"Whatever. I don't really care anyways. Just don't hurt yourself. I don't want to listen to your stupid mother's bitching." He turned around and stormed away.  
  
Usagi sighed. She had been very lucky that he didn't press matters and make her spill her plans to him. That would have been the end of he fun for the rest of her vacation. "That was a little too close for me." She too turned around and ran down the hallway to a door that had the words: 'Executives only!' on it. She turned the handle to reveal Ami holding a black box with Rei and Mamoru standing around her.   
  
Mamoru put his wristband on. "You're late Odango."  
  
Usagi frowned as she grabbed a wristband from Ami. "I couldn't help it. I nearly got caught and then Vejita stopped me along the way too. You better be happy that we're even going." She fastened the band on her arm as tightly as she could so it would not fall off.   
  
Mamoru didn't have anything to say in reply. The fact of the matter was that he really did want to go into the past. He wanted to see Goku's true power. He wanted to fight him at his best. He would do anything to fight him. Even if it meant posing as an enemy and challenging him. "Fine, let's just get out of here."  
  
Ami turned the power of the time pad on. "Where are we going you guys? Usagi, was there any specific time that you wanted to go to?" Usagi nodded. "Well, where did you want to go?"  
  
Usagi was so overtaken by her happiness, that she wasn't able to think straight. She couldn't believe it. She was finally going to be able to go into the past. She would be able to see everyone when they were young. "I want to go forty years into the past so I can save dad."  
  
Ami punched in some numbers on the time pad and a screen with the date came up. "Ok, forty years." She turned to Rei. "Do you have your bag?" Rei nodded. They had Usagi empty her school bag and fill it with some things that they needed. One of those things being money that they had all pitched in for. They would need it if they were going to stay there for the whole two months, which they intended on doing. Another thing was a Dragon Ball radar. "Great, ok, everybody have their bands on?" She looked around to her friends as they put their arms up showing her that they very well did. She made sure hers was on too. "Ok, here we go. We will end up in this room in the past. And five…four…three…two…one…and go!" She pressed a red button by the date and the room filled with a bright blue light.  
  
Usagi covered her eyes, for the light was too blinding to look at. When the light left, she took her hands away from her eyes and looked around the room. It was different and was filled will all sorts of different gadgets then what she had just seen. She looked to Ami. "Did we make it?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku stopped his attack on his son abruptly, resulting in him getting kicked in the shin. He wasn't really affected by it. There wasn't that much power in the kick. "What the…"  
  
Gohan stopped too and stared at his father. He noticed that Piccolo too had stopped. "What dad? What's wrong?" Gohan knew that his father didn't usually just stop in the middle of a fight unless something was really wrong.  
  
Goku didn't listen to his son. He was concentrating on other more important things. "It's gone all of a sudden." He walked towards the house.  
  
"What? What's wrong Goku?"  
  
Goku turned his head and looked back at Piccolo. "Usagi's energy. I always check and make sure I can still feel her every now and then. She has such a low energy signature that I can't always feel her, especially when I'm fighting. When I'm fighting, I actually have to take my mind off the fight for a moment, and try to pin point her. But when I went to do it this time, she wasn't there. I can't find her anywhere." Goku looked all around as if he could see her around the city. He didn't know what to do. There had been many times before when his daughter's Ki level had gotten very low, but there had never once been a time when it had totally disappeared. He was beginning to get worried.  
  
Gohan tried to search for his sister's energy. But he too could not find it. "Dad, what do you think could have happened. You don't think she got in a fight with Mamoru again do you? You don't suppose she went all out and…" Gohan stopped there. He didn't want to think about the consequences of that.  
  
Piccolo was having a problem of his own. "No, they weren't fighting. We would have felt their energy getting higher. And, I can't feel Mamoru's energy either. I don't know what's going on, but when I find out, that boy will have a lot of explaining to do. I know for hard fact that he can't lower his energy to the point of being non-existent. He would have to be dead to do that."  
  
"Shit. What could have happened?" Goku blamed himself for the disappearance of the kids. He should have been keeping tabs on them more. But he trusted Usagi enough to leave her alone. He didn't think that he would have to watch her like a hawk. She was supposed to tell him when she was finished. She was supposed to stay by the house. He didn't even feel Ami's energy anymore. "Something horrible has happened. I just know it. What if they were caught by surprise and were shot or something? They can't sense bullets. Why didn't she just listen to me?" Goku didn't know what to feel? Part of him was angry that she disobeyed him, but the other part of him was really worried about her. "We should stop fighting for now and look for the kids."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Ami checked the status of everyone's wristband to make sure they were all working properly. "Ok, everyone's band seems to be working. We won't age more then three days worth here. Let's proceed to leave. I don't want to be in here if the Bulma from the past gets in here." She put the time pad in the bag that they had brought with them. Her friends followed her.  
  
Usagi stopped cold in her step. "Uh, guys, dad's energy seems a little too low. He's fighting right now. I can feel his energy rising as I speak. I know that by the time he fought with Cell, he was already a Super Saiyan." She looked back to all her friends. "Gohan's seems REALLY low too." She turned her head back to the door when she heard someone opening it. "Uh-oh."  
  
The door swung open revealing the Bulma from the past. She had short hair that came down to her ears instead of her shoulder length hair. "AHHHHHH! WHO ARE YOU GUYS!?" She backed out of the room.  
  
Usagi stepped closer to Bulma. She noticed a little white gadget of some sort in her hands. "Uh, hello? Uh…" She giggled. She found this situation a bit humorous. "Hi, my name is Usagi."  
  
Bulma backed up as far as she could into a wall and looked down at the little blonde girl. She let her eyes go passed her to two more girls and a boy who looked to be about thirteen. She began to tremble when her eyes went back down to Usagi. "You, you, YOU HAVE A TAIL! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!" She ran hysterically down the hall and out of sight.  
  
Usagi walked out of the room and looked down the hall, not able to see Bulma. "That was strange. Why is she afraid of me?"  
  
Mamoru walked out from behind Usagi. "Odango, anyone would be afraid of you."  
  
Usagi frowned and elbowed Mamoru in the stomach. "Shut up! I'm still mad at you for what you said earlier." She ran out of the room and ran the opposite direction that Bulma had. "Come on you guys. I want to find out why dad and Gohan are so weak."   
  
Rei, Ami, and Mamoru followed her closely. Mamoru could feel Goku's low powerlevel too. He didn't know what was up with it. Even when he was watching him fight his father earlier that day, he had a higher powerlevel. He too was curious as to why it was so low. "Let's take this into overdrive you guys." He shouted as he sped up. "I don't want to miss any of the fight."  
  
Usagi stopped. "Really? You don't want to miss the fight? Ok. Grab onto my shoulder." She put her fingers to her head. She had finally learned to use her father's teleportation technique without using all of her energy. Although she had done it before, she was only able to do it because of her energy boost from her anger.   
  
Rei put her hand on her friend. She was still a bit shaky on the whole teleportation thing. She could do it, but it would suck her dry of her energy. "You aren't going to kill us by doing this are you Usagi? I mean, you just learned how to do this a few months ago and haven't really been doing it that much."  
  
Usagi grinned. "Dad says practice makes perfect. So, I'm practicing." When she felt the last hand on her shoulder she concentrated her own energy to her father's. "Ok, here we go!" She made the transition of her energy, to her father's energy. She closed her eyes as she disappeared from the halls of Capsule Corp.  
  
When she opened her eyes again, she was on the sidelines of a battle. She looked around at her surroundings and noticed that they were in a large mountainous area. Across the field stood her brother Gohan and friend Krillin. "What the…why is he so small?"  
  
Mamoru was also checking out the new scenery. He was told that Cell was the enemy who insisted on fighting tournament style yet there was nothing like a tournament around. "Where the hell are we Odango?!"  
  
Rei looked forward to the fight. Something that the others had failed to do. Her legs began to feel weak beneath her as she backed up. She could slightly hear the bickering of Usagi and Mamoru in the background. But that didn't seem too important at this moment. What was important was the fact that two fighters were staring straight at them. They must have felt them. They had to have felt them. "Uh guys. Do you think you could shut up? I think we have bigger problems on our hands."   
  
Usagi shut her mouth in the middle of a sentence and turned her head to look at what Rei was pointing at. Usagi's jaw dropped clear to the other side of the world. "What's going on here?!" She looked over to Ami for answers.  
  
Ami fumbled with the bag, trying desperately to get out the time pad. "I don't know." She finally got it out and turned it on. "It says that we went back fifty years. But why? I typed it in for forty years. I double-checked it and everything. Why did it malfunction?"  
  
Usagi looked back at the two fighters. One was her father, while the other was Vejita. She squinted to get a better look at Vejita. "He still has his tail you guys. We went back to the time dad was fighting Vejita. WHY!?"  
  
Vejita growled at the interruption. "Who the hell are you guys?" He pressed the button on his scouter to check their power levels. "Humph. You aren't a threat to me. I'll just take you out now and then finish up Kakorrotto." He put his hand out and built up a small Ki blast. Once he built up enough energy into the blast, he fired it at the group of kids.  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Look Odango. He thinks he can beat us." He stood and waited for the energy to hit him. It was inferior and he wanted them to know it.   
  
Usagi jumped and pushed Mamoru out of the way right before the blast hit. They both fell to the ground. Usagi pushed herself halfway up and stared down into his eyes. "Don't do anything stupid Mamoru. We aren't here to mess with their timeline. Just let them fight."  
  
Mamoru pushed Usagi off of him. "Look Odango, we have their attention now. He will want to fight us."  
  
Goku looked at the two. They didn't seem that strong to him. He couldn't sense any power radiating from them. But he did happen to notice Usagi's tail. He smirked. "Vejita, you had a daughter and you didn't tell me? Now you know I can't let her destroy earth either right? I'm not going to let her go easy just because she's a little kid."  
  
Vejita glared over in Goku's direction and sneered. "That is NOT my daughter. If it were, I would have killed her by now for having such and insufficient power level. Just like I will to you!" He shot numerous Ki attacks at Goku.  
  
Goku jumped out of the way but wasn't fast enough to miss them all. He was hit by most of them, forcing him down to the ground. "I won't be beaten!" He powered up and quickly repealed the Ki blasts back at Vejita with his feet. Vejita dodged all of the blasts, and quickly gathered up all of his energy into one giant attack and shot it at his enemy, forcing him to fall back down to the ground.  
  
Usagi jumped to her feet. "Daddy!" She quickly covered her mouth with her hands. She hadn't meant to let out that little outburst like that. It was more of a reaction. She knew that he would win this fight, but seeing her father get shot down like that had made her react.  
  
Gohan shot his attention away from his father and over to the blonde girl. "What did she just say Krillin? Did she just call my dad, daddy?"  
  
Krillin wasn't sure if he heard her right either. "I…I…I think so Gohan. Did he have another child that we didn't know about? With, another woman?"  
  
Vejita stood up from punching Goku senseless and looked over at Usagi. "What did you just call Kakorrotto?" Usagi didn't take her hands from her mouth. Vejita grew angry. "GIRL! IF YOU WANT TO LIVE TELL ME!"  
  
Usagi didn't have anything to fear from him. She didn't want to repeat herself. She wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. She had really let herself slip and she didn't want to ruin anything else. She ignored Vejita and looked back to Ami. "Can we leave?!"  
  
Ami shook her head. "We need to give it time to cool down. Give it about one day's time here."  
  
Usagi groaned. She knew she wouldn't be able to last one day after what she had just said. She looked back at Vejita, who was approaching her. "What do you want?" She backed up. She didn't want to fight him.  
  
Vejita had his fists clenched. He was tired of the girl toying with him. He would kill her if she wouldn't talk. "Tell me what you called Kakorrotto! If my ears heard right, you called him 'daddy'. Why? Is he your father?"  
  
Usagi gulped. He would have to beat it out of her. "Leave me alone! I didn't say anything." She slightly turned her head so she could see Ami and Vejita out of her peripheral vision. "Ami, get out of here. You too Mamoru and Rei. We don't need to be involved here. Go to the Kame house. Do NOT tell them who you are. Tell them that we are travelers." She turned her head back to Vejita as she continued to take steps backwards as he came closer.  
  
Mamoru frowned. "I'm not leaving. I'm staying right here! If you can stay, I can stay too."  
  
Usagi didn't take her eyes off Vejita. "Look! You have no business here! SO GET GOING!" Usagi tried to act the way that she thought her father would. She was trying to handle the situation the way he would. She had started the mess, now it was her time to get them out of it.  
  
Ami had no hesitation in her to leave. She knew that the fight would get intense. Even if Usagi didn't fight, Goku and Vejita would be fighting and she didn't want to get caught up in it. "Come on Mamoru. Usagi is right. We can intervene later at a different time."  
  
Mamoru let out a small growl to let them know that he didn't go along with her decision. "Fine!" He knew what she meant by a later time. It was true. He didn't have a reason to stay. If it weren't for the malfunction, they wouldn't have been in that time anyways. He turned to Rei who was starring at Vejita with wide eyes. "Let's go Rei."  
  
Rei snapped out of her trance and looked over to Mamoru. "Ok." She turned to Usagi. "We'll be waiting for you. Be back in twenty-four hours."   
  
Usagi smirked. "Don't worry. I just want to watch the fight and then I'll be back." She waited until her friends were gone and then stopped and let Vejita walk close to her for the first time. "Don't mess with me."  
  
Vejita snickered. "Look little girl. I don't need to take orders from you. Now tell me why you called Kakorrotto daddy!"  
  
Usagi laughed at the demand. He couldn't make her do anything. Her powerlevel was way beyond his. He hadn't even become a Super Saiyan yet. She considered the consequences of her intervening in the fight and beating Vejita before her father or Gohan had. They didn't really benefit from winning. They didn't really go through any power ups so it wouldn't hurt for her to show them her strength. She also didn't see any harm in telling them who she was. It was obvious that they knew she was a Saiyan. She heard her father ask Vejita if she was his daughter. "Well, I'll tell you one itsy bitsy thing. I'm a Saiyan."  
  
Vejita frowned. "That's impossible. There are only three Saiyans left and I intend on leaving this planet the last on alive!"  
  
"That's what you think Vejita! I'm gong to punish you for killing all of my friends and trying to kill my son!" Goku stood up with much trouble.   
  
Vejita turned his attention to the hurt Saiyan. "Think Kakorrotto! If you would have join us you and your son could have had everything! And you threw it all away for this planet! This stupid heap of rubble."  
  
Usagi took her chance to sneak over to Gohan and Krillin, who stared at her in fear. She smiled at them. "Hey guys, what's shakin?"  
  
Krillin's eyes widened. "What did you just say? The only person I know who says that it Goku. Why did you call him 'daddy'?"  
  
"Yeah, I know I don't have a sister."  
  
Usagi looked down at her older brother and giggled. He had to be about five years old now. She found it funny that he was so little. She decided that there was no other way to ovoid it. She had to tell them. They already knew she was a Saiyan. In the other time, she would do a better job of hiding her tail. She just wasn't expecting to arrive in this time and was caught off guard. "Yes you do."  
  
"Uh, excuse me miss, but I've known Goku since we were little kids and I know he's not the type of guy to cheat on his wife. Gohan here is his only child. So you must…" He stopped what he was saying when he realized who she was. "You're with Vejita!" He grabbed Gohan and pulled him away from Usagi. "Stay away from her. She's evil!"   
  
Gohan coward behind Krillin. "Stay away from us you bully!"  
  
Usagi sighed. She knew that they would react that way. "Look, dad didn't cheat on mom. You see, I'm from…" She paused and thought for a moment. She wasn't sure if she should really tell them. "Well, you see I'm from fifty years in the future and Goku is my daddy. You're my big brother Gohan. Except, you're little right now." She happily waved her tail behind her back. She couldn't wait to hear what they had to say about that.  
  
Gohan stood up and sidestepped from being behind Krillin's back. "I don't know how you know my name but there is no such thing as time travel. And if you were my sister, your hair would be black! And I know mommy wouldn't let you come here! Daddy would, but not mommy!"   
  
"I'm not lying Gohan. I don't know why I have blonde hair. I know your name because like I said, you're my brother, and I could beat Vejita any time I wanted to."   
  
Gohan looked over at the fight between his father and Vejita. "You're lying! No one is stronger then Vejita and daddy!"  
  
Usagi smirked. She knew she shouldn't do the fight for her father, but it was just one timeline and it was calling out for her. She couldn't resist. She put her hands to her mouth. "Her Vejita! You SUCK!" She began to laugh. She knew that would get him to come over to her.  
  
Vejita dropped Goku and turned around to glare at Usagi. If looks could kill, Usagi would have died twice. "What did you say!"  
  
Usagi giggled. "You heard me. I said you SUCK!" Gohan and Krillin backed away. They weren't sure they liked what the strange girl was doing. "Why don't you come over here and I'll show you just how much of a better fighter I am? Then you can go cry to your mommy!" Usagi taunted him. She was enjoying herself. There had always been a part of her that had wanted to beat Vejita, but she was never able to. He was always too much stronger then her. She had been beaten by him so many times that she had lost count. "I'll show you what true power is."  
  
Vejita smirked. "If you really want to die you can. It's your funeral. You can choose to die whenever you want. But I get to choose HOW you die." He got into his fighting stance. Gohan and Krillin cleared the field and ran to a safer place. "You have little sissies for friends. You're probably just as much as a sissy as they are. Don't wet yourself when I start to beat the living daylights out of you!"  
  
Goku stood up and stared the female fighter who was challenging Vejita. For some reason he felt a connection to her and he couldn't figure out why. "Kid! Don't get involved. Go home. Your mom is probably worried sick about you! Vejita! Your fight is with me! Let's go!"  
  
Vejita ignored Goku. He was more interested in the kid at the moment. He would quickly take her out and then go back beating the crap out of Goku. "So girl, did you want to start this now or in twenty years?"  
  
"Now is good!" She got down into her fighting stance and slowly began to raise her power level. She wrapped her tail around her waist so he wouldn't try to grab it.  
  
~*~*~  
  
On the way to Kame house…  
  
Rei stopped when she felt it. "What is she doing? She can't fight Vejita! She'll ruin everything. That's why she wouldn't let Mamoru fight. You guys we have to go back."  
  
Mamoru, who was carrying Ami, stopped and sighed. "There she goes again. Being a little hypocrite. We can't tamper with time but she can. What's wrong with her? Fine let's go back before she does anything more stupid."  
  
(Ok! That's it for this part. Sorry it's out later then usual, I've just had a lot of homework lately. So, what do you think? Is it good, or bad? Please review and tell me. Thank you! ^_^)  



	42. Part 4

Vejita stared at Usagi, trying to intimidate her. It didn't seem to be working very well though. She just didn't want to back down. She seemed very confident. "You've picked the wrong person to mess with. I am Vejita, Prince of all Saiyans and I will kill you without hesitation."  
  
Usagi wasn't phased by the Saiyan's words. She had fought a much stronger version of him before and knew that there wasn't that much that he could do to hurt her. He was about her strength, maybe a little lower. She kept her head held high in anticipation of action. She couldn't wait. "Really. So, you think you can beat me? Why don't you show me what you've got." She halfway bent her legs and taunted him with her hands, coaxing him forward.  
  
Vejita smiled. "I can handle that, but before I blast you into an oblivion, why don't you tell me what the hell you are in regards to species. I noticed that you had a tail, and you seem to be somewhat strong by words of my scouter here. For a child that is. You also called Kakkorotto your father. Please enlighten me and tell me why." He took a step closer to the girl, who in return, did nothing.  
  
"Well, I'm half Saiyan." She noticed her father who was creeping up from behind Vejita, ready to attack. He obviously didn't know her true power. She hadn't raised it to it's full potential. It was just below his powerlevel, making it seem as though she wasn't as strong as him. She looked back to Vejita. "The one you call Kakkorotto is my dad. I am from the fifty years in the future." She looked back at her father when Vejita's scouter began to go crazy. Her father was raising his powerlevel to attack. He cupped his hands together and hit Vejita in the back of the neck before he had a chance to move. Usagi smiled. "I knew you were strong."  
  
Goku watched Vejita fall to the ground and then looked up at the girl who claimed to be his daughter. He stepped over Vejita, who was trying to regain his composure, and began to examine her. She didn't look like any child that he could produce. He didn't say anything for a few seconds, he just continued to look her over. He noticed her tail as it fell from her waist down to her feet. "Well, you ARE a Saiyan. That's for sure. But your power isn't that high."  
  
Usagi turned around and looked the younger version of her father in the eyes. He didn't look much different from his older version. The only real difference that she could find was his powerlevel and the size of his muscles. "It's high enough, daddy." Even though he wasn't really HER father, she still felt as if he was. He would one day be the father of a little girl named Usagi, her.   
  
Goku backed up. "Uh, are you sure I'm your father?" He asked with a big goofy smile on his face as he scratched his head. "Chi-Chi said she would die before she had another child. She said it was too painful."  
  
Usagi shot a glance back at Vejita as he listened to the conversation between her and her father. She looked back at her father, and then behind him to Gohan and Krillin, who still coward behind a rock. "I'm eight years old. I think I know who my dad is by now."  
  
Goku still wasn't sure if she was telling the truth. "Well, then, how do you have yellow hair? And wouldn't Chi-Chi be too old to have babies?"  
  
Usagi didn't mind answering the first question, but she didn't want to answer the second one. She knew why her mother had her youth still, but she didn't want to tell everyone else for it revealed too much of the future. But she knew she would have to just to convince them that she was telling the truth. "I don't know why I have blonde hair. You never told me. But Trunks and Bra have lavender and Blue hair and they're…" She covered her mouth. She had once again said things before thinking. She had said more then she should have. "Uh, let's not talk about them. Anyways, you guys wished for mom and Bulma and everyone other one of your human friends to age as slow as Saiyans. That's all I can tell you though. If you don't believe me that's ok, daddy. I won't mind. " She turned around to Vejita. "Can we have some fun now? I'm really, really, REALLY bored."  
  
"Yes. If you ARE who you say you are, I want to kill you. No offspring of Kakorrotto will survive while I'm around." He began to build up a Ki blast in his hands. He wanted to finish her off quickly so he could get back to beating Goku.  
  
Usagi planted her feet on the ground and prepared her special attack that she had made just six months before. She had never tried it on anyone and thought I was a perfect place to try it out. She let the energy sizzle to nothing as she looked up into the sky. A bright yellow Ki blast was about to run into her head. "What the…" She put her arms in front of her face to act as a shield from the blast, for she had too little time to react in any other way.  
  
The blast hit its target right on the dot, throwing it back into a rock. Mamoru landed next to Usagi and looked down at her. "Tsk, tsk little Odango. I would have expected better from you. What would your father think of you now? First you sneak off into another time, and then you tamper with it." Behind him stood Ami and Rei. Ami had begun to examine the Time pad again, to see what the problem was. She couldn't detect any.  
  
Usagi grabbed her head in pain as she sat up and looked at Mamoru. "What's wrong with you Mamoru? I wasn't even up to my full power yet. You could have hurt me. And it doesn't matter if I fight Vejita. Daddy and Gohan don't really benefit from the fight that much. I'm actually doing them a favor. Vejita is much stronger then them and will nearly kill them." She pushed herself up. "So just leave me alone and let me fight Vejita."  
  
Mamoru crossed his arms. "You're such a hypocrite. You wouldn't let me take a hit from Vejita's blast, yet you are willing to kick the crap out of him. And you think I'm just going to sit by and watch you have all the fun."  
  
Usagi rubbed her face where her face had plowed into the ground, drawing the blood to the surface, making it sting. "Look, I've wanted to beat Vejita ever since I was five. Ever since I first began to fight. He has beaten me so bad." She stepped away from the rubble that her body had created.  
  
Mamoru took time out to sense Vejita's power level. "Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm going to let you do it. But, I want to have some fun in the next time." He turned around and looked at Rei and Ami. "Let's sit back and watch the fight shall we? It should be a good one." He led them over to where Gohan and Krillin were. "I wonder where my father is."  
  
Rei stood by Gohan. She felt a little weird being older and taller then him. She only knew him as another adult that she hung out with. She never thought of him as a kid. She looked down at him. His powerlevel was about the same as hers. It was amazing. She had heard the story and knew that he had only been training for a year and was already at the same level as her. She looked over at Ami, who was tampering with some wires of the time pad. 'I hope she finds out what's wrong with it.' She put her hands to her mouth. "Go Usagi! I know you can do it!"  
  
Usagi smiled. She knew she could do it too. "Come on Vejita. Enough stalling already. I want to get this show on the road." She quickly raised her power to her fullest as fast as she could without much warning. Vejita's scouter went ballistic as it tried to read her energy. She jumped from the left, then to the right, then into the air, and then landed behind him, all in a matter of two seconds. Her speed had considerably increased.  
  
Vejita had never seen such speed. He could barley follow her with his eyes. His scouter was of no use. It couldn't pick up her speed. "So you want to play dirty do you?" He threw off his scouter and jumped into the air, dodging a punch from Usagi. He immediately fired rapid shots of energy balls down to the ground, creating a large cloud of smoke. Unable to sense Usagi, he was as good as blind.  
  
Usagi dodged every single one of the blasts, letting them hit the ground beneath her. "Is that all you've got Vejita? Come on! I know you can do better then that!" She jumped out of the smoke, with two sizzling energy balls formed in her hands. "Eat this!" She fired on of the balls at Vejita, forcing her other hand to pull forward, but she pulled back against the resistance as much as possible.  
  
Vejita watched as the blast flew right past him. "Learn how to aim!" The blast suddenly began to curve in its path and ran right back to him. "What the…" His body became surrounded by a blue field of energy as he increased his altitude to get out of the energy's path.  
  
Usagi saw that her attack was nearing her and immediately shot the other blast. She didn't want to be hit by it for if she did, she would be electrocuted. She turned to Vejita, who stood smirking at her. "You weren't supposed to dodge that Vejita."  
  
"Oh, well too bad. Let's play a game, it's called 'Make Vejita stronger'." He formed a bright white ball in his right hand. "Let's see how much of a Saiyan you really are." He threw the ball up into the air.  
  
Usagi was not impressed, therefore, she did not look up into the sky. He had put no power into that attack what so ever. "Vejita, don't play stupid games with…" She was cut off by Vejita growing hair all over his body. "What's happening?" She backed up. Vejita began to grow at an amazingly fast speed, into a giant monkey. "What the?!" She turned her head to look up at the giant white ball of energy that Vejita had just thrown into the sky.  
  
Goku lunged for Usagi. He threw his body over hers, forcing the two Saiyans to fall to the ground, with Goku fully covering her body and face. He kept his hands over her eyes. "If you really are my daughter and a Saiyan, then you don't want to look at that energy. Apparently it has the power to make Saiyans with tails transform." Goku himself had not known about the transformation until one year earlier when his so-called brought Raditz came to earth. He had not known that he was the one who killed his grandfather. He didn't want two rampaging Saiyans on the loose. "Keep your eyes closed." He picked up Usagi and carried her over to the rest of her friends. "Make sure she doesn't open her eyes until I take care of that." Without waiting for a reply from any of them, he jumped into the air and headed for the blast. "KA-ME-HA…" Vejita raised his hand and swatted the ant sized Goku to the ground. He didn't want him messing with his plans to transform Usagi. He wanted her to kill her father for him.   
  
Gohan jumped into the air without a second though after seeing his father get thrown to the ground. "Leave my daddy ALONE!" He put his hands together behind his head and built up an orange Ki attack and swiftly brought down in front of his chest as he fired it at the giant ape. Vejita cried out when the blast hit the tip of his nose. He hadn't expected the kid to be so powerful, but he could feel the anger radiating throughout his body. He ran for Gohan and punched him down to the ground. Gohan didn't let Vejita keep him down. Although he was scared, he had things he needed to do. People he needed to protect.   
  
Goku jumped to his feet and saw that his son was creating a diversion. 'Good going Gohan. Just hold off a little bit longer.' He quietly leaped back into the air and flew behind Vejita's head so he would go undetected.   
  
Usagi listened to the fighting of Vejita and Gohan. She could make out several cries of her brother after loud smacks. She winced every time she heard a yelp. She wished for her brother's sake that her father would hurry up and get rid of the transformation blast. She couldn't open her eyes and fight again until after it was gone and taken care of. Even if she did open her eyes, she wouldn't transform. Rei's hands covered her eyes. For about ten minutes she listened to repetitive fighting. 'What's taking so long?'.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back in the future~~  
  
Goku searched the city for his daughter, but could not find her anywhere. He was worried sick. He was sure that something horrible had happened to her. There was nothing he could do either. Unless he were to use the Dragon Balls, which was something that he might have had to do. He didn't really want to go to Capsule Corp. and tell Chi-Chi of the bad news. She would never let Usagi do anything again. She would probably come down on her harder then ever before. He decided to go back to Gohan's first, to see if the others had found any trace of the kids.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Past~~  
  
Goku aimed for the white energy that sat high in the sky. He had finally made it after many attempts. He and his son had been badly beaten up for well over fifteen minutes trying to work as a team to destroy it. But it seemed as though Vejita had amplified hearing in his new form. But they couldn't give up. They had to succeed. They couldn't let earth fall into the hands of Vejita. He heard his son being thrown against a rock, but kept his eye on his target. "KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!" A giant blue blast emerged from his hands and traveled up to the white energy. 'I hope this works.' He and everybody else watched as his Kamehameha attack spiraled closer and closer to its target.  
  
Vejita yelled out when he heard the explosion. He covered his ears with his hands, allowing Gohan to finally get in an attack. Gohan took notice of the Saiyan's inability to fight at the moment and decided to take his chance while he had it. He quickly built up a medium sized Ki attack and fired it at Vejita's eye, causing even more pain the warrior.  
  
The sky went pitch black as the light around was swallowed into the explosion. Rei let go of Usagi's eyes. She knew that the danger of her transforming was finally over. "It's gone Usagi. You can open your eyes again."  
  
Usagi complied and opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was total blackness. "What's happening you guys? Why is it so black?" She turned her head in the direction of the explosion and noticed that the light seemed to be returning. "This is awesome."   
  
Goku landed behind Usagi. "No it isn't."  
  
Usagi tilted her head back and looked up at her father. "Huh? Yeah it is. The sky is black and it's the middle of the day. And look, the light is coming back little by little. I think it's very cool."  
  
"Did I really teach you to think that fighting like this is cool? The earth is at stake." He jumped into the air to go and help his son.  
  
Usagi slightly frowned. "But I know that we will win this. What's the big deal?"  
  
"No, we don't. We know that if your dad would have continued fighting Vejita that he would have won. But look at things now. In your dad's past, you weren't there. And here you are now, fighting with your dad and brother. Things may not end up happy."  
  
Usagi turned around to look at Ami. "Well, I know I can beat him." She jumped into the air and flew up in front of Vejita's face. "Hey! Why haven't you gone back to normal? I want to fight you now. Come on." She landed on his snout and sat down. "Let's go. Chop, chop. Go ahead and change. I'll just wait here for you." Vejita frowned and looked at the girl. He growled and began to thrash his head from side to side, throwing Usagi off him. Usagi caught herself and added her energy into the fall to make sure she didn't hit the ground. She raised herself back up to Vejita's nose. "That wasn't nice Vejita." She didn't really get a worded reply. Instead, he reached out and grabbed her. He squeezed her as tightly as he could. "AAHHOUWWW!" She closed her eyes from the pain. Vejita just curled his lip and laughed as well as a giant ape could. Usagi could feel her bones begin to give way to the intensity of the squeezing. She couldn't stand it any more. It was too great. So great, that her eyes began to water. Not from wanting to cry, but from the excruciating pain that he was causing her.   
  
Rei couldn't just sit by and watch her friend be crushed to death. They had come too far for that. They had been through too much for that. She jumped into the air and flew around Vejita's legs. He tried to step on her but she was too quick for him. She ran figure eights in and out of his legs. She looked up at his tail and grinned. "Well, Usagi hates it when someone grabs her tail so…" She stopped running around his legs and jumped up onto his tail. "Let go of Usagi!" She lowered her head and clamped her teeth as tightly as she could around his large thick tail.  
  
Vejita immediately released the grasp that he had on Usagi. She fell headfirst to the ground. There wasn't that much that she could do about it either. She was too tired to move or even catch her fall. Vejita cried out in pain. Rei still held his tail in her teeth.  
  
Goku raced back out to the battlefield and grabbed Usagi aside. She looked unconscious to him. He glared up at Vejita. There was a price to pay if anyone messed with his children. Even if they were fifty years from the future. She was still his daughter none the less. "Vejita!" He ran to where Rei was and jumped up onto his tail. He looked down at her. "There is a better way to do this you know. You keep doing that and make sure you keep him under control." He jumped into the air and fired a Ki blast at Vejita's tail, making him glow white. 'That's his power source. All we need to do is attack the hell out of that.' "Hey kid, move out of the way when I say. I'm going to do a Kamehameha wave." Rei nodded. She had seen the Goku in the future do this attack many times before and she knew that she didn't want to be in the way when it hit home.  
  
Goku concentrated all of his energy into his attack. This was for keeps. "KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!! NOW MOVE!" He pushed out his hands, hurling the attack towards Vejita's tail.  
  
Rei timed it just right. She didn't want to let Vejita go and then have him go on more of a rampage. She jumped off his tail just as the blast hit. She was thrown back from the explosion's shockwaves. All she had to do was protect her face with her hands and she was pretty much ok. She felt the heat on her arms though. It was a burning sensation and was nearly unbearable. "Ouch!" She fell down to the ground and opened her eyes. She looked down at her arms. "Yeah I'll say ouch." Her arms were completely burned from the heat. They were bright red, almost to the point of being red. "Did it work?!" She looked up to where Vejita was. She didn't see any giant monkey running around anymore. "Thank god."  
  
Goku glared down at Vejita. He had caused more trouble then he should have. And now he would pay for it. He looked over at Usagi. She was no longer lying where he had left her. 'Uh-oh. How am I going to live with her? She doesn't fight right. She has her own style of fighting that just doesn't work. She fights as if it were a joke.' He quickly stopped thinking about her and diverted his attention back to Vejita, who was trying to regain his composure at the time. "You won't get away with what you have done. You have killed all of my friends. You have beaten my son, and…" He paused. "My daughter."  
  
Vejita grabbed his chest as he found it hard to breathe. He was wheezing from the impact and sudden power loss. He stood up and nearly fell over. "What the…" He turned his head and looked down to his legs. "MY GOD WHERE IS IT!? WHERE IS MY TAIL!?"   
  
Usagi laughed. "It was blown off by daddy's attack!" She ran up to him and slide underneath his legs, uppercutting him in his most sensitive spot as she went. "Hehehehe! I finally caused a lot of pain in you Vejita!" She began to jump up and down from joy. "This is so cool!" She was getting herself over excited again. "I beat you! In your face! I beat you! Na, na, na, na, na, naaaa!"  
  
Vejita grabbed himself and fell to his knees. He was speechless. He had never felt such pain in his life. "Why you little!"   
  
Mamoru walked up to Vejita and looked down at him while shaking his head back and fourth. "Pitiful. Just pitiful. You were beaten by a stupid kid." He kicked him over and over again in the stomach. "We don't want to give you ideas that you ever had a chance at beating us." He stopped kicking at him and watched as Vejita crawled back to his ship. "Hey Vejita! Have fun telling all your friends what happened to you."  
  
Vejita had blood all over his body from Mamoru's metal boots. His energy was greatly decreased from de transforming so suddenly. "Just wait until Freiza hears about this. He will kill you all. Unless I kill him first. In which case, I will come back and kill you all." He climbed into his pod and closed the door. He pressed some of the buttons on his console and took off into the air to seek medical help.  
  
Usagi let herself fall backwards onto the ground. She lay with her arms and legs outstretched as she looked up in the sky. "That was the most awesomest thing ever. I actually beat Vejita." That alone excited Usagi. Plus, the fact that she got to see her father when he was still in his twenties excited her. But she was too exhausted to be too energetic.   
  
Goku and Gohan walked over to Usagi and both looked blankly down at her. Here she was. She had just fought Vejita and was still alive. She had a larger power then Goku. She even had a larger powerlevel then Vejita. That's why she had beaten him with such ease. She claimed to be Goku's daughter, Gohan's brother. She was indeed a mysterious person.  
  
Krillin emerged from his hiding spot. "That was a little too overwhelming for me."  
  
Usagi sat up and looked at Krillin. "Come on Krillin. You can fight and you know it. So don't be such a wuss about it." She stood up and looked over at her family. "Hey guys. Hows it goin? Are you feeling lucky or what? You get to meet me!" She smiled as she hugged them both.   
  
Goku hugged back while Gohan wasn't sure what to do. "Uh, excuse me, but, are you really from the future? Are you really my sister."  
  
Usagi pulled away from the two Saiyans. "Yup. Sure am!"  
  
"Odango, you're such a dork."  
  
"No I'm not Mamoru! You're the dork!" She stuck her tongue out at him and crossed her arms. "Quit calling me Odango. It's not my name."   
  
"YOU GUYS! I think it works again!" Ami snapped the back panel of the time pad back on and turned it over so she could see if it would turn on.   
  
Everyone turned their attention to Ami. Usagi ran over to her and grabbed the pad from her. "Ooh, lemme see." She turned a dial on it and changed the time setting on it. "What's it doing?"  
  
Ami violently pulled it back from her friend. "Don't touch it Usagi. You don't know what you're doing. You could break it." She turned the dial back to the time that they were on just the 'go' button wouldn't accidentally be pushed then they would all get zapped to another time. That would have been disastrous. "Anyways, while you were fighting, I was trying to figure out what was wrong with it. I don't know what went wrong with it, but it seems to be working again. So, are you ready to go to the correct time?" She looked around to Rei and Mamoru. She knew that Usagi was probably more then ready to leave. They both nodded. "Alright then."  
  
"Wait." Everyone turned their attention to Goku. He had tones of questions for the kids. "Well, uh, what does the future hold for us?"  
  
Rei, Ami, Usagi, and Mamoru all looked around at each other. They didn't know how to answer the question. They weren't totally sure that they should tell them what happened. Ami knew that Usagi would blurt out what happened if she didn't say anything. "Well, you know that in forty years Usagi will be born. So therefore you know you will be alive in forty years. But that's all we can really tell you. You should live your life according to your feelings, and not according to what the future holds. For you see, each time is different. You are on a different timeline then we are. In our timeline, our Goku and Gohan beat Vejita all by themselves, without Usagi interfering. The activities that take place here will have no effect on our time. But we must bid you farewell. Please take care you guys."  
  
Usagi turned to her father to look at him one last time before she left. She wanted to remember him like he was. She wanted to have a memory of the younger version of her father. She softly smiled and hugged him. "Bye daddy. I know you don't really like me but..."  
  
"Who said I didn't like you?"  
  
Usagi pulled back and looked into his eyes. "Oh Puhleeze. Give me a break. I can sense feelings you know. You think I don't take fighting seriously enough. But believe me, I do. I just don't always show it."  
  
"You think that you have me all figured out don't you?" Goku picked up Gohan from the ground. He was wounded pretty badly from taking consecutive hits from Vejita. "Well, I wish you good luck in your life you guys."  
  
Usagi walked to her friends, who were more then ready to leave. "Ok you guys. Let's get down to business."   
  
Ami turned on the time pad. "Ok, three years from now. That would be the time that Goku is arriving on earth to beat Freiza again, right?" Usagi nodded. "Ok, ready?"  
  
Usagi turned around once again to look at the three fighters that they would leave behind. "Bye guys."  
  
"Odango, hurry up."  
  
"Fine, fine. I'm ready. Let's go Ami."  
  
Ami pressed the 'go' button and the sky lit up with a red light, instead of a blue light. The kids once again covered their eyes from the intensity of the light. "This one is brighter then the last one. Why is it doing this Ami?"  
  
"I don't know Rei. I wish it would stop." Ami sniffed the air. "Do you guys smell something?" She opened her eyes and looked down at her time pad, once the light went away. "OH NO!"   
  
Rei opened her eyes. "What? What's wrong? What's that smell. And what's that crackling noise?" Rei looked around at their surroundings. They were in the same field that they had just come from, except Goku, Gohan, and Krillin were gone. The whole area reeked with the stench of burning metal. She put her arms out in front of her to look at the damage from Goku's blast. They had gone down in color but still hurt just as bad. She needed to get some cream on them as soon as possible.  
  
Ami threw the time pad down to the ground and stepped on it. "Quickly. Someone get some sand to throw on it. It's on fire."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened with fear. "What did you say? It caught of fire?" She ran to Ami and looked down at the time pad. It was heavily smoking, and had orange flames popping in and out of one of the sides. "NO! How are we supposed to get back home now!?" She collapsed down to the ground and began to throw heaps of dirt onto the fire. "No, no, no, no, this can't be happening. I don't want to be stuck in the past. I want to go home now. This was a mistake. Please. Please work. I want my daddy." She continued to throw sand over the black box. She was terrified. This wasn't supposed to happen. The time pad wasn't supposed to break down on them. Even after she had completely buried the machine, she continued to throw dirt on it.   
  
"Usagi, you can stop now." Ami watched, as Usagi didn't stop. "Usagi, you can stop. I think it's out by now."  
  
Usagi didn't care. She wasn't thinking straight anymore. The only thing that was going through her mind was the fact that she would be forced to live in the past. She felt a pair of big hands wrap around her waist and turned her head. "Get off me Mamoru!" She began to kick and squirm to try and get out of his hold.   
  
Mamoru didn't let go. "Odango, there is nothing we can do now. It will either work now, or it won't. Burying it won't make a difference. Let's just dig it out and see what happens." He pulled her back after she relaxed in his arms. He knew she was scared, heck, he was scared too. He didn't know what would happen when they would try to dig it out and see if it worked, but they needed to find out.   
  
Rei knelt down by Usagi and took her from Mamoru. She didn't want to tell Usagi that she was beginning to get a bad feeling about this whole situation. "Usagi, please, calm down." They both watched in fear as Mamoru and Ami began to dig it out of the pile of dirt that Usagi had thrown in it. They both crossed their fingers. They hoped for the best. They hoped that although it caught on fire, that it would still be able to work. That they could go back to the future and scratch the idea of saving Goku. That wasn't important at the moment. Getting home was.   
  
(K! That's it for this part. What do you think? Good, or bad? Please review and tell me.)  



	43. Part 5

Usagi watched as Ami and Mamoru dug up the time pad that she just buried. Rei held her so she wouldn't start freaking out and hurt someone. She didn't resist the hold. She was too frightened to move. Her legs were weak and she felt very faint. She didn't know what she would do if she were to get stuck in the past. She would never see anyone that she loved again. Tears began to weld up in her eyes. "We can fix it if it's broken, can't we Ami? Please tell me we can."  
  
Ami dug as fast as she could. She didn't want to be stuck in the past either. "I hope so. But we used a lot of the newest parts to build it. They are very advanced and I don't know if we could scrounge up anything remotely close to them in this time." She continued digging until her hand hit against something hard. She pulled back her hand, as the metal was too hot for her to touch. "I think I found it. But it's still really hot from the burning. Can you pull it out for me Mamoru."  
  
Mamoru put his hand down into the dirt where Ami just had. He too felt the hot metal against his hands. "It is hot isn't it?" He took a deep breath and pulled the black box out of the dirt, immediately throwing to his side due to the burning sensation that it produced in his hand. "Damn, that thing really did catch on fire good."  
  
Usagi glared at Mamoru. He wasn't making the situation any better by making stupid comments like that. She looked over to Ami. "Ami, go see if it works." She pulled a bottle of water out of her bag. "Here put this on it to make it cool off faster."  
  
Ami stood up and grabbed the bottle of water from her friend. "Thanks Usagi." She could see the fear and anxiety in Usagi's eyes. She felt horrible for her. Usagi always liked to act really outgoing, but she was really just an insecure person. And in situations like this, it always showed through.   
  
Ami walked over to the 'time jumper' and gazed down at it. The flames had been totally put out, now the only thing left to do was to make sure that there wasn't very much internal damage. If there wasn't much, then they may be able to get it to work one more time so they could go home and put this behind them. She opened up the bottle and held it out over the burnt box of metal. "Well, here it goes you guys." She knew that the water wouldn't hurt it. They had made it to not have any kind of reaction to the water, just in case of emergencies. She tipped the water over and slowly let it drip out of the bottle on to the time pad. It sizzled as it hit, while cooling the metal down to a reasonable temperature.   
  
Rei let go of Usagi and grabbed her own arms. "Ami, don't use all of that water. My arms hurt. I want to put some of that on until we can get some cream or something to put on them." She looked at her arms. The skin on them seemed to be shriveling up, and getting rather hard.  
  
Ami turned her head to Rei. "What's wrong with your arms?" She stopped pouring the water and looked down to her friend's arms. "What happened? When did your arms get burned? Why didn't you tell me?" She ran over to Rei, throwing the bottle of water to Mamoru, and took her arms into her hand. "This looks really bad. We need to put something around them to keep dirt from getting on them and infecting them." She looked around for anything to use.   
  
"Ami, it's ok. I'm fine. Really."  
  
"Nonsense. This is bad." She looked back to Mamoru. "Can you get me the water?" She turned back to Rei as she pulled her jacket off. "Here, wear this. I don't have any gaze or anything for you. Just keep your arms protected. But wait until I can get some water on you." She looked back to Mamoru, who was running back to her.  
  
Usagi wasn't paying attention to what the others were doing. She was more concerned with getting home. She didn't care what she had to do to get home, she just wanted it so badly. She crawled over to the time pad. She was afraid to touch it for she didn't want to ruin it even further. 'Come on, please work still.' She picked it up and brought it close to her face. The screen that told what year they were in was shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. "Uh-oh. This can't be good." She pressed the power button. Surprisingly, it came on. "IT WORKS!" She jumped to her feet. "IT WORKS! IT REALLY WORKS YOU GUYS!" Usagi was so overjoyed. She didn't have to worry about not being able to go home again.   
  
Rei got a sudden pain flash through her temples the minute Usagi yelled out. 'What is this feeling I'm getting?' She looked over to Usagi. Ami and Mamoru were already on their way to check out the time pad. "Usagi, are you serious. You mean we can go home?" She threw Ami's jacket on and ran to Usagi. She couldn't believe it. She would be able to go home after all. She never wanted to time jump again. It was too risky.   
  
Ami grabbed the pad from Usagi and examined it. The main screen had in fact come on. It was a miracle. She turned it over and pulled of the panel from the back. "Everything looks normal." She clipped the panel back in its place and turned it over again so she could look down onto the screen. She didn't think that it would have worked after being caught on fire. She had herself convinced that they would have to stay in the past forever. "Let's go home you guys. I think I've had enough surprises for one day. What about you Usagi."  
  
"Do you even have to ask? Maybe we shouldn't mess with time anyways. I just want to get out of here and go home. I don't even care if I get in trouble. I deserve to get in trouble anyways." She looked around to her friends, who all stared at her as if she were crazy. They had never once in their lives heard from her mouth, those last words. "You guys let's get out of here."  
  
Ami nodded. Once she didn't hear protest from Mamoru or Rei, she turned the dial to their own time. "Ready you guys? On three. One…tw…"  
  
"No!" Rei jumped out at Ami and slapped the time pad out of Ami's hands, sending it flying into the air. Before it even landed, it exploded.   
  
Usagi felt her legs giving way beneath her body. She all of a sudden felt very heavy. "Wha..wha..what…happened? Why did it do that?" She looked over to Rei. "How did you know that it would do that?!" Her voice was shaky from fear. There was no way home. She realized it now. There was no way that she would be able to see her family again. There was no way to fix it either.  
  
Rei stared at the area that the flaming piece of metal fell. She didn't know how, but for some reason, somehow, she knew that it was going to blow up at that precise moment. "I don't know. I kind of saw it in my head. Like a premonition. We would have been badly injured, if not killed by the explosion."  
  
Mamoru stomped his feet on the ground. "DAMMIT! What the hell are we going to do now."  
  
Usagi fell to her knees, followed by her face. "This can't be happening. I'm not supposed to be here. Why did this happen? Why? Why? Why? WHY!?" With each 'why' Her voice rose and her fist violently pounded against the ground. She was angry with herself. It was her idea to go into the past. She had gotten her friends involved too. And no one in the future knew that they were there either.  
  
Ami knew that there was no hope to revive the time device. It was impossible. It had exploded in the air and was now furiously burning. The flames fed on the air around it. She didn't know how they would return home. She didn't think that Bulma had the materials to make them another one. She only knew of one alternative. "What about the Dragon Balls?"  
  
Usagi sat up and smiled. She wiped her tears away from her face. "You're a genius Ami. We can use the wish from the Dragon Balls and go home. Why didn't I think of that? That means we can still save daddy, and go home."  
  
Mamoru shook his head. "No good Odango. Father told me about the wish of the Dragon Balls. Although we get two wishes on ours, the past only gets one because Dende is not Kami yet. He hasn't made the new Dragon Balls. If we use them to save your dad, then we have to wait a year before we can gather them up again and wish to go home."  
  
"Meaning," Ami interrupted, "That we will be gone an equivalent of one day back home. We will definitely get in trouble then. They won't find us for one day and get worried. Do you want to risk that Usagi?" Ami checked her wristband to make sure it was still working, which it was. She didn't want to stay a year and age. What would her mother do? She would freak out if her daughter left home eight years old, and then come back nine years old.  
  
"I don't care. It's only one day. We're going to get in trouble anyways." She jumped to her feet. "So let's get the Dragon Balls and wish that daddy never gets that stupid heart virus. We can go home later. We're probably already in trouble anyways. Let's just enjoy ourselves while we can." Usagi was once again happy. She knew that she would be going home in a year and had nothing to worry about, she hoped.  
  
Mamoru snorted. "Odango, you are so dumb you know that? You purposely put yourself in situations that, you very well know, will get you in trouble. Yet you still get upset when your mother yells at you. I fail to see the logic in this."  
  
Usagi giggled. "And you never will either. What I do is my own business. Now come on. Let's go get the Dragon Balls so we can save dad." She pulled out the Dragon Ball radar from her bag and turned it on. "Looks like dad has one. I know he likes to keep at least two or three in the house just in case someone tries gather them. Then if they want them for something bad, they have to go through him to get it."  
  
Rei thought that it was a very good idea, although, she found a flaw within it. "Um, Usagi. You want us to go to your house, where your mother is? Gohan might even be there. Or worse, your dad. We don't want make contact with them do we? We've already messed with one timeline."  
  
Ami took the Dragon Ball radar from Usagi and studied it carefully to get the exact location of all seven balls. "Well, actually, we may have to talk to them after all. Remember, we are going to be staying here for a year. We will need a place to stay. We can meet them, just not tell them who we are." She looked over at Usagi. "No slip ups this time either. Unless you really have a need to tell them, don't."  
  
Usagi was a bit confused. "But, we have to tell them that we're from the future. I want to warn them about the androids. If I do, then they will have a chance to train harder just like they did in our time. They don't stand a chance against the androids and Cell if they don't. At least, that's what dad said."  
  
Mamoru was completely lost. He knew that Usagi wanted to save her father, but he was a bit fuzzy on what was going to happen. His own father hadn't really told him much about the past. The only thing that he ever said was that the earth had been threatened by many beings of evil and that him and his friends had to save it all the time. "Well I don't really care what happens. As long as I get to see Goku's true potential, I will be happy. I want to fight him. I want to prove to my father that I can beat him."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes. "Please Mamoru. I can't even beat dad when he's a Super Saiyan. I've never tried. I'm not even up to his level when he's not a Super Saiyan. Now tell me, if I can beat you, and not dad, how can you beat him?"  
  
Mamoru grinned. "I can beat him. Don't worry, I will be victorious." He turned to Ami. "Now, about these Dragon Balls…"  
  
"The closest ones are in fact the ones at Usagi's house. It's about thirty miles from here. The next closets one is about one hundred miles from here. We are going to have a long way to go after that. They are really spread out. One is even in another country I think." Ami looked over to Rei. "I think we should stop off in the city first to get something for your arm."  
  
"Why worry? Mom always keeps things for wounds. She has to. With me and dad always coming home with cuts and bruises it's kind of something that we need. I have a plan to get the Dragon Balls too. See, what we do is go to my house. Mom will most likely be there. So all we say is that Rei burned herself putting out a fire in the forest or something and ask if we could have anything for the burns. Mom will want to help. Believe me, she always does. So while she is fixing Rei's burn, I'll sneak around the house and find the Dragon Ball. Dad usually keeps one in his room, and one in the kitchen. I have the third one that he gave to me, but since I'm not born yet, it wont be there."  
  
Mamoru was pretty amazed with Usagi's plan. It was better then anything that he could have thought up in the small amount of time that she had. "Wow Odango. Your brain IS tickin in there isn't it?" He knocked on her head.  
  
Usagi frowned as she pulled away. "Why do you always have to make fun of me Mamoru? You're so mean?"  
  
Mamoru smiled. "Because you're so easily made fun of. You leave yourself wide open for it. You don't have any common sense what so ever."  
  
Usagi clenched her fist as she started to walk closer to Mamoru. It was not unlike her to start a fight with him over the comments that he made to her. He was just downright rude most of the time. "I do to! I have more common sense then…"  
  
Rei stepped in between Mamoru and Usagi as she put her hands out to each of their chests. They were both ready to fight each other and she could sense it. "Now stop it you guys. We don't have time for your petty little fighting. We have more important things to do, like get the Dragon Balls. I know you guys hate each other, but fight later." She looked up at Mamoru, he looked like he was about to hall off and hit both of them. She looked over at Usagi. She could see the want for fight in her eyes. When Usagi was provoked, she was quite a scary person. Rei learned that you never want to be in Usagi's way when she became angry. "Usagi, back down just this once. If you want to save Goku, we have to leave now. There's no telling what kind of trouble we will get in when we go to get the other Dragon Balls."  
  
Usagi knew that Rei was right, but she hated to back down from Mamoru. The only reason why she did, however, was because she knew that her father would not approve of her starting a fight because of something Mamoru had said. Every single time that she did, she would get a lecture. Each time, the lecture would be longer. And each time, he would get angrier and angrier because she didn't listen to the last lecture. She never took her eyes of Mamoru. Without pulling her teeth apart, she began to open her lips. "Fine! Just make sure this freak doesn't talk to me anymore and I'll be completely happy." She released her tensed fist and brought her hand to her side. Although her body showed that she was completely relaxed, her eyes told a different story. She still wanted to beat the heck out of him, but she knew not to. She turned and looked to Ami. "I guess we should be going now. I want to get this done as soon as possible." She jumped into the air. "Nimbus! Come to me!" She hoped that it would come. After all, it didn't know who she was in this timeline. It may not answer to her calls since it was officially her father's cloud. She was relieved to see it flying to her. "Great. Ami, you can use Nimbus now." 'Now all we have to do is get her to train with us this year and everything will be good. It's not like her mom is here to stop us. Hehe.'  
  
Nimbus landed on the ground, after Ami called it to her. She quickly climbed up onto it, with the bag on her back. She checked the Radar again. "Looks like Goku does actually have three at his house. Usagi, any ideas on where he would be keeping the third one?" Nimbus rose up into the air so she was at eye level with Usagi. Rei and Mamoru followed her up.  
  
Usagi shook her head. The only reason why there was a third one at their house was because of the one that he had given her for her birthday. "I don't know anywhere that he would keep it. We'll have to search for it I guess." She slowly moved forward towards her house.   
  
Mamoru shot out in front of Usagi. He always tried to show her up. "Odango, if you ever plan on getting there any time soon, we have to go a little bit faster. Come on guys." A golden aura surrounded him as he increased his speed to his fullest, leaving the girls behind.  
  
Usagi frowned. She knew that she could fly much faster then him. "You cant beat me Mamoru!" She too was engulfed with a golden aura as she sped up to her maximum speed.   
  
Rei sighed. "They can be so annoying sometimes. Always competing to be the best." She sped up to her fastest too, but was no match for Mamoru or Usagi. She flew at the same pace as Nimbus as the four went of on their adventure to gather the Dragon Balls to save Goku.  
  
~*~*~  
  
30 Miles later…  
  
Usagi landed in the wooded area behind her house. She had barely beaten Mamoru. "I won! I won! Oh yeah!" She started to do a little victory dance to rub it in to Mamoru. She loved it when she was victorious over him.  
  
Mamoru stared in annoyance at Usagi. "Shut Up Odango!"  
  
Usagi stopped dancing around and stared at Mamoru as seriously as she possibly could. She continued to stare at him for about thirty seconds and burst out laughing. "I BEAT YOU!! AH HA HA HA!"  
  
"I said SHUT UP!" Mamoru made a fist and punched Usagi right smack in the face, throwing her down to the ground. The one thing that he hated more then being beaten by Usagi was having her rub it in his face. She had a tendency to go way overboard. "That should shut you up." He crossed his arms just as Rei and Ami landed to his left.  
  
Usagi grabbed her face, where it now stung. "You're so mean Mamoru. I hate you." She stood back up and looked him in the eye. He was laughing at her. She didn't think it was very funny. He was always so mean to her. She never could figure out why though. Ever since the first day they had met, he had been rude to her. She had done nothing, yet, he insisted on doing things to her. She turned around and ran for her house without a second thought.  
  
Ami jumped off Nimbus. "Wait! We haven't even really talked about this yet! Usagi!" She began to run forward to try and catch her, but it was no use. Usagi was much faster then her. "Quickly you guys. I guess we're going with Usagi's plan about tricking her mother."   
  
Mamoru grabbed Ami and quickly ran up to the house. He knew her and was pretty sure that she would knock on the door with or without them all being there. 'She is just too spontaneous. She needs to learn to stop that if she ever wants to be great fighter.' "Odango! You stupid idiot!" He noticed that she had already knocked on the door and Chi-Chi had already answered it.   
  
Chi-Chi looked down at the little girl who stood before her. She noticed that she was fumbling with something behind her back. "Can I help you?"  
  
Usagi quickly shoved her tail up under the skirt of her GI and prayed that her mother had not seen it. "Uh, yes, my name is…" 'Uh-oh, who should I say I am? What if she was the one who named me Usagi? What if she likes that name?' "Pan. My name is Pan." She looked to her right where Mamoru carrying Ami while Rei on his side. "These are my friends. The blue haired girl is Ami, the other girl is Rei, and that stupid jerk is named Mamoru." She stuck her tongue out at Mamoru as he place Ami down on the ground.  
  
Chi-Chi looked around to the children. "That wasn't very nice of you. You should respect your friends."  
  
Usagi sighed. She should have known better then to say something like that in front of her mother. She always did have a knack for ruining her fun. "Fine, fine. Anyways, my friend Rei burned her arms and we were wondering if you maybe possibly could have something to put on them?"  
  
Rei took Ami's jacket off and revealed her arms. The pain had gotten worse on the way to the house. Her skin was now completely hard and it was beginning to blister. She didn't understand. She had taken many hits from Goku before and never gotten burnt. But he had used his full power on his attack. That had to be it. She held out her arms in front of Chi-Chi.   
  
Chi-Chi gasped. She had never seen anyone with such a bad burn. Well, no one that wasn't associated with her family or friends. "You poor child. Come right in. All of you. Just be careful not to disturb my son. He's in with a tutor right now. Please follow me." She turned around and walked into the house, leaving the door open behind her.   
  
Usagi looked to her friends as she grabbed the bag from Ami. "Ok you guys. I'll follow you in and then sneak to dad's room. Gohan told me about the tutor. He wont let Gohan out so I wont have to worry about him. Seeing me." Usagi remembered to the time when Gohan had told her about the tutor. He was warning her never to let her grades slip so bad to where she would have the need to get one. Usagi had been scared out of he wits about tutors after that. And now she had the chance to meet him. But she didn't want to. She would avoid it as much as possible.   
  
Rei and Ami followed Chi-Chi into the house, while Mamoru just stood and stared at Usagi while he shook his head. "You really are an idiot Odango. You didn't even wait for us to get here. You could have screwed the whole thing up. What's going through your head these days? Wait a minute, what's going on in your head any day?" He snickered to himself and walked in the door and shut it before Usagi had a chance to go in.  
  
Usagi clenched her teeth. She wanted to break the door in and kick Mamoru's butt, but she couldn't. Her mother would kill her and then there go her chances of getting the Dragon Balls. She resisted her temptation to break the door and walked to the back side of the house, where the window of her parents room was. They always left it open to always have a fresh circulation of air in the house and. She raised herself up to the window and pushed it in. She carefully, and quietly let herself slip into the room. It looked a little different then her parents' room in the future. The layout was the same, but there weren't nearly as many pictures in it and the furniture was a lot different. She knew exactly where to go to find the Dragon Ball. Her father had told her where he hid them just in case something happened to him and she had to get them out to make a wish. She hoped that nothing would ever happen to him though.  
  
She quickly ran to the bed and knelt down for it. "Please be here. Please don't have a different place then the future." She put her hand between the mattress and the box spring and felt around until her fingers ran across a smooth glossy surface. "Bingo!" She grasped the ball in her hand and pulled it out to her face. "It's the six star ball. Cool!" She put the ball into he book bag and quickly ran out of the room. She didn't have time to waste. She didn't know how long Rei would keep her mother busy with getting her arms fixed up.  
  
She ran out into the living room where she saw the door to her room slightly open. She tip-toed close to it. Inside, she could hear the voices of her brother and an older man. 'That stupid tutor must be in there right now.' She stood with her back against the wall, and poked her head around the door to see her brother sitting at his desk, being whipped by Mr. Shuu. "Ouch." She whispered. But not quiet enough.   
  
Mr. Shuu turned around and frowned at Usagi. "Who are you girl? Do you need to be disciplined too?"  
  
Usagi looked up at Mr. Shuu's face. "Yikes?" She pulled her head back and ran away from the room. She hoped and prayed that Gohan hadn't seen her. She ran down the hallway passed the bathroom, where she could hear Rei making up a story about why she was so badly burned. 'Great going Rei. Just keep it up and we will have the Dragon Balls in no time. But I just wish I knew where daddy hid the last one. Gohan doesn't have it. I know that for a fact. Gohan never really got his back after they used it.' She quietly snuck passed the bathroom so her mother wouldn't hear her and into the kitchen. "No, how do I get behind the refrigerator without making too much noise?" She pondered for a moment. "That's a little heavy for me to lift by myself. Even if I am strong, I'm not THAT strong." She walked over to it and examined it. "I guess I could give it a try." She put her hands on either side of the white box and started to lift with all her might. "Come on you stupid thing. Move. I need the Dragon Ball." She reached far down into her reserves and lifted harder and harder. "Oh don't be difficult please!" She could feel it start to give way. It was slipping from it's spot, making a loud screeching noise.   
  
Chi-Chi came out of the bathroom. "What's that noise?"  
  
Rei, knowing that there was trouble, jumped down of the counter and grabbed Chi-Chi by the arm. "Oh Ms. Chi-Chi, I'm sure it was nothing. Please come back in here for a minute."  
  
Chi-Chi looked down at Rei and lifted an eyebrow. She knew that there was definitely something up with these kids. One of them was missing. The girl named Pan wasn't present with the rest of them. "It came from the kitchen." She pulled her arm away from Rei and began walking to the kitchen.  
  
Rei looked back at Mamoru and Ami and shrugged. They hadn't wanted to make trouble, but it seemed a little unavoidable anymore. "USAGI HURRY UP!" She darted out of the bathroom and ran past Chi-Chi. Usagi was almost to the point of passing out when she got in. "That's too heavy to move by yourself. Come on, we have to blast it. She's coming." She looked behind her at the doorway that led out of the room. In it, stood Chi-Chi, angry as ever. "Uh, hi?"  
  
Usagi leaned against the fridge and panted heavily. She was warn out. She had been strong, yes, but she still wasn't able to lift the darn thing. "I'm too tired Rei."  
  
Chi-Chi was fuming made. Her she had let these children come into her home and they repaid her by destroying her home. But she wasn't totally stupid. She knew what they were after. "GOHAN! GET OUT HERE!" She would have Gohan teach them a thing or two about trying to steal a Dragon Ball from their family.  
  
Mamoru ran up from behind Chi-Chi. "Want me to knock her out?" He grinned at Chi-Chi. He didn't particularly care for her. He found her to much of a complainer when things didn't go exactly how she had planned. She was also too much of an over protective mother.   
  
Usagi shook her head. "NO! Now come and help me move this thing Rei." She began to push again, hoping that it would budge. She didn't want her brother to come out and start a fight with them. "It just wont budge." She could see the Dragon Ball behind it, but it wasn't reachable. They just needed to push it out a little bit further.  
  
Gohan ran out of his room and down the hallway to see a strange girl about his age standing behind his mother. "What is it mom? What's wrong?" He could sense a large power level coming from the kitchen. "Are they trying to get the Dragon Ball?" He didn't wait for his mother to answer. He knew what the answer was. 'That girl, she must have already gotten the Dragon Ball from dad's room.  
  
Gohan pushed past his mother and let himself into the kitchen. It was just as he had thought. They were trying to get to the Dragon Ball. "Hey you guys! Stop it now! If you want that ball, you have to go though me first!" He stood in his fighting stance. He would do anything to protect his home, and earth. He had protected it from Garlic Jr., and he would protect it from these people too. They weren't nearly as strong as any of the other enemies that they had fought in the past.   
  
Usagi let go of the fridge and looked at her brother. He looked a lot different now. Before, he was much smaller then her and didn't have very many muscles, but now, he was taller then her and was well built. He was beginning to look like the Gohan she knew. "Look, we don't want this for a bad purpose so just leave us alone."  
  
Gohan was baffled. He didn't understand why the girl's Ki felt so much like his father's. "I don't care what you want it for. Those balls are only used for emergencies. So get away from them. You can give back the one that you stole from my father too." He could tell that Usagi wasn't about to move from her spot. "I don't want to have to fight you, but I will."  
  
"Please, just let us take the balls." Usagi grabbed the fridge once again and began to push on it. It screeched some more as it started to give way.  
  
Gohan frowned. "Some people never learn. I'm sorry mom." He put his hands together and built up a small Ki blast in them. "I said move away!" He fired it just above Usagi's head.  
  
Usagi looked back at her brother. He was serious. She should have known better then to not take him seriously. He always was serious when it came to these kinds of things. "Hey…"  
  
"Why don't you go back to your damn studying kid! No one cares about what you have to say." Mamoru stepped in front of Gohan. He didn't like him either. Actually, he didn't really like anyone from Usagi's family. Including her. "Just go back to your mommy and…"  
  
Mamoru was cut off by Gohan's fist plowing into his stomach. Gohan glared down at him. "I said leave and I meant it!"  
  
"Go Gohan. Mommy's proud of you."  
  
He glared over at Rei, who coward away from him. She didn't want to get hit as Mamoru was. He had way more power then she did. He was probably just as strong, or maybe a little bit stronger then Usagi. He stepped closer to Usagi. "If you don't want to get hurt, I suggest you leave now."  
  
Usagi backed up until her back was to the wall. She could barely match his power. He had been through more fighting then he had and was therefore stronger then her. She had pretty much trained all her life and fought with Kiro, which wasn't that much of a fight. He had been through Garlic, Frieza, and the Saiyans. He had much more skill then her. If they were to fight, she knew that she probably wouldn't come out as the victor. "Just let us use them and we wont do anything…"  
  
Gohan stopped just ten inches in font of her. "Tell me why you didn't just tell us that you needed the Dragon Balls?"  
  
Mamoru pushed himself off the ground with great pain. Gohan's punch had done much more then knock the wind out of him. "Because Odango here is a dumbass and has no common sense."  
  
Usagi frowned at Mamoru. "Stop it already! Your so mean!" She looked back to Gohan, who didn't seem to be phased by their argument. "We didn't think…"  
  
"That's right, you didn't think." Gohan wasn't going to let them have the balls for anything. He had been instructed by his father not to let anyone have the balls unless it was a life or death situation and the earth was at stake. "Now give me the ball that you have already stolen and I will not hurt you." He held his hand out.  
  
Usagi looked to Ami for answers. She knew that if anyone would know what to do, it would be her. She always knew what to do. She was a little shocked when Ami nodded, telling her to give him the ball. "Ami, but…"  
  
"Just do it Usagi." Ami knew that they would probably be running into them again later. She needed to think of a plan to get them it back though. A plan that did not involve telling them who they were. But if they did have to say who they were, they would just have to live with it.  
  
Usagi sighed. She was sure that Ami knew what she was doing. She looked back to Gohan. "Fine. You win." She pulled her bag off her back and unzipped it. "I hope you know what you're doing Ami." She dug deep into the bag and pulled out the six star Dragon Ball. She could have cried when she sat it into her brother's hand. That ball was part of her hope. Her hope to save her father. Her hope to be born in this timeline. And her hope of getting home.  
  
Gohan clasped his hand around the ball. "Now get out of our house." Gohan jumped back. All of a sudden, out of no where, he felt something coming towards earth. "What the…this can't be. That's Freiza's energy I'm feeling. But dad killed him on Namek."  
  
Usagi groaned. 'Yes! Daddy should be coming home soon then. Then I can talk to him.' She couldn't let them know that she knew who Freiza was. She looked around to her friends. "Come on guys. Let's get out of here." She slowly walked to the doorway that led out of the room and held her head low. Her mother stepped to the side and willingly let them out of the room.  
  
Gohan was dealing with a crisis of his own. He didn't know what was happening. Freiza was coming to earth. He didn't know how. He should have been dead. He didn't know what they were going to do either. There was no way that they could kill him. No one was strong enough to kill him. His dad wasn't on earth to help protect it. 'Dad, where are you?' He turned to his mother. "Mom, I've got to go!"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Oh no you don't mister. You're staying right here and getting a good education."  
  
Usagi turned around just as everyone else was leaving the house. "Just let him go. It's for the good of the earth." She turned and walked out of the house before she even got a reply from her mother. She felt horrible. She had just been pretty much kicked out of her own home by her brother and mother. Granted the didn't know who she was, but it still hurt.  
  
Gohan ran out of the kitchen. "Sorry mom. I gotta go. She's right. Earth is in trouble. I've gotta help it." He ran to his room where Mr. Shuu was impatiently waiting for him. "Sorry. I gotta go." He pulled out his fighting suit from Namek from under his bed.  
  
Mr. Shuu nearly had a conniption when he heard Gohan say this. "Excuse me, but your mother is paying me to teach you and taught is what you shall be. So sit down and hit the books."  
  
Gohan ignored his tutor. He didn't care what he thought. He quickly changed into his fighting gear and jumped out the window. "Sorry but earth needs to be saved!" He looked down to the ground, where he saw the strange kids that had tried to steal the Dragon Balls. He hoped that they wouldn't try anything else while he was away.  
  
Usagi looked up just as her brother flew overhead. "I don't like it here you guys. It's too different. I want to go home." She sat down on the ground.  
  
Mamoru stood by her. "Oh yes. So now you want to go home! Who was it that wanted to come all the way to the past to save her father? Honestly Odango, you think you'd learn."  
  
Usagi didn't know that all this horrible stuff was going to happen. If she had, she would have stayed home. She didn't want to be here anymore. She wanted to go home, to be with her family. "It doesn't really matter because I have to finish what I started. I have to save daddy." She pulled up some grass and put it on her leg.  
  
"Usagi, if we are going to save Goku, then we have to take action now. I can't think of anyway to save him unless we have the Dragon Balls, and it doesn't look like we are going to be able to get them all without going through your family first."  
  
Usagi looked up at Ami. "So what are you saying? That we tell them that I'm their daughter after what we just pulled? They wouldn't believe us anyways. They would just think that I'm trying to get the Dragon Balls." She laid back on the ground. "It's hopeless. Mamoru's right. I can't do anything right. I can't even go home."  
  
Mamoru smiled. "I'm glad you've come to terms with yourself Odango." He looked around to the girls. "Ok, you know what? Screw this. You guys can do whatever you want. But from what I hear, Goku will be coming here soon to fight Freiza and I want to see his power. I want to fight him. So guys can do whatever you want, but I'm going to the battlefield. Bye." He jumped into the air and took off as fast as he could, following Freiza's energy. It was a giant power and he had never felt anything like it. He liked it. He wanted to fell that type of power. That's the kind of power that he was going for.  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. What do you think? Good or bad? Please Review and tell me. Thanks.)  



	44. Part 6

Usagi sat on the ground and stared up into the sky. She knew exactly who was invading earth at that moment. She remembered her father's story about what events took place on this day. This was the day that Freiza came to earth. It was also the day that her own father would be returning to earth. She knew that because Trunks was not going to be there to intervene, that her father would use his teleportation technique to get here as soon as possible so the world would not be destroyed. She wouldn't be able to kill Freiza like Trunks had either. She wasn't nearly strong enough. She didn't even have the full power of a Super Saiyan yet, even though she thought to be one by everyone.   
  
Usagi knew that she had to stop Mamoru from challenging her father, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to go. She didn't know what the point was. If she went, Gohan would see her and get angry. Of course, if he saw Mamoru, one would end up challenging the other. She didn't want that to happen. She didn't want there to be tension. Although she didn't care for Mamoru too much, she didn't want him to get hurt. She still had hope for him. The only way that a conflict could be prevented was if she convinced Mamoru not to show himself. But then again, that would require her to go near Gohan. She knew that she wouldn't be able to catch up with Mamoru before he reached the battlefield. She sighed as she lay back and rested her head in the grass. "Maybe he's right. Maybe I do mess everything up you guys."  
  
Rei sat down by her friend. She knew that her relationship with Mamoru took more of a toll on her then she wanted everyone to know. She could sense uneasiness in Usagi whenever they were near each other. She didn't quite like Mamoru either, but Usagi seemed to take everything that he said to her straight to heart. She took almost everything that other people said to heart. Even though on the outside she seemed like a happy person, she wasn't. On the inside she was just a confused and scared girl who cowards behind others. "Usagi, you don't mess things up."  
  
"Yes I do. I just screwed up our chances of getting the Dragon Balls. I should have just asked for the Dragon Balls instead of trying to take them."  
  
Ami pulled out the Dragon Radar and turned it on. "You guys, it looks like Gohan took one of the Dragon Balls with him. He may try to keep it on his person until Goku gets home." She turned it off and put it in her pocket. He could prove to be somewhat of a problem. "Maybe we should collect the other balls and then come back to this one later."  
  
"What's the point? He's not going to give it to us. Gohan is one of the most stubborn people I know. Once his mind is set, nothing can change it. Believe me, I know this for a fact. And it's even worse if he thinks you're his enemy. That ball is as good as gone. We're never going to get home. We're doomed to stay here for the rest of our lives with no hope of ever getting home." Usagi sat up. She didn't have any idea how she was supposed to get home. Gohan would never give up the ball. She figured that he would tell everyone about what she tried earlier anyways, which made it even harder for her to show her face around the group.  
  
Rei frowned. She didn't like the way Usagi was talking one bit. She had never heard Usagi once give up hope on ANYTHING. She always looked to the bright side of things. But she had noticed that Mamoru always seemed to bring out the pessimist in her. She straightened her hand and slapped Usagi as hard as she could in the face. "I can't believe you! I'm pretty sure Goku never taught you to just give up! In fact, I'm positive he didn't! I've known him long enough to know that he would one, tell you not to give up on anything, and two, he would be disappointed to hear that you gave up without a real fight!" She stood up and looked down at Usagi, who was now trying to hide her tears from Rei. "I'm going to the battlefield with Mamoru. I'm going to talk to Gohan and the others. You can join me if you want, but don't think that I'm going to give up just because you did." She leaped up into the air, turning to look at Ami. "Hey, are you coming, or staying here?"  
  
Ami looked over to Usagi, and then up at Rei. She didn't know what to do. She wanted to go with Rei, yet, she didn't want to leave Usagi alone in the current state that she was in. Usagi looked horrible. She was dealing with a lot of different problems at once. Ami definitely knew how that was. She also knew that when she was down with a problem, the only thing that she wanted the most, was time alone to be with her thoughts. That's why she made her next decision. "I'll come with you Rei." She saw her leaving at doing Usagi a favor.   
  
Rei called for Nimbus and then looked down at Usagi. "So, are you coming or not?"  
  
Usagi didn't lift her head. She was too embarrassed to look at Rei. She knew that she was completely right. It was wrong to give up at such an early stage, but she knew it was hopeless. She didn't understand why she should keep pushing when she already knew what the outcome would be. "Leave me alone." She could hear Rei growling under her breath, but she didn't care. She had every right to feel the way that she did. She didn't think that Rei and Ami would leave her alone anyways.  
  
"Fine." Rei waited for Ami to rise up into the air with Nimbus. "If you ever come to your senses, you're welcome to come to the battle field anytime." She turned around and took off and flew away as fast as she could. Nimbus easily kept up with Ami on it.  
  
Usagi looked up. She couldn't believe that her friends just left her behind. She expected that kind of thing from Mamoru, but never from two of her closest friends. She stood up and frowned. "FINE! I DON'T NEED YOU ANYWAYS!" She continued to look into the horizon, hoping that Rei and Ami would return. But they never did. At least five minutes passed, there was still no sign of them. They had actually left her. 'Some friends they are. I know Minako and Makoto wouldn't do that. Speaking of them, I wonder what they're doing right now. I wonder what mom and daddy are doing right now. I bet only a couple minutes have passed there. They probably don't even know I'm gone. Here I am, trying to save daddy and get home, and they don't even know I'm missing. I'm glad they have nothing to worry about. But they will tonight when daddy finishes fighting with Piccolo and Gohan." She wiped away some of the tears that dripped down to her chin. "I'm sorry everyone."   
  
Usagi began to slowly walk forward. She didn't know where she was going, nor did she care. She just needed time to think. She got everyone into this mess, and she would get them out. She didn't know how she would get the Dragon Balls that were in her family's possession, but she would think of something. And it had to be something that didn't involve telling anyone anything about who she was. She couldn't afford to drastically ruin another time line. She had really let herself slip in the other time, but she couldn't do that again. She didn't trust the others to not tell. They had suggested that she tell them who they were. She had to make sure that they didn't. But she couldn't go to the battlefield. Everyone would hate her, including her friends.  
  
~*~*~  
  
'I want to know how Frieza lived through dad's attack. It doesn't make any sense. Namek exploded. He should be dead. Dad wouldn't have left if Frieza was still alive. And what was with those kids from earlier? Why did they want the Dragon Balls? Are they with Frieza too? That girl had a somewhat strong powerlevel. She didn't even get it up all the way. I hope she isn't with him. Dad isn't here to help us yet.' Gohan flew as fast as he could to the site where Frieza would be landing. He squinted his eyes when he saw something flying up in front of him. "Krillin! Is that you!?" He sped up a bit.  
  
Krillin turned his head around. "Hey Gohan! You felt it to huh?" Krillin was horrified when he first felt Frieza again. He had hoped that he would never have to see the girlish monster from hell again. He was blown up by him once, he didn't exactly want to be blown up again. That wasn't his idea of a good time.  
  
Gohan slowed down once he caught up to his friend. "Yeah, I don't know how or why he's here, but I know that it's not for a family reunion. But something strange happened right before he arrived. These strange kids came and tried to steal the Dragon Balls that dad keeps in the house. I had to take one with me just so they didn't come back."  
  
Krillin raised an eyebrow out of both fascination and fear. "What?! Where they forceful?"  
  
Gohan shook his head. "No, the girl tried to say that they wanted them for an emergency. But, if it was such and emergency, why would the need to steal the balls from us? The boy that was with them tried to step up, but I showed him not to mess with me. Although, I didn't enjoy it. I actually hated to do it. I don't like hurting people. But dad told me to protect the balls. So I did."  
  
Krillin smiled. Gohan was so much like his father it was scary. "Your dad would be proud of you Gohan. He already is."  
  
Gohan smiled and turned his concentration back to the enemy ship nearing the planet. "I think we should land here Krillin. We shouldn't use our energy or else their scouters might pick us up."  
  
Krillin nodded. "Good idea Gohan." Both fighters descended to the ground, where they found most of their friends already there.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru landed closely behind them. 'What stupid idiotic fools. They didn't even feel me following them. They were too concerned with this Frieza guy's power that they didn't even know I was here. What's wrong with them? I thought they were top class fighters.' He smirked. 'Maybe they're beatable after all.' He looked behind him as he felt a familiar energy approaching fast. 'Look. It's the circus girls come to watch the fireworks.' He waved to them to show them where to come. He didn't want them to go any further and spoil his fun. He looked behind Rei to see Ami on Nimbus and looked ever further then that to see pretty much nothing. Hr just saw the blue sky.  
  
Rei spotted Mamoru's hand flailing in the air. She looked onward and saw a group of fighters awaiting Freiza's arrival. She didn't know what the big deal was about his powerlevel. Yeah it was big, but they had felt stronger before in the future. She turned her head just enough to see Ami. "Let's land down there next to Mamoru."  
  
"Right." She nudged on Nimbus a bit to let it know that she wanted to land. She looked at Mamoru. He looked like he was in a rather good mood. He always did after he did mean things to Usagi though. He seemed to take pleasure in making fun of her. Most of the time he said mild remarks, but other times, he was just downright mean. And this day, he was just being downright mean. Meaner then usual actually. It seemed like he was just picking fights for the hell of it.   
  
She jumped down off Nimbus and poked her head out from behind a rock that blocked them from being seen by the fighters. "Hey, look, Bulma's here."  
  
Rei pushed past Mamoru and stood behind her friend. "Where?" She let her eyes scan across the area until they lay on the blue haired woman. "Your right. She is here. But, why? She doesn't fight as far as I know."  
  
"She doesn't. I don't know why she's here, but we could use this to our advantage."  
  
Rei stopped looking at the group of people in front of her and pulled away from the rock. "What do you mean? Do you think Bulma can make us a time machine or something? That would be great if she could. I know she can't fix our time pad. It exploded and all. I don't think that's very repairable." Rei hope that Bulma could help them. She didn't exactly want to stay in this time any longer if they had to. Even if they had managed to get the Dragon Balls from Gohan, they would still have to stay in that time for a year before they could gather them up again and go home. Even though a year was on and equivalent of one day to them.  
  
Ami kept her eyes on Bulma. She looked a lot more spunky now then she did in the future. "Well, I'm not sure. First we have to tell them who we are, but I'm not sure we want to do that. Usagi may not want to tell them who she is. You know how upset she is."  
  
Rei frowned as she crossed her arms. "She's being ridiculous. If Goku ever knew how she was acting…"  
  
"He would understand. You know that Usagi has a harder time then we do. She's been through more then us. Just leave her alone. She'll come around." Mamoru snorted as he found THAT funny. "You think I'm wrong?"  
  
"Hell yeah I think you're wrong. Odango is just a big crybaby. That's all she does. If something doesn't go her way, she whines about it. If she's going to be a fighter, she needs to act like it. I personally don't know how Goku could have lived with that for eight years. You just watch, now that she's going to be gone for a day, Goku is going to realize just what a pain in the ass his daughter is and how nice it is to not have her around. Then he's going to want more of that. So you know what he's going to do…"  
  
"No Mamoru. Please tell me what dad is going to do to make me easier to be around. I want to know before he actually does it." Usagi had decided to go to the battlefield. She thought about what Rei had said about not going down without a fight and realized that she should at least try, even if she knew it would fail. She didn't want her friends to be mad at her. But she now realized that it didn't matter. They thought she was baby and that was that. There was no way to change that now. She tried desperately to hold back tears. If they saw her cry, it would only add to their accusations.  
  
Mamoru turned around with force. He hadn't meant for Usagi to hear that. Although he meant every word of what he just said, he didn't want Usagi to hear it. He knew it would make her upset. Although he didn't like her, he knew that that was a little too harsh to let her hear. It was a little late to shelter her ears from it now. She wanted to hear it and would make him tell her. He couldn't give up his reputation of being mean to her anyways. He couldn't turn soft. He would be heavily made fun of. Especially by his best friends, Haruka and Michiru. "Odango, when did you get here? I didn't even feel you."  
  
"I took Nimbus so you wouldn't know. Now, tell me, what is daddy going to do to me?" Usagi was getting impatient.  
  
"I was just telling your 'friends' that Goku will either leave you here and take the rest of us, or he'll put you under some severe training. He won't have any mercy on you."  
  
Usagi frowned. "My daddy would never do that to me. You're lying Mamoru."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Am I now? Well, it just so happens that I was talking to him about your crybaby ways today. He said that he was getting really put out with you." He knew that he could really make her angry this way.   
  
"That's not true. Daddy would never say anything like that. Shut up!"   
  
"It's completely true Odango. Your father hates you. He wants you to act your age." He looked back at Rei and Ami. They looked speechless. They didn't know what he was doing. Hell, he didn't even know what he was doing. He didn't even fell an urge to be this incredibly rude to her. It was just happening.   
  
Usagi let the tears come out again. She knew that her father would never say anything like that. At least, she hoped. There had been many times that he told her to stop whining and being a crybaby. "Take it back Mamoru. He didn't say it." She waited for a reply, but got none. "I SAID TAKE IT BACK!" That's when she let it go. She let all the anger that was built up inside her from the past day, go. She didn't care that the others would hear her.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Everyone turned their heads over into the direction of Usagi and her friends after they heard her scream at Mamoru. They weren't sure who was behind the rocks but they were sure going to find out soon. Vejita looked up at the sky. "He shouldn't be here for another five minutes if we're lucky."  
  
Gohan stepped forward. He was pretty sure he knew who it was. He could feel the girl's Ki rising again. "I don't think we're very lucky Vejita. Frieza came to earth, and these are the same people who came to my house. They must have followed me here thinking that they are going to get the Dragon Ball."  
  
Krillin ran towards the commotion. "We can't let them get their hands on the Dragon Balls." He looked up at the sky. 'Goku, where are you? Frieza is coming and now we have a new enemy. This is not good.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi jumped onto Mamoru's face and began punching him in the face as hard as she could. Her golden aura surrounded he body as she let her rage take over. It was one thing to just make fun of her, but it was another to bring her relationship with her father in. She knew that Mamoru hated her whole family. He hated her father because he hit him. He hated her brothers because they always threatened to beat the hell out of him if they touched her. He didn't like her because she was just, well, her. He didn't like anything about her. At least, that's what he showed to the world. Usagi knew that there was more to him then he let on. There was something strangely familiar about him that scared Usagi. For some reason she felt a connection to him. It confused her but she was usually able to put these feelings away when he made fun of her. Bad always outweighs the good, at least, in her eyes it did.  
  
"Get the hell off me Odango!" Mamoru dug his fingers into Usagi's waist as hard and as deep as he could and ripped her off, throwing her to the side.  
  
Rei and Ami ducked as Usagi came flying right for them. Rei frowned. This was neither the time nor the place to be having a fight. "Mamoru! Stop it. You're out of line!" She stood up and turned around to be face to face with a nightmare. "Uh-oh. Not good."  
  
Usagi flew backwards into something bulky and hard. "Huh?" She fell straight to the ground and landed with a thud. She sat up and grabbed her head. "Owe. What was that?" She turned around to find herself staring at a pair of legs covered in green pants. "What the…" She looked up and found herself looking at a pair of scowling eyes. It was pretty obvious whom they belonged to. "Uh, hi Ve…"  
  
Rei bent down and put her hand over Usagi's mouth, muffling her words. She put her face in Usagi's ear. "No slip ups. They don't know who we are remember?"  
  
Usagi nodded as she stood up, after Rei pulled away from her. She looked up and looked around at everyone. They were all frowning at them. She let her eyes wander around the group until they reached Gohan. "Uh…hi?" She was now happy that she had not yet untucked her tail from her skirt.  
  
"Look, drop it. You're not getting the Dragon Ball. I don't care what you need it for. You should leave. As long as we have it, you won't touch it. You are among the greatest fighters of this planet. So just run along." Gohan shooed his sister and her friends away. He glared at Mamoru as he glared back.  
  
Usagi kept her ground. She would not take no for an answer. "I'm not leaving. Please give me the Dragon Ball. I know it was wrong for me to steal it, but you see, I didn't see it as stealing it." Usagi knew it was pretty useless to be asking, but she did it for the sake of her friends.  
  
"If you really needed it, you would have asked for it straight up. You must have bad intentions for this, otherwise you wouldn't have tried to steal it from us. You've lost your chances of ever getting it."  
  
Mamoru grabbed Usagi by the shoulder and threw her to the ground. "Look! Just hand over the damned thing! You don't seem to understand the fact that we are more powerful then you'll ever be." Vejita snorted. "Don't start with me old man." Mamoru seemed to forget that in this timeline, Vejita was still in his thirties and not his seventies. He grabbed Gohan by the front of his fighting gear and pulled him up to his face. "Now had it over kid!"  
  
Piccolo had seen enough. No one talked to his best friend that way. He ran up to Mamoru and grabbed him by the neck, forcing him to let go of Gohan. Piccolo brought Mamoru up to his face. "Look KID! Now YOU listen here. You aren't getting your greedy little hands on that Dragon Ball. You keep your damned hands off Gohan too. He's got more power in his body then a puny human like you will ever possess."  
  
Mamoru couldn't say anything. It wasn't that he was too scared too, it was just too weird to see what seemed like his father, yelling at him. He had never talked back to his father in his life and he couldn't do it now. Even if it wasn't technically his father.  
  
Rei and Usagi jumped for Mamoru and grabbed onto his legs. They weren't about to let anything bad happen to him, even if he was being a pain. They had to stick together. Their Piccolo would kill them if he knew that they let something bad happen to his son. Usagi was already going to get in big enough trouble. "Let him go you bully!"  
  
Piccolo gladly let go. He had no intention what so ever to hurt Mamoru, or any of them for that fact, unless they posed as an immediate threat. "Get out of here then." He turned to the sky. Frieza's ship was now very visible. It would be there any minute. "Guys. We have bigger problems then these squirts."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Five minutes later…  
  
Mamoru, Rei, Ami, and Usagi hid high up on a mountain. They were well-hidden behind rocks that had fallen from the top. Although they were told to leave, they did not. As soon as they all flew off to fight Frieza, they high tailed it into another spot so they wouldn't be in the way of the fight. So far, many things had changed between the story that Usagi's father had told her and what was actually happening. She figured that it was their being there that had caused the changes. In her father's story, Piccolo and the others waited for Frieza to land before they decided to attack. But here, they decided to attack from the beginning. They didn't have the luxury of Trunks coming from the future and killing Frieza for them. She had no idea when her father would be arriving. She hoped he would get there soon. The guys didn't seem to be holding up too well. Having the repairs that he had, had made him a lot stronger. "Come on guys. You can do it." She winced when Yamcha got power blasted in the face.   
  
Everyone stopped fighting and looked up to the sky. Usagi, Mamoru, and Rei did the same. Frieza stepped back from the fight. "SAIYAN! IT'S HIM!"  
  
His father looked up into the sky. There floated a figure in the sky, who looked as angry as ever. "Who is that Frieza? Is that the thing that beat you?" He didn't look that entirely tough to him. He didn't even have as high of a power level as his son. "I can't believe that you let THAT beat you. I thought I taught you better."  
  
Frieza frowned. He could beat Goku. He knew he could. "He tricked me. He held back his power. I was already weak by the time he used his full strength. Now I am fully prepared to kill him. Just watch."   
  
Goku scowled down at Frieza. He didn't know how he survived, but he wouldn't let it happen again. Now he had messed with his home. He couldn't let him go this time. It was time to finish it once and for all. "You monster."  
  
Gohan was so happy he could have cried. His father had finally returned home. He couldn't believe it. It was too good to be true. And what a day he picked to return home. "Daddy!"  
  
Goku lowered himself to the ground without taking his eyes off Frieza. "Stay back everyone. I'll take care of this and then we can get back to living a normal happy life. Freiza, you just never learn do you? I gave you many chances to live yet you refuse to take advantage of my kindness."  
  
"Stupid Saiyan. You can never beat me. How many times do I have to tell you?" Frieza grinned. This as all too easy.  
  
"You're right. A Saiyan can't ever beat you. You are too powerful for a Saiyan's power."  
  
"I'm glad you've come to terms with your weaknesses."  
  
Goku smirked. "But, a Super Saiyan can beat you with no problem." Goku concentrated his energy. He hadn't really turned Super Saiyan since the last fight. He had done it maybe once or twice to control the power. His hair began to turn gold as his aura turned gold around him. "You will learn what happens when you mess with my friends, son, and home!" A burst of power emanated from his body and completed his transformation.  
  
"Wow. That's amazing." Usagi whispered to herself. She stood up and came out from behind her hiding spot. "So that's what a Super Saiyan looks like. Daddy has blonde hair just like me." Usagi had never actually seen a Super Saiyan before other then herself. Even then, she didn't really know that she was one. Usagi began to get excited, hence, raising her own powerlevel without realizing. She had never felt such power radiating from her father before. She had felt his power before, but never anything close to this.   
  
Goku was surprised to feel another powerlevel like his own. He turned his head in the direction of Usagi. "Who is that you guys?"  
  
Gohan looked up at the girl. "That girl has been trying to steal the Dragon Balls daddy. I think she has an evil intention for them."  
  
Goku frowned, while Frieza smiled. "Ah yes. The Dragon Balls. I guess your planet has them too. Well then, I'll take you out, and then make my wish and destroy the planet." He fired a red Ki blast at Goku, while he wasn't looking.  
  
Although he wasn't looking, he knew it was coming. He smoothly sidestepped to the left, easily dodging the energy ball. "That was low Frieza."  
  
Mamoru grabbed Usagi and pulled her back into hiding. He looked her in the eyes. "You dumbass. What the hell were you thinking? Now that HE has seen us."  
  
"You were going to challenge him anyways retard." She pulled out of Mamoru's hold and went out from behind the rocks again to watch the fight. She was amazed at her father's powerlevel. She knew that that was just the surface of his power too.   
  
"Just hurry up and finish the job Kakorrotto. Because you waited so long to kill him on Namek, he lived." Vejita was getting to the point where if Goku didn't do something soon, he would step in and do it himself. He didn't care that Frieza had killed him once before. He had gotten stronger and felt that he could take him on.  
  
Goku nodded. "You're right. Frieza, I hate to do this, but I have to." He pulled his hands to his side. "KA-ME"  
  
Usagi let herself kneel down as she felt the ground shaking beneath her. "Daddy's building up to attack."  
  
"ME-HA!" He pushed his hands in front of him and hurled the giant attack at Frieza, his ship, and his father. "Never come back!"  
  
"MY GOD!" Both Frieza and his father put their hands out in front of them in hopes to block the giant Kamehameha wave that crashed towards them. "This can't be! You're just a SAIY…" The impact was too much. They couldn't handle it.  
  
Goku and his friends watch as Frieza and his father were disintegrated. "That takes care of him. He won't be back to bother us again. But he should have known better then to come to my home and threaten all of you."  
  
Everyone ran to Goku, who was still Super Saiyan. He still wasn't sure if that girl could be trusted. He sensed a great power sleeping within her that the others probably didn't sense. Gohan hugged his father. "Dad! You're finally home safe and sound. I was so worried about you."  
  
Goku hugged back. He missed his son during the year that he was gone. "Hey son!" He looked up and around at everyone. "Hey Vejita! Long time no see huh?" Vejita didn't say anything. He never had anything to say to Goku anyways. "Hey guys. How were things when I was gone?"  
  
"Well dad, Garlic Jr. Attacked…" So on so fourth   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi turned back to Rei and Ami. She was pretty much ignoring Mamoru at all costs now. "You guys, I think I should tell them. Looking at them all happy like that and knowing what will happen if we don't stop daddy from getting that heart disease makes me sad. He'll die soon if I don't stop it from happening."  
  
Ami stood up from kneeling behind the rocks. She looked down at the group of people below them. She looked back up to Usagi. "Are you sure?"  
  
"I'm positive." She looked over to Rei. "Thanks for talking some sense into me Rei. I've been doing a lot of thinking about what you said, and I think I finally know what I have to do in order to save them. It's not about what I think will happen. I have to actually do things and see what happens." She jumped down to the ground.  
  
Rei was a bit puzzled. "I said that? I thought I just said to not give up even if you know it won't work."  
  
Ami put her hand on Rei's shoulder. "Just let her go with it. She's right anyways. You never know what's going to happen until you try something." She looked over at Mamoru, who looked pretty eager to get down to the ground and fight with Goku. "Leave them be. You'll have a chance to fight him later."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi slowly walked over to the group of happy and laughing people. She could over hear some of their conversation. They were talking about their fight on Namek while also talking about what had happened earlier. There were two conversations going on at once, and everyone was totally able to listen and comprehend both. Her father was still powered up to a Super Saiyan, which was why she was a bit reluctant to go to him. She wasn't sure if he would lash out at her or anything. She remembered Roshi telling her about the first time he felt him go Super Saiyan. The power had been so great, that it made him nearly loose control of his emotions. She knew why he was still Super Saiyan. It was quite obvious that it was for her. He didn't trust her. He must have felt her power that her father from the future always felt and told her she had. "Uh…uh…excuse me?" She didn't get too close.  
  
Goku stopped explaining how he got off of Namek and turned around. He looked at Usagi, who was very timid and almost to the point of shaking. "What? You aren't getting the Dragon Balls. Gohan told me about you."  
  
Usagi hadn't expected to get the Dragon Balls that easily. She knew that she would have to do a little explaining before she was OK'd their use. "Well, he didn't tell you everything. You see I…I…I…" Usagi couldn't find the words. She didn't know how to tell them who she was.  
  
"Yes? What about you? What more do I need to know? You snuck into my house and stole one of the Dragon balls. Gohan barely got that one from you. I don't think anything you say is going to change my mind. The Dragon Balls are not a toy."  
  
"You think I don't know that? Look, I have something really important to tell you. Now please, understand that it's going to be very hard for me to explain." She looked around. It seemed as though she had everyone's attention. Well, all except Vejita's. Of course, he never paid attention so she didn't really mind. She took a deep breath. This was it. "Ok. My name is Son Usagi." No one seemed to catch the Son of her name. They probably just figured that there were lots of people with that last name. She looked back to her friends. They supported her from behind. She nodded when Rei waved her hand to continue. 'What am I doing?' She turned her head back. Her father seemed to be getting bored. "Well I guess I have to come right out and say it. I am from the future. Way, way, WAY in the future. Goku, you are already sixty-eight. Umm…I came here to warn you about something that will be taking place in the near future."  
  
Goku stared blankly at the girl. "You want me to believe that? I think you're just trying to get the Dragon Balls." He looked the girl who called herself Usagi, in the eyes. They told him that she was dead serious. "HAHAHAHAHA!"  
  
Usagi frowned. "I'm not lying!" She could tell that her father would not stop laughing anytime soon. She had heard that he was a little bit on the childish side when he was younger. From what she was witnessing, it was entirely true. "Fine! Have it your way! I'll tell you EVERYTHING! Goku! You're my daddy!"  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. Don't you just love me? I've been leaving a lot of cliffhangers lately haven't I? Well, I have to make up for chapter two. I didn't leave nearly enough in there. LOL. Anyways, what did you think? Was this chapter good or bad? Please review and tell me. Thanks! ^_~)  



	45. Part 7

  
  
Goku stared straight down at the girl who stood before. He wasn't sure if he had just heard right. He could have sworn that she just said that he was her father. But he had a feeling that she was lying to him. He knew what she was after. She wanted the Dragon Balls. That was the only explanation for her behavior. She thought she was being smart, that she had a sure-fire plan of getting what she wanted. He figured that she thought that he would just go along with her. Then when he wasn't looking, she would steal the balls. "Look, Sage…"  
  
"My name is Usagi daddy." Usagi knew it wasn't going to be easy to convince any of them. She knew that her best hope lie in her father though. She didn't know what she would do if he didn't believe.  
  
"Usagi, what ever your name is. I'm not sure who you are, but I know you're not my kid. You have blonde hair for one. That's a major problem here. You just want the Dragon Balls. I believe Gohan told you 'no' already. And it will be harder with me here. You won't ever get past me."  
  
"Yeah brat! Saiyans have black hair. Only Super Saiyans have blonde hair." 'Damn Kakkorotto. I still hate you for surpassing me!' Vejita stepped forward. He was ready to beat Usagi into the ground. She was an annoyance to him. "Just scram. You don't even have a very high powerlevel. No one could ever call themselves a Saiyan with such and insufficient power."  
  
Usagi looked up in disbelief at everyone. They weren't the same people that she knew. They kept their powerlevels above hers, so if she did try anything, they could easily stop her. But what surprised her the most was that her own father didn't go back to his normal state. He was still powered up to a Super Saiyan. She would have thought that he would be more understanding. She would have thought that everyone would have been understanding actually. She knew they wouldn't believe her at first, but keeping their powerlevels higher then hers was almost like a challenge. She figured that they just must not have known that she could read powerlevels, as all of their previous enemies could not. "You guys I AM a Saiyan. Goku, you are my dad. I'm not lying." She turned to look at Vejita. "I have a higher powerlevel too. Wanna see?" Vejita didn't say anything. He just crossed his arms and continued to glare at her. "Fine, I'll take that as a yes then." She firmly planted her feet into the ground and concentrated her energy. 'Maybe if I have a big enough powerlevel, they will believe me about being a Saiyan. I hope, I hope.'  
  
~*~*~   
  
Mamoru lay on his stomach, watching Usagi with a pair of binoculars that they had brought in the bag. "What the hell is she doing? Is she trying to fight them? She's nuts if she thinks she can take all them on at once."  
  
"Lemme see!" Rei grabbed the binoculars from Mamoru, pulling him up by the neck with them.  
  
"Hey! These things are still attached to my neck here. Why don't you give me a chance to take them off before you get even more vicious and rip them off my neck? Then there would be hell to pay." He pulled them back from Rei. He proceeded to pull them off over his head and handed them to Rei. "Here."  
  
Before Rei even looked through the binoculars, she knew what Usagi was doing. She could feel her energy rapidly rising. Though, it didn't even come close to Goku's powerlevel. "Cool, she's glowing gold again. Do you think she's trying to prove herself down there?"  
  
Ami walked to the edge of the ridge in which she stood and looked down to Usagi. "Probably. Why else would she be powering up at a time like this. Certainly not to fight. At least, I hope not."  
  
Mamoru kept his eyes on Usagi. "What an idiot. She's proving something down there. She's proving that she's not capable of even matching Goku's power. I know she can though. Remember that guy Kiro came, Rei? I could feel her power. It was the biggest power I had ever felt in my entire life. Even my own father couldn't match it."  
  
"I wouldn't know. I wasn't able to sense powerlevels at that time. But I did sense a sweet energy emitting from her. It was warm and filled with love. The love of her family and friends. That kind of power can't be produced just on the spur of the moment. There has to be a reason."   
  
Ami was totally lost at this point. She knew bits and pieces of what happened with Kiro, but she wasn't too good with all the details. "Ok, I don't know exactly what you're talking about, but I do know that Usagi possess probably one of the deadliest powers. From what I've heard, when a demi-Saiyan gets upset, their power rises. Usagi once told me about Gohan's first sign of power, when his dad was being hurt. Well, he loved his father so much and got so upset that he had a power burst. That power came from his love for his father. Usagi is kind of the same way. She loved everyone so much, that her power just ignited and wouldn't stop for anything. Rei is right, she can't just reproduce that power. Although she has the power, she can't use it."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Is that a fact?" He turned back to look at Usagi, who was struggling to get her last reserves of energy out of her body. "Well, it doesn't look like Odango is doing a very good job of raising enough power. She has matched my father maybe a little further almost to the point of Vejita. Well, let's go intervene shall we? We wouldn't want to disappoint the eager fighters down there do we?" He jumped over the edge of the ridge and made his way to the ground.  
  
Rei jumped to grab him, but just barley missed him. "You idiot! You'll ruin things. What's wrong with him? He's acting like Usagi would."  
  
"Impulsive?"  
  
Rei giggled and turned back to look at Ami. "Yeah, exactly. Should we go down there with him?"  
  
Ami shook her head. "No. It would be better to stay back. Just because Mamoru wants to mess with things, doesn't mean that we need to too. If things start to look bad, we can go down there."  
  
"Ok. I hope you know what you're doing."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Bulma watched as the girl who claimed to be from the future glowed. She was totally left in the dark as to what was happening. She was the only person in that group who could not feel her power rising. "You guys, let's just leave. She isn't a threat right?"  
  
"Wrong." Mamoru walked up from behind Usagi. "You can relax Odango. We can kill these guys off later. Then, we can get the Dragon Balls in rule the world, making everyone our slaves for eternity."  
  
Usagi immediately stopped powering up and glared at Mamoru. "What are you talking about? That's not what I want at all. That's not what I want the Dragon Balls for."  
  
Mamoru smirked. "Oh, I'm sorry, you wanted to get the Dragon Balls so you could kill all the people who have hurt you. But I'm not quite sure I understand why you need the balls to do that. I mean, you are more powerful then all the people put together. She's going to kill you to get to the Dragon Balls if she has to."  
  
Vejita grabbed Mamoru by the font of his GI and stared him in the eyes. "What the HELL are you talking about? This puny poor excuse for a girl has not powerlevel! She can't beat us."  
  
Usagi could feel herself getting angrier by the second. Mamoru was ruining her chances of getting on their good sides. "Stop it! I don't want to kill them!"  
  
Mamoru wrapped his hands around Vejita's arm and squeezed as hard as he could. He knew that Vejita didn't feel a thing though, but he didn't care. "If you would kindly let me go, I'll explain the whole situation to you." Vejita growled and didn't let go. "Fine. I'll tell you right here then. Ok, Usagi used to be a weak little annoying brat. Well, she's still an annoying brat, but not weak. She is the strongest being in the universe. She used to be sweet but all that power has gone to her head and made her a psycho. Whenever someone makes her unhappy, she let's her power take over her body and kills anyone in her way." He glanced his eyes back at Usagi. He could feel her power rising little by little. It wasn't working well enough. "After she has you out of the way, she is going to use the Dragon Balls to kill her father, who hates her stupid little guts and wants her dead. She ran away from home and when she returned, he beat her every single night for two weeks. She finally got tired of the beatings and ran away again. Ever since then, she has been on the run. Her father is the only being more powerful then her, that is why she needs the Dragon Balls. I am here with her to make sure she stays happy. That's why I tried to calm her."  
  
Usagi clenched her fists. Her anger was growing more rapidly. "That's not true! Daddy would never hit me to punish me! I would never run away."  
  
Vejita finally let go of Mamoru and pushed him to the ground. Mamoru quickly jumped back to his feet and dusted himself off. "Is that a fact? Didn't you leave home without your father's permission? I consider that an act of running away. That's why he hates you. He will always hate you."  
  
Usagi's aura began to grow around her body as she looked to her father, who was frowning down at her. Mamoru had definitely ruined her chances of ever getting her hands on the Dragon Balls. "He doesn't hate me! NOW STOP LYING!" Her aura blasted out even larger as she began to think about what would happen if this conversation continued. Her father would get angry and attack, or he would just walk away and never give them access to the Dragon Balls, thus leaving her no way to get home and an added fact. She would never save her father. "Why are you doing this Mamoru?"  
  
Mamoru grinned. "See guys? Her power is growing as she gets even angrier. It's because she isn't getting her way."  
  
Goku kept his eyes on Usagi. He didn't want her to try anything if and when he looked away. "Why is she saying that none of this is true?"  
  
"Simple answer to a simple question. She doesn't want her cover to be blown." He turned around and smirked at Usagi, telling her that he was doing it on purpose. "Calm down little Odango. It's ok. You can have revenge on your father. He hates you, you hate him. He hurt you, and you want to kill him." He reached out his hand so he could put it on her shoulder in sort of a comforting fashion.   
  
Usagi slapped his hand away and scowled at him. "I hate you so much Mamoru! You have no idea!"  
  
He turned back to Goku. "As you can see, her power is rising immensely. She is getting angry because she can not have her way."  
  
Krillin wasn't sure if Goku was buying the story, but he sure did. It did explain everything. It did explain her power build up all of a sudden. "But, why did she say that she was Goku's daughter from the future."  
  
Mamoru had to think fast. He hadn't thought of them asking that question. "Uh…well you see," 'Quickly, think of something fast Mamoru. Ah yes,' "Goku was right. Usagi just wanted to get all-good with the family and then one day, sneak away with the Dragon Balls. You see, she really hates her father and REALLY wants to kill him. If he finds her before she returns home, he'll probably kill her."  
  
That just about did it for Usagi. She couldn't take anymore of it. He was badmouthing her father like he was abusive. He had never once hit her for anything that she had done wrong. She had received a few slaps to the face from her mother, but she had to admit, she deserved most of them. But her father never touched her. She knew exactly what he was referring to about her running away. She wouldn't call what she had done running away. She knew her father would be mad, but not mad enough to hurt her. She clenched her teeth as she tried to suppress her power. She didn't want to become more powerful at that moment. She couldn't control it though. As her anger rose, so did her powerlevel. "That's not true Mamoru and you know it. Goku is my dad and I am from the future."  
  
"Yes Odango. You keep telling yourself that. I know you're getting angry and all, but please, this time, don't take your anger out on me." Goku wasn't sure whom he believed, but the boy's story seemed to be more true and fitting. He was getting a little worried about the girl's powerlevel though. It was getting a little too close to his own for comfort. "Go Odango! You know you want to kill him! Kill your father! He hates you! Kill him! Kill him! Raise your power and kill him! He hates you and will kill you when he sees you! Your whole family hates you! Everyone hates you! No one likes you! The world would be a whole lot better without you!" Mamoru could sense her power coming to it's top as he coaxed her on. His plan was working. He used Usagi's low self-esteem against her to create a stronger power. Just like his father had with him. He knew that Usagi wouldn't go for her father, but for him.   
  
"MAMORU!!" Her Aura blew out even further as she jumped for him and plowed her fist into his face. "I HATE YOU! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" She pushed him to the ground and violently punched at his face. She didn't even realize that she was doing. It was like her power took over her body.  
  
Goku decided it was time for him to take action. This girl was obviously out of he mind and needed to be taken care of before she kill someone. Her power now matched his, he didn't know how effective anything would be if it came from him. "Get off of him!" He formed a fist with his and punched Usagi off of Mamoru, causing her to scrap against the ground.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei jumped to her feet. "It's time to get down there Ami." She didn't wait for Ami to say anything. She just grabbed her by her waist and jumped off the ridge. "I can't believe Goku just hit Usagi as a Super Saiyan. She did almost have the same powerlevel as him though."  
  
Ami adjusted herself comfortable in Rei's arms. "That's not anything I ever want to see again."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku stood over Usagi and sneered down at her. Surprisingly, her power had disappeared when he hit her. "I guess I'm stronger then her." He turned over to Mamoru. "I thought you said that she was strong."   
  
Gohan slowly crept over to Usagi. She was lying on her side with her arms and legs out in front of each other. Her hair was a total mess. Her hair strung over her body. "Whoa, dad sure did hit hard." He kind of felt sorry for her. She looked so innocent now, yet, she could be very deadly. He walked around behind her and was pretty much in fear at what he saw. "Uh dad…" He backed up. 'Maybe she was telling the truth after all. Oh god, I hope she wasn't. Dad's going to freak.' Usagi's tail was extended away from her body behind her. It had come out of her skirt when she was rolling against the ground.   
  
Rei landed with Ami by Mamoru. He was just beginning to get up. "What did you do Mamoru? What did you say to make Usagi gain her power like that? You had to have said something that really offended her otherwise she would have gained her power. We were just talking about it too."  
  
Mamoru swaggered back and fourth a little bit. The impact from Usagi's hits were a little much for him. He hadn't expected her to lash out at him over and over again. "Well, I just wanted them to see her true power. She wouldn't prove anything with her puny powerlevel."  
  
"Does it matter? No. Now Usagi got all upset. You know how sensitive she is and…"  
  
"Dad! DAD! Come quick! There's something you need to see" Gohan kneeled down next to Usagi.   
  
Goku looked back to Tienshinhan and choutsu. "I know you guys have a lot of training to do, you can leave if you want. I can take care of this. You can leave to Yamcha."  
  
"Good Kakorrotto. I'm leaving too. But don't think I stayed because I needed your permission. I just wanted to see that girl get her ass kicked." He turned to Bulma. "Don't be bothering me anymore woman. He jumped into the air and flew away."  
  
Yamcha looked into the air. "Gees, that guy is such a jerk." He turned to Bulma. "And I can't believe YOU had a dream about HIM!"  
  
Bulma rolled her eyes. She didn't see it as that big of a deal, but Yamcha had. He always blew things totally out of proportion. "Yamcha, get a life."  
  
"Fine. Be that way. You can find your own way home then. I'm leaving." He jumped into the air and took off.  
  
"Who needs that stupid jerk anyways?"  
  
"DAD!"  
  
"Yeah! Coming Gohan!"   
  
Rei, Ami, and Mamoru wasted no time after that. They immediately took off and ran over to Usagi to see what the big fuss was all about. Rei knew precisely what Gohan was so interested in. "Her tail. Why didn't she just show them her tail? I completely forgot about it. It's become so normal to see it that I forgot."  
  
Mamoru lightly smiled. "Oops. I guess I could have told her to show them her tail. Oh well, now they know how powerful she is right? I think it was a good plan."  
  
Rei slapped Mamoru in the chest. "You would you bully."  
  
Gohan looked up at the two quarreling fighters. "Are you telling me that all that stuff you said wasn't true? She doesn't want to kill her father?"  
  
Goku stepped up from behind Mamoru, Rei, and Ami. With Bulma, Piccolo, and Krillin. "What's up Gohan?" He looked down at Usagi. He felt a bit bad for what he had done to her. But from what he could see, Mamoru was just a victim of her viscous attack because things weren't going her way. He walked over to his son's side and noticed that he was starring at something. "What cha lookin at?" He kneeled down and looked to Usagi. She looked like she was nearly unconscious, but her eyes were slightly open and she seemed to be moaning in pain. His eyes locked when onto her tail. "Is that real?!"  
  
Ami kneeled down to Usagi and examined the place where Goku punched her in the chest. She got a gasp for a reply. "I know this hurts Usagi, but I want to see if you have any broken ribs. The only way I can do it without any x-ray devices is if I feel around for it."  
  
Usagi closed her eyes tightly as Ami pressed around her chest. It hurt too much for words. "Ami, tell Mamoru I don't hate him." She couldn't get out anything more than a whisper.   
  
"Alright. I will." She looked up to Goku. "In answer to your question, yes, that is a real tail. She is your daughter from the future."  
  
Rei saw the expression on Goku's face as he had just come to a state of realization. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped. His expressions became more sympathetic and compassionate. "Goku, we are all from the future. That's why I know your name. And that's Gohan over there. And I believe that behind me are Krillin and Bulma. Vejita, Yamcha, Teinshinhan and Choutsu have already left. Just so you know, Mamoru was playing a sick joke with Usagi. He wanted you to know her true power."  
  
Bulma couldn't believe it. "Wait, how did you get here? Why are you here?"  
  
"She's my sister?" Gohan felt horrible. He had treated Usagi very poorly from the first time he saw her. "Why does she want the Dragon Balls? Why didn't she just ask for them to begin with?"  
  
Goku, who had finally powered down, wasn't really listening to any of the conversation that was going on around him. He could never forgive himself for what he had just done to her. He believed the boy over Usagi. His story seemed so convincing though. Usagi's seemed a little too far fetched compared to his. "My god, what have I done to her?" He turned to his son. "Gohan, did you bring your Senzu beans?"  
  
"Huh?" Gohan looked up at his father. "Oh yeah. I did. Here." He pulled out a bag from his armor and handed it to his father.  
  
Goku took the bag and fumbled around with it until his fingers grasped over one of the tiny beans. He bent over Usagi and pried her mouth open with her fingers. "Here. Eat this Usagi."  
  
Ami shot a glare at Goku. "What are you giving her?" She was unfamiliar with the Senzu beans.  
  
"Don't worry, this will make her heal within seconds." He watched as Usagi slowly and painfully chewed and swallowed. "I'm sorry guys." He looked up to Mamoru and stared at him for a few seconds. "Why did you do that? I was ready to attack full force. I really thought she was a threat."  
  
"I didn't think that you would attack. I just wanted her to be able to show you her true power. I know how Vejita is and I could tell that he was challenging her power. So I gave her a reason to raise it up to her full extent, you know, so she could prove that she was a Saiyan. I totally forgot about her tail though."  
  
"He's just a big meany head anyways." Usagi sat up. Her energy had fully returned throughout her body and her chest no longer hurt. "But that's ok Mamoru. We're still friends. No matter how much I say I don't like you." She smiled wide as she was happy to have everything all patched up. That's all she really cared about. She looked over to her father. "I'm not mad at you either daddy. You didn't know that Mamoru wasn't telling the truth. You should always tell the truth right?"  
  
"Like you tell the truth Odango. As I recall, your dad thinks you're studying with Ami right now doesn't he? You never told him that you were leaving. Who's the bad person now?"  
  
Usagi sat up. "Oh well it's too late now."  
  
Bulma walked up to Usagi and knelt down in front of her. She smiled. "So I get to meat another one of Goku's kids? You're so cute Usagi. How old are you?"  
  
"Eight."  
  
Piccolo pushed Bulma to the side. "Who cares about all this mushy kind of crap. I want to know why you guys are here. And why do you need the Dragon Balls."  
  
Usagi looked up at Piccolo and then back at Mamoru. "Mamoru, now that my secret is out, why don't we tell everyone yours." She giggled. This was how she would get him back for what he had done to her.  
  
Mamoru turned white. He was not prepared to tell them who his father was. He probably wouldn't have accepted him. "Odango, just because you wanted to tell, doesn't mean I have to."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Fine. Then I will." She looked back up at Piccolo. "Mamoru is your son. You should be proud of him. You taught him to be so mean. You know what he did to me when he first met me?"  
  
"That's enough Odango." He could feel his father's eyes on him. He was too afraid to look. He didn't want to see if he was mad.  
  
"What ever Mamoru. Anyways Piccolo, he nearly killed me. Then you and him left me to be all by my little itty-bitty self. Daddy had to come get me. Then…"  
  
"I said that's enough Odango!"  
  
Usagi giggled. "Fine. Anyways, why are we here? Well, you see, in my timeline, daddy didn't kill Frieza. A boy named Trunks from the future did. He came to warn daddy about a virus that was going to kill him and gave him medicine for it. I think like three years from now, these android thingys are going to attack and his Trunks' timeline, everyone except he died. That's another reason why he came back to the past. Anyways, I was thinking, since the Trunks from our time didn't live like the Trunks from the future, there would be no Trunks to come here and warn you and give daddy medicine. So I came here. I was going to use the Dragon Balls to wish that you never get that virus, but Gohan wouldn't give me the balls." She looked over at her brother. "AND we also need them to get back to our time because our time machine blew up."  
  
Mamoru finally got the guts to look at his father, who was still staring at him. He backed up a bit. He didn't look too happy with him. Piccolo stepped forward. "I won't believe that I taught you to be that way."  
  
Usagi looked up to Piccolo. "Don't stress over it Piccolo. I don't mind. I've been through worse." She stood up and stretched. "I'm tired and hungry."  
  
Bulma stood up and looked around to the four kids. "Guys, who made this time machine?"  
  
"You and I did." Ami piped in. She had been very proud of her work, but now, it was gone. It had blown up on its trial run. "But I don't think we did a very good job of it. Before we came here, it took us to the fight between Gohan, Goku, and Vejita."  
  
"Yeah, and Usagi slipped up there too and told them who we were." Rei turned her attention to Usagi, who, in return, stuck her tongue out.  
  
"Usagi, can you tell me some more about these androids? Like, how powerful are they? What happens in the fight? And when am I supposed to get this virus?"   
  
"Well, daddy say's they're really strong. They trained for three years and still weren't totally ready for them. They had to train in the room of Spirit and Time for a couple of days. I'm not going to stay for that long. I just wanted to make sure you stayed alive to fight them." She elected not to tell them what happened during the fight. She didn't want to risk anymore changes to the timeline. "So, can we use the Dragon Balls please?"  
  
Gohan pulled the Dragon Ball that he had taken from Usagi out of his armor. "Here you go. I'm sure dad can get you the rest of them for you in a day. Right dad?" Gohan looked up to his father.  
  
Goku was really only half listening. His mind was more on the androids. He would have to get training right away if he wanted to beat them. "Huh?" He looked down to his son who had a Dragon Ball in his hand. "Oh, the Dragon Balls. Yeah, we can find them fast and make the wish."  
  
"Um Goku…" Goku looked over to the girl with Blue hair. "Would it be alright if we stayed with you for the year?" Ami had only packed enough money for a couple of months, thus meaning, they would need a place to stay.  
  
Goku smiled. "Of course. Usagi is my daughter isn't she? And you're her friends right? You can stay with us. Chi-Chi won't mind." Goku was somewhat happy that he would have his daughter from the future staying with them. He would get to know her before she was even born.  
  
"Goku, I'm taking Mamoru. There are many things that we can teach each other during these three years." Piccolo never took his eyes off his son. He was curious of to how he became his son. He had never thought of adopting before.   
  
"Fine Piccolo." Goku could tell already that he wasn't going to really like Mamoru anyways. After what he had done to his daughter, who would? He looked to Bulma and Krillin. "I think I better be getting home guys. Chi-Chi is going to kill me for being gone this long. Plus, she's going to freak out when she sees Usagi."  
  
Usagi felt a tight turn in her stomach. "Uh-oh." She looked to Gohan. "She's going to try to kill me. She already thinks that I tired to steal the Dragon Balls."  
  
Goku jumped into the air. "It doesn't matter. I'll talk some sense into her. Hopefully." He chuckled as he scratched his head. "You know, she may even try to kill me."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Back at their house…  
  
Goku slowly and quietly opened the door to the house. Behind him stood Gohan, Usagi, Rei, and Ami. He turned around and put his finger to his lips. "Shh…we don't want to be loud and upset Chi-Chi." He turned back around and walked in, only to be stopped abruptly by the scowling face of his wife, causing the kids to run right smack into him. "Hi Chi-Chi! Long time no see." He pulled Gohan out from behind him. "Here's Gohan. Safe and sound." He hoped that Chi-Chi would lash out at him since he brought Gohan with him.  
  
Chi-Chi stood up from the chair and glared down at Gohan. "You're in big trouble Gohan." She looked up to Goku. "And you! You stayed away for a year. What were you thinking? We needed you here! You should have just let us wish you back." She could tell that her husband was struggling to hide something. "And what's that you have behind your back?"  
  
"Oh about this Chi-Chi. I have something to tell you."  
  
Chi-Chi didn't have time to screw around with. She needed to get Gohan back into his studies. But first, she wanted to see what Goku was hiding. She grabbed Goku by the shoulders and pulled him into the house, revealing to girls who had come to the house earlier. "What are THEY doing here!?" She frowned as she turned around to Goku and Gohan. "There better be a good explanation for this or else I'm going to get really mad Goku!"  
  
Goku backed away from his wife as he put his hands out to block anything that she may throw at him. "Now Chi-Chi, you may not believe this but the girl with the tail is our daughter from the future." He covered his face and head, expecting his wife to attack him.  
  
Chi-Chi continued to frown. "You expect me to believe that a girl from the future…" She paused and thought about what he said. "Wait, a tail?" She turned to look at the three girls. "Come here you three." None of them knew if they should go or not. They weren't sure if Chi-Chi was going to do anything to them or not. They didn't want to risk it. "I said come here!" They all jumped and ran to Chi-Chi. "Which one of has a tail." She refused to believe it until she saw it.  
  
Usagi stepped forward smiled, very frightened of what he mother would do. Gohan was right, she was very demanding when she was younger. "I do." She wrapped her tail around her legs. "See? You guys are my mom and dad."  
  
Chi-Chi just stared down at Usagi and gave her a smile that only a mother could produce. "You mean I have a daughter?" She bent down and grabbed Usagi, hugging her as hard as possible. "Oh my gosh! I can't believe it! I have a daughter!" She pulled away. "Your name isn't Pan is it? Your friends called you Usagi."  
  
"Yes. My name is Usagi." Usagi was relieved that her mother didn't reject her. She was not in the least bit surprised by her reaction.  
  
"Uh Chi-Chi, before you get all giddy, there's something that we need to discuss. And that is the reason why Usagi is here. You see, it seems as though there is a new enemy coming and well, I need to fight it. Gohan needs to help. I need him to train with me."  
  
Chi-Chi turned back to her husband. "Absolutely not!"  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. Now the interesting stuff starts after this part. I don't think that this is a cliffhanger. I'm not exactly going to elaborate anymore on this scene. Anyways, so what did you think? Pretty boring, eh? Or not? Please review and tell me. Thanks. I appreciate it.)   



	46. Part 8

~~The Future~~   
  
  
Goku paced back and fourth in his son's living room. It had been about an hour since the disappearance of his daughter and her friends and he was a complete wreck. He didn't know if she was lying dead somewhere in the city or what. He couldn't understand why she could have been hurt. She proved to be able to take care of herself in the city, yet he still didn't approve of it. He liked to keep tabs on her at all times for she seemed to get herself in more trouble then either of his sons did. Even Goten wasn't as rambunctious as Usagi. He had looked all over the city with his teleportation method too. He didn't have a direct energy to concentrate on, so he just teleported to random places that she may have been. She hadn't been anywhere in site.   
  
Goten, who had been called shortly after the disappearance of the kids, watched his father as he lay on the sofa. He had never seen him this worried in his life. He didn't know that he was capable of being this worried. "Dad calm down, it's only been an hour. She's gotta be out there somewhere."  
  
Goku stopped his pacing and looked to his son. He didn't understand how he could be so calm in a situation like this. Usagi, Ami, and Mamoru's energy had mysteriously disappeared and he didn't seem worried about it at all. "Goten, I can't calm down. Someone's energy doesn't just go away all of a sudden if nothing is wrong. Maybe if you had kids of your own you'd understand where I was coming from."  
  
Goten sighed. He hated the fact that just because he never had kids, he never knew what it was like to parent. He had taken care of Pan for Gohan many times and had taken care of his sister a few times. He knew enough about kids. And besides, this was Usagi they were talking about. She was his sister. He worried about her, but he didn't see this as too big of a deal. He knew how kids played games and figured that she was probably trying to trick everyone into thinking that she was gone. "She has a low energy to begin with. Maybe she just lowered it all the way. You know, she loves to play games with our heads."  
  
"Don't be ridiculous. For one, no one can lower their energy all the way to being gone. We've already established that. And two, even if that was possible, she would know better then to do that." Goku walked to the door. He could feel Piccolo coming for the house. He hoped that he had found something. "Something is wrong, Goten. I know there is. I can feel it in my bones. Now why don't you go out into the mountains and search for them? I've already checked at home, she isn't there, but they may have gone out into the woods and something might have happened there." He didn't even want to think about what could have happened in that scenario.  
  
Goten sat up. He didn't see the point to searching. He was certain that Usagi was just playing a game. He used to play all sorts of games. She had learned most of her antics from him anyways. "Yeah sure, fine, whatever." He pushed himself up off the blue sofa and began to walk to the sliding glass door. "I'll be back later." He didn't think that they were in any immediate danger. They had, after all, only been missing for an hour. 'Gees, what could have happened? Usagi is the strongest out of the entire group. Mamoru is almost as strong as her, although she has greatly surpassed him from what the differences used to be. They can protect Ami.'  
  
Goku busted the door open and ran out to meet Piccolo, who was landing in the front yard. His face didn't say much about what he was thinking. "Did you find anything? Anything at all?"  
  
Piccolo shook his head. "No. I went and talked to Haruka and Michiru. They haven't seen him since school on Friday. Gohan is checking to see if they went to the arcade or any of their other usual hangouts. I just don't understand why Mamoru would have left. He doesn't exactly like hanging around with Usagi. I don't see why he would have gone anywhere with her. He can't stand her for more then about ten minutes. No offense, Goku."  
  
Goku was disappointed. He hoped that Piccolo had at least found something that belonged to them. "Usagi took her bag with her. She changed into her GI because her cloths that she came her in are in Pan's room. I don't know what she was thinking when she left but she obviously had fighting in mind, which can't be a good thing." He grabbed his arms and tried to produce warmth on them as it started to snow again. "I just sent Goten to the mountains to look for them there. Oh boy, this is just going to make Ami's mother love me even more. She already thinks I'm a bad father to Usagi."  
  
"Yeah, well, Mamoru is going to get it when I get my hands on him. I though I trained him with better discipline than this. But I guess I need to enforce the rules a little bit more."   
  
"Don't be so hard on him. You shouldn't always discipline a kid. They cooperate much more if you don't yell as much. But with this one, I'm going to over look that. Usagi has put herself and Ami in danger and who knows where they are. She's going to have to learn that she can't do that."  
  
Piccolo was a little surprised by Goku's reply. He had never heard him say anything about punishing any of his kids. "Goku, what are you saying?"   
  
"I'm saying that I'm mad at her for leaving. I'm not at the fact that she left without telling me, well, it upsets me that she left without telling me, but I'm mostly mad the fact that she put herself into danger and obviously had something happen to all three of them. When I find her, she may find herself in a little bit of trouble."  
  
"Goku don't come down too hard on her. She doesn't need that from you and Chi-Chi. You know Chi-Chi will go nuts when she finds out."  
  
"I'm not going to tell Chi-Chi if I don't have to. She doesn't need to know everything. If she did, Usagi would probably be somewhere in an all girls' boarding school in Switzerland. Either that or I would be deaf from her yelling at me. I take a lot of abuse from her for Usagi. I'm not going to go off on her, I'm just going to sit her down and tell her that she needs to stop just thinking that she can do whatever she wants."  
  
Piccolo still couldn't believe that this was Goku he was talking to. He was actually sounding like a true parent. 'I guess nearly seventy years on the planet changes a person's attitude. It's about time the man grew up.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi sat in Bulma's office and stared at the blueprints of the time pad. Bulma had just explained how it generally worked and she felt a little better about sending her daughter to a different time for a couple of hours the next day. She knew that with Bulma there, there wasn't much that could go wrong. "Bulma, will you promise me that you will get my baby back to me safe and sound?"  
  
Bulma knew that it was risky to try and take one of Chi-Chi's kids, but she had faith in her invention. Two of the smartest minds had made it. "Don't worry Chi-Chi. Nothing is going to happen. You know how it works now. You know that Usagi will not age any due to time distorter, or time field that the wrist bands produce. Nothing will go wrong. I just have to give it one more good look at tonight with Ami to make sure it won't blow up in our faces and leave us stranded in time." She giggled. "But what are the chances of that happening? As long as I look at it tonight, we won't have anything to worry about anything." She bent down and pulled out a small machine of some sort. It looked like a part of a car for it was completely made of metal and had wires sticking out of it with all ends. "I also have to put this stabilizer in it that I just got yesterday to ensure that it will work properly. But I can't do that until Ami gets here after she and Usagi are done studying."  
  
Chi-Chi didn't know anything about machines and how they worked so she just took Bulma's word for it. She trusted that she wouldn't let anything bad happen to any of the girls. "Speaking of those two, I want to call Gohan's and see how the studying is going. You know, I want to see if Goku is actually making them study."  
  
Bulma put the stabilizer down on her desk and pushed away a pile of papers to reveal a phone under them. "Go ahead and call. This is a private phone so it's not hooked into any of the other offices."  
  
"Thanks Bulma." She picked up the phone and dialed the number to her son's home phone number. She didn't think that anyone would answer it except Usagi. The men were there strictly for fighting and would probably be outside. Chi-Chi let the phone ring for about thirty seconds before anyone picked up.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
Chi-Chi was surprised to hear Goku on the other line. She thought that he would be fighting. He sounded out of breath and figured that he had just taken a break or something. "Hello? Goku?"  
  
Goku froze. He wasn't expecting Chi-Chi to call. He hadn't found the kids yet and was definitely not ready to tell Chi-Chi that he had lost them. "Oh, hi Chi-Chi." He looked over to Piccolo and pointed to the kitchen table.  
  
Piccolo got a puzzled look on his face. "What?"  
  
Goku continued to point at the table as he took the phone away from his face. "Make some noise to make it sound like someone is studying. You know, tap a pencil or close a book, or even slam a book on the table, Usagi has a habit of doing that." He whispered so his wife wouldn't hear.  
  
"Goku, is Usagi studying?" Chi-Chi knew that was a stupid question to ask. She knew very well what the answer would be. But it didn't really mater for she was getting ready to leave anyways. She would soon see for herself.  
  
"Uhh…yes. She's studying. She's been studying all day." Goku had a hint of nervousness in his voice that was very detectable.  
  
"Goku, if you're lying to me…"  
  
"No. I'm not lying. I'm just tired. I just took a break." He looked over to Piccolo as he slammed a book shut and then dropped it on the floor. "See Chi-Chi? Usagi is even trying to show me how much she hates studying by throwing her book on the floor."  
  
Chi-Chi was a bit skeptical about her husband's story. He still sounded too unsure of himself. "Well, I'm coming over now to pick up Ami. I'll take Usagi with me to drop Ami off at Bulma's. So have her ready Goku."  
  
At that moment, Gohan came barreling into the house. "Dad, I couldn't find them. Did Piccolo have any luck?"   
  
Goku waved at Gohan to shut up. "What Chi-Chi? No! You don't have to hurry down here. Chi-Chi please calm down. What? Who was Gohan talking about? No he wasn't talking about Usagi. She's here with me. I'm looking at her right now. Gohan was looking for Pan and Videl. We can't find them and need to know where…Chi-Chi? Are you there?"  
  
"Of course I'm here Goku! You're lying to me aren't you? Answer me!"   
  
"Chi-Chi? I can't hear you. There's too much static on the line. Speak louder." That was the wrong thing to say to Chi-Chi.  
  
"I AM TALKING LOUD! I AM COMING RIGHT DOWN THERE SO I CAN GET USAGI BECAUSE I KNOW YOU'RE LYING TO ME!"  
  
Goku pulled the phone away form his ear and could still hear her loud and clear. Even Gohan and Piccolo could make out everything that she said. Once she stopped yelling Goku put the phone up to his ear again. "Chi-Chi? Are you still there? I can't hear you. Look, I'll call you later. There is just TOO much static to make out a word you're saying."  
  
"Goku I know you're…" Chi-Chi heard a click and then a dial tone. She pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it. "That bastard hung up on me. There was no static." She looked to Bulma. "I know something's up and I'm going to get to the bottom of this."  
  
Bulma leaned against the wall. What she had just witnessed was nothing new to her. She had seen Goku lie to Chi-Chi before. She had also seen what happened when he did too. Someone usually ended up getting hurt and it wasn't Chi-Chi. "I take it you're leaving then?"  
  
"Yes. Goku doesn't take Usagi's schooling seriously. That's why her brain is all mush."   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku slowly put the phone down. He had no idea what he was going to do. He looked to Gohan. "You're mother is coming."  
  
"You didn't tell her I take it. That's why you hung up on her like that?" Gohan walked into the dining room. "You guys haven't found anything yet."  
  
"No. Your Goku isn't going to tell Chi-Chi unless it is really necessary. He's taking a risk by doing that. Maybe you should just tell her. It would produce a lot less confusion." Piccolo stood up from the table. "I think she deserves to know anyways. We should also tell Ami's mother."  
  
"I agree dad. We shouldn't keep secrets."  
  
"Do you know what your mother will do to me when she finds out I lost them?" He looked back to the phone and debated on whether or not her wanted to call Chi-Chi back and tell her the truth.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Past~~  
  
It had been about two and a half months since Usagi and the rest of her friends arrived in the past. Not much had happened except the fact that they wished that Goku would never get the heart virus. The Dragon granted the wish and there really was nothing for them to worry about. Usagi had full filled what she came to the past to do. Now all she needed to do was wait for the Dragon Balls to become useful again and use them to get back home. One thing still lingered in the back of her head though. She wanted to know why she had been successful in saving her father, but if time really did go in circles, why had she never gone back into the past in the future. That was one question that she would probably never find out. She tried to ask her father, but he didn't understand the whole concept of time circling itself, when he was the one who told her in the first place. She noticed a lot of things different about her father from the past and her father in the future, her real father. The past version of him seemed to be a lot more like a kid. Kind of like her. Which in itself scared her. He didn't really act like the future version of herself. All those little comments from the people she loved most about his maturity surprising them now made sense to her. While she liked playing with the past version of him, she liked his future self more. But there were still many things about both of them that were no doubt the same.  
  
She sat on the sofa with her feet on the coffee table as a footrest while watching cartoons on TV. Ami and Rei sat on the floor doing their homework. Although they were in the past, they didn't let their studies fall behind. It was a way to get ahead of their classes. Well, Ami was already ahead. But Rei was definitely getting ahead. Usagi still didn't care about schoolwork and pretty much spent the past two and a half months sitting around while rotting her brain with TV. "Why are you guys doing work? We don't have to. When we get back, only a day will have passed."  
  
"They are doing their work, young lady, because they don't want to become dumb." Chi-Chi dropped a pile of books onto the sofa next to her daughter. "Now get to work. No child of mine is going to be lazy. I'm sure that your mother doesn't want you to waste a year not studying. I would know because your mother is me."  
  
"But mom, I don't want to study. You don't really make me study that much." She looked at all the books. Studying was probably the one thing that scared her the most. That and spiders. She looked up to her mother. "I'm not lazy. Normally I fight with daddy all the ti…"  
  
"How many times have I told you? Gohan is fighting but you are not. I don't want you getting yourself hurt while you are under my care. I may have changed in the future, but you are not in your own time and I am acting as your mother now. So, no. You're not fighting. Now get to studying."  
  
"But that's not fair. I always fight. I don't know half the stuff in those books anyways. So I guess I can't study after all."  
  
"Usagi, if you let me, I'll teach you. You know I can."  
  
Usagi looked over to Ami and frowned. "Ami…don't ruin this for me. I don't want to study." She looked back up at her mother. "Uh-oh. Something tells me I should not have said that in front of you."  
  
Chi-Chi crossed her arms. "Something tells me you're right Usagi. Now hit the books. You're behind the others." She turned around and walked out of the room.  
  
Usagi pushed the books away like she had for the past couple of months. "Whatever." She repositioned herself into a more comfortable position on the sofa and looked back at the TV. She didn't want to study. She wanted to fight with everyone else. They were all preparing for the androids while she was stuck at home.  
  
"Usagi, your mom is right." Ami leaned over to the TV. "You need to study. So come on. Let's go. I'll help you with something."  
  
"What are you doing Ami? I was watching that." She reached over to the table for the remote, but didn't get to it in time. Rei grabbed it before she could. "Rei come on. You aren't going to make me study are you?"  
  
"Yes. Now get down here." She put the remote under her notebook. "Your mom wants you to study now do it." Rei didn't really like studying herself, but she didn't mind doing it either. It was a nice alternative from fighting all the time and she learned quite a few interesting facts from all of Gohan's old books.  
  
Usagi sat down to the table. "You guys. This is NOT fair. You know I hate studying." She looked over to Ami. "You owe me big time." She couldn't believe it. She was complaining about her mother making her study for her two-week vacation and her she was, having to study for a year. But she wouldn't really study. She would just pretend to. She had become very good at just letting her mind wander.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Future~~  
  
Chi-Chi arrived at Gohan's about an hour after she left. Traffic had been heavy and roads were clogged up from people driving extra slow due to ice on the road. Had there been no one on the road, Chi-Chi would have ignored the ice and raced to her son's house. She didn't care. She should have known better then to let Usagi go with Goku.   
  
She kicked the door in without even knocking first. She was fuming mad. Goku always had to ruin their kids' education. "GOKU!" She stiffly walked into the house to see her husband, son, and Piccolo all sitting in the living room looking as scared as ever. "Where is Usagi!" She put her hands to her waist and began tapping her foot out of frustration. "Well?"   
  
Goku looked to Gohan and Piccolo for relief, but it was pretty obvious that they were going to leave it totally up to him. "Chi-Chi, don't get mad when I tell you this." He paused. Just that statement seemed to set his wife off even more. "I kind of lost the kids."  
  
Chi-Chi didn't say anything for a moment. She fought herself to stay calm but it just wasn't happening. It wasn't possible. "You what?! How in the hell do you loose kids? That's impossible! Of course I am talking to you! You lose everything." She turned to Piccolo and Gohan who looked as if they were trying to hide. "And you two! How the hell did you lose the kids? You all can sense each other's energy signatures, am I not right? So please enlighten me on how you lost a couple of eight year olds?!"  
  
Gohan looked to father in confusion. He wasn't supposed to be brought into this. His dad was supposed to take the fall for it as he had always done. Goku knew the routine. "Chi-Chi, calm down. We don't know what happened but we can't sense them anymore. We can't even find Mamoru. Goten is currently out looking for them in the mountains."  
  
"So you lied to me! Goku you should know better then to lie to me! Especially about something like this! You told me that you were looking at her at that moment. What is wrong with you!? Did you think that I would just not find out? Is that it? Did you think that you could come home without your daughter and just expect me to not notice? I've got news for you GOKU! That wouldn't have happened! Now you get out of here and go look for her!"  
  
Goku took a step closer. He knew it was risky but he needed to calm her down. At her age, she could easily give herself a heart attack, with or without the Dragon Balls making her age slower. "Chi-Chi, please, calm down. We've looked all over for them and can't find them anywhere. We won't stop looking."  
  
"Damn straight you won't stop looking! Now we have Ami to worry about too! Oh god, we're going to be sued because you guys couldn't keep track of a couple of eight year olds." She turned around and picked up the TV remote that sat on a small table by the sofa. Just thinking about the situation made her angrier. "What the hell was I thinking? Letting you take Usagi like that!" She turned around and threw the TV remote at her husband's head. At this point, she was so angry that she didn't even know what she was doing. She couldn't see straight.   
  
"Whoa I guess this is a bad time." Goten had just walked into the room when the TV remote was hurled at his father's head.   
  
Chi-Chi turned to her son. "Goten, did you find anything?"   
  
Goten didn't want to tell his mother. She knew that she would lash out at him if he did. She was already to the point of throwing objects. "I did, but I didn't. I went to Rei's temple too, instead of just going to the mountains. I guess they were there earlier today and left with Rei. Rei's grandfather hadn't seen them since."  
  
"What? Rei is gone too?" She turned to her husband. "Why didn't you feel Rei's energy gone too?"  
  
"I wasn't checking for hers. Here I'll check now." He concentrated and scanned for her energy, but could not find anything at all. "Yeah, she's gone too."  
  
Everyone was startle by the sudden ringing of the telephone. Chi-Chi waited for someone to answer it. "Is anyone going to answer it?" No one moved. They had been too afraid to. "Well fine then. I'll answer it." She walked over to the phone and picked it up just as it was going into the answering machine. "Hello?"  
  
"Chi-Chi? You ARE there. I was beginning to get worried. It's been about an hour and twenty minutes since you left. I thought you might have been in a wreck or something." Bulma had been expecting Ami to meet her about forty minutes before that.   
  
"I'm here alright Bulma. But I don't think Ami will be coming over any time soon. The men lost the kids and can't find them. They can't sense their energy. Isn't that great?" She glared back at the room filled with her husband, sons, and Piccolo, whom she already nearly hated.  
  
"What? They lost the kids and can't sense them? How is that possible, unless they're…whoa never mind. I'm not going to even go in that direction." Bulma knew what would happen if she mentioned the possibility that they were dead. Chi-Chi would have gone ballistic and then had probably killed Goku. But that was the only thing she could think of that would be causing their energy to go away. "So Ami is missing with Usagi?"  
  
"And Mamoru. That stupid pig of a boy probably got Usagi to leave." Chi-Chi hated Mamoru as much as he despised her.  
  
Bulma heard something stirring in the hallway behind her room as she sat on her bed. "Just a minute Chi-Chi." She covered the receiver up with her hand. "Vejita! What are you doing down there?" He was obviously trying to hide something from her. The hallway was pitch black.   
  
"Nothing you need to know about woman!" Vejita quickly shoved something into the hall closet and closed it. "Why don't you learn to mind your own business?" He walked into the room and frowned. "Can you not talk on the phone all the time. Your damn ear is going to be attached to that thing one of these days. You're acting just like the girl did. Always talking on the phone. Only you had better not be talking to any other men or I'll kill them. And you better not be talking to Kakorrotto!" He shuddered just by hearing that name.  
  
"Shut up Vejita. This is important. Usagi, Ami, and Mamoru are missing. No one knows where they may be."  
  
Vejita sat down on the bed. "I saw Kakorrotto's brat today. She seemed to be hiding something."  
  
Bulma's eyes widened. "What?" She pulled the phone up to her mouth again. "Chi-Chi, Vejita says that he saw Usagi today. Ok, I'll ask." She pulled the phone away again. "When and where?"  
  
He shrugged. "I don't know. You think I pay attention to where I see people I hate?"  
  
"Just tell me. I know you know. You supposedly have a great memory." Bulma was getting really agitated with Vejita's stubbornness.  
  
"Fine. I saw her just outside your office. She said that Ami had permission to show her and a couple and her friends something that you guys have been working on or something."  
  
"What?! Thanks Vejita." She pulled the phone back up so she could talk to Chi-Chi. "I think I know what happened. Vejita said that he saw her outside my office today. He said that Ami was going to show her the project we've been working on, meaning, the time device. Chi-Chi, I think they jump in time."  
  
"WHAT!? THEY DID WHAT!?" Chi-Chi could have nearly dropped the phone and passed out right then and there. The only thing that kept her from doing that, was the need to get the kids back. "Bulma, I have to tell the guys."  
  
"Wait, you must not be misinformed. As much as I hate to tell you this, I must. They might not be okay. You see, that stabilizer I was talking about was not in it when they used it. Obviously, I was able to show it to you. Without that, their chances for that thing working all the way are very slim. It could very well malfunction." Chi-Chi actually did drop the phone that time. That was a little bit more information then she actually wanted to hear. "Chi-Chi? Chi-Chi?" There was no answer, only the sound of Chi-Chi yelling about something again in the background. "Poor girl." She hung up the phone.  
  
"I'll KILL HER! SHE IS GOING TO BE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON HER!" She jumped to her feet and clenched her fists.  
  
Goku knew that something horrible, but not too horrible had happened. Judging by his wife's reaction, he guessed that the kids were all right. "Chi-Chi, tell us what Bulma said."  
  
Chi-Chi stopped yelling just long enough to get a clean picture of her husband's face in her mind. "Well, it seems as though Usagi lied to Vejita and told him that Ami was allowed to show her a new time machine that she and Bulma were making. Well, you can pretty much guess what she did. And to make things worse, that thing wasn't totally safe. It wasn't completely finished. But also, one day here counts as one year in another time. Luckily they won't age due to this device that Bulma made, but I'm going to ring Usagi's neck when I see her again! She has really crossed the line with this one."  
  
"You're going to ring Usagi's neck? Mamoru is going to get it even worse then that kid. He knows what happens when he disobeys me." Piccolo stood up and walked to the door. "Tell me when you figure out a way to get them back, if you figure out a way."  
  
Goku didn't have much to say to Piccolo. He was dealing with his own problem. Chi-Chi was right. Usagi had crossed the line this time. She had not only left the house without his permission, which alone put her into danger, but she had gone to another time. Something in which they had never even discussed before. He couldn't believe that he had lied to Vejita though. He had never taught her to lie and he didn't understand why she would start now. "I think I know what time she went to too. The other day she asked me about Trunks and what would happen to the past if our Trunks didn't go and save everyone. Well, she seemed really interested in going back to save me from that virus. I'm pretty positive she went back in time for that."  
  
"She what? Dad, she'll be killed if she stays to fight the androids and Cell. We all nearly were." Gohan vividly remembered the day that the fight with Cell. He didn't want to, but he did. It was stuck in his memory for good. That was the day that all hell broke loose. Everything before that day was just child's play, although, it was pretty intense fighting.  
  
"I know, she has two more days to get out of there safely or I'm afraid something might happen to her. She may try to fight them. You guys know Usagi and her persistence. Well, now look at where her persistence has gotten her." Goku had no idea what he was going to do when his daughter returned home. He knew he wouldn't over react like his wife, but he had to put his foot down on this one. While she was gone, he would hope for her safety. He would worry about a punishment after he knew that she was safe.  
  
"I hope that the time machine didn't malfunction like Bulma said it might." That was the one thing that worried Chi-Chi the most. She didn't know what she would do if her daughter were stranded in the past.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Past~~  
  
Ok, one half hour in the future, equals one month in the past just so you know. At least it does in my story.   
  
It had been a full year since the kids arrived in the past. Usagi continued to fight her mother about studying. She didn't learn very much and was grounded almost all the time because of it. Mamoru had learned a lot from his father. He learned that you get much more satisfaction from people if you are nice to them, yet, he still didn't like Usagi. He was making much more progress though.  
  
Anyways, Goku, Chi-Chi, Gohan, Piccolo, Ami, Rei, Usagi, and Mamoru all stood in the woods with the Dragon Balls placed out in front of them. Usagi was so excited that she could hardly contain herself. She enjoyed living with her parents and brother from the past, but she was ready to go home. She was ready to see her real parents and brotherS. The ones who had memories of past events with her. She couldn't wait to see Minako and Makoto to tell them about everything that she had done. "Come on, come on, let's go, let's go."  
  
Ami laughed. She had learned so much from Usagi in the past year. She had learned that sometimes it's better to listen to your heart then to always listen to what your brain and the people around tell you. She learned pretty much how Usagi worked and could appreciate her a little more because of it. "Hold your horses Usagi. We'll get home soon enough."  
  
Usagi looked to her parents and then to Gohan and smiled. "It was really fun living with you guys. Thanks for letting us live with you."  
  
"Well, I couldn't let my own daughter fend for herself now could I? Even if you are a bit lazy, I still love you." Chi-Chi bent down and hugged her daughter.  
  
"Laziness is the key to happiness mom." She giggled as she pulled away from her mother. She had actually worked some of her magic on her mother even. She had lightened her up and molded her to be a bit more like her mother from the future. She was a bit more understanding with the small things.  
  
"Do you really have to leave Usagi? I'm going to miss having you around."  
  
Usagi looked to her father. She was going to miss him too. She had grown to love his child like personality. She would soon miss him all together for when she returned home, she was certain that her life would be a living hell. "Yes daddy. I have to go."  
  
Mamoru just shook hands with his father. Both of them were too proud to hug or exchange words of love. Even in the future, they had never really talked about their feelings towards one another, but they both knew what the other felt. "I guess you'll see me in a few years then."  
  
"Yeah kid. It was fun having you around. I'll miss you, but you won't miss me. You'll see me everyday. Just remember what I taught you alright?"  
  
"Definitely."  
  
Usagi turned back to the Dragon Balls. "I guess it's now or never. You can call the Dragon now."  
  
"Eternal Dragon. Please rise! We require your presence." Goku stood back a ways from the Balls and pulled back Usagi and Rei. He knew that they Dragon would require space.  
  
A whitish smoke trail emerged from the seven balls on the ground as the sky went from bright blue, to pitch black. "What is your wish? Make it quick."  
  
Usagi looked back to her father, who nodded at her to proceed. She turned back to the Dragon. "Eternal Dragon, we wish for you to send me, Rei, Ami, and Mamoru back to the future, where we came from!"  
  
The Dragon's eyes turned red and stayed red for a few seconds and then died out. "I am not able to full fill your wish. It is beyond my power. Please choose another one."  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. So, what do you think? Is it good or bad? Please review and tell me. Thanks. Oh yeah, my teachers have decided that it's time to overload me with stupid, and I emphasize STUPID, anyways, they have given me all these stupid reports and final projects since I only have about a month and some odd days left of school. _ So therefore my updating will have to suffer. Not too bad though. Instead of one chapter a night, it will probably one chapter every other night. Not too much up a hit, right? Anyways, this will probably go on until the last couple of weeks of June when the work slows down to a complete halt. ^.^ I will probably be able to get them out everyday on the weekends though. I should probably go now. I have to go do research. Yippee. Bye for now. ^_^)  



	47. Part 9

Usagi stared up at the Dragon in disbelief. She could not, no, she would not believe what she thought she just heard it say. She had to get home. She couldn't stay any longer. She needed to get home. The Dragon was he only hope. If he couldn't get her home, she didn't know how else she would be able to do it. "What? Why can't you send us home? Why is it beyond your power? I want to go home really bad."  
  
"I don't care how much you want it. I can not conduct time travel. I am not as powerful as the guardian of time and space. Please, choose another wish before I get angry."  
  
Usagi let herself drop to her knees. She felt faint and wanted to pass out, but she didn't. She wouldn't give up. "This guardian of time you speak of, who is it? How can I talk to this person?" If the dragon couldn't help her, she figured the guardian would.   
  
"Do not ask of this person as I will not tell. Pick a wish or sacrifice this turn." The dragon was becoming agitated with Usagi. The people of this planet always took forever when making a wish. It was ridiculous. They should have made up their minds about wishes before they summoned him.  
  
"I wish to go home to the future. But I obviously can't have that." She leaned over and put her forehead to the ground. She didn't know what to do. 'Why did that guardian of time let us come here if they weren't going to let us go back home? That makes no sense.' "This isn't fair. I want to go. I wish to go home. Time guardian, why won't you let me go home?"  
  
Chi-Chi could tell that her daughter was having a hard time dealing with this. She would now be a permanent resident of the house, which was obviously not what she wanted. Granted they were in a way family. They just weren't HER real family. They weren't the people that she was born to. She walked over to her and kneeled by her side. "Usagi, we'll find a way for you to get home. We'll get Bulma to build you a time machine to go home. I'm sure she can do it." She picked up her daughter and held her in her lap. She had never really seen her upset before. She was usually such a chipper little thing that she was beginning to wonder if she ever felt sorrow.  
  
"Um, Chi-Chi, Bulma and I built that thing with the most recent parts available. We may not be able to build another one. I don't even have a base to go off on. Our time pad blew up the first day we were here. There is no way to go back and find it to even salvage parts anymore." Ami hated to be the holder of bad news, but it had to be told. There was no way around it.  
  
"Hurry up and make a wish."  
  
Usagi looked up at the Dragon. "I wish to go home!"   
  
"I can't do that."  
  
Usagi's eyes watered up with tears as she began to cry into her mother's shoulder. "I'm never going to get home. It's official. I'm doomed to live in the past for the rest of my life. I'll never get to see Goten again, or Pan, or Bra, or Trunks, or Minako, or Makoto. I even miss Haruka and Michiru."  
  
Chi-Chi rubbed her hand on her daughter's back. "Don't cry Usagi. You WILL get home. One way or the other. You will see your friends and family again."  
  
Usagi pulled away from her mother's grasp and looked into her face. Her tears sparkled silver as they trickled down her cheeks. "But it's my fault. It's all my fault. I wanted to come to the past. I wanted so badly to save daddy, mamma. It isn't fair. I got Rei and Ami and Mamoru into this. Now because of me, we can never go home."  
  
Watching Usagi cry Mamoru actually felt bad for her. He had seen her cry many times before, but most of the time she cried over the stupidest things. But this time she had reasons to justify her crying. She had lost all hope on ever getting home and blamed herself when it was all of their faults. He blamed himself for not telling the adults. "Usagi, don't give up hope."  
'Patience little Usagi.'  
  
Usagi looked up into the sky. "Huh? Who said that?"  
  
'A very good friend.'   
  
"Who are you? I can't see you. I can only hear you." Everyone looked curiously to Usagi. They didn't hear anyone.  
  
'Do not cry, let time play its role out. Things in time happen for a reason. Nothing happens without cause.'  
  
"What? What is that supposed to mean?" Usagi didn't get an answer. "Hello? Who were you? What did you mean? Please tell me. I need to know." Still, no answer from the mysterious voice. She pulled away from her mother, who stared at her in confusion. She looked around, everyone stared at her like she was nuts. "This lady talked to me guys. She said to let time takes it's role or something. That everything in time happens for a reason."  
  
"That was the guardian of time. She is wise. You should listen to her. Now, make a wish. I am getting angry with you people."  
  
"I wish to go home, but I know I can't do that." Usagi stood up with her mother's help. "I also wish that Minako and Makoto are here, but I know I can't do that either." She turned to her friends. "Is there anything that we want?"  
  
"That can be done."  
  
"What?" Usagi turned her head back to the Dragon. It had just said that something could be done, but what? He wasn't capable of conducting time travel.  
  
"The Guardian of Time has agreed to let your friends come into the past. She will help me full fill the wish." The Dragon's eyes lit up to a red color again as he granted the young Saiyan's wish.  
  
Usagi smiled as wide as she could. She couldn't believe it. "So she'll let them come here? For real?" She took his eyes glowing red as a yes. "This is so cool!"  
  
Gohan watched his sister and was amazed. She was totally depressed and lost within her emotions one minute, and the next, she was as happy as she had ever been. He was happy for her though. He himself wanted to cry just now when she was crying. He inched over to his father. "Looks like we got a couple more girls coming our way."  
  
"Great. Girls are interesting, son. That's all I have to say about them." The sky turned bright blue again and the Dragon disappeared.   
  
Rei looked around. She couldn't see her friends anywhere, but she knew they were around. She could feel them. "Where are they?" She let herself rise into the air a bit to scan the area. "I don't see them anywhere." She looked over to the horizon. "There they are! Why did they get put all the way over there?"  
  
"Who knows and who cares! I'm ready to see them!" Usagi hovered into the air and darted towards her friends. She had a lot of explaining to do.  
  
"Gohan, your sister has an unimaginable power, you know that? She possesses a power that only you and I could dream of. If trained properly, she could become one of the most powerful beings. But there's something more to her then we see. A normal Saiyan is not capable of having that much power in their normal form."  
  
Gohan looked up to his father. "Are you thinking about training her to control that power that she showed the day she came?"  
  
"I'm going to try." He watched Rei and Ami follow Usagi as she ran to their friends. He would try to teach all of them to use their power. He found the other's too strong to just be human. They had to have something else inside of them. His future self probably felt it too, yet did not act upon it.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Minako and Makoto looked around at their new surroundings. They didn't know what was going on. One minute they were talking with Bulma, Chi-Chi, Goku, Gohan, Goten, Videl, and Piccolo, and the next thing they know, they were in the middle of no where. They had been discussing the plans to rebuild the time machine to go back and get Mamoru, Usagi, Rei, and Ami, but things weren't working out too well. Most of the parts that were used were rare and they were unable to locate the parts. Videl, Gohan, and Bulma were going to be in charge of the building, while they, Piccolo, Goku, and Chi-Chi were going to try and find parts. "Uh, Makoto, what just happened?"  
  
"I'm not sure." The two girls stood back to back, hoping that nothing would attack them. "I wish I knew though." She looked down to her wrist after she felt something tighten against it. "Where did this come from?" She looked over to Minako's wrist and watched a black band form on her wrist. "You got one too."  
  
Minako looked down. "Whoa, this is weird. This looks like one of those wristbands that Bulma showed us from her invention doesn't it?"  
  
"Does this mean…"  
  
"GUYS!" Usagi ran as fast as her little legs could take her. She was so excited for she hadn't seen either of them for a year. "You guys! Over here!" She waved her hands in the air as she ran.   
  
Minako and Makoto looked at each other, stunned, without anything to say. They could have sworn that they just heard the voice of their best friend Usagi. Makoto turned her head to where the voice came from and couldn't believe her eyes. "Oh my gosh. Minako, look! It's Usagi!"  
  
"What!?" Minako turned her head in the direction that Makoto pointed to. "But how? She went to the past." But sure enough, it was true. Usagi was just about to reach them. Behind her ran Ami and Rei, but they were barely visible. "It IS Usagi. Wow. This is so cool!"  
  
When Usagi got close enough, she tried to stop her feet, but couldn't. She had too much speed, thus, she collided into Minako, causing both of them to fall to the ground. She laughed as she threw her arms around the girl. "Minako! I missed you so much!" Usagi had totally forgotten about not being able to go home. With the combination of the time guardian's words, and her friends arriving, she was in pure happiness.   
  
Minako tried to pull away from Usagi's gripped. She was still puzzled as to where they were, and why Usagi was there too. "Usagi, I can't breathe. Lighten up a little bit." Usagi didn't listen. She was too happy to do so. Minako knew that there was no hope of ever being freed unless it was her friend's decision. "Usagi, where are we?"  
  
Usagi let go. She couldn't wait to tell her everything that had happened. "Well you're in the past with us now. Isn't that great? Now we can all be together again." He eyes shimmered with happiness in the bright sunlight.  
  
Minako's mouth dropped as she looked up to Makoto. "Did she just say what I think she said?" She hoped it wasn't true. That would probably be the most horrible thing. It wasn't that she didn't want to be with her friends, she just knew how the adults were reacting back home.  
  
"Yes Minako. Sadly, you just heard right from Usagi's mouth. You are in the past with us." Rei and Ami had finally caught up to Usagi. Rei immediately sensed the uneasiness in Minako after that statement. "Usagi wished to go home, but the Dragon said something about a guardian of time and how they wouldn't let us. Then she wished that you guys could come here. She didn't even mean it. It was just something she said, and then, well, you pretty much know the rest." She put on a sarcastic smile. "Well, welcome to the past you guys."  
  
Makoto looked down to Usagi just as Goku and the rest arrived at the scene. "You what?!" She paused and let Usagi's words sink in. "Wait a minute. The Dragon wouldn't let you go home?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No. He said that he had no control over time. He said that the time guardian person did. I think the time guardian talked to me. She said that everything in time happens for a reason. So I'm thinking we're supposed to be here? I don't know though. The Dragon said that she helped him make my wish come true. So maybe you guys are supposed to be here too."  
  
"What are these things that appeared on our wrists?" Minako tried pulling the wristband off.  
  
Rei grabbed her friend's arm. "Don't pull that off. That's what keeps us from aging here. Just so you know, time goes extra fast here. We have already gone a year here where you guys have gone a day."  
  
"Yeah Bulma told us about that."  
  
"You wished us to the past? How could you do a thing like that? You have no idea what's going on back home do you?" Makoto wondered what was happening in the future right about now. All she remembered was a bright flash of a white light and then poof, they were where they were now.  
  
Usagi's ears perked. She hadn't thought about the fact that they knew what was going on. They had information on what her family was doing. She looked up to Makoto. "How mad is mom?"  
  
Makoto giggled. Chi-Chi was far more mad then just being 'pissed'. There really were no words to explain her extreme anger towards her daughter at the moment. "Well, remember when you said your mom slapped you for keeping your suspension a secret?"  
  
"Yeah?" Just by Makoto's tone of voice, Usagi could tell that this was not something she wanted to know. She was not going to look forward to going back home.  
  
"Well, don't even think she's that laid back now. Boy, she was talking about killing you when you got home. Then your dad attempted to calm her down, now she's just going to strangle you until near death. In other words, you're lucky you can't go back to the future yet."  
  
Usagi knew that that would happen. She still wanted to go home though. She didn't care. She just wanted something familiar. "So how did they find out?"  
  
Minako stood up and brushed some dirt off of her cloths. "Gohan told us that Vejita told Bulma he saw you by her office today and how you said Ami was showing you. I guess Bulma put two and two together and figured out where you were. She was on the phone with your mom at the time."  
  
"Man. What have I gotten us into? I mean, I don't really want to go home and face mom, but I do want to go home and put this behind me."  
  
Chi-Chi stepped up to be in front of Usagi. "Usagi, dear, are you telling me that you didn't ask your parents if you could leave?" She distinctly remembered Usagi telling her that she had permission to go to the past.  
  
Usagi froze. She slowly moved her eyes up and met with her mother's. It was bad enough that she had to 'look forward' to hearing it from her real mother. Now she was certain that she would have to hear it from this one too. "You see, there's a funny story about that…" She faked a smile in hopes to calm her mother down before she blew up.  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "You lied to me? You lied to your parents? I know you were not brought up to do that sort of thing. We would never raise a child to lie." She crossed her arms. "What do you have to say for yourself?"  
  
Goku put his hands around his wife's shoulders. "It's not exactly our place to yell at her. Leave that for her real mother." He pushed gently pushed Chi-Chi aside and looked down at Usagi. "Don't worry. We won't punish you for lying." He looked over to Chi-Chi who pouted to herself.  
  
Usagi smiled. "Thanks daddy." She looked back over to Minako. "Is dad really mad at me too?"  
  
"Yes and no. You see, he IS really mad and all, but he said that he's not going to show it until you get home. He's worried about you more then anything. Once you get home though, he has nothing to worry about and will probably go off on you. It was really obvious that he was majorly mad. He didn't have much to say either. He just breathed really hard and loud too. I think he was madder then he showed. So Usagi you really should watch yourself when you get home."  
  
"When did you find out that we were gone?"   
  
"Today when we went to your house to see if you could do something with us. Your dad said you weren't there but you were in the past. Then he told us to get in the car so we could go with him and your mom to Capsule Corp. We didn't know why but we did it anyways. When we got there, Gohan and Videl were already there. Guess what they were doing?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"They were planning to build another time machine. They wanted us to help find parts with your mom and dad and Piccolo." She paused long enough to giggle. "Speaking of Piccolo…" She leaned to her right to look at Mamoru. "Your dad said that he's going to beat you down to the ground. His words not mine. So don't go and try to hit me."  
  
Mamoru sarcastically smiled. "I wouldn't dream of hitting a girl."  
  
Usagi frowned as she turned back to Mamoru. "You hit me all the time."  
  
He grinned. "You aren't a girl Odango." Piccolo put his hand on his son's shoulder and gently squeezed to let him know that that is not acceptable. "Sorry Odango." He mumbled under his breath.  
  
"Why Mamoru. You apologized to me. That's the first time. I knew there was hope for you." She smiled. Maybe now he would treat her with a little more respect. Hanging around the Piccolo from the past really did pay off.  
  
"Ok you guys. I know that you all probably want to catch up and everything, but we really do need to train. We have two years before those androids arrive here and we can't waste anytime."   
  
"What?! An enemy is coming in two years?" Minako turned to Goku. She couldn't fight an enemy. She wasn't ready. She wasn't strong enough. She had heard about the enemies that they used to fight and knew that if she were ever faced with them, she would be dead in a heartbeat.   
  
"I'm afraid so. That's why Usagi came into the past." He turned to Usagi. "Usagi, I have a proposition for you."  
  
Usagi turned to her father with curiosity and smiled. "I'm listening."  
  
"How would you like it if I…"  
  
"Goku if you even mention training her I will throw you out of the house. You have Gohan, but you will NOT have Usagi. Just don't even go any further." Although she may have let her daughter train in the future, she didn't have to now. There was no way that she would let Goku talk her into it.  
  
"Aww, come on Chi-Chi. If I train her right, she can be really powerful. Please?"   
  
Chi-Chi looked away from her husband so she wouldn't be persuaded with any of his facial expressions. "I said no and that's final. Usagi has to study. She is too far behind to be traipsing about with you and Gohan becoming a tomboy. She can do without fighting for the remainder of the time that she is here."  
  
Goku looked down to Usagi. She begged him to keep asking with her eyes. He knew he had to get her to agree somehow. He only knew of one way to do it. He also knew that Usagi would hate it, but it really was the only way. He looked back to his wife. "Chi-Chi, what if Usagi starts studying more and actually learns. Then would you let her train?"  
  
Chi-Chi smiled. She knew that that would never happen. If she agreed to it, then Usagi wouldn't be able to fight. "You've got yourself a deal."  
  
"What? Daddy! You can't be serious. I don't wanna study. That isn't fair. Don't tell her I'll study. Please. Anything but that. You don't know how boring that is. Tell her I won't study. Tell her I'll…"  
  
Goku put his finger to his daughter's mouth to silence her. He leaned down to her ear. "Don't worry. Ami can help you. I can even Gohan to help you." Usagi groaned in protest. She didn't care who would help her. She wasn't good at schoolwork. She hated schoolwork, which didn't help any. She would have to go along with it though. It was the only way that she would be able to train with her father and Gohan.  
  
"Can you teach me how to fight Goku?" Usagi, Minako, Rei, and Makoto all turned their head to Ami. They were more shocked then ever to hear those words come from their friend, Ami. Her mother had told her that she was not to fight without her permission, which she would never give.   
  
Goku never would have thought that Ami would want to fight. She was too much of a bookworm for that. But he would be happy to do it. If Chi-Chi would let him that is. "Sure."  
  
"Why the sudden change Ami?"   
  
Ami looked to Rei. "It's not really a change. Ever since I first saw Usagi fighting with Mamoru last year I've wanted to learn how to fight. It looked like fun and it could prove to be a challenge to me. But my mom never let me. But you see, my mom isn't here is she? Not only will it prove to be a challenge, it will also boost my mental concentration, which is needed if I want to excel." Ami couldn't wait to begin her training. She didn't know what she would tell her mother, but she didn't have to worry about that at the moment. She would already be in trouble for taking her friends to the past. She would just explain to her mother that it was inevitable to fight. She wanted to help her friends fight the androids if the time came.   
  
"Now why can't you be more like her Usagi? She studies and fights to excel in her studies. I don't understand you. Look at Gohan. He loves to study. Why do you have to be so unlike your brother?"   
Chi-Chi planned on rubbing it in as much as possible so Usagi would try to prove her wrong. But she noticed that Usagi doesn't really try to prove her family wrong. She usually takes what they have to say and accepts it. She found that she had to be somewhat careful of what she said so she wouldn't upset her daughter. But even though she didn't want Usagi to train, she still wanted her to learn. She'd be damned if she sent her daughter back into the future without learning anything.  
  
~*~*~  
Two months later…  
  
Usagi threw a textbook down to the floor along with her notebook filled with her work from the past week. "Forget it. I'm just stupid. Let's admit it. I can't do this. I'm never gonna learn anything and I'm never gonna get to train with dad."  
  
Ami bent down and picked up the book and put it on the desk that they had been studying at. "Usagi, you're not stupid. We've already had this conversation. We just haven't found out what helps you study. Don't just give up."  
  
Both girls sat in their temporary room. It was the guestroom, which would one day be Goten's room. There were three rollout beds put together in the room in which all the girls slept in. They were just small enough to fit all them on comfortably. They didn't mind sharing the room either. It had made them feel like sisters. They would stay up until late hours of the night just chatting away. Most nights one of the other family members would have to come in and tell them to quiet down because more then one of the girls would get carried away and start getting loud.   
  
At the moment, Minako, Makoto, and Rei had gone shopping in the city. They had finished their work for the day and Chi-Chi had actually given them permission to go by themselves. Shock They were all excited about going. They wanted to see the fashions of the past and all the old stores and trend of the people. Rei hadn't really gone to the city in the past year so she was just as excited as Minako and Makoto were. They had been there for two months and they had finally convinced Chi-Chi into letting them venture out into the city.   
  
But while they were out having fun, Usagi was stuck in her room with Ami trying to figure out her math homework. She hadn't really made much progress in the past couple of months. Most of the math was beyond her level. "Ami, I've been going to school for how long now? And I still can't do this stuff."  
  
Ami sighed. She knew that Usagi had potential, she just didn't know how to make it show. There had been one time that Usagi actually did a good job on her homework assignment. But she didn't know how she had done it. Ami was certain that she could find out how she had done it though. "Usagi come on. You did this before. Just try do it like you did last week."  
  
Usagi sighed. "I'll try Ami. Just for you I'll try." She could tell that Ami was getting put out with her unwillingness to really try. She turned around when she heard a knock on the door. "Come in." She watched as the door crept slightly open to reveal her mother holding a tray. "Hi mom." She always brought them snacks, something she never really did in the future.  
  
"I thought you might like a snack. You've been in here all day." She looked over her daughter's shoulder at her work as she put down the tray with food on it. "You're work is looking better."  
  
Usagi knew that was a lie. She knew how her parents worked. Even if something were totally screwed up, they would still say it was wonderful. Or in this case, looking better. "Thanks mom. Can you turn on the radio please?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Usagi, if you listen to the radio it will only make you loose your concentration."  
  
"That's right Usagi. If you ever want to train anytime soon, you need all the concentration you can get." Ami was hoping that Usagi's grades would pull up soon. Every day she would have to tutor Usagi, which in turn, met that she couldn't train until Usagi was able to.   
  
"No it doesn't. Please? Just for a while?" She curled her bottom lip.  
  
Chi-Chi was tired of Usagi's whining. She was tired of her daughter doing everything in her power to get out of studying. She was fed up with it. Gohan had never put up as much of a fight with her over studying that Usagi had. "You know what? Fine! If you don't want to study then fine! Don't study! You aren't going to learn anything anyways. Do what you want! Listen to the radio and rot your brain out with that junk! You aren't my problem yet anyways! I'm trying to do your mother a favor by having you study but you obviously don't care about your education. But let me make myself clear on one point. You will NOT fight unless you do your work!" She turned around and stormed out of the room. She was furious. She had no idea how she could have let her daughter become such a lazy person. She wouldn't let it happen when she was born. She wouldn't let Goku train her at all.  
  
Usagi sighed as she looked back to her work. "I've managed to make her mad at me once again. Why do I always do this?" She rested her head in her hands.   
  
"Usagi, you know you push your mother's buttons when you complain about what she wants you to do. You should just go along with whatever she wants you to do. You know you can do it. You've proved you can."  
  
Usagi stood up and walked over to the table by the door that the radio sat on. "That was just a one time only thing. I'm really not smart." She turned it on and sat back down at the desk. She attempted to do some of the long division problems from her math book again.  
  
"If you keep telling yourself that, then you will never become smart. But if you tell yourself that your smart and you can do something, then you will succeed."  
  
"I'm not like you Ami. I wasn't born smart."  
  
Ami stared out the window. Most of their days went on like this. Ami would try to convince Usagi that she wasn't as dumb as she thought she was. Most of the time it would turn into an argument in which Ami would eventually give up as there was no way one could win against Usagi. She was smart when it came to life and the hearts of others. But when it came to books, her heart just wasn't in it. After a couple of minutes thinking, Ami looked down to the work that Usagi was doing. "How did you do that?"  
  
Usagi looked up at Ami puzzled. "Do what?" She looked back down at her notebook. She didn't see anything unusual about it. It just had a bunch of answers scribbled on it that were probably wrong anyways.  
  
Ami was amazed at what she saw. "Your answers. Most of them are right. And the ones that aren't right only have a few minor calculation problems. Usagi, this is wonderful. How did you do this?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "I dunno. I just did it the way I've always did." She continued to stare at her answers. "If you lying to and my answers are totally wrong I'm gonna…"  
  
"No, no. They are really good." It confused Ami. She didn't know how one minute Usagi didn't know how to do the math and didn't get a single problem right, and the next minute, she was on her way to getting an A on her assignment. Then it hit her. "Usagi, were you listening to the radio when you did the last assignment that you did well on?"  
  
Usagi was silent. She knew she wasn't allowed to listen to the radio while she did her work. But it had always relaxed her. "Umm…yes?"  
  
Ami walked over to the radio and turned it off. "Ok, do the next five problems and tell me when you're finished." 'Yes! We may get to train sooner then I thought.'  
  
"Ok." She didn't know what Ami was trying to do but she went along with it anyways. She turned the page to the next five problems like Ami had told her to. She found it quite hard to concentrate on what she was doing and often found her mind wandering to other subjects. She leaned her head into her left hand. "Ami, this is too hard."  
  
"How many problems do you have done?"  
  
"Two."  
  
"Ten minutes have passed and you only have two done? Ok then, let's try something else." She turned the radio on again. "Try doing the other three now."  
  
"Ok." She started doing the next problem. This time it wasn't as hard for her to do it. About three minutes passed and Usagi was already done. She slammed her pencil to the desk and turned around to Ami. "Finished!"  
  
"Great." She walked back to the desk and picked up the notebook. "Wrong, wrong, right, right, nearly right." She threw it back down in front of Usagi. "I think I found out what your problem is Usagi."  
  
"What? What?"  
  
"When you're doing your homework, do you always concentrate only on it, or do you think about other things?"  
  
"I usually think about other things. Homework it just too boring."  
  
"That's your problem then. You have a short attention span. You need something to keep your mind from wandering and I think that's what the music does for you. You don't necessarily have to concentrate on it. You just kind of let it sit in the back of your mind as you listen to it. In doing this, you allow it the take up all the room in your brain for thinking about other things, therefore making it easier for you concentrate on what you should be doing. Usagi my friend," She smiled. "I think we can get your grades up in no time."  
  
Usagi's face was filled with a smile. "Are you serious? You mean I can train with dad finally? You mean I can be smart?"  
  
Ami nodded. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure of it. You want to tell your mom?"  
  
Usagi jumped out of her seat. "Of course I wanna tell her. I want to start training as soon as possible." She bolted to the door without even finishing the rest of her work. "MOM! MOM!" She ran out of the room and into the living room where her mother was reading a magazine. "Mom guess what?!"  
  
Chi-Chi put her magazine down on her lap and looked to her daughter. "What is it Usagi?"  
  
Usagi walked to the sofa and leaned against the armrest. "Ami found out a way for me to be able to study and actually learn. See, I have to listen to the radio."  
  
"Please Usagi. Don't lie to me. The radio just takes away concentration, it doesn't add anything." She looked back to her magazine. She noticed that Usagi would do anything to get her way and had to learn what to believe and what not to believe.  
  
"Chi-Chi, it's not a lie. It's true. Taking away from her concentration is what she needed. Her problem is that she concentrates too much. But on things different then studying. The music allows her mind to be taken up by the music but still leaves enough room for studying. I guess you could put it that way in the simplest terms. I just tested it out and it really does work. Usagi got most of her problems right after we turned on the radio."   
  
"So mom, now that I can raise my grades, can I train? Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh? Huh?" She leaned in closer to her mother.  
  
'Oh great. I didn't actually think she would raise her grades. But I told her that I would allow her to train once she raised her grades and it's apparent that she will.' She sighed. There was no way that she could say no. She couldn't lie to her daughter. That was one of the things that she always yelled at her for. "I guess so."  
  
Usagi jumped back. "YES!" She turned back to Ami. "This is so totally cool! We get to train! Oh yeah!" She began to do a little dance from being so happy. Chi-Chi laughed at her daughter. That had to be one of the things that she loved most about her. She was always so energetic and full of life.   
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. What do you think? Was it good or bad? Please review and tell me. Bye for now. ^_^)  



	48. Part 10

Later that night…  
  
It was about nine o'clock at night and the girls had just been put to bed. They were all excited about the next day for they would begin their training again. This time it would be for a fight instead of just to learn new things. They knew that it would probably be pointless for them to fight because the androids were so strong, but they didn't care. It was still worth a try. They could use the experience. They had all agreed not to get into too much danger. There was still hope of getting home.   
  
Home was one thing that Usagi had been thinking about a lot for the past couple of weeks. She had recently realized that she was more homesick then she had first thought. She tried to keep herself from thinking about the future so she wouldn't get herself upset. Thinking about her own timeline often left her nearly in tears, which is why she only thought about home when no one else was around. She missed everyone and couldn't wait to get back. Even if she was going to get in trouble. Though she loved being in the past, it just wasn't the same.   
  
She stared up at the dark ceiling. Her friends were all chatting about various things. They mostly spoke of what happened while they were in the city. She was really only half listening as she was lost in a bundle of her own thoughts. She sighed to herself. She was doing exactly what she didn't want to do. She was thinking about home. It had been one year and two months since she left home. To her at least. To her parents it had only been a day and some odd hours. "Guys…"  
  
Makoto stopped explaining to Ami about the flower shop that she had gone to and turned over in the direction of Usagi. She could tell that something was bothering her. "What?"  
  
"I don't know. I'm just thinking."  
  
"Bout what?" Minako sat up. She usually slept by the wall and was able to lean against it when she sat up.   
  
"Well, remember that time guardian and how I said that she said we were supposed to be here?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Do you think we'll ever be allowed to go home? Do you guys think she'll make us stay here forever? I don't wanna stay here forever you guys."  
  
Minako didn't know what to say. She hadn't really thought about the subject much since she was wished there. She was to busy enjoying herself. Rei, on the other hand, had actually been thinking about it just about as much as Usagi. She too wanted to go home more than anything. But it wasn't possible. Time was in someone else's hands and there was nothing much that she could really do about it. "I think we'll be able to return home on day. She did give Minako and Makoto the time bracelets. Obviously she doesn't want us to age. Why else would she give them to us? Wouldn't she have told you if we weren't going to be able to go home?"  
  
"I hope so. I like it here and all, I just…" She was starting in on herself again. She needed something to take her mind off this subject. "Why doesn't she just send us back? Can't she see how much I want to go back? All I wanted to do was stop dad from getting that disease. It isn't fun for me anymore." She looked to the door just as a small sliver of light found its way into the room.  
  
"Girls, go to sleep. Goku is going to be training you tomorrow and I want you fully refreshed so you don't hurt yourselves." She looked at Minako. "Lay down and close your eyes. You will have plenty of time to gossip tomorrow." She backed out of the door and closed it. She turned around to see Goku sitting on the sofa eating popcorn. "Usagi was talking about her home again."  
  
"Wha'd she say?" He stuffed a fist full into his mouth.  
  
"She doesn't know if the guardian of time will ever allow her to go home." She sat down next to him and cuddled into his arm. "I'm worried about her. I don't want her to become depressed."  
  
"Don't worry Chi-Chi. She's strong willed. As long as we are here and love her and protect her she will be fine. We are the second best thing as her parents."   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi closed her eyes. She hoped that Rei was right about the whole wristband thing. She wanted to go home more than anything at the moment. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted it. She tried to stop thinking about it, but it was no use. She would go onto something else and would always revert back to her normal thoughts. She yawn as she began to feel her eyes become heavier and heavier. Her mind began to fade out as she drifted off to sleep.  
  
She immediately reopened her eyes when a giant thud woke her up. "What?" She sat up and looked around. She was not in her room. "Where am I?" There were no walls to her sides or behind her. The only thing that was visible was a giant metal door in front of her. She hoisted herself up off the ground and slowly made her way to the door. "What is this place?" The atmosphere was cold and dreary, while at the same time, it was also filled with a feeling of happiness. She held her arms stiffly against her body. "This is too freaky for me." She stopped walking when she reached the doors. They were ten times the height of her with designs engraved all over them. She began to put her hand out to run her hand over a lion.  
  
"Don't touch those doors."  
  
Usagi jumped as she pulled her hand back. She turned around. "Who said that?" She looked around but could not see anyone. 'Am I dreaming?' A black figure emerged from afar. Usagi couldn't make out any real detail but she knew that it was a person. "Who are you? Where am I?" With every word that Usagi spoke, her voice became more and more shaky.   
  
"I am sorry to bring you at such a late time of night."  
  
Usagi took a step back. She wasn't sure where she was but she definitely wasn't dreaming. Everything was all to weird. She would have wakened up by now anyways. She was sure of it. Of course there were the messages that Rei sent her. She hadn't wakened up from those dreams soon. But then again, those were also messages from Rei. She hadn't been meant to wake up until they were finished. She was too confused to think right now though.   
  
"You don't have to be afraid of me Usagi. I'm a friend."  
  
'That voice. I know that voice.' "You're the guardian of time aren't you?" She squinted to try and make out what she looked like, but sadly, she couldn't. She wasn't about to move closer either. She learned to let your enemy make the first move. And right now, she considered this woman to be her enemy. She didn't know where she was, or why she was here, but she wasn't going to take her chances.  
  
"Yes I am."  
  
"Where Am I?" She looked down to her feet. There was nothing there. No ground or anything of the sort. That alone freaked her out. The whole area was like one giant area of nothingness.   
  
"You are no where in particular. You are just floating around in time."  
  
"What?"   
  
She smiled. She should have known better then to expect Usagi to understand that. "You are at the time gate. My home."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened. She hoped and prayed that she had just heard right. "You're letting me go home?"  
  
"No." She could see the look of disappointment on Usagi's face. But she had to make her stay in the past for the time being. It the only way for her to survive. Things had not quite happened the way they were met to. People had become stronger, including her. "I know you want to go home. But you have to believe me. Everything happens for a reason. I have already told you this."  
  
"But you don't understand."   
  
"I do understand. Just please believe me. But, you have doubt. Do you know what doubt does to someone Usagi?" Usagi shook her head. "It makes the person slow. It makes a person perform at a lower rate then normal. You need to get rid of that doubt."  
  
"Why? Why is it so important that I stay in the past?" Usagi didn't understand anything that was going on. She only understood one thing. And that was the fact that she wanted to go home.  
  
"You will know in time. But don't worry about that now. You need to rid yourself of your doubt. And I'm going to help you. I can't say much more then this but, please, don't worry about anything. It will all work out in the end."  
  
"You mean I can go home?"  
  
"I've already said too much." She put her staff out in front of her. The doors behind Usagi began to creek open. "Now go back to bed. You will have a long day ahead of you."  
  
Usagi turned around and was startled to see her room with all her friends sleeping in bed. "This is just too much."  
  
"Do not tell anyone of our meeting."  
  
"What?" Usagi turned her head around, but the guardian of time was already gone. "I guess I have to go. I don't want to be stuck here forever." She shrugged her shoulders as she walked forward into her room to get some sleep.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The next day…  
  
Minako and Usagi were the first to be up, and the first to be ready. They were both equally excited about training. Usagi hadn't trained in over a year, while it had only been a couple months for Minako. Minako sat at the table and ate her breakfast, while Usagi pretty much played with her food. "I had the weirdest dream last night. I had a dream that we were fighting Mamoru and I beat him. Wouldn't that be cool if I could beat him?"  
  
Usagi scooped up a spoonful of cereal and let it immediately fall down into the bowl again. "That would be cool. He isn't that hard to beat though. I mean he is, but he isn't. You just have to get stronger then him." She didn't have too much of an appetite after what had happened the night before. She would stick to what the guardian of time had told her and not tell anyone about her encounter.  
  
"That's easy for you to say. You ARE stronger then him. But for us people who are only human and don't have the luxury of being part Saiyan, we just don't get that strong as fast as you."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Oh yeah. Forgot about that little fact."  
  
"Sure you did, you little liar." Minako wadded up a napkin and threw it at Usagi. It bounced off her forehead and landed in her cereal.   
  
Usagi looked down at it and laughed. "That's it Minako. This is war between you and me." She picked it up and rang it out. She grinned as she looked up at her friend.   
  
"You are not going to throw that at me with milk all over it are you?" Minako put her hands out. She knew very well that Usagi would do it.  
  
"Just watch me." She pulled back her arm but quickly placed it back on the table when she noticed someone walking into the room. She had gotten in so much trouble on many different occasions about throwing things in the house. She didn't want to risk her mother walking in and seeing her. She would probably make her stay home and study if she did. She relaxed when she saw that it was just Ami and Gohan. "Hey, it's the bookworms."  
  
Gohan sat down across the table from Usagi. "I'm not a bookworm Usagi. You know mom. She makes me study. But studying isn't all that bad all the time. You learn a lot of neat stuff. You should try it."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes. The day she enjoyed studying, would be the day that someone took over her body. She would never willingly like to study. She looked over to Ami, who wore a brand new light blue GI. Of course it's blue. What other color would she wear? "So, are you excited about fighting?"  
  
Ami sat down. She was so nervous she was shaking. She didn't know what to expect. She didn't know if it would be hard or what. "Excited is an understatement."  
  
"Don't worry. No one will let anything bad happen to you. Everyone is really nice when you're first learning how to fight. Dad isn't that mean when you first are learning. He attacked me the first day. Then he stepped on my tail. Then he threw me on the ground after I scratched his face up. Actually, now that I think about it, he didn't really give me THAT easy of a time. Hmm, that's interesting. He was rough on me the first time and I didn't even know. And don't ever try to play any tricks on him either. I did that once and it got me tied to a tree and a spider crawling up my leg." She stopped once she realized that she was scaring Ami. "But don't worry, it's all in good fun. He didn't mean to hurt me."  
  
Ami turned her head to the door that led out of the kitchen just as Goku walked through the door. She hoped that he didn't just up and attack her when she trained with him. She wasn't strong enough to be attacked by someone as strong as he was. "Hi Goku."  
  
"Hey Ami." Goku walked into the kitchen and headed straight for the fridge. "So how much sleep did you guys actually get?" He opened the door and pulled out load of food. He didn't care what he grabbed so long as he had food.  
  
Usagi herself hadn't gotten too much sleep. She had actually kept herself awake thinking, wondering about the guardian of time. She never did get to see her face. "After mom came in we went right to sleep." She got up and threw the milk filled napkin in the garbage. "What are we going to be doing today daddy?"  
  
Goku pushed his way into the remaining space at the table. "Actually, I'm just going to train with you today."  
  
Gohan looked up from his conversation with Minako. "What? Dad, aren't we supposed to be preparing for the androids? And what about the other girls?"  
  
Goku looked across the table to his son. "I want you to take them to train with Mamoru and Piccolo. But Gohan, I want you to train Ami. I don't think Mamoru would be too well of a teacher for her. I know you'll do it right. I want to work a bit with Usagi. I have my reasons, son. Just stick with it."  
  
"Alright dad. I'll do it." He looked to Ami and Minako. "You don't mind do you?" They both shook their heads. He knew that neither of them cared for Piccolo or Mamoru. He didn't ask why but he could tell that something had happened between them.  
  
Goku began to chow down on his pile of food while the kids went about their own business. He had many things planned for Usagi. He knew she had a remarkable hidden power and he planned to reveal it. He just wondered why he hadn't brought out her power in the future. It was obvious that she had it. "Where's Rei and Makoto?"  
  
"Right here." Rei walked into the room soaking wet. Her hair, her cloths, everything we wet.   
  
Goku cracked up laughing. He couldn't help it. She looked ridiculous. "What happened to you?" Usagi started in shortly after him.  
  
Rei frowned as she pulled Makoto into the room with her. "We had a water fight."  
  
Usagi tried to hold her laughter in but wasn't doing to well of a job. Both of them stood in the room with their cloths clenching tightly against their body. Their hair was a total mess. "Over what?" She put her hand to her mouth so she wouldn't be so obvious about laughing. Rei hated it when she was laughed at.  
  
"You don't want to know." She calmly and quietly sat down next to Ami.  
  
Makoto sat as far away from Rei as she could. "She stole my lilac shampoo."  
  
Minako's eyes shot wide open. "You have more lilac shampoo and you didn't tell me?!" Both of the girls were nuts over flowers.  
  
"Yeah, it's not so hard to find here. But Rei tried to steal it so I showed her whose boss." She stared at Rei, who looked back at her as if she were crazy.  
  
"I didn't know it was so sacred to you. I just took a tiny little bit."   
  
At that moment Chi-Chi walked into the room, looking quite mad. Everyone pretty much knew what she was mad about. She stood at the front of the table and stared at Rei and Makoto. "Girls, would you mind telling me why there is water all over the bathroom floor?" She eyed them both.  
  
Goku, not wanting an argument to break out, stood up. "Well I'd love to stay and chat here but we have things we need to do. We don't get strong just sitting around." He had listened to countless arguments since the girls had arrived. He was sick of it. They got themselves into more trouble with his wife than he ever could. Not a single day went by without someone getting yelled out. He just didn't want to put up with it anymore.   
  
Chi-Chi watched as her husband herded the kids out the door. "Don't just think you can walk away from me like this. I'm not through with you two yet. You don't just make a mess and then expect me to clean it up!"  
  
Goku knew he would pay for this later but he didn't care. He would rather be the one to get yelled at. He didn't fight back nearly as much as the girls. "Come on guys. Let's get out of here while we still can."  
  
Chi-Chi followed them outside. "You aren't going anywhere. Come back here. You will clean up this mess first!"  
  
Goku gave them the signal and they all jumped into the air. He looked back at Chi-Chi. "We have to prepare for the androids dear. You understand don't you?" He grabbed Ami and held her close to him so she wouldn't fall and then leaped into the air. "We'll be back later."  
  
"GOKU!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Once in the air, the group had departed into their separate ways. Goku let Gohan take Ami and the other girls to go and train while he took Usagi with him. He led her to an out of the way place in the mountains about fifty miles away from the house. He didn't want any disturbances from anyone or anything. He motioned for her to land with him.   
  
Usagi complied with her father's wishes. She was excited about getting to train again. She hoped that she didn't loose any of her strength or skill over the past year. She hadn't trained a single day. "So! What are we gonna do today?" She couldn't wait to get started. She knew that he had something special planned.  
  
Goku turned around to face his daughter. "Remember when you first came here and you had that big power build up?" Usagi nodded. "I want you to learn how to control that. I could tell that you have been trained more for strength and physical fighting more than anything else. It's time for you to learn how to control your power. It will help you when you fight an enemy. Strength is good, but it is not everything. When fighting someone like Frieza, you need an equal amount of energy and physical strength. "  
  
"But I know how to use energy attacks. I even made this really cool one too."  
  
"That's not what I'm talking about. Yes, you have a sufficient amount of power. But, you can have more. You are special. Don't you feel your power when you build it up? Didn't you feel it when you first came here?"  
  
"I guess so."  
  
"No you didn't. You would know. You're just like Gohan. He too gets power bursts when he is upset. What we need to do is find a way for that power that you showed to become normal for you."  
  
"How are we supposed to do that? And why didn't daddy try to get me to do that before?"   
  
"He was probably trying to build up your strength first. You see, an energy attack has no effect unless it has the strength to back it up. So you know what our first goal is?" Usagi shook her head. "You're going to show me just how strong you really are."  
  
Before her father had a chance to do anything, Usagi jumped into the air. She remembered her first day of training and how he had just up an attacked her. She also remembered what he had told her. He had told her to be prepared for anything. It was hard for her at first, but she had it down pretty well now. It was like second nature to her now. She made a face at him. "Ha, ha! You can't get me."  
  
Goku lunged himself into the air and Usagi lowered herself. "You've been taught well."   
  
"I was taught by the best you know."   
  
"Why don't you show me you're best attack." Goku lowered himself. He was happy with her tactics so far. She didn't just stand in one place when the enemy attacked.  
  
"What kind?"  
  
"There's a bad move so far." He jumped at her and stuck his fist out to attack. Usagi blocked it with her forearm. With her free hand, she punched him in the stomach. He pulled his arm back to his side. "Not bad Usagi."  
  
"Why did I make a bad move?" Usagi backed away from him just in case he tried to attack again.   
  
"If I was truly your enemy and I told you to show me what you've got, you wouldn't just ask what kind. You would do it." He stepped closer to her. "But you recovered well. Now, you said you made your own attack. Would you mind showing me?"  
  
Usagi grinned. "I'd be happy to." She put her hands together to form a bright gold Ki blast.   
  
Goku sat and watched. She wasn't putting too much power into the attack but he knew it had to be useful otherwise she wouldn't use it. He would have told her when she made it if it was a good attack or not. "What is the basic concept of this attack?"  
  
Usagi looked up from her attack. "You'll find out daddy. Just wait for a while." She looked back down at the energy as she pulled it apart, while giving it one last burst of energy. Usagi found it somewhat difficult to keep the two energy balls separate with the extra energy. She had never tried it like that before. She gave it her all. 'Now just stand still a little bit longer daddy.' She looked back up to her father and smiled. She was using the last of her strength to keep them apart. When it was apparent that she would not be able to hold on much longer, she fired one at her father and watched it shoot right past him.  
  
Goku chuckled. "We need to work on your aim a bit kiddo."  
  
Usagi smirked as she watched her attack reverse its direction. She was still struggling to keep a hold on the attack that still lay in her hand. "Do we?" She waited until the moment when the ball of energy was about to his and released the attack that she still held on to.   
  
Goku looked at the second attack as it spiraled its way to him. "This one may actually hit me." He stepped to the side.  
  
Usagi frowned. "You aren't supposed to dodge it." She immediately jumped to the first blast and kicked it to her father and did the same to the other. She made sure that she never touched both of them at once for once they left her hands, if you touch them both at once, you will be taken in by the attack.   
  
Goku laughed quietly. He couldn't sense all that much power generating from the attack. "Come on Usagi. I know you can do better then that." He stood still and let the attacks come right for him. The first one hit and nothing happened. It didn't blow up. Instead it just kind of tried to force its way through him. "You call this an attack?" He put his hand out the catch the other one. When he did, both blasts spread their energy out to meet one another. Once they met, the energy was complete again and therefore created a power that was able to stop any movement from him. "What is this?" The energy was hot against his skin and made it feel as if a thousand blasts were fired at him over and over again. He tried to move his legs, but was unable to. The energy kept him from moving.  
  
Usagi walked closer to his father. "I do call that an attack. What do you call it?"  
  
Goku grinned. "It's an attack. But not a very good one." He concentrated all his energy into his body and powered up to Super Saiyan, causing the energy field to disperse.   
  
Usagi was in awe. She had never seen the energy field be broken without outside interference. "That's not fair. How did you do that?"  
  
Goku was impressed. He didn't think he would have to go Super Saiyan to get out of any attack from her. Of course, he pretty much guessed that she was Super Saiyan. That was the only explanation that he could come up with for her hair color. And her power bursts. Gohan had never gotten a power burst as strong as a Super Saiyan where Usagi had. "That was great Usagi. All you really need is to increase your energy level and you'll be fine. You have plenty of strength behind that attack. What's better is I couldn't even really feel it until the two balls met each other."  
  
Usagi smiled and bowed. "I know I'm good." She stood back up. "I can even do that by grabbing someone."  
  
"That's really useful. But you know what else is useful?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Teleportation."  
  
"Oh that's easy. I already know how to do that."  
  
Goku raised an eyebrow in interest. He never would have thought that someone her age would be able to do such a task. "Well then, I guess you're all set. Except, we have to find a way for you to be able to control your power level. The more you have, the more powerful your attacks will be. Now, the question is how do we go about doing something like that? I noticed that you got a power boost when you were angry. So, what makes you angry?"  
  
Usagi thought long and hard. There were many things that made her angry, but not angry enough to get her power boost. She had learned to try to keep her anger from rising too high. It always led to something bad. Her father told her it wasn't a good idea to get upset anyways because you usually did something you might regret. It really was good advice. "I don't know."  
  
"I know one thing that makes you mad. Mamoru."  
  
Usagi shuddered. That was one thing that DID make her mad. Although ever since she had beaten him, she didn't get all that mad. Unless he made fun of her family. "I guess he makes me mad. But I know it was just the way he was raised."  
  
"What about the time he made that story up about you just to make you get mad and raise your powerlevel. He said that you wanted to kill me. Doesn't it make you mad that he did that? Don't you want to get back at him?"  
  
Usagi was confused now. She didn't know why he was saying that she should get back at him. He had always taught her to be better then her enemies. That she shouldn't seek revenge. "Not really. I knew why he did it. Plus, I already forgave him for it. He does a lot of stupid things and says a lot of mean things to me, but I know that he's really a good guy. You just gotta give him a chance."  
  
"Well then, what about those two girls you always talk about. What are their names? Haruka and Michiru. Don't you want to get back at them for hurting you? And what about everyone who has been mean to you?"   
  
"Nope. I don't want to get back at them. As long as they don't hurt me and I don't hurt them, then I'm happy. I've gotten to the point where I don't really care anymore. Unless it's someone I know really well that makes fun of me, then I don't care. I used to care all the time, but not anymore. You showed me that it doesn't matter what others think."  
  
"Argghh, do you always do what I say?"  
  
Usagi stared blankly at her father. She didn't know what kind of a question that was. "Uh…yes. If I didn't I would get in lotsa trouble."  
  
Goku smiled. That was a good thing. At least she was a delinquent. "Usagi, you are just too like me for your own good."  
  
Usagi sighed. She hated to disappoint her father and that's exactly what she thought she was doing. That's what the tone of his voice was telling her. "I'm sorry daddy."  
  
"I'm not mad at you. I just want to bring out your power. Don't worry, we'll do it somehow. You'll see. I'm not giving up on this. If you're going to fight those nasty androids with us then you're going to need all the power you can get." He powered down to his normal form and put his arm around his daughter's neck. "Let's go see how the others are doing."  
  
"But we didn't really train that much." She looked up at her father.   
  
"That's ok. I really only wanted to see what kind of skill you have today. Plus I need to talk to Mamoru." 'Maybe I can find out how to make her power come out. He seems to know how to do it.' "Come on. Let's go." He pulled his arm back and jumped into the air. "Let's go see if how much Ami has learned."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Come on Ami. Block!" Gohan threw continuous punches at the fragile girl. She didn't seem to know that she was allowed to block, or even throw a few punches of her own.   
  
"I don't know if I can Gohan." She was thrown back by a brutal punch to her face.   
  
Gohan stepped up to Ami and held his hand down at her. "You can do it. I did. Piccolo once threw me over a cliff when I was four years old and made me climb back up by myself."  
  
Ami took Gohan's hand and allowed herself to be helped up. "Piccolo is kind of mean don't you think?"  
  
"No. Not really. Not once you get to know him. He's my best friend." He jumped back and got into his fighting position.  
  
Ami looked to her right at the field where her friends fought against Mamoru and Piccolo. 'How can the Piccolo of this time be so different from the Piccolo of the future. He seems kinder in this time.' She looked back to Gohan who was currently dashing for her. She yelped as she closed her eyes and put her arms in front of her face.   
  
Seeing this, instead of going for her face, he went for her stomach. "Don't leave any spot open Ami."   
  
Ami opened her eyes and jumped to the side just before Gohan's fist would have made contact with her stomach. "Sorry Gohan."   
  
"Try attacking me instead of just standing there." He jumped over her and kicked her in the back. He knew he was taking her kind of fast but it was a very sufficient way of learning. Piccolo had done the same to him. He learned very fast that if you wanted to stay in good health, that you have to fight back.   
  
Ami stumbled forward and very quickly regained her footing before Gohan had a chance to strike again. She turned around and charged for him. "Fine!" She grabbed onto his arm just as she was about to pass him and dug her nails into his skin. "How's this?" She pulled on of her hands off and quickly got a tiny piece of skin between two of her nails.   
  
"Way to go Ami!"  
  
Ami lightened up her grip on Gohan and turned her head. "Usagi?"  
  
Gohan took his opportunity to pull his arm back and flip Ami over onto her back. "Here's one more rule for you to remember, never take you eye off your enemy no matter what. I could come back and bite you in the butt."  
  
Usagi looked down at Ami. She felt partly to blame for what just happened. "Sorry bout that Ami."  
  
Ami sat up and grabbed her back. "That's ok Usagi." She stood to her feet. "Fighting is more fun then it looks. But it's also hard."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Of course it is."  
  
"Gohan, keep training with the girls. I need to go and talk to Mamoru for a minute." He began to run to the other part of the field where a heavy fight between the more advanced fighters was going on.  
  
"Ok dad." He looked to Usagi and Ami. "Let's have some fun. How about you two against me?"  
  
"I'm game. What about you Ami?" She turned to her friend, who nodded to her. "Great. But Gohan, don't touch my tail please."  
  
"Fine." He had accidentally stepped on it once when she was sitting on the floor. He paid for it in more than just one way. First his ears were blasted out by her screaming, and the second he had to listen to an hour-long lecture from his mother about watching where he was walking.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku walked right in the middle of the fight. It was the girls against the guys. The teams were somewhat unevenly matched. But the girls seemed to be able to hold up very well. They too had wonderful skill. They just needed to work on their power like Usagi. He knew that they had a power inside them too. He didn't know why they had it or where it was from, but he could sense it. They were very strong for being so young and only being human. He knew that Mamoru also had a power inside him. "Mamoru." He waved for him to come out of the fight.  
  
Mamoru stopped cold. He was about to hit Rei with a power punch just as Goku had called for him. "What is it? I'm a little busy here."  
  
"Just come here for a second." He walked away from the fight. He knew that Mamoru would follow him. He stopped when he was halfway in-between the two fights and turned about to look at Mamoru. "You know that Usagi has a hidden power right?"  
  
"You got me out a fight just to talk about Odango? We were winning."  
  
"I don't care about that right now. Just answer my question. The sooner you do, the sooner you can go back to your fight." He looked over his shoulder. He didn't want anyone to hear their conversation. Especially his daughter. If she did, it would ruin his whole plan.  
  
"Yeah fine. I know she has a hidden power. You talk about it all the time in the future and how she needs to learn to bring it out."  
  
"So why don't I ever train her to do so?"  
  
"Well you do, but you don't." He could see that he was confusing the Saiyan. "It's kind of a long story. You see, Usagi is probably one of the most forgiving people in the world. I've done more to her then anyone. I've nearly killed her before and yet she insists that I'm her friend. I say the most rude and derogatory things to her, yet she still thinks of me as her friend. She will never hate me. She may not like me too much, but she will always try to protect me. There is only one way for her to show her true energy."  
  
"Do I know what that way is in the future?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then why don't I do it?"  
  
"Because it would devastate her if you did."  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. What did you think? Was it good or bad? Please tell me. Thanks! ^_^)  



	49. Part 11

Two days later…  
  
Goku opened the door that lead out of his room into the living room with caution. He poked his head out just enough to look around the room and make sure that there was no one there. He especially didn't want Usagi to be around. He wasn't sure if he wanted to train Usagi the way that Mamoru had told him. For one, it would take too long, and the second, it would in fact that it would make her a total wreck. Once he made sure that no one was in sight, he slowly left the room and tip toed his way across the living room to his son's room. He was lucky that Chi-Chi had left the house to pick up some groceries. If she knew that he was going to disturb Gohan from his studying, she would have gone ballistic. He knocked on the door to make sure that Gohan was in fact in the room.  
  
"Yes? Come in."  
  
Goku slowly and quietly and slowly began to open his son's door. He heard him sigh with relief as soon as he was fully inside the room and had the door shut behind him. "Did you think I was mom?"  
  
Gohan nodded. "Yeah. I thought she was coming in here to check and see how much work I've gotten done. I haven't gotten much done because I've been thinking."  
  
"About what? The androids?" Goku walked over to the desk in which Gohan sat at and leaned against the wall. That was something that he had been giving a lot of thought lately too.  
  
"Yes. But not only that. This whole thing with Usagi and the others here seem kind of weird. Why do you think that the guardian of time wants her to stay here with us? What's so important about this time?" Gohan didn't mind the fact that his sister was there with him. He rather liked having her around. He was just worried about her. She expressed a real want to go home yet she was not able to.   
  
"Yeah, I know. But it's not of any control. What is, is our training. That's what I wanted to talk to you about. You've been training with Ami for the past three days and I wanted to know how much progress she's making."  
  
"Actually, she's great. She already fights great with the basic hand to hand combat skills. She's even progressing well with the more advanced ones. Just today I taught her how to make small Ki blasts and attempted to teach her how to fly. She was too worn out by the time we did that. She learns fast and understands the art of fighting better then any beginner I've ever met."  
  
"I've noticed that all of them learn fast. It's strange actually. I don't understand how humans can be so strong with such a small amount of training. Look at Minako and Makoto. They have been fighting since they were five years old. That's what? Three years? Maybe four years tops depending on when they started. They can hold their own up against Mamoru and Piccolo quite well. Rei is also very good. She said that she started just after she turned seven. She's great too. She's really good with that mind stuff."  
  
"Do you think we notice this in the future?"  
  
"I don't know. We probably do. We have to. It's so obvious. These girls are special. They all have a hidden power within them."  
  
"So how is your work with Usagi going?"  
  
Goku sighed. Sadly, they had not made any progress. He tried to find a way to bring her power out. He did not want to use Mamoru's way if at all possible. It was just too horrible and he understood fully why Usagi was never trained to use it. "Not good. She doesn't seem to get upset about anything at all. I don't know what to do. That's how I became a Super Saiyan. I got mad because Krillin was killed."  
  
"Yeah, and then you pretty much went off on me."  
  
"Hey, I did that for a reason. You weren't listening to me. I told you to do something and you should have done it. It was for your own good."  
  
"Yeah, yeah. I know it was." Gohan grinned as he looked up at his father. "So what's Mamoru's plan?"  
  
"Not good. The only way to get Usagi to raise her powerlevel is to make her REALLY upset. And the only way to do that is to have something happen to one of her friends or family. Though, I don't think I know how to do that without really hurting her. We talked about one way to do it."  
  
"And how is that?"  
  
"We can pretty much scratch the idea about an enemy doing something to us. Nothing will be showing up before the next two years. But there is one other way which I don't really want to use, but we may have to use it just to get it done and over with."  
  
"That's all ver nice father. Now would you please tell me this idea of yours."  
  
Goku wasn't really listening to his son. He was more rather thinking aloud then anything. "It will take a while to do too. Usagi will have to get over it first. Something this drastic will take her through phases. I'll need help from Gohan too."  
  
Gohan couldn't take it anymore. He needed to know. The anticipation was absolutely killing him. "Please just tell me! I'm dying here! I'm sitting right here dad!"  
  
Goku stopped thinking and talking at the same time and looked back down to his son. He chuckled as he put on a goofy smile. "Sorry Gohan. I've been thinking about this for the past couple of days and I'm doing it again. But like I said, you will need to help me with this one."  
  
Gohan nodded. "Anything for Usagi, dad."  
  
"Then we can work on turning you Super Saiyan." I know that didn't happen until after they entered the room of time and spirit but oh well.   
  
"Great, now, please tell me what your idea is." Gohan watched his father's face. He waited for any indication that he would say something.  
  
Just at that precise moment, the door to Gohan's room busted open and a chipper Usagi walked in with a bowl of ice cream. Minako stood behind her. "What's all the noise about? I wanna know what daddy has to say!" She looked to her father who stared at her with sympathetic eyes, as if something had just gone wrong. "What? What is it?" She put a spoonful of the cold icy ice cream in her mouth.  
  
Goku sighed as he began to frown. "What are you doing in here?" Goku's voice had a piercing sort of rudeness tone to it.  
  
Usagi gasped as she jumped back into Minako. She had never heard her father snap at her just for walking into a room. "I just wanted to see what was going on."  
  
Goku looked down to Gohan and smiled at him. He looked back up to Usagi and frowned again. "Who do you think you are? You can't just barge into a room like you own the place. Get out. Now!"  
  
Usagi didn't know what to do, or even say for that matter. He had never yelled at her for such a stupid and meaningless reason. "Daddy I just…"  
  
"Did I ask for any lip from you? No! I said to get out! Maybe you should learn how to knock!" 'The sooner the better.' He took a step forward. "Did I make myself clear or would you like to be personally thrown out?"  
  
Minako was pretty much speechless. Had Usagi not been there, she would have made a run for it the first time he said to leave. But she was with her and wouldn't leave until she did. Though she would try her luck at getting her friend to leave. She put her hand on Usagi's shoulders. "Come on. Let's get out of here."  
  
Usagi didn't budge. She just kept her eyes on her father as she approached her very slowly. She couldn't sense his feelings, which scared her. She didn't know if he was being serious or what. "What's wrong? I didn't do anything."  
  
Gohan stood up and turned to face his sister and her friend, who was currently cowering behind her at the moment. "Just get out Usagi. This isn't your room. You weren't invited into this conversation." He knew what his father was talking about just a minute ago.  
  
Usagi looked into her father's eyes. They were no longer sympathetic, but now they were savage, hateful eyes. She wasn't sure what was going on but she knew one thing. She didn't like it nor did she appreciate it. She had done nothing to deserve this. Or maybe she did and she just didn't know it. Her father got closer to her. Close enough to reach out to her. But before he did, she backed up out of the room and closed the door without even saying goodbye. Without saying a word to Minako, she threw her ice cream down to the floor, causing it to splatter all over the hard wooden floor and then ran to her own room and slammed to door behind her.   
  
Gohan looked up to his father. "Dad…"  
  
Goku sighed. "I know Gohan." He never wanted to see the look that he had just produced on his daughter's face ever again. It was the look or a scared and confused little girl. But he had to. It was the only way. Nothing upset her. He just hoped that it would work. He didn't want to upset her for no reason. He hoped that she would get past her phase of thinking that she was in the wrong. That was another thing that she needed to over come. She was too unsure of herself. This would help her. He just wished that it wasn't the only way. He felt horrible. But it would take time and he would need to do this until she learned. He wouldn't let it carry on for too long. If this didn't work he had another plan. A plan that took this one more step, which he hoped he wouldn't have to use.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi didn't really talk to anyone for the rest of the night. She tried to stay away from everyone. She didn't want them to see her cry. Especially her father and brother. She knew that she must have done something really wrong. It was kind of hard to escape from the people you live with though. Anywhere she would go, one of her friends would always find her. None of them spoke to Gohan or Goku. None of them wanted to. Not after what they had just pulled. But Usagi was confused. Part of her wanted to talk to them and find out what she had done, while another part of her wanted to just stay away from them and hide in a dark room where they wouldn't be able to see her tears.   
  
Right now, she on the sofa in the living room, in the dark. The only light was given off from little lights that lined the sides of the wall on the floor so that no one would run into them if they happened to need to travel in the house at night. It was hardly enough light to see anything. And currently, that was the way she liked it. She was alone at once.   
  
It was about ten minutes to midnight and Usagi was supposed to be asleep by now. But she couldn't. She tried to figure out what she could have done to get herself into so much trouble. But she couldn't think of anything. Nothing came to mind. She replayed the day. She hadn't gotten herself into any trouble at all. She replayed the last week in her mind. Well, what she could remember. But still, she had done nothing. She must have done something and not even realized it.   
  
She looked to her parent's room when she heard a noise. She was ready to bolt up from her position at any given time just in case someone was to come out of that room. There was no telling what either of her parents might have done if they saw her out there. She seemed to be in trouble already. She had snuck out of her room when she knew that her parents were asleep. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts and she couldn't exactly think with all her friends around. Though, she was kind of becoming lonely without them now.  
  
She quickly shot her head over to her own room when she heard it creek open. She knew it was safe if one of them walked out. They wouldn't tell on her. "Who's there?"  
  
"It's Makoto. Usagi, what are you doing out here?" She walked to the sofa. She couldn't really make out any detail but she could see an outline of her face.   
  
"Thinking. How did you know I was out here?"  
  
Makoto grinned. "You weren't there to roll over on me. I was so used to you rolling over on me that I even woke up when you didn't." She sat down by Usagi. "Look, Usagi, I know you're upset but you need sleep."  
  
"I just don't know what I did wrong. Daddy has never yelled at me like that before. Not for just walking into a room without knocking. Plus, he's never threatened me before. I'm scared Makoto. What if he hates me?"  
  
Makoto could sympathize for Usagi. There had been many times that her father had gone off on her for no reason. But Goku was different than her father. He was more understanding and compassionate. "Mom has her own word for this sort of thing. She calls it P.M.S."  
  
"Wait a minute. Dad said something about mom being on P.M.S. before. Then, mom also said that Bulma was on P.M.S before. Dad never told me what it was, but mom did. She said it was something that happens to women that makes them mean. Dad said that mom is always on it. I believe it too, but how can men be on it? Mom said it's a woman thing. "  
  
Makoto shrugged. "That's not what my mom calls it."  
  
"What does she call it?"  
  
"Pissy Man Syndrome.'"  
  
Usagi couldn't help but laugh. She had heard enough swear words from Vejita to fully understand what that meant. "That's a good one Makoto."  
  
Makoto laughed too. She was happy to hear laughter come from her friend. "I know. My mom comes up with the funniest things."  
  
Usagi covered her mouth with her hand as she tried to conceal her laughter. She didn't want to wake up her parents. "That's what I love about your mom."  
  
"Yeah I know." She stood up. "But we should be getting back to bed."  
  
Usagi stood up too. "You're right. Hey Makoto?"  
  
"Yeah?" She proceeded to move forward.   
  
"Thanks for making me feel better. You're a great pal."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei glared at Goku as she sat at the table and ate her breakfast. She never would have thought that she would ever see Usagi crying because of something he had done. His reaction was totally unjustified and outrageous. She didn't deserve it and she knew he knew it. She didn't know where his sudden outburst could have come from. She didn't sense any anger emanating from him. Nor did she feel any evil lurking about.   
  
Goku was in a twist of feelings that morning. He felt horrible for what he had done to his daughter. The only thing that kept him from apologizing was the fact that he knew it was the only way to be done and that she needed the power. But he still hated that fact. He wished that there were anther way to bring out her powers. He knew that her friends were glaring at him. He could feel their eyes on him. But he couldn't even tell him. They were a part of his plan and didn't even know it. They would help her come out of her shell. They would also help him when the time came for the real test of power. He made sure not to keep eye contact with any of them, but at the same time made sure not to look like he was disturbed by his actions from the previous night. He tried to act as calm and cool as possible. He looked up to the door just as Usagi walked in. She was a wreck. The skin below her eyes was dark and puffy, like she hadn't gotten any sleep the past night, which made him feel even worse. But there was no way around it. She would learn the truth one-day. He hoped sooner than later.   
  
Usagi sat down at the table between Ami and Minako. She made sure that she never looked to her father for she feared that if she had, she would be yelled at. She wasn't totally sure that she could trust him. She wondered if he would even train her anymore. "What are we doing today?" She kept her face low and avoided any eye contact.   
  
"We? We aren't doing anything." Goku stuffed a bowl full of food into his mouth.  
  
"What do you mean? Aren't we going to train? You know, to get my hidden power out?"  
  
"What's the use? You haven't gotten it out now, and you won't ever get it out. Let's face it. You're a lost cause. A disgrace to all fighters everywhere." He knew how much he was hurting his daughter by saying this. Her eyes told the story of her pain. He couldn't believe that he was doing it either. It hurt him just as much as it did her. She was sensitive and whenever criticism came from a family member or anyone close to her for that matter, she automatically guessed that she was in the wrong. She had no confidence in herself. This was also a good test of her sanity. But he still hated it and wished that she would just hurry up and get mad at him.  
  
"I'm sorry. I'll try harder. I promise."  
  
Goku stood up and looked to Gohan. "Let's go son. We have training to do." He looked to the girls. "Why don't you guys tag along? You seem to have potential. Unlike Usagi here. She can't fight worth anything. Even if her life depended on it." He hoped that Mamoru was right. He didn't want to be doing this for no reason.  
  
Rei glared harder. She couldn't believe his attitude. Never in her life had she seen him so rude, so out of line. "Go with yourself Goku. We wouldn't train with you if you were the last man alive. Not after what you've done to your daughter."  
  
Goku shrugged. He struggled to keep a cool face. He didn't want to let on how hard it was for him to act this way. "Suit yourselves. Come on Gohan. Let's get out of here and go train with some real fighters."  
  
"Right dad." He stood up and followed his father out of the room. Usagi couldn't stand this. Not only was he being rude to her, but now her friends were angry with him. She didn't know what to do if they turned against each other. She hoped that the guardian of time knew what she was doing by leaving her there.  
  
Makoto turned her nose up at him and waited until they were both totally out of the room before she broke the silence. "Look at him. What is he trying to prove by putting you down like this? He's so mean. He's turning into Mamoru." Usagi just sighed. She didn't know what she was going to do. She knew that she should have worked harder to get stronger.  
  
Rei turned to Usagi. "You aren't going to take that from him are you?"  
  
Usagi looked to Rei. There wasn't much that she could do. For one, he probably had good reasons for acting the way that he was. And second, even if she did want to strike back, he was too much for her to handle anyways. "I must have done something really bad. Why doesn't he tell me what I did? He's never done this to me before. He always tells me what I've done. He never yells at me."  
  
Rei frowned. She hated it when Usagi always took everyone else's crap. She could be such a wimp sometimes. "You can not honestly tell me that you're going to let him treat you like that are you? You didn't do anything. If you did, you know for sure that your mom would have already gone off on you. You need to do something about this."  
  
"Maybe he's just upset about something."  
  
"Have you ever seen your dad upset about something?"  
  
"Even if he has been upset about something, Usagi, he has never shown it. He's never taken his anger out on you before." Minako couldn't remember the last time she saw Usagi so upset. She had been lucky enough to not see her upset about not being able to go home. But even then, she was upset for a totally different reason. This time it was because of something close to her heart. She herself was even a bit angry about his current attitude. Though there was nothing that she could really do about it.  
  
"I guess you're right. Maybe he's just mad at me because I can't fight?" She held her tail in her hands and squeezed it as hard as she could without making it hurt.  
  
"Now Usagi that's a lie and you know it. That was just a stupid reason to yell at you. He's just got something wrong in his head." Makoto could tell that none of their words were really making past Usagi's ears. The information wasn't being processed. "Usagi, don't stress over it."  
  
Usagi looked over to Makoto with tears in her eyes. She had started to think about her real father, which scared her even more. If the one from this time was this rude to her when she had not even done anything, then what would her own father do when she were to return home? Would he be even worse? She was beginning to think that she knew nothing about him after all. "I have to stress over it Makoto. He doesn't lie when it comes to stuff like this."  
  
"You're being ridiculous Usagi. But if you really believe that you suck, which you don't, you need to train with us. We can show him just how supposedly 'weak' you are. All right?" She jumped up from her chair. This would be fun. They would all beat him in a fight. They would show him. "Come on. What do you guys say? Are you in?"  
  
Minako jumped up, pulling Ami up with her. "We're definitely in. What about you Rei."  
  
She grinned. "I'm all for showing him what we're made of. So all that's left is you Usagi."  
  
Usagi sighed. She didn't want to make him even angrier with her. She didn't want to fight him and then fail at it. He would never let her live it down. He would probably make fun of her for the remainder of the time that she was there. But, she would do it just to make her friends happy. "All right. I guess I can do it."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Future~~  
  
Goku walked into an electronics store with a paper that had a list of items that he was to buy for Bulma. He had been to about fifteen different stores in two hours. He had ten items to buy, and had so far, only found four of them. He had been everywhere in his own city had had to venture over to Tokyo. Bulma had ordered the main chip of the time machine from a company in America, which he would be picking up after this stop. If they were to wait until the company could deliver it, it would be about a two-month wait. They didn't have time for that. They had until the end of the next day to get the thing built and then be able to travel back to get her. Bulma was certain that if she had all the parts, she would be able to make it in about twenty hours. He was determined to get the parts needed.   
  
He walked up to the main counter and slapped the paper down in front of a boy, who looked no older than about seventeen, that stood behind it examining a motor of some sort. "Do you have any of these parts, sir?"  
  
The boy put the device down and picked up the paper. He read the parts that Bulma was looking for. "Hey, some old chick came in here a couple months ago asking for the same parts."  
  
"Yes. That was my friend. She needs more of the parts. Do you have any in? It's urgent. So if you could hurry up and find out."  
  
He put the list down. "All right, all right. Don't have to get all upset over nothin, man." He pulled a blue folder out and began to flip through the white pages that were stacked in it. "You're in luck man. We got three things on this list in stock right now. Do you wanna get em'?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Of course I want to get them." 'I'll do anything to get Usagi back.'  
  
'Anything?'  
  
Goku looked up. 'Who said that?'   
  
'I'll remember that in case anything DOES go wrong.'  
  
'Hey, who are you? What are you talking about? Answer me!' He looked around. It was strange. It was as if he were talking to someone through his thoughts. No one else seemed to hear it. He turned his head back to the boy behind the desk, who had the parts out in front of him, ringing them up. "Thanks."  
  
"Do you want this stuff in a capsule? It's pretty fragile stuff you know. It would probably be safer that way." Once Goku nodded, the boy put the stuff into a medium sized Capsule and labeled it.   
  
Goku paid the boy and took the capsule and gently placed it into the pocket of his jacket where he had put the other items that he had bought. He wanted to make sure that they weren't destroyed. Bulma had only given him enough money to buy what he absolutely needed. He grabbed the list from the boy and left the store. "Ok, now to that company in America and I have one more part I need to buy."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Past~~  
  
Ten days had passed…  
  
Usagi's heart wasn't really into her training for the past ten days. She was worried about her relationship with her father. It was deteriorating before her eyes and there was nothing that she could do about it. Almost everything that came out of his mouth was derogatory towards her. Either that or it was a threat. He never really said anything nice to her. She didn't know what to do. Even her mother hadn't known what was going on with him. Gohan was acting the same way. Piccolo wouldn't have anything to do with her either. Mamoru pretty much stayed the same. He pushed her around, but not anymore than normal.   
  
She was so caught up in her thinking that she didn't see a blue Ki blast spiraling right towards her and was thrown off her feet. She sat up and grabbed her lower back. "That was a good hit Ami." She grinned. She wasn't so out of it to where she wouldn't at least try to enjoy a good fight. "But not good enough." She quickly bounced back to her feet and fired her own Ki blast against Ami.  
  
Ami jumped to the side just in time. She was beginning to learn Usagi's fighting pattern in just ten short days. She had used her mental concentration to her advantage and learned the way everyone fought. She had also learned to move whenever someone showed the slightest movement. "Too slow Usagi."  
  
Usagi raced to her partner, Rei. They were on a team together fighting against Minako, Ami, and Makoto. They switched teams each spar to make it fair so not one team had three people all the time. The unequal teams made it more challenging for them too. "Rei, come on, let's do our thing that we were working on the other night."   
  
Rei grinned. "Ok." She pulled her hands in front of her to her side. Her partner doing the same. Both sets of hands nearly met. She began to concentrate a red Ki blast in her hands.  
  
Usagi could feel the warmth of Rei's energy close to her own hands. She too began to build up energy. "You guys gotta see this."   
  
The other team willingly watched as their friends build up their attack. The two attacks seemed to be merging into one another, creating a larger and more powerful Ki attack. The two colors mixed to make a red and gold-spiraled attack. Ami was truly amazed. It must have taken forever for them to make that attack. "The two powers merge to one to make an even greater power. This has got to count for something with Goku."  
  
"Let's do this Usagi."  
  
Usagi nodded. They both shared the great ball of energy. It was enormous in power. More so than either one of them could produce solo. "Guys, this is going to be big." She pulled her hands away, synchronized with Rei's. They watched it make it's way to their friends raised their powerlevels to block. "This will show how much power is in this attack." She couldn't wait to find out. They had found a way to merge their power. They weren't sure how they had come up with it. It was just a crazy idea that Usagi thought up and they tried it. At first, it didn't work. They chemistry of the attacks were just too different. But then they cleared their minds and concentrated on one force, thus creating their combined attack. This was the first time that they were trying it out on another person. She was sure that they would be able to block it. If I worked though, she wanted to try it all together. Then they would have a mega attack.   
  
But all of a sudden, as they were watching, the energy was thrown to the side, causing the energy to disperse into nothingness. Usagi looked up into the air, where she saw her father smirking. "Why'd you do that? We wanted to see how powerful that was."  
  
Goku landed with Gohan. "Hey, it wasn't very powerful if I was able to shoot it down, then it was too weak to do any damage. You two need to re-think your strategies, and fast."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because I want to see how much you've learned. I want to see if you're worthy enough to be called my daughter. So far, you are not. So, let's fight, right here, right now. You against me." He hoped that he wouldn't have to carry out with this any longer than this day. Usagi gasped as she stepped back. Her heart felt like it was being ripped in half and then stomped all over by one of the people she loved most.   
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. I can't write anymore. I didn't purposely put a cliffhanger in this time. I'm sorry, but I have to go do my stupid homework. Grrr. Anyways, like I said, I'm sorry that I have been doing the every other day posting. Believe me, I would SO rather be writing then doing research but I only have four weeks left of school and then I don't have to worry about it. I should go now though. Please tell me what you think. Thanks.)  



	50. Part 12

Usagi was more scared then ever. She had fought many fights before, all with people she didn't care for. She had fought Haruka and Michiru. Then Mamoru. And Kiro. They had all been formidable enemies, until she surpassed them. But this time, she would be fighting her father, which was something she didn't want to do. He was so much stronger then she was. But somehow, she had known that his recent bitterness had been leading up to this. It was only a matter of time before he would strike. This is why she feared him. She never would have thought that her own father would treat her this way. She knew that Gohan and Goten had never been trained this way. "Daddy, why are you being so mean to me?" She didn't want to fight him, but she would if she had to.  
  
Goku's heart melted inside his chest when he heard her say that. He hated this. Probably more so then she did. He knew that it was all just a show. It was just a way for her to reach her full potential. "Just shut up and prepare yourself." He planted his feet into the dirt as he stiffened his body to begin a power up.  
  
'Dad, what are you doing? We never discussed this. Usagi can't fight you with that much power.' Gohan was the first to realize his father's rapid power boost. He knew exactly what he was up to. He looked over to Rei. She didn't look too happy. She had to be watched carefully for she was easily agitated. She hated it when people messed with anyone close to her. Much like Usagi, only she acted on her anger, while Usagi just coward.   
  
Rei glared back at Gohan with eyes filled with fury. She couldn't believe what was about to take place. Goku had always struck her as a caring person. But it was all clear now. He was nothing of the sort. At least, not this Goku. But she would be sure to stay clear of him and make sure he didn't do anything. If this fight escalated too much, she would intervene. "What are you looking at Gohan? Why don't you watch your dad beat up your little sister."  
  
Goku smirked as she stopped powering up. He stopped right before he made the transfer into Super Saiyan. He let his body relax as he moved his eyes to look over his shoulder. "Do you really not have that much faith in her Rei? Maybe I should stop now. I wouldn't want to waste any of my valuable time."  
  
She moved her head back to Goku. "Yeah right! Usagi is going to wipe that smirk off your face and then some. You better watch yourself."  
  
Goku smiled. He knew she was right. As long as his planned worked, she would become even a bit stronger then his Super Saiyan level. "Right. We'll see." He looked back to Usagi, who was currently at low power. "If you think you can beat me with that power, you're sadly mistaken. Hurry up. I'll give you five minutes. If you haven't done anything by then, then I will just have to see how poorly you fight without you being ready."  
  
Usagi blinked. This was not like her father at all. He would never fight someone unless he knew that they were at their full potential. Something was up with him. Something had been up for the past ten days. Something that she didn't quite understand. She must have done something. But what could it have been? Her mother didn't scold her for anything at all. It was only her father and brother who had treated her like dirt.   
  
She didn't know what to do. There was no way that her father would let her out of this confrontation. He was determined to fight her. On normal basis she would have been happy to. But this time it was for real. Her body began to tremble as the fear built up in her. "O…o…k." She didn't really get into a fighting stance. She was afraid that if she did, she would be attacked. Normally, he wouldn't attack until she was ready, but these weren't exactly normal circumstances. This was for real. She knew that if she could somehow call upon her power that she would be accepted again. But that was kind of a stupid reason to be accepted. She would have expected better from her father. She didn't want him to like her because she was powerful, but because of who she was. That obviously wouldn't happen. She just didn't understand why her real father had put up with her for so long. She had given him so much trouble. It made her sick to think that she was getting to know who he really was. What he really thought about her.   
  
Makoto stepped forward to talk to Goku, but was pulled back by Ami. She looked back at her. Ami just shook her head. "We mustn't ruin things for her."  
  
"But he's turned into a monster."  
  
That's exactly what Goku felt like too. A monster. He felt like Frieza. "Hurry it up."  
  
Usagi was surrounded by her golden aura as she powered up as far as she could. It wasn't sufficient to beat her father's. Somehow she was going to have to call out her hidden power. But that was one thing she didn't know how to do. She had done it twice before, but she had not been able to control it. "Finished."   
  
Goku snorted. "Is that the best you can do? I know I've probably taught you better." Of course he didn't mean that.  
  
"I'm sorry. I don't have anymore power."  
  
"Well fine then. We'll just have to fight as you are." Without further conversation, Goku jumped into the air and fired multiple Ki blasts at his daughter over and over taking time out every now and then to fire at his son and the girls. He wanted them far enough away from the fight so he would have plenty of room to work. Plus, he didn't want them to get hurt. He was careful not to shoot at any of them.  
  
Usagi wasn't nearly fast enough to dodge even half of the energy balls and took a large beating from them. She tried jumping to the side, but was met by yet another one, which forced her off her feet. She quickly bounced back to her feet and ignored the pain in her leg. There was no time to worry about that. 'What is he trying to do? Kill me?' Usagi gasped. She didn't even want to think of that.  
  
Goku stopped his attack. The area was filled with a thick blanket of smoke. But the smoke caused no confusion in the fighter. He could fully sense her exact placement inside. He wondered how badly she was hurt. He knew she was. There was no way that she could dodge all of those. 'Hurry up Usagi.'  
  
Usagi stayed in the smoke. She knew he could feel her but she didn't want him to see her body in which he had pretty much just torn up. He would probably laugh at her for being so weak. 'He's turned into Vejita. Why?' She didn't have time to worry about her thoughts. She was more concerned with finishing the fight. Though, she didn't know if she would come out of it alive or not. She pretty much had mixed feelings about this situation. On the one hand, she was angry. Angry with herself for not pushing herself hard enough to get her power to shine and angry with her father for treating her this way. On the other hand, she was frightened. Frightened of what her father might do to her.   
  
She jumped into the air as she felt a giant ball of energy advancing at her. She got out of the way just in time to look down and see the giant crater that had been created by the ball. "Whoa…" She emerged from the cloud of smoke, which was now diffusing back into the air and ground, where her father was waiting for her with another attack.   
  
As fast as he could, Goku raced for her with his fist, which had a blue aura of it's own around it. It crashed into his daughter's cheek, forcing her to loose her balance and fall back down to the ground. She landed with thud, causing loose dirt to fly out from underneath her. 'Ouch. Sorry Usagi.'  
  
Usagi grabbed her lower back. He was seriously for real here. She had half thought that he wasn't serious, but he was. There was no way for her to fight him fairly. He was way too much more powerful then she was. There was nothing she could do. It was impossible for her to make a hit on him at this point. He was much stronger and faster. 'Why, why, why, why?' She looked up as she could feel him approaching her at an unthinkably rapid speed. 'How am I supposed to fight that?' She got onto her knees and tried to crawl away.  
  
Goku cringed when he thought about what he was about to do next. He knew it was risky, but he knew it would help her along her way. He just hoped that something would happen and the girls would step in soon. This was to help them too. He wanted to test out their limits also. It was a horrible and cruel way to do it, but when you have no other grounds to do it on, this is the only way. He couldn't just force them to become powerful. He reached out and grabbed her tail, making her freeze in her spot.  
  
She had felt his hand coming nearer even before he had grabbed her. But there was nothing she could have done to prevent it. Before she even realized what he was going for, she felt his hand tightly grasp her sensitive tail. "OWOWAAA! Let go!" She could once again feel her energy leaving her muscles, leaving her even too weak to hold herself up with her arms and knees. She collapsed hard and loud onto the ground as Goku stood up.   
  
Goku couldn't stand to look at her. She was in pain and he was the one causing it. Not only was he putting her through mental pain, but now he was also causing physical pain. He hoped that she would forgive him once she found out about his reasons. "Quit being a baby about this." He felt the drastic change in her powerlevel. It was much lower now then it was when they had first started not fifteen minutes before. He had lost no power for she had not made a single hit on him.   
  
He looked back to Rei and the others. Their rage could be felt within them. It would not be long until they unleashed it on him. 'Perfect'  
  
Usagi closed her eyes. The pain was too great to handle anymore. She had to do something, but what? She was powerless against him like this. Her tail was a great weakness of hers. This was not at all like her father. He never played dirty like this. Except the times when they teased each other, but that was another story. "Please daddy. Please…" She begged with all her remaining energy.  
  
Goku couldn't do this. He couldn't hurt his little girl like this anymore. But he started this and he couldn't very well stop now. It had to be finished. He tugged on her tail a bit and then picked her up by it. Ouch, kind of like in DBGT "You're pitiful." He began to swing her around.  
  
That was about all Makoto could stand to take anymore. She could no longer just sit around and watch Usagi get total obliterated by her father. There was just no way that she would even think about letting that happen. She clenched her hands into fists. "That's it. No more will Usagi suffer."  
  
Minako watched her friend fly off to the battle. Part of her told her to go and help, but the other part of her told her to stay out of the way. The helping part called out to her louder though. "That's right. What kind of friends would we be if we just sat around and watched her go through this?" She too jumped to the air and flew to the battle, leaving Rei and Ami.  
  
Rei was all for going to help, she just wasn't sure Ami was. She had only been fighting for a few days, yet, her vast knowledge had helped her improve at a expeditious pace. "Ami, there really is no choice for me. Minako is right. Usagi is one of my closest friends. She has been there for me in the past when I've been upset about things. I want to be there for her now."  
  
Ami nodded. "I know what you mean. All of you are great friends to me. I will be there through thick and thin, no matter what it takes. This is totally uncalled for." She turned to Gohan. "To think I thought you were better than this. I guess I was wrong." She and Rei jumped into the air and followed Minako and Makoto, who were already more than halfway to the fight.  
  
After Goku had finally release Usagi to go flying through the air, he quickly caught up to her by using his teleportation technique and punched her down to the ground. 'Shit! Usagi, you won't be able to make your transformation with such a low power. Why don't you get angry with me? Do I have to raise the stakes?'  
  
Usagi was still totally out of power. There was no way for her to jump back into the fight. Not that she was ever in it. He pretty much took charge straight from the beginning. "What did I do to deserve this?" She slowly and carefully lifted her head to look at her father. He didn't seem to be approaching her at all. Instead of his energy moving, she felt the energy of all her friends coming straight into her direction. They suddenly stopped. She squinted to see four figures standing in front of her father. "Guys!"  
  
Ami got a good look at Usagi. Her poor little body was full of gashes and small wounds. Her energy level had been substantially decreased. "It's all right Usagi. We're here to protect you now. You relax." She kind of found this a bit invigorating. She didn't think she would, but she would get to fight a real fight. It was a horrible thing to think, yes, but it was the truth. Fighting really caught her interest. The whole strategy thing that went along with it.   
  
Usagi shook her head. "No you guys! He's too strong. He'll hurt you too much. Just leave." She didn't know what she would do if her friends ended up getting hurt as badly as she had. It was bad enough that she had been beaten by her father, one of the two people in which she loved most. It was even worse that her best friends wanted to fight him.  
  
Rei frowned. She would NOT let Usagi have to go through this without a fight. Even if she wouldn't be the one doing the fighting, they would pay him back. "Usagi, quit trying to steal the spotlight. We can get him if we work together. Right girls? Just like Usagi and I had figured out, the more we work together, the more power we have."  
  
Minako smiled. "Right. So let's do our special girls' attack that only we can do." She laughed inside.  
  
Makoto knew exactly what her friend was talking about. A group of girls was always triumphant when it came to their special attack on men. "Ready girls." They had used this on their own Goku many times.   
  
Ami bent her knees a bit. She had never personally done this, but she had seen it done many times before. It was a pretty basic attack. "I'm all for it." She had never felt like this before. A rush of excitement raced through her veins. It was a great feeling.   
  
Goku wasn't sure what they were talking about, but by the sound of it, he didn't think that he would like it. He had learned over the past year especially, that girls were full of surprises. And when they began to sound like they were planning something, that you had better high tail out of there before you get caught by them. But he didn't let on that he was feeling this way. "Show me all you've got."  
  
Rei smirked. "See, he even says we can too. Let's go! Charge!" She was the first to feed herself a boost of energy and burst out towards Goku. Her friends soon followed her. "GO!"   
  
Simultaneously, the girls began to fire an array of Ki blasts towards Goku, who reflected them away with one single forearm. Each girl had her own color of energy, which, in itself, amazed Goku. He had never seen that before. Ami's was the only 'normal' color that he had seen. But Rei had red. Makoto had green, and Minako had orange.   
  
They didn't get discouraged when he block their attacks. They had expected that. But they didn't stop flying for him either. Goku just stayed in one place. He was curious to see what all the fuss over this so-called attack was. He yawned as he waited for them. "Come on girls. Let's take things just a bit slower shall we?"  
  
Makoto frowned. Just because she wasn't as fast as he was he didn't have to call her slow. She was beginning to have second thoughts about Goku. "That's it! Now you've gone and made me made." She clasped her body around his left leg while Minako did the same around his right one.   
  
Rei quickly found her way around his shoulders as Ami wrapped herself around his torso, pinning his arms to his side. Rei put her hands over his eyes. She knew the drill. She knew that they could attack him now. She just wished that he didn't have the ability to sense their energy attacks. But physical attacks did just fine in cases like these. "You're going down, GOKU!"  
  
Usagi stared up in disbelief. They had actually pulled that much off. Although, she still worried. She didn't want her friends and father to fight. It wasn't right. Oddly enough, she found herself being replenished with an excess amount of energy. "Please. Stop this now. All of you, Minako, Makoto, Ami, Rei, daddy. Stop."  
  
Goku kicked his legs back and fourth to try and free them from the grasps of Minako and Makoto, but they held on for their dear lives. "Is this all you've got?"  
  
Rei smirked. "Move onto the next step." She dug her nails into his throat and dug the heals of her metal boots into his sides as the other girls' nails and heals also found their way into other spots in his skin. Goku struggled to break free from them, but it wasn't happening. They were somehow overpowering him. There were way too many for him. Rei could tell that it was working. She hadn't been thrown off yet. It was now time to apply the real pressure. Normally Usagi would have made all the calls, but since she was gone, she felt it was her duty to move on. She knew this next part was cruel, but he was cruel in what he had done to Usagi. "Proceed to the next step."  
  
Goku was a little afraid to see what was going to happen next but he watched anyways. Though he didn't want to look, he didn't hesitate. It wasn't a good idea to not know what your enemy was up to. Although, these girls were not his enemies. He looked to Minako and then to Makoto. Both girls had their mouths wide open and their teeth ready to clamp down on his skin. "You guys are not going to do anything like that. I may have allowed you to get this far. But it ends here." He got into another power up stance and began to do just that. Power up.  
  
Usagi's eyes widened with realization as to what her father was going to do. "No! Don't do that. They can't defend against that!" She promised herself that she would not cry in front of him when he was like this. From the first day that he was mean to her, she had not let him see her cry. But at that moment, when she figured out what he was going to do, she couldn't hold back anymore. He had crossed the line. He was messing with her whole life. If he didn't like her, fine. But he didn't have to take it out on her friends. For the first time in ten days she felt full anger towards her father. Yes, she still felt fear, but the anger began to overpower that fear as it pushed it aside into a corner.  
  
Goku smiled. 'Perfect.' He could feel her power begin to rise with her anger. All he needed to do was put someone that she loved in danger. It made it even easier now that someone in which she loved was doing it. He powered up to Super Saiyan in a flash. It had become just another normal part of fighting with him.   
  
As he was engulfed with a golden aura, much like Usagi's, he allowed his energy to shoot out in all directions, throwing the girls off of him before they had a chance to attack full force. "Now let's see you guys beat me."  
  
Ami shook her head. Maybe all of her mother's ranting about Goku was right. Maybe he didn't have a right to raise children. If he treated Usagi this way because she wasn't powerful enough for him. She looked back at Gohan. He wasn't too powerful either, yet he didn't treat him this way. Though, Usagi had a greater hidden power than Gohan. But that didn't matter. Usagi was still his daughter. But there was still the fact in the attitude difference. The future Goku acted much more mature and MUCH more like a father. He could truly love Usagi for her instead of her power. "Goku, don't do this, please."  
  
Rei put her hand on Ami's shoulder. She hadn't completely give up yet. They would win this together. "Don't waste your time Ami. This isn't the same Goku we know."  
  
The four of them scowled at Goku as he glowed gold. They hated this and wished that they had never traveled to the past. He still had many things to learn. Minako probably most of all couldn't believe what she was witnessing. She had known him the longest out of all of them. "Goku, what's wrong with you? Usagi doesn't fight for power. She fights because it's fun for her and it helps her feel better about herself."   
  
Goku snorted. "Right. Sure. Yeah. Uh-huh. Anyways…You guys are annoying me. I didn't tell you to interrupt us. I don't even remember saying that you were allowed to." His aura flamed out.   
  
Rei moved close to Ami. They were behind him, unnoticed. "Hey, you're smart. Do you think you could do a combined attack? All you have to do is concentrate your energy added into mine."  
  
Ami nodded. "I'm willing to give it a try."  
  
Rei grabbed Ami's hand. "We have to do this one handed while he's talking to Minako and Makoto." She began to concentrate her power to Ami's hand. Both of which began to glow red. She was changing the attack a bit. It was something else that she and Usagi had come up with. She was sure that Ami would pick it up right away. She hoped that she would anyways.  
  
Ami did the same as Rei. The mixture of their two Ki's had turned their hands a swirl of blue and red. She put all of her power into it. "On three, one…"  
  
"Two…"  
  
"Three!" They both threw their hands out in front of them while releasing the power at Goku, their target. A beam of their combined energy raced to Goku.  
  
Goku, who had already felt it, timed things just right to where he dashed out of the way just as the beam would have rammed into his back, causing it to, instead, run into Minako and Makoto, who had not known what was happening. He watched as they fell and landed next to Usagi. "You guys should know better by now. I'm a lot faster now because of my extra strength."  
  
Usagi ran to Minako and Makoto. "Guys! I told you to stay away." She knelt down between them. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she looked up to her father, who was glaring down at her. She could feel a massive amount of power rushing through her body as she stood up. No one messed with her and her friends like that. She didn't care who it was. No one did that and got away with it. "How could you!? You aren't my father! My father doesn't act this way!"   
  
Rei diverted her attention from her fallen friends to Usagi. Her aura had come back. She had been fully charged with new energy. Just like the day of the fight with Kiro. She had been so worn out from the fighting at the tournament, but once she figured out what was happening to the Saiyans, she blew up and got her energy. That must have been what was happening now. She looked to Goku. "You evil man. I can't believe you're Usagi's dad. She's the sweetest person in the world."  
  
Goku stuck out his hand and blasted Rei down without even turning his head to look at her. He didn't really put his full energy into it though. He didn't want to hurt her. He looked to Ami, who in reply, just backed away from him. "Usagi, you've held out long enough."  
  
Usagi looked to Rei, who had fallen just a few yards away from her current spot. "Rei! Are you ok?"  
  
Rei coughed as she stuck up a thumb. "Just fine. Maybe a few minor cuts and bruises, but nothing too serious. But I really think he's serious."  
  
Usagi looked back up to her father with a scowl planted on her face. He was hitting her where it hurt most. Her friends were all hurt except Ami, and he had pretty much disowned her. That's the way she saw it anyways. Her aura was a perfect picture of her rage too. It ran all around her body. It increased its speed every time she became angrier.  
  
Goku smiled. It was time. She was ready to go. 'Now for a little help from your old man and we have a powerful little kid on our hands.' "Now to fix you!" Without wasting anytime, he built up his most powerful energy attack. "KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!" He released his great power at his daughter. He knew that she would be able to block it. He knew that when a half-human Saiyan was faced with danger or in great agony, their powers kick in. That's how he found out about Gohan's powers.   
  
The sight of the blast coming for her hadn't scared Usagi. It was the fact that she had taken the time to feel the power of the force that was behind it. "You've changed. You hate me. YOU'RE NOT MY DADDY ANYMORE!" She grabbed her head with pain as she began to feel a great sensation in her entire body. It was something that she had never experienced before. More pain then she had ever felt before.  
  
Goku watched in anticipation. The Kamehameha blast was too big to even see his daughter anymore. He was a little shaken up by her last words. He had done his duty and felt horrible. But he would think about that after he made sure she was safe. He would have a lot of apologizing to do after this. He hoped that she would forgive him. "Come on Usagi! Over come your fears! Make the transition!"  
  
Most of Usagi's anger had been flushed out of her body. It had all turned to fear. Her father was trying to kill her now. "NO! NO! WHY?! WHHHHHHYYYY!!!???" Usagi could no longer control herself or her emotions. The pain was building up and she didn't know why. Her emotions mixed together. It was too much to take in at once. The blast, her father, her friend, the future, her pain. Everything. It was just too overwhelming for someone her age. "I WANT TO GO HOME!"   
  
With that, her anger exploded all the way. She lost all control over her body. It was no longer hers to control at that point. Ami and Gohan and to shield their eyes and couldn't even see what was going on. The only thing that they knew was that Usagi was getting a massive build up. It was so enormous that it was almost frightening.   
  
Goku couldn't take it anymore. The blast would nearly hit her now and she would be gone. If she didn't do something quickly, he would have to take over and his hopes of getting her power out would be gone for good. Then something amazing happened. His Kamehameha was all of a sudden shot back to him. He quickly felt his daughter's ki, which was now larger then his own. "She did it?" He dove out of the way so he would not be hit by the attack. As soon as he was clear, he looked down to his daughter and smiled. "She did do it. I'm so proud of her."  
  
Usagi stood, glaring up at her father like she had never done before. Her hair flapped around her as he power radiated around her. Her tail furiously waved behind her legs. She got a glimpse of her hair and nearly screamed. She quickly took her attention off of her father and grabbed one of the locks of hair that hung down from he Odango. "Silver hair? What's going on?" She looked to her tail. "A...a…a…a…a Silver tail? What's happening to me? Owwwww…" She grabbed her head once again as the power began to make it's way all around her body. She stumbled backwards and fell. "Make it stop."  
  
Goku powered down and landed next to his son, who was curiously looking to him. "What happened to her dad?"  
  
Goku looked to his daughter. He worried about her now. She shouldn't have reacted that way to the power. Something was wrong. She was now fully lying on the ground, moaning from pain. "Well, I think she just went Super Saiyan. But I don't think that the power is reacting very well with her."  
  
Rei slowly and roughly stood to her feet. She could feel Usagi's agony. The power was too much for her to handle. She staggered over to her and put her hand on Usagi's shoulder. "Usagi…" She looked up to see Minako and Makoto also making their ways them.   
  
Usagi began to pull at her hair as she began to gasp for breath. She didn't know what was happening to her. Her power scared her. She could feel it, but she didn't want it. Fear and anger were its creators. "Make it stop already." She slammed her fist against the ground, creating a hole underneath it.  
  
Minako and Makoto arrived to Usagi right after Ami had. All four of her friends placed their hands on Usagi. They were in awe by her color change. Her tail was fully silver along with her hair. Her aura was also silver. But it wasn't just any plain old silver. It was so bright that it was nearly blinding. Her aura sparkled around her body. Minako leaned over to look at Usagi's face. "We're here for you."   
  
Rei hung her head low. She blamed herself partly for this. She went along with attacking Goku. She knew that with them getting involved, had only made things worse. "Usagi, we're very sorry." She started to softly glow red without even realizing it. It was more like a reaction to Usagi's pain. She felt so sorry for her that she, too, wanted to cry.  
  
Goku looked to his son. "Stay here." He walked forward.  
  
"But dad…"  
  
"Do as I say Gohan." 'What have I done? Her body is not acting well with the power. Is it too much? Maybe I should have trained her to become stronger first. But I could have sworn that she was ready.' He stopped a few feet in front of Usagi when he noticed movement from her. Her friends glared at him with scornful eyes. "Usagi, I'm sorry."  
  
Usagi opened her eyes as wide as she could. She didn't want him anywhere near her. She still feared him. She feared what he might still do to her. Or at least try. "St…stay…a…way from me."  
  
Goku put a foot back. He was hurt by her request. But that was to be expected after what he had just done to her. "Usagi don't do this. Don't act like this." He proceeded to come to her.  
  
With every step that he took closer, she became more and more afraid. She closed her eyes. "I said stay away from me!" She put her hand up and fired a silver blast at him.  
  
Goku was not prepared for her speed. It was so fast that he could barely even sense it coming for him. It found its way into the base of his stomach, knocking him to the ground. "Usagi. Come on. I'm your dad." He was almost pleading with her.   
  
Usagi continued to tell him to go away with her eyes. "Leave me alone. You aren't my daddy. I only have one daddy and he lives in the future! SO GO AWAY!" This time she put both of her hands in front of her. She wasn't doing this out of hate, she was just still too afraid of him and what he would do to her if he got his hands on her. But something happened before she could do anything more. She grabbed he chest and started wheezing.   
  
Ami grabbed Usagi before she could fall back to a lying position. "Usagi, come on … breathe harder and faster."  
  
The pain had decided to increase itself inside Usagi. The power was in fact too great for her. So much power was not healthy, in fact, it was so powerful, that it was beginning to wear on Usagi's life energy reserves.   
  
~~Time Gate~~  
  
"This is very unexpected. Usagi was not supposed to reach this level in this fashion. What's going on? This NEVER happened. Crap. She won't let Goku get near her either. He's the only one who can ever really calm her…wait a minute…"  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Future~~  
  
Only a matter of a few seconds had passed in this time. Goku had just turned to walk out the door. He put his hand on the door handle and opened it up to see a group of people walking by. 'Sure is busy out here today.' He checked his pocket to make sure that the Capsules were secure and ventured out of the shop only to find himself somewhere other then the city. He looked around. He was in the same dark and drab place that Usagi had found herself in. He turned around when he heard large metal doors slam shut behind him. "Where the hell am I?"  
  
"You are at the Time gate."  
  
Goku turned his head. "Hey, you're that woman who just spoke to me in the electronics store. Who are you?" He paused just long enough to let her previous words sink into his head. "Wait? Time gate?"  
  
"Yes. I am the guardian of time. I watch over time and make sure no one who is not supposed to, breaks the rules of time."  
  
"Then you know where my little girl is, RIGHT?" He was getting anxious. Maybe he could just get her and bring her home now. He wouldn't have to worry about collecting other parts. He squinted. "Where are you?"  
  
"I do, in fact, know where Usagi is. She is in the past, with you, training for the arrival of two separate types of evil. You already know what one of them is. I am all around you as of this point. I am not allowed to be seen by those unlike myself. I am sorry."  
  
Goku didn't mind that. He believed her story. He had to. She had, after all, brought him there. "Why am I here?"  
  
"That's a good question. I haven't got much time to waste explaining. All I can tell you is that Usagi is in danger in the past. Her life energy is being sucked away by her newly acquired power. It is too great for her body to handle. She won't let the Goku of the past get near her. You will find out everything else shortly after you arrive there."  
  
"What?! You mean I can go?!"  
  
She detected the severe happiness in the man's voice. "Yes, but for one day only. Your task is to, one, calm her down, and then teach her how to use he power. You have dealt with amazing amounts of power before, where your younger version has not. Please Goku, teach her how to master her power."  
  
Goku nodded. "Anything for my little Usagi."  
  
"Great!"  
  
Goku turned to look behind him as the doors opened up again. He took a step closer to peer inside. He gasped at what he saw. He saw his daughter lying on the ground with her friends around her. She was gasping for breathe and sweating like crazy. That was not a good sign. "Usagi! What happened to her? Her power is huge. Is she a Super Saiyan now? I thought she was already a Super Saiyan."  
  
"She was born with the power of a Super Saiyan. She was not directly a Super Saiyan. Now hurry and go. You don't have much time. Usagi's future depends on you. Please, calm her down. If she decreases her power, she may have a chance."  
  
"Right!" Without further thought he jumped through the door.  
  
(Ok, there goes another part for chapter 4. So what did you think? Nice cliffhanger huh? ^_~ What's going to happen?! My hands hurt now so I should get going. But first, what did you think?! Buh-bye for now!)  
  
  



	51. Part 13

Goku's feet were stiffly placed into the soft soil that had been recently disturbed by his daughter's fight with his younger self. He could tell that it had been a forceful fight for, just by him stepping in it without much weight, caused them to dig deep into the dirt. He kept his face forward and eyes on his daughter. He immediately took notice in the power differences in all of the girls. Including Ami. He wondered how long she had been training for. But for some reason, she was not the only change that had taken place. Even the other three had a substantially high powerlevels. Something big must have just gone down. It was obvious by the amount of land damage there was.  
  
He quickly shook his thoughts away and walked at a rather fast pace to meet up with his daughter. Her power had grown immensely. She was over a half step higher in power then his Super Saiyan level one. Her muscle mass hadn't grown much either. He didn't quite understand that. Though it still amazed him. His daughter was on the road to becoming stronger then him. There were no words to explain how proud of her he was at that moment. But that was to be thought of later. Now was the time to try to save her from her own power. It was eating away at her and would consume her if nothing were done. Still, he wondered how this could have happened. What possibly could have upset her THAT much?  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei bowed her head and closed her eyes. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't trust anyone anymore. She could only trust her friends and Mamoru. No one in this time seemed to understand them. Usagi was in grave danger and there was no way to stop it. No way that they knew of, at least. 'Why did this have to happen? Why didn't I say anything when they came to the temple to get me? I should have told them that it was too dangerous.'   
  
She opened her eyes and looked down to Usagi. Her power was fluctuating. One moment it would be rising, and then another moment it would dissipate. But when it did drop, it never dropped enough to really do any good. She glanced over to Goku to let him know that she didn't appreciate what he had done. She figured that he didn't even care. She turned her direction to look at Makoto, who was holding Usagi's hand.   
  
Makoto looked down at Usagi. She took numerous amounts of gasps and barely got any air in her lungs at all. Her power was feeding off of her life energy. If it kept up, Usagi would die. Then they would have to use the Dragon Balls to resurrect her. If they would let them, that is. She didn't know if this would be considered of natural causes or what. "Hang in there Usagi. Come on, calm down. We can get through this. Please. Your dad loves you in his own messed up way."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Gohan shot his head in the direction of a new powerlevel. It was very familiar, yet, at the same time, very foreign to him. 'Who is that?' He squinted to get a better look. He gasped when he could finally make out who it was. It was a man who looked an awfully lot like his father. He slowly approached HIS father and poked his back. "Dad, look. Who is that?"  
  
Goku looked down to his son and then what he was pointing at. "Huh? That looks like me. But how? And who? Gohan, I know you want to know what's going on, but stay here." He started to walk in the direction of the mysterious man who was nearing his daughter.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Minako let go of Usagi's head and stood up. She was the first to feel Goku's energy. "Look you guys." She pointed to the Goku she knew best. "It's OUR Goku. How did he get here?"  
  
Ami turned her head and could have cried. "It is. He really IS here."  
  
Rei and Makoto stood up to meet Goku when he arrived at their location. Rei watched as her friends backed away. She did not though. She wouldn't. She didn't know if he could be trusted. He was, after all, the same Goku in which had just attacked them. He was the one who had made Usagi transform. Even if it wasn't exactly HE who did it, it was still his younger version. They were totally alike, thinking wise. "Don't come any closer, Goku." She wasn't about to let him harm her. She knew that he was angry with her. She knew how he could easily bet her up without a thought. She had just witnessed it. He would have to prove himself in order to get near her.  
  
Goku stopped. He gave Rei a puzzled look. She had never spoken to him with that tone a voice before. She wasn't normally one to be disrespectful. "What are you talking about Rei. Please move."  
  
Rei held her ground. "What is your purpose of being here? If it's to hurt Usagi for leaving then…"  
  
"Whoa. Hold on there. I'm not here to hurt her. I could never do that. I'm here to help her, before it's too late. I was brought here by the guardian of time." He looked to his right at the younger version of himself, and his son. They both looking dazed and confused. He would have to explain to them after he helped his daughter. Then, he would demand some answers as to what had happened. What had made Usagi transform before she was ready?  
  
~*~*~  
  
Piccolo, Mamoru, and Krillin arrived on the scene together. They had been in the middle of a spar when they felt a sudden burst of Usagi's power. Mamoru had an idea of what it was for he was the one who had told Goku what to do. He was well aware of Goku's plan. Piccolo was sure he knew what it was, too. Krillin, on the other hand, was totally clueless. "What? Usagi's power is much bigger then Goku's power even. And who is that over there by the girls? Is that…another Goku?"  
  
Mamoru smiled. Usagi would finally get her wish to see her father. He felt sorry that she was in such pain from not seeing him. But, his sudden appearance did interest him. "That's the Goku from the future. That's Usagi's real father."  
  
"You can feel his power. It has a lot more of a potential then the Goku of this time." Piccolo wanted to know how Goku could have become so powerful. He was already a Super Saiyan. What could have possibly been beyond that?  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku waited for Rei to move out of the way. He sensed her severe anger. He wondered what could have been generating it. "Please Rei." 'Why isn't she letting me get near her?'  
  
Rei looked down at her suffering friend. She couldn't let her go on like that anymore. Goku appeared to be there to help her. She looked up to Goku. "Fine." She stepped to the side, by her friends, and looked on to Usagi. She would make sure to watch very carefully.  
  
Goku smiled as he looked down to his daughter's mangled body. What he saw frightened him. She couldn't breathe, her life energy was being used to keep her powerlevel high. Too high for such a small girl. She wasn't ready for this kind of power. Usagi was different then any other Saiyan that he had ever met. He had to be careful around her for if he did not, something like this would happen.  
  
He sat down on the ground and pulled her head up to his lap. "Usagi…" He pushed away some of her hair that strung over her face to reveal her fresh wounds. "I'm here now."  
  
Usagi barely opened her eyes just enough to see her father. She didn't notice any difference between her father of the future, and her father of the past, therefore, she still thought that this was the man who had just caused her pain. "Get away from me! Go away! Ohhh…" An acute pain gushed through her head.  
  
Goku didn't know what to think. She had never told him to get away before. She had always wanted him near when something was wrong. "What's wrong Usagi? Don't you know who I am? It's me, daddy."  
  
She opened her eyes more and finally noticed the change in cloths. "Huh? Daddy?"   
  
Goku nodded. "Yes. It's me. I've missed you sweetheart." Goku would go about calming her down the best way he knew. He would try to talk to her and not let on that he was, in fact, trying to calm her down. She may not have calmed down after that. He rubbed his hand around her un-wounded cheek.   
  
Usagi closed her eyes to the warm touch of her father's hand. It felt so familiar, yet, so far away. She knew what he was capable of now. She knew that if she didn't live up to his expectations that he would attack her again. "What are you doing here? How did you get here?" Her eyes bolted open. "Am I dead? Is this a dream?"  
  
Goku could feel her powerlevel rising. He had to keep her from getting even more excited. "No, this is all very real. I'm really here for you. Everything is going to be ok now." He hated to see her like this. This was nearly as bad the time he had found her lying in the middle of the parking lot. Only this was worse. Her life was on the line this time. Every second that he did not calm her down took just that much more of her life energy away from her. "Have you learned anything new while your time here? I'm curious to here about what you've done." She closed her eyes again. The pain was too much to handle. Every inch of her body ached.   
  
Rei, Minako, Makoto, and Ami held hands as they hoped for their friend's safety. They had never seen her like this before. They had never seen her in this much pain. But what really got them was her energy. It was amazing. Minako could have cried at that moment. She didn't want Usagi to be like this. It pained her to see her like this. It reminded her so much of the time they had first met Makoto. Seeing her on the ground with Goku, crying and all. It was horrible. 'Usagi, please, calm down. You can't leave us. You're the first friend I've really ever had.'  
  
Usagi took a deep breath. It was hard to even talk. "I don't know. I've missed you a lot. The guardian of time won't let us go home. I wanted to go home so badly daddy. I wanted to see you and mamma again. But I couldn't. I…I…I…" She grabbed her head. Her eyes swelled up with tears.   
  
Goku cringed. It was almost as if he could feel her pain within his own body. Seeing her in this kind of trauma did cause him his own pain, though. It was a pain that could only be cured by one thing. The well being of his daughter. And he just realized that he shouldn't talk about what she had done in the past. He should probably talk about happy times. "Hey, don't worry about it kiddo. Remember what I always tell you? Everything works out in the end. And, everything did. You got your wish. I'm here. So let's wipe those tears away."  
  
She smiled. He was right about that. "Will you promise to stay with me?"  
  
Goku hesitated to answer. He couldn't promise that. The guardian of time had only granted him the time to stay for one day. But there was one other alternative. "I'll promise to stay as long as I can."  
  
That was good enough for her. She wouldn't have to put up with the younger version of her father. She wouldn't have to listen to him telling her how weak she was. Though, she did prove that she was good enough to be his daughter. She could feel her muscles beginning to relax. "Daddy, if I wasn't able to become as strong as my potential…would you still love me?"  
  
Goku blinked with confusion. Now, what would bring a question like that up? "Of course. I will always love you. Don't forget that ok? I don't care how strong you are. The only thing I care about is that you try your best and have fun while you're doing it."  
  
He would never know how happy those words had made her. But, that was one thing that wasn't happening. Yes, she had tried her best, but she was experiencing everything from it but pleasure. But, she believed him that he didn't care how strong she was. Maybe she was nuts. For some reason, she could feel that he was sincere. "Daddy, my body hurts, and I feel really weak."  
  
Finally, he had gotten her to a position in which she was comfortable. He was making some progress. "I know Usagi. This power is too much for you. If you relax, the pain will go away."  
  
~*~*~  
  
'How does he do it? He seems to have a way with kids. Especially this one. It's amazing. He seems to connect more with her than Gohan. I know they love each other, but gees, they never show it like these two do. It's amazing. I don't think I've once heard Goku say that he loves Gohan like he just told that kid." Piccolo looked over to Mamoru. They never really exchanged those words at all. It was understood that they cared for one another with words.  
  
Krillin was pretty impressed too. Though he couldn't hear what either of the two Saiyans were saying, he pretty much got the gist of what was happening. "Look at him you guys. Goku is acting more…"  
  
"Mature?" Mamoru, much like the other children, had heard many stories form Bulma and his father about Goku's old adventures. He had also heard, many times, about how mature he was being.  
  
"Exactly. It doesn't fit him. He needs to be carefree. You know…"  
  
"I know, but I don't think he could be carefree with Odango. In the two and a half years in which I have known her, I've noticed that Goku is very protective of her. Hell, he once punched me because I nearly started a fight with her."  
  
"Wow. I guess he is. It's not like Goku to just go and hit someone because they make him mad."  
  
"Lemme give you a bit of advice. If you ever want to mess with Odango, you had better be prepared to deal with her father. Even if he knows that she can take the beating or whatever, he will step in. Like that fight with me, she could have easily taken the beating that I could have given her. Though, before I nearly killed her. But still, she could have handled it. Oh and the joy it will be to watch what happens when he finds out who did this to his little Odango."  
  
Krillin looked to Mamoru. He hadn't known who did this. He felt Goku power up to his fullest extent and then boom, Usagi had surpassed him. "Who did this?"  
  
"Your very own Goku did this. He wanted to bring out her power."  
  
Krillin couldn't believe that. He wouldn't believe that. He would never stoop so low as to doing something like that. "And how do you know this?"  
  
Mamoru grinned. He was quite proud of his idea. "He came to me one day and asked me how to get her power out. You know, I'm the one that did it the first day that we were here. So I told him. You just have to make her good and mad. Or in this case, really upset. Well, it worked."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Gohan ran up from behind his father. He knew that he was told to stay, but he couldn't stand it any longer. It was unbearable. He wanted to know what was going on. "Dad, can't we go over there?"  
  
Goku looked down to his son and shook his head. "No. This is for them to work out. I don't think she wants either of us over there anyways."  
  
Gohan grinned. "Or maybe you're just scared that she'll beat you up."  
  
"Yeah. No kidding."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi's power was rapidly dropping. Goku had finally been able to get through to her that she should relax herself. She had been reluctant to at first. She didn't tell him why. But she had her reasons. She was afraid that if she did, the younger version of her father would attack her. But she had convinced herself that if he did, her real father would protect her like he always did. She felt safe with him now. The fear of him had disappeared. He was the same old man whom she had grown to love in her life. "Daddy, thank you."  
  
Goku watched as his daughter's aura dissipate into the air as her hair began to fade into its normal color. "Good girl." He looked down to her tail. It had also returned to its normal color. Her power level was returning to normal as she calmed down. He could feel her tenseness going away. He sighed in relief. He had done his job. Now, he just needed to teach her how to use that power without it consuming her. That wouldn't be an easy job. He didn't know any way that he could do it unless he used his alternative.   
  
Usagi scooted herself further up to lean her head into his stomach. For the first time since he had returned, she felt completely comfortable. Her pain had disappeared just like he had said it would. "I'm tired now."  
  
Ami walked back to the Saiyan duo and knelt down in front of Usagi. "You should be after what you just went through." She began to look at her wounds. Nothing appeared to be broken as none of her appendages were bruising. But that didn't mean that her ribs were not broken. She would need medical attention before the day was out. But she figured that she would want to spend some time with her father first. She looked up at Goku. "You came just in time."  
  
Goku smiled. And it was all with the help of the guardian of time. "Would somebody please explain to me what's going on here? What happened that made Usagi burst out like this? She's only blown up like this once, and that was with good cause. But even then, it wasn't to this extent."  
  
Minako and Makoto looked at each other. They knew exactly what would happen if Goku were to find out what had actually just taken place. They had seen how he got when Mamoru was messing with her. He wasn't even as bad as what the past Goku had just done. Makoto decided that she would step up and tell him. He had a right to know. Plus, Usagi would have told them in they refused to. "Usagi got upset because for the past ten days, you and Gohan have been treating her like dirt. We don't know why. All of a sudden they acted out at her. And then today, you challenged her and pretty much beat her up. Then you beat us up when Usagi was down for the count because we didn't want you to hurt her anymore."  
  
"This was after you turned Super Saiyan, mind you."   
  
Goku looked down at Ami. "What? Super Saiyan? You guys can't defend against that? What was he thinking?" At that point, he didn't consider himself to be the Goku who was standing not too far from him current position. He knew that Usagi must have already felt awful with him and her brother treating her so horribly. But to beat her friends too? That was pushing it. He looked down to his daughter. "Is this true?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yes." It was still very painful for her. But, it really didn't matter. He wasn't her real father anyways. He was just someone from the past. He must have changed somewhere along the way. "He said that he wanted to see if I was worthy of being called your daughter. Then, he beat me up, just like Ami said. He grabbed my tail and swung me around. It REALLY hurt. Then, after Makoto, Rei, and Minako were hit to the ground, he fired his biggest Ki blast at me. I wasn't able to block it and I got scared. I didn't know what to do. I froze. I know I could have done the teleportation, but I couldn't. I know I should have, I'm sorry."  
  
"Don't be. Everyone gets scared sometimes. You had justifications."  
  
Usagi smiled. He always knew just the right thing to say. "Then something happened. I got real mad. I was mad that he was treating me like this. I didn't know what I did. He never said I did anything wrong. Gohan acted that way too. He was mean. So was Piccolo. I was mad that he beat me up for no reason. I was mad that he beat up my friends. And then my head hurt and I guess I snapped and then I got a lot of power and the Kamehameha was going towards you instead of me. The only think I remember after that is seeing my hair color and tail color change to silver. Why?"  
  
"Usagi, you do realize that you went Super Saiyan right?" Goku looked to Minako and Makoto. They had only disappeared a few hours before. "Glad to see you two are all right." He had a hunch that somehow they had been taken to the past. Where else could they have gone?  
  
Minako giggled. She wished that she could have seen their faces after they had left. "Yeah, we're fine. Usagi wished us here with the Dragon Balls."  
  
"Ahhh." He looked past the girls onto his younger version and frowned. 'I don't care if he is me. He shouldn't have treated MY girl like that. It was too much for her to handle. Kiro specifically said that she has pure innocence. Her energy is not capable of holding the capacity of hate energy. Or even energy created by anger. That's why I was letting her reach it on her own. She was making such good progress. Now he had to go and ruin it. I really was an idiot when I was younger.' "Right. You four take care of Usagi while I go pay my respects to myself." He gently picked Usagi up off of his lap and let himself slide out from underneath her, placing her back onto the ground. "I'll be back soon." He slowly began walking towards himself. It was weird for him. He would have to give himself a lesson in raising children.  
  
Ok for my own sanity, I'm going to write F. Goku for Future Goku, and P. Goku, for past Goku. Sound good?   
  
P. Goku crossed his arms as he watched himself approaching. "Gohan this could get kind of heated. I think they told him about what happened."   
  
F. Goku stopped just in front of his past self, and son. Seeing Gohan like that sure did bring back memories. He hadn't seen him like that in about thirty years. "Strange." He still couldn't forgive himself for staying dead when he very well had the chance to be wished back. He had missed so much of his boys' lives.  
  
Gohan gave his future father a confused look. "What's strange?" He knew that it was directed towards him.   
  
"Seeing you so…well…young. I haven't seen you as a kid for sometime now. Brings back great memories." He directed his attention to the boy's father, who stood in front of him. "I need to talk to you about what just happened."  
  
"Hey, look. I know what you're going to say. And, while I know it was harsh, it did her good. I just didn't think that she would react so poorly to it. But you seemed to have fixed that problem so all is well." He got his normal goofy smile on his face as he put his hands behind his head.  
  
"No you don't know what I'm going to say! You don't just take someone like Usagi and do something like that to her? Were you not thinking? Wait, I should be able to answer that question. No. You were, in fact, not thinking. You know how I know that? I used to be you. Now I see what everyone has been talking about. I have matured. You still have a lot to learn. Usagi is not just someone that you can do that to. She is so much more sensitive. Even I have to be careful about what I do to her. Any one false move and she'll think I hate her. As it was, she was resisting my comfort back there. So don't you ever think that you know what I'm going to say."  
  
"Wait a minute. Don't go thinking that you can tell me I don't know what I'm doing. That's pretty much what you're saying. I took the consequences into consideration. I knew it would hurt her, but she will forgive me. Mamoru said she would."  
  
F. Goku's eyes widened. "You consulted Mamoru?! No wonder why you did it. That boy is so full of crap most of the time that you can't trust anything he says.!" He couldn't believe that he could have been that naïve at any point in his life. But he was and thank god he wasn't anymore. "I don't want you to ever train her like that again. That power was too great for her body to handle anyways."  
  
"With all due respect father," Gohan butted in, "Usagi should have been able to hold that power. We talked about it before hand and decided that we should do it. You know. Just to get her power to show so when we fight the androids..."  
  
F. Goku looked down to Gohan. "And you. I would have expected much more from you." His family was probably one of the only things that could get him riled up this way. Most of the time, he would let things slide, but this was just too big. They had put HIS daughter's life on the line. He wouldn't stand for it. He would have to have a talk with Piccolo when he got back to the future about Mamoru's behavior.   
  
Gohan shut his mouth. That was the first time his father had ever scolded him like that. Except the time he was on Namek, but that was a different story. He looked up to his own father. He didn't seem to have any feeling what so ever about this situation. He, himself, was beginning to feel bad about what he had done. "Sorry."  
  
"Look, when you get to know Usagi a little better…" 'Which I hope you don't until she is born here. I want her home as soon as possible.' "You will understand how fragile she is. I didn't really find this out until I first trained her."  
  
P. Goku sighed. He still didn't see a problem with what had happened. "I know what I'm doing. You know that I know what I'm doing. You went through this too."  
  
F. Goku got closer to his younger self. He wanted to make sure that nothing like this would ever happen again. "You may know what you're doing, but you keep your ideas to yourself. Don't be trying anything with my daughter. Got that? You don't know how she works. You won't understand until you get older. I don't want her coming home beaten to a bloody pulp. If she does, I will cut a deal with the guardian of time and come back here. She seems to look out for Usagi's safety anyways. That's why I'm here. Then you and I will have a little chat."  
  
P. Goku was stunned. He had never threatened anyone before. He was acting a lot like…a responsible parent. Kind of like Chi-Chi when she was in a really good mood. Of course, he did just beat the crap out of the man's daughter. "I just wanted to bring out her power."  
  
"Well don't you do it with making her hate or be scared. Now I have to go and fix the problem with teaching her how to use her power." Without further conversation, he turned around and began walking back to the girls. He was dead serious about his threat to his younger self. He didn't care who it was, no one inflicted pain on his daughter. He vowed to himself the day she was born that he would always be there for her and he planned on sticking to that. If that meant kicking his own ass, then so be it. But he was sure that wouldn't happen. He knew himself pretty well and knew that when someone told him not to do something, he did his best to not do it. But, just in case, he would be on the lookout.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Piccolo once again could not believe his ears. "What happened to him?"  
  
Krillin had only watched what just happened. It didn't look too interesting. There were just two Gokus talking together. When you're best friends, with a Saiyan, you come to expect things like that. "What happened Piccolo? What did he say?"  
  
"Pretty much that he'd find a way to return to the past and kick our Goku's ass if he tired anything else with Usagi."  
  
Mamoru snickered. "Kind of like when he punched me when I nearly hit her. See, I told you he's protective of her. I think it's a father thing. I over heard Gohan talking about it one day. He…whoa, a little too much info on the future thing here."  
  
That caught Krillin's attention. "What was that? Something about Gohan and talking about being a father of a girl? Tell us Mamoru. Does Gohan have a girl for a child when he gets older?"  
  
Mamoru shook his head. "I can't say."  
  
"I'm guessing that's a yes."  
  
~*~*~  
  
As F. Goku walked back to his daughter, he watched as her friends talked to her. They were always there for her when she needed them most. She was very lucky to have them all. Yes, she had to wait to build their group, but it was well worth it. They were true friends. None of those girls would ever betray each other. They were friends for life whether they liked it or not. There was a special bond that held them together. Another mysterious thing about all five of them. But he was happy for her.   
  
He stopped in front of the group and looked down at them. They were all talking about what had happened. Usagi still looked rather weak. There was no way that he could train her to use her power in her current condition. He needed more time. "Usagi, come with me. We need to talk."  
  
Usagi groaned. She knew what this was about. It was time to stand up and face the music for what she had done. She just hoped that he wouldn't be too hard on her. "Ok." She stood up and walked to her father.  
  
Goku put his arm around her shoulder and looked to her friends. "You guys go on and do what you want. We'll be back in a while. Be ready to train when we get back though." They nodded in compliance as he looked down at Usagi. "Let's go."  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. What do you think? Was it good or bad? Please tell me. It would be appreciated, as it always is. Thanks.)  



	52. Part 14

Goku walked with his daughter, not heading for any particular destination. He hadn't really said much to Usagi since they had left everyone behind. He was just happy to be with her. He had missed her more in the past day and a half then he had thought. But, he knew he was probably torturing her by not saying anything. Just like the day in which he had to pick her up from school. That day, he had learned that silence can be even worse then getting chewed out. But he didn't want to spoil this moment with her. She had just been through so much and he didn't want to make things worse.   
  
Usagi looked straight forward as she leaned into her father. Words could never explain how happy she was at that moment. It had been so long since she was able to be that close to him. Yes, she had the Goku of that time, but it wasn't the same. She didn't feel like she could confide in him like she with this Goku. HER father. He wasn't the same. He acted so much like her it was scary.   
  
She sighed as she awaited her punishment. He hadn't really ever yelled at her before, she hoped that he wouldn't do it now either. She knew that she deserved it, but still, no kid WANTS to get yelled at. Still, it was inevitable that it would happen and she might as well try to get used to the idea of getting in trouble. This wasn't the only trouble she would be in either.  
  
Goku took a deep breath. They had been walking for about ten minutes already and he didn't want to put her through anymore mental torment. It wasn't fair to her. "Usagi do you realize the severity what you have done?"  
  
"Sort of." She looked up to his face. She hoped that what she just said didn't make him angry. That was the last thing that she wanted to do.   
  
"Well let me explain then. First of all, there is more than one problem here. First, by going back to this time, you have put yourself in more danger then you can handle. Apparently, the guardian of time will not allow you to go home until she sees fit. So that means you're going to have to fight the androids, whether you like it or not. I won't be here to help you and I don't think you should rely on the other people of this time. Not after what they just pulled."  
  
Usagi already knew that she couldn't depend on them anymore. From the moment that he first lay a hand on her, she knew. But that wasn't what she was worried about right now. She wanted to know how mad at her she was. "Daddy I'm sorry."  
  
Goku knew she was. He could sense it. "Then there is what you did. You left without telling anyone. You left without asking. You know I don't like to yell at you. You know I hate it when I have to discipline you."  
  
She began to breathe harder. "I know."  
  
"Then why do you do things like this?" He stopped walking and turned to his daughter.   
  
"I don't know. I just wanted to go back into the past to keep you from getting that disease. I didn't know this would happen. I'm sorry. We only planned to be gone for an hour."   
  
"Usagi, it doesn't matter. You shouldn't have done this at all. It wasn't your place to do so. You broke a lot of people's trust in you, you know." He paused for a moment. This was too hard for him. "Including mine. Usagi, I trusted you to stay with Ami at the house. I trusted you enough to leave you unattended. What was going on in your head? Now your mother will never let you go anywhere when you are to study. I don't know if I should be so lenient with you all the time. Maybe this is partly my fault. "  
  
She looked up into his eyes. "It's not your fault. I broke the rules. You told me to stay at the house but I didn't. I'm sorry daddy. I really am. I won't do it again. I promise." She hoped that he believed her. She didn't want him to hate her. But it had been her own fault. She was the one who wanted to go so badly.  
  
"I know you are Usagi. But that can't fix what you did. Did you even think about what the consequences would be if you did this?" He kneeled down in front of her and looked her straight into the eyes. She looked as if she could cry. "Well?" This was the one time that he had to put his foot down. He probably wouldn't have minded that she left if she hadn't put herself in so much danger. He had also gotten a verbal beating from his wife. He couldn't baby her forever. She had to learn. He couldn't let her think that she could just go around and disobey him all the time.  
  
"Yes, wait, no. Or yes?" She didn't know. It had been so far away in her mind. She had somewhat thought of the consequences before she had left. She knew that if she were caught she would be in major trouble. That had crossed her mind when the door to Bulma's door opened before she had a chance to catch up to her friends. She had also thought about when she ran into to Vejita. But she hadn't really thought about it before these two incidents. She didn't think that she would have been in the past for as long as she had been. "I guess I wasn't thinking." She hated this, but at the same time, welcomed it. She knew it was going to come. She had been preparing herself for this ever since the time pad blew up.   
  
Goku sighed. He didn't think that she was thinking. She usually had more sense than this. If she had been thinking, she would have known not to do this. "Well Usagi, you've really gotten yourself into a pinch this time. You've really, really messed up this time." He saw a single tear trickle down the face of his daughter. His stomach turned at the sight of that. That was probably the first time that he had ever seen her cry because of something that he had said to her. There was the second day of school, but that wasn't because of something that he had specifically done. She was so mixed up inside anyways. But this time, she was actually crying because of him, which made his heart ache. It was a terrible feeling. But he wanted to make sure she wouldn't do anything like this again. Sometimes, love hurts.  
  
"I know I messed up. I messed up big time. I know I shouldn't have done what I did. But you gotta believe me, I won't ever disobey you again. I'll do what ever you say. I promise." 'Just don't hate me daddy. Please.'  
  
"We'll see. You have to earn that trust back. And you don't have to do WHATEVER I say. Use your judgment. I know you're a smart kid. If I tell you to do something reasonable, you will do it." He sighed. There was so much she had to learn.  
  
"What are you gonna do with me?"   
  
"Well, there's a lot to this situation. Because you got your friends involved in this, they are going to be in a lot of trouble too. You will apologize to each and every one of their parents in person. I know for a fact that this wasn't Ami's idea. You probably talked her into it, am I right?" Usagi nodded. The whole night before, Goku hadn't been able to sleep. He was up all night worrying about his little girl, wondering if and when she would return home. But, the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He started to think about the fact that Usagi had not done what she was told. If she had, she would not be in the danger that she is currently in. "I know this is harsh, but I've decided that I will go along with what your mother is going to do."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened. She began to breathe fast with fear. Her mother would chew her up and spit her out. She had never experience the full wrath of her mother in her life. Her father had always been there to help her. "What?! Daddy please. Don't let mom do anything to me. Please."  
  
Goku had to bite his lip from saying that he would tone her down a bit. He couldn't. "Usagi, you have to learn. One way or the other." This was harder on him then it was for her. He would have to watch her suffer. The one thing that he would insist upon is that Chi-Chi would not lay a hand on their daughter. Other then that, he wouldn't do anything to stop her. Unless it got too out of hand.   
  
"Why can't you think of a punishment?"  
  
Goku frowned. He couldn't. He wasn't capable of devising one. Especially if it was meant for her. "Don't argue with me. I've made my decision."  
  
'Why is he doing this to me? Mom will kill me. No worse, she'll kill me and then bring me back to life with the Dragon Balls and then kill me again.' "Please. I'm begging you. Don't do this to me. I'll do anything. I'll go to an all girls' boarding school if you want. I'll stop training."  
  
Goku shook his head. "You're pushing your luck Usagi. You're not going to a boarding school and you're not stopping your training." Goku found those WAY too harsh. He saw boarding schools as prisons anyways. The teachers had complete control over the students and took away their freedom. "You're not getting out of this. You know I don't like doing this. I've already told you this."  
  
"Daddy, do you have any idea what mom will do to me?" 'He's seen her plenty of times. She's so mean to me. She's even meaner to me then she is to Gohan. Even in this time.'  
  
Goku nodded. "I said stop arguing with my decision Usagi."  
  
Usagi closed her mouth. She didn't want to put herself into even more trouble. She knew that she would be in trouble when they found out what had happened. But she never thought that her own father would go along with it. Though Minako and Makoto had told her that he was pretty angry right before they had left. It was apparent that she would just have to take what she got and be done with it. "I'm sorry." She let her tears flow down her face without wiping them away. 'I really let him down again. Why do I always do this? I don't deserve him.'  
  
Goku's facial expressions softened. He didn't like having to yell at her. He hoped that he would never have to do it again. "It's all right sweetie. You don't have to be afraid of your mother. I won't let her hurt you in anyway. I can promise you that much."  
  
Usagi smiled. Just by him saying that made her feel better. He really did love her otherwise he wouldn't have made that promise. She put her arms around his neck and hugged him as tightly as possible. "Thank you. I'm so happy you're here with me." She would have to live with her punishment. She couldn't complain about it either.  
  
Goku returned the hug. "I'm happy to be here." He pulled back and put his hands on her arms. "You haven't grown at all. I guess those bracelets that Bulma made really do work."  
  
"Yep. They sure do. So, what are we gonna do? How long do you get to stay here?" Usagi was beginning to forget about her troubles already. If he didn't want to punish her at that moment, that was perfect with her. She wouldn't complain.  
  
"Well, the guardian of time said I only have one day here. She wants me to teach you how to use your new power. Which, I might add, is truly amazing."  
  
Usagi opened her mouth to protest. "One day? That's not fair. I don't want you to leave me alone. Why can't she let you stay longer?"  
  
Goku put his finger on his daughter's mouth to quiet her down. "Don't worry. I've got it covered. Later, we'll go into the room of time and spirit. That will give us plenty of time to work on your power."  
  
Usagi looked to the ground. "All right." She would have to accept that. That was the only way that he would be able to stay longer. She grinned as she slightly lifted her head. "So you think my new power is cool?"  
  
"Totally. I wish I could have jumped that high the first time I went Super Saiyan. But, you do realize that the other Goku and Gohan weren't really meaning to be mean right? That was just his way to get it to come out."  
  
"What? But...no it wasn't. It has to be a lie. You would never do that to me. I know you wouldn't. You said you wouldn't, would you?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "Of course not. But you have to remember. I've got a few years on him. He is still young and naïve."  
  
"But he really hurt me daddy. He hurt my friends. So did Gohan. Are you sure he only meant to bring out my power?"  
  
"I'm positive. That's what he told me when I talked to him. Don't take it personally though. I don't think he'll ever do that again anyways. Not after our little talk. Just don't trust him. He means well, but the way he does things just doesn't cut it." 'Boy, I guess Chi-Chi had reasons to yell at me so much in the past.' He stopped his thinking when he heard the sound of his daughter giggling. "What's funny?"  
  
"Oh nothing. I was just thinking about how funny it would be if mom saw you like this. You're so different from your younger self. She would freak."  
  
"I guess that would be rather humorous wouldn't it? But, we don't have time to do that. We have to get you trained."  
  
Usagi nodded. "K!"  
  
Goku stood up from his kneeling position. "Let's go find the others and get started. Every minute is another day wasted." He grabbed her by the hand and the duo began walking again.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Future~~   
  
Meanwhile in another space...   
  
A tall muscular man entered a dark room with a mixture of different, filled with large machines of all sorts. Most of them were used for experiments, while some were used for finding knew ways to increase their power, which is why he even came into this room. He walked to the darkest corner in the back of the room and crossed his arms as he became intrigued by what he viewed. "This will be ready ahead of schedule, will it not?"   
  
A shorter man walked out from behind the shadows of the machine that his colleague stood before. "Yes. We didn't expect it to regenerate this soon. It was supposed to be finished in about three years. But it should be finished by tomorrow morning. This is going perfectly. Her majesty will be pleased with our production rate."  
  
"Indeed she will be." The older of the two men stared into a tank that was emitting a pale green glow. Inside was their weapon that they would use to complete their objective. "It truly was a work of art. Though it was too weak for our purposes. It's a good think that we have enough power for it. I suggest we proceed with the next step." He turned around and began.  
  
"That would be...?" He watched as the man walked away.  
  
"Locate the target. I will tell her majesty of our progress." He walked to the doors that led out of the room. He let them open automatically and walked out. 'This will be too easy. We will be back on our feet in no time.' He cocked his head to his left when he heard a loud crash. He shook his head and sighed. "She is angry again."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Past~~  
  
Two hours later...  
  
Goku stood in front of the Room of Spirit and Time with Usagi and her friends. This was the only way that he knew that he would have enough time to teach Usagi how to deal with her new power. He didn't want her unable to use it. She would need it when she fought with the androids. "Let's go you guys." He watched as the five girls began walking towards the room. He turned around to Kami. "Hey, I don't have a full day left so I'll have to come out before it's up. The girls can stay in after I leave though." He didn't like the idea of leaving them alone. Something could have happened to them and they wouldn't know what to do, but he would let them do it. They needed time to train themselves with no interruptions.  
  
Kami held out a bag to Goku. "Here, you will need these if you are going to stay in for any length of time. I will get you tomorrow morning at ten A.M. That will give you plenty of time to get yourself ready to leave."  
  
Goku grasped the bag and put it in his pocket. "Thanks Kami. You always were one to be prepared. I was great seeing you again. It's been too long." Without waiting for a reply, he turned back around and followed the girls into the room.   
  
Kami just looked down to Mr. Popo. "What did he mean by that?"   
  
Popo shrugged. "You got me."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi jumped when the door shut behind her. She wasn't expecting it to be as loud as it had been. "Why is it so hot in here?" She began waving her hand in front of her face to try and generate some cool air.   
  
"It's really stuffy in here." Makoto lifted one of her feet only to feel a slight resistance. "There's more gravity too."  
  
Goku placed the bag of Senzu beans on a table that sat in the middle of the room. "The gravity makes for better training." He pulled out a bean and tossed it to his daughter. "Here, replenish your energy Usagi. You're going to need it." He looked at the faces of his pupils. They all had curious looks on their faces and he knew why. They wanted to explore the area. He grinned. He remembered what happened when he first brought Gohan here. He nearly freaked out at what was outside. "Come on guys. Follow me. I want to show you something."  
  
He turned around and led them to the door that led outside. He stopped just before stepping out. "Don't get scared when you see this." He proceeded to move forward and stepped to the side when he was out. He leaned against one of the walls that outlined the doorway and crossed his arms as he waited for them to come out. He couldn't wait to see their reaction.  
  
Ami was the first out. Her eyes widened at the vast amount of nothingness. "How is this possible?"  
  
Usagi pushed past Rei and Makoto. She was anxious to see what all the fuss was about. "Lemme see, lemme see." She stopped in the middle of the doorway when her eyes finally lay on their target. "Whoa..."  
  
Minako shoved Rei and Makoto out. For her, they were taking way too long to get out. Like Usagi, she really wanted to see what was out there. But, when she finally saw it, it was nothing at all like she had expected. "Whoa is right Usagi."  
  
They all stood in awe as they looked around. It was utterly silent. There were no walls and no ceiling. It was a never-ending space. The only building around was the place where they would eat and sleep. Goku had pretty much expected this reaction from them. It was the same reaction that everyone had had when they first saw this place. Even he had this reaction. Of course, the first time he went in he couldn't even stay the whole time. The nothingness had gotten to him after a few months. "Pretty amazing huh?"  
  
Ami turned around to look at Goku. When he said that he wanted to show them something, that's what she expected to see, SOMETHING. But there was clearly nothing around. "No wonder why it's so hot and stuffy here. There aren't any trees around except for these two here by the door."  
  
"Goku, how far does this place go out?" Minako tried to squint to see if she could see an end. Maybe see a wall of some sort. But it was no use. It looked as though there was no end.  
  
"This place is as big as the world. If you go out too far, you will get lost and probably end up dying. So be careful, ok?" He stepped away from the door. "We should get started. I want to teach Usagi how to use her power so why don't you four work on something. It shouldn't take too long. I hope."  
  
He led Usagi away from the rest of the fighters and looked down at her. He didn't know how he was going to do this. He was never faced with a problem like this before. When Gohan had gone Super Saiyan, his body could handle the power. By the time he came back to earth after the incident with Cell, Goten had already gone Super Saiyan. "Let's go about this the simplest way. I want you to show me how much you can power up before you start to feel any kind of pain."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Ok." She firmly planted her feet on the ground to get a good footing for her stance. She concentrated as much of her energy as she could into raising her powerlevel.   
  
Goku smiled. "That's it Usagi. You're doing great. Keep going until you reach your limit. Then stop." He had just figured out a way to get her up to the power that she needs. "Hey, here's a goal. When you reach your true power again, you can fight me while I'm Super Saiyan."  
  
Usagi grinned. "I can't wait." She closed her eyes as she felt the power build up in her muscles. So far, she was able to go over her normal power that she was normally able to reach. But, she didn't get too far over before she had to stop.  
  
Goku felt a substantial difference between the powerlevel that his daughter had left the future with, and the powerlevel that she obtained now. "That's very good." Usagi began to relax and let her power drop as well. "Hey, I didn't say you could lower your power. Keep it up there."  
  
"But it hurts."  
  
"That's good." He could see the confusion in her face. "Trust me when I say this. As long as you feel slight pain in your body, you know that you are at your limit. Though you have the ability to go higher, your body can't hold it."  
  
"So how are we going to raise it?"  
  
"Just hold on. Don't be so quick to rush me. So, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," He grinned at his daughter just to let her know that he was joking, "What we're going to do is take this step by step. You will stay at this power until the pain goes away. Once it does, that will let us know that your body is used to the power. Then you can raise it more until more pain comes. To help it move it along faster, we will do some heavy training. Does that sound ok to you? If you don't want the pain, we can do it some other way."  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No, this sounds good to me."  
  
"All right then. Show me what you've got." He got into a fighting stance. He didn't see a need to raise his powerlevel so he didn't.  
  
"You wanna fight now? But you don't have any fighting cloths on."  
  
"That doesn't matter. Kami always keeps extras in here. He knows how rough we get when we use this room. Don't worry about it. You just worry about training."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Ok." She walked to the side and stared at him. She was trying to find the perfect spot to attack. She wanted the upper hand in this fight. She had lost one battle that day, she didn't feel like loosing again. Her eyes locked onto his back, but she knew she couldn't just up and attack. She had to be sneaky about it. He was watching her every move, ready to defend at any sign of an attack. 'How should I do this?'   
  
She casually began walking towards him, while he put his arms up to block anything that she had for him. 'Maybe if I trick him...' She jumped into the air. Her father immediately matched her move. Anticipating this, she then swiftly dove under his feet and hovered back to back with him.   
  
Goku grinned. "Good move Usagi. You're getting better."  
  
Usagi didn't say anything. She didn't want anything to cause her to loose her concentration. She was determined to win this. Without any thought, she rammed her elbow into his lower back, forcing him down to the ground.  
  
Goku had definitely not expected that. That was the first time she had made the first move in a battle and done some damage on him. Though, she was a lot stronger then usual. But still, she had expected her to do something a little bit more sneaky than that. "Another great move. But how's this?" Before he even finished his sentence, he had already thrown a blue Ki blast at her.  
  
Usagi was hit in the stomach and thrown back. "That's not fair."  
  
Goku bounced to his feet and charged for his daughter. He swung a few punches at her. She dodged most of them as she jumped backwards. Occasionally straying to the side. Goku was thoroughly impressed at her new speed. But her speed wasn't totally beyond his. He did manage to make one punch in on her face, sending her flying back, head first. He raised his speed up a bit and kicked her back into the air before she hit. "Everything is fair when you're sparring. We've already established that."  
  
Usagi used her power to stop herself in midair. "Fine." She fired multiple attacks at him. She was amazed to feel that he raised his powerlevel. Her attacks were to fast for him to dodge without it. "Cool."  
  
He dodged most of them. Some of them he kicked away with his legs, which didn't do much good. Any time they made contact with his body, his cloths were torn and his skin was cut open. "Very good. Now, keep this up, and you'll probably be fighting me while I'm powered up to Super Saiyan before you have your full power up." Her power would be as strong as his Super Saiyan before she even reached HER Super Saiyan. It was amazing. He truly had given her a large amount of power.   
  
Usagi stopped her attack on her father and giggled. "I'm just that good. Oh yeah, oh yeah."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
The others hadn't really started their fight yet. They were really just feeling Usagi's power. It was amazing. In just one day, she had surpassed them more than they could have ever imagined. And none of them were jealous either. It was as if it they knew that it was meant to be that way. As if she was meant to be stronger then them. Minako turned to her friends. "Hey, you guys, today, we got to Goku. We could have brought him down if he hadn't turned Super Saiyan."  
  
Rei nodded. "Right. It was the whole teamwork thing. We are powerful as one, but we are even more powerful as a whole. You felt that attack the Ami and I made. It was powerful. Think about how strong we could be if we all make the attack together."  
  
"Now THAT would be cool. I'm up for learning it. How about you Minako?"  
  
Minako nodded. "Of course Makoto. I wouldn't mind that. We are, after all, a team anyways. Right girls?"  
  
"Right!" All four of them yelled.  
  
"Then it is a team we are. And as a team, we will do things to help each other! Right?"  
  
"Right!"  
  
"And as a team, we will become powerful! Right?"  
  
"Right!"  
  
"As a team, we will have sleepovers and play video games! Right?"  
  
"Rig..." Rei stopped to think about what she was agreeing to. "Wait a minute. Where did that come from Minako?"  
  
"Well, you can't expect a girl to do all that hard work and have no fun can you?" Her friends sighed. "What?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
At the Son house...  
  
Goku walked into the kitchen. He sat down at the table and stared at the doorway, where Gohan was just walking in. "What a day."  
  
Gohan sat down at the opposite end of the table and looked at his father. "I'll say. You really change in the future. I still can't believe he got so mad at you."  
  
"He had reason to Gohan. He was right. What I did WAS wrong." He would make sure not to ever do something like that again.  
  
"I agree. But did he really have to make that threat?"  
  
"I don't know. I just don't see how I could act like that. He was acting like your mother does when she's in a good mood."  
  
"How do I act when I'm in a good mood Goku?" Chi-Chi walked into the room; she was going to prepare dinner. She was certain that everyone would be hungry, as they always were.   
  
Goku cringed. He knew he was in for it now. "You act nice. Yeah, that's it."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Don't start with me Goku." She looked around the room as she put and apron on. "Where are the girls?"  
  
Goku sighed in relief. At least she wouldn't hit him for that. Now he just had to explain about what had happened. "Well, it seems as though my future self somehow came back to this time. He took Usagi and now I don't know where they are."  
  
Chi-Chi's raised and eyebrow in fascination. "Oh really? I would like to see this Goku of the future. Is he any different then you?"  
  
"I'll say. Mom, he almost beat dad up today. Well, more like threatened to. But who really pays attention to detail?"  
  
Chi-Chi looked to her son. "Gohan, why would your father make a threat to himself?"  
  
Gohan looked over to his father who was looking pretty pale at the moment. "You didn't tell her dad? I thought you said that you did."  
  
Chi-Chi turned her attention back to her husband. "Goku, what did you do to Usagi that made you receive a threat from yourself?"  
  
Goku lowered his head as he coward away. He knew he would probably get hit for what he did. If not kicked out of his room for a couple of nights. "I uh, kind of attacked her at my fullest power and, uh, made her go Super Saiyan. But the power was too much for her body to handle and you probably know what happened after that."  
  
Chi-Chi couldn't believe it. She was outraged. "First you take my Gohan out into a battle in which he nearly dies in. Then you are the one responsible for nearly killing Usagi?! WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR HEAD?!"  
  
Goku put his hands in front of his head to act as a shield. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of his wife's hand hovering over his face. "It sounded like a good idea."  
  
"That's it Goku. Your stupidity has gone beyond its usual self. How could you do that? Usagi isn't one to do that sort of thing with." She was ready to backhand him, she was so angry.  
  
Goku brought his hands down and looked at his wife. "You know too?"  
  
Chi-Chi calmed down. "Of course. It's a woman thing. Men don't see things until later. They always shut their eyes to the obvious things."  
  
"That's true dad. Remember when he said that he didn't learn about how sensitive she was until when he first started training her?"  
  
"Well I don't think it really matters anymore. Usagi is much stronger then us now. She'll probably want to train on her own from now on. She probably hates us too much now anyways. She did attack me." He had a red burn on his on his stomach from where her Ki blast had hit him. He had never felt anything like it before. If she were to turn evil, he would not be able to defend her attack.  
  
"I don't blame Goku. You deserved it and you know it. So don't complain about it if she hates you from now on."  
  
"Such harsh words Chi-Chi. Lighten up." But Goku knew in his heart that she was right. His daughter would probably end up hating him. He wouldn't make the same mistake when she was actually born to him. He couldn't wait to find out who the real Usagi was. He had only met a little bit of her. She hadn't told him too much about her past. He couldn't wait until she was born to him.  
  
(Ok, here's the next part for you. I worked extra hard to not make it a cliffhanger. Did I do a good job? Sorry about all the cliffhangers I've been leaving lately. Oh well, so what did you think of this part? Was it good, or bad? Thanks a bunch! Bye! ^_^)  



	53. Part 15

  
~~Room of Time and Spirit~~  
  
One and a half months later… Again with the time skipping   
  
Goku lay in his bed, thinking about all the things that had taken place in the past few weeks. So much had happened. Usagi had increased her power and speed without using anymore energy then the day in which they had entered. He wondered how strong she would become before really reaching her Super Saiyan level.   
  
Another thing that he entered his mind was the Guardian of Time. What did she want with his daughter? Why was it so important that she stay in the past for longer then she should have? Why was it so important for her to stay in this time to fight one of the hardest most lethal enemies that had ever invaded earth? Though he couldn't answer these questions, he still tried to. But, he couldn't come up with anything. He couldn't see why HIS daughter was so important. And furthermore, he couldn't understand why she had allowed Usagi to wish for Minako and Makoto to come to the past while she would not let her wish to go home. There was something that he wasn't being told in which he felt a right to know because it included his daughter. He hated not knowing what was going on. He felt as if he was being left out of a very important stage in his daughter's life. Though he was allowed to train her, that wasn't much. Not to him anyways. He was training her for fighting the androids. To fight Cell.   
  
Then it hit him. The fact that Cell that he had fought with came from his future, Trunks' time. Usagi wouldn't have to fight Cell. She wasn't in as much danger as he had thought she would be. Androids 17 and 18 were unbeatable with the power of a normal Super Saiyan. But, by the time he was finished with Usagi, she would be stronger. They would be easily beaten. If they really wanted to, his friends could use her to destroy androids 19 and 20 before the other two were awaken. But what would be the point to making Usagi stay in the past now? With no one to really fight, it would be meaningless to make her stay. The others didn't really need her anyways. Without a threat to the Goku of this time, he could easily take out androids 19 and 20. Even Vejita could help out with that. Then, if he could somehow convince the Goku of this time to train Gohan and get him Super Saiyan, he could help out too. So they didn't need his daughter. Cell would be underdeveloped in this timeline. The androids did not pose a threat to Usagi. There was no greater power, he hoped. The way he saw it, Usagi and the others should have been able to come home with him, right then and there. But he knew that wasn't the way things were going to be. The Guardian of Time had plans for them that were beyond his control.   
  
He sighed as he turned over on his side to look at the sleeping girls. They really did wear themselves out the past few days. They had worked so hard on becoming stronger. There were many times in which he thought that they would over exert themselves and pass out. Though they never did. He was curious as to what they were doing without him. He could feel their power and their combined attack, which made him even more curious. He wanted to know how they were doing it. He had even let Usagi join in to their training a few times, which greatly boosted the power put into it. He was pretty happy with the way their training was going. They seemed to understand each other, which helped a lot with making a combined attack. They were nearly ready for their real test.  
  
He sat up and looked at the clock. It was only four in the morning. He had gone to bed only five hours ago though he felt like he had slept for days. Most of his nights lately had been like this, restless. He couldn't sleep very much, which worried him. He had always been able to sleep through just about anything. But ever since he came to the past, his thoughts had kept him up.  
  
He sat up; swinging his legs over the side of the bed, and got up. He walked to the doorway that led out into the training area and gazed out. He remembered back to the time when he first saw that vast amount of land with nothing on it. It was crazy. He was there, all alone. He couldn't even last a full year. He thought he heard something stirring and turned around to see what, or who it was. But there was nothing. He shrugged. 'Must be my imagination.' He turned back around and walked out of the room. 'Might as well get some training done while I'm up. I'll get the girls up in a couple of hours.' Just as he sat down and began stretching his legs, he felt something poke his back. He turned around to see who it was. "What's wrong?"  
  
"Daddy, the pain went away."  
  
Goku raised himself to his knees and smiled. "When did this happen?"  
  
"Earlier today when we were sparring. I didn't tell you before because I didn't know if it was going to come back or not. But then when we went to bed, I hadn't come back at all, but I was too tired to do anything more so I decided to tell you tomorrow. But then I heard you get up so I came out here too."  
  
"That's great sweetie. Now we can move on and have you raise your power level. You're one step closer now."  
  
Usagi smiled. She knew that her father was already having trouble keeping up with her attacks. Even her speed was beginning to give him a hard time. Now, he would also have to give himself some more power to fight her. "Can we do it now?"  
  
"What? Now? Don't you think you need a little bit more rest before you can just jump into something like this?" He knew what would happen if she didn't have enough energy to gain the extra power. She would probably end up passing out like she had when she was younger.  
  
Usagi shook her head. She knew what she was doing. "Nope. I can't sleep anymore. I'm wide-awake. So, can we? Please?"  
  
Goku looked into the room where the other girls were sleeping and then back at his daughter. "We don't want to wake the others up, do we? If we start now, we'll be too loud."  
  
"Pretty please? We can go somewhere else. We don't have to do it here." Usagi grinned. She could tell that it was working, Her father already had the look of defeat on his face.  
  
"Fine. Let's go see how far we can get your power today." He stood up all the way and began to walk away. "But let's not go too far. I don't want to have to teleport back because we went out too far."  
  
Usagi nodded. That was reasonable request. "Ok. Let's go then."   
  
Goku quietly laughed to himself as he watched his daughter dash out in front of him. She was so eager to learn it was scary. She was the only one of his kids who had REALLY wanted to fight. Gohan had done it to save the earth. But his true dream was to be a scholar. Goten was too interested in girls to really like fighting. He once had to force him into entering a tournament. While Usagi always wanted to learn something new about fighting, which could prove to be dangerous. He knew it wasn't always good to love to fight for he himself loved to fight. It had gotten him into so much trouble. That's one of the main reasons why he always kept an eye on Usagi. Since she was a lot like him, he knew that she wouldn't turn down an opportunity to help someone. A prime example of this was the current situation that they had been in at the moment. The whole reason why she came to the past was to help him out. 'Looks like I'm really going to have to power up in order to be able to keep up with her.' That was a scary thought. It was hard for him to think of Usagi as holding so much power. She was his last child and wouldn't really need him to protect her for too much longer. She would be able to hold her own in a fight.  
  
He quickly picked up his feet and started running to catch up to her. He found that he had to raise his own power to the point of nearly being a Super Saiyan just to go at the same pace as she was, let alone being able to catch up to her. She appeared to be running faster than normal. He put his hands to his mouth to amplify his words. "This is fine. Let's stop here."   
  
Usagi stopped, as she was told to do so. Before she came to a complete stop, her feet slid out from underneath her, causing her to fall flat on her back. She didn't do anything but start laughing. "Wow, what a rush. That was fun!"  
  
Goku slowly walked over to his daughter and looked down into her eyes. "Do you know what you just did?" Usagi shook her head. "You just raised your power level without any trouble. That's why you got that sudden speed burst."  
  
"That was so cool. I wanna do it again. I didn't even feel my legs moving either. It was like they were moving on their own." She put her hands on either side of her body and slowly pushed herself up. She hadn't even felt the slightest bit tired from that either. Actually, she felt more energized than anything.  
  
"That's good. That means your body is getting used to your new power. So, are you ready to see how much you can power up?"  
  
Usagi's face was filled with a smile as she furiously nodded her head. "Yup! Sure am!"  
  
"Then go for it." Goku crossed his arms. He was quite curious as to how much of an advance she would have now. She proved to be moving faster than he had expected her too.   
  
"Heehee, ok." Usagi was excited. She hoped that she would be able to reach her full capacity soon. She knew that it wouldn't happen this time, but she knew it wouldn't be too long before it would happen though. This time, she wouldn't even have to get into her fighting stance. She had learned how to power up without even trying to hard. It was sort of a natural thing for her now, which puzzled her as well as the others.   
  
Goku grinned. Once again she had proved her ability to gain power at a fast rate. She was now at her full potential in this form, meaning he would no longer be able to fight her in his current form. "Good. Very good. You really are a fast learner kid. You know that? Somehow, your body is able to withstand double the amount of power it was able to hold yesterday. How do you do it?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "I dunno."  
  
"Anyway, it doesn't really matter. What does is getting you up to your highest power." 'The only people she can beat right now are androids 19 and 20. I have to get her in her Super Saiyan form before this is over. That's the only chance she has of surviving.' "Let's get this show on the road, shall we?" Usagi nodded as he too powered up. This time, he powered up to Super Saiyan. There was no way for her to have an effective spar with him if he was not for she would be too strong for him.  
  
Usagi smirked. She was quite pleased with herself. She had finally reached a level that forced him to do a great deal of powering up. "Ready when you are."  
  
"Great." He didn't waste any time after that. He made two separate Ki blasts in each hand. He fired one straight at her and the other over her head.  
  
Usagi easily dodged the one he fired at her by jumping back and firing one of her own blasts at it, causing them both to explode on impact. She stopped and shook her head at her father. "Come on, that second one didn't even touch any of the hairs on my head."  
  
"It wasn't meant to." He increased his power so he would be able to move without being detected by her senses.   
  
Usagi blinked her eyes when he disappeared. His plan had worked. She couldn't see him, nor could she sense him anymore. All of a sudden, from no where, she was hit from behind by something round and rather warm. "What the…" She turned around to be face to face with her father, who was smirking down at her. "Hey, that wasn't fair. I'm not that fast."  
  
"That was just a little something to show you what will happen if you face the androids unprepared. That's about how fast they are. And you can't detect the androids either. They have no energy signatures like we do. So that makes it even harder. But, they are a lot stronger than that energy ball that I just kicked back at you."  
  
"That was the ball you threw at me and missed me with?"  
  
"Yeah, I told you it wasn't meant to hit you that time."   
  
Usagi grinned and then giggled. "Oh." She made a fist and punched her father in the knee, causing it to lock up. "Wasn't one of the first things you told me was to be ready for anything? And that you should never stop to talk to your enemies?"   
  
Goku bent over and grabbed his knee. He had to manually unlock it. "And I'm glad you remembered it too."  
  
"Good." She didn't want to stay around him at that point any longer then she had to. She had just started a new game with him and he probably wouldn't be lenient with the rest of the fight. She didn't want to stand around and wait for him to attack. Instead, she flipped herself backwards, letting her feet ram into her father's chest and then chin as she went along.   
  
Goku wasn't too worried about that last hit from her, he was used to far more damage than that. Though he did find it interesting that she would want to really fight him for once instead of always playing around. "So, you want to make this real do you? You want to act as if this were a real fight? That can be made possible if you like."  
  
"Yup. I do. That way, I can be prepared for the androids."   
  
"Ok, that's reasonable." He would train the girls for the androids later though. He had already decided that once he was happy with the way they were all training, he would start their real training. He wanted them so prepared for the androids that they could beat them without really needing Usagi. And there was only one way to do that. He would have to power up to the power that the androids had. That was the only way that they would truly know what they were up against. Though he wouldn't be like his younger self and not tell them. He would make sure that they fully understood what he was doing.   
  
Usagi jumped into the air. "I'm getting bored. Can we do something now?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Of course." He too jumped to the air. If she really wanted to take this into a real fight, he would do it without much hesitation. It was time she learned what to do anyways. "Watch yourself." He made the first move once again by grabbing for her legs.   
  
Usagi let herself glide to the side before he could wrap his hands around either of her legs. But she quickly moved back to kick him in the face. Goku didn't let this get him down though. He had expected that and had already made an alternative plan in his head. He raised his hand and fired yet another blast at her, this time, it hit her right on. But probably not in the best place that it could have. Goku hadn't exactly aimed right that time.  
  
Usagi hadn't really felt the pain right away. But she was certain that she would. After her father shot his attack, she had felt a burning sensation on her tail. She immediately knew that she would soon be in severe pain. She slowly looked down to see that the fur on it was pitch black. That's what did it for her. She had been fine before she looked at it. "WHAAAAAAA!" Typical Usagi, ne That was still the one thing that got her down. That was the only thing that could ever bring her power down. As soon as her tail was hit, grabbed, squeezed or anything like that, her power was immediately reduced. Her one weak spot, it was. "Owie!" Thought blast lasted but a second, it had been a strong one. Thus, creating a lasting pain.  
  
Goku cringed at that sound. Though she was just as strong as he was at that moment, he still had the power to hurt her, severely. He raised himself to the level of which her tail hung. "Gees, honey, I'm sorry." He frowned. He had always been to careless when it came to fighting with her. He looked up at her as she began to drop her altitude. "Usagi, look at me." She did as she was told. "I just realized something.   
Dr. Gero had been watching me ever since I was just a boy. Just a bit younger than you even. Back when I still had a tail. He knows the secret of a Saiyan's tail and how sensitive we are when they are touched. He witnessed it with me and Raditz. Meaning he's probably programmed those androids to grab my tail if I had one, since they can grow back. So you know what I want you to do? I want you to hide your tail whenever you're fighting them. It would probably be a good idea to hide it when you and I are fighting too."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Ok daddy. I will. But, Vejita told me one day that I can get to a point where I can get rid of the fact that it hurts when it's pulled. He told me that's what he did."  
  
Goku grinned. "I don't think you would like me too much if we did that."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"This would make what that other Goku did to you look like comfort. Let me just say, it would involve your tail being pulled and squeezed and other things that makes it hurt. You would just have to get it used to the pain."  
  
"Whoa, no way. I think I'll just hide it when I'm fighting."  
  
"I think that's a good idea."  
  
Usagi put her tail under the skirt of her GI and wrapped it around her waist. Though it still hurt a lot, she decided that she would just have to live with the pain. "Ok, we can continue."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Outside the Room of Time and Spirit~~  
  
"Chi-Chi, I'm hungry." Goku walked into his bedroom to find his wife sitting at the desk on the far side of the room.   
  
"Goku, you just had dinner not ten minutes ago. You cannot honestly stand there and tell me that you're hungry again."  
  
"I am hungry. You didn't cook that much for dinner."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she turned around. "Goku, you had five servings. I think that's enough for one meal. So stop complaining. Why don't you do something constructive and think about how you're going to apologize to your daughter."  
  
Goku stepped back. He was ready for her to lash out at him at any given moment. "I already know how I'm going to do that, but I can't until she comes back. But, I need food."  
  
"Fine you want food?" She turned back around and opened one of the drawers of the desk. She violently pulled out a container and opened it. "Here!" She pulled out a wad of cash and threw it at her husband. "Go out to eat or something. I'm sick of listening to your griping all the time." Chi-Chi wasn't really upset about his complaint. She was still quite angry that he would ever think about treating Usagi the way that he did. And worse, he had gotten Gohan involved.   
  
Goku scurried about to pick up the money that had just been scattered about. He didn't know why he was getting yelled at, but he didn't care. As long as he got food. "Thanks Chi-Chi." As he got the money gathered, he left the room. "I'm taking Gohan too."  
  
"Fine! Leave me alone!" She waited until she heard the front door slam shut to get up from her seat. She walked over to the bed and sat down. "What is wrong with me? Why did I ever let him train her? It's up to her parents to train her. We aren't really her parents. Even though she still thinks of us that way, it's not the truth. And now Goku has made himself angry. But that's ok, once the Goku from the future leaves that's it. No more fighting for Usagi. I don't care how much she protests. I actually want to send her home. I know I wouldn't appreciate it if Gohan went into the past, or future for that matter, and not have him return because his father killed him. Yeah. I'm making the right decision. I'm not letting Usagi train anymore while she is here." She positioned her body on the bed so she would be able to lie down on it. Then she put her head on the soft white pillow and closed her eyes. She needed to do some thinking. She didn't know how she would tell Usagi that she couldn't train for the remainder of the time that she was there. She wouldn't let her fight the androids either. That would go for the other girls too.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Future~~  
  
Chi-Chi lay in one of Bulma's many guestrooms. She would have been out searching for parts for the new time machine, but she was too dizzy. All the worrying that she had done in the past day and a half had really begun to wear on her. She was still so angry with her daughter. She never would have thought that she would have done something this stupid. She had done a lot of thinking the night before too. Usagi would get more then just grounding. Chi-Chi had to lay down the law. Usagi was allowed to do whatever she pleased for far too long. She wouldn't let Goku stop her either. There was only one way that Usagi would ever learn. "I guess I'm going to have to take her fighting privileges away too." She closed her eyes and let her head cock to the side against the warmth of the pillow that lie beneath. She had forced herself to stay awake for far too long. It had been over twenty-four hours since she had last slept. She had refused to sleep until her daughter was safe at home and grounded in her room.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi opened her eyes to find herself in a wide-open empty space with a vast mist covering the ground. It appeared to her that she was floating in the air. But she could feel her feet being resisted by the hard ground beneath them. "Where am I? I fell asleep didn't I? Wait, how would I know that I've fallen asleep if I was asleep." She looked around. A cold chill was sent up her spin. The atmosphere was all of a sudden dark and eerie. She began to tremble when she could see a large building in the distance. It was totally destroyed and looked as if it had just been though a major battle. Only the front of it remained standing in normal form. It was a dome with four pillars holding it up. There were cracks all over it, but it still looked quite beautiful. On top of the dome, a small pole emerged and at the top of that pole was a piece of something silver. Though, it was pretty much destroyed so she couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be. The rest of the building and the land around it were in ruins. Every piece of concrete was crumbling. 'Why does that building look so familiar?' She looked around some more, not taking a single step in any direction. "Where am I?"  
  
"Hello?! Where am I?! Can somebody please explain to me what's going on?"  
  
Chi-Chi turned around. Out of no where, a voice was calling out. It was the voice of a female. Much like hers. It sounded kind of worried and scared. "Hello? Who's there?"  
  
The other woman smiled. At least she wasn't completely alone. She slowly began to walk towards the voice of the other female, careful not to trip over anything that might have been covered up by the soft white mist. "Where are you?"  
  
"I'm here, where you can get a clear view of that white building." She couldn't keep her eyes off the building. It seemed too familiar to her for comfort. She turned her head when she heard footsteps behind her. "So who are…" Her mouth dropped as far as it could as she stared at the woman before her.  
  
The other woman returned the expression, as she looked her over. "Who the hell do you think you are?!"  
  
Chi-Chi put her hands on her hips. "I might ask you the same question." The woman in front of her was an exact copy of her, only younger. "What the hell are you trying to pull? You can't just walk around and think you can look like me!"  
  
"I am Son Chi-Chi! I don't know who you think you are but I suggest you take that costume off. It's a horrible replica of me. I'm much prettier than that. Look, you have tones of wrinkles. And your hair, I would NEVER cut my hair short!"   
  
Chi-Chi was fuming. It was bad enough that another woman was traipsing around like her, but it was another thing to comment about her appearance. I AM Son Chi-Chi! I don't know who you think YOU are, but you certainly are NOT me!"  
  
"I AM who I say I am! You are not!"  
  
"You want to prove that in a battle. I am the strongest human female! I will easily kick your ass!"  
  
"FINE! But I think I'm the strongest. You're just a fan trying to act tough!"  
  
"Ladies, ladies. This is a sacred place. It has been though enough fighting already. Let's cool it." Both women are in awe as they turn to look at a magnificent vision of an Angel, dressed in all white with a soft silver glow surrounding her. She was graceful in her movements as she stepped closer to them, though, not too close to reveal her face. Neither was ready for such a shock yet. "Let me clear things up for the both of you. You are both Son Chi-Chi." Her voice carried in the air like a soft melody from that of a music box.   
  
Both women stare at the angel for a few moments and then at each other. Both in utter confusion. The area was silent, until the woman with the shorter hair decided to break it. "What do you mean?"  
  
The silver angel smiled. She knew that there would be this great confusion. "One of you is from the future, while the other, is from the past."  
  
Here we go with the F and P titles again F. Chi-Chi closed her mouth just before she was about to say something. "Come again."  
  
"It's true. I have brought you to my home from long ago." She gazed upon the stark white building that lie behind the two women. "This is also my grave. Where my soul was put to rest. Please believe me when I tell you this."  
  
P. Chi-Chi looked to the woman on her left. She knew that what the angel was telling her was true. It wasn't just the fact that her heart was telling her to believe it, but the uncanny resemblance between herself and the other woman gave it away too. "You're Usagi's mother, I presume."  
  
F. Chi-Chi looked to her right. Her face was immediately taken over with fear. "You know where my baby is?"  
  
P. Chi-Chi nodded. "Yes, she is safe with me. In the past. Along with all of her friends. I know this must be hard for you. To live without your daughter. I know it's tough, just like when Gohan was taken from me."  
  
F. Chi-Chi looked down to the ground. "Yes. I remember that all too well." She looked up. "How is she? Does she talk about me often? Bulma told me that time travels much faster in your time with the way that she built the time machine. How long has it been since she's been with you now? Nearly a year and a half already. That's too long really. I miss her dearly and it's only been a day and a half since she's left us."  
  
P. Chi-Chi knew that that's all that it took. A day away from your child and not having the power to get it back was torture. "There is one question that lingers on in my mind, if you don't mind me asking."  
  
F. Chi-Chi looked up. "Yes?"  
  
"Why would you be so stupid as to let a sweet girl like Usagi fight with a stupid man like Goku? Do you know what he did to her today? He nearly killed her, on purpose. Just to get some stupid power out of her! Now I'm asking what the hell kind of blow to the head would make you so blind as to let her train with her pigheaded father?!"  
  
F. Chi-Chi frowned. "Do you think I WANTED to let her fight?! Hell no I didn't! But I was dumb enough to tell Goku the day after she was born that if she asked, he could train her. Then on her second day of school, when she was picked on, she asked us if she could fight. And you know what I had to do? I had to say 'yes'. I couldn't exactly tell her 'no' afterwards either. Do you know what it's like to see your daughter's face filled with disappointment?! But don't worry about that anymore. She will not be training after she gets back. She is in so much trouble. If she ever wants to fight again, she will have to wait until she's old enough to move out of my house. I don't care anymore! I've given her WAY too many chances! And about her nearly being killed, you make sure you beat the crap out of Goku! Then tell him it's from her mother!"  
  
"Don't worry about that. I will. And good for you. Usagi doesn't need to train. She's too lazy anyways. Her grades are suffering for it. She doesn't care about her grades; she never studies. Even though she is a bright kid, she just won't apply herself. I'm not letting her fight anymore either."  
  
"Ladies, I've listened to enough. This is not the reason why I have called you here today. My time is short for I only have a small amount of energy left. I have made the visit once before, which used half of my remaining energy, I was saving the last for this last for this visit. When my energy is gone my soul will be sealed within this planet and we will become one. Then, only the one with the power of this planet will be able to wake me. But let's not worry about that children." Both Chi-Chi's look at each other, both more confused then before. What did she mean by saying that she had made a visit once before. What did she mean by saying that one with the power of the planet can wake her? The angel smiled. Both of the women before her represented hope. Hope for her people. "Please, you must allow your daughter to fight. Her life depends on it. The world as you know it depends on her. She must become strong and you must watch over her, protect her, and make sure she learns. I know you are angry at her, Chi-Chi of the future, but it is imperative that you allow her to keep fighting with her father. And you, Chi-Chi of the past, you also play a big role in this. You can not stop her training. Don't worry, Goku will not try anything stupid. He has learned his lesson. But that is not the biggest part of the deal. In the morning, Goku of the future…"  
  
F. Chi-Chi's eyes widened. "What?! MY GOKU IS IN THE PAST?!"  
  
"Yes, but only for one day. Please allow me to continue." F. Chi-Chi nodded and blushed in embarrassment. She hadn't meant to burst out like that. "Thank you. Anyways, he is currently training with the girls in the room of Time and Spirit. He will come out in the morning. When he does, however, I believe that he will ask you something that you will immediately turn down. He will ask you to go in and train with them for the remainder of the time."  
  
Now P. Chi-Chi's eyes widened. "What are you talking about? I can't train with them. I can't fight. Not as well as they can. You've got to be crazy. Why can't Goku do it?"  
  
"Because, he doesn't want the other Goku near her for a while. He's still quite upset about what he did. I'm begging you to go in with them. If you do not, your Goku will probably go in with them. while Goku is a great fighter and trainer, he teaches them to fight solo only. This is a weakness that Usagi doesn't have. He can't see this though. For her, a team, or as she puts it, friends, are stronger then the some of the parts. She knows that together they are stronger then one alone. She had this all figured out days ago. She and Rei had even worked on a combined attack, which Rei has already taught the other girls. But Goku will try to pull them away from this. He will not see the advantages to fighting this way. Though they area made stronger, it is easier for the enemy to attack them and do some real damage since they will all be together in the same spot. It also takes time to build up the attack. But, it does do a lot of good. If they are allowed to work on it, it will prove to be useful. You will help them with this. Both parties will teach each other things. So what do you say? Will you help the girls?"  
  
Both women stare at the angel in front of them and then glance to each other. P. Chi-Chi shrugged as she directed her attention back to the angel. "I'll have to think about it."  
  
"Chi-Chi of the future, will you help your daughter by allowing her to fight?"  
  
"We'll see."  
  
The angel giggled. "Stubborn as always. But that's ok. I'm open to anything."  
  
F. Chi-Chi still had many questions. Three of them stood out in her mind most of all though. "How do you know all this about my family? Why is Usagi so important? Who are you?"  
  
"I cannot answer the second question, but I can answer the first and last one. To sum it all up, let's just say I am one of Usagi's many guardian angels. I bid you farewell." With that, her body began to fade away until there was nothing left but sparkles around the form of where her body used to stand.  
  
F. Chi-Chi looked to her younger self. "Take care of my baby."  
  
P. Chi-Chi nodded. "I will. Don't you worry."  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. Interesting wasn't it? I thought so. Anyway, what do you think? Was it good or bad? Please tell me. Thanks.)  
  
  



	54. Part 16

P. Chi-Chi watched as her older self started to dissipate into the air, just as the white angel had. She looked down to her hand. It too had begun to dissolve into beautiful sparkles. She hadn't felt like she was leaving. Though, she felt as if she was in pure bliss. Like this place would one day be important to her and her family. She moved her hand away and saw something twinkling through some rubble below her feet. 'What's this?' She bent down and extended her hand to pick up the shimmering jewel that was halfway buried. She had to move away some debris before she could fully see it in her vision, but the reward was unimaginable. It was a pair of silver crescent moon earrings. They were a lovely sight indeed. P. Chi-Chi looked around. "The angel, these must have been hers. She must have dropped them while she was talking with us." She clasped her fingers tightly around her new treasure and slowly disappeared back into her world.  
  
~~Room of Time and Spirit~~  
  
Two and a half months later Hey, that dream sequence took a long time in the "Real world"   
  
"Come on Minako! Come on Ami! We know you can do it!" Usagi sat on the sidelines with her friends, Makoto and Rei, of a very intense fight between her father and her other friends. It had been going on for about twenty minutes now, with only one of the parties getting worn out.   
  
Currently, the two female fighters were trying to double-team the older fighter. Though, since they were beginning to wear low on energy, he was able to match their attacks without much effort. Goku looked over to his daughter while throwing Ami into Minako by her foot. "What? After all I've done for you and you're not going to cheer me on?"  
  
Usagi giggled as she smiled mischievously. "Nuh-uh. You're not on my team." She pulled her legs up to lean against her chest as she wrapped her arms around them. "Better watch out."  
  
"Huh?" He turned his head back just in time to watch two legs swinging backwards at his face. "Whoa!" His head was thrown back with a great force. So much, that he fell back to the ground. "Dang you guys. Where did that come from?" He grabbed his face and covered it with the full length of his hands as it began to feel warm from the hit.   
  
Minako leaned over the Saiyan fighter and grinned. "You shouldn't let yourself get distracted Goku." With that being said, she kicked him in his side.  
  
Goku, having expected a dirty trick like that, reached out and grabbed her foot before she was able to pull it safely back within her 'personal bubble.' "You should have known better then to do something like that. I'm always expecting it." He had fought long enough with all of the girls to know that they would always try stuff like that.  
  
With one tug from his arm, Goku had Minako fallen onto the ground. He quickly rose to his feet and looked over Minako, who was currently unable to get up. "Hehe, too much for ya?" He turned around and directed his attention towards the blue haired fighter. "What do you say? You wanna continue?"  
  
Ami nervously turned to her friends who stood on the sideline. She had been so worn out from all of the fighting that she had already done. "Uhhh..."  
  
Usagi winked at Ami as she grinned. "Go Ami!"  
  
Ami turned back to Goku. She wouldn't even give him the satisfaction of telling him that she would be continuing. Instead, she put her hands together and formed an aqua blue Ki attack. She didn't give Goku enough time to react to the energy build up before she fired it. Within the time that she had fired the attack at her opponent and the time that it was nearly close enough to hit him, she jumped off to the right in hopes to avoid any retaliation attack that may have come from him.  
  
Goku easily avoided the attack. He quickly jumped to the air and began to build up an attack of his own, but was forced back down by a greater power. One in which he had not expected. His body slammed hard against the ground, causing it to shake. He grabbed the back of his neck, where he had been hit. There was only one person who could have possibly done that to him. There was only one person in that room with a power remotely stronger than his own at the time. "Usaaagiii!" He turned his head around to see his daughter hovering over him. She had had an unfair advantage over him at the time for she was still powered up to her fullest. Which was the normal power of a Super Saiyan, while he was still powered at a very low level, compared to hers.  
  
Usagi giggled. She had found what she just did very funny. Actually, she was rather enjoying her newfound power. In order for her father to be able block any of her attacks, he would have to have been a Super Saiyan. "I'm just having some fun."  
  
Goku stood to his feet. "I know you were. Though there is a separate time for fun, and a separate time for being serious." He didn't want to get into having to scold her so decided that he would have to change the subject fast. What she had done wasn't THAT bad. He was about to call off the spar anyways. He had other things that he wanted to do. His time in that room was nearly coming to an end and there were still many things that he had wanted to teach the kids. Usagi still hadn't reached her greater level yet. He hadn't really expected things to take as long as they had been taking, but it WAS a lot of power that she was trying to call out. He would let her body take as long as it needed.   
  
He put his hand into a small brown bag that was tied to his sash. "Here, now we will start the real training for the day." He tossed a forth of a Senzu bean to Minako and Ami. That was just enough to replenish their energy for their next fight. "I want you all to fight me now. But, I want to let you all know. I will be fighting with the same strength as androids 17 and 18. I want you to know what you're up against. If androids 19 and 20 do happen to get past the Goku and Vejita of this time, then you will have to fight the other two. They are more deadly then anything you have ever gone up against. They never wear low on power. You can't even sense their power."  
  
Minako consumed the Senzu bean, which was just thrown to her. She could immediately feel her energy returning to regenerate her body. "What will happen if we can't beat them?"  
  
"I don't think you have to worry about that. I don't think the second pair will be awakened. You guys have enough power in you to beat them. Everyone else will be there to help, though, don't count of relying on them, as I have said before. They aren't trustworthy. I know you don't have to worry about Cell. He is still in his larva form. But, you will have to destroy Gero's lab if you don't want the Cell of this time to come to life." 'Hey, maybe Kami will stay un-merged from Piccolo in this time.' "So, are you ready?" He asked as he looked around to the eager faces of all the young fighters, who all nodded back at him. "Ok then. Let's start this thing." His power level was able to rise with just a short thought about it. His hair flared up in its golden color as he turned Super Saiyan. But he didn't stop there. The androids were much more powerful with the power that of a Super Saiyan. He continued to let his power increase, stopping it just before he reached level two. He relaxed his muscles as much as he could, being careful not to relax too much. "All right. I'm finished."  
  
Rei stared in awe. She liked to consider herself strong, but not THAT strong. His power was incredible. She never knew that he possessed such power. Though she knew that it had to have gone on beyond that even. Usagi's power was nearly that much when she had finished with her transformation. "I...uh...I think we can do this." She turned her head to Makoto and Usagi. "Right girls?"  
  
Ami analyzed his power in her head. She had not thought of any strategies that could attack anything of that power. She only knew of one thing that may work. And that was their combined attack that they had been working hard on. "Let's hope so." She stepped back. She had been too close to him for comfort.  
  
Makoto, on the other hand, sort of liked this. She had been eager to know what she would be up against. She actually liked this idea. She would know what she needed to work on. Whether it be speed, or defenses. She lowered herself into her fighting stance as she glanced over to Minako. "Let's make this worth our while."  
  
Usagi knew better then to jump into the fight, like Makoto appeared to want to do. She knew how her father fought. Not only had she been sparring with him for the past few months, but also she had watched him spar with her brothers for countless hours when she was younger. She knew how he really fought. Most of the time he held back when he was fighting with them. But this was to train for real. He was going to act as if he was one of the androids, to get them ready. She would have to take her time to plan things out instead of just going for them. Like Ami usually did. "I guess we're ready now." She made sure that her power level was raised to its greatest extent. She wanted to use all of the power the she possessed. Though, she knew it wouldn't be enough. He was far stronger then even she was at the moment. But that was ok with her. "Let's do this already."  
  
Goku smirked. "Right."   
  
The two parties glared at each other. Neither of them wanted to make the first move. Though Makoto had to hold herself back. She so wanted to just start, but she knew that if she had, she would be annihilated before she even got close enough to punch him. She knew what they had to do. They would have to fight using teamwork. One would have to do something to distract him, while the other would attack. They had been working on those kinds of attacks for a while. This was a perfect time to use them.  
  
Minako grabbed Usagi's wrist, letting her know that she was ready to start. Usagi nodded. She kept her eyes on her father not wanting to take them off for fear if she did he would attack. "Ready?" She whispered. Without waiting for a reply, she figured that Minako was ready since she was the one who basically suggested they attack together, both girls shot out from their position and raced towards Goku.  
  
Minako was in charge of creating a diversion. Usagi was stronger and could therefore hit harder at the moment. She was a valuable asset. Plus, Minako was slower. Which was what they needed. If Usagi would have been the one to create the diversion, she would have been incredibly fast. Thus making Goku use more speed too. Minako most likely would not have been able to keep up. This way, Minako would slow down Goku, while Usagi would have been able to use her full speed and hit Goku easier.  
  
Minako slid underneath Goku's leg and quickly bounced back to her feet. She turned around, planning to kick him in the lower back, but found a fist planted firmly into her cheek.  
  
Usagi, who was flying towards her father and about to kick him, stopped cold in her spot. Even she hadn't expected that much speed from him. She decided to ditch the kicking idea and went straight to her second plan. That was to retreat and get the others. She couldn't risk going in alone. It was crazy. "Guys...." She turned around and started to fly back to her friends.  
  
Goku reached out and grabbed his daughter by the back of the neck. "That's one thing you just learned. Be prepared." With that, he flipped her over his back and bashed her body against the floor. "These androids are ruthless. They don't care about you or anyone else. They kill for the fun of it."  
  
For once Ami didn't know what to do. Before, she easily made a plan to defeat, or at least, hit Goku with a few good attacks. But there was no way for her to match his speed. But she wouldn't give up. She would continue to analyze his fighting styles and hope for the best.   
  
All of a sudden, she was pushed to the ground. "What the..." She turned over on her side to see Rei lying on top of her.   
  
Rei sat up and looked down at Ami. "Pay attention Ami. You nearly got hit. Luckily I was standing by you." She stood up and ran off to go and help her friends fight.  
  
Ami was stunned. She had never missed an attack before. Though, she was letting her mind wander quite a bit. She was too worried about finding his weak spot. She needed to just fight him. She couldn't do this in a real battle. She pushed herself off of the ground and frowned at Goku, who was currently, throwing and dodging punches with Makoto. "Yikes. Maybe I should think about helping." She quickly shrugged her thoughts about weaknesses off and joined to rest of the group.  
  
Makoto dodged a punch to her shoulder as she stepped to her left. She retaliated by sending a punch of her own to Goku's hip. He blocked the punch with his forearm, while he dodged a kick from Rei to his head. He threw his head back and hit Rei's legs with it, while kicking Minako away with his left leg. Things went on like this for about ten minutes. Nearly anything that the girls had to give Goku, he blocked. Anything that did actually make it to him had barely any impact on him at all.  
  
When he finally decided that he had had enough, he jumped away from the fight, leaving his five opponents down on the ground. He wasn't slightly worn out, but not to the point where he needed to rest. He was far from that. The girls seemed to be holding up. Well, as well as anyone of their skill level could. Their bodies were filled with blood from their fighting, but that was to be expected. He pulled his hands to his side and began to build up, once again. "Ka...Me...Ha..."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened. That was one attack that you didn't want to be in the way of when the person you were fighting was much stronger then you are. "Everyone out of the way." She jumped into the air as her friends around her ran to opposite sides of the area.  
  
Goku grinned as he paused his attack. "I don't need to target all of you. One is just fine."  
  
Usagi knew that that was true. There was only one thing that she could think of that could take him out at that point. The problem was, getting close enough to do it. "ATTTACK NOW!"  
  
Without any hesitation from any of the girls, they all attacked with their strongest Ki attack that they could muster up from their tired bodies. All except for Usagi, who had other plans. She watched as the four mysteriously different colored attacks made their way to her father, who just stood there. He still had his attack halfway powered up. She was certain that if they all hit at once, that he would be damaged, allowing her time to move in and carry on with her own plans.   
  
The four attacks hit their target and exploded with a giant roar. A blanket of smoke covered her father. She giggled to herself. Without even taking the time to read his power level to see if he was effected, she darted from her spot with her hands out. She built up her own energy as she neared the cloud of smoke. Her hands began to glow with a fizzled yellow aura. 'Hehehe...let's see you block this daddy.'   
  
Just as she finally reached her destination, the smoke was lifted without warning as a large yellow ball came flying out right for her. Unaware of what was about to happen, Usagi panicked and stopped herself short. Before she could fully turn around, she was being thrown to the ground by her father's Kamehameha. 'Where did that come from?' She smash into the ground, stomach first. "Ooo..."  
  
Goku crossed his arms as he landed. He examined his daughter's arm and the new wound, which he just made on it. "Don't ever let me catch you doing that again! Had you tried to sense what I was doing, you would have known about that attack. You could have taken proper action and tried to avoid it. If I was your real enemy, I would have already attacked you again and probably killed you. This is not a game so don't act like it is." He looked around to the other girls who were now approaching the battlefield. "That goes for the rest of you too."   
  
Usagi lifted her arm, to find that it was stiffer than before the attack. 'Oh great.' She turned her head ever so slowly to look at her arm, which was covered in freshly revealed blood. 'I guess I still have to fight like this.' "Sorry."  
  
Ami smiled to herself. She knew what Usagi was trying to do back there. She was going to use her stunning attack. But why had she done it that way? She was able to turn it into an attack that could be thrown. Of course, every time that she had used it before I had failed. It just wasn't fast enough. Usagi probably realized that. And once they had him in her attack, not only would her attack eat away at him, but also they could possibly find a way to attack him without disrupting the attack. But the question was how would they go about getting Usagi close enough to do such a thing? He was too fast for them to get near. And whenever they did get close to him, he was always so quick to hit them away. She waited until the fight started up again to pull Usagi aside.  
  
Usagi impatiently waited for Ami to tell he why she asked her aside. She wanted to get back to the fight as soon as possible. "What is it Ami?" She held her wounded arm close to her body.   
  
"You know how you were going to attack your dad with your little stun attack?" Usagi nodded. "Well, that may be the only way we can get him down right now. He's too fast right now. Too fast for us to get near him. But, if we can somehow distract him long enough to use that attack on him, then we may be able to win this."  
  
Usagi grinned. That was what she was going for before, but she had learned that it would take much more then four attacks to get him stopped long enough. It would be pointless to attack him head on all the time too for the fact that there would wear themselves out faster then they would be wearing him out. "We could try out combined attack."  
  
Ami nodded. That had crossed her mind. "We should try it. Then, as soon as we release, you can teleport to him and grab him."   
  
"Right. That sounds like a plan."  
  
Ami looked past her friend to the other's, who were not able to hold up as well against Goku as they had when the spar first started. Every hit took its toll on the girls. "We should execute right away. You keep your dad busy while I inform the others of our plan."  
  
Usagi nodded. "That's a good idea. I'll get on it right away." Usagi flew off in the direction of the fight. She knew what she had to do. Though, she didn't know how well her body would hold up.   
  
She stopped and crossed her arms when she got in a good yelling range. "Hey you!" Goku finished up his roundhouse kick on Rei and turned around to look at his daughter. "Yeah you! Bet you can't catch me!" She stuck out her and made a face at him, taking off shortly after to avoid any sudden attack that may have been coming.  
  
Goku grinned as he gave himself a power burst, flaring his aura around his body. He didn't have to chase her for too long. She had been much slower than he was and he could feel her power decreasing as the spar wore on. But, this is what he wanted them to go through. He wanted them to know what it was like to fight an enemy who was much stronger then them. Even though he didn't think they would have to, he wanted them to know. Just in case something did happen and the people of this time couldn't protect him. They had come up with some good strategies so far, yet none of them had worked. Later, he would let them know what they should work on, and what they should ditch.   
  
He reached out and grabbed a hold of the back of his daughter's GI. "Caught you." He pulled her close to him and flipped her around so she was facing him. "Think fast." He raised his knee and violently inserted it into her stomach.  
  
Usagi curled up in sever pain. Getting hit in the stomach was nearly as bad as getting her tail hit, which she had carefully tucked under her GI and around her waist. Though, a few times it had nearly been hit when she was fighting fast hand to hand combat with her father. "Owe...owe...owe..."  
  
"Don't stop long enough to let the pain sink in! Try to ignore it!" He wrapped his fingers around her waist, raised her up over his head, and threw her down to the ground with all his strength.  
  
Usagi tumbled to the ground, unable to stop herself for the force of the air pressing against her body was far to great for her to handle. When she hit, a hole was created from the impact with Usagi falling in it. "Why me?" She raised her hand to feel around the outside area of the hole.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Back with the others...  
  
"So you guys want to pull a combined attack on him?" Makoto thought that it was a great idea. It was a good way to test out the strength of it. They had never really tested it out on much. Not anything with the power of what Goku currently had. It was perfect.  
  
Ami nodded as she looked over her shoulder to the fight between Usagi and Goku. Usagi didn't look too good. It was hard enough for them to all fight him, let alone the fact that Usagi was trying to go solo. "Yeah. We need to act fast."  
  
"Right." The four girls jumped into the air, giving it their all, and boosted themselves to the fight.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku threw Usagi threw Usagi away from him, after she finally made it close to him. But not close enough to touch him. He raced past Usagi and hit her back the other way once she reached him, doing the same on the other side of her. He went back and fourth like this until he felt the other fighters' energy behind him. He looked at them and smiled. "Hi ladies."  
  
Usagi was finally allowed to touch the ground again. She had a splitting headache and her skin was raw all over from the constant beatings in which she had just received. "Whoa, I don't feel so good anymore." She lay on the ground with all of her limbs spread out as far away from her body as they could get. Her tail had even loosened from its hold around her body.   
  
Minako could sympathize for Usagi. She had been through her fair share of hits that day. "Come on Usagi. We need to do this."  
  
Goku smirked in fascination. "What are you guys planning?" He couldn't wait to see what they had up their sleeves.  
  
Usagi slowly rose to her feet. She hadn't really wanted to, but she needed to continue. She was determined to win this. And besides, if this were a real fight, she wouldn't have been allowed to just give up whenever she wanted to. "Right. I guess we do." She slowly staggered over to her fellow fighters, careful not to walk to close to her father. She was a bit surprised to see that he didn't attack her.   
  
She sighed as she let herself lean against Makoto. "Wow. I'm really tired now."  
  
"Don't give up." Makoto turned her head to Usagi's ear. "You're the most important part of this attack. It will be over soon.  
  
That was motivation enough for Usagi. She had had enough of this. Anything to get it over with was great for her. "Ok. Let's get this done." She placed both of her hands standing straight up in front of her, much like the other girls did. Their hands created a ring with a large opening on one side of it. This is where they would concentrate all of their energy.  
  
Goku knew right off the bat what they were doing. He had seen them practicing it many times before. But, he decided to let them proceed with it. "Let's speed things up girls. Enemies don't want to wait forever to be attacked. They would rather do the attacking." He watched as a massive energy ball was formed in the opening. Each of the girls' colors mixed in to make a spiral effect.   
  
They all pulled back on the attack. Rei looked around to her friends. She didn't know how much longer they could hold it. It was too powerful for them to hold. They were running low on energy. "On three. One...two..."  
  
"THREE!" Usagi released her part of the blast at the same exact time as the others, which was exactly what they had been practicing.  
  
Goku couldn't believe the amount of energy that it held. It was indeed a great attack, but it wasn't completely flawless. One of its major flaws being the amount of time it took to build it up. Since it did take so much time, he was able to prepare himself to move whenever it began to move. Which is precisely what he did. He didn't wait around for it to get him. But, before he totally got out of the area, he stopped to attack the group, which was his downfall.  
  
Usagi teleported to her father and grabbed onto his back. "I have you now!" She began concentrating the last of her energy on her special attack.  
  
'Crap.' "Get off me." Goku grabbed a hold of Usagi's wounded arm, on purpose. He knew that she would let go if he did. He knew exactly what she was going to do.  
  
As much as it hurt, Usagi didn't budge her arm. She had to bite her lower lip in order to keep her grip. She remembered what her father had just told her not ten minutes ago about not letting the pain sink in. Her hands began to glow again. This time, they were firmly placed around their target.  
  
Goku tried to pry his daughter's hands off of him, but it was even harder since she was on his back. He couldn't reach her very well. "Great. Just great. The one thing NO ONE can guard against."  
  
Usagi giggled. "That's right." She could feel her energy leaving her body as it was distributed all around her father's. But, something was wrong. He was still moving all about. His body was covered with her energy, yet, he was still moving. She closed her eyes. 'He's too strong. I need more power. But, I'm all tapped out.'   
  
Goku began to thrash his body all about. He didn't want her to somehow get a power boost from anywhere. He didn't enjoy being in this attack. But his power seemed to be much stronger then hers. Too strong for her to make an effective attack. Her finger's dug into his skin as she tightened her grip. He felt her tail wrap around his leg for extra leverage. Without even thinking about what she was doing, Usagi began to raise her powerlevel higher and higher. Goku felt it. He was sure that the others had felt it too by they way they were looking at him. 'What? What if she hurts herself again?' "Stop."  
  
Usagi opened her eyes. "Stop what?" She raised it even higher. She didn't know what he was talking about. She didn't know what she was doing. And if he was referring to her attack, he was nuts if he thought he was going to stop her by telling her to stop.  
  
Goku began to get worried. Though her body didn't seem to be reacting, he wasn't totally sure. He looked over his shoulder and gasped at what he saw. Usagi's hair flickered silver over and over. "Oh boy..." He looked down to her tail around his leg, it too was turning sliver. "Do you realize what you're doing?"  
  
Usagi unconsciously raised the amount of power that she was putting into her attack. Surprisingly, she hadn't even felt the power change. "Yes."  
  
Goku sighed. Obviously she didn't otherwise she would be freaking out and jumping for joy. He looked back at her again once he felt a major power increase from no where. 'Good god.' Her hair was totally silver. Like the day he had arrived. It was so bright that he had to squint just to look at her. "Usagi you did it." And that's when it happened. He could no longer move.  
  
Usagi smiled when he stopped his motion. Her attack had finally worked. But how? She pulled her head back and got a good look at her father's body and could have screamed. "Why is it silver?" She let go of her father and pulled back, while looking at her hands in confusion. "What the..." Her aura was silver too.  
  
Goku smiled as he turned around. He hadn't been in that attack for too long. He still fully had his energy. "Congratulations Usagi. You've just reached your level of Super Saiyan."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened. "I what?" She looked over to her hair. It was pure silver. "Whoa...I did, didn't I?" She looked up at her father, her face consumed with a smile. "THIS IS SO COOL!"  
  
Goku chuckled. 'I knew she didn't know what she was doing.' He powered back down to his normal level. "Very good. I'm proud of you. You've accomplished a lot in the past few months here. Your body is fully able to hold that power now. You learned to use it through training and not hate or fear. Your body is ready for it. It wasn't forced upon it. That's why you are able to use it." Usagi began to power down too. "Hey wait, don't do that. I want you to get a feel for the power. I want you to get used to it for a while."  
  
Usagi powered back up. "Sorry."  
  
Goku landed to the ground. He motioned Usagi to do the same. "It's ok. I'm not mad." He looked around to the girls on the other side of him. "All of you gather around. I need to talk to you." He watched as they complied with what he told them to do. "Ok, well, as you know, Usagi has reached her so far, highest potential. But, that's not what I need to talk to you about. It's about our fight we just had." He could tell that all of the girls were very tired and worn out but he couldn't give them Senzu beans. It was important for them to learn to heal on their own. "Now then, you guys fought very well. Though you have a lot of work to do before you meet the androids. That's not bad though. It's expected that you aren't up to their level. Some things you need to work on, I don't have too many problems with what you're doing. I pointed out a few things during the fight, work on them. My major beef is that combined attack. Though it is strong it takes up a lot of time. Too much time actually. It also leaves you guys together for too long in one space. That makes it easier for the enemy to attack you all at once. It's better to be spread out. I know how much you guys love that attack, but it's dangerous to you as fighters and will hold you back. But I was VERY impressed with your overall skill." He looked to Usagi. She had taken some of the hardest beatings. "Sorry about that kiddo."  
  
Usagi smiled. Though it hurt a lot, she knew it was to help her. "That's ok daddy."  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. What did you think? Was it good, or bad? Please tell me. Thank you!)  



	55. Part 17

~~Room of Time and Spirit~~  
  
Two more months passed with the small warriors training for the day in which the androids would arrive. Goku wasn't the least bit worried. With Usagi's power at it's current level there was no reason too. Plus, the other girls' power had grown at an oddly fast rate. He was not alt all worried about leaving them either. He wouldn't have to worry about leaving them all alone for he would ask Chi-Chi to come in and train with them. She was a fine fighter and could help them. It was time for them to learn how to fight with other people besides him. Who knows, they could even learn something from her. He walked out of the living area into the giant fighting field where the girls were sparring with each other. He had lately only been watching their fights. He wanted them to learn each other's fighting style and skill inside and out. It would prove to help them in the final battle. He was happy that they had stopped their combined attack too. Though they were quite fond of it, it really was a drawback. They could get hurt had they tried to use it.  
  
He sighed as he gazed upon their spar. So many months had past since he had arrived. There were only about three months left before they would have to leave the room. But he himself only had a few minutes left. Ten to be exact. He hated to have to leave. "Hey guys. Lookin' good."  
  
The girls stopped their assault on each other and turned to Goku. They all had the look of disappointment on their faces for they knew what was going to happen in just a few minutes. Minako waved to the Saiyan. "Hey Goku! How's it goin?" She grunted as she was punched in the cheek, which she grabbed immediately after and frowned. She turned her head to her attacker. "Hey! What was that for?"  
  
Makoto quietly giggled to herself. "Well, you were just standing there. You should have been able to sense that."  
  
Minako fully turned her body towards Makoto. "You're just jealous that I'm a better fighter than you are."  
  
Makoto snorted. "You wish."  
  
"You want a piece of me?!" Minako positioned her body to look more intimidating, though she was really only joking.  
  
Ami buried her face in her hand. She hated it when they went at it like this. "You guys. Don't do this right now."  
  
Goku laughed as he walked towards the group. "They're always going at it. It's just in their nature to do so."  
  
Usagi turned to her father from watching her friends. She hadn't been happy at all. The only way that she would be happy is if he were allowed to stay or if she were allowed to go home. But she knew that would never happen. Not until the Guardian of Time saw fit, would she go home. "Do you really have to leave now?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes. I COULD stay just a bit longer but I have someone I have to talk to first. I'm sorry." Goku could see Usagi's sadness in her eyes. It was quite obvious how she was feeling. There was no way to help it either. He would only be able to stay another month in the room for a maximum of one month. They wouldn't get that much done in just one month. "Don't worry. You'll be home before you know it."  
  
'Yeah and then I have to face mom.' "But that's not fair. I want you to stay here. Isn't there a way for us to talk to the guardian of time?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Come on don't be so down. Smile Usagi. You've accomplished a lot in just a short time. You should be proud of yourself. All of you should be proud. You have all come a long way."  
  
Usagi tried to put on a smile but it wasn't working. Her heart just wasn't in it. She knew that her father probably knew it was fake. There was no feeling behind it. There was no way that she could possibly be happy at a time like this. "I know. But…" She looked up to the clock. He only had five minutes left.   
  
Rei put her hand on Usagi's shoulder. "Hey look at things this way Usagi. The Goku of this time can't hurt you anymore thanks to your dad. Now if he tries anything again, you can show him your new power."  
  
That brought a hint of a smile on Usagi's face. She hadn't thought of that. He would be surprised by how much her power had grown. "Hehe, yeah. That's right huh."  
  
"Yeah, now we can wipe that smirk off of his face." Everyone turned and looked at Ami in awe. They had never heard her say anything like that. "What? It's true. We've all gotten stronger." She frowned when Minako burst out laughing. "And what is so funny?"  
  
"What you just said. That's the funniest thing that has EVER come out of your mouth. Normally you're totally calm and now…now…" She couldn't go on. She found this whole situation very humorous.  
  
Ami smiled. "Yeah. I guess so."  
  
Usagi found that kind of odd. Ami had changed so much since she started fighting. Though she never gave up on her studying, she had become a bit more carefree. But not too much. Usagi still found her to be too much of a bookworm. "Cool Ami." She put her arm around her. "You're turning over to the dark side."  
  
Ami giggled. "Not quite."  
  
"Ami…" Goku still had something that he needed to ask her. "What will your mom think of you fighting? I'm probably going to see her when I get back. What shall I tell her?"  
  
Ami stopped giggling and got serious again. That was one subject in which she had given much thought too. She knew her mother wouldn't agree with it, but her mother had not been there to stop her. "Don't tell her that I'm fighting Goku. I want to be the one to tell her."  
  
Goku nodded. "Alright." He turned his head to the room behind him where he heard the noise of a door opening up behind him. "I think Popo is here to get me guys." He turned back to the young fighters and smiled. He was so proud of their progress. "I guess I'll be seeing you guys in the future then. I'll be waiting for a detailed explanation of everything that happened ok?" They still looked quite glum. "Don't worry you guys. You'll do fine."  
  
Usagi walked to her father and hugged him as hard as she could. "I'll miss you." She enjoyed feeling him once again and made a memory of it. She didn't know how long it would be before she could be that close to him again. It could have been a matter of days or it could be years before she would see him again.   
  
Goku hugged back. He wouldn't have to be without her for too long. She would only be gone for a few days in his time. "I'll be waiting for your return." He turned his head when he heard footsteps. "I'll be there in a minute Popo." He looked back down to his daughter and then to her friends. "Don't worry. Fear is the worst emotion felt when you're in a fight. Just remember what you have learned and you will do fine."  
  
Usagi looked up. "Bye daddy. I love you."  
  
Goku smiled. "I know. I love you too babe." He reluctantly pulled away from his daughter. "See you later."  
  
"Bye Goku! Have fun in the future!" Shouted all the girls.  
  
Goku waved over his shoulder as he turned around. "Bye." He walked to Popo, who then led him out of the room of Spirit and Time. He grabbed the bag of Senzu beans off of the table before he left.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi turned to her friends once her father was totally out of the room. Though she felt bad that he had to leave her, she knew that it had to be done. There was no way to keep him there and she had to continue with her fighting. "I think we should start working on our combined attacks."  
  
"Didn't your dad tell us that we shouldn't do those kinds of attacks? He said that they don't work." Although Rei had wanted to use the attacks, she agreed with Goku on this one. It did leave them wide open for an attack from the enemy. "We should work on gaining more strength."  
  
"No, Usagi's right."  
  
Usagi looked to Ami. "I am?" She had rarely ever been right about anything.   
  
Ami nodded. "Yes. I think that if we work on them long enough then we may be able to use them successfully. It's just a matter of determination."  
  
"Thank you Ami. That's exactly what I was thinking."  
  
Rei sighed. There was no way that she would be able to convince Ami otherwise. Once she had her mind set there was usually no way to change it. "Fine. I guess we can try."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku arrived back on earth with two hours left before he had to return home. He hoped that that was enough time to do what he had to do. He remembered what Chi-Chi was like when she was younger. She could be very difficult and VERY demanding. He hoped that she would agree. If she had not, then he would have to ask someone else to go in and train with the girls. He would avoid asking Goku and Gohan. He didn't think that they would try anything but they liked to train rough. The girls had their own special way of fighting. He didn't think that it would be good to mix the two types. "Better not waste any time trying to fly there. That could take up to an hour. Then I wouldn't have any time left to convince Chi-Chi to go in with the girls." He pressed his fingers to his forehead and concentrated is energy to his wife's.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Within seconds, he appeared in front of his house. He had made sure not to teleport himself inside for fear of scaring Chi-Chi if he had just appeared inside the house. He grinned as he got an idea. She probably wouldn't see any difference between him and her real husband unless he was home, which he didn't think he was since it was getting close to the time that the androids would be attacking. 'Maybe I should have some fun.'  
  
He walked to the door and slowly turned the handle. He poked his head in the house once he got in to take a look around. The house looked totally different from what it looked like in the future. 'I remember this.'  
  
"GOKU! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?"  
  
Goku jumped back out of the house. "What?!" That voice, the voice of his wife, was all too familiar for comfort. "What are you talking about Chi-Chi?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "You know I want you home for meals! You weren't here for breakfast!" She crossed her arms as she frowned at her husband. "I hope what you were doing was more important than eating with your family!" She cocked her head to the side to look behind him. "Where the hell is Gohan!? Why isn't he with you?!"  
  
After the initial shock of his wife's attitude and appearance wore off, Goku proceeded to walk into the house. 'I remember a day somewhat like this.' "I left him with Piccolo. He wanted to train some more." Goku smirked as he walked past his wife without looking at her.   
  
If Chi-Chi could have frowned harder, she would have. "What did you do that for?! Are you an idiot!? Gohan is supposed to study today! First you nearly kill a man's kid and now you leave your own with that monster!"  
  
Goku walked to a chair that sat by the opening of the hallway and sat down completely relaxed. "Nothing is wrong with the kids. You need to stop worrying so much. Piccolo is not going to harm Gohan either. And I never tried to kill a man's daughter. Never will I ever do that either."  
  
Chi-Chi turned to look at her husband. "You did too nearly kill her! Don't even try to talk your way out of this one!" She looked at his face. He was completely calm, which was peculiar. "Why are you acting differently all of a sudden. You're acting more…grown up. Like you actually know what you're talking about."  
  
Goku snickered. "That's because I do know what I'm talking about."   
  
Chi-Chi opened her mouth to yell some more, but was startled by the front door slamming behind her. "That better be you Gohan or else…" She turned around and nearly screamed at what she saw. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"  
  
The man was a little shocked at Chi-Chi's response. "It's me Chi-Chi, Goku. You know the guy who lives here too. Sorry I didn't come home earlier. We were in the middle of sparring and I got caught up in the fight. I left Gohan with Piccolo because he wanted to continue." He was puzzled by his wife's unusual silence. "What's wrong?"  
  
Chi-Chi was speechless. Two men who claimed to be her husband were in the same room as her. Only one of them could have been the real thing. There weren't two Gokus. But, both of them knew of Gohan and Piccolo. But this Goku immediately came in and apologized and explained about Gohan, while the other seemed confused when he first walked in. She turned to the other man who claimed to be her husband. "Who are you?!"  
  
Goku smiled. "I'm Goku. Don't you recognize me?" Again with the P and F titles   
  
P. Goku leaned to his right to get a look at the man in the chair in front of his wife. "Hello Goku. Nice to see you again."  
  
F. Goku looked up to himself. "The pleasure is all mine." He looked back to Chi-Chi. "In case you haven't realized yet, I'm Usagi's dad, from the future."  
  
Chi-Chi's mouth dropped with shock. "You're not kidding are you?" She could see that he very well was not. "You're the Goku from the future who made the threat to my husband?" F. Goku nodded. "WHY YOU LITTLE…" She jumped at him, clasping her hands firmly around his GI, and furiously shook him over and over. "It's your own fault Usagi got hurt! If you hadn't been stupid enough to teach her how to fight then she wouldn't be in this mess! You need to push her into studying more instead of fighting!"  
  
F. Goku slowly and calmly put his hands around Chi-Chi's tiny wrists and pulled her hands off of him. He looked into her eyes. "Are you finished yet? Or would you like to continue?" He wouldn't normally do that, but this was a special circumstance. He didn't have much time before he had to leave.  
  
Chi-Chi gasped as she pulled away from this Goku. He was a lot different from the Goku she knew. The Goku she knew was sweet and would never act that way. The Goku she knew would never threaten anybody like this one had just the day before. "I…I guess so." She didn't quite know how to reply to something like that. It had never happened before.  
  
F. Goku stood up. "Good. I have something I need to ask of you."  
  
"What is it?" She had a pretty big hunch about what he would ask her. She remembered her dream quite well. It still stuck very clearly in her mind.  
  
"Would you mind going into the room of time and spirit to train with the girls for the remainder of the time that they are in there?" He moved away just in case she decided to lash out at him like she usually did.  
  
Chi-Chi had given that a lot of thought since she returned home. She didn't really want to, but that angel had asked her to. She said that Usagi was supposed to fight. That she should continue training for the rest of the time that she was there. She had wanted to, but then again, didn't really want to. She didn't want Usagi to get the idea that she supported fighting. The fact of the matter was that she didn't support it at all. But because the angel had asked her to, she couldn't really turn it down. She did seem to know what she was talking about. "I guess I can give it a try. But I'm not up at their level."  
  
P. Goku widened his eyes to their farthest extent. "What?! You'll let Usagi train, you'll even train with her, yet you won't let Gohan train?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she turned to her husband. "Shut up Goku!"  
  
F. Goku smiled. He hadn't expected her to agree to it so easily. But he wasn't complaining. He was glad that he wouldn't have to beg her to go. "You will?" Chi-Chi nodded. "That's great. And don't worry about not being at their level. I know you can fight. The girls won't do anything to you that will hurt you. Believe me, I know they won't."  
  
Chi-Chi knew that they wouldn't intentionally hurt her, but accidents do happen and she didn't really want to have any. "I know that. How much time is left?"  
  
"Oh, about six hours maybe. But that's for this time, that leaves about three months in the room." He handed her the bag of Senzu beans. "Use these only in emergencies ONLY." He looked to P. Goku and frowned. He was still very angry about what he had done to his daughter. "Shall we be leaving then?"  
  
'Goku.'  
  
F. Goku looked around. It was the voice of the time guardian again. She was early. 'Yes?'  
  
'You are finished here, yes?'  
  
'Yes.'  
  
'You have no purpose for being her anymore. You have taught Usagi to reach her true power. It is time for you to return to your own time. Let the Goku of this time take Chi-Chi to the girls. He is very capable of doing so.'  
  
'What? I still have about an hour and a half. What are you talking about?'  
  
'There is no reason for you to be here. I brought you here to train Usagi and you did.'  
  
F. Goku sighed. 'Fine.' He looked to his younger self. "Looks like you have to take Chi-Chi yourself. I have to go back to the future." He turned his attention to his wife and smiled. Seeing her young again brought back great memories of his life. "Take care of the girls and make sure they don't over work their bodies."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded. "Don't worry about that. I've got everything under control. From what I hear from Usagi, I know how to raise kids."   
  
~*~*~  
  
The guardian of time watched as Goku stepped through the giant doors that controlled the different time pathways. She couldn't help but smile. He had actually pulled off his job like he said he would. "Welcome back to this space Goku."  
  
Goku looked up, startled. "I have a few questions for you before I go back home, if you don't mind."  
  
"By all means, go ahead."  
  
"Why is it so important that Usagi stay in the past?"  
  
"I can't answer that Goku. You should know that. I haven't told Usagi and I can't tell you. But don't worry, you will know, in time."  
  
Goku was expecting that answer but he still hoped that there was a chance that she would tell him. "Will she ever be able to come home again?"  
  
"Why Goku, you doubt me? You think that I would do such a horrible thing to little Usagi by tearing her away from her home? I'll tell you the same thing I told Usagi. Things usually work out for the best."  
  
"Usually? What do you mean by that? You ARE the guardian of time, are you not? You know what happens in the future."   
  
"I am in fact the guardian of time. But, things are not going as Usagi's future was supposed to. You were not supposed to come into the past like this. Usagi's body was supposed to be able to handle its new power."  
  
"What are you saying?" Goku wasn't sure if she could be trusted. He wasn't sure who COULD be trusted anymore.  
  
"Don't worry about anything though. This did not alter anything of her future from what I can tell. I can not tell you much more than that. I am sorry. Goku, you really should go now."   
  
Goku was beginning to get suspicious of this woman. She seemed to be hiding something. He could hear the uncertainty in her voice. "Something bigger is going to happen than just the androids attacking isn't it?"  
  
"Uh…no."  
  
Goku frowned. 'She's lying to me. I know when someone is lying to me. I can sense their nervousness. Their power levels rise when they lie. Why would she be lying to me though? What could possibly attack here that didn't attack us?' "Ok." He didn't want to create controversy between himself and the guardian of time. Not until his daughter was at home safe and sound. "I guess I'll be leaving now." 'Damn, what's going on?'  
  
"Right." The woman stepped forward and waved her time rod out at the door.  
  
Goku squinted to get a better look at the woman. She came out of her shadows just enough to make out a basic outline of her body. But he couldn't make out any details except that her hair was long and silky. It was pitch black with a hint of green in it. But that's about all he could make out. 'Who is she?'  
  
"Please step through the doors Goku."  
  
Goku sighed. He would have to. He had already said that he would. "Good bye. Don't let anything happen to Usagi." He turned around and walked slowly to the doors.  
  
"I wouldn't dream of it. That's why I brought you here."  
  
Goku didn't reply to that. He was a little mad at the guardian of time for she wouldn't tell him the importance of his daughter. She wouldn't tell him what was really happening. Instead, he just picked up his pace and left her behind in her realm of time.  
  
She didn't mind that he didn't say anything. She felt that he had a right to. She hadn't told him anything. She knew he was worried out of his mind. 'Don't worry Goku. I would never let anything happen to your daughter, the little princess.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Room of Time and Spirit~~  
  
About twenty days later…  
  
Ami stood off to the side of her friends as she watched them create a combined attack. They had been practicing it off an on for the past couple of weeks or so on and off. The first two weeks that Goku was gone the girls pretty much took it easy. They had been training for so many months with barely any breaks and felt that they had earned it. Usagi had even allowed herself to power down to her normal, low level.  
  
Ami was currently timing the attack. They were trying to get it to the point where they could get it built up and fired in as much time as it takes to build up a normal Ki blast. Though they weren't doing a very good job of it. It always took too long to do. They had tested the time it takes to build a normal energy attack. It had taken less then a second that was with using Usagi since she was as fast as the androids. "No good you guys. That still took about thirty seconds."  
  
Minako released her tension in her muscles and dropped to the ground. "This is hopeless. We're never going to get this thing to work."  
  
Usagi kneeled down next to her friend. "Hey, come on. You're sounding like me. I person who gives up. Dad says you shouldn't just give up. So I'm trying extra hard to not give up. Even though this doesn't seem like it will ever work. But before it took us almost a whole minute to do." Usagi didn't want to scrap the attack like her father had suggested. She knew it could be done. It was just a matter of technique. They had to find the perfect way to do it. "Team work is all it takes you guys."  
  
"That's right Usagi." Chi-Chi walked into the training area and looked at the girls. They looked worn out, like they had been training hard for all day long. "Team work is always a good thing to have." She stopped just as she reached the group of girls who stared at her like she was nuts. "What? What is it? Is there something on my face?"  
  
Usagi just stared up at her mother. "Mom, you do realize what we do in here right?"  
  
Chi-Chi nodded. "Of course I do. Do you think I'm an idiot?"  
  
Usagi violently shook her head. She didn't want her mother to become angry with her. "Umm…well, why are you here then?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. Her own daughter didn't know that she could fight. "It just so happens to be that I can fight young lady. Your father asked me to come in here and train with you guys for the remainder of the time that you will be in here."  
  
"Dad told you to come in here? Which one?"   
  
"YOUR dad. He told me that you still have three months left so I decided to come and help you guys." 'With a little push from an angel.' "On one condition."  
  
Usagi groaned. "Let me guess. You want me to study more?" That was always the case. More so with this Chi-Chi then her own.  
  
"Of course. You will promise me that you will bring up your grades before you leave. As soon as we get out of this room your training will go down to a minimum of four hours a day. The rest will be study time. You need to turn that mush inside of your head into a brain." 'Plus, it's not healthy for a girl her age to be fighting all the time. She needs to let her girl instincts develop.' She put her hand into her pocket and pulled out the bag of Senzu beans that Goku had given to her. "These are for emergencies only. That's what Goku said. So don't let me catch you eating them."   
  
"Yes mom." Though she found out how she could study easier, she still hated to study. But if it was the only way that her mother would train with them then she would do it.   
  
Chi-Chi felt something poking against her leg. It felt like it was coming from inside her pocket. She put her hand in and felt around for what ever it was. Her fingers ran across a small smooth surface. 'What's this?' She quickly clasped her fingers around the item and pulled her hand out to reveal two silver pieces. 'The crescent moon earrings. I forgot about these. I went right to sleep when I got back last night.' She looked to her daughter, who was now in a conversation with her friends. 'They came from that angel who knew all about Usagi.' "Usagi."  
  
Usagi turned around, as did all of her friends. "Yes?"  
  
Chi-Chi looked at the earrings and then to her daughter. "Here." She held out the earrings to her. Usagi just stared blankly at her mother, which made Chi-Chi angry. Here she was offering her something spectacular from a great angel and her daughter was ungrateful enough to not accept it. 'I was right. This fighting has gone to her head. She has no girl in her. She's just a rugged fighter like the rest of her family.'  
  
A smile slowly began to appear on Usagi's face as she looked into her mother's hands. "For me? You mean I can have them?" She walked closer to her mother's hands to get a better look. They were like nothing she had ever seen. They sparkled in the light as did her eyes.  
  
Chi-Chi smiled. 'Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there is some girl left in her after all.' "Yes. You can have them."  
  
Usagi took the earrings out of her mother's hands and brought them up to her face. "Wow, these are really pretty mom." She looked up. "Thanks. But, I don't have my ears pierced. Would you want me to get them pierced?"  
  
Chi-Chi hadn't thought about that. Though, they were too beautiful to just let go to waste. "I don't think I'd mind too much." The other Chi-Chi would understand once she saw them.   
  
"REALLY! COOL!" Usagi turned around. "Look what mom gave me!" She held her hands out for everyone to see.  
  
Minako was the first to see them. "Wow. Those are awesome Usagi."  
  
Makoto pushed her aside. "Let me se…Whoa, I want some."  
  
"They are beautiful. They are the color of your hair when you turn Super Saiyan Usagi. They are that same brightness." Ami's eyes dazzled with curiosity. It was strange. When in the light, the earrings had the same intensity of light as Usagi's super Saiyan. It gave off the same feeling too. Like they were somehow connected.  
  
Chi-Chi watched as all the girls were in awe over the gift she had just given her daughter. She was surprised to see them this way. Lately, they had been so interested in fighting you would have thought that they were tomboys. But here they were, fussing over something only a female could appreciate.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"My gift to you, daughter."  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. This is a long chapter isn't it? I'm trying to wrap it up as soon as possible, but not exactly rush either. Hehehe, guess what? Only three weeks left of school, then hopefully I can get a chapter out every night again. So, what did you think of this part? Was it good or bad?)  



	56. Part 18

  
  
~~Room of Time and Spirit~~  
  
Usagi turned to her mother from the group of her friends, who were still very interested in her new gift. Here eyes shone with happiness and appreciation. "Thanks mom. These are great! I can't wait to show them off to everyone else back home."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled. She had never seen Usagi so happy before. "You're very welcome Usagi." She looked at the clock behind her. It showed that they had just under three months left. Not much time to do anything too big. "We should get working you guys."  
  
Usagi gently placed the earrings into her pocket; careful to put them in as far as they could so they wouldn't fall out. "What do you think we should do?" 'I guess that combined attack is out. Man I really wanted to do that too.'  
  
"Well what were you just working on? It looked pretty interesting to me." Chi-Chi took notice that Ami had a stopwatch in her hand and figured that they must have been trying to time whatever they were doing. But she was pretty sure she knew what they had been doing since they had all been huddled in the same area of the room.   
  
"We were just timing our combined attack. We are persistent in trying to find a way to make our combined attack work so we may use it on our enemies. It makes us four times as powerful, and when Usagi helps us it boosts it up to higher than her Super Saiyan power level." Ami put her watch away into her pocket. She didn't think that she would need it anymore since Chi-Chi was there. She expected that Goku told her about their attack and how they were to stop using it.  
  
Chi-Chi stared at Ami in awe. No matter how many times she heard that girl talk she was still amazed at her vocabulary and usage of words. She was so smart for only being eight years old. Her intelligence showed, unlike her son's. But that wasn't because of anything that he wasn't doing in his studying, but it was the influence of his air headed father. "Well then, I guess we should work on that attack then. We have time."  
  
Minako slowly raised her eyes to Chi-Chi's. "You actually want us to work on that? There's no way we can do that. We've trying forever to do this thing. It just doesn't want to work."  
  
"You can do anything, Minako. All you have to do is try it different ways. Have you tried doing it from different places?" She knew that this was important to her daughter. She was determined to make it happen.  
  
Usagi turned her attention back to Rei. They had never tried it while standing apart. It had never crossed their minds. When they had first created the attack, they had only tried it together, so it would be easier to concentrate on the same spot. "I guess we could try that. Do you think it would work, Rei?"  
  
"I'm not sure. We would have to be pretty far away from each other. Concentrating on the same spot may be too hard. But we could try it. It never hurts to try." She looked to Ami, Minako and Makoto. "Wanna try?"  
  
"Of course they want to try." Chi-Chi took the liberty of speaking for everyone. She was sure that they had wanted to. "Why don't you guys spread out and show me what you can do, ok?"  
  
Usagi looked back to her mother and smiled. At least she wasn't against their attack. "Let's try this in the air you guys."  
  
Ami thought a moment about a way that may hide them from the enemy. "That's a good idea Usagi. Though I don't think we should all be at the same altitude. If we aren't, then we will be able to hide better. Say one of us is high up in the air and the other is on the ground. The enemy can't just fire a round of Ki blasts in the air and shoot us all down. The person who is on the ground will still be agile and fully capable of retaliating. We can also hide behind objects that may be on the battlefield. So let's try going at different altitudes, ok?"   
  
"That's a great idea Ami." Rei leaped high into the air and looked down to her fellow fighters, who looked nothing more than tiny ants. She put her hands to her mouth as she began to shout. "Hey this is as high as we'll go for now. Someone else get a little lower than this way over there." She pointed to her right.  
  
Makoto looked up. "I'll do it." She too levitated herself up into the air.  
  
Chi-Chi watched as the girls got into the position. They were positioned in the shape of a ring. Rei was at the highest point, while Usagi was at the lowest. They were spread out at a distance of about 400 meters from each other. That gave them plenty of space between them. She couldn't wait to see this attack. It had to have something great or else the angel wouldn't have told her that it was important. "Lookin good girls."  
  
Usagi up to Rei as she stood on the ground. They both nodded to each other when everyone was in place. "Let's concentrate right in the middle of the ring." She got a nod of agreeance from all of her friends and immediately extended her hands out to create the attack. "Ready! ONE…"  
  
Minako and Makoto followed Usagi's movements. "TWO…"  
  
"THREE!" Rei threw her arms out and immediately began concentrating her energy down to the center of the ring. She could see her bright red Ki ball forming before her, but could not see any of the others' with it. "What's wrong you guys? You aren't doing anything."  
  
Ami floated in the air with her arms crossed. "Well if you think about it we would all be dead by now. You shouldn't shout out like that. The enemy would know where you're at then." She looked straight at the Orange attack, which was fully formed. "Minako, you aren't even doing it in the right place."  
  
Minako pulled her arms to her side; releasing her energy and letting it fall down to the ground. "Huh? What are you talking about? I did it in the center."  
  
Usagi looked up to see three energy balls being formed above her. "We have to do it at the same spot otherwise it won't work." She too released her energy ball, letting herself rise to the level of Makoto. "How is this supposed to work if we all have different ideas of where the attacking point is?"  
  
Makoto shook her head in confusion. "I have no clue. It's not like we can read each other's minds or anything. This is harder than it looks." She let go of her energy.  
  
Chi-Chi put her hands on her waist on frowned. "Come on girls. Think of something. It's a good idea. You just need to think of a way to make it work." Truthfully, she didn't think that it would work out. Makoto was right. They had no specific target to concentrate on. They weren't capable of telepathy like Piccolo was.   
  
Rei sighed as she lowered herself. "But Ami is also right. We can't shout out like that. And unless we all do this at the same time, it won't work. Usagi, remember when we were first trying this out? You made an energy ball and then when I tried to make one in the same spot, they both blew up on each other."  
  
"So you're saying that we have to concentrate at the same time on the same spot. That way we would get a mixture of power." Ami tried to think of a way to make this work. There seemed to be too many holes in their ideas. The first way took too long, while the other one wouldn't work because they couldn't yell out nor could they concentrate on the same area. They were just too far apart.  
  
Rei nodded. "That's right. But we can't shout out, like you said. The enemy would hear and see us. We would meet our doom if we did that." This whole situation seemed pretty hopeless.  
  
Chi-Chi was amazed at their knowledge. They seemed to know more about fighting then they did about the real world. "Why don't you take a break for now. You all look tired. It will give you time to think of a new strategy."  
  
"But mom, this is important." Usagi whined. "It will make us stronger. Plus, we have to keep training for the androids. Dad says that they are strong. We want to be as strong as we can before the androids get here. That'll show em whose boss around here."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. 'I knew it. Goku never taught them the importance of being children. The importance of having fun. He has changed a lot in the future, but some things will always stay the same.' "Listen to me. Fighting is not everything. You need to have fun too." 'Maybe that's another reason why I was supposed to come here. To teach them to have fun. Even if I wasn't, that's what I'm going to do. Goku and Piccolo have taken Gohan's childhood away from him, I'm not going to let Usagi's go down the drain too.'  
  
Usagi looked to her friends and shrugged. She didn't have a clue to what her mother was talking about. She was also puzzled as to why her mother actually wanted her to have fun instead of working. She turned back. "I have fun. Fighting is fun."  
  
Chi-Chi sighed. 'That's just what Goku wants you to think.' "Fighting is dangerous. Dangerous work. You never know what the outcome of a fight will be. You never know if you will come out alive or if you will end up at earth's check in station pending approval for where your spirit will end up. A fight will not always end for the best. Has your father ever told you this before?"   
  
Usagi slowly shook her had. He, in fact, had not ever told her this. He hadn't really prepped her for real fights until just recently when he came to the past with her. "Dad says that the androids will be no problem for us. This fight doesn't really matter. Nothing bad is going to happen. And in the future, everyone else will be there. And besides, dad has never lost a fight."  
  
Chi-Chi shook her head in disgust. Her husband was giving their daughter the wrong information. Either that or he wasn't telling her anything. "Your family will not be there to protect you forever. Your friends will not always be there for you. Believe me, there will be a time when you are alone and you will not know what to do. And as for your father never loosing a fight, yes that is true. But he has already died twice."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened. "Twice? That would mean three all together. I only know of one. That was during the fight with Cell when he had to teleport to another dimension and Cell blew up."  
  
Chi-Chi didn't take notice to that statement. It didn't really phase her since there would be no Cell in this timeline. "He died once trying to get your brother back from Raditz, and then another time against Frieza. He told me how he died when Frieza threw him into a crater of lava, but was brought back just after the Namek Dragon Balls were used to revive everyone killed by Frieza. He was lucky that time. He never told you about that, did he?"   
  
Usagi lowered herself to the ground. "No, he didn't." She looked up into her mother's eyes. "So he really died? And if he had died a few minutes later he would have stayed dead?" That scared Usagi. She was starting to believe her mother that fighting is dangerous. Nevertheless, she couldn't stop. Fighting called out to her. Like she was meant to do it.  
  
"Yes. He really died." Chi-Chi could see the fear in her daughter's eyes and started to reconsider what she was saying. "Usagi, the purpose of me telling you this was not to scare you. I just want you to know the risks, so you may become a safer fighter. I just know how Goku is. He obviously didn't tell you all of the dangers did he?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "Again, no. I'll be careful mom. I promise."  
  
"I'm not worried about you. You survived Goku as a Super Saiyan. I know you're strong. But there is always the possibility that something may happen. Something unexpected. I just want you to be prepared for anything."  
  
Usagi looked up to her friends. "Keep this information in mind you guys. It's useful. Dad always taught us to fight like we were going to win. But I guess we shouldn't."  
  
"I didn't say that Usagi. You're interpreting wrong. You should always fight believing that you are going to win, but you should always expect that something could happen. I guess what I'm saying is always watch your back and don't get too insanely cocky."  
  
"Usagi, I guess she's saying don't be like Vejita." Minako lowered herself to the ground, along with all the others.   
  
Usagi giggled. "Yeah. If we don't act like Vejita I guess we're fine."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled. She had finally gotten one of her points across to the girls. At least Goku hadn't totally rotted their brains out with lies. "So, do you get what I'm saying about having fun? That fighting isn't everything. You need to live your life with a diversity of things." 'I got to them before it was too late.'  
  
At that moment, Rei thought of Chi-Chi as one of the wisest people she knew. Her words were too true. She, herself, had been overlooking all of the most important aspects in life. Lately, even in the future, she had been pretty much concentrating on fighting and school work, never really taking the time out to have fun. Though she was going to spend her winter vacation relaxing, that wasn't enough time to really enjoy life. "Chi-Chi is right you guys. We have been fighting for too long. We have been fighting the whole time we have been in here with a two-week break. We have learned so much, I don't think it would hurt if we spent a little bit of time relaxing. And besides, she's right. It will give us time to think of a new way to make our attack."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back outside in the real World~~  
  
On his way back home, Goku decided to go back to and spar with Piccolo, Mamoru, and Gohan again. There really was no reason for him to go home since Chi-Chi wouldn't be there. Really the only reason why he went before was because Chi-Chi had insisted on him eating meals at home.   
  
He arrived just as the three fighters were stopping their spar for a rest. "Hey!" He lowered himself to the ground just behind Piccolo.  
  
Mamoru looked behind his father. "Hey Goku. What's up? You're back pretty early. Did you only eat five servings this time or something?"  
  
"No actually, I met up with the Goku from the future. He came to the house and was already there when I got there."  
  
Gohan turned his full attention to his father as his eyes filled with curiosity. "Really? What did he want, dad? Did he threaten you again?"  
  
Goku looked to his son and smiled; telling him that nothing too horrible had happened. "Actually, he wanted your mother to go in and train with the girls."  
  
Mamoru's nearly screamed when he heard that. "What!? That's ludicrous. What was he thinking? Did he get mad at them or something? Is he punishing them with her? This is hilarious! I thought he wanted them to be strong, not little stupid girls who can't fight." He began laughing hysterically, only to be hit upside the head by his father. He stopped laughing immediately and rubbed the place on his head where he had just been hit as he looked up at his father. His eyes scowled down at him. "Whoops."  
  
Piccolo couldn't believe it. After a year and a half he was the same as when he first arrived. He was ridiculous. He couldn't believe that he could have raised such a monster. He would be sure not to make that same mistake in this timeline. "Shut the hell up unless someone asks you something boy."  
  
Goku felt the same way about that one. "Mamoru, don't you know that Chi-Chi is the strongest human woman on earth?"   
  
"Hell no I didn't. She's just a major bitch. Probably the biggest one I've ever seen actually. That's why I wanted to knock her out when we first got here, when she called for Gohan to come out here and take care of us for trying to get the Dragon Ball to save your sorry ass."  
  
Goku frowned. "What is it that you have against my family? You hate Usagi for god knows why. You hate me because of something that you caused to happen. You hate Gohan because he tries to protect his sister and here you hate my wife because she tries to protect her family? What the hell is wrong with you?"  
  
Mamoru smirked. He was rather enjoying this. He loved to make people squirm with confusion. "Well, that's about right. But, as I recall it, you were the one who tried to harm your daughter yesterday. Wait, not only did you harm her, but you nearly killed the kid."  
  
Piccolo slapped his hand over Mamoru's mouth. "If you don't shut the hell up now I'm going to be the next one to kick your ass. Goku didn't do it to make her hurt, like you do. He did it to help her. He didn't know that her body would react that way. No one did. And you better shut your mouth for another reason too, boy. You're the one who gave him the damned idea to do that."  
  
Mamoru closed his mouth. He knew that his father would kick the crap out of him if he didn't shut up. He had done it many times before and wouldn't hesitate to do it again. "Fine." 'But she still is the bitchiest woman in the world.'  
  
Goku didn't understand what Usagi could possibly see in him. He couldn't understand why she always forgave him. He wasn't a very forgivable person really. But, if she saw good in him, which she insisted that she did, then he wouldn't argue with her decision. "Anyways, we had better start to up our training schedules. Those androids are probably very strong." He turned his attention to Gohan. "I want to go into the room of Time and Spirit when your mother and the girls get out. I want to turn you Super Saiyan as soon as possible. You need experience using such a great power."  
  
Gohan nodded. "Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking."  
  
"Great, they should be out in about four hours. That means they have about two months left in the room. They will probably be tired and Usagi will probably want to show everyone her knew power, and yell at us all."   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Room of Time and Spirit~~  
  
One month later…  
  
"MOM!" Usagi stood out in the main fighting area with all of her friends. 'Hehe' "Mom get out here! Please!"  
  
"I'm going Usagi, just a minute." Chi-Chi HAD been sleeping before her daughter so rudely woke her up. "What is it?" She asked with the tone of disgust in her voice. "This had better be good." She walked out of the living area of the room.  
  
Usagi playfully smiled as she ran up to her mother and grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back to the rest of the girls. "Well, we were thinking about our fights lately. And well, mom, it's just not fair that we know how to use Ki and you don't."  
  
Chi-Chi looked down to her daughter. "Oh really? Is that what this is about? You want to teach me to use my Ki don't you?"  
  
Usagi nodded vigorously. "Yup, that's it. We wanna teach you how to fly and stuff." Usagi could see the uncertainty in her mother's eyes. "Come on. It'll be fun. It's not hard at all. I learned it really fast. And I won't even let you pass out like I did when I first learned. I promise."  
  
Chi-Chi looked at Rei. "She passed out?"  
  
"Don't ask me. I didn't know her until I was eight. She learned how to fight when she was five."  
  
Chi-Chi looked back to Usagi. 'One year later then Gohan.' "Are you sure I can do this?"  
  
Once again, Usagi nodded. "Of course. Gohan taught Videl how to do it in one day."  
  
"Videl?"  
  
Usagi covered her mouth with her hands. 'Shoot, I shouldn't have said that.' "Uh, one of his friends from high school. No body special. Actually, she blackmailed him into doing it. But that's not important. What is, is teaching you how to fly. That's the fun part."  
  
Chi-Chi still wasn't sure about this. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know how to control her Ki. There really was no point to it. She wouldn't be fighting, except against the girls. "Aren't I too old to learn? Let's just forget about this girls."  
  
"No, no, no mom. You have to learn how to do this. Let's go." Over the past month Usagi had gotten more comfortable with her mother. She was past the point of being afraid of her. Actually, she had gotten closer to her and really started to understand why she did some of the things that she did. She had begun to realize that her mother wasn't just a machine that dictated orders to her all the time.   
  
"Yeah Chi-Chi, you've helped us realize so much during your time here. You've taught us more about teamwork then we could ever imagine. You taught us how to manage fun and fighting together. Now it's our chance to teach you to fight, our style." Makoto grabbed onto Chi-Chi's free wrist that Usagi wasn't holding and helped to pull her farther away from the living space. "So come on. You're learning this whether you want to or not."  
  
Chi-Chi sighed. "I guess I have no choice here. I can't fight the temptation to learn this can I?" Chi-Chi quit resisting the girls' hold on her and decided to just gave in. She didn't really mind learning. Actually, she could use it to her benefit. She wouldn't be stuck having to walk all the time. She wouldn't have to worry that Goku failed his driving test. She could just fly herself somewhere.  
  
"That's the spirit mom." Usagi stopped. "This is a good spot to stop." She turned to her mother. She couldn't wait to start teaching her. "So here we go."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Two hours later…  
  
Chi-Chi carefully hovered in the air. She had just barely learned how to fly. "I'm doing it. I'm really doing it! I can't believe it." She fell down with a loud thud.  
  
Ami couldn't believe it. Chi-Chi had learned how to fly much faster than she had. It had taken her a couple of days to learn, while it only took Chi-Chi a matter of hours. "That's great, but you need to keep your concentration up otherwise, well, you know what'll happen."  
  
Chi-Chi stood to her feet. "I know, I was just so overwhelmed with excitement. Flying is a new thing for me. I've been trying to get Goku and Gohan to teach me to fly but they never have the time. I think that they just don't want me to be able to fly after them when they take off. Well, they'll learn soon enough what happens when you mess with me and try to fly off."  
  
"Why don't you try it again mom? I think you'll be able to have it down before the end of the day. Then we can spar." Usagi couldn't wait for that. They had sparred with her over the past month, yet, they weren't able to use Ki attacks or flying. Though they still wouldn't be able to use Ki attacks, they could still fly.  
  
"That's a good idea." Everyone stopped their talking as Chi-Chi focused all over her energy inside her body, the way that Gohan had taught Usagi to do it. Once she could feel her energy pulsing throughout her muscles, she began to concentrate the energy as moving her body up. Slowly, her feet began to lift from the ground. 'Great, this is getting easy.' At first, she had tried to use her Ki much like Videl had when Gohan fist taught her. She tried to use her physical strength instead of her energy, or, Ki. But she quickly overcame that difficulty and learned how to let herself rise.   
  
Rei backed up from Chi-Chi as she began to move forward. She was amazed at how Usagi had just taught her mother how to fly. Goku had taught her in a much more confusing way. He had told her to just take control of her energy and that was that. She pretty much had to teach herself with a few pointers from Goku. Usagi had it a lot easier then she had. "You're doing great Chi-Chi."  
  
Chi-Chi looked over to Rei. "Don't patronize me." She grinned, letting the young girl know that she was only kidding. She began to concentrate her energy moving faster, causing her body to move faster. "Wow, you can actually feel the energy rushing."  
  
Usagi smiled. She couldn't remember a time when she had seen her mother so full of life. She had never seen her mother like this before. She didn't know that her mother was capable of acting so care free. "I told you it would be easy."  
  
"Does it take anything special to be able to go any faster?"  
  
"Just more energy is all."  
  
Minako jumped to her feet from sitting on the ground. "Come on Chi-Chi, put all of your energy into it! Just let it all go out and you'll go super fast!" She jumped into the air. "Like this!" In the blink of an eye she increased her power level to it's fullest and shot out in front of Chi-Chi. "I'll help. Try to catch me!"   
  
Chi-Chi stared at the orange and yellow blurb in front of her. It was flying at an extremely fast pace. Faster than she could ever dream of going. 'Wait a minute, she expects me to catch up to that? That's impossible.' "Well if it's just a matter of energy…" She concentrated harder, digging deep inside her reserves for more energy. "All right Minako, here we go!" She got a small burst of power as she concentrated even harder on catching up to Minako. Though she sped up quite a bit, it still wasn't fast enough to catch Minako.  
  
Minako looked behind her. "Hey, that's pretty good. But I can still go faster." She looked forward again and increased her speed, not by much since she was already nearly at her max, but just enough to appear to be going a lot faster as she left everyone behind.  
  
Chi-Chi tried to speed up, but she was at her max. If she wanted to go much faster, she would have to train to gain more power. "Oh come on Minako really. You've been training for a much longer time than I have. Do you really expect me to be able to reach that level?" She slowed herself down until she came to a complete stop. "Whew, that takes a lot out of you." She let her feet lower until they were fully on the ground. She wiped her forehead with her arm as she panted from her exercise. "But it was fun."  
  
Minako reverted her direction of flying back into the direction of Chi-Chi. "Hey, at least you sped up before you stopped. I wasn't nearly as good as you when I first started." She stopped and landed once she got to Chi-Chi.  
  
Chi-Chi looked down to the little girl. "But you have to remember that I already had quite a bit of energy since I know how to fight. That adds for a lot there kiddo."   
  
Minako nodded. "I guess so. But still, it's not fair." She looked past Chi-Chi to see Usagi and the others running for them. "Here come the others."  
  
Chi-Chi turned around and smiled when she saw the happy faces of the other girls. "Did you see that? That was probably one of the most exhilarating things I've done since I fought Goku in the Budaki tournament." She grinned. "So are you guys ready for me to beat you in a battle?"  
  
"Yeah right. We could beat you any day, any time. Just wait and see." Makoto lifted her leg behind her back to stretch it. She didn't want to be unprepared for the fight. They hadn't lost to Chi-Chi once for they were much stronger than she was.  
  
Chi-Chi continued to grin. This time she wouldn't lose. "I have a special stipulation for this fight."   
  
"Stipu-what?" Usagi was tired of people always using big words when they were talking to her. She just wanted them to talk normally.  
  
Chi-Chi looked to her daughter. "If you would study you would know what it means. Now then, it means a condition. I want you guys to fight with out raising your power level. That means no flying, no Ki blasts, nothing. I want you guys to power down as you are. If you fight with no power level and become strong that way, when you DO actually raise it, then you will be a bit stronger."  
  
Rei shook her head in fascination. "Very good point. I can see where that would work. Maybe we should do it that way then. I'm up for a good ol' fashioned fight with no added power. But we'll still beat you   
Chi-Chi."  
  
Chi-Chi smirked. "I don't think so." She spread her feet apart as far as they would go, lowering her to the ground. "Lets start this thing."  
  
(Ok that's it for this part. What did you think? Gotta go. Bye!)  



	57. Part 19

  
  
Chi-Chi smiled to herself as she stared into the faces of the eager young fighters. Their faces showed their anxiousness to get started. They wanted to jump into the fight. This would be too easy for her. They probably hadn't fought without increasing their power level since they had first started fighting. If she knew Goku, which she did, he had been training them with using energy for far too long. They needed to learn to fight without using their Ki all the time. It was dangerous. They wore themselves out faster that way. And from what she could tell, they really needed to learn some new physical combat techniques. Something she knew plenty about. "Are you ready to be beaten?"  
  
Usagi couldn't help but giggle at that. She had never in her life seen her mother act so normal. She found it to be quite humorous actually. "You're not going to win, mom. There's five of us and only one of you."  
  
Ami stayed behind Usagi. She preferred to stay on the low down during fights so she could analyze her opponent's fighting techniques, which is what she would do here too. She wanted to know what she was up against so she could figure out a way to easily defeat her opponent. "The odds do seem to be against you, Chi-Chi."  
  
Makoto, on the other hand, stood as close to Chi-Chi as she could. She couldn't wait to get started. "Yeah, and we've beaten you before. Actually, we always beat you. I don't think this is going to make THAT much of a difference."  
  
Chi-Chi grinned. "Or really? I think it makes all the difference in the world. It's time for you to learn what it means to really fight. You will not be able to use all of your normal fake fighting techniques such as Ki blasts. You are going to fight the traditional way. They way that Goku fails to teach you. The way he and I both learned when we were young." She readied herself for her attack. "Ready?!" She didn't wait for a reply from any of the five girls before she started her assault on them. "Don't forget to keep your power levels down!"  
  
She decided to start out with some basic moves as she swung for Minako with a chopping motion of her hand. Minako jumped up and flipped backwards. Chi-Chi expected her to do something like this. She had watched her many times in the past month. But that made her all the more ready for it. "You've gotta try harder than that." She reached out and grabbed the girl's leg.  
  
Rei wasn't just going to stand around and watch Chi-Chi take charge of the fight. She remembered how Goku had always told them to never let the enemy take the fight into their hands at the start. It usually meant your own defeat. She quickly got her act together and ran for Chi-Chi. She wouldn't have to worry about being sensed since Chi-Chi didn't have that ability. She as she was about to run into her target, she jumped into the air and extended her leg out. 'Let's see you block this.'  
  
Chi-Chi smirked as she winked at Makoto, startling the young fighter. With a swift pivot of her left foot, she swung Minako around by her leg and threw her into Makoto. She laughed as Minako's head bashed into Makoto's stomach, forcing them both to fall hard to the ground. "Rule number one, never underestimate your opponent. I didn't just start fighting yesterday. I have fought with Goku many times. I know most of his style."  
  
Usagi smiled. This could be more fun than she had thought. Her mother actually knew what she was doing. She could prove to be a hard defeat since power levels were to be kept normal. "Interesting. But I can take you." She stepped forward, careful not to get to close as she didn't want her mother to be able to grab her and attack. She would have to think out this particular fight very carefully.   
  
Chi-Chi mimicked her daughter's movements and also moved forward. "Would you like to try me?"   
  
Usagi didn't move. She was trying to figure out a way that she may be able to attack and still not let her mother make a hit on her. She wouldn't be able to fly over her, she couldn't use much more speed than a normal person either so dashing around her was out. She continued to think for a while until she came to the only conclusion that she could think of. 'Right, here I go.' She crossed her fingers for luck and began to run as fast as she could at her current power level.  
  
Chi-Chi prepared for a hit. "Come on get me, kid!" She molded her hands into two fists, ready for any retaliation that she will dish out.   
  
Usagi continued to run, closer, and closer. 'Almost there. Almost there. Not too much further.' She took a deep breath and dove under her mother's legs just as she was about to come close enough for her mother to punch at her. She slid on the ground, quickly stopping herself and bouncing back to her feet as if she was just dropped onto a spring. "He, he…" She raised her leg and kicked her opponent in the back of her leg.  
  
Stumbling forward, Chi-Chi quickly regained her composure and spun around to face her attacker. "That was good, but not good enough to do any real damage." She jumped back.   
  
Ami hadn't quite figured out Chi-Chi's techniques. They were a mix of Goku's ability to recover from hits somewhat easily, and her own. She couldn't waste anymore time just standing around and analyzing though. She would have to do that while fighting.   
  
Undetected to Chi-Chi, Ami slowly made her way to her opponent, ready to jump away at any given time if needed. 'Perfect, she doesn't even know I'm here. She thinks I'm still watching her every move.' She raised her hands and hovered them over Chi-Chi's upper arms. She poked her head to the side to make eye contact with Minako, who fully understood what to do.  
  
From Minako's expressions Chi-Chi knew that something was going on behind her. She prepared herself for anything that the girls had to dish out. She couldn't totally crush the girls' feelings by blowing them out in this fight. Though they had many things that they needed to learn. Goku obviously hadn't taught them much about the proper way to fight. Though he had taught them many things, he left out the most important part. He left out proper fight etiquette. The point to sneaking up on an enemy was to do just that, and not give it away with stupid mistakes. That was one of the things that Ami had pointed out to the others when they had tried their combined attack. They couldn't just yell out when they were going to do it. Not only would their enemy be able to dodge what ever they had for them, but they would also have time to create an attack of their own.   
  
But Chi-Chi couldn't just let them think that what they were doing was ok. She couldn't let them think that their current fighting system was good. She would be misleading them by not doing anything now. She would be just like Goku. She couldn't overlook their mistakes, not this close to the real battle, which was about a year and a half away. They were still infants when it came to fighting, they had other things to work on. Goku entrusted her with their training and she couldn't let him or any of the girls down by not doing anything. 'Right, I know what I have to do.'  
  
Without moving her head away from its position, she glanced down to her side, taking note of the small hands that hovered closely to her arms. 'Nice try, but you gave yourselves away.' She violently raised her arms up, throwing Ami's hands away. She looked forward to Minako, who had just bluntly stopped in her tracks. "What's wrong? Did I just ruin anything that you had planned?"   
  
Ami took a step back. She didn't know how Chi-Chi could have figured out what they were planning. She didn't think that she made THAT much noise, or maybe Chi-Chi could read power levels and she just wasn't telling them. But she wouldn't lie to them, would she? She didn't have time to try and figure things out. Chi-Chi was now turned around and facing her in an attack stance. 'What to do, what to do…' She looked to her sides for possible options.  
  
Makoto decided that it was time for her to have some fun now. She had been standing on the sidelines for far too long. She had let everyone else have their chance, now she would show them all how it's done. 'Prepare yourself Chi-Chi. These guys just don't know what they're doing, where as I do.' Without further thought she jumped for Chi-Chi. She couldn't quite make it from where she was standing to where Chi-Chi was, but she didn't let that stop her. She had been in many battles for her martial arts class before she began training under Goku. She knew that you had to treat these kinds of fights much differently than the fights that were done with the usage of Ki. It wouldn't be too hard for her. She landed on the ground only to leap into the air again before Chi-Chi had a chance to realize what was happening. Her feet hadn't made too much of a noise on the ground since she knew a special technique from her class, it also helped that she had taken her shoes off so they wouldn't project sound. 'Perfect.' She jumped as far as she could once again.   
  
Chi-Chi neared Ami, ready to grab at her. "What the…" Everything became one giant blur as she was thrown to the side. Once she got her vision back, she looked around, wanting to know who just hit her without her knowledgeable of what was going on around her. She scanned the area, not able to locate anyone until she reached the area where Makoto and Ami were standing. "Very good." She pushed herself up with her arms. "It seems as tough we have one well-rounded fighter in midst of us." She stared at Makoto and was very impressed with what she had just seen. That was the first real hit that any of them had gotten on her during that fight.   
  
Makoto just stared back at Chi-Chi, taking the compliment without a 'thanks'. She would remember to thanks her later. Now wasn't the time to become chummy with her since she was her enemy at the moment.   
  
No words were spoken from either fighter as the both taunted each other with their eyes. Simultaneously, both Minako and Chi-Chi dashed towards each other in a flash, surprising the other fighters who were left to stand by and watch.  
  
Makoto met Chi-Chi halfway, locking forearms with her. She remembered back to this type of fighting when she was still attending martial arts school. She had left it behind when she first started training under Goku, thinking that it was just a waste of time. But she now knew that it was actually and important aspect of fighting. "You're pretty strong, you know that?"  
  
Chi-Chi pushed as hard as she could against Makoto. They both seemed to be evenly matched in strength. "You are too, kid." She found that she had to use almost all of her strength to keep Makoto from over powering her. 'What is this kid made of? She's much stronger than the rest, physical strength wise.'  
  
Makoto began to grow tired of pushing against Chi-Chi with her arms. She wanted some more action. It was almost like a craving. The more she fought, the more she wanted it. She slowly lifted one of her arms away from Chi-Chi's and put it on her shoulder.  
  
Chi-Chi grinned. 'Not gonna work kiddo.' Chi-Chi learned long ago from fighting Goku that you should never sit around and wait for an enemy to attack. She slowly lifted her leg and stuck her foot behind Makoto's calve. 'Here we go, Makoto.' With a fast pull of her leg up and towards her body at the same time, Makoto was thrown off of her feet and on to her back. She looked down at the girl. "You're good, but not good enough."  
  
Usagi smiled as she looked at her mother. 'Wow, she really IS good. I wonder if she's this good in the future too.' "Mom, that's not fair, you've had more practice at this type of fighting then us."  
  
Chi-Chi looked up to her daughter and frowned. "It's not only that I've had more practice, it's also the fact that you guys are careless in what you do. You need to learn how be more sneaky and quick about what you're doing. Like Makoto here. She's good. I think her problem is that she just hasn't been fighting this way in a long while. This is a weakness to all of you. You've been relying on your Ki attacks for far too long. If five of you can't even beat one person using normal fighting techniques then there's something wrong with your trainer." That would be Chi-Chi's goal for the remainder of the time that she would be in that room with them. She would make sure that they knew how to fight, the proper way.  
  
Usagi frowned. She didn't see anything wrong with the way that she was taught to fight. Not only had her father taught her most of what she knew, but her brothers had helped out a lot too. So had Vejita. "There's nothing wrong with the way dad trains us. There's no point to fighting without using Ki. Monsters use Ki, so we have to too."  
  
Chi-Chi shook her head in disgust. "Goku's done it again. Just another way that he has misled you. Usagi, let me ask you this, what would you do if an enemy you were fighting wasn't susceptible to your Ki attacks? Without very good physical skills you would be as good as dead." 'I wonder if this is how Gohan is taught. I don't want him to only know one way of fighting.'   
  
"Why wouldn't dad teach us this if we didn't need to know it then?" Usagi asked with a challenging tone to her voice.  
  
"To be blunt Usagi, your father is an idiot. Granted he is a good fighter and all, he is lousy when it comes to teaching a diverse way of training. That's pretty obvious when I fight you guys. When Minako and Ami tried to do their little attack, Minako gave it away with her facial expressions. And Makoto, you left yourself wide open for that last attack I gave you." Chi-Chi couldn't believe it. They were horrible when I came to the art of strict physical fighting. They wouldn't last a day if their lives depended on them performing this type of fighting. "Be prepared to learn this type of fighting for the remainder of the time we are here. It's what you need the most work on. Plus, it will increase the energy of your current power level, therefore making you an overall stronger fighter."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Time and Space~~  
  
The guardian of time watched Usagi throughout her training in the room of spirit and time. She was happy with the way things were going. She was actually stronger in this branch of her future then she would have been had she taken the other branch, which was originally meant to happen. Originally her body was supposed to accept her new power and be done with it. She wouldn't have trained in the room of spirit and time with her father, therefore, she wouldn't have gained more power.  
  
But now, her official training was all over. She had learned all that she could, for the time being. She only had a couple of months left in the room with her mother, but that would be short lived for it was only a matter of time before her true mission would start. Not only was it a test for her and her friends' new power, but it was also imperative that they win for their survival and the guardian of time knew this. 'Let's see if any of this paid off little ones. I hope we didn't do this for no reason.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Future~~  
  
In another space…  
  
A young woman, about the age of twenty five, entered a room filled with hate energy. She had short black hair that was somewhat spiked at the ends. It was cut like a male's, but still feminine at the same time. She was heavily armored in her upper body area. Her legs were covered with shorts that were skin tight down to her middle thigh.   
  
She peered into the room very carefully, fearing the worst from her leader. At the far end of the room sat a large wooden chair. In the chair sat a woman with wild red hair, which made her head look like it was on fire. Her body radiated the same hate energy that lurked all around the room. Her eyes were filled with more hate than her body's aura. The purpose of her arrival to the room was unknown to a woman already in the room, but his arrival didn't go unnoticed. She hissed at the woman as she looked up from her meditation. "What do you want?!"   
  
The woman knew not to become angry at her outburst towards him. It wasn't a wise thing to do for she would have her head if he did. She disregarded it quite fast since her agenda would soon please her. "Your majesty, we are finished reviving our weapon."  
  
The woman smiled as she stood up from a large chair. "Really? Have you located our target?"  
  
The woman nodded. "Yes we have. Actually, my brother did. He said it would be an honor to find this missing link for you. He said it had something to do with his past, something that I would never understand."  
  
The other woman raised an eyebrow in fascination. "Brother? I had no knowledge that there were any siblings among you people."  
  
"Neither did I, Your majesty. He won't have much to do with me though. The only thing that he will tell me is that he does not like my kind, and that I don't belong here. But that doesn't matter at this point, my queen. What does is getting the missing link and full filling the wish of our great ruler."  
  
'It is he who should be dead. I went through great lengths to get you under my control. That damned guardian of time screwed with my plans when I first got you, and now I've found you again. I will not let such a power loose.' She sat down, very calmly "Very well, prepare for the departure of our weapon." The queen couldn't wait to get her revenge as well as her 'missing link'. She stared at the woman in front of her, wondering why she was not leaving. "Is there something wrong? Why are you not commencing operations? My queen will not allow any wasted time! Hurry up!"  
  
She stepped back, fearing that she would be injured by the sudden rage of her queen. "We need your power to send it to our destination. It seems that the guardian of time has intervened with our plans. She has sent our target to the past."  
  
The queen widened her eyes to their fullest extent. "She WHAT!? That BITCH! She's fucked with me for the last time. I must have the missing link. One way or another, I WILL get it!" She jumped out of her chair in anger.  
  
"But that's ok, my queen. We are in a different space then her."  
  
'That's right. I've done it before. The guardian of time will have no control over this dimension. A dimension where light touches nothing.' "Very well. Tell the others to prepare for departure. You will not need to accompany it for I have given it enough of my queen's energy."  
  
The woman nodded. "Right your majesty. We will notify you when we need your power. You won't be displeased." She turned around and ran out of the room. She couldn't wait to tell the others of her progress with their queen. They would be most pleased with her.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Past~~  
  
Goku and Gohan had decided to go back home about two hours before Chi-Chi and the girls would be getting out of the room and time and spirit. They would be going in right after they came out and wanted to be plenty prepared for it. In order to be prepared, they decided that it would be best to eat something. Of course. Both Saiyans sat in the kitchen and at all of the food that looked appealing to them that was in their refrigerator.   
  
Goku stopped stuffing his face with food and looked around his kitchen. Gohan, who had noticed his father's actions, stopped eating too. "What's wrong dad?"  
  
Goku didn't turn to look at his son. He just got up and walked to the window. "I don't know. I fell that something is going to happen soon."  
  
Gohan turned his head to look our to window. He couldn't see anything and had no idea what his father was talking about. He couldn't fell anything strange happening. He couldn't sense anything that would be happening soon. "You're just nervous about going into the room of spirit and time aren't you."  
  
"No. That's not it. Something else. It's something big. I can't quite put my finger on it but I know it's coming." He looked closer out the window. With his senses, he could pin point a new energy forming deep within the mountains. "I think we should check it out."  
  
Gohan threw down his eating utensils and stood up, throwing his chair out from behind him. "Right dad." 'Even though I have no idea what you're feeling.'   
  
~*~*~  
  
Deep in the mountains…  
  
A man sat at a large computer system and typed in various formulas. The system was hooked to a large pod with see through walls. It was filled with a greenish liquid that bubbled up to the top. In the middle of this water was a tiny organism the size of a pea. It was curled up on itself as it floated in its spot.   
  
The man looked over at his creation and laughed. "Son Goku…You will pay! Once I unleash my great creation you will learn what happens when you mess with Dr. Gero. My perfect fighting machines will eat you alive, along with your stupid family." Yes, the man was non other than Dr. Gero himself, plotting away at Goku's assassination. He was proud of his 'perfect' fighting machines, as he called them. He had worked on them ever since Goku first destroyed his army. His beloved androids would one day rise up to destroy Goku. There was no way that he would be stopped. And when he released his greater creation the world would fall to his feet and worship him for the great man that he is. He couldn't wait for that day, but it was over a year away. His androids weren't quite finished yet and he had just recently acquired all of the different cells needed to create Cell. But that didn't matter. With the way that he had created the androids, there was no way that he could increase his fighting power enough to destroy them. He was doomed to die at the hands of his killing machines.  
  
At the moment, he was working on Cell. He was injecting him with all of the cells that he had gotten from Frieza and his father, which were very good Cells. They would boost his power up more than he could ever imagine.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Future~~  
  
In another space…  
  
The short haired woman walked into a room with a soft green glow coming from it. The glow was from their weapon. Inside the room stood her brother, a tall man with long black bristly hair, the other man was shorter and had a Mohawk. "The queen is ready to send him into the past. Bring the whole container, we don't want to wake him up as of yet. She has already begun to open a time rip so hurry up. She can only hold it so long before the guardian of time takes control of it." She turned around and walked out of the room.  
  
The woman's brother sneered at her. "Idiot. I don't know what the queen sees in you. You should have stayed dead you menacing healer." He turned to the giant tank with their genetically engineered weapon in it. "This had better work. Once we have the power the queen speaks of we can take over. Then I will have my revenge on those damned people of earth." He grabbed it out of the wall and began to carry it to the door.  
  
The shorter man made sure that the tank didn't fall out of his partner's arms. "Don't worry, things will work out for us. Though they didn't in the past, we are improved with our new power. We will overcome the people with 'pure hearts' and kill them off just as they tried to do before. This time they will not have the help of their ultimate weapon. It has not yet awakened."   
  
The two men stopped their chatter and carried the tank out of the room and into the queen's lair. The set it down before her. The shorter man stood in front of it as the representative of the group. "You're majesty, here it is. It shall bring you what you want. We have programmed it with our mission but also left it its memory to help it along with its anger. Its anger shall increase the new power we have put into it. You will not be displeased at all this time, my queen." He bowed to show respect for his queen. Any sign of disrespect would ultimately mean his death.   
  
The queen smiled. "Thank you for you help. But it is not over yet. First we must see if this thing can perform to our standards. And in order for it to do that, it must retrieve the missing link to my queen's power. If it fails, then we will let it die like the failure it is."  
  
"My queen, that will not happen. I programmed it especially for this fight. It should have no problem returning to you a success. But please, no more talk. We must carry out with our operation before the guardian of time takes over your time rip." The short man with the Mohawked hair opened the top of the tank of the sleeping weapon. "You know what to do my queen."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Time and Space~~  
  
"This is good. Everything is going to plane. Except, Usagi and the other's aren't out of the room yet. She and Chi-Chi need to hurry up if they want to have a family by the time they get out."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Past~~  
  
Goku and Gohan flew as fast as they could to their destination, the deepest part of the mountains. Gohan had even begun to feel what his father was feeling. It was an evil like no other they had felt before. It was more powerful than they had ever fought before. It was stronger than the average Super Saiyan. His father wouldn't even be able to stand up against it. "Father, what's happening. The androids aren't supposed to be showing up for a year and a few months. What's up with this?"  
  
Goku was having the same troubling thoughts. He couldn't figure it out for the life of him. But he did know one thing, Usagi was stronger than this being that was beginning to form. "Your sister should be able to stand up against this thing, whatever it is. She had a stronger power level than what this thing has got right now, remember?"  
  
Gohan nodded. "Of course I do. It was only yesterday, but do you think that she can handle it? I mean, she will have to do it alone."  
  
"No she won't. If she can hold it off for a while, then we can go train in the room of spirit and time long enough to change you into a Super Saiyan. Then you can go and help her while I try to go beyond Super Saiyan."   
  
"What?! Dad, you can't be serious. From what Usagi said it takes forever to do that. You are talking about Super Saiyan level 2 right?" Goku nodded. "Yeah, that's going to take forever."  
  
"I've got to try Gohan. Usagi isn't capable of fighting a monster like this. Can't you feel it? Its power is steadily increasing as we speak. So far it's still under Usagi, but it's getting too big." 'Plus, no I know how Demi-Saiyans work. The angrier you become, the stronger you are. That's why you're going to go and help Usagi.' "Trust me Gohan."  
  
Gohan sighed. His father had never led him wrong before when it came to fights. He had to agree with him. "All right. I guess we can try that."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Dr. Gero's Lab~~  
  
Dr. Gero stared at the power meters for Cell in complete awe. He had never seen anything like it before. The power of Cell was increasing rapidly. It was like he was growing his full life in one day. "This is spectacular. Goku will meet his doom before his time. GREAT!"  
  
"That's where you're wrong old man."   
  
Dr. Gero gasped. "What?!" He gazed in on Cell more to notice that it was starting to bulge. "Ok, now THIS is getting weird." He moved closer to get a better look, and took note that a small body was beginning to form. With every second that went by the small body became more and more detailed while the power metes went up and up and up.   
  
"The power, the power!" Black energy electricity began to form around the container as Cell's body began to expand in size and mass. His body was fully formed. All of a sudden, from no where, Cell got a large sum of power thrown into his body, upping his body size.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Outside the Lab~~  
  
Goku stopped flying immediately after seeing an explosion take place in a mountain. "What the hell was that?" His muscles began to go numb as his body shook with severe fear. "What is that power?"  
  
Gohan too was overtaken by fear as he sensed the new power that had just been born into the world. "I don't know. It's a little bit higher than Usagi's power. She can't easily block against it by herself. Even if the others are with her she can't block it. Dad, what's going on?" He turned around when he felt Piccolo and Mamoru's Ki shooting towards them.   
  
"This is insane. Where did this come from? Usagi never told us about this coming here at this time. It's so much further ahead of schedule than it should be. I can't let her fight this alone with the girls. I can't let anything happen to Usagi, her father would kill me."  
  
"Odango isn't going to endure this alone. We're going to be here too." Mamoru flew up beside Gohan and looked to Goku. "I'll kick that thing's ass anyways."  
  
"You can't beat that thing boy. It's too damned powerful. You wouldn't stand a chance." Piccolo looked to the mountain. He could sense the evil being walking around in it. "Go get the others. We're going to need all the help we can get."  
  
Mamoru sighed. "Fine. If we must, but I'm telling you. This thing is going to be a piece of cake." He took off in the direction of the Kame house. He figured that Krillin and Yamcha were probably already on their way and coming from that direction anyways.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Dr. Gero's Destroyed Lab~~  
  
A tall black creature stepped on Dr. Gero's head, crushing it. He laughed as the blood sprayed out in all directions. "Stupid man. I never cared about you. I only cared about becoming perfect." He lifted up his foot and hissed in disgust as blood ran down it. "Stupid humans are so messy." He looked around the lab. The only things that were left in tact were two pods. One held android 18 and the other held android 17. "I won't be needing you two." He raised his hand and began to form a light blue Ki blast in it, but stopped. Something else had caught his attention. "Saiyan."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back Outside~~  
  
"Dad, what should we do? We can't fight that?" Gohan kept his eyes locked onto the mountainside. He didn't want whatever was inside to come out.  
  
Goku shook his head. "I have no idea. That power is far beyond my own. I don't know what we're going to do son." He turned his head to a suddenly large source of power that stood before him. "What the…Who the hell are you!?" He got into as good a fighting stance as anyone could while they were in the air. Before him stood a black creature with very few small speckles on his arms and legs. What appeared to be wings on his back were a pale green.   
  
"Why don't you know who I am? I know who all of you are." He smirked. This would be too fun. Here they were, with such a low power, at his mercy. "Let me see, you're Goku, you're Gohan, and you, green man are Piccolo. Yes I remember you all very well. My only question is, where's Vejita? I had fun playing with him before."  
  
Goku scowled at the bug like creature before him. "I said, who the HELL are you!? And how the HELL do you know who we are!?"  
  
"If you must be so rude as to ask in such a tone, I am a new and improved Cell."  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. What did you think? Good or Bad? Please review and tell me. Thanks!)  



	58. Part 20

Goku couldn't believe what he had just heard come from the mysterious monter's mouth. He could have sworn that he said his name was Cell. He tried to collect his thoughts as her muttered gibberish, not knowing what to do. 'Cell, Cell, Cell. Wait a minute, I know that name. Usagi mentioned him a few times before. He was the monster responsible for my death wasn't he? He was the one who forced Gohan to become Super Saiyan two. But how can he be here? How can he have so much power if he hasn't consumed the androids yet?' "Cell!" He growled. "What do you want?!"  
  
Cell closed his eyes as he smirked. He would enjoy defeating the Saiyans once and for all. Though they had beaten him before, they weren't nearly as strong as they were back then, now. "Why I'm here to find a little Saiyan runt, Usagi. Seems to me that she is your daughter." He cocked his neck from left to right in stretching motion as he began to crack his knuckles. "And while I'm here I'm going to have a little fun with you guys. I guess I'll have to wait to lay into Vejita though. I never got a chance to 'thank' him for allowing me to absorb the androids."  
  
Gohan let himself glide to his father, not taking his eyes off of Cell for a single second. "Father, what's going on?"  
  
Goku shook his head in confusion. He was asking himself that same question in his mind. There were no answers to come up with. "What do you want with Usagi?" He couldn't allow Usagi to be taken by this monster. He couldn't allow anything bad to happen, he wouldn't.  
  
"My. You are full of questions aren't you?" He focused his attention to the young Saiyan, narrowing his eyes on him. "Gohan, you are not at all what I remember. You have no power. I could easily kill you right now. But then what would be the fun in that? I want to enjoy your death, just as you were enjoying being able to beat me so bad. You were enjoying it so much that you wouldn't even listen to your father when he told you to finish me off. Because of you, he had to teleport me to another planet right before I self detonated. But I didn't die as your father did." He quickly laughed to himself as he saw the look of shock on the boy's face. "Yes it was I who killed your father, but it was only because of you that he died. And now I shall kill you AND everyone you love because of your weakness."  
  
"That's impossible. I wouldn't be so stupid as to play with you. I would kill you right away for all the horrible things that you did. Usagi told us about you. She told us that you were killed by me. How did you survive it!?"  
  
Cell smirked. "Patience young Gohan. Don't get yourself angry over nothing. Soon you will be dead and none of this will matter. You can go see your friends in the afterlife."   
  
Goku had had enough of Cell already. He was hiding something from them. Usagi had had nothing to do with Cell's defeat. Usagi was born years after his death. What could she have possibly done to make him want to come back for her. He had specifically said her name. "I'm going to ask this ONCE more. What do you want with Usagi?!" His body began to tense up with anger.   
  
Cell turned back to Goku. "I'm going to tell you one thing. I'm here to take her power and then kill her. The queen can not have HER running around the world to someday over throw her."  
  
'Kill her? What the hell is this guy talking about? Why would he want to kill Usagi. This queen he speaks of. Who could she be? And what is he talking about, over throwing her?' "I suggest you get out. Usagi is stronger than you. You will be defeated easily."  
  
"I don't think so Goku. I'm not the same Cell as I was when I was first created. I have been reborn with the proper power to kill Usagi. And I mean PROPER. Her power will not be able to surpass mine." He could see that the three fighters were rather confused, but also, they didn't believe him. "I have been injected with a certain type of special energy from my queen. I have been directed to steel young Usagi's energy, plus her main source of life. Then I will kill her, as I said stated before that I would. She will not make it back to the future. You will not make it to your futures for I will do away with all of you. Once I have brought back Usagi's power, our kingdom will once again be free to roam this dimension. We will rule it as our own and kill everyone who attempts to fight back against our rule. This time we have no one to stop us from full filling our wish."  
  
Goku analyzed Cell over and over again, running his eyes from his head down to his feet. Cell's skin looked to be almost like a shield. If he were able to make any kind of hit on the creature it wouldn't have too much of an impact. It would take all of his strength to even make the hit felt. "Who sent you here? What kingdom are you talking about?"  
  
Cell frowned. He was becoming irritated with Goku's questions. They were none of his business as he was not involved in the queen's plans. His power was not enough to feed his queen's queen. Usagi's was the strongest, but not only that, she was also their 'missing link.' "That is of no concern to you. What is, is that I'm going to kill you all once and for all. And I'm going to enjoy it with every muscle in my body. You will pay for everything that you have done."  
  
Goku clenched his teeth with anger as he tightened his muscles. "You're not doing anything. Your reign of terror will end here before it even begins." He hastily powered up to his fullest. His hair shot up in gold as his body was overtaken by his Golden aura. Powered rushed through his veins as he stared directly into Cell's eyes. He straightened his back and made sure not to let his calm look turn into a fearful one. That was the last thing he needed. He was not about to let Cell know of his fear. Cell would have an advantage over him had he let on that he was even the least bit nervous. He didn't fear Cell himself, he feared the fact that his own power was so much lower than his enemy's. His power was much, much lower than Cell's but that didn't mean that he wouldn't go down without a fight. He would teleport out of there if things got too rough. He still had a chance with Usagi, plus he still had a chance at reaching a level beyond Super Saiyan. He also had Gohan that would need to be trained. "You're going down."  
  
Cell began to laugh softly. "I'm going down? Look at you. You're a weak and pitiful sight. You don't even have all of your people here to help you. Right now you're the strongest one anyways. It's better that they aren't here. Then they won't die and they won't have to watch their friend die either. But that's ok. I'll find them later, after I tear you apart." His laughing turned into more of a hysterical cackle. He couldn't help himself. He found this situation all too funny. He remembered how these same people had beaten him before. But now, now the tables were turned and they were the ones who would be killed. Not him. And they wouldn't have the benefit of someone coming to give him his much needed power boost. "I think you're the one who's going down."   
  
He stared back into the Saiyan's eyes. His power generated off of his body, making him look as if he were on fire. He smirked at Goku. He knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to intimidate him by staring at him without looking anywhere else. But Cell knew better than to be intimidated. He knew that Goku had a much lower power level than his own. But still, he looked a little too confident for Cell's comfort. 'He's hiding something.' "Where is the girl?"   
  
Goku grinned. Cell couldn't kill any of them until he knew where Usagi was. That bought them a little bit of time before they would have to fight. Unless Cell just decided to be a complete ass about this all and began firing at them. "Wouldn't you like to know."  
  
Cell's laughing turned into a stern frown. "You better tell me or else..."  
  
"Or else what?" Piccolo interrupted.   
  
Cell turned to Piccolo. "Ah yes, Piccolo. I remember you very well. You nearly killed me before I became perfect. No matter. I'll destroy you, in time."   
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru approached Goku and the others at lighting fast speed. With him were Krillin, Yamcha, and Tienshin-han. He could feel Cell's great power. He didn't say anything to his father or Goku, but he actually felt Cell's power at a greater magnitude than the others said they had. The others had said that Cell's power felt as if it were just above Usagi's. But he felt as if it were at least the power of the future Goku's Super Saiyan two, which he had felt one day when Goku and Vejita were sparring together. It felt like it may have been a little bit higher even. He was completely confused at that point. Why had he felt a greater power coming from Cell than the others had? It didn't make sense to him at all.   
  
He stopped once he got within 100 feet of Cell and the others. He didn't want to get too close. From where he was, he could see and feel that Goku was already powered up to his fullest. "What is he thinking? He can't fight that."  
  
Yamcha squinted to see the monster in a bit of a clearer view. "That thing is pretty strong. I didn't think that the androids would be so strong."  
  
Mamoru turned back to look at Yamcha. "That's not an android you idiot. That's Cell. He's from our time for some reason. Don't you feel that power radiating from him?"  
  
Krillin cowered behind Tienshin-han. "Yeah, but it's not much more that Usagi's was yesterday."  
  
'Bullshit! Why don't they feel it? Why am I the only one who can feel a greater power from him? This is nuts. But I can't exactly tell them. I'm the only one who feels it. Everyone will just tell me that I'm freaking out.' "Let's get over there."  
  
Krillin's eyes widened to their fullest extent. "Wha...wha...what? You wanna go over...there? With that thing over there? Don't you want to stay here where it's safe? Goku's got everything under control."  
  
Tienshin-han sighed as he looked down at Krillin. He was never afraid to fight before. He had always been ready to defend earth. What made him change. "Krillin, you can stay here, but, we're going over there to help our friends. They're going to need it."  
  
Krillin watched as the three fighters left him behind and went onto where Cell was. He couldn't believe it. What would drive them to WANT to go over there and be killed. He was positive that that's what was going to happen. Goku wouldn't be able to stand up to Cell, Cell would kill him and then everyone else. He gulped as he began to slowly move forward. "I know I'm going to regret this."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Cell leaned his head to his right so he could see past Goku's head. He smiled when he saw the other fighters nearing them. "Look at that. The others are coming. Now I don't have to hunt them down. Of course, hunting you all down would be quite fun. Especially if I didn't use my senses." He evilly smiled as he paused. He had just thought of a great idea. "Let's play a little game shall we."  
  
Piccolo looked over his shoulder to see his friends arrive at the scene. Krillin didn't look too happy about being there. Mamoru looked indifferent about the whole situation but Piccolo knew otherwise. He could feel the uneasiness arise within his son. 'He knows something.'  
  
Cell looked back into Goku's eyes. "Why don't you guys all scatter around so I can hunt for you later? We'll make a little game out of it. Instead of a tournament, I'll hunt you down and rip your bodies apart. That's how I shall get my revenge, which I so very much deserve. Don't you think that's a great idea. Then, when I'm finished playing with you guys, I'll kill Usagi and report back to my queen."  
  
Goku's frown turned into a scowl. 'This guy is sick. What is going on in his head when he thinks up these things? Now he wants to hunt us.' "That's not going to happen! You're going to fight me right here, right now! I'll take you out before you even know what hit you!" He briefly took his eyes away from Cell's took search him for a possible weakness that he could attack. But there was none to be found. He didn't even know Cell's fighting style, though Cell knew his. He put up his guard, preparing himself for his fight.   
  
Krillin took one look at Cell and then Goku, realizing that if Goku were to fight now, he would die for sure. "Goku, I'm not so sure it's a good idea to fight right now. I mean with your power the wa..."  
  
Piccolo, knowing that if Krillin finished his sentence that Cell would then know that they all very well knew that Goku would loose if he fought, backhanded Krillin in the neck. "Shut your mouth Krillin." He glared at his fellow fighter, who in return, cowered back while covering his mouth with his hand.  
  
Goku, with eyes still glued to Cell, knew that the fight would get messy and probably pretty bloody. Though, Cell would not loose any blood, if he had any at all. It would be his own blood that was shed. But he was totally prepared for that. He just needed to stall until the time that Usagi and the girls came out of their training. "You guys can leave now. All of you. I'll take care of this."  
  
Gohan finally took his eyes off Cell and placed them back to his father. "Dad, are you crazy? You're going to need our help."  
  
"It's ok Gohan. I'll be fine." He began to slowly approach Cell, ready for any attack that may come his way. He didn't really care about what happened to him at that point. What was important was stalling. That's all he needed to do. It was only a matter of a couple of hours before the girls would be out and then he and Gohan could go in. He hoped that the girls had become stronger. They seemed to be able to gain power at a much faster rate than any humans that he had ever met. "Let's go Cell."  
  
Cell chuckled. "You fool. Do you not realize that I can take you out right here and now? What would be the fun in that though? I want to hunt you all like the barbarians you are." He extended his arm out to be transversal to his body. Wow, I learned that word in math. I guess math is good for something. lol "Get out of my face." He began building up a small portion of his energy, but to his enemies, it was a greater energy than they had ever seen.  
  
Mamoru started to let himself float backwards as he felt Cell's energy increasing. He wondered why no one else was moving away. Had they not felt that either? Cell power was flying high above anything that he had ever felt in his life. It was nuts. 'Shit.'  
  
Cell's body was soon being surrounded by black lightening hitting his rock hard skin, which was an improvement that his new queen had ordered to be put on him as well as he new power. He was enjoying himself more than he was when he first became perfect. That bliss was short lived thanks to Gohan, but his new power would live on forever. "Say goodbye." He pulled back on his hand, only to violently push it out in front of him again. "Don't forget to scatter around the world to make it fun too."  
  
Gohan to his left and then to his right. Nothing had happened. Cell's supposed attack had done nothing. Everyone around him was just as puzzled as he was, including his father. "What was that supposed to be?" 'Maybe that power that we're feeling isn't so great after all.'  
  
He looked back to Cell. 'Maybe he's just gotten weaker over time. Dad can beat him.' Then, out of no where, his ears picked up a large pounding. It sounded as if a large hammer were being smashed against the earth over and over again. He gasped as he watched a small spiral beginning to form where Cell's hand formerly was. "What the..."  
  
Goku moved back. He didn't like the looks of what was forming in front of Cell. It was nothing that he had ever seen before. It wasn't even anything like what he had seen before. He didn't exactly want to find out what it was either. "This is stupid Cell."  
  
Cell smirked. "Is it really?" He looked down at his little attack.  
  
Goku kept his eyes on the so called attack. It was just spinning in a circle, not doing or harming anything at all. The only thing that was peculiar was the large pounding coming from it. Then, out of no where, a large power wind began to come right for them, creating a loud whistling as it pushed it's way towards the fighters. "Oh my god what is that!?" He quickly threw his arms up in front of his face, knowing that he would be unable to block it. That wasn't the point. The point was to block from any debris that was flying at him, which he felt shortly after he put his arms up. He could feel rocks and branches from trees thrashing against his bare skin as he was thrown back against his will. The power wind seemed to have more strength built up in it than Cell originally put into it.  
  
Cell laughed as loud and as hard as he could as he watched everyone get blown away. They looked so incredibly pitiful with their legs and arms flailing all about, unable to stop themselves. "Didn't I tell you? My attacks can grow on themselves." He raised his hand chest high and looked at it as he moved his fingers in and out of a fist position. 'This new power is great. I can't wait to further try it out on these guys.'  
  
Once he could no longer see his enemies, he turned around and headed back for Gero's lab. He still had some business to do there. He wanted to ensure that he would still live on in this time. There was only one way to do that too. Plus, he wanted to make sure that the androids were destroyed. He didn't want them to join up with Gohan's gang in this timeline like they had in his own. 18 was a traitor and would be punished for it. 17 on the other hand, could be used for his plans. "Time to take care of a few things."  
  
He quickly flew back to Gero's lab. He wanted to finish up there fast so he could find Usagi, steel her power as directed, and then kill the others. He couldn't wait to do that. He would make them suffer for making him suffer.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku was stopped by flying head first into a tree, which snapped it in half. Luckily he the power wind died down quite a bit by the time he hit it that he didn't just keep flying. It was more like a normal gust now. He was thrown at least twenty miles away, which baffled him. He had never felt anything with such power in his life.   
  
He sat up and scanned his surroundings for his son and any of his friends. No one was in sight except for Yamcha, who looked as though he was unconscious. He must have fallen quite hard and had his power knocked out of him. "We've got a problem on our hands."  
  
He pushed himself off the ground so he was standing. His legs, for some reason, were numb. He figured that it was from the fall. He wasn't really able to block the attack very much. It greatly exceeded his power. He didn't remember much about what had just happened either. All he did remember was being pushed back and seeing everyone being thrown around behind him. He did remember being hit in the chest with a large tree branch though. He had a huge laceration across his chest to remind him of that, along with the pain that came with it. He slowly staggered his way over to his friend. "Yamcha, wake up." He kneeled down and shook him, barely able to keep his body erect for he was quite dizzy.  
  
Yamcha slightly opened his eyes even though he didn't want to. He just wanted to fall asleep there. He could feel a gash on his forehead and the warm blood flowing down his face from it. "What did he just do Goku?" He couldn't make out any detail of Goku's head and face. The only thing he noticed was that he was no longer powered up to Super Saiyan. He lifted one of his hands to his face and rubbed off some of the blood. "That bastard."  
  
Goku was relieved to see that Yamcha wasn't unconscious like he had thought. "Are you going to be able to collect yourself if I leave you here?"  
  
"Yeah." He paused to think about what he just agreed to as he lifted his head. His eyes were now fully open. "Wait a minute, you aren't thinking about going back there are you? You can't go back there. He's so much stronger than you are. Surely you know that."  
  
Goku shook his head. "I would be crazy to go back there right now. I just want to find Gohan." 'And then get the girls.'   
  
Yamcha gently laid his head back in the grass. "That's better. I didn't think you'd be dumb enough to go back there in your current state." He took notice of Goku's chest. "Just don't get yourself killed when you go back to fight him."  
  
"Aren't you going back?"   
  
"Maybe, I don't think I could stand up to that though. If you can't what makes me think I can? I'd just be in the way."  
  
Goku stood up. "Well if you feel that you don't need to be there I won't force you to go. It's your choice. Just make sure it's what you want to do." He rubbed his chest from the pain. "Damn that guy was strong but I can't give up. This is just getting fun." He put his fingers to his forehead and concentrated on Gohan's energy. "See you later Yamcha."  
  
Yamcha closed his eyes once Goku was gone. "Man, he's gotten even more crazy since the first time I met him. He just never gives up."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku appeared at a pond surrounded by trees. He scanned the area very carefully, looking for his son. He could feel his energy, but barely. It had taken a hit from that attack. "Gohan!" He took a few steps forward in hopes that his eyes may spot his son. "Can you here me?" He looked to the body of water in front of him to see a small foot sticking out of it. 'Damn.'  
  
Goku ran to the pond. The closer he got, the more of Gohan he could see. "Gohan..." Once at the edge of the water, he stopped and gazed down at his son, who was unconscious. The boy was surrounded by water, his face was nearly fully covered. The only parts that were visible were his chin and nose. Everything else had a thin layer of water covering it. He kneeled down and studied his son. He seemed to have more wounds on him than himself and Yamcha had. 'How can I do this without harming him even further?' He carefully placed one of his hands under Gohan's neck and his other hand under his knees, after placing his hands on his stomach so they wouldn't just hang down. He gently lifted the boy up while rising to his feet. 'Ok, here we go.' To the best of his ability, he put his hand to his forehead, once again, and concentrated onto Kami's energy. 'Let's get this done.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Cell sat at what was left of Gero's computer. Luckily the computer that had been used to create him was still in tact. Gero was at least smart enough to make it somewhat resistant to blasts. He typed in various codes and commands to set up for the transport of some of his DNA to the tank which was very capable of holding another version of himself, if repaired. "This way, if anything should happen to me, part of me will still be alive and well, ready to kill those who killed me. But I highly doubt that that will ever happen. When I succeed, I shall kill this off." He picked up a needled on the table to his right and shoved it into his skin, extracting some of his blood, which contained his DNA codes.  
  
He pulled the needle out and slammed it to the table when he heard footsteps behind him. He grinned. "What are you two doing awake?" He turned around in his swivel chair and sat face to face with androids 17 and 18. "I don't remember waking you up."  
  
17 walked to the tank that previously held the baby Cell in it. "Who are you?" He found it strange that Gero would allow someone to come in a destroy his lab. He knew that it couldn't have just exploded on itself either. Gero was too smart to build faulty machines.  
  
Cell stood up and pushed 17 away from the tank. It was repairable. "Get away from that before I kill you."  
  
17 grinned. "You kill me? I don't think so. We are Dr. Gero's perfect killing machines."  
  
18 looked around the area. "Speaking of that old bastard, where is he? He wouldn't just let some ugly creature like yourself come in her and mess with Cell."  
  
"I am Cell android 18. I am from the future and I killed Dr. Gero. You should thank me. That old man was a menace to us all."  
  
18 turned to Cell. She found it strange that he would know her name. Though he did say he was from the future. "Cell huh? So the old man actually succeeded in something for once in his life. What do you want Mr. Cell?"  
  
Cell grinned. He would enjoy killing 18. She obviously hadn't been programmed to kill Goku yet. Neither of them had been other wise they would have asked about him. "How did you get out of your cabinets."  
  
"Oh you mean that cage that Gero held us in all the time?" 17 snickered. "Gero built in a device in those things for just this type of occasion. If there was any disturbance in the labs, such as an explosion, then we would be automatically wakened up to kill the intruder. That means you."  
  
"But since we hated him, we aren't going to do anything about you. We're just happy to be getting out of those stupid jails." 18 walked passed Cell and peered down at the computer screen. "What were you doing, CELL?" She clicked on some buttons on the screen and scrolled through his files. She raised an eyebrow with fascination. "Oh? You were making a replica of yourself with your own DNA."  
  
Cell grabbed 18's arm and pulled her aside. "Leave this alone or pay the consequences."   
  
"Damn. Don't have to get a stick up your ass. I was just curious." She began to walk to the door for she was beginning to bore with her current activity. She wanted to find something 'fun' to do. "Let's go 17."  
  
17 frowned. "Don't order me around 18. You forget who has more power here."  
  
18 just rolled her eyes as she continued to walk away. "Fine. Do whatever you like. I'm going to find something recreational to do." She picked up her pace to a slow jog and left.  
  
17 looked at Cell and then back at the door. "Women can be such a bother." He too proceeded to leave Cell behind.  
  
Cell smirked as he watched the second android leave. "That's it you two. I'll get you later. You will be an addition to my little 'game'. You will make it all the more fun." He turned back to what he was doing . "Now that I have a blood sample, all I have to do is repair the tank and then rebuild the body and insert the DNA. Then I've created another me. Ha, ha, ha, ha!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku paced back and fourth in front of the room of spirit and time. There was only about an hour and an hour left before they would be coming out. Gohan hadn't awakened yet and Cell hadn't tried anything since he attacked them so it would have been pointless to pull them out early. They were lucky for that. He seemed to be hanging around the lab for a while for some reason. Goku was curious as to why though. What could have been so important that Cell need to stay back at the lab? He knew that he would probably find out soon, and not like the results. But it was something that he would have to accept.   
  
"Goku, why don't you relax." Kami walked to the room, where Goku and Gohan were. He knew what was going on down on earth. He didn't know why though. "You can't fix things by worrying."  
  
Goku stopped pacing and turned to Kami. "I know I can't fix things. But look at the way things are going. Cell has come from the future with more power than before. We haven't had enough time to train for him. Vejita is training in space somewhere and isn't here to help us. I can probably power up in the room of spirit and time but that doesn't dismiss the fact that Usagi and her friends have to fight Cell. I mean, Cell seems to be here specifically for Usagi's power for who knows why. I don't know if she'll be able to handle it. This is going to be her first real fight and she has to do it with others who have never really fought before."  
  
"Calm down Goku. Your future self was here preparing them for this the whole nine months that he spent in there with them. Trust yourself Goku. Cell is strong, but these girls can hold him off until you and Gohan come out. Speaking of Gohan..."  
  
Goku turned around and looked the ground where his son was starting to stir. "Gohan are you all right?"  
  
Gohan sat up as he grabbed his head. "Huh? Where am I?" He looked around. "How did I get here? Last thing I remember is that I was flying threw the forest and then I all of a sudden fell and hit my head against a big rock."  
  
Goku sighed with relief. "Good to see you're all right. You think you can train now?"  
  
Gohan looked at his father like he was crazy. His head still throbbed with pain and his muscles were numb from trying to push against Cell's single attack. But he knew how important it was. "I guess so. Are the girls out yet?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes, but we need to use that room more than they do. I think we should get them out now." He turned to Kami, who knew what to do. "Thanks, Kami."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Room of Spirit and Time~~  
  
Usagi was in the middle of a hand to hand combat fight with Makoto. They had both gotten pretty good with just physical fighting. Like Chi-Chi had told them, their power levels had risen in their normal forms, which made them stronger when they actually did raise their power levels beyond normal.   
  
Makoto punched at Usagi's shoulder, who dodged the punch by spinning to the side. She quickly grabbed Makoto's arm and lifted with all of her strength, flipping her over onto her back. Makoto didn't stay there for too long. Staying on the ground would have just left her vulnerable to another attack. Instead, she raised one of her legs and kicked Usagi in the shin before she had a chance to jump out of the way. She hopped to her feet and faced Usagi. Both fighters panted heavily for they had been sparring with each other for at least a half hour. That was a short spar for them. Lately, they had been going until one of them gave up, which didn't happen for a couple of hours.   
  
They looked to their left when they heard a distant clapping. They stood down as they knew that their fight was over now. They felt the energy of Kami, something must have been wrong for him to interrupt their training before they were supposed to leave.   
  
"Very good girls." Kami complimented as he walked out into the fighting area. "Getting almost as good as the rest of the fighters."  
  
Usagi bent over and put her hands on her knees. "What's wrong Kami?"  
  
"Something horrible has come up. You all need to leave here now. Goku will explain to you what's going on. Where are the others?"  
  
Usagi perked her head up at that. 'What? Something's wrong?' "They're off somewhere else sparring two on two. What's wrong?"  
  
Kami walked passed the two girls. "Leave here and ask your father. I'm going to get the others."  
  
Usagi stood tall again and looked to Makoto. 'Daddy? What's he doing here?' "Come on Makoto. Let's go. I want to find out what's wrong." She didn't wait for an answer before she bolted for the door. Makoto followed closely behind.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku turned his head to the opening of the room of spirit and time where he saw Usagi and Makoto coming out. "Girls. Where are the others?" He looked further behind them but didn't see anyone.  
  
"Kami is getting them. They were further out than us. They should be here soon. What's wrong Goku?" Makoto dashed out in front of Usagi.  
  
"Well, I don't know how to say this but, it seems that someone from the future is controlling Cell, from what I can figure out. They gave him extra energy or something, which really boosted his power level above mine. That's why we're calling you guys out. Gohan and I are going to go in so I can get Gohan changed to Super Saiyan and so I can achieve level two."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened. That was too much information to take in all at once. It was too overwhelming. "What? Cell? People from the future?"  
  
Goku understood Usagi's confusion. "There's more. It seems it is the same Cell that fought us in the future and now he wants revenge. And he main purpose is to steal your energy. You seem to be his new queen's obsession. He literally blew us away with his power so when you're fighting him beware that he is strong."  
  
Usagi's mouth dropped at that. She couldn't believe it. Why would Cell come from the future for her? Who from the future could possibly know about her new power that she just acquired only a day before? "Wait a minute, you want ME to fight her?"  
  
"Not just you. But all of you girls. You're strong enough to do it. So far Usagi, you're the only one strong enough to fight against Cell. But everyone else will be joining you soon. I'll send Gohan out as soon as he turns Super Saiyan. As soon as I reach level two I'll be out. You have nothing to worry about."  
  
"Nothing to worry about? Nothing to worry about? This is definitely something to worry about! We can't do this all alone! We aren't strong enough!"  
  
"Usagi you have to do it. This isn't just our timeline we're talking about. It's also about your life. He is here for you Usagi. Now deal with it. Be strong."  
  
Usagi sighed as she had the feeling of defeat within her heart. There was no way she could argue with her father. As much as she didn't want to admit it, he was right. It was her own fault that he was there. Had she not left home, Cell would have attacked her in her own timeline and everyone there would have been able to protect her. "What is the guardian of time doing to me?!"  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. What did you think? Good or bad? Gotta Go. Ja! ^_~)  



	59. Part 21

Usagi walked to the edge of Kami's lookout with a sense of responsibility. A responsibility to destroy Cell for it was her own fault that he was in this timeline. He followed her there from the future. He was there for her power. But she knew that this would not be an easy thing to achieve. A victory would only be won with hard work. She knew that for certain. She hadn't quite trained for this particular battle, but one just like it. She had been trained by two of the best fighters that she could think of, with two totally different views on the way a battle should be carried out.   
  
But even with her new power and knowledge of fighting, Usagi didn't believe enough in herself to stand up to Cell. His power greatly exceeded her own. She had no idea what her father was talking about when he said that she was the only one who could fight him and be able to stand up to him. Didn't he fell Cell's awesome power? It was an enormous power that brought great fear into Usagi's shimmering blue eyes. 'What am I supposed to do with a power like that?'   
  
Chi-Chi walked up from behind her daughter, who looked as though she was lost in a jumble of thoughts at the moment. She could tell that Usagi was frightened. She didn't blame her for it either. Had her father ever told her that she was to fight one of the strongest beings in the world, she would have passed out right there and then. She was amazed at how well Usagi was taking in all of this. Though, she had been preparing herself for this day for so long she was probably used to the idea. But none of them had expected any enemy to show up so soon, and certainly not in the form of a so called new and improved Cell.  
  
"Do you feel that?" Usagi's skin was overtaken by goose bumps as she began to shiver. The fear was too great for her to handle, but her father was right. She was currently the only one who could fight back against Cell.   
  
Rei didn't know about any of the others, but she definitely felt something strange about Cell's power. It seemed familiar to her but she couldn't figure out why. "Yes, his power is evil and full of hatred. It's a power to fear and watch carefully."  
  
Usagi nodded. She knew that for sure. She wasn't sure why, but she knew that this was not the same power that her friends and family had fought when he first arrived. They wouldn't have been able to defeat him before if had he possessed this type of power. "I know Rei." She perked her head up once she sensed his power move away from the lab. "He's on the move you guys. What are we gonna do?"  
  
"Well we can't just stand here. We have to stop him. Everyone else is still down there. We need to go to them and tell them to get up here so they don't get hurt. They aren't strong enough to fight with them. Well, maybe Mamoru is, but I don't know about the rest." Raising her power level a bit, Makoto jumped to the air. "We need to get there as fast as possible."  
  
"Why don't we teleport? We can get around a lot faster by doing that."  
  
Minako turned to Ami. "There you go Ami. Using the ol brain again. We can get there before Cell and warn the others. Maybe we should split up and not all go to the same person. It would be a lot quicker that way. Plus, there's less of a chance that Cell will get to any of them."  
  
"Good idea Minako. It WILL be a lot faster that way. Once we get them up here we don't have to worry about Cell trying to go after them and kill them. Dad said that Cell was also after them." All of a sudden, her senses picked something up. "Great, he's going for Yamcha first." She pressed her fingers to her forehead, both with fear, and anger. "Gotta go. Come help me when you've warned everyone." She quickly concentrated on Yamcha's energy and was gone in a flash.  
  
Rei couldn't believe what Usagi had just done. She had put herself in danger, knowingly, to get Yamcha outta there. "What is she doing? She can't fight Cell alone. He's nearly there too. What is she going to do when Cell locks on to her energy signature? He'll hunt her down until he kills her. We need to help her you guys."  
  
Chi-Chi put her hand on Rei's shoulder before she became too frantic. "Don't worry about Usagi until everyone else is safe." 'Did I just say that?' "Don't get too over excited or else you'll loose concentration. Now hurry along and get the others. I'll stay up here until Goku and Gohan get out of their training and tell them what's going on. Kami will keep me updated."  
  
"That's right, I will." Kami calmly stated as he walked to the group. "If I see that things are turning too bad, I will summon Goku and Gohan out of their training. But I don't think that I will need to do that. The Goku from the future told me of your progress. And from what I saw, you're all very capable of holding your own against Cell. Yet, I don't know what this evil power filled with hatred is you were talking about."  
  
Makoto eyes grew with confusion. She didn't know who could miss it. It was too great to look over. "What are you saying? That you can't feel that? It's huge."  
  
Kami shook his head. "I'm afraid I can not. But we mustn't speak of such things now for it is not the time to do so. You must be on your way before it is too late."  
  
The girls nodded in agreeance. They had little time before Cell would find Usagi and try to steal her power. If anything should happen, they needed to be there to protect her, just in case. "Right." They all performed their teleportation technique which they had learned from Goku and left the area.   
  
"They hold a power unique to humans. Actually, I have never felt another human with such power. They are special, indeed. And Usagi is no ordinary girl either. Her power has an even greater power than the others."  
  
Chi-Chi looked to Kami with worried eyes. Her daughter was left to fight Cell. "What are you talking about? Of course it's going to be greater than the others'. She is, after all, part Saiyan, and my Goku's child at that."  
  
Kami nodded. "Yes, Goku too has the same power as she. But, her power goes beyond that of a Saiyan. I'm not quite sure how to explain it and I'm not sure why no one else feels it in them, maybe it's because I'm Kami of earth. Their power is spectacular and is built on love. I just wish I knew where they acquired such power."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi arrived standing above Yamcha's head with Cell approaching rapidly. She knew that she didn't have much time to waste, but by looking at all of Yamcha's wounds, moving fast wouldn't be much of an option. She would have to risk Cell arriving at the scene before Usagi got a chance to move out of there. "Yamcha, are you awake?" She kneeled down and looked at the deep jagged cut on his face, which grossed her out just at the thought of what could have caused it.  
  
Yamcha slowly opened his eyes to see Usagi hovering over him with eyes full of fear. "Usagi, you shouldn't be here. Where's Goku at? I don't feel him anymore." He tried to sit up but was forced back down by a piercing pain in his right temple.  
  
"Yamcha!" Usagi cried out. She was worried about him. She hadn't really dealt with having to move anyone who was wounded before. It had always been her who was the victim of an attack. This was an unknown situation for her. She didn't want to hurt him further by moving him, yet, Cell was coming closer and closer each second. "What should I do?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Cell increased his speed once he felt the sensational energy of Usagi. He didn't believe his queen when she had told him the kind of power that she possessed. But it still didn't match up to his power, it hadn't even come close. 'You better run quick kid or else you're going to meet your doom before you even know what's going on.' He laughed hard and loud, echoing throughout the forest.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi's Saiyan ears picked up the laugh with no problem. She perked her head up and looked in the direction in which Cell was approaching and searched for his energy. It would only be a matter of a couple minutes before he was at their current location. 'Guys, where are you?' She looked back down at Yamcha, who was attempting to sit up again. "Don't hurt yourself."  
  
Yamcha chuckled. "Don't worry about me kid. I've been though worse. You just worry about yourself and what you have to do to stay alive."  
  
Usagi leaned back a ways. She never thought Yamcha would say something like that. She didn't really know much about him as she never spoke to him much in the future. Most of the stuff that she did know came from Bulma, who always seemed to have something bad to say about him. She had always told Usagi that Yamcha was a selfish jerk whom should never be trusted. But this Yamcha didn't seem like too much of a jerk. "Aren't you hurt? You should lay back down. You don't want to make it worse. Here..." She put her hand on his chest and gently pushed on it, hoping that he would lay back down.  
  
Yamcha appreciated Usagi's care, but she needed to leave. "Usagi I'm fine. I can take care of myself. Cell is coming and you need to get out of here. He's after you. He wants to kill you."  
  
"That's right. I'm going to steal your energy and then kill you and all the people you love. This is wonderful. You were conveniently born to all the people I hate with a passion. You should consider yourself one lucky kid."  
  
Usagi cocked her head to her side. She hadn't even realized that Cell was getting closer. She was too busy stressing over the well being of Yamcha. But now she couldn't do that any more. She would have to try and get Cell away from Yamcha. "Why do you want me? I never did anything to you."  
  
Cell smirked. "I know, my dear. You didn't do anything to me, but you've harmed my queen in more ways than one. Plus, once I have some of your cells in my body, I will become the ultimate weapon known to the planet earth. Everyone will bow down to me as the most perfect being in the universe." He couldn't help but laugh at that. It was all too easy to be real. There was no one who could stand in his way.  
  
Usagi stood up and grinned. "You? Perfect?" Usagi giggled. "You don't look perfect to me? In fact, you're not anything like perfection."  
  
Cell stopped laughing and glared at Usagi, who was wrapping her tail around her waste. 'The tail.' "You stupid little brat. I am the most perfect being that ever existed you're just to barbaric to understand."  
  
"Oh really? I don't see how you can call yourself perfect. I mean really, look at you. You're the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. You need to loose that stupid skin. And those things sticking up from your head. Those have got to go. And what's with the wings back there? Are you trying to look cool? Because if you are, it's not working. It's just making you look like a dork. The Gero guy had some really bad taste to make a bug like you. He could have at least made you into something cute, like a puppy. Now that would have been cute. Then you could truly call yourself perfect, but no, you aren't perfect."  
  
Cell could feel his anger rising deep within him as he summoned his energy. If she was trying to make him want to kill her faster and more painfully, then it was working. He was ready to pop her head of right then and there. "You talk a lot for being such a scrawny little runt."  
  
Usagi grinned. 'What am I doing? I'm just making things worse?' "He, he, he."  
  
Yamcha couldn't exactly grasp the point behind this conversation. Usagi was making Cell angrier, causing him to become stronger. The question that seemed to be on the top of his head at the moment was, why? Why was she doing this? Didn't she fear him at all? Or was she more like Goku than he had thought? This was definitely something that Goku would do. He would act as if he were completely calm, much like he had just before they were attacked. 'Just get it over with already Usagi.' He adjusted his body so he was on his knees and slowly started to crawl away, hoping that he wouldn't be noticed by Cell.  
  
Cell smirked. Usagi's training with her father was truly showing. He acted as if he hadn't a care in the world, which was how Usagi was acting. He trained her well, though it was just a big waste of time as he would soon be shoving his fist into her skull. "Let's get this started. I'm getting bored and I need a nice killing to make me happy again."  
  
Usagi smile slowly disappeared as her face was taken over by a vague frown, more the look of being frightened than anything. 'Where are you guys? I don't think I can stall him much longer. I need your help.'  
  
'Interesting. She hasn't been taught that well after all. She's letting her true feelings show now.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei set Krillin down on the surface of Kami's lookout just as words began to echo through her head. They were the thoughts of Usagi. She looked around. The words sounded too distant for them to be near each other. Usagi's energy signature was by Cells, no where near her own. 'Creepy.'  
  
She looked down at Krillin. He wasn't hurt nearly as bad as Gohan or Goku had been. She was thankful for that. "I gotta go. I'll see you later." With that she performed her teleportation and was soon by her friend's side.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi smiled as she felt Ami and Rei's Ki form directly behind her. That alone boosted her spirits. "You're going down now, Cell. Me and my friends won't let you kill anyone. By the time we're through with you, you're going to wish that your queen never made you come back to life." She slightly crouched to get into her fighting position, keeping a close eye on Cell to make sure he didn't try anything funny.  
  
Ami quietly walked to Usagi from behind. She didn't want Usagi to loose her concentration, but she had to remind her of something very important. She bent down so her mouth was at the same level as Usagi's ear. "Don't forget what your dad taught us about not just rushing into a fight. And remember, we are here for you. Don't worry about going all out because your dad and Gohan will be able to aid us after a while. And most importantly, think before you do. This isn't just a spar we're talking about. This is the real thing."  
  
Usagi nodded. "I know Ami. I'll be careful. I don't want to die or anything. That wouldn't be a good thing for me to do. What would mom and dad do without me in the future?" Though she seemed like she had a level head on her shoulder's, Usagi was actually a ball of nerves inside. She could hardly keep her composure let alone even try to think about fighting Cell. She didn't want to do it without her father. No matter how long he prepared her for this day, she would never have been ready. But she had to carry out with it. Had she not, she would die.   
  
"I'll watch your fight closely and see what I can do." She stood tall once again and backed away, leaving Usagi alone with Cell.  
  
Usagi stared into Cell's eyes, not knowing what to expect. All she knew was that he had an advantage over her. That advantage was being stronger and more experience with fighting than her. But she couldn't let that keep her down. She wouldn't. She would do what her father would have told her to do. And that would be to keep pushing until you were killed or you claimed victory.   
  
She studied him from head to toe, taking note of his armor like skin. That would be hard to penetrate. There had to be some part of his body that wasn't covered with this kind of skin. There had to be a flaw somewhere. But finding it would be tricky. She would have to tremendously wear him down before she could even think about looking for a flaw in his armor. That would be a difficult task. She quickly put those thoughts away, as she had to think of a way to penetrate his skin first. So far, his power wasn't raised to its highest. That was obvious. She could feel his potential power. 'Guess I better get this over with as soon as possible.' With a single thought Usagi's power level was raised right before the breaking point of becoming a Super Saiyan. Her body was consumed with her bright golden aura as she continued to pull together as much strength as she could without proceeding to her Super Saiyan level. She didn't want to waste all of her power at first. She hoped that his energy was all show and nothing to back it up with.   
  
Cell smirked. "Is that all the power you've got you little pipsqueak? I would have thought that the missing link would have possessed much more power than that. You're pathetic. What does the queen want with such and insufficient power?" He laughed as loud as he could and raised his powerlevel nearly as high as it would go, just to intimidate his opponent. He regarded her as an easy kill. There wasn't much to her power after all. The queen didn't have a real reason to give him so much power, though he was rather enjoying it.  
  
Usagi frowned. "I'm stronger than you think. But you'll find that out in time. Why don't I show you how strong I am?"  
  
"Now that's what I'm talking about. I want to see your true power." He stepped to the side, analyzing her body for weak points, one in particular. He wanted to see if there was a way to get at her tail. Gero had in fact given him the information regarding the Saiyan's tail. "Why don't you make the first move?"  
  
"Nuh-huh." 'No way. He's got something planned." She made sure that her feet weren't too tightly planted in the ground. She was certain that she would have to move out of the way as soon as he moved.  
  
"Fine you little brat. I'll make the first move but you're not going to like it." He started out by charging full force at Usagi with his shoulder.   
  
Usagi snickered at Cell's stupidity. Running at an opponent pretty much let them know what they were planning. It was pretty obvious that Cell was just going to try and ram himself into her. He was also stupid for doing this because it gave her a chance to make a plan to dodge or counter attack before reached her. In this case, Usagi decided to dodge. Any physical attack from her would just result in her getting severely hurt for he was going to fast for her to successfully hit him. He would knock her to the side before she knew what was happening to her.   
  
Usagi quickly jumped to the side, with Cell following her dodge. He quickly ducked to the ground in front of her and swiftly tripped her with a quick motion of extending his leg and spinning around. "Too slow."  
  
Usagi fell flat on her back. 'He's fast.' She looked up to see the bottom of Cell's foot coming down towards her face. Without even thinking about what she was going to do next, she rolled over to her left, just in time to miss her enemy's foot slamming into the ground. She wasn't quick enough for Cell though. He had anticipated her to roll over and already has his other foot waiting for her. Though, Usagi had seen his other foot moving as she was rolling over and stopped herself short of nearly being stomped on again. She lay on her back and smiled slyly up at Cell.  
  
Cell glared down Usagi with hateful eyes. "You little bitch."  
  
Usagi frowned. "Don't call me a bad name." She clasped both of her hands onto either of his legs, trying to dig her nails in, but they wouldn't go in. The skin was just as hard as it looked. 'Fine.' She began to build up for her special attack. 'This'll hold ya.' She made sure that no part of her body was touching Cell except for her hands as her hands began to glow with a fizzled aura. "Take this."  
  
Cell just grinned. "What's this supposed to do?"  
  
Usagi slightly lifted her legs as she became surprised. "Huh?" She looked to her left, then to her right and was completely confused. "Wait a minute. Why isn't this working?" The energy was just staying in her hands. It wasn't going anywhere. She pulled away when they began to fell warm, which meant that the attack was travelling on to herself.  
  
"You idiot. My skin has been remodeled into armor that repels silly attacks such as that."  
  
"Oh." 'Uh-oh.' Without waiting for any further reply from her foe, she kicked her legs all the way up into Cells upper thigh as she pushed her upper body out from under Cell with her arms.   
  
Cell crossed his arms with annoyance. "Is that all you've got kid? You're going to have to do better than that if you want to beat me. You're beginning to become a bother. If you're not going to put up a good fight I'm just going to steal your energy and proceed with my hunt."  
  
Usagi stood up, scowling at Cell. She had never seen or heard of anyone with the power to make a protective layer of skin. 'How am I supposed to break through that?' The only part of his body that didn't seem to have any protective layer was his face. Usagi fount that odd. She would have figured that the face would be the most desirable place to protect. "I'm just warming myself up.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Minako arrived at the battle as soon as she could, with Makoto and Mamoru with her. They would have been there earlier had it not been for Piccolo refusing to stay at Kami's lookout. He wanted to watch the fight and make sure nothing too horrible happened, but it would have been dangerous for him to be there.   
  
Mamoru gazed upon the fight between the two unevenly matched fighters. "Looks like Odango is loosing pretty badly?"   
  
Rei turned her head to the, once again, cynical Mamoru. "What are you talking about? Neither of them are really hurt yet. Their power levels are the same now as when they started out." 'But Usagi is holding back, why?'  
  
Mamoru snorted in dissatisfaction. "You females don't know anything. Usagi is loosing. Just sense their power levels and you'll find out. There is a big step between the two."  
  
Rei turned back to the fight and watched as Cell grabbed Usagi and threw her down to the ground. "But she seems to be able to take the hits just fine. She's getting her fair share of hits in too."  
  
"Believe me. I've watched plenty of fights in my life. I know what I'm talking about. Usagi is going to get her ass kicked by this guy." Mamoru turned his head to Yamcha. "What are you going to do about that guy? He's one of the ones that Cell wants to kill isn't he?"  
  
"Yeah." Rei didn't take her eyes off the fight. She couldn't afford to. Even though she wasn't physically helping Usagi at the moment, she was trying to get fighting data on Cell.  
  
Mamoru turned to Rei with disbelief. "What do you mean with just saying 'yeah'? Hello? Earth to Rei. Cell is going to kill Odango and then Yamcha."  
  
Makoto had had enough. Mamoru didn't exactly need to be there. It was a treat that he got to be there. And here, the first thing he did when he got there was immediately decided that Usagi was going to die. "Why don't you just shut your mouth before someone gets hurt."  
  
"And that someone would be you too, Hun." He snickered as he looked back to the fight. He loved having more power than the girls, but it was creeping him out that they were hot on his tail in gaining power.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Cell was growing tired of the fight very fast. Usagi was not proving to be a great enough challenge to him. "Come on kid, I want to see your true power or I'm going to end this here. I know that you have to have more bottled up in there somewhere. You're making me bored. I'm going to end this now. But not before I have a little bit of fun."  
  
'Uh-oh, better change fast. I think he's serious.' She concentrated on raising he power level. She hadn't made the transition from normal to Super Saiyan but once. She wasn't sure how to do it again without taking a while to build up the needed energy.   
  
"Oh? Trying to scrounge for some last bits of energy before you're finished? I don't think so." Seeming as though he had disappeared, he moved using his highest speed. He went so fast that Usagi barely had time to detect his movements. She had never had a reason to try and sense such fast movements. Her eyes weren't used to it. Bye the time she did detect him, his fist was already planted deep within her stomach. The shielded knuckles didn't help with the pain either.   
  
Before she fell backwards onto the ground, he clenched her throat and pulled him up to his face. "You're not changing. You've had your chance to beat me, little girl. Don't worry though, I'll tell your real father about your suffering death. I'm sure he would love to hear about it." He lifted her up and threw her over his head. "I'll get your precious energy after I play with you." He put his hand behind his back and fired a Ki beam at her.   
  
Usagi cried out in pain as she was fired upon. The light blue beam hit her boot, which melted from the intense heat that was being put on it. It melted onto her skin, leaving her with not only severe pain on the portion of he leg that was his, but the burning sensation went down to her foot and up to her upper thigh. "Ahhh..." Fresh blood seeped out of her throat from being clasped so tightly by Cell.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru shook his head. "That stupid idiot Odango. What the hell was she thinking anyways? She should have fought him from the start in Super Saiyan form. Does she have some sort of mental problem or something? I told you she was going to get her ass kicked."  
  
Minako slapped Mamoru in the face and scowled at him. "What's wrong with you? You're lucky Usagi is even out there! I don't see you out there getting totally beaten up by a monster that is completely demented! Why don't you go out there and see how well you hold up against him?" Minako turned back to the fight to see Cell kicking Usagi back and fourth around the battle fields as if she were a ping pong ball. He would kick her one way, speed up to the other side and then kick her again, speed up to the other side and kick her again. "I can't take this anymore! I'm going to help her!"  
  
Mamoru let out a 'humph' as he crossed his arms. "If you wanna get your ass kicked too go ahead. It's fine by me. It's not like it's my body or anything." Minako's words didn't even phase him one bit. He still stood by his words that Usagi was stupid for not changing Super Saiyan at the beginning of this thing.  
  
Minako flew towards Cell at full speed. He was now holding Usagi by the back of her neck. 'At least if he's going to kill her he should just get it done and over with instead of torturing her like this.' "You evil little..." She began to build up her largest Ki blast in her hands as she came closer and closer to him. "Take this!"  
  
Cell turned his head towards the blast. It was heading for his face, one of the only unprotected spot on his body. He bent his head down and allowed it to crash and explode on the top of his head. "That was weak. You're a human aren't you?" He tightened his grip on Usagi's neck as he lifted his head. "You're friend will pay for you mistake." Blood ran down him fingers. "This makes up for all the trouble your stupid brother caused me."  
  
Minako didn't exactly want to believe that what just happened, actually did happen. But it had. He had not been effected by her attack at all. "Not good. Not good at all."  
  
Cell threw Usagi to the ground and turned back to Minako. "The queen said to watch out for you five. She said that you could become a problem and that I should destroy you if possible. Well guess what?" He grinned. "It is possible."  
  
With all her strength, Usagi tried to push against the ground with her weight. She couldn't allow her friends to be hurt. She wouldn't allow it. 'Mamoru was right. I am stupid. I had the chance to use my full power but I didn't. I didn't think that I needed to. What's wrong with me?'  
  
Cell moved closer to the group of human fighters. He knew he wouldn't have a problem with Usagi for she was pretty much tapped out. He would go back to 'playing' with her later. Right now he wanted fresh meat. "Time to say goodbye." He put his hand out in front of him.  
  
Makoto jumped to the air. "YOU MONSTER!" As if all fighters knew that she was going to attack at that exact time, they decided it was time and responded with great speed and reflexes. They all shot their own Ki blast at him, hoping to at least cause SOME damage to their target. The odds were against them though.   
  
Cell just laughed as he put both of his hands out in front to block the blasts. They wouldn't be that hard to block. "You guys crack me up." The multiple attacks hit his hands, not doing any damage at all for his protective skin blocked any type of Ki attack from harming him. It was a flawless design really. His queen's researchers had done a great job with creating it.  
  
Usagi managed to get to her feet after a couple of minutes. Most of her energy was drained from her body from Cell's continuous assaults on her body. 'Why does that lady he talks about want me dead? What did I ever do to her?' She could barely stand on her feet. She wanted to let them collapse beneath her. But her friends needed her help and now was not a time to be regaining power. She had to keep Cell busy until Gohan arrived to help and maybe Piccolo. But how long would that take? She didn't know how long she could keep going before her body would give in.  
  
She staggered towards Cell from behind as he blocked the Ki beam attacks from going pass his hands. That's when she knew that there was no hope. He was too strong. There would be no way of getting around his armored skin. She rubbed some dirt out of her eyes to get a clearer picture of what was going on when her eyes caught sight of something. Behind his wings was a little patch of green skin with black dots. The complete opposite color of his other skin. 'Wait a minute. I don't think there's any armor on that part of his body. He, he, he, maybe they thought that those ugly wings were good enough to keep him protected. Maybe if I attack that he'll be damaged. Of course I am short on power, but I can try.' She pulled her hands to her side. "KA-ME-HA..."  
  
Cell's eyes flew open as wide as possible. He knew that attack. That was the attack that Gohan had defeated him with. But how could Usagi have gotten up after the beating he gave her? How could she possibly have enough energy to attack him after getting up? He smirked when he realized what she was doing. She was just bluffing, like Goku did all the time. She didn't have enough energy to penetrate this defenses.   
  
"HA!" A giant golden Kamehameha wave shot out from Usagi's hands and swept its way to her enemy. It dug into the ground as it went. Usagi made it with her last ounce of remaining power in hopes that it would bring him down.   
  
Cell screamed out in pain once he was hit. His wings were blown off, leaving his back vulnerable to any type of Ki attack one could think of, including Usagi's Kamehameha wave. He immediately dropped his hands, allowing the others' attacks to crash into him, and tried to stand up against the attack. 'Where the hell did all this power come from? She should be nearly dead!'  
  
Usagi continued to keep the wave going. It was actually working. She was actually taking a giant chunk of Cell's energy away from him. "Take this CELL!" She forced out another power boost by trying to power up, but she couldn't get up to Super Saiyan. She had lost too much energy to Cell.   
  
Undetected by Usagi and any of the other fighters, including Cell, a gold ki attack came spiraling out of the tree tops and hit Usagi square in the hip. Usagi's power was stopped then and there as she was thrown into the air and then back down to the ground, falling with a loud thump on the ground. Her head landing in a pile of tiny sharp rocks that dug into her flesh. She slowly lifted her head enough to see who her attackers were. "Androids 17 and 18?!" Though she had never seen 17 before, she had seen 18 and knew that 17 hung out with 18 before he was absorbed by Cell. Common knowledge told her that he was 17.  
  
The two androids jumped down to the ground. 17 took the liberty of walking to Usagi, with everyone staring at him as if they had seen a ghost. He sneered down at her. "Naughty, naughty little Saiyan. You shouldn't attack from the front and back at the same time. It's not fair to do that."  
  
(Well, there it is. I had this all written up last night but I couldn't get onto ff.net to post it because of some error within the site. But it's working again. ^_^ So what did you think? Was it any good? Gotta run! Ja ne.)  
  
  



	60. Part 22

Cell smiled as he directed his full attention to the androids. He knew that if he had let them go that they would become useful to him. But that didn't mean that he wouldn't kill them after he finished with Usagi and the others. They were still traitors to him and that's all that they would ever be. Nothing more, nothing less. "I'm guessing that you're expecting a thanks now."  
  
17 turned to Cell and smirked. "No. We don't need anything from you. We just wanted to have some fun. We got annoyed with terrorizing the people in the city and felt the fight and decided that we were going to join."  
  
Although Usagi was completely out of energy, she forced herself to sit up. She wouldn't allow herself to rest until the fight was over. Quitting was not an option in this situation. "What are you doing here? This isn't your fight!" 'I was winning too. I could have worn him down enough for the others to attack him. Now I don't know...' She rubbed off all of the rocks that stuck to her skin, leaving tiny indentations and cuts in their place.   
  
17 turned to Usagi smirked. "This may not be our fight, but I don't really care about rules. There's no one here who can stop me from disrupting this fight. Plus, Dr. Gero did create us to kill your dad, kid."  
  
Usagi blinked. "What? How did you know who my dad is?" She tried to stand up but her legs wouldn't budge due to lack of energy. 'Why is it getting worse and worse? Daddy said that I would win. It's all my fault. I should have turned Super Saiyan right away.'  
  
"What do you take Gero for, a fool? He is responsible for creating the perfect fighting machines. He may not be too bright when it comes to handling normal everyday matters, but he is a genius when it comes to technology. He programmed us with sensors. You just happen to have the same energy type as Goku, who we were supposed to kill. You have the same energy type as he does, therefore you must be his daughter." 18 casually walked to Usagi. "You really are a pretty thing aren't you?" She kneeled down in front of her and rubbed the back of her hand on Usagi's wounded cheek. "Too bad your face won't stay very cute when I'm pounding it into the ground. You're going to die before this day is out, kid. I'm bored and killing you is just the remedy I need to cure that."  
  
Usagi pulled her face away from 18's hand. At that point if she could have attacked, she would have. But she was still quite low on energy. It was a shame too. Usagi was so close to what appeared to be her enemy who was not harming her, and she didn't have enough strength to attack. 'Get away from me.'  
  
18 frowned. "What you don't want to play with me? I'm hurt. I thought you would give me a challenge. You know, a run for my money. You seem to be the strongest fighter here besides Cell and I don't think it would be fair of you to expect me to fight my own ally." She stood up, pulling Usagi up with her by her throat, and looked her in the eye. "If you don't fight back it'll be all the same. I'll kill you and then go onto your little friends. It'll be fun. You'll see."  
  
Cell stepped forward. He couldn't have that happen. "The girl is my kill. I suggest you learn your place very soon before I am forced to kill you." 'Ally? Why the hell do they think I'm their ally?'  
  
18 smiled as she threw Usagi to the ground as if she were just an old rag. "You want the runt? Why?"  
  
"Is that any of your business. She's mine and that's final." Cell couldn't have anyone interfering in his plans. He was there for a specific reason and he was not about to disappoint his queen by letting someone else kill Usagi. He still had to gain her energy. But he could tell that the androids were going to be stubborn, just as they were in his own timeline. "I'll cut you a deal here. If you let me have the girl, I'll give you the rest of the kids."  
  
Usagi pulled her face out of the dirt and turned her head around to look at the two monsters who stood over her. "We aren't things to be owned. You can't just decide who gets to kill who. We will not go down. You will!"  
  
17 walked to Usagi and kicked her in the ribs. "Shut up already."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru stood in pure disgust as he laid his eyes upon Cell, 17, and then 18. 'That's sick. How can they toy with her like that. Even I wouldn't stoop so low as to do this to her right before she's about to die. What's wrong with them?' He slowly and obscurely inched his way over to Rei while Cell had his back to them as he watched 17 and 18. "Rei, look at Cell's back where Usagi attacked him. That seems to be his weak point. There's no armor there or anything. Maybe we should attack."  
  
Rei narrowed her eyes with anger as she gazed over in Mamoru's direction. "I should slap you for that."  
  
Mamoru leaned back. "Huh?"  
  
"You stupid idiot. Usagi is over there about to get beaten up even more and all you can think about is attacking Cell. Before we do anything else we have to save Usagi. We have to protect her just like she would protect us if we were in her situation. Don't be a fool about this Mamoru. If we do anything to make Cell angry he'll take it out on Usagi. He seems to be stuck on making her suffer since she's Goku's daughter."  
  
Mamoru frowned. "I'm the idiot? You should really listen to what comes out of your mouth more often. Cell needs to be killed. You can't always think about saving people. There comes a time when you have to make some sacrifices. This is one of them. Usagi is will understand." He put his arm out to form and energy ball.  
  
Rei calmly placed her hand on top of his arm and looked into his eyes. "Don't you even try it."  
  
Mamoru yanked his arm away and grinned at Rei. "Watch me." Without turning to see where he was aiming, he fired. His vision was all of a sudden turned into a giant spiral of colors as he felt himself stumbling backwards. 'She did NOT just hit me!' He grabbed his cheek. His skin was warm to the touch, just one characteristic of a slap. The other, the pain that came with it, which was definitely something that he felt quite well.   
  
The ball of energy hit Cell in the area on his back which was not covered in his protective skin, but he wasn't even the least bit phased by it. "Who did that?" He turned around to stare at the group of kids. "Who the HELL did that? Was it you boy?! It was stronger than the girls' so it must have been you! You're going to pay dearly for this! No one attacks me and gets away with it. Even if it didn't do any damage. I'll deal with you androids later. I'm going to take care of this right now. Do NOT touch the kid!" He left the scene to go and 'take care of' Mamoru.   
  
18 looked down at Usagi and then back at the group of girls. "Maybe we should take hum up on his offer, 17."  
  
"Why not. The more killing we get to do, the better."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Cell approached Mamoru at a relatively slow speed. "Did you really think that your weak human strength would hurt me? You're sadly mistaking if you did."  
  
Mamoru stood his ground. There was no way that the was going to let himself be intimidated by an overgrown bug. There was just no way. "I didn't use all of my strength. I could easily take you out if I would have used my full power. I just didn't want to hurt you too bad."  
  
Cell snorted. "Bad? Try you didn't hurt me at all. You have no power. Do you really think that I'm such an idiot as to believe that?"   
  
Mamoru turned and glared as the girls scurried away. 'Cowards.' "So what if I was bluffing. You were going to kill me anyways."  
  
"You're right about that. I AM going to kill you. I'm going to do it in a very painless manor. Well, painless for me that is. It's a total torture way for you, but that's the point." Cell stopped about one foot in front of Mamoru and stared down into his eyes. They weren't very readable, which annoyed Cell. He liked to see the fear in his victims' eyes before he attacked them. But Mamoru's weren't showing fear, nor were they showing anger or hate.   
  
Without any notice, Mamoru, being the over confident person that he his, quickly mad a fist and charged it up with Ki. He power punched Cell in the chest, knocking him backwards a bit for just a few seconds, but he quickly regained his footing . 'Damn! Not even the slightest mark on his skin. That was my most powerful punch too. I bet if I got him in the back it would do some damage.' "Ha, looks like I nearly knocked you off your feet."   
  
Cell smirked. "No. I just wasn't expecting you to hold such a power. It is somewhat strong, but it will not even begin to hold up to me. How would you like it if I showed you what real power is?" Without giving Mamoru time to collect his thoughts, Cell lifted his knee and shoved it into Mamoru's stomach, causing him to double over in pain. "Seems as though you're not as strong as you think." He pulled back his arm as far as he could, forming a fist with his hand, and with acute force he threw it back towards Mamoru, allowing it to ram into his face.   
  
Mamoru grabbed his face with his hand as he fell back to the ground. He had never felt so powerless in his life. "Damn...you...Ce..." He couldn't even finish his sentence before Cell was picking him up by his hair. Mamoru cried out from the intense pain that was being caused inside his body. "OWAHH!"  
  
Cell laughed as he pulled Mamoru up to his face. "Don't fuck with me kid. I've got more power in my pinky than you do in you whole body." He threw Mamoru down to the ground and grinned. He was having too much fun with this. But it was his pay back. He placed his foot on the back of Mamoru's head and pressed down, forcing Mamoru's face into the dirt.   
  
"That's enough, Cell." 17 walked to the action and looked down at Mamoru. "You said you would give us these six if we gave you the girl. You're killing one of ours. If you don't take your foot off of him now I'll tell 18 to kill the Saiyan."  
  
Cell smiled as he slowly turned his attention to 17. "So you've decided to take my offer, huh? A very wise choice if you ask me. You can have the kids and that Yamcha over there." He took his foot of Mamoru's head and shoved the front of his foot under Mamoru's stomach. "Here you go." With one swift motion of his foot, Cell kicked Mamoru up and grabbed the back of his GI with one of his hands. "Make sure none of them get in my way." He threw Mamoru to 17, who caught him and then dropped him to the ground. "Something wrong?"  
  
"No." He smirked as he turned to 18. "Come on. Let's start our fun, 18."   
  
Cell wasn't exactly please with the fact that he had to give up killing the other six fighters that opposed him, but it was the only way that he would be assured Usagi's power. He couldn't forget that that was the reason why he was revived and sent back to the past. 'If I can't kill them myself, the second best thing would be to watch. I guess.' He began to make his way towards Usagi to make sure that she wouldn't try to do anything stupid like running away. On his way to her, he passed 18. Both of them glared at each other. 18 as if she knew that Cell was planning on killing her. Cell because he WAS actually going to kill her. 'Stupid android. Go ahead and have your fun now. But when I'm finished with Usagi, you're going down just like the rest of them.' He quietly laughed to himself as he proceeded to make his way to Usagi.   
  
Usagi couldn't believe that any of this was happening. Her friends all about to become toys for the androids and there was nothing she could do to help. She was completely powerless at the moment. 'Please daddy. Please Gohan. Hurry up.' She looked up to see Cell standing tall over her. 'Uh-oh.' She closed her eyes and awaited a beating from him.  
  
Cell grinned. "Don't worry. I'm not going to do anything to you right now. I want you to see your friends suffer before you die." He turned around and looked in the direction in which the androids were about to start their attack. "I'm afraid I can't take any chances with loosing you." With that, he plopped himself onto Usagi, squishing her further into the ground.   
  
Usagi clenched some loose dirt from the pain that was being driven through her body as Cell put his full weight on her back. Her body felt like it had the day she snuck into Vejita's gravity chamber. She felt as though she was being crushed, that her body would explode into thousands of tiny pieces. Tears began to form in the base of her eyes as the pain only got worse with time. 'Why is he doing this to me? Why is the guardian of time making me stay here? I want to go home.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei, Minako, Makoto, and Ami all backed away from the androids. They knew that they wouldn't have the power to defend anything that they attacked her with. It was impossible. Even Mamoru wouldn't have been able to help them now. He was pretty much out of it at the moment. Mamoru happened to be stronger than them. If he couldn't do it, then they definitely couldn't do it either.  
  
Ami couldn't get a reading on the androids at all. She was completely blind in this fight, which scared her. She knew what kind of power they possessed. Goku had shown them what kind of power they would be going up against. But she never thought that they would actually HAVE to go up against them. 'Stay calm Ami. Don't loose your head. You have to concentrate. Don't do anything stupid.'  
  
Makoto was a little more open with this situation. This was the day that she had been training for. She wasn't going to let it go to waste. Though she was backing away, she was only doing it in hopes of getting the androids to make the first move. It was a smart thing to do. It would allow her to try and dodge before they actually made a hit, if any at all. "Come on you stupid androids. Why don't you show us what you've got."  
  
Minako shot a glance over to Makoto. 'Is she crazy?' "Hey, why are you going along with what Cell said? Don't you know that he tried to kill you in the past. Actually, he killed you 17 and he nearly killed 18." She remembered bits and pieces of the story that Usagi had once told her a few years ago. The thing that stuck in her mind the most was how Cell got his energy from absorbing the androids because she found that to be absolutely repulsive.   
  
17 didn't exactly ignore that statement, but he didn't comment on it either. He didn't feel the need to. "Shut your mouth."  
  
Rei unconsciously stopped moving as she turned to look at Mamoru. He was just lying on the ground looking so helpless. She couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Even though in her heart she knew that she shouldn't. He had caused Cell to pull his attention away from the androids onto them. He hadn't even cared about Usagi. Not that he ever had, but still, she had been put through so much from Cell and Mamoru hadn't even taken into consideration that he was doing the wrong thing by trying to create a new problem. She turned to look in front of her as she felt soft breathing on the top of her head. She gasped with fear when she saw who it was. 18 was standing over her, intimidating her with a nasty glare. "Whoa..." 'Now would be a good time for help guys.'  
  
"Whoa is right kid. Say goodbye to all of your friends. Looks like you're the first to go in this game."   
  
Rei flipped backwards as 18 swung at her. "Too slow, android. I've prepared for your power and know what to expect from you." 'As long as I don't make any mistakes and keep to my toes I should be able to hold up until help arrives.'  
  
"Well look at that. The kid knows some moves. Maybe this will be more fun than I thought." She jumped at Rei with her right leg fully extended.   
  
Rei quickly jumped to the side but didn't quite make it without her face being scraped by 18's foot. 'She's holding back. I wish I could sense her. This would be a lot easier.'  
  
17 watched as the fight between his partner and Rei began to really take off. 'She's fast for a human. I wonder what power level she's at.' His eyes turned completely white as he started to scan her. 'That's odd. She has too high of a power for a human her age. Her power isn't even completely human. But, it isn't Saiyan either.' He turned to the other girls and scanned them too only to get the same results. 'What's going on? They have a strange power too. Only each girls' is different. What are they?' He turned back around to watch the fight with his fellow fighter and Rei, who had taken the fight into the air. The tables had been turned. Now, Rei was throwing all sorts of punches and kicks at 18, while 18 was blocking them very efficiently. Rei wasn't able to get a single hit in on 18 for 18 was too fast. All of a sudden, his head was thrown forward. "What the..."  
  
Minako giggled as 17 turned around and scowled at her. "He, he. You suck!" She threw a rock up into the air and caught it again as if fell. "Here's another one for ya!" She threw a second rock at 17's face, this time he was able to dodge it with ease since he actually knew that it was coming. "Aww, that's not fair."  
  
17 growled as he made two tight fists with his hands. "You're all beginning to piss me off!"  
  
Cell yawned from boredom. "Please hurry up and finish the job before I come over there and kill you all."  
  
17 diverted his attention to Cell. "You shut up. We will kill them when we please. This is the only REAL fun we are going to get on this planet now let us enjoy it."  
  
Cell stood up and stepped forward. "Now you look here. You're lucky that I'm even allowing you to mess with them. I should kill you right now instead of waiting until later to do it." He turned around and picked up Usagi. "Now I'm not even in the mood to play with this kid anymore."   
  
18 stopped her assault on Rei and looked down in Cell's direction. "You were planning to kill us later?"  
  
"Not 17. Just you. But since he seems to like to talk back to me I'll have to do away with him too. He may become a traitor just like you." He let out and evil laugh as five long clear tubes extended from his finger tips. The tips of the tubes were pointed and had holes on the ends that led all the way down.   
  
Mamoru slowly began to push himself away from the ground where he had been so rudely dropped by 17. 'Why do I feel like I need to protect Odango? I hate her.' "Leave...her...alone CELL!" 'Why am I doing this?'  
  
Cell didn't turn around to look at the annoyance. He didn't have to. He didn't pose any threat to his plans now. He would quickly get Usagi's energy and then kill anyone and everyone he wanted. "Don't worry Usagi. Soon I'll have your power and you'll be able to go to hell where you belong." He raised his hand and shoved the sharp tubes into Usagi's neck.   
  
Usagi's eyes bolted wide open as she felt the long slender tube like nails of Cell slither their way into her neck. 'Daddy...I'm sorry.' Tears of pain streamed down her cheeks as she looked into Cell's hate filled eyes.   
  
Cell's eyes told his happiness. "Yes girl. Just hold still." He watched as the tubes were filled with energy. Usagi's life energy was being sucked out of her body and there was nothing she could do about it. "Finally. My queen will be able to rid the world of those who destroyed her." The energy in which he was extracting was filling his body with power. More power than he could have ever imagined. "It's hard to believe that such a runt could have held such a magnificent power. But it's mine now. All mine!"  
  
"I don't think so Cell."  
  
Cell looked over his shoulder at 17. "Once I completely gotten this power I will deal with you all. You will wish that Gero never created you."  
  
"LEAVE MY SISTER ALONE!" A Super Saiyan Gohan jumped from the surrounding trees and rammed his foot right into Cell's unprotected face.  
  
Cell pulled his energy extracting devices out of Usagi's neck and stumbled backwards. He hadn't even sensed Gohan's presence. 'Damn. While I was taking her energy I wasn't able to sense him. Stupid designers always have to have flaws when they make things.' "Damn you Gohan! I'll get you for this."  
  
Gohan didn't waist any time getting to his sister's side. He hoped that he wasn't too late. He had JUST turned Super Saiyan in the room of spirit and time and his father literally kicked him out. When he did come out, his mother was surprisingly calm by his change in appearance. Training with the girls seemed to have changed her. "Usagi! Usagi!" He kneeled down to her side while keeping close tabs on Cell to make sure that he didn't miss any attack that he may have tried to throw at him. "Usagi are you all right?!" Her eyes were completely closed and she was barely breathing. From what he could tell, her energy hadn't really been reduced at all. "Cell you failed. You didn't take any of her energy. You idiot."  
  
Cell grinned. "I disagree Gohan. I got some energy from her. Not enough to please my queen though. You're going to have to step aside if you don't want to be killed, yet." He slowly began to approach the two Saiyans. "Move out of the way."  
  
Gohan stood up. He wouldn't budge out of the way. Even if it meant his own death. He would protect Usagi. "I wouldn't try anything if I were you." He shot a glance at the trees behind him. "Come on out guys."  
  
Cell directed his attention to the trees that lay behind Gohan. "So everyone wants to play now? Are you all done running away?" Piccolo, Tienshin-han, and Krillin all walked out from the trees in the distance looking a bit on the pissed side.   
  
"Seems like you're a bit out numbered now, Cell." 18 found this more invigorating than fighting the kids. At least Cell would prove to be a greater challenge. "You're going down for wanting to kill us."  
  
Cell smirked. "Oh really? I don't think so. I've still got a few more tricks up my sleeve before I throw in the towel. You haven't seen anything yet." He planted his feet into the ground and began to power up. His body began to emit a black smoke like aura. "Piccolo, you of all people should know this move. After all, I got it from you." His body began to form a clear shadow of some sort as a second energy began to take form near his body.  
  
Piccolo pushed past Usagi and Gohan. "You can't be serious. You'll cut your energy in half every time you split. You truly are a fool."  
  
"I wouldn't count on that Piccolo. You forget, I'm not your normal foe here. I've been enhanced by they best scientists. I was built just for this purpose." He laughed loudly as two exact copies of himself emerged from his body. "You guys wanted a party and now you got it." Cell stood in between his clones, who were now performing the same technique that the original Cell just had. "Look, my brothers think that we need more in the family."  
  
Usagi groaned with pain as she raised her head to see what was going on. She had blacked out for a few moments there. "Gohan? What are you doing here?" Her vision was blurred from the lose of energy she had just suffered from and could only make out colors and energy signatures. "Your hair is yellow. You must be a Super Sai..." She let her head pound against the ground as she passed out again.  
  
Gohan turned around in shock. He never would have guessed that Usagi would have been able to withstand such a loss of energy and still be able to be conscious. He surely wouldn't have been able to do such a task. 'I need to get her out of here. She's too weak to fight anymore.' He glanced his eyes over his shoulder to check on the situation of Cell. He still seemed to be multiplying his fourth and fifth self. 'Don't have enough time.'  
  
'Go ahead Gohan. I'll cover you.'  
  
'Huh? Piccolo?'   
  
'Just do it.'   
  
'Right.' He bent over and picked up his sister, making sure that he didn't harm her any further. She needed her rest if she wanted to pull through. He wished that he knew his father's teleportation skill so he could take her to Kami's lookout and have her healed. But that wasn't an option at this point and he couldn't worry about things that weren't possible.   
  
Cell noticed that Gohan was taking Usagi away but he didn't see it as something that he would have to worry about. He would take care of the others and then find Usagi. It wouldn't be too hard to locate her either. He would just have to follow her 'special' energy. "Now you have to fight five of me. Isn't that great? I think it is. I'm getting tired of playing with you ungrateful people. All you want to do is attack me. Well, here I am to attack. All five of me."  
  
Mamoru kept his distance. Not only because he was still quite hurt, but because each Cell seemed to have the same amount of energy as the original. "How are you doing that? Your power should be split."  
  
"No it shouldn't. My dark energy keeps me from splitting my energy. It regenerates my energy as it is used up. There is no way that you can kill me now. I will prevail over all of you weaklings." With the snap of his fingers, the original Cell had his clones out in all directions, attacking anyone they came across. "Time to sit back and watch the fun. I'm going to save my fun for Goku and his two brats." He put his hands on the back of his head and casually walked over to a tree and sat down. "This should be good. Everyone is going to die by me and when I remerge...wait a minute, when I remerge..." He paused for a moment to think about what he had just done. He had split to make four different versions of himself with the same amount of power. When he reemerged he wouldn't have the luxury of splitting again but the outcome would be rewarding. "That's it guys. Kill them all off."   
  
~*~*~  
  
Gohan carried his unconscious sister far away from the fighting. He didn't want her to be hurt anymore than she already was. He could feel the four different Cells fighting with his friends. Cell wasn't being fair. None of his friends were strong enough to fight even one Cell. But than again, no one ever said that your enemy had to be fair.   
  
Gohan found a small dip in the forest ground that was surrounded by trees and boulders. "You should be safe here." He placed her down with great gentleness and care. He couldn't understand how she could have gotten herself so beaten up by Cell and the androids. Her power level was nearly as high as Cell's, if not his equal. Yet here she was, nearly dead. He would have his revenge on Cell. He would make him pay for what he had done. The androids too. They would wish that they never laid a single finger on his sister, even if she was only his sister from the future.   
  
"Gohan..." Usagi slightly opened her eyes enough to see her older brother leaning over her. "I can fight still. Let me go, please." She put her hand on his arm. His skin was so much warmer than her own.   
  
Gohan gasped at her cold touch. That was one sign of major energy loss. "No you aren't ok. I would be crazy to let you go. You can't even stand up on your own. Just stay here until the fight is over. We'll get you when it's safe."  
  
"I can stand up. Honest. Watch." She clenched the dirt beneath her hands and used it for leverage. Her arms shook as she pushed herself about two inches off the ground and then collapsed. "I'll rest first. Yeah. That's it. If I rest I can go back right?" Her whole body began to shake from being so cold.  
  
Gohan couldn't bare to see her like this. It was awful. She shouldn't have been put through this. No one should have. "Yeah sure. Whatever you like. Just as long as you're safe." He pulled his cape over his head and ripped off the material from the weighted shoulder pads. "Keep this on you so you stay warm." He put the cloth over Usagi and tucked the ends under her body. She was still loosing quite a bit of blood. "Hopefully dad will have a Senzu bean or something when he gets out of the room of spirit and time." 'Wait a minute, I don't think he has any left. Crap.' "I gotta go help the others."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Kami's lookout~~  
  
Chi-Chi paced back and fourth. She knew that something was wrong. She couldn't sense Ki like the rest of the gang, but she didn't need to. She could feel it in the air. "I hope Gohan and Usagi are ok down there." She stopped her pacing and walked to Kami. "What's going on down there?"  
  
Kami tried to keep a straight face. He knew what would happen if he actually told her. Everyone was in danger. They weren't holding up at all now that Cell was split. Gohan was on his way to fight now, but even he wouldn't be able to hold up against Cell. The androids were even having trouble. But he couldn't keep something like that away from Chi-Chi. She had a right to know what was going on. "I'm not going to go into detail but things are looking pretty grim from here."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Why won't you just die!?" Makoto yelled as she flew backwards and fired about ten Ki blasts at one of the Cell clones, none of which seemed to do any damage. She had tried numerous times to hit it in the back where there was no protective skin but each time it would move and hit her before she had the chance to do anything.   
  
The Cell clone deflected every single Ki attack that was shot at him with much ease. "Don't you have anything better than that? I'm bored here. I need a challenge."  
  
"HERE'S A NICE CHALLENGE FOR YOU!" Together, Rei and Minako came at Cell from the side ready to kick him from both angles.   
  
18 looked up from her fight with another of one of the clones. 'They're on to something.' She jumped to the air and pulled her shoulders and upper arms back all the way. 'It's his back that's vulnerable.' Two yellow energy balls formed in her hands as she increased her speed.   
  
The clone closed his eyes and arrogantly laughed as he extended his arms out to his side. "Pitiful. Just pitiful." He immediately created his biggest energy balls in his hands and released them onto the girls. He reopened his eyes to look back at Makoto. "Now that that little disturbance is gone."  
  
"Not quite cell!" 18 came from out of nowhere and released her own two attacks into the opening of the clone's protective skin. "Think fast!" She increased her speed to her fullest and quickly flew over his head while he was still struggling with her successful attack. "This will hurt just a bit but it's for your own good." Just as she got to his head, she grabbed onto his shoulders and used him as leverage to flip herself upside down, while now flying backwards. She put her hands out once again and created another Ki attack and fired it at him as soon as she got a clear shot.   
  
Makoto took her chance to get out of there. She didn't want to be around when THAT clone regained himself. She raised herself to 18's level. "Thanks."  
  
"I didn't do that to save you kid. I did it because he's going to try and kill me. And because it's fun. Once Cell is gone, we're still going to kill you and your friends." She flew back down to the Clone, who was starting to come back into the game.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
The original Cell still sat against his tree and watched the fight. He was very entertained by the fact that his clones were winning. Not that he ever doubted that they would. He just didn't think that the other fighters would be able to put up such a great fight. He thought that they would have been dead by now. But they in fact were not. He had a particular interest in Mamoru and the young girls from the future. They, for some reason, were holding up a lot better than he ever would have thought. "This is too great. Now I just need some of that...what do the humans call it? Oh yes. Popcorn. I need some popcorn and I will be completely happy."  
  
"Or you can just fight me."   
  
Cell turned around to the person that the voice belonged to and smiled. "Gohan. So nice of you to join me here in such a place. Where's your sister. I'm not through with her yet."  
  
Gohan let out a small growl. "She's not here. She's where you can't get your sleazy hands on her. As I recall it you have a thing against me. Why don't we settle the score right here, right now! You and me! If you get through me, that's it. Usagi is all yours since there will be no one else to stop you." 'Except dad but I'm not going to be dumb enough to tell him that.'  
  
"You drive a hard bargain but I'll take it. I beat you, the girl is mine. That won't be too hard considering the fact that you're just as strong as she was when she first started fighting me. Then I kicked her ass, which is exactly what I'm going to do with you." He stood up and cracked his knuckles as she cocked his head from side to side. "I've been waiting for this day for too long. You don't know how overjoyed I am not that it's finally come."  
  
(Well there you have it. Another chapter just for you. ^_^ Anyways, guess what? Now I only have two weeks until school is out. Isn't that great? Two weeks and then I can get one chapter out every night just like I used to. Well, I gotta go. Ja ne)  



	61. Part 23

Gohan scowled at Cell. He wasn't sure of what would become of him in the fight to follow but that didn't matter. His objective was not to kill Cell. It was to keep him busy so he wouldn't find Usagi and kill her. He knew that if he could just hold him off until his father arrived on the scene that she would be all right. Once he was there, there would nothing to worry about. Cell would be history.   
  
The two fighters stared into each other's eyes. No words were spoken for about five minutes. Each were deep in their thoughts. Cell thought only of ways to torture and eventually kill Gohan. He had waited for this day to come for so long and now that it was finally here, he didn't quite know what to do. His revenge would now be carried out. "You're mine, Gohan." He used the ground to push himself up. "This is great." He said with a hint of arrogance as he took a step forward. He kept his head high and stared directly into Gohan's eyes, letting the young fighter know that he meant business.   
  
Gohan didn't let Cell's intimidation phase him. At least, he didn't let it show. Inside he had, in fact, been slightly frightened. He could still see a very vivid picture of Usagi's mangled body. It had been all thanks to what Cell did to her that she was the way she was. He had pretty much torn her apart without mercy. Cell hadn't even had anything against her. He couldn't even begin to imagine what would become of himself since Cell had an appetite for revenge on him. "Let's get this started."   
  
"Eager as always. But I suppose you're right. I've waited long enough to have my revenge. There will be nothing left of that body by the time I get through with you." He moved his eyes to look over his shoulder at the fight that was still taking place between his clones and the Gohan's friends. "I really wanted to see them die but I guess it's worth missing their deaths if it means I can mutilate you." He looked back at Gohan's face, which was filled with anger. 'That face. It's the same as it was when he gained all that power out of no where. I'm going to have to watch him more carefully this time.' "Very well." He rubbed his hands together and grinned.   
  
Before Gohan had confronted Cell, he studied how his clones fought first. They were quite skilled in all areas of fighting. Defense, offense, counter attacks, you name it. He just had too much power, even for a Super Saiyan of the first level. That's what Usagi's problem was. She underestimated Cell.   
  
"Don't just stand there!" Cell raised his fist, as if he were going to attack with it, and charged for Gohan. 'Let's see if you have the same smarts now as you did then.'  
  
Gohan planted his feet as deep into the dirt as they would go as he prepared himself for the attack. 'Cell's gotta be up to something.' He waited in his spot for a few seconds to see if Cell was going to move to the side or not. He didn't though. He just kept coming at a relatively slow speed. 'He's toying with me just like he did with Usagi.' He frowned. 'Bastard.' He readied a fist and tightened it as hard as he could as he awaited Cell. He would be fully ready for him when he reached him.   
  
Cell smirked as he sped up a bit. 'Dumb ass. He's much dumber in this time.'   
  
Gohan watched Cell's feet closer than he did with the rest of his body. If there were to be any change in direction it would start with the feet. But then, all of a sudden, his feet began to disappear. 'I'm NOT falling for that.'   
  
Right before he crashed into Gohan, Cell used all of his speed to jump into the air and appear over Gohan. He punched down towards Gohan's head, but just as he was about to hit, Gohan disappeared. "Maybe you aren't as dumb as I thought." He turned around and looked at Gohan. "Very impressive. Your sister probably would have just stood there and tried to punch me."  
  
"She isn't as experienced with people like you as I am. She wasn't exactly trained to fight you." Gohan looked to the ground where Piccolo was being double teamed by two of the Cell clones. 'Piccolo...' "Call off your drones."  
  
"That's not going to happen. There is no way that I can control them unless I summon them back to my body, which I'm not going to do. But why would I even want to do that? They're doing all of my dirty work for me."   
  
Gohan didn't take his eyes off of Piccolo. He couldn't. Piccolo was badly injured and was being beat around by both clones as if he were a volleyball. "Fine." He put his hands in front of him facing down and built a large golden Ki blast, which pushed him further up into the air than he already he was from pushing against the air. "You aren't going to win this." He raised both of his arms over his head and immediately thrust them back down, adding extra momentum with his physical strength, and fired a bright golden beam of energy down at the clones.  
  
Cell looked down to his clones. He was pretty sure that Gohan's attack wouldn't affect them, but he had to be sure. He had been surprised before. "That's pathetic. They aren't even concerned by it."  
  
Gohan pushed as much as he could. He couldn't loose anyone while he was out there fighting. "I don't care. They will be." He didn't know if he should be doing what he was doing though. He couldn't waste all of his energy on this one attack but he couldn't let Piccolo be killed either. There would be no way to bring him back without the Dragon Balls. Then if anyone else were to die, they wouldn't be able to be revived either. "I'm not giving up."   
  
Cell groaned of boredom. He wasn't there to watch Gohan fight with all of his clones. He turned back to Gohan, who looked more determined than ever to succeed. He fired one of his own Ki attacks in the middle of Gohan's attack, stopping it all together. Gohan turned to Cell with a scowl planted on his face. "You're fighting with me. Not them. Maybe you just need a good beating to understand." Without further conversation he flew to Gohan and kicked at his head.  
  
Gohan was quick in his reaction as he raised his arm and blocked the kick with his forearm. He retaliated with a kick of his own to his foe's chest. Cell pulled his leg back and easily dodged the kick from Gohan by moving to the side. Gohan didn't allow himself to be discouraged by this. He had been though this many times before. This was just like the time he fought Garlic Jr. His father was no where around and he was pretty much the only one who could hold up to the enemy. Only this enemy wasn't immortal, which made this a little easier. Though this enemy was also much stronger. Each had its bad points. But if Gohan had to choose, he would rather fight an enemy that was not immortal since there was still a way to kill an immortal.   
  
Things went on like this for nearly twenty minutes. One of them would attack while the other would dodge. On the ground, off the ground, it didn't seem to matter where they were fighting. It was all the same. They seemed evenly matched for each other. But Gohan knew otherwise. Cell was holding back and he knew it was only a matter of a short time before his true power would be shown. He shouldn't have been able to keep up with Cell so easily. He was just as strong in this form as Usagi was before she powered up to Super Saiyan yet she had easily been defeated.   
  
The fight began to slow down after these twenty minutes. Neither fighter was getting very tired at that point but both just all of a sudden began to decrease their attacks. Gohan knew that it had to be something as he landed on the ground. he would have been up for continuing, but Cell seemed to want to stop. 'Is this is? Is he done? He can't be. I had to be at level two Super Saiyan in the future to beat him and now he has an enhanced power from that queen or whoever she is.'   
  
Cell smirked as he looked down at Gohan. He stood not ten feet from Gohan. "You're pretty good. Better than Usagi even. I'm impressed. I forgot how strong you were. But that won't last for long. I'm not even powered up as much as I was when I first fought you. I've had my fun but it's time to get serious."  
  
'I knew it.' "Bring it on. I can handle you." He slightly turned his head at the sound of a yelp from one of the girls. He couldn't make out who it was but it sounded as if they were being ripped apart right there. Sudden outbursts of yells were followed by a large crackling sound and then a thump. Gohan was dying to turn around and look at what happened. But he couldn't turn his head from Cell. Cell had just pretty much said that he was about to power up. It would be imperative that Gohan watch his enemy's every move from then on.   
  
In less than a second, with just a single thought, Cell's power was increased to the power that Gohan had possessed when he beat Cell in the future. "Do you feel that? Now THAT is power. Power that your insignificant self will ever feel."  
  
Gohan believed it too. Cell was currently one whole step above him in power. "You just keep running your mouth. I'll show you what I'm made of."  
  
Cell smirked. "Sure you will." He took one step forward and then vanished before Gohan's eyes, only to reappear again behind him. "You're even slower now." He elbowed Gohan in the back and quickly turned around, raising his leg to kick him in the back of the neck. "Damn. I missed the head by just an inch."  
  
From the force and intensity of being hit on the back of the neck, Gohan stumbled forward and fell to his hands and knees. 'How am I supposed to stand up to a power like that? I'm not that fast.' He lifted one of his legs to begin to stand up. But he wasn't quite fast enough. He felt Cell's fingers clasp tightly around one of his arms. The next thing he knew, he was flying backward through the air and heading right for a tree. 'Crap...' He used his energy to stop himself in mid air. "You're not going to beat me. You had better deal with it." 'Dad should be out soon. If I can just hold on a little bit longer I'll be ok. Then I can go and bring Usagi to Kami's lookout for safety.'  
  
Cell didn't even dignify Gohan's words with even the slightest reply. Instead, he just shot out for Gohan again, using all of his speed. Gohan, who had expected this, was surprisingly able to move out of the way before Cell made his hit on him. Gohan used this to his advantage and decided it was time to pull out his more powerful attacks. Instead of physical fighting he would have to resort to energy attacks. Though he knew it was pointless, unless he made a hit on Cell's face or back. He had observed this from watching the others fighting with the clones, who seemed to be greatly dominating in their fights. Every single one of his friends was drained of their energy. Things looked pretty grim at that point. But Gohan couldn't stop now. He still had this Cell to worry about.   
  
He quickly pulled his hands together in front of his stomach. He found it hard to move his left arm, the arm in which he was thrown by. 'Oh great.' He decided to ignore the pain that came with moving it and built up a rather small Ki attack. "Why am I not able to do this?" His body began to shake as he felt Cell approaching him. He moved his eyes in the direction of Cell, who was not too far from his current position. 'Well it's better than nothing.'   
  
Cell watched at Gohan shot a Ki attack the size of a soft ball at him. He effortlessly slapped it away with the back of his hand. "Honestly Gohan. I would have thought that you could do better than that." He snickered as he proceeded to move towards his target.   
  
Gohan looked down at his left arm. For some reason it was swelling and looked a little discolored. "It's broken." He looked up at Cell and frowned. "You broke my arm when you threw me. That's why my attack was so weak."  
  
"Excuses, excuses. Why don't you just admit it? I intimidate you. You choked when you felt my magnificent power."  
  
"I would never do that. I've been though fights like this before. Nothing can make me choke anymore."  
  
Cell raised an eyebrow in fascination. "Nothing huh?" He began to rub his hands together.  
  
"Nothing you can do will make me scared or nervous or anything like that. I'm used to the shock already." He looked into Cell's hands with curiosity. 'Odd...'  
  
Cell's hands were soon covered in a black ball that contained more power than Gohan's body did. "This should take care of you. I'm tired of playing with you. I want to fight Vejita. I still have some unfinished business to attend to with him. As long as I see you dead, I'll be happy. As long as I know that I'm the one who killed you, I'll be happy." He pulled his hands apart until his fingers were loosely wrapped around the ball of black energy.   
  
Gohan didn't try to move out of the way for he knew it was no use if he did. Cell was tired of 'playing' with him now and there was nothing he could do to stall him. He couldn't make the fight play out any longer. Gohan decided to make it easy on himself and just accept it. "Fine. Go ahead."  
  
Cell grinned as he saw the sincerity in Gohan's eyes. "Just like in the future. You were about to give up to me and then your damned father found a way to talk to you from the afterlife. I'll have to kill him too. But not before I kill you."  
  
Gohan looked down to the ground. He was ashamed of himself. Not only had he let himself and all of his friends down, but he had let his family down as well. 'I almost gave up before? But then I succeeded after dad talked to me. But that won't happen now. There is no way for me to kill him now. He's just too strong.' He looked up just as the black energy ball from Cell slammed into his body. He grunted as he was pushed down to the ground. His body was covered completely in the by the dark energy.  
  
Cell laughed as he watched Gohan struggle. "Finally. You're dead and I'm the one who killed you. Well sort of. You see, I couldn't JUST kill you. You didn't JUST kill me. You tortured me and then killed me. And I've had to live with that, until now, that is. Now that burden is all gone. While I go take care of business, after I watch all of your friends get totally trampled by my clones, this energy will suck you dry of your own energy until you have just enough to breath. But don't think that this is going to be a nice process that takes no time at all. No, I want you to know my anger. It will take hours to finish. Later, when I come back and you're nearly dead, I'll finish the job myself. Don't you move now." He casually walked back to his tree and sat down as if none of the events that took place not a forty-five minutes ago were insignificant.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Kami's Lookout~~  
  
Chi-Chi was in a state of being frantic. Kami had just given her the update about what was happening down on earth and she had nearly had a heart attack because of it. She couldn't understand why Usagi and then Gohan had failed. Was Cell really that strong? Had she done the girls wrong by not allowing them to use Ki attacks while she was training with them? 'Goku hurry up.' She turned to the door that led into the room of spirit and time after hearing a noise arise from that area. "Is that my Goku?"  
  
"Yeah." Goku stepped out of the room of spirit and time looking stronger than ever. He had reached his goal of becoming a level two Super Saiyan. He was slightly higher than Usagi at this point. His arms were larger than normal due to an increase in power and muscle for that matter. He had the look of utter calmness on his face. There was no hint of emotion on his face. "What's going on?" He didn't even need anyone to reply to that. All he needed to do was search for energy levels. But Kami knew exactly what was going on. While reading power levels was useful, it did have its down points. Goku wanted to know what he was about to jump into.   
  
Kami hesitated to answer. It was too awful to tell. He looked to Chi-Chi, who nodded at him to go ahead. "Things aren't looking too well. Usagi is out for the count along with Gohan. Gohan tried his best but knew that he wasn't enough. It was pretty obvious."  
  
Goku's expression didn't change. He hadn't expected Gohan to be able to do any damage. Gohan was just supposed to hold Cell off for a while. "How did it happen?"  
  
Kami gulped. He hadn't even told Chi-Chi that. "He just gave up. Once Cell decided that he was going to end it, he raised his power level to it's near fullest. Gohan knew it was hopeless and gave in. Cell attacked him with some sort of attack that drains his energy. He shouldn't be totally drained for a while."  
  
Chi-Chi's eyes shot wide open when she heard that. "What?! You mean he's suffering?" She grabbed a hold of the front of Kami's cloths and shook him back and fourth. "WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO MY BABY?!"   
  
Kami pulled Chi-Chi's hands off of him. "I don't know."  
  
Goku nearly frowned. He had never taught him to just give up. Though he had never taught him to keep fighting even when you know that it won't work. He wouldn't let Cell go unpunished for this. "And what has become of Usagi? Why is she out? She should have been able to beat him, or at least have him down in power."  
  
"She underestimated him and didn't use her full power. By the time she realized that she should power up, he didn't let her. He just attacked her over and over until she was unable to do anything. Then the androids showed up and started to attack the kids. That's when all hell broke loose. Cell got his opening and started to suck Usagi's energy."  
  
"What?!" 'I thought she would have known better than to underestimate her enemy. She did learn from me after all.' "Continue."  
  
"That's when Gohan arrived." Kami paused as Goku took to the air. "Wait Goku. There are still things that you have to know. Cell had cloned himself four times. The clones are now fighting all of our friends and the androids, who I think are still against us. Everyone is out of energy so they won't be of much help to you. With your new power you should be able to penetrate his armor like skin."  
  
Goku turned around and let his face show his first true emotion since he emerged from the room of spirit and time as he smiled a warm and caring smile. "I'm not going straight to the fight just yet. I have something I need to do."  
  
"I'm going with you Goku."  
  
Goku turned back to Chi-Chi, shocked. "What?! What are you talking about? You can't go. You can't fight up to his standards. You can't even fly. Don't try to pull a Bulma on me all right? You aren't going. You'll get hurt if you do. You don't want to get hurt do you?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she crossed her arms out of annoyance. "Don't patronize me Goku. I know what I'm doing. I'm not going to get hurt. I have a right to go with you."  
  
Goku was the one who was frowning now. "No you aren't. I'm not going to let you. Now that's the end of it. I don't want you to get hurt." For once Goku was going to put his foot down. He couldn't have Chi-Chi getting involved.  
  
Chi-Chi looked into her husbands eyes and saw that he was completely serious, but then again, so was she. She was determined to get to that fight. "I'm going and that's that." She let herself lift up into the air.  
  
Goku was a bit on the surprised side to his wife beside him in the air. "They taught you to fly?"  
  
"Yes. Now I don't care what you say. I'm going." She began to move forward and stopped. "Are you just going to sit there or are you coming with me?"  
  
Goku never thought that he would see that day that his wife flew. But here she was, flying right in front of him. He was amazed. He quickly shook off his amazement and put his mind back into his concentration as he moved to her side. 'Forgive me Chi-Chi.' "No you aren't going with me." He lifted his hand, extending his index finger, and knocked his wife back down to Kami's lookout. "Take care of her Kami. Make sure she doesn't try to leave once she wakes up."  
  
Kami nodded as he waved good bye to Goku. He fully understood with Goku's reasoning for his actions and agreed with them. Chi-Chi wouldn't be able to defend herself against Cell. He looked down at Chi-Chi. One little poke by Goku's finger while he was Super Saiyan was enough to knock her down to the ground and leave her unconscious. Though it wouldn't be long before she was awake and wanting to leave. "I hope this thing ends before she wakes up."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~In the Woods~~  
  
Usagi's eyes slowly flapped open closed over and over again as her body throbbed with severe pain. Her body had begun to gain its warmth back thanks to the cloth from Gohan's cape. But she still felt very faint and her arms and legs were numb. Her head felt as though it had had a few metal baseball bats bashed into it, something that she had never quite experienced before. She had never gotten into a spar quite as intense as this fight with Cell. 'I wish I could help them.' She could sense the dark film of energy over her brother. She could also feel that his energy was decreasing. She could also feel her friends' energy. They were nearly drained to the point of being no more. She groaned as she buried her face deep into the cloth for comfort. "My fault. My fault. It's all my fault." She wanted to cry as she winced from sensing a giant energy decrease in Piccolo's energy.  
  
She opened her eyes as she felt a familiar touch on her face. It was a warm touch filled with love. The same touch that she had felt when her father had come from the future to calm her and then train her. The same touch she had felt many times when she was upset about something. She looked up as her upper body was picked up and then set onto something warm. "Daddy?"   
  
Goku wiped some loose strands of hair from his daughter's face as he smiled. "You don't honestly believe that this is your fault do you?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "Yes it is. Don't you know? I didn't use my full power and Cell almost got my energy from me. Now he's killing everyone." She examined his face. It had changed somehow. His hair wasn't that of a normal Super Saiyan. It was something that she couldn't remember ever seeing. His hair was more full and messy looking. He only had three strands slender strands coming over his face instead of the normal thick ones. "You did it didn't you?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Sure did. And don't worry about not using your power. You didn't know that this was going to happen. You can't pout over the past. All you can do is look towards the future."  
  
Usagi smiled. She knew he was just tying to make her feel better. "Well good luck daddy. You're going to need it. Cell is REALLY strong."  
  
"What? You're going to make me fight alone? Don't you want to join in on all the fun?" He dug into his pocket.  
  
"I can't do it. I'm too weak. I can't even stand up on my own." She so wished that she could take a bite into Cell and make him pay for what he had done to her friends.   
  
"Don't ever say that you can't do anything because you're weak. If I would have had that attitude when I was fighting Frieza you and I wouldn't be here right now." He held out a tiny pebble like item over Usagi's face. "Here. I saved this just for this occasion. It isn't much, but it will help you gain some energy back. It's a fourth of a Senzu bean. I've got one for Gohan too. I don't know if Chi-Chi has anymore left but I didn't have time to find out." Usagi opened her mouth and Goku placed the bean in. "Now you can help me fight back against Cell."  
  
Usagi swallowed the bean and immediately felt the results. She could feel her arms and legs again and her headache was even beginning to go away. "Thanks." She lifted her hands to her chest and pushed the cloth off of her body, which was no longer cold. Her skin had even regained its color. She sat up after she kicked off the cloth. "Wow, a fourth was plenty. I feel totally refreshed."   
  
Goku was amazed as he watched his daughter stand up with great ease. He had never seen a fourth of a Senzu bean do so much for a person. 'She really is mysterious.' He stood to his feet. "Shall we get out of here and payback Cell?" He asked, knowing fully what the answer would be.   
  
"Sure am!" In a blink of an eye, her body was engulfed by a silver aura as her hair shot up in silver. "I'm not going to make the same mistake again." She grabbed her father's hand and smiled as she leaned into his side. She now knew that he didn't hate her. He wouldn't have given her the Senzu if he had. "Let's get out of here."  
  
Goku smiled down at Usagi and pressed his fingers to his forehead. 'So much different than Gohan.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back At The Battle Field~~  
  
Cell stood up and stretched as he yawned. He was getting quite bored with watching the 'festivities'. He wanted some action of his own. He walked back to Gohan, who was now back in his normal form due to energy loss. Gohan lay on his stomach, his legs and arms were spread out as far as they could be. He poked at the boy with his foot. "Look at you and your pitiful self. You can't even loose your energy fast enough to please me." He bent down and picked up some rocks that sat behind Gohan's feet. "Where's Vejita, Gohan?" He threw a rock at Gohan's head.   
  
Gohan twitched when the rock hit. "I do...n't....know..." His eyes were closed as tightly as they could be shut from the pain. It's not like his energy was being peacefully drained from his body. It was more like his muscles were being ripped away from his body.  
  
"Why the hell aren't your friends dying? They're pissing me off. They just keep fighting and fighting and fighting. They put up more of a fight than you did." He threw another rock at Gohan's head. Gohan didn't reply, which made Cell all the more angrier. He walked to Gohan's head, where his hands were also located. He hovered one of his feet over Gohan's hand. "I'll ask you again. Where is Vejita? I know you know where he is." The only reply he got from the boy was a grunt of pain. "Fine." He slammed his foot down onto Gohan's hand, crushing it. That got a reaction out of Gohan. A loud cry to be exact. "You weak fool." He took his foot off of Gohan's hand and put his toe under his stomach and flipped him over to his back so his stomach was facing up. "I can't believe such a weakling like you defeated me. I must have been out of my mind to have let you beat me."  
  
He grinned as he turned around after feeling two new powers. Two powers, which were equal to his own power. Or maybe even a little higher. "Look. It's two more Saiyans from the Son family come to kill me." He examined Goku carefully. "You look and feel different. Did you do something to your hair?" He looked down to Usagi. "Ah, yes. Usagi, it looks as though you're back from the dead."  
  
Usagi scowled at Cell. She wouldn't let him intimidate her now. She was his equal. She could defeat him now. "Shut up and be on your way. I'm going to beat you this time. I have my full power now." She felt a small nudge on her back from her father and nodded. "We're going to take out each and every one of your dumb clones and then we're going to beat you too." She teleported herself to a fight that was going on between Minako, android 17, Ami, Krillin and the Cell clone. If you can even call it a fight. It was more like the clone beating everyone to a bloody pulp.  
  
Goku stayed on the scene with his son and Cell. He smirked at Cell as he held his hand out in the direction of his son.   
  
Cell couldn't figure out for the life of him what Goku was trying to achieve by pointing his attack to his boy. "If you want to kill him go ahead. I won't stop you. I was getting really bored with him anyways."  
  
Gohan opened his eyes at that statement. He really hoped that Cell was just trying to play with his head. But he, in fact, was not. It was very true that his father was pointing at him. "Daddy? What are you doing?" He tried to cower away but his energy was too low.  
  
In Goku's hand a small energy ball was formed. "Just watch." Out of his hand shot the small ki ball followed by a thin beam of energy. It went straight down to its target, Gohan's leg. Gohan cried out from the pain that was being placed upon him. The power that his father possessed was just like Cell's.   
  
Cell laughed. "You really are an idiot. What your kid screws up and you try to kill him? Is that..." He gasped as he saw his dark energy field that was around Gohan disperse. "How the hell did you do that?!"  
  
Goku grinned. "Looks like my power cancels yours out." He tossed the fourth of the Senzu to Gohan. "Eat this, son. And, I'm sorry I had to do that." He turned back to Cell. "You and me, now!"  
  
Cell didn't quite know what to do. Goku was stronger now stronger than Gohan had been when he had defeated him. "You can't scare me you..." He was cut off by Goku's fist finding it's way through his protective skin. Cell was left unable to say anything. He had the wind knocked out of him.  
  
Goku wasn't in any moods for playing around. He had heard the whole story about what Cell had done from Usagi. He knew that this guy wasn't one to play around. "I said we're fighting right now!" He pulled his fist out of Cell's skin, letting in crumble in on itself and leaving nothing but green skin underneath. "You aren't so tough after all."  
  
Cell's eyes widened. For once he was actually questioning his victory. "You bastard!" He lifted his fist and swung at Goku.   
  
Goku caught Cell's fist in his hand and pushed back on Cell's arm and Cell tired to push against Goku's strength. "Seems as though you're going to loose this one, Cell."  
  
Once Gohan's power had recovered enough for him to stand up, he did so. "Don't let your guard down dad. He's sneaky."  
  
Goku pulled back his hand and grabbed Cell's arm and flipped him over before Cell even knew what was happening. "I know. Go check on your sister. I think she should be having an easy time too. For some reason, Super Saiyan two is much stronger than his power."  
  
Cell stood to his feet and laughed. "That's just for now. You haven't seen my ultimate power yet."  
  
Goku sighed as he crossed his arms. 'Another Frieza huh? Always gotta have all these stupid forms.' "Ultimate form? Aren't you already perfect?"  
  
"Wouldn't you like to know?"  
  
Goku didn't even have to think about that for longer than a few seconds. "Let me see. No!" He turned to Usagi, who seemed to be dominating over the clones just as he was dominating over the original. "Seems like your people suck too."  
  
"Is that a fact? My clones and I don't seem to hold the same opinions as you weaklings do." 'I didn't think I would have to pull this power out but I guess I had a few unexpected things happen here. But that's what this technique was created for.'  
  
(Ok that's it for now. What did you think? Was it good or bad? Gotta go now. Ja for now! ^_^)  



	62. Part 24

Usagi stood in between her friends and her foes. She was acting as their shield for they would not have been able to protect themselves from any more attacks from the clones. There was no way that she would allow her friends to be further hurt if she could prevent it. It had been her fault that they were in that position in the first place and she was not about to let it go on any further. She would end this right here and now without hesitation.   
  
They had been fighting for a few minutes while her father was taking care of the original Cell. He was supposed to come and help her take out the clones but she figured that he must have gotten side tracked instead. But she didn't mind. She was able to take care of the quite easily by herself. "Are we not going to continue?" She asked cheekily as she grinned to the clones who stood in front of her, all with indentations in their protective skin. "I should have done this from the beginning."  
  
Rei wasn't sure about their current situation. It seemed all too good to be true. She looked over to Goku and Cell. He seemed to be stronger than Cell and Usagi. Cell's power felt as if it had had a giant chunk of it taken out. Rei figured it had been from a beating that Goku had given him. But none the less, Cell's body was emitting a strange energy. A dark and powerful energy to be exact, which added an eerie felling to the already hate filled atmosphere. 'Something's up. Usagi, you better hurry up.'  
  
17 had had enough of just sitting around and watching Usagi have a starring contest with the clones. He wasn't just going to sit on the sidelines and watch a perfectly good fight go to waste. "Screw this. You guys are a bore. I'm going to have me some fun. You wanna join me, 18?" He turned to her and noticed that she wasn't paying any attention to him. "Fine. Screw you too."  
  
18 had in fact been listening to her partner. She just hadn't said anything because she didn't know what she wanted to do. She hadn't known at all what she was getting herself into when she came into the fight. She hadn't known that the clones would be so powerful. She turned to 17 with a slight hint of fear in her eyes. "I don't think that would be a good idea. I want to see what happens with this kid. She seems pretty powerful. She may be able to kill these guys for us and then we can..."   
  
17 rolled his eyes. "Give me a break. This kid may be a little strong, but she sucks when it comes to fighting. Let me show you what a real fighter does." With that, he pushed past Usagi and jumped out at the clone who stood the closest to Usagi . "Go to hell you stupid bug." He said with complete calmness.  
  
The clone just closed its eyes and sighed. "Gero failed to build you with any common sense." He reached out and grabbed 17 by his face, before he had a chance to make a hit, and threw him over his shoulder. "Anyone else want to try anything?"  
  
Usagi frowned. Though 17 wasn't really fighting with them he definitely had not deserved that. "Why you little..." She bent her fingers just enough to make little claw like shapes with them and reached up to grab the clone in the chest. "You're not getting away with any of this." She dug her nails into its chest as hard as she could, causing the black protective skin to crumble away. "You're don't for Cell!"   
  
She looked to her left and then to her right as she continued to pretty much paralyze her victim without any trouble. On her sides stood two of the other clones. "Let me guess, there's one behind me too, huh?" She didn't even have to look to know. It was obvious that they were going to try and attack her. But she wouldn't be dumb enough to let them attack. Without looking back, Usagi lifted her leg and kicked the clone, who stood behind her, in the knee. She quickly let go of her victim and extended her arms to the sides of her body and blasted the two on her left and right in the face. They all stumbled away from her. "This is fun."  
  
Gohan landed by Piccolo, who was lying on the ground unable to move. "Piccolo, are you all right?" He kneeled down to look at the wounds all of his best friend's body.   
  
"Don't worry about me, kid. I'm fine. You just worry about yourself and what you're going to do to protect these girls."   
  
Gohan nodded. "Right. I need to get them out of here." He looked up to Usagi. She looked as though she had completely regained her power from the Senzu that their father had given her. He wondered if she had gotten a larger portion than him. His power had been replenished enough just to do simple things like flying and making small Ki blasts. Pretty much it was just to get him back on his feet. "She looks like she knows what she's doing."  
  
"No she doesn't." Piccolo lifted his head to look at Usagi, who was just standing and staring into the clones' eyes again. "She's playing with them just like they did with her, and us. She doesn't have much discipline for being a student of Goku. She's acting just like Cell. Arrogant, cocky, overconfident, you name it."  
  
"Just like Vejita would do."  
  
Rei glanced back over to Goku and the real Cell and gasped at what she saw. White rays were being discharged from his body while the two fighters just stood and talked about who knows what. 'Now I know he's up to something. I can feel it. I can see it. Why isn't Goku doing anything.' "Usagi...IF YOU'RE GOING TO KILL THEM OFF DO IT NOW!"  
  
Usagi jumped from being startled and loss her concentration. As a result, she left herself wide open for a swift punch to her stomach. "Owe!" She grabbed her stomach and took a step back. "Rei what's wrong?!" She looked over to her father and Cell. She couldn't see or feel what the problem was. "Don't scare me like that."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku kept his eyes straight onto Cell. He wouldn't make the mistake of letting his guard down. But something wasn't right. He could feel it more in his bones now than he could just a few moments ago. He knew that it had to do with Cell's threat of supposedly having an ultimate power that he was going to bring out. But he couldn't quite put his finger on what it could possibly be. "You're bluffing. You don't have any more power reserves left. You have reached the very end."  
  
Cell smirked. "Is that a fact?" He turned his head to his clones, who appeared to be starting up their fight with Usagi again. "Get your asses over here!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi turned her attention back to her father and Cell. "What's he yelling about? Huh?" Her eyes picked up motion to her side. "Where are you guys going?" She watched as the half beaten clones flew back to their original form. "Hey wait! I'm not finished." She started running towards Cell, where she all of a sudden began to feel an energy more dark and morbid than before. It seemed familiar to her, which frightened her. "Whoa, that's not a good thing." Unconsciously, she stopped about halfway to her destination. It was as if her legs just would not move anymore, not that she really tried to move. She was just amazed at the type of feelings that were flooding her senses. "What's happening?"  
  
Gohan was utterly confused now. He didn't know what the big hold up with Usagi was. He hadn't felt anything all that big arising from Cell. But the girls seemed to feel something bigger than he or anyone else of their group could feel. It was a little too strange for him. Why could they feel something that they could not? It just didn't make sense. They seemed a little freaked by it too. He stayed by Piccolo's side, knowing fully that he could not do anything more at this point. He was definitely not up to Cell's level of power and he would quickly fall further behind if what the girls were feeling was true. "What should we do Piccolo?"  
  
"Just stay here. Goku should be able to take care of this."  
  
"What about Usagi?" Gohan hoped that she wouldn't get herself nearly killed again. She seemed to be frozen in place.   
  
"I'll be surprised if she gets anything done. She's a lot like you and Vejita mixed. She's seems to get scared when put into positions that she would rather not be put in, just like you did when we were fighting the Saiyans. But when she has more power, she's too cocky, like I said before. I know it's not exactly the best way to describe her, but it's true." Piccolo hoped that Usagi would get her act together soon.  
  
"I wish we could have found a way to do our combined attack. It would have been so useful now. We could have had Cell taken out by now and probably gone home. This isn't fair." Minako whined  
  
~*~*~  
  
Cell's clones stood around him to form a circle. He couldn't wait to remerge. From then on, he would be indestructible. Nothing would penetrate his armor and the people he despised most would know his wrath. "You will pay for even hurting me at all Goku. You will be the first to go and then that brat from the future. But now is not the time for me to tell you what will become of you. Now I'm going to do something that I didn't think that I would have had to have done." He stretched his arms out away from his body. "Come to me my faithful comrades."  
  
Usagi was still unable to move from her trance of being dazed at what was happening not too far from her. Cell's clones, one by one, were approaching him. "What's this going to do? Nothing. He's just going to remerge again and become one...I hope."  
  
Cell smirked once two of his clones placed their hands on top of his. "Good." He closed his eyes and allowed them to remerge into his tattered body, which Goku had done. "Next." The next two walked to him as he pulled his arms back close to his body. "You may want to move away. I don't think you want to be standing there when this happens. You too Usagi. I'm actually going to finish the job now. No more playing around." He re-extended his arms to his clones.   
  
Goku crossed his arms. "I think I'll take my chances standing here."  
  
Cell shrugged his shoulders. "Do as you please." He allowed his clones to be absorbed into his body. In a flash, his black aura once again over took his body, blocking it from anyone's view. A large burst of black power was shot out in all directions as his muscle mass increased, causing his arms to bulge out more than normal. "This is only the beginning."  
  
Goku turned his head and covered his eyes with his arm so as to block any sand or rocks that would be thrown up in his direction. "Where the hell did all that power come from? He shouldn't be able to gain power from re-merging with himself." His feet began to slip from their place on the ground from the intensity of the power blasts. He had to use all of his strength just to keep from flying away.   
  
"You seem to be a little distressed over there, Goku. Why don't I show you more to calm your nerves?" He clenched his fists to squeeze out anymore power that may be hidden away inside his body.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi still stood behind Cell. Oddly enough, she seemed to be able to stand against Cell's power a bit easier. Though she still slipped back every so often. She was pretty much out of hope that she would be able to beat this enemy. Like her father, she couldn't figure out why Cell had gained so much power. He seemed to be four times as strong now than he was before. But how? He hadn't gone through any training. "This fight has been lost. This world has been lost...again. Therefore, all is lost." She shook her head as if she were snapping out of something. "Why do I know this power?"  
  
Piccolo, now wrapped around a tree to keep from flying to far from the battle field, couldn't believe what he had just heard come from Usagi's mouth. It was much too mature to come from the mouth of an eight year old child. A child who does nothing but play and not study. 'What a strange child.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku was loosing his footing more and more as Cell's power increased. "What is he made of?"  
  
Cell gave out one last wave of power to the fighters who dared to oppose him as he smirked. "This is great. I haven't felt this great in...well...ever." He hopped up and down to test out his new agility.  
  
Goku uncovered his face and turned to Cell. "My god..." Cell stood there, looking more flawless than ever. His protective armored skin was completely repaired. The skin was totally black except for his hands and the tips of his feet, which were now dark blue. His face was also black, a sign that told the group that his face was now well protected. His eyes were outlined in dark blue. Even his back had been repaired. "What happened to you? How did you get such a power boost?"  
  
"I knew that question would surface. You see, my re-creators knew that there would be a chance that I could be beaten. It wasn't expected of me to have to use all of this power, but it's obvious that I have to use it. As a result of this knowledge, they made this technique for me."  
  
"But your power. We want to know how you got it. Your power shouldn't have been able to increase just by merging back with your clones." Usagi wanted to punch him, to see if this new power that she was feeling was real.   
  
"That splitting skill was acquired from Piccolo, yes. When I fought in four forms in the future, my power in all clones and I was decreased into a fourth of what it originally was, just as Piccolo's would have been. Yet, my re-creators really liked this skill, they didn't like that fact. So they found away around it. That's where their energy comes into play. Their energy was so abundant in my system that when I split, all clones, including me, had the same amount of energy. Now here's where it gets tricky. Let's see if you all are as smart as you claim to be. Now, when I re-merged in the future, my power went back to normal as all fourths were put back into one. But, since all of my clones had the same amount of power thanks to my dark energy, it was as if we were putting five different powers together, creating an even stronger me. Just as you would put together Goten and Trunks to make Gotenks. Or you Goku, and Vejita to make Gogeta or Vejito. They are twice as strong as a normal fighter since they are two people's powers put together."  
  
"What? How did you know about the fusions?" Usagi never remembered telling Cell about the fusions at all. She never even remembered talking about it to her friends.  
  
"My queen has been studying your family for a very long time, young one." He moved his eyes to look over his shoulder.  
  
Goku was still confused. "So you're saying that you're now four times as strong as you were before? That's insane. You can just keep getting stronger and stronger with doing that."  
  
"That's not entirely true. The scientists who did this to me didn't think that I would need anymore power than this. I can't split anymore. As you see my now is my ultimate form until I absorb Usagi's power, that is." He extended his energy absorbing fingernail like tubes again. "Think fast!" He flipped backwards and ran for Usagi at a much faster speed than her eyes could detect.   
  
Goku couldn't allow that to happen. He had expected Cell to try something like that. As fast as he could, he pressed his fingers to her forehead and teleported to his daughter's location. Though he wasn't fast enough. Cell was about to dig his energy absorbers into her arm. She seemed to be frozen in place. She had to have seen him move from his place. "Get away from her you bastard!" He jumped in front of her, taking the blow from Cell. The energy absorbers began to work their magic as an acute pain ran up and down his body.   
  
~*~*~  
  
  
"DAD!" Gohan jumped out to help his father but felt a pair of hands wrap around his leg. He turned back. "Piccolo let me go!"  
  
"No! You're going to get yourself killed if you go out there. You're dad can't even block against that!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi stepped back away from Cell and her father. She was in fear as she stared down at her helpless father. She trembled as her eyes watered. She wanted to help, but what could she do? She was just as weak as her father. She couldn't shake the feeling of wanting to plow into Cell and knock him off of his feet so she could throw consecutive punches at him. It wasn't fair. That energy absorbing wasn't met for him. It had been met for her. She should have been the one getting her energy sucked out of her body.   
  
She snapped when she heard her father cry out in pain. That was it. She couldn't take it anymore. He shouldn't have been suffering because of her. No matter how much pain he had put her through, he hadn't meant it to be mean. At that point, she let her anger get the better of her as she jumped up and performed a roundhouse kick to Cell's face. "GET YOUR CLAWS OUT OF HIM!" Her eyes flashed silver for a couple of seconds. She wouldn't let her father die in this timeline. She hadn't come this far to let anyone die, especially him. He just risked his life for her, and now she would repay him the favor.  
  
Cell's head flew to the side as he pulled his energy absorbers out of his victim. "Was that supposed to do anything? Or were you just trying to be a bit of comedy relief?" He turned his head back to look down at Usagi. "You're pretty brave for a runt you know that? Especially one who can't even begin to dream about beating me." He reached out and grabbed her throat, bringing her face to face to him. "Don't you know what happens to bad little girls?" He threw her on top of Goku. "They die along with their fathers!" He raised his foot and slammed it back down on top of Usagi, forcing to two Saiyan fighters to be pressed into the ground. "This is fun."  
  
An unexpected blast from nowhere came tumbling towards him and crashed into the back of his head. A pair of white shoed feet dropped to the ground with a light tap. "My, my, my Kakorrotto. I leave to train in space for a few months and you start the fight without me. I'm so disappointed in you." A Super Saiyan Vejita, who had just finally returned from training, gazed upon Cell. "And who might you be? I believe killing Kakorrotto has been reserved for me."  
  
Cell smiled as he pulled his foot back and turned back to the prince of Saiyans. "Vejita, I have been waiting for you. Now it's your turn to be beaten into a bloody pulp. By the way, I'm Cell from the future if you haven't figured it out yet."  
  
Vejita just kept a calm face, with a smirk, as usual. "I'm not dumb enough to get into a fight with you. I've not even completed my training. Even though I know I would win. I just don't want to hurt your pride too much by beating the crap out of you with one hit." Though that's not what he was thinking at all. He knew that he would be beaten if he were to engage in a battle with the monster before him.  
  
"Arrogant as always."  
  
Vejita kept his smirk on his face as he ignored Cell and turned his attention to the Saiyan duo, who still lay on the ground. "That bastard surpassed me again. I get to his level and he goes and trains in that damned room just to be able to still be stronger than me. But that was a waste of time I see. He still got his ass kicked. Along with those two brats. Since when were they that strong? I'll bet he took them in that blasted room with him."  
  
Cell was a bit confused at this point. "What room would you be talking about?"  
  
"That damned room of spirit and time where a year passes in there and only a day passes a day out here. I heard him talking about it to the woman one day. But let's not worry about that. I've decided that I'm going to give you the ass kicking you deserve. Since I'm in a good mood, I'll go easy on you." 'Yeah right.'  
  
'Room of spirit and time, huh? One year in there, and one day out here. Sounds promising.' "I don't have time for you right now. As much as I would love to beat you to a bloody pulp right now, I have more important things to worry about." Without waiting for a reply from Vejita, he took to the air and headed for Kami's lookout where no one was expecting him to show up at.  
  
"He got scared and ran away. That's just how good I am I guess." Vejita continued to smirk as he walked to Goku and Usagi. He noted the others coming out of their 'hiding' spots and approaching them. He hated the fact that he had the power to kill Goku now that his power was so low, but he couldn't, He would have to wait until Cell was killed. Then he would have his revenge, after he too got to the level of power that Goku was now at. "Pathetic. You're not worthy of being called Saiyans."  
  
"Vejita!" Gohan yelled as he ran as fast as he could. "We've been wondering where you've been and now you've showed up at the worst time."  
  
Vejita ignored Gohan as he turned away. "If you want to know where that guy Cell has gone just go to Kami's place. He's headed there to go to the room of spirit and time since I told him about it." He crossed his arms and began to walk away.  
  
'Kami's? Mom's there isn't she?' "Aren't you going to help us?" Gohan looked down to his father and sister and got a bad feeling in his gut.  
  
"This isn't my fight. I didn't start it. I wasn't here when it started. I'll kill him after he kills you." He jumped to the air and flew away without any consideration of what he had just said. 'Fools.'  
  
The girls definitely didn't like the sound of Cell heading to Kami's. They had to find a way to stop him, but how? There was nothing in the world that could stop him now. Not even Goku could do it and so far he was the strongest out of all of them. Minako was ready to give up. But she knew that if she were to give up, she and everyone else in the world would meet their deaths. "Kami's...isn't that an hour and a half fly from here?"  
  
Ami shook her head. "Not with Cell's new speed. It will probably take him a half hour to get there.   
Forty-five minutes max. We need to get there and warn everyone though. If we don't they will all die. I don't think Kami will allow Cell to use the room of spirit and time for his demented plan, whatever that will be. That's why Cell will kill Kami. To get him out of the way. And Chi-Chi will try to fight back too, I just know she will."  
  
Usagi groaned she slowly raised her head out of her father's hair. "Teleport."  
  
"That's an idea. We could get there faster than Cell."  
  
"Get off Usagi." Goku moved his body around in the dirt.  
  
Usagi jumped off her father from being startled. "You're alright? Cell didn't kill you?"  
  
Goku stood up. "Of course not. He'll have to do better than that if he wants to kill me. All he did was take a little bit of energy from me." He could see the confusion in his friends' face as he grabbed his bloodied arm. "I didn't resist. If you resist something like that, more energy gets taken. It takes energy to resist right? When you resist, he absorbs the energy that is being used to resist, taking more of your energy. If you were watching, I didn't resist. It just took me a few minutes to recover though. I'm fine." He turned to Ami, who seemed to understand a little bit better than everyone else. "Do you guys really know how to teleport?" She nodded. "That's amazing. I never would have expected someone so young to be able to do something like that."  
  
Ami smiled as she took in the compliment. "We don't have time for aftermath talk since the fight isn't over. We need to get to Kami's place before Cell does."  
  
Goku nodded. "Agreed." He motioned for Gohan to come to him. "Let's go. I'll take Gohan with me. You girls each take a person too." He pressed his fingers to his forehead, after his son was within his grasp, and teleported away.  
  
Usagi looked around to the group. Cell hadn't hurt her too much. Because of that, she was very nearly at her fullest power level. "I'll take Mamoru with me."   
  
"Well I guess I have no choice since I don't like any of you. Just don't get too close to me. I don't want your stupidity to rub off of me." Mamoru walked to Usagi and grabbed her shoulder. "Don't put your hand on me. This is enough contact."  
  
Usagi frowned. "Why are you always so mean to me? I'm not stupid." She didn't even give him a chance to say anything in reply before she teleported away.  
  
Piccolo shook his head in disgust. "Those two need to learn how to get along. But it's true, Usagi doesn't seem to know what she's doing without her father telling her exactly what to do."  
  
Makoto didn't think that at all. "LOOK PICCOLO! Usagi is begin very brave for her first REAL fight. You need to shut your mouth just like Mamoru does. You're both so mean."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi arrived at Kami's lookout with Mamoru beside her father and Gohan as did everyone else. "Good, he's not here yet. That's a relief." She looked back to all of her friends. "Daddy, isn't there away that we can make them all better here?"  
  
Goku looked behind him and examined everyone for the first time since he had left the room of spirit and time. They all looked pretty pitiful from the fights and most were in need of some serious medical help. "We can ask Kami."  
  
"GOKU!"  
  
Goku cringed at the sound of his wife yelling for him. "Looks like she's awake." He turned his attention to his wife, who was walking rather angrily towards them. "Ha, ha, hi Chi-Chi! How's it goin?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she crossed her arms. "Oh gee I don't know, now that I have splitting headache and a giant lump on the back of my head from where YOU HIT ME!" She raised her hand to slap him in the face but quickly re-thought her decision as she looked back to everyone who was standing right there.  
  
Goku covered his head with his arms so he would be able to endure the blow. "Take it easy Chi-Chi."  
  
Chi-Chi looked back to her husband. "Tell them to leave Goku. I need to talk to you."  
  
Goku gulped. "Now? This isn't the best..."  
  
"NOW!" Chi-Chi screamed loud enough for the whole earth below to hear. Goku didn't even need to ask for everyone to leave. They knew it was for the best that they left. They didn't want to be in the way when Chi-Chi went ballistic. They had all had the 'pleasure' of seeing it at least once in their lifetimes. "Gohan, Usagi, you stay here. This has to do with you two."  
  
Gohan and Usagi looked at each other in fear of what their mother wanted to talk to them about. "Yes mom?" They both asked as they looked down to the ground, both still powered up to Super Saiyan, the same as Goku.   
  
Chi-Chi ignored her children for a moment and glared into Goku's eyes. "You complete idiot."  
  
Goku was more afraid of his wife at this moment than he had ever been. He knew she would have been mad at him for what he did, but he didn't think that she would have been THIS mad. He had hoped that she would have understood what he did. "Now Chi-Chi, be reasonable and don't do anything stupid. There are children present." He backed up in terror from the look that his wife was giving him.  
  
"There's nothing here that their eyes have never seen or heard." He eyes flared with anger. "How dare you. How dare you attack me like that."  
  
"I've already told you it was for your own good. I didn't do it to hurt you."  
  
Chi-Chi grew even more furious. "You knew what was best? Only I decide what's best for me.  
Not you. You had no right to force me to your will. You know NOTHING. Do you hear me? You don't know ANYTHING!"  
  
Goku began to glare a little bit himself. He had only done it for her well being. Not to make her upset. "I KNEW WHAT WAS BEST."  
  
"Just like you knew what you were doing with Usagi becoming a Super Saiyan? You knew that it was best to attack her? And what's worse is that you brought Gohan in on it too. You knew that it was best to fill our son's head with ideas that he can just go around and be rude to someone because they have some power that he wants to bring out. What if he trains someone? He's going to think that he can just beat the hell out of them to 'get their power out."  
  
"No I'm not mom."  
  
Chi-Chi shot a glare at her son. "Shut up!" Gohan coward away.  
  
"I knew what..."  
  
"No you didn't!" Chi-Chi yelled. Across the courtyard, she could be heard yelling by all of the other fighters.  
  
"I did too. You just don't understand."  
  
"Liar! Why do you insist on lying to me all the time Goku?" Chi-Chi was furious. Never in her life had she expected to be having this conversation.  
  
Goku too was becoming furious. He hated to be challenged like this. Especially in front of Gohan. He couldn't state his true feelings. "I KNEW WHAT I WAS DOING!"  
  
Chi-Chi snorted. "You knew what you were doing, huh?"  
  
"Yes, why is that so hard for you to understand?"  
  
Chi-Chi wanted to touch onto another subject. There was so much bottled up anger and feelings that she wanted to get out right there and then. "Then I can trust the kids' welfare with you, right?"  
  
"What the hell kind of question is that supposed to be?"  
  
Chi-Chi's glare turned into a scowl as her mood was quickly deteriorating. "Just answer the damned question."  
  
"Fine. Right. You can trust me with the kids." Goku had no idea what she was trying to prove with it.  
  
Chi-Chi didn't fully believe that. "You'd never hurt them, right? They will always be safe with you right?"  
  
"What do you take me for? An abusive father? Of course I'll always make sure they are safe with me!"   
  
Chi-Chi crossed her arms and furiously tapped her feet on the ground. "Liar. You and your pride are as bad as mine. You said you knew what you were doing; yet you had no idea what would happen to Usagi when you pulled that boneheaded stunt. In that situation, yes, you were being abusive. And what of Gohan? Did you beat the bloody crap out of him too when you were training him?"  
  
Goku couldn't believe these accusations that his wife was coming up with. Out of all the times that she could have picked to have this conversation with him, she had to pick this one. "It worked. It was the only way to do it."  
  
"It nearly killed her. If her father hadn't shown she would be dead now and it would have been all your fault. Now tell me, HOW THE HELL ARE THEY SAFE WHEN YOU DO THAT?"  
  
"I didn't know that would happen"  
  
"There's one lie, you had just said you KNEW what you were doing."  
  
"How could I have known? Gohan's body never reacted to power like that."  
  
"You dumbass. After living with Usagi for a year you should have known that she is very different than Gohan. She is more fragile and you should have taken that into consideration. How about the fact that your future self knew not to do it. He's been training her for years and wouldn't try to bring out her power. Why did you think you knew so much more than he does?"  
  
Goku didn't know how to respond to that one. "I..."  
  
"And that stunt with attacking me. I won't take any abuse from you. I know I hit you a lot. I admit that I shouldn't do it. But when I hit you it's the only way to get your attention. I know I can't hurt you. But you intentionally hit me knowing full well that it would hurt me. You were a Super Saiyan for god sakes."  
  
Goku powered down. He didn't want to be accused of trying to intimidate her. "I did it to stop you from trying to fight Cell."  
  
"You idiot I wasn't going to fight I knew I wouldn't stand a chance. I wanted to help my KIDS. I wanted to help them if they needed it. You know, be a parent. Unlike you, Mr. Let's just try to kill the kid in hopes that the power comes out."  
  
"Chi-Chi you know I don't think that way. You know that I love Gohan, and even Usagi. And, I didn't know that's why you wanted to go."  
  
"You didn't ask."  
  
"I..."  
  
"ENOUGH FIGHT ME!" She crouched down into fighting position.  
  
Goku hoped that he didn't hear what he thought he just heared. "WHAT?!"  
  
" You heard me fight me. If you win, I do what you say and will not go to the battles. But if I win, you stop lying to me. You didn't even consult me on the training that you were going to give Usagi. Next time, you will tell me what you are planning. Plus, you will STOP interrupting Gohan's studies. Yes, I know all the times that he has faked his studying. No more flying off when you're scared to actually continue a conversation. Like when the girls had that water fight in the bathroom. They should have been the ones to clean it up, not me. Now we fight, and don't hold back. Power back up to Super Saiyan IF YOU CAN."  
  
Goku wasn't about to fight his wife. If she was complaining about being hurt by him now, he didn't even want to think about what would have happened to her if her fought her for real. "Chi-Chi I'm not going to fight you. I don't want..."  
  
"What's wrong Goku? Afraid to fight me anymore? Come on. We used to do it all the time. Now I'm just raising the stakes a little bit. Your ideas Vs. mine. So FIGHT ME!" Chi-Chi taunted her husband with her hands.   
  
"I'm not afraid to fight you, I'm just afraid to hurt you."  
  
"You didn't seem to be phased by that before. Come on!"  
  
Usagi didn't know what was going on. She had never seen her parents talking to each other like this before. She had seen them argue many times but never to this extent. Her mother had never challenged her father before. She was scared that something may happen. "Wai..." She stopped when she saw her mother glaring at her. 'Is this partly my fault?'  
  
"We start now! Go Super Saiyan NOW!"  
  
Goku would have to give in to this one. Chi-Chi wouldn't drop this until one person was a victor. He sighed. "Fine" He began to concentrate his energy to return to the form of being Super Saiyan.  
  
Chi-Chi didn't give Goku a chance to so much as move before she made her first move. Knowing if she were to allow him to, she would have lost, she rushed towards him, making it look like she was going to ram into him, but instead skid down between his legs and hit him in the groin as hard as she could with both of her hands put together to form a bigger fist. Losing concentration, Goku collapsed to the ground.  
Chi-Chi quickly stood up and turned to her husband, who was now on the ground in pain. "You have to concentrate to become Super Saiyan that's a weak spot that you may want to fix."  
  
Concentrating her ki as the girls showed her; she powered up a power punch and hit him in the back of the neck just above the shoulder. Normally this secrete nerve punch her father taught her wouldn't effect Goku, but with the added ki energy and his pain, it worked, causing him to become immobile.   
  
Usagi couldn't believe it. That had to be the first time that she had seen her father unwillingly loose a fight to ANYONE. "You won mamma."  
  
Chi-Chi rubbed her wrist. "Yes little one. Winning a battle doesn't mean most powerful, skill and determination also count. You only truly lose if you give up, remember that Usagi, Gohan. It will come in handy."  
  
Usagi looked at her father than back to her mother and in a quivering voice asked; "Are you going to get a divorce now?" She remembered some kids talking at her school who had parents who were divorced because they had a big fight, similar to this one, only without the violence.  
  
Gohan's face was overtaken with fear as he shuddered from the thought. He would hate it if his parents got a divorce. He never wanted to think about that. "Please don't mom."  
  
That hadn't ever crossed her mind as it was never a desired thing for her. She always wanted to be with Goku no matter what. "No, NO. I love your father with all my heart. I would never leave him. This isn't about me not loving him anymore. This is about respect. But please don't worry about this right now. You have to prepare for Cell's arrival."  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. Look at that, I nearly reached 11 pages. I do have to say that the idea for that last segment was Comet Moon's idea. He wrote that fight seen. I just added detail to it and cleaned it up a bit to put into story format. He also made a lot of the dialogue. I loved it though and I really wanted to use it. So, what did you think? Gotta go. Homework calls. Ja!)  



	63. Part 25

Goku looked to his left and then to his right as he heard footsteps moving away from him. He could not believe that his wife had just beaten him in a spar. That had never happened before. She did have a good point though. It was a drawback to have to concentrate to go Super Saiyan. It left him vulnerable to attacks. But luckily Usagi didn't have that problem. Just by thinking about it she could summon her power out. It was a great talent and would prove to be quite useful one day.  
  
He was glad to see that his wife was no longer anywhere around him. He didn't want her to rub his defeat in his face. Of course, she wasn't one to do something like that; yet, she also wasn't one to challenge people to fights very often.   
  
He pushed his body up by using his hands as his feeling began to return to him. "Maybe I shouldn't have made her so angry with me. But then again, I was right. It just wasn't safe for her to be going down to the fight. Cell wouldn't have cared if she were there to fight or not. He would have killed her anyways. He wouldn't have wanted her to try and make the kids feel better. He wants them to suffer. He wants all of us to suffer." He slowly stood to his feet, stumbling over them a few times from being numb from his wife's attack on him.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi turned her head to look at her father as she sat on the edge of Kami's lookout, still wondering if her mother was telling the truth about the fact that she loved him. Why would her mother act that way if she truly loved him? She had never seen her so angry with him before. 'Is he alright?' She hoisted herself off of the ground and brushed the dust off of her legs as she began to walk towards him. She wagged her tail cautiously behind her, as she did not know if he would lash out at her or not. She felt partly responsible since he had gotten in trouble for the way he trained her.  
  
She slowed down her pace of approaching him once she got within ten feet of him. She wanted to keep her clear from him. He had shown her that he could attack her with ease before; it wouldn't be that hard for him to retaliate on her now. "Daddy?"  
  
Once Goku somewhat gained his composure back he turned his head to look at the wide-eyed Saiyan. "Yes, Usagi?" He wished that she hadn't seen her mother challenge him the way she did. He wished even more so that she hadn't seen her mother beat him the way she did. He hoped that she hadn't lost any respect for him because of that.   
  
Usagi slowed to a complete stop. "Are you ok?" She had never seen him taken down so easily. She figured that the attack that came from her mother had been pretty big and hard on him. Even she, herself, had never taken him out with such ease.   
  
Goku firmly planted his feet to the ground so as to keep himself from toppling over. "I'm fine. Your mother didn't do too much harm to me."  
  
Usagi was a bit skeptical about that. "Are you sure? You weren't able to move for almost ten minutes. You looked hurt to me."  
  
'Ten minutes? That long?' "I'm fine Usagi, really. Don't worry about me." 'I had forgotten how good  
Chi-Chi was.' He walked passed Usagi, not wanting any more questions from her. "Get yourself ready. Cell will be here soon."  
  
Usagi, too, turned around. "Wait a minute." Goku stopped and turned around, sighing. "Are you mad at me?"  
  
Goku shook his head. He couldn't understand why he would possibly be mad at her. "Of course not."  
  
"Well, mom was yelling at you because of how you trained me. I just thought, you know, if I would have cooperated with you and gotten angry when you tried to make me mad when we first started training that you wouldn't have had to hurt me the way you did. And then mom wouldn't have hit you like she did."  
  
'Wow, Chi-Chi was right. She IS different than Gohan. I really don't think that he would have ever blamed himself for that.' "Don't stress over it. It wasn't your fault. Chi-Chi was right. I didn't have a right train you the way I did. But that's in the past now isn't it? There's nothing that we can do about it now. You have gotten your power now. We need to look to the future. If we always looked to the past we wouldn't have very interesting lives since we wouldn't be able to make new memories. Now lets get ourselves prepared. Cell is going to be here in just a matter of minutes." He turned around and walked away without another word. He didn't want to talk any further about this situation. The truth of the matter was, was that his pride was hurt. He was glad that Vejita wasn't around to see that. He would never let him forget that. But unfortunately, every single one of his friends were to witness it. Except for Bulma. She would never let him live it down either. He just hoped that no one would tell those two. He would have to listen to it for the rest of his life if they were to find out.  
  
Usagi was puzzled. Her father seemed to be wanting to avoid this situation. 'I think he's embarrassed.' Usagi giggled quietly to herself. She couldn't remember a time when she had ever seen him embarrassed. He always seemed to have a straight head on his shoulders. But now, he had been proven wrong and beaten up by his wife, in front of his children, which made it worse. "Hey wait for me!" She ran to catch up to her father as he walked to the group of fighters that stood in front of the room and spirit and time.   
  
Goku didn't stop. He wanted to talk to the others and find out if they had made a plan to protect the room of spirit and time, since Cell seemed to be extra interested in it. "You guys better get out of here, Cell will be here in a couple of minutes." He said as he approached them faster and faster.  
  
Piccolo turned his head to Goku and could barely hold in his laughter. "We're not going anywhere. This is our fight too. He wants to kill us too." He stood up and looked away, not wanting Goku to see him laughing as he didn't want to offend him in any way.   
  
Goku had expected him to say that. He didn't mind that Piccolo was going to stay. He more wanted the girls to get out of there, along with Mamoru. "I don't care. I want Makoto, Minako, Rei, Ami, and Mamoru out of here. He is too strong for you guys." He paused and thought about what he was saying. "Come to think of it, I want Usagi out too. This is not a safe place for you six to be."  
  
Usagi opened her mouth to protest as she stopped by her father's side. "But that's not fair! I want to fight too. I'm almost as strong as you are. I can do it. Please?" Her voice let on a hint of whining.   
  
Goku looked down to his daughter. "I don't care what you want right now. This is serious. It's not one of those times that I'm just going to give into what you want because you whine." Usagi shut her mouth. He was beginning to sound too much like her father from the future. "I don't want you to get hurt while you're here. You already almost died today, it's not going to happen again. His power is just too high for all of you. You don't belong in this time. This is our fight now."  
  
"With all due respect Goku, as I recall, Odango is the precise reason why this monster is here. She should be able to fight him. And if she dies, so be it. She deserves it anyways. She's the one who brought the havoc here, and should die for disrupting your peaceful lives." Mamoru smirked. He just loved to make Usagi angry and took every opportunity that he had. "Though I wouldn't mind getting out of here. Odango could be a messy kill."  
  
Usagi casually walked over to Mamoru before anyone had a chance to say anything in reply and clenched her hand into a tight fist. "Mamoru, I'm going to be just like my mom for one moment." With that, she raised her fist and smashed it into Mamoru's cheek, forcing him to fly up into the air a ways, and then crash back down to the ground. "Maybe that will knock some sense into you. I'm only doing this out of love Mamoru. Don't think I hate you. You're still my friend. I just want you to stop making fun of me all the time." She turned around and skipped back to her father's side.   
  
Minako pointed and laughed at Mamoru as everyone else just stood there and waited for Mamoru's retaliation. "Boy I've been wanting to do that for a long time but I've never had the guts to. Mamoru finally got what he deserved." She continued her laughing even though Mamoru had already gotten up and begun glaring at her. She knew that if Mamoru started anything more, that he would just get it from Usagi again.   
  
Mamoru glared at Minako, as he reluctantly turned his body to Usagi. He wanted to hit Minako for laughing at him. "Usagi, you're going to pay for this." He turned his head to Usagi, who was giggling. "Shut up!" He walked to her and held out his fist in front of her face. "You had better shut up NOW!"  
  
Usagi stopped giggling. "Who's gonna make me?" She stuck out her tongue, making Mamoru's blood boil even more.   
  
Seeing that Mamoru was very nearly ready to take his anger into action, Goku grabbed Usagi's shoulder and pulled her aside. "Stop it you two. This is not a time to start an argument. Mamoru, don't act like Usagi. She's a lot younger than you are and will act younger than you too. Don't bring yourself down to acting like a child." He looked back to Usagi, feeling more like Chi-Chi than ever. "And you, don't argue with my decision. I'm not doing this to make you bored or unhappy with me. I don't want you to get yourself involved with this anymore than you have to. I want you six to get away from here so you don't get hurt."  
  
"But daddy…" Usagi whined. It wasn't fair. She was nearly as strong as he was. She should have been able to stay and help win the fight. But she could tell that he was serious about wanting them to leave. It would be pointless to try and beg. She had been yelled at so many times by her real father for begging and whining that she knew it would be worthless to do so. "Fine." She turned to her friends. "I guess we have to go you guys."   
  
Ami was ok with that. She knew that she would not be able to stand up to the power that Cell possessed. She had already been beaten up so badly that day that she was ready to give up and let someone else do it for her. "Ok. He's right anyways. We don't need to get ourselves into any more trouble with Cell than we already are."   
  
Goku watched as Usagi and her friends walked away from the room of spirit and time. He wanted to make sure that they were actually going to leave as Usagi had a tendency to not do exactly as she was told to do. Once he saw them all take off into the air, he relaxed a bit. "That's better. I don't exactly wish for that other Goku to come back here wanting to fight me because I got his kid hurt."   
  
"Yeah Goku. You've already gotten yourself beaten up by your wife." Krillin tried to hide his laughter.  
  
Goku playfully glared back at his best friend. "Can it Krillin." His face turned more serious as he felt an unwelcome power arrive. "He's here."  
  
"So nice of you to be so alert as always, Goku." Cell slowly walked towards the gang while he scanned the area to scout out all of the potential disturbances. He noted that fact that the kids from the future were gone. "Where is Usagi? I'm not finished with that brat yet." He sensed the area for her energy signature. "She's not here at all." He turned his attention to Goku. "Where the hell is she!?"  
  
At this point, Goku was more than relieved that he had sent Usagi away. "She's not here. You'll have to fight us if you want to get to her."  
  
"Yeah!" Krillin stayed behind Goku, as he wasn't brave enough to say that where Cell had easy access to him.  
  
"I can find her later. I'm not in THAT much of a rush to find her. I didn't come here to get her energy anyways. I came here for a much different reason." He began walking towards the room of spirit and time.  
  
  
Goku held his arms back in hopes that Cell would stop. "If you want to get into this room you're going to have to fight us for it. We aren't just going to let you walk in here. You probably have something horrible planned for it."  
  
Cell smirked. "Goku, tell me. Didn't I already pretty much kick your ass? Or was I daydreaming again. Last I checked I had a higher power level than you. Getting past you wont be too much of a hard task. So move aside." He walked closer and frowned when no one moved out of the way. "Well? Are you going to just stand there? Or do you want me to move you by force? I don't have a problem with doing that. I think it would be fun actually. Wait, don't move. I want to have some for fun with you now. You've gotten me back into the mood." He cocked his head to the right as he felt a small power coming from behind the room of spirit and time. 'Looks as though I wont be traveling too far after this.'   
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei, Minako, Makoto, Ami, Usagi, and Mamoru all sat huddled against the back of the building of the room of spirit and time. They had all powered down to their lowest power, which could not be very well detected unless someone was actually trying to find them. It was a benefit to them as they could easily sneak around without being noticed.   
  
Rei poked her head around the corner just enough to see the back of Cell's calves. "He's just standing there. I think he's talking to everyone. They're probably trying to guard the area." She pulled her head back just in case anyone decided to come out enough to where they could see her. She didn't exactly want to get caught, especially after they had been told to leave. "I have something to tell you guys. Everyone has been saying that Cell's power was nearly as strong as Usagi's, but I don't think it was. It seemed a lot stronger than that. And when he got his major power up just now, that power grew even more than everyone else thought it did. Is it just me? Is it because of all that spiritual stuff I do? Is that why I could feel it?"  
  
"Was it an evil feeling filled with hate that seemed kind of dark?" Ami had definitely felt it. She couldn't figure out why the others never said anything about it. She figured that she had just totally been blowing things out of proportion since this had been her first experience with a real fight.  
  
"Yeah. It was. Did you guys feel it too?" Rei wasn't getting a good feeling from this. It had been bad when she felt it since she had a valid reason to. But now that Ami felt it, things didn't look to well.  
  
Minako looked to her friend and nodded. "Yeah, I did. From the moment we stepped out of the room of spirit and time I felt the hate coming from him. It was strange. I was even scared from it for a while. His power is way stronger than everyone else makes it out to be. Even now, it's larger than the others think it is."  
  
"But why can we feel it and the others can't? It doesn't make sense. They should be able to detect stuff like that better than we can since they've been fighting longer than us. Their senses pick things like that up better than ours." Makoto explained while she rubbed her neck with her hands. She was pretty sure that she was going to have to go back into battle again. Knowing Usagi, all of this talking would make her want to fight more.   
  
"Guys, I even felt it." The girls all turned their shocked faces to Mamoru. "Hey, can't I have some say in this too? Gees, you all act like I'm never nice to you."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes. "You aren't ever nice to us."  
  
"Oh yeah? And what about the time I went to your birthday party after you invited me? I don't believe that I was all that mean to you that day. So shut your mouth and listen to what I have to say. It may do you some good in the future. I'm not always wrong you know." Mamoru stood to his feet. "I don't know why they don't feel that extra evil energy coming from Cell. I don't know why we are even able to feel it. I've been doing some thinking about it in the past couple of hours. You know, when I was getting my ass beat." He looked to Usagi, half expecting her to be laughing at him. He was surprised when she hadn't. "Anyways, I think us feeling this power may have to do with us being from the future."  
  
"But that doesn't make sense at all, Mamoru. They can all feel our power just as well as they can feel Cell's. They shouldn't be able to NOT feel any of that hate power coming from Cell just because he's from the future." Usagi was beginning to get chills up her spin as her thinking increased. She was trying to figure out what the significance of that energy was and why the person from the future even sent him at all. "That power doesn't seem to do anything. Remember when me and dad were beating Cell and his clones. They weren't able to block our attacks. But we felt that they had a higher power level than us."  
  
That point had also crossed Ami's mind. She too couldn't figure out what the power did. "Do you think this has to do with the Guardian of Time? I mean, she did seem stuck on keeping us here for a while."  
  
That had never come into Usagi's mind. She had almost completely forgotten about the Guardian of Time since the fight started. "About that, remember when Minako and Makoto first got here? When the Dragon wouldn't let us go home because it was 'beyond his power'? Well, later, the Guardian of Time brought me to her home, I guess you could call it."  
  
Mamoru bent down and grabbed Usagi by the front of her Gi, brining her up to his face. "You what?! You never told us!? That was what, nearly half a year ago according to the calendar of this time line!? YOU NEVER TOLD US!!? WHAT AN IDIOT!"   
  
Makoto and Rei jumped to Mamoru and pulled him away from Usagi. Makoto brought Mamoru to her own face and slapped him. "Don't do that to Usagi. She probably had her reasons. Usagi isn't one to just not tell her friends something THAT important." She pushed him down to the ground.  
  
Mamoru sat up with anger in his eyes. "If your stupid friend wasn't so damned powerful I would personally kick your ass right now! One of these days, when she's not around to protect you, you're all going to get it!"  
  
Minako poked her head around the corner and gasped quietly at what she saw. "Shhh…Chi-Chi's coming this way. I think we were too loud." She quickly pulled her head back when she saw Chi-Chi looking down at her. "I think she saw me. Quickly, hide!"   
  
The kids all scurried to their feet and started to run away, only to feel Chi-Chi raising her Ki enough to fly above them. Chi-Chi crossed her arms in disappointment. "I thought I heard something back here. Didn't Goku tell you guys to get out of here? I could have sworn I over heard him saying that when I was talking to Kami." She let herself land. "Now would one of you mind telling me why you thought it was your duty to disobey and adult's orders?"  
  
Usagi looked to her friends, not liking they looks that they were giving her. They told her that they wanted her to talk to her since she was, after all, her mother. She gulped as she stepped in front of her friends. "Well, we think that we should be able to fight. No matter what dad says, it's our fight. Cell is here because of me. We would be fighting him in our time right now if we weren't here." 'Well, actually, daddy would have killed him right away then, but that doesn't matter.'  
  
Chi-Chi shook her head back and fourth to let her daughter know that she was not amused with her behavior. "Do you honestly think that your father would allow you to fight such a demon as Cell? Because I really don't think he would. He seems to protect you more than you think."  
  
Usagi knew she was in for it now. Her mother would probably go off on her. "Mom, please don't get mad. We weren't going to do anything if it got too dangerous. Honest. Look, we'll just leave now and act like none of this ever happened." She turned around and began to tiptoe away.   
  
Chi-Chi stomped her foot onto the ground. "Stop right there young lady. I'm not finished with you yet. I may not be stronger than you, but as I proved before, strength means nothing. I CAN stop you from leaving me any time I wanted to. So you just stop moving your little feet and get over here. If you think that you will be able to leave this island without Cell detecting you, you're nuts. The first sign of you he'll come after you. No, you're all going to have to stay here for the time being."  
  
Usagi stopped cold in her place with the feeling of defeat. 'She's right about that.' "Fine. Where are we going to go? We're already here, we might as well fight now." She smiled, knowing full well that her mother would never let her go against her father's wishes.  
  
"Don't even think about that one. Do you know what your father would do if he saw you six out there again and trying to fight? He would yell at me for one. And for the same thing that I was pretty much just yelling at him for. And second, if it's one thing I know, it's to not go against Goku's wishes when he's in a fighting mood. I pretty much learned that today, but I showed him." Chi-Chi giggled to herself. She was actually kind of proud of herself for that too. She didn't think that she would have been able to bring him down so easily. But she didn't let her guard down, as she was taught, and she didn't give him the time to get himself together. "We're going to hide you in the main building where Kami is waiting for us. So come on and follow me."   
  
Usagi let out a sigh of relief. She had expected her mother to go off on her. She was thankful that Cell wasn't too far away so her mother couldn't totally yell at her. She would have to wait until later. 'Man, I really wanted to fight with Cell. This isn't fair.' She began to follow her mother and friends to the main building. She paused to look at Cell just as she was coming around the corner of the room of spirit and time. 'He's a lot stronger than me but I still want to fight. I can't give up. Dad told me to always try even when I know things aren't going to work out. But, he made me leave because he knew I wouldn't be able to fight Cell. Why?'   
  
Cell smirked as he slowly turned his head to look at Usagi as he held Krillin by the face. Though her fighting power level was quite low, her life energy was higher than before. 'Good, she's got some emotions roaring inside of her.' "Usagi, over here. I was just about to throw this guy over the edge of Kami's lookout. You should come and watch." He looked down at Krillin and laughed. He remembered him quite well. He was the person who was responsible for keeping android 18 safe. "Don't be shy girl. Bring your friends too. I want to show them how to have some REAL fun."   
  
Usagi shook herself out of her thoughts. "Uh-oh. He saw me." She shot a look at her father, who wasn't looking too happy with her. 'Yikes.'  
  
Goku crossed his arms as his mood slowly dropped. Now he wouldn't be able to fight to his full potential. He would have to watch to make sure that the kids were safe. "I though I told you to get out of here. Why didn't you leave?"  
  
Usagi cringed. He was definitely reminding her of her father back home now. "Oops? Uh…I'm sorry?" She looked to her friends and mother, who were looking quite angry with her. All except for Mamoru. He was pleased with her now that he would be able to fight with Cell.  
  
Cell directed his attention to Goku. "Go easy on her. This just releases some of the stress of her having to run when I would have had to have gone and found her and chased her down. Now she is conveniently her for me to take her energy. And besides, I'm not going to do anything to her until you are all out of the way. And after I've completed my business with the room of spirit and time. Speaking of, I need to finish up now. So just a minute." He lifted his arm up and brought it down with intense force, while releasing Krillin, causing him to fall to the ground and reaching a state unconsciousness. He had been though so much already that day that that last fall did it for him. "Humans are such weaklings." He jumped back away from the group of fighters, which stood before him. "Feast your eyes upon this, people." He opened his mouth as the skin around his neck and mouth began expanding.   
  
Minako watched closely as a small slimy black hump began to find its way out of Cell's mouth. "Eww. That's gross." The hump got bigger and bigger as the seconds passed. The hump soon turned into some fat rod looking item with green warts all over it. The slim around it grew more abundant.  
  
Usagi was officially grossed out as she felt like puking right there and then. "What's he doing?" She forced herself to keep looking, though the temptation to turn away was greater than her will to fight this fight. "Just stop it already."   
  
Goku knew what was going one. He and Piccolo both knew actually. Goku had seen it before, when he was still a child. He was fighting an enemy and when he was defeated, he spit out an egg. Much like Cell was doing now. Cell had Piccolo's cells in him and was perfectly capable of performing this technique successfully. "Why are you doing that? You're already powerful as it is? You don't need an accomplice."  
  
Cell spit the egg like item onto the ground and wiped the slime away from his lips. "That's what you think. I need someone just as powerful as I am to deal with all of you. Yet, I can't split anymore. So I shall use the room of spirit and time to let IT fully develop as it takes a year to do so."  
  
Goku wasn't the least bit surprised by this. He knew that Cell had SOMETHING planned for the room. "And you think that we're just going to let you walk right into the room of spirit and time don't you?"  
  
Cell shook his head. "No, I expect that you will put up a fight and I will proceed to put it in there without taking notice of your attacks. Then I will leave and come back at a later time, when it will be more fun for me to kick each and everyone of your asses one by one."  
  
"What about your little 'child' that you just produced? Wont it kill everyone?" Goku hoped that they could destroy that egg before Cell got a chance to put it in.  
  
"No, it will do as it's told. It will keep you people away from me while I'm beating the crap out of you." He bent down and picked up the black egg. It was still slimy and it was kind of squishy. "To think, this thing will hatch and one day be more powerful than you." He smirked as he began to walk forward.  
  
"ATTACK!" Goku lunged out in front of Cell and attacked the egg with all of his power put into one Ki attack. He watched as Cell kept walking, as if his attack meant nothing.  
  
Cell just raised the egg above his head to avoid the attack. "That's not going to do any good, Goku." He said as he kicked his foot back into Goku's side. "Get out of my way."  
  
"Hey ugly! Why don't you fight us without any help. Gees, you're such a whimp. You're all stronger than us and you can't you just fight us alone? Are you that afraid of us?"  
  
Cell dropped the egg, letting it bounce on the ground, and turned around to the voice of Mamoru. "I don't want to deal with all of these annoyances. I want to be able to enjoy beating you all up. I'm not a whimp."  
  
Mamoru snorted. "Says you."  
  
Cell frowned. "Why don't you just keep running your mouth kid. I might hold a bigger grudge against you and be harder on you when it comes time for your beating."  
  
"When it comes time? Why don't you show us what you've got now? Or do you have to retreat because you need a refill of steroids so you can keep LOOKING pumped."  
  
Cell had just about had it with that one. "You dare to insult me? You're going to get it now." He jumped over Usagi and the girls to Mamoru. "You're going to wish that you never talked to me that way." He grabbed him by the throat. "Say your prayers boy because you wont be living for too much longer."  
  
Piccolo jumped just behind Cell. He wasn't about to let his son be killed without a fight. "Get your hands off of him, CELL!" Soon, he was joined by all of his friends, except for Usagi and the others. They were pre-occupied with the egg.  
  
Usagi took her chance to run to the egg that sat just outside the room of spirit and time. She sat down to the ground and lay her herself down, stomach first, and examined it closely as she looked for anything indication that it may be hatching soon. She hoped that it wouldn't. She didn't want any little version of Cell running around to attack her. Who knows how much power it would have contained. "This is really gross." She poked it with her finger only to pull it back with a blob of cold slim covering it. "Yuck."  
  
She sat up when she heard the pounding of her friends' footsteps behind her. "You guys, we need to destroy this before it hatches." She stood up and pointed her hand in its direction. The others stood by her and did the same. "Ready? On thee, One…Two…THREE!"   
  
The five girls each shot an energy beam at the black sticky egg. The light that it was emitting intensified as they upped their power. But the egg had no reaction to the energy that was being thrown upon it. The power just seemed to be sucked into it as if it were nothing.  
  
Makoto was the first to stop. "Guys, this is useless. We aren't going to be able to explode this thing."  
  
Minako pulled back and discontinued her energy flow. "You're right. Doesn't it seem to be a little bigger now than it did just a second ago?"  
  
"Yeah, it looks like it bulged out." Usagi sat back to the ground and poked at it again with her index fingers. The black goo was now hot from their energy attacks. She pressed her finger into it. "This thing feels like rubber." She said as the protective layer pushed in a bit. "It's mushy." She put her right hand fully onto it and pressed in, immediately pulling it back out to reveal a hand print in it. "Eww. Look at that, it's like one of those stress balls." She wiped her hand on the white ground. "That's just nasty."  
  
"Well, what should we do with it?" Minako asked as picked it up. "I wonder how well it bounces." She dropped it to the ground. The egg bounced forward towards the room of spirit and time. Each time it bounce off of the ground, it gained altitude. "Uh-oh. Catch it you guys!"   
  
The girls ran after the ball as it gained height and speed. "Wait up you stupid egg!" Usagi yelled as she ran faster. She didn't know whether she should jump for it or not. She didn't know how high it would go into the air. "Quick! Before it goes into the room!"  
  
Makoto slipped on some of the goo that was left behind from the egg and fell. "Why did they leave the door open?!" She quickly jumped back to her feet and proceeded to chase the item along with her friends.  
  
Rei decided that if they were ever going to catch it before it made its way in, that they were going to have to take action. Which is precisely what she did. She leaped for it while reaching out. She was in luck. She was close enough to wrap her hands around it. "Got it!"  
  
Makoto sped up as she wanted to help Rei with containing the item. "It's slippery. Make sure it doesn't get away!"  
  
"Too late." Rei watched as the egg bounced its way into the room in which they were trying to prevent it from going in. "It slipped right after I caught it." She turned to her friends. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this."  
  
Minako stopped running. "Oh no. I'm sorry you guys. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have tried to bounce it."   
  
"You act like there's no way to reverse this. Come on. All we have to do is go in there and get it out really quick." Usagi didn't waste anytime. She darted into that room and immediately started looking for it. He friends were soon to follow. She would need all the help that she could get.  
  
(Well there's another part out. What did you think? Good or bad? Well, gotta go. Ja~)   



	64. Part 26

Cell smiled to himself as the realization of what the girls had just done finally hit him. They had just chased his egg into the exact place that he had hoped to place it in. He hadn't seen what happened for he was more busy with Mamoru and the others at the moment, but he had as sharp of hearing as Piccolo did. He knew that Piccolo too knew, but that didn't matter. There really was nothing that Piccolo could do at this point. Piccolo was not nearly as fast as he was. "You seem to have a problem on your hands Goku." He turned and gazed upon the room of spirit of time as if it were his only chance at winning this fight.  
  
Goku stopped glaring at Cell and turned his direction to what the monster seemed to be peering at. "What are you talking about?" He scanned the area from top to bottom; looking for the girls but could not find them anywhere. His bones began to ache as his stomach turned inside and out from the eerie feeling that arose within him. 'Wait a minute.' He noted the black goop that lay in the ground. "Where's the egg?"  
  
"You needn't worry about that, Goku. It is in a safe place." Without any further hesitation, Cell leapt backwards and gracefully landed to his feet, facing the room of spirit and time. "Now watch carefully." He jumped back into the air, only this time he had a real destination, the room of spirit and time.   
  
Goku knew immediately what Cell had plotted in his sick sadistic mind. "You wouldn't dare!" Knowing full well that Cell would, Goku jumped out at Cell. His speed wasn't quite enough for that of Cell's.  
  
Cell turned his head to look at Goku and grinned. "Just watch and find out." While still in the air, Cell acted quickly by extending his leg out away from his body towards the door of the room of spirit and time. "Time for those little brats to meet their doom!" His leg crashed into the door with a loud bang that sounded as if a large rolling thunder cloud was just overhead. The force from his leg created a giant indentation of it in the door as it slammed shut, locking the girls inside. He let his body fall to the ground with thud as he was feeling pretty happy with what he had just done.   
  
Goku, on the other hand, wasn't too happy with Cell. After everything that had already happened Cell had managed to make things even worse. His muscles tensed up as his breathing became louder and deeper with anger. Cell was messing with the wrong people now. He would have to learn. "You bastard!"  
  
Cell smiled as he laughed with great arrogance. "You seem to be a bit on the angry side, Goku. What's wrong?" His plans were being carried out as planned. Everyone was as good as dead now. There was no way that he could be stopped. Now that he had an official 'partner' being created, he would be unstoppable. "I'll leave now and come back later. If any of you try to follow me, I'll kill you without hesitation." He turned around and jumped into the air.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Inside the Room of Spirit and Time~~  
  
The girls had just gotten into the room of spirit and time when they were startled by a loud crash that seemed to come from outside. The girls all stopped in the places, allowing the newly created egg to bounce further and further away from them in the opening.   
  
Ami, who was the farthest behind the others, stood in front of the only building that resided in the room of spirit and time. "What was that?" Not knowing what to expect, she slowly turned around and began to walk forward. It didn't take much for her to realize what had just happened. All she had to do was take one step forward and look up and see that there was now a door in front of what used to be an open doorway. "Oh no guys. Come look."   
  
Usagi didn't waste any time at all as she raced past her friends right on into an unsuspecting Ami. Both girls toppled over from a loss of footing. Before either of them had a chance to step back to their feet, Rei arrived on the scene and was immediately frozen by the site of what lay before her. Usagi rubbed her head as she looked up to Rei and saw the look of lost hope in her eyes. "Rei?" She turned her head to look behind her. Her jaw dropped in fear. There was only one person dumb enough to close the door with them in it with such force. "Cell…" Makoto and Minako lightly pushed past Rei to look upon what all the fuss was about. Both were utterly speechless. Usagi stood up while helping Ami back to her feet by pulling on her arms. "Come on. We've gotta get it open!" She let go of Ami's hands and ran to the door. She pressed her body against the door and began to push as hard as she could, but to no avail.   
  
Minako jumped to Usagi's side. "Come on guys, let's help her." She too began to use her full strength as she pushed against the door. But even with her help it was no use. The door wouldn't budge.  
  
Rei, Ami, and Makoto nodded in compliance as they went to help their friends. Though Minako and Usagi couldn't do it alone, there was no telling what they could do when they worked together. Makoto powered up to her fullest power as she pushed harder and harder onto the door. "It wont move. Maybe we should try to blast it open?" She backed up and built up a small green Ki blast.   
  
Ami put her arm out in front of Makoto. "Wait. Let's see what we can do with this first. I want to see if there are any cracks in the door that could help us free ourselves from this room."  
  
Makoto powered down and let her Ki blast dissipate. "I guess you're right. We wouldn't want to blow away all of our chances of getting out of here. But, why wont it open?"  
  
Ami shrugged. "I have no idea. I wonder if it can be opened from the outside." She kneeled to the side of the door and began to examine the hinges. They were all distorted and ripped out of place. "Whoever did this really hit the door hard. Look at all of these cracks in the wall next to the door." She pointed to a numerous amount of cracks that lay in the wall.   
  
Minako walked to where Ami was. "Well, why don't we pull away all of this wall and get out that way?" She definitely didn't want to stay in that room for another year. She had had her fair share of being in there.  
  
Ami didn't find that t o be too bad of an idea. "Ok." She began to pull big chunks of the wall away from its base and threw them to the ground. "Hey look it's working." Piece after piece the wall tore away. She was beginning to get a good feeling about getting out. Then all of a sudden the unexpected happen. She hit a layer that had not been broken in yet. It was a wall made completely of metal. "Uh-oh." She knocked on it, which didn't produce the best sound in the world for them. "Looks like it's not hollow at all. I'd say that there are at least ten layers of metal, iron, steel, you name it, it's in this wall." 'I wonder if they can here me out there. Probably not. Only a few seconds have gone by since this happened.' "I don't think that this will work." She examined the area. The door didn't seem like it could be broken in very easily for the fact that it looked to be planted in very deeply into the side of the wall.   
  
"I still say we should blast it away. That would work, wouldn't it Ami?" Makoto wasn't about to give up. She was determined to get out of that room. She didn't want to imagine being stuck in there for the rest of her life.  
  
"Well, Makoto I don't think that blasting it will work for one reason. And that would be because this room was built to train very heavily in. This should be very hard material that can stand up to a lot of damage and still hold its shape."  
  
Makoto walked to the door and pounded on it. The door let out a large hollow banging sound that seemed to echo throughout the room. "Maybe you're right. But then why would it be destroyed now?"  
  
Ami picked at some of the ruble that lie on the floor. "I think that is because of the intensity that the door was hit by outside. I really don't think that anything like this could be done from in here. There's got to be something outside that is keeping us in here. There's just gotta be. Why else would we not be able to get out of here? And who knows how long we'll be in here before the others get us out. It could be months by our times but only a matter of minutes by there."  
  
"By that time the new Cell will be born and already. It'll kill us. They're going to open up this room and find us dead. This isn't fair! This isn't fair at all!" Usagi walked to the doorway that led out into the giant training room and began to scan the area for Cell's egg. "Where are you? You stupid slime ball!" She stepped out onto the large opening. "I hope it isn't all the way out where we wont be able to find it."  
  
Makoto stepped up besides Usagi and put her hand over her forehead to get a clearer view of the area. "Yeah I know. Who knows how long it'll take for it to get all the way around if it just keeps bouncing forever." She ran out further in hopes to find it stopped somewhere. She ran out even further once she couldn't find it.  
  
Ami dashed out from behind Usagi. She remembered what Goku had told them about what would happen if you were to venture out too far. "Makoto wait! You'll get lost and wont be able to find your way back easily!"  
  
That got the girl in green to stop as she didn't want to waste any energy having to teleport back. It was bad enough that she would have to regenerate energy from the day's wear. "I guess you're right. I wouldn't want to be drained if it came back and hatched." She looked to the ground and let her eyes wander across a trail of black slime. "Hey wait! The slime! It leaves a trail of slime every time it hits the ground. Why don't we just follow it? It'll take less time to follow it then to wait."  
  
Minako let her legs collapse as she fell to the ground. "I'm too tired right now. I want to rest for a little while, while we can. Like you said, who knows when that thing will come back. I want to be plenty rested for it when it does. Can't we just rest for a few days? Please?"  
  
Usagi could agree with that. She wouldn't have minded a nice long rest for a few days. "I'm up for that. I'm so tired. You know, nearly getting killed really makes a person tired. I just want to get into a nice fluffy bed and go to sleep for the rest of my life. I think then I would be the happiest girl in the world." She walked back into the building and looked at the two beds that were placed on the sides and remembered how they would have to share a bed again. Not that the beds were too small for them, she just liked having a lot of room to stretch out when she slept, something that she couldn't do for that past year and a half while living in the past. 'Oh well.' She shrugged off her concern and proceeded to one of the beds. At least with her mother and father gone they could share both beds instead of just one. She rubbed her hands together as she gazed upon one of the beds and smiled as if she hadn't seen a more beautiful site. "Time for a nice LONG rest." She looked to her right at Minako, who had a similar expression on her face.   
  
Ami walked in just as both girls were about to jump into the bed. "Wait!"  
  
Minako and Usagi both turned around as they groaned to the voice of their friend. "What?"  
  
"What if that egg hatches while we're asleep? What if it tries to come and attack us? We can't let our guard down. Not even for sleeping. Something may happen. Someone needs to keep a lookout while the rest of us sleep." She put her hands to her waist as Rei and Makoto joined her. The three of them looked at Usagi and Minako as if they had something plan.  
  
Usagi and Minako turned to look at each other and then back at their friends. Minako opened her mouth to protest. "You can't be talking about me, can you? I can't be a lookout. Not with this low of energy. I'll die for sure. Come on. Usagi is a much better person for the job. She has a lot more power than us. All she got from Cell was thrown to the ground. That's about it."  
  
Usagi's jaw dropped as she glared over in Minako's direction. "You CAN'T be serious! I'm NOT going to be a lookout while all you guys get to sleep. That just isn't fair at all. Think about it. You don't want me to be on the lookout first, especially when I'm THIS tired. Just because dad gave me the Senzu doesn't mean I'm NOT tired from being beaten up. Give me a break. You can think of a better person. Take Rei for example. She's into that psychic type of stuff. She'll know when the enemy is on the attack before it even gets here. Or even Makoto. She can tak…"  
  
"Just shut up Usagi and quit trying to make excuses. You know as well as the rest of us that you have more energy to do this right now. Don't worry, as soon as the first of us wakes up, we'll take your spot. You have nothing to worry about. If that thing does come back then you can wake us up." Rei walked into the room and sat down on the bed, bouncing on it a bit to check its softness.   
  
Minako sat down on the bed, which she was closest too. "When we all wake up we can go see where that slime trail leads to. And then hopefully we can destroy that thing and then worry about finding a way out of here."  
  
Usagi sighed. It was everyone against her. They had all made up their minds that she would be the first lookout whether she liked it or not. They all wanted to sleep. It would be their way or none. "Fine. But you guys owe me big time. I'm going to remember this." She walked to the edge of the building to the doorway and peered out for anything unusual. What was once a safe room to be in was now a new battle ground for them to be protected by them at all costs. She crossed her arms as she leaned against the doorway. She listened as her friends all crawled into the beds, two in each one. She imagined how comfortable they must have been at that moment. She envied them. There they were, in nice warm beds, and there she was, guarding them from evil.   
  
Her eyes became droopy from thinking about resting as she shook her head to keep herself awake. There was no way that she was going to let her friends down by falling asleep. They were trusting her to do her job correctly. But the temptation was too great.  
  
She began to let her mind wander as she gazed out upon the vast amount of nothingness that she was once again faced with. She wondered what would become of them in the coming year. She hoped that they would be able to keep Cell's offspring under control while they were in the room. She wished that they may be able to kill him before he even gained all of his power. But the chances of that happening were very slim. Cell's ideas seemed to evolve more than she could think of ways that the situation could possibly get worse. She also wondered about what the situation was outside the room. They had to have been freaking out by now. Of course, as Ami said, only a few seconds had probably passed by out there.  
  
Things seemed to have taken a turn for the worse and, as usual, it was her fault. She seemed to find fault with everything she had done lately. It had been her fault that she was even in the past. Had she have listened to her father and stayed at Gohan's house, none of this would have happened. She wouldn't be in trouble with her parents. She wouldn't be in trouble with Bulma. She wouldn't have lost some of her family's trust. And then there was what she had just pulled. She had deliberately disobeyed her father yet again by not leaving Kami's tower as she was told. And here she was, stuck in the room of spirit and time with no help what so ever. 'Boy. Maybe I should listen to daddy more often. That's it. From this day forward, I'm going to do exactly what him and mom tell me to do. That way, maybe, hopefully, I wont get myself into so much trouble.' She sat down. Her eyes soon became heavy. She closed them for just a moment, thinking that she wouldn't fall asleep. About a minute later, she was fast asleep and deep in a dream.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Outside~~  
  
Goku rushed to the door, which Cell had just violently kicked in. "What the hell did he do that for?! I bet those kids are scared out of their minds. They haven't come out yet so I'm guessing that they can't because of this damage." He looked upon the damage that was created by Cell. The giant indentation of Cell's leg pretty much collapsed the door in on itself. Well, the outside layer at least. The middle layers looked to still be in tact. "That's an unbreakable door."  
  
Chi-Chi ran up beside her husband as she too began to analyze the damage. "Goku, are we going to be able to get them out of there?" She noted the damage to the side of the door, which even on the outside looked to be shoved into the wall.  
  
Goku shook his head, not knowing quite what to say. He had failed himself. He had promised his future self that he would keep Usagi safe yet here she was inside the room of spirit and time with a monster that will be born in who knows what time. "I honestly don't know. This looks pretty bad. Look at that, the door is crooked, except for the metal parts in the middle. The floor beneath it is caved in from the force. This doesn't look to good."  
  
"Maybe you should try and blast it, Goku." 18 walked to the Saiyan and his wife. "This doesn't look all that tough."  
  
Goku turned to 18, more surprised than ever. He never would have thought that an android would have given him a suggestion on how to save one of his own. "I'm not sure if that would work. If we destroy this door, then there will be no way out. Kami designed this to where if it were to be destroyed on the outside, than it would disappear and no one would ever be able to go in or out. But there is a slight chance that we can blast a small hole through this metal here. It can be made big enough to fit the girls' bodies through."  
  
"That's risky dad." Gohan hoped that his father wouldn't be serious about wanting to do such a task. One little screw up and the girls would be lost forever.   
  
"I know, son. Which is why I'm not going to try it. What we can do is try to get Kami down here to tell us what to do."  
  
"No, Goku. Kami wont know what to do because I don't know what to do. We share a link, remember? There is no way to get that door open without destroying it. I suggest you try opening it with force first, and if that doesn't work, then try blasting the hole in it." Piccolo walked forward to the door as he offered his help to his fellow fighter.  
  
"I'll do the opening with force thing. But I'm not going to try and blast a hole in it. It's too dangerous."  
  
"You're insane Goku. If we can't pull it open then there is no way to get those girls out. They will be lost in there forever since there is no way in or out except for this here door. You're going to have to deal with those facts. So hurry up and let's see if pulling on it works." He placed his hands on the edge of the metal plating as did Goku. "Everyone get over here and help us. If this doesn't work than we are going to blast a hole in it."  
  
Goku frowned. "No we aren't." He would not risk the girls' lives like that. "There has to be a way other than using Ki to get them out. We just have to think. Now everybody pull as hard as you can. I know you're tired but right now this is the most important thing that we could possibly be doing."  
  
"Right dad. On three. One…Two…Three!" The group began pulling at the door as hard as they possibly could. The metal proved to be stronger than all of their combined strength, keeping in mind the fact that most of them lost more than half of their energy while fighting with the clones. The door also seemed to be caught on something, which was making it even harder to complete their task.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Room of Spirit and Time~~  
  
Minako and Rei sat at the table that was in the middle of the living quarters. It had been about a two weeks since they had been locked in against their will and there was still no sign of the egg. They learned not to allow Usagi to be a lookout. Every time that she was, she seemed to fall asleep just a few minutes after they did.   
  
Rei looked up as she heard a noise, which sounded a lot like combined grunts, coming from just outside the damaged door, which was supposed to lead out into the real world. "Hey, do you think they're going to get out now?"  
  
Minako, who also heard it, turned her head to the noise. "I hope so. I don't want to wait around long enough for that gross egg to hatch. How long do you think it's been out there since we've been in here."  
  
Rei shrugged. "You got me. Maybe five minutes or so. I hope they get us out of here soon. I'm so bored with waiting for that stupid thing to come back here. I wonder how long it takes to bounce around the world, gees." She rested her head in her hand as she fiddled with an apple.  
  
Minako yawned of boredom. "I know. I think it may have gone sight seeing or something. But I hope it doesn't get back here anytime soon. Then we wont have to fight it. I just wish we could train for it, but we don't want to wear ourselves out just in case."  
  
"That doesn't mean we can't want to. I wonder where the others are." Rei said as she looked to the doorway that led outside.   
  
'Do you think that thing will ever hatch?'  
  
Rei looked up. "Did you say something Minako?"   
  
Minako shook her head. "Nope. Not one word form me. Are you hearing things now?"  
  
"I'm not sure. I just all of a sudden heard something. I could have sworn it was the voice of Makoto, but, she's not here. You are."  
  
Minako shrugged. "Oh well. This is what happens when you're completely bored. This is what we get to look forward to if we survive Cell's attack. If we never get out of here, we are going to be so bored for the rest of our lives. And to think, I'll never get to go out on a date like all of the older girls do."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Outside~~  
  
The group of fighters pulled away from the door in exhaustion. It was obvious that they weren't going to be able to pull it open by force. Goku kept his eye on Piccolo for he didn't want him to try anything funny with attempting to blast it open. "This could prove to be harder than we originally thought. Cell really jammed that thing in there."  
  
Piccolo jumped back away from the door. "Move out of the way. I'm going to shoot a Ki beam at it and force a hole into the room. If the it's destroyed, oh well. We'll just use the Dragon Balls to revive them." Without waiting for Goku's consent, Piccolo formed a blue Ki beam and fired it onto the door of the room and spirit and time. It was quickly deflected away and hit a pillar instead of its original target. "Who did that?" He looked around. Everyone seemed to be in their same spots as when he fired the beam. Even Goku. Except for one person. And that was his son. He turned his back to his friends to stand face to face with the boy in the black Gi. "What's with you? You never want to protect her. I would have thought that you would be the last person to want to save her."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Well you don't know me all that well, do you father? I don't like Odango very much. But I don't think you should sacrifice her. Isn't the whole reason why we are trying to get that door open because we want to save them? Not so we can lock them in there and then get the Dragon Balls to get them back out again. Where is the logic in that. I never thought I would EVER say this, but I'm going to have to side with Goku on this one, father." He shuddered at the thought of agreeing with a Son.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Room of Spirit and Time~~  
  
One week later…  
  
Usagi and Minako had decided to make a habit of running an average of ten miles everyday just to keep their speed up. While it helped to keep the in shape, it wasn't something that would completely wear them out.   
  
Well, Usagi and Minako were running one day, as they had been for the past week. They ran five miles away from the main building, and then five miles back. So far, they had only gone about a mile away as they had only started out a few moments before. They stopped when they heard a loud squishing noise. Usagi perked her ears to listen better. She could hear things that were far away more clear than Minako due to her Saiyan genes. "Hey, I think that egg is returning now." She looked to Minako.  
  
"We need to warn the others before it gets here." She powered up to her fullest power.  
  
Usagi did the same as she wasn't going to take ANY chances with screwing up with the egg. She didn't know if the organism inside had its full strength by the time it hatched. "Let's go Minako. Full speed to the others." Her senses all of a sudden picked up something familiar nearing them at a rapid pace. "Hey, how do you like that? They're already coming here. They must have known that something was wrong when we raised our power levels. How nice. We don't even have to leave our spots."  
  
"Um…Usagi…" Minako's voice cracked with each of those words as she watched the egg plop down in front of them. It's black slime seemed to spray out everywhere, covering them in a soft blanket of warm goop. "Gross. Get it off of me." Minako grabbed some of it and tried to pull it off of her face, but it was like a rubber. It just wouldn't budge.   
  
Usagi had a similar reaction, only more exaggerated. "EEWWWWW GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" She shook her body as she hoped that it would fly off of her, some did, while a majority of it stuck to her body. "DON'T JUST STAND THERE! ATTACK IT FOR WHAT IT DID TO US! GROSS!" She jumped away from the egg and put her hands in front of her body, which still dripped with the slime that was deposited onto her body.   
  
Rei, who was one of the ones lucky enough not to get hit for she wasn't at the scene yet when it happened, also powered up for an attack. She wasn't about to let that thing hatched. She was just happy that it attacked now. She was getting nervous with anxiety from waiting for it to come. "Now or never girls."  
  
All of the girls took their signal from Rei and began launching of series of their largest Ki attacks onto the blob. None of which seemed to be doing any good. Ami was the first to stop her attacks as everyone else continued. She knew that something was wrong with it. From the moment that it didn't break when Minako dropped it onto the ground she knew that there was something oddly peculiar about that egg. And now, when it wasn't shattering into thousands of pieces, her suspicions rose. "Stop for a minute." Her friends reluctantly complied. "It's not being destroyed. Let's watch it for a minute to see what it does."  
  
As they started to watch the egg, it started to grow. Its size enlarged at an incredible rate. Instead of being the size of a normal Namek egg, it was now the size of a small village. The girls, who were confused at what was happening, began another attack on the egg, only to result in the increasing of the egg's size. They stopped soon after they realized that it was utterly useless. The egg was now the size of a town.  
  
Usagi began to feel fear as her main emotion. She backed away from the egg, which was now about fifty feet taller than her. "Wha…Wha…what's going on…here?" She could barely spit her words out.  
  
"This egg is special. Made of unique power and conductive material, it seems to absorb our powers to grow larger. It's feeding off of our energy. We need to stop our attacks on it now, girls." As many things as Bulma had shown her before, this was the most advanced piece of work that Ami had ever seen. She wished she knew how it worked. That would have given her somewhat of an advantage.  
  
"Well why doest it need to be so big?" Usagi continued to back away, along with Minako.  
  
"I don't know, but look at how it pulsates, it's like it was alive. What is this thing? I thought it was just an egg." Ami wanted badly to go up to the thing and analyze it to find out what was happening with it but was too afraid to get near it. She was glad that she was not the only one afraid to do so.   
  
"Man that's huge." Makoto said as she rubbed her arms from being both nervous and scared.  
  
"And slimy. Look at all the DISGUSTING juice falling of it. And look at me too. I'm just as nasty looking." Minako tried desperately to wipe off the juice that was so rudely sprayed onto her body.  
  
"You're right about it being alive. I sense lots of life energy from it, and hate." Rei had sensed it all along, but now it was an even greater hate. All of the girls turned their attention to the egg as it started to crack open. "There's more than one being more, A LOT MORE."  
  
Ami backed up even more. She didn't want to be in the new Cell's pathway one he arose from his egg. He would be more powerful than before now that he was using their own power. "It's using Piccolo's powers to reproduce, and multiply, with what ever that extras energy was added to it by us. We should destroy it now while we have the chance." The others nodded in compliance. But even as they started to build up for an attack, the egg cracked completely.  
  
To their disgust and with a growing sense of doom, the group of friends saw what was hatched. Two feet and eight inches in height, emerged an exact replica of Cell. Two hundred thousand cells swarmed out of the egg after him before the girls had a chance to react. But they sensed the power level coming from the girls and all of them scattered, remembering their father's words that he had put into their minds.  
  
'You must grow my sons. It will take a year to reach full power, the same level as myself, but when you do, we shall merge and this time WE will rule all. Even My queen will bow to me. With my new power I get from that brat Usagi I will have more power than the queen.'  
  
Rei's psychic senses picked this thought up. Usually she wouldn't have been able to pick it up without effort, but with the same thoughts coming from two hundred thousand minds, it was overwhelming. As Rei began to collapse, Usagi rushed to catch her as she fell, while Makoto began to chase after a clump of the Cells.  
  
(Ok, that's it for this part. Sorry it's out so late. It's finals week and I had A LOT of homework that I had to do. But it stayed up late and pushed to get this part done so I could get it out before I had to go to school. Anyways, this will only go on for a couple more days since the last day of finals is Thursday. YAY! ^_^ so I better be going. Please tell me what you thought. Thanks. Ja Ne)  



	65. Part 27

  
Makoto ran after a group of the Chibi Cells as they ran away from her, not wanting to meet their deaths before they grew to full size. They knew that their father had created so many of them because most would not survive, but each wanted to stay alive as long as possible. Makoto wasn't about to let any of them go. She was hot on their tails when the yelling of her friends behind her. She immediately stopped, hoping that they weren't being under attack. "What is it you guys?" She asked as she turned around. To her relief, they were not under attack, but Rei was still on the ground by with her head in Usagi's lap. "Gees don't scare me like that. I thought you were in trouble. So what's up? I want to start digging into these guys and get as many of them killed as soon as possible before they grow."   
  
  
Ami sat kneeled down next to Rei and put her hand over her heart. She wanted to make sure that it wasn't beating faster than it should. There wasn't anything that they could do to really help her if she got into medical trouble. To her liking, Rei was fine. "Wait a minute Makoto. Rei, are you all right?" It was at times like these that she was glad her mother had begun teaching her about medicine and what to do in case of emergencies.   
  
Rei nodded as she sat up, very dizzy from the overwhelming voices that filled her head. "I'll be ok. I just sensed something from those guys."  
  
Usagi pulled herself away from Rei and sat on her knees. "What? What was it? What did you sense?" Usagi knew that it had to be something bad. It was the same thing that had happened back at the tournament when she and Rei had first met.   
  
Rei turned to Usagi as her arms began to regain feeling in them. "It's those stupid Chibi Cells. As soon as they started to run away I heard their thoughts. It was words that the original Cell put into the minds of these guys right before he spit the egg out. He's planning on stealing your power, Usagi, and not giving it up to his queen. He's going to overthrow even her."  
  
"What? Why? He seemed so devoted to his queen. That's why he wanted my power so badly was so he could give it to her." Usagi stood to her feet as she brushed off some of the sand that was on her Gi.  
  
"It's the power. He wants to be the most powerful being around. I think he thinks with your power he can become that. His power has gone to his head. I've seen it before. Remember how I went to that martial arts school before I met you guys? Well, believe it or not Haruka and Michiru used to be kind of nice before then. They were still kind of bullies before that class, but not as bad as they are now. Once they started learning a lot, they got really bad. Power goes to your head and turns you evil if you let it."  
  
Usagi was still somewhat confused even after listening to what Makoto had to say. "But wait. Why wouldn't Cell just take dad's power? I mean, he's stronger than me now. Why does he still want me?"  
  
Makoto slowly shook her head from side to side in puzzlement. "Who knows. Maybe he's just stupid or something. But that's not exactly important. What is, is getting rid of those Chibi Cells." Makoto crouched back into her fighting stance as she was about to run towards a cluster of Cells.  
  
"Wait, Makoto. We need a plan first. We can't just go and jump in without a plan." Ami rose to her feet as did Rei. She began to think of a plan that would work to rid themselves of all the Cells in less than the time they were going to have to stay in there.  
  
"Ami's right. We can't afford to do that. We would end up loosing. And if it's one thing I've learned, it's to never underestimate your enemy, like I did with Cell."   
  
Makoto and Minako turned and looked at each and nod with agreement. Usagi was right. Something bad would probably happen to them if they didn't have a plan. "What did you have in mind?"  
  
"Well…" Ami didn't even give Usagi a moment to speak, not that she had anything to say anyways. Ami had a small idea of what to do. "We have to stop them all. That much we know. As for keeping ourselves safe, that may be a bit harder to do. We have to fight thousands of them. But we have to do it strategically.  
  
"Meaning…?" Rei was beginning to think of all the things that had taken place in the past few weeks that they had a been in that room. She was thinking about all the times she had heard her friends in her head without them even being around her.  
  
"Their power level is really low right now. But there are so many of them and they've all ran way away from here already. And in all directions. Who knows where they could be now. This place is huge. But maybe that's a good thing. That will give us time to think of something." Minako tried to scope out, in her mind by using her senses, where they could all be. There were so many readings coming in that she could barely keep it up.  
  
"Did you see they way they ran from us? They seem to be afraid of us." Makoto still wished that she could get her hands on them and be tearing them apart by now.  
  
"We have to find them as soon as possible. Preferably once we think of a plan. From what I got from their minds, they are going to be getting stronger each day. The more we destroy in their early stages, the better." Rei knew the horrors of what would happen if they were allowed to reach their full level of power. "I think I may have an idea."  
  
"So do I." Ami added. "We need a place to stay and protection during the time that all of those Chibi Cells are here right?" Ami paused long enough to let her friends nod. She didn't want anything to ruin her concentration so she continued. "So let's make that building back there are base. You know. A place to rest at night since we obviously aren't going to be able to get rid of all of the Cells in one night."  
  
"But what about a guard. Someone will always have to watch the door and warn the others of an attack. It can't be Usagi. You know what happened last time we put her in charge." Minako stated, as everyone turned their attention to their Saiyan friend.  
  
Usagi, who was embarrassed by the fact that she had failed her friends, frowned. "Hey, that wasn't my fault you guys. You knew I was tired. I couldn't help going to sleep like that. It was quiet and I was bored. You can't tell me that you wouldn't have fallen asleep too."  
  
Minako playfully rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know your story. I know I probably would have gone to sleep too if I were you."  
  
"We needn't talk about that right now. And Minako, you're right. We do need someone to watch the door. But I'm afraid that that isn't going to be enough. It will be for now, but that's because they Cells are afraid of us. Once they start overpowering us, they will make their attacks less sporadic and they will never give us time to rest. As of now, with so many of them out there, we are going to have to go separately to get most of them before they grow."  
  
So far the plan sounded good. They were all strong enough to fight by themselves, but Makoto still had her doubts about the whole situation. "But they grow in power as they grow up. What will we do when we can't take them on by ourselves? They will be way too much for us."  
  
"I think that's where my idea may be of some help." Everyone diverted their attention over to Rei, who now spoke. "Lately I've been sensing things from everyone here, hearing you speak but you weren't anywhere around me. But it wasn't just silly conversation I was hearing. It was all about Cell. The first time I really heard someone else was when we were first fighting Cell and Usagi called for help. It was strange. I was still on Kami's lookout when I heard it and Usagi was already on the battle field." She looked around to her friends' faces and could tell that something was bothering them. "What's wrong, guys?"  
  
Usagi looked to the ground. "Well, something like that happened to me the other day. I heard you talking about wanting to get this deal with Cell over with as soon as you could. And that you wanted to go home as soon as it was over."  
  
Rei wasn't surprised at that. She had a feeling that she wasn't the only one with this new ability that they had somehow acquired. "Have you guys experienced this too?" The other three of her friends nod. "I'm not sure , but I think when we helped Usagi when she first got her new power and lost control, we bonded. I remember felling quite strange myself that day. When I got really angry with Goku for hurting her I felt an even stronger connection to her. Like we were soul sisters. But not only Usagi, when we attacked Goku, I felt the same connection to you all."  
  
"Wait a minute, remember when you tried to comfort me after I started freaking out? Well, I felt a strange power besides my own. It scared me, so I resisted it. I thought you were all in on it too because it was a big power. Larger than my own. What do you think it was?"  
  
"Maybe it was a symbol of our friendship?"  
  
"Not sure Minako, but I'm sure it had something to do with that. Kind of like severe passion for something. And at that point it was beating the enemy and saving Usagi. We were certain that our lives depended on the defeat of Goku." Rei looked over to Usagi, who seemed to be cringing at the memories that had been surfaced. They hadn't really spoken of that day since it happened. They didn't want to upset her anymore than she already had been. "I'm sorry Usagi. I know this is hard for you."  
  
Usagi released her anger. "It's not that. Well…it is sort of. But not only that. It's just that…that…well…it's nothing. Never mind."  
  
Rei could feel the mixed emotions of Usagi but decided not to say anything as she didn't want to offend her by doubting her. "I think that if we concentrate hard enough we can make this bond happen. If we join hands we may be able to communicate to each other through thoughts when we are in danger. That way, we can come to each other's aid when another is down."  
  
"But what good would that do? We still need to rest but they wont let us." Makoto said as she continued to stay in her fighting stance just in case anything were to attack them at that moment.   
  
Minako held out a small brown sack. "Well I have the Senzu beans that Chi-Chi gave me right before we ran to the egg, Usagi. She got them from your dad. But there are only five left."  
  
Ami thought further about the situation that they were in. "That wont work. There are only five. That wont last very long once they become more powerful. Somehow, we need to make this place inaccessible to the Chibi Cells so we can sleep when our energy is low from fighting."  
  
Makoto smiled as an idea hit her in the head. "I have an idea. I was trying like Usagi to make a new power, and thought of our KI aura. I thought maybe we could make that into a shield, you know harden it. I've been working on it, but I don't seem to be making any progress with it. It's just too hard. Hardening a Ki isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. I don't even know how to go about doing it. I was mainly experimenting with it."  
  
"That sounds like a good idea. But it would take A LOT of energy to do. I mean, hardening a Ki aura is not your everyday thing. Plus, it would take all of your power just to make the shield strong enough to hold up to an enemy stronger than you. But if we got the bond to work, we can work on it together and maybe find a way to harden it into a permanent shield we can place around this place so we can actually get some sleep. All of our power put together should be strong enough to hold those things off until we can get rid of them." Rei couldn't wait to try and make the bond work. It would be something spectacular if they could. They would be able to know if the other was in trouble. Though even it would take up quite a bit of energy so sending random messages out to each other would be out of the question. They would have to wait until it was an emergency to do that. "I'm just not sure how we should go about trying to figure out how to make this bond thing work. If we can get it too work, then we can pass on all our knowledge of fighting to each other all at once, hopefully. This way Ami and I can catch up to you. Maybe not physically as you had training, but fighting knowledge will still be helpful."  
  
"And I can teach you my school knowledge." Ami was interrupted by the groaning of her friends. She knew that would happen once she mentioned that. "And my strategies on fighting and analyzing. We will become better fighters in the long run. But like Rei said, who knows if it will even work. It would be nice if it did."  
  
Usagi nodded. She couldn't wait to get started. "Right, but mostly we need the shields, so lets get started. We can't waste much more time. Follow me." She turned around and walked back to the building, which they all hoped would become their base, their only protection from the miniature Cells.  
  
All of the girls soon followed Usagi with the same hopes that she had of making this work. When they were all at their destination, they faced each other and sat down in unison, forming a circle of friends. Each one looked as nervous as the next as they looked to Rei for directions.   
  
Rei took a deep breath in as she cleared her mind, just as she would whenever she performed her ritual with fire. "Ok, now, clear your minds of everything except for Cell. We must concentrate on overpowering him. That seems to be the link between our bonding. The need to strike back to save ourselves." The girls did as they were told and cleared their minds of their thoughts and worries. Each put their hands out to their side, grabbing the hand that was on their left and right. They all began to raise their Ki levels as they thought that it may help.  
  
They had much difficulty at first. They were having problems merging their thoughts together as they tired to do it with their own body power instead of their minds, instead of their friendship power. But they soon started to use some of the same techniques as when they merged their Ki attacks and a small aura, mixed with all of their colors, formed around their bodies. Though this was only the beginning. This was the easy part. The hard part would be how to figure out how they would harden this aura, which seemed to the same power that they all felt the day that Usagi had fallen from her power.  
  
As their thoughts started wander into the minds of their friends, each and every one of them began to have doubts about what they were doing. They were becoming scared at the thought of finding out what the others really thought about them. They were afraid of what they may have seen in the others' thoughts.  
  
Ami had been a little afraid that the bookworm remarks that Usagi had used when referring to her and Gohan might have been insults. But she soon realized that they were compliments. She found that Usagi only teased her and her brother because of the admiration that Usagi had for them. She wished that she could be as smart as Ami and Gohan, but knew it would never happen. She just didn't have the will to learn as they did.  
  
The others had similar fears, but were relieved that the friendship that they had was true. They each found that they had nothing to fear at all as not one of them hated another. There was only love in their hearts. This relief was the last obstacle that had been stalling the formation of the bond as they had all been holding back from their fears. Once their fears had disappeared, the bond went more smoothly and fast.  
  
Once the bond was completely formed, the girls released hands and dropped to their backs, panting from all of the work that had just been fulfilled. Usagi closed her eyes as she thought about what just happened. She had seen into the minds of her friends and found not one temptation for them to ever make fun of her. While the other kids at school pretty much didn't say anything to make fun of her out of fear, her friends didn't say anything at all because that's what they were, friends. "You guys are the best." Yet, she also heard the doubts that everyone had about the Cell situation. Doubts that she had had too. "Can we see into each others minds like that without holding hands?" Her friends shrugged as she concentrated to search Minako's thoughts, but nothing happened. "I guess not. Why wont it work now?"  
  
Rei sat up and looked to Usagi in confusion. "I don't understand. It work just a moment ago. Here just a minute." She put her hands to her temples as she closed her eyes and began to try and transmit a message to her friends. Her body was overtaken with a soft ruby red aura as she concentrated harder. 'Is this reaching anyone?'  
  
Makoto was the first to answer as she performed the same movements as Rei. Only her body was taken up by a soft emerald aura. 'Yeah. But why does it hurt to do this?' She asked as an aching sensation made its way through her head and down into her torso. She pulled her hands away from her temple and opened her eyes to look at Rei, who seemed just as puzzled as she was.   
  
"I'm not sure. Maybe because we aren't holding hands and we aren't all concentrating fully on the same thing. I know it worked when you had severe passion of what you were talking about. Maybe we just have to learn to master it."  
  
Usagi sighed. "So much to do, so little time."  
  
Rei let herself drop back to lay down. "Too true Usagi. Too true. But we can't stop here. Now we have to figure out how to make this thing a fort. You know what that means. We have to use more energy to do that though." She paused long enough to let her friends groan. "I know, I know. But hopefully we can get to the point where it doesn't use too much energy to make the shield." She turned to Usagi. "Go Super Saiyan so it has more power."  
  
Usagi did as Rei told her and powered up in a blink of an eye. "How are we supposed to do this?"  
  
"I have no idea." She turned to Makoto who appeared to be deep in thought. "How have you been trying?"  
  
"Well, I've tried it a few different ways. The most effective way I've tried so far is this. Think of your Ki as an inner shell. Once that is done, try and move that energy outside your body. That's what the hard part is. I haven't figured that out yet."  
  
"But wait a minute. How are we supposed to use this to barricade our little 'base'?" Minako asked as she tried to think of her Ki as a shield. Though it was proving to be harder than it sounded.  
  
"Couldn't we just do what I did with my attack? Remember how that stunning attack started out as just something I could do with a touch? I changed it a little bit to make it into an attack that could be fired. Maybe if we could some how make the shield thing something to fire it would work." Usagi would probably end up being the one trying to figure out how to make it an attack that could be shot since she seemed to be the expert out of all of them on how to make attacks.  
  
"How could that work, Usagi? Not that I'm trying to contradict you or anything, but if we did find a way to shoot it after we've hardened it, how could it convert itself onto its target? Wouldn't it bounce off or be destroyed since its already hard?" Sometimes Ami hated being smart. She hated to be the one always bringing down to hopes of others by pointing out flaws. Normally, she would try her hardest not to point things out to her friends as she didn't want to make them feel stupid, but with something like this, it was imperative that they did this exactly right.   
  
Usagi thought for a moment. "Well maybe we could use the basic theme of my attack then. We could bring out these 'shields' directly onto our target instead of around our bodies. That way it would stay there, wouldn't it?"  
  
"Getting those brain cells working in there aren't we Usagi?" Rei playfully giggled as she patted Usagi on the shoulder.  
  
Usagi gave a quick glare over to Rei, but her glare quickly turned into a smile as she knew that she was only joking. "Hey, I'm not stupid all the time. I can be smart when I want to be."  
  
"You keep telling yourself that, Usagi, and it may just come true." Rei wrapped her arm around Usagi's neck and laughed harder. She could see the annoyance in her fellow fighter's eyes. "I'm sorry. I just couldn't resist that one."  
  
"Uh-huh. You just watch yourself Rei and one of these days I'll think of something to say back to you."  
  
"Yeah, sure you will Usagi. Let's not get into this right now though. We need to get back to business. I think we should try that shield thing."  
  
"Together? While holding hands to do the bonding thing?"  
  
"Yes, Usagi. Kind of like how we do the combi…" Rei stopped to think about what she was going to say and got a brilliant idea. "This is perfect girls. I forgot all about the combined attack. If we use that now, we can beat Cell in a heart beat."  
  
Usagi's face was consumed by a gleaming smile. "That's right. Now that we can send messages to each other, we should be able to do it."  
  
Ami shook her head back and forth in a gentle disagreeing manner. "That may not work right now. Remember, right now it takes energy to send messages. We don't know if it's because we aren't used to it or what, but it still takes energy none the less. The point to doing it in different areas of the battle field was to make it unobvious to the enemy what we were doing. But with the energy being raised, they will know for sure what we are doing and where we are. So scratch that. As for performing the shield thing like the original combined attack, that could actually work. I think we should try it." Ami proceeded to walk to the door of their so called base that would soon be theirs.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Once the girls were at their destination, they stood close together, hand in hand with one another with Usagi on the left outer edge, and Minako and the right outer edge. Those would transmit their friend's energy into the attack through their own bodies, which was the reason why they were hand in hand in the first place. They would be able to freely send thoughts and power through their bond. Sort of like Goku had done with Krillin when Vejita and Nappa were attacking the earth.   
  
Usagi, still Super Saiyan, held her hand to their new base and closed her eyes. "Ready, everyone try to harden your Ki like Makoto said." Usagi did this along the same lines in which her brother had taught her to use Ki. He taught her to build it up in one part of her body and then try and concentrate it around. Well, this time she concentrated it in her body, as usual, and changed it a bit. Instead of it moving within her, she tried to make it into a block, basically, freeze it in its place. She found it to be quite difficult as it didn't want to cooperate with her. It didn't help that she also had the power of Makoto and Ami pulsing into her body. Luckily Minako had Rei's power. But Usagi pressed on, unwilling to give up. Soon her persistence was rewarded with success of a sort. She had gotten it to turn rubbery, not completely hard, but good enough for the time being. Cell's offspring would not be strong enough to penetrate this shield. They would have to keep practicing and perfect it later when the Cells grew stronger.  
  
With Usagi figuring out how to do this, she was ready to place the power onto their fort. But she needed to transmit the information to Minako before she did that. So that's precisely what she did. She told her what to do and how to do it. She then proceeded to tell her how to make it come out of her body. As she had said before, Usagi was just going to use the same technique that she had used when making her own attack. She hoped it would work. 'They have to be placed on at the same time or else it wont work. Just like we found out when we were practicing with mom. Ready? On three. One…two…three." Two large auras of all different colors formed in Minako and Usagi's hands. Without wasting time, for if they had the Ki's would have hardened before used, the two fighters began to submit their energy onto their fort. 'It's working.'   
  
The five girls stood in awe as they pulled away and watched their power work. The now pure pink energy made its way around the building without any further interruption from Usagi and Minako. It reached from top to bottom with no holes in it. It was a power stronger than even Goku's power. Much like their combined attack was. It covered every inch of the building so nothing could penetrate it.   
  
Minako took a step back and gawked over their creation. She had never thought that it would work. She had tried so many times on her own to do this, yet, when they all worked together it worked. "Teamwork is the best way to go. I don't care what your dad says Usagi. We are going to find a way to make the combined attack work. This is going to be great. Cell will pay and so will his children."  
  
"Speaking of the little devils, where are they? I believe it's time for play now that we have the work done." Makoto hopped into the air and tried sensing for any Cells that may be around. 'I think I've found you, you little buggers.' "See you later. I'm off to fight some stupid little black bug wanna be's. Call if you need anything." She grinned as she flew off to her fight, which she had been waiting for, for weeks now.  
  
Usagi didn't take her eyes off of the shield, which had just been produced. "I wonder if this will stand up to those things' power." She put her hand out in front of her chest and began forming a small Ki blast. "Let's see if it works or if we just wasted all of our time." Minako, Rei, and Ami all jumped out of the way as they didn't want to be hit with any of the shield's power if it were to fail when Usagi's energy ball made contact with it.   
  
"Here goes nothing." She released her energy attack with great speed and power. She wanted to use her full power so she would know just WHAT it could stand up to and how long it would last. She watched as the silver attack spiraled towards the target. "Look, it's about to hit." She smiled as the attack hit the pink shield. It made a ripple of waves in it and stayed there for a few seconds, appearing to be doing nothing at all. But then all of a sudden it came rushing back at Usagi with a greater force than she had fired it with. "Whoa!" She jumped into the air to barely dodge being hit by it. She swiftly turned her head behind her to look at where it was going. It didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon. "That was awesome." She looked to her friends, who stood with their mouths opened and looked completely shocked. "I hope it hits a bunch of those stupid Cells. That would be so cool." She giggled at the thought of that. In her mind, she imagined a group of them just walking around and minding their own business when all of a sudden, out of no where, a giant silver Ki blast came tumbling at them with greater speed than they could dodge and they were hit as if they were just a bunch of bowling pins. "I hope that happens." She lowered herself to the ground, as did her other three friends.  
  
Minako tried to locate the energy ball that was on the run, but it was even moving too fast for her to detect. She would catch it in her senses every now and then, but it would quickly disappear again. "Looks like it's still going." She smiled when Usagi did. "So how are WE supposed to get in?"  
  
Ami actually had an answer for that. She thought of it before they had even created the shield. "Simple. We teleport." She pressed her fingers to her forehead and was soon inside their new shelter.   
  
Minako hit herself on the side of the head as she felt dumb. "Duh. I should have known that."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto flew as fast as she could to a group of Cells. They seemed to be resting for something. They were probably resting so they could attack her and her friends while they weren't watching. Well, they would learn what would happen when that happened. They wouldn't be able to touch them now that they had a shield. She looked to her left and to her right. There had to be at least 300 of the little critters in the area. 'Time to meet your doom.' She rubbed her hands together as she thought of ways to rid herself of the nuisances. 'He, he, he.' She lowered herself to the ground, knowing full well that they would all see her if she did. But she wasn't worried. She was sitting at a higher power level than them at the moment. "Hey boys. Wanna play with me? I'm really bored and I need something to do."  
  
With their numbers as high as they were, not a single one of her foes were afraid of her. She was one, they were many. She would not be able to do any harm to them. She would go down, just as their father had instructed them to do. "We will not fail." They all said in unison, which completely freaked Makoto out.  
  
"Yeah right." She took a small step backwards as they walked towards her with their arms extended out in front of them. 'Wait a minute, why am I backing down? They can't hurt me unless I make a mistake. So, I wont make a mistake. At least, I'll try not to.' "Bring it on." She crouched to a fighting stance. Just as she did though, Usagi's Silver Ki attack came crashing over her head straight on into the crowd of Cells, immediately killing all of the 100 that lay in its path and injuring many of the others.   
  
Makoto stood up in confusion as she rubbed her wrists. "What was that?" She looked onto the dead enemies that SHE was supposed to kill. Not anyone else. Though she had recognized the energy signature of the attack. "USAGI YOU KILLED A THIRD OF THE CELLS I WAS SUPPOSED TO!"  
  
(Ok, there's that part. What'd ya think? Good or bad? Anyways, guess what, guess what, guess what? I just finished my LAST homework assignment of the year. You know what that means right? Right? I think you do. So now I'm officially retiring myself from school for the summer, except I still have to go tomorrow and Monday, but oh well. Well gotta go. Ja. ^_^ )  



	66. Part 28

(Ok, I have to change my Pen name due to my parents getting kind of nosy with my business here. So I'm telling you now just so you know. It's going to be Kichigai Joshi, which means Crazy girl in Japanese. (Onanoko was too long for girl so I used the other word for it) It's close enough to dizzychick, I guess. Not that I want to change my name, but oh well. I gotta do what I gotta do. Sorry about the inconvinence. Anuways, I'll leave you alone now. By for now.)  
  
~~Room of Spirit and Time~~  
  
Ten days have passed since the girls figured out a way to keep the miniature Cells from attacking them while they are resting or devising a plan. Their energy shield so far has been holding up to the Cells. Each time it is fired upon, however, the attack was bounced back to them by the shield just as Usagi's was when she first tested it out. Thus, badly injuring the attackers. After a few days, though, the tiny Cells began to learn not to attack the girls' base. It would only end in chaos. Even though the Cells would live after their own attacks backfired, the girls were not about to let them just walk away. They would teleport themselves out of their base and kill the Cells, ridding themselves of the annoyances.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi lay in bed as she rested from a hard day of killing off hundreds of enemies who thought that it was their job to ambush her. Day after day the same thing happened. She would wake up, eat, and then go out to eliminate as many Cells as she could. They gained power little by little each day but they were still quite easy to beat as they hadn't gained quite enough power to beat her yet. Though, her friends were starting to seem to have a problem with fighting them off. They could still handle themselves alone, but they came in with more cuts and open wounds.  
  
She sighed as she turned onto her side and looked over to her sleeping friend, Minako, who was in the bed across the room from her. Both of them had come in from fighting not three hours before then. Ami, Makoto, and Rei were still out fighting.   
  
She lazily sat up and looked at the clock the hung over the door that was broken in. The only thing that was even keeping them in the room of spirit and time. 'I've only been resting here for only three hours?' She turned to look at the door that led out into the Cell infested world that, which was covered by a soft pink aura of power. 'I'm tired, but why can't I sleep?' She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and looked over to her tail as she felt some of the fur on it stiffen. 'Why am I getting the feeling that something is going on?' She stood up, ignoring the fact that her tail was now completely stiff.   
  
Usagi got a chill down her spine as she hopped out of the bed and crept to the door of their base to see if there was anything happening outside. She couldn't feel anyone's power level as the shield stopped even their own senses from reaching the outside world. All she could sense was the shield itself. She grabbed her arms with her hands as she slowly peered out into the open fighting land. Things were not at all as they should have been. It was too quiet. Normally, fighting could be heard inside the fort. But there was nothing. It was utterly quite. 'This is starting to give me the creeps.' She stepped even closer to get a better look.  
  
'Help!'  
  
"Rei?" All of a sudden something red crashed into the shield that protected her, causing Usagi to scream and jump back. "What was that?" She was in her fighting stance, ready for anything. Her eyes looked to the top of the doorway to see nothing. She slowly moved her eyes down until they reached five beings. Four foes and one ally. "REI!" She swung around and ran to Minako, who was already wakened up by Usagi's first scream. "Minako! Minako! We have to help them!" She panicked as she stumbled over her own feet while running back to the doorway after she saw that Minako was getting out of bed.   
  
Rei slightly moved her head enough to move her eyes to where she could see Usagi behind the shield ready to teleport to her aid. She then closed her eyes and began to concentrate. 'Don't come out here. You're drained right now. We'll be ok.' She winced as her message to Usagi took more of her much need energy.  
  
Minako bolted to Usagi's side. She gazed down to Rei who was being batted around by the miniature Cells as if she were a soccer ball. "What's wrong with her? Why doesn't she want us to help her? Where are Makoto and Ami?" She turned her head away as she couldn't stand to watch her friend be beaten any longer.  
  
"I don't know. I wish we could feel their energy. I don't know why Rei is loosing like this. They didn't beat you when you were fighting, Minako. It doesn't make sense." Usagi had to basically force herself to not teleport out there. But, she made a deal with herself. If no help arrived in a couple of minutes, she would go out there and help. She didn't care what Rei would say. She wasn't about to let her friend die such a violent death.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"HEY!" A voice echoed throughout the area. The person of which the voice belonged to stepped forward. "What do you think you're doing, you creep!" The person revealed herself as Ami, who looked more angry than ever. "How does hitting a person while they're down dignify you?" She paused as the Cells turned their heads to look at the girl in blue. The failed to say anything in time for her to start up again. "I see you have no answer. Well that's good because it doesn't dignify you. It just shows how much of a coward you are. You want to finish the threat off while you can."  
  
One of the Cells stood up and decided to speak for the whole group. "What are you talking about? You are no longer a threat to us. Especially you. You are the weakest of them all." He and his friends laughed as he turned back to Rei, who was on the brink of becoming unconscious.   
  
"I may not be as strong as the others, but that doesn't matter, does it? I have skill in other areas, which makes me a better overall fighter. So why don't you fight me!?"  
  
"And me!" Makoto flew to the action, leading a pack of more Cells behind her. "Choose your enemies and do it fast." She stopped abruptly and turned to the Cells behind her. She out over the far reaches of the room of spirit and time, collecting all of the Cells that she could find. Taunting them to get them to follow. Once she felt the increase in their power she knew that they would want to fight. She knew that they would get cocky. Now would be the best time to kill them off since their power would obviously not stay the same. "Let's go guys. I can take you on by myself. Me and Ami can do it."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi watched in horror as the Cells just kept coming and coming. "Minako, I think we should get out there and help them now. They're going to need it."  
  
Minako nodded. "Right. Let's go!" Both fighters performed their teleportation technique and joined their friends out in the fight that would not be an easy one to win. They would have to really fight for it instead of shoving it off and not really pay attention to what they were doing.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto flew to the side. Hundreds of the Cells followed her. 'Was this a bad idea? This many of them wanting to kill me may not be an easy thing to do. Maybe we should fight as a group. But they wont let us. Uh-oh.' She didn't let her thoughts get into her emotions as she didn't want to loose her concentration. 'Well if we get through this it will be good practice, I guess. What am I saying, if? We WILL get through this.' "Come on COWARDS! You've been hiding for days and now you've finally decided to come out! Let's get some action here!" She looked down to the ground to see Rei trying to regain her composure. 'She needs to get out of there.' Her attention was turned to Usagi and Minako, who appeared at Rei's side. They acted as body guards for her. 'I hope they can help her out.'   
  
Her thoughts were interrupted by a disc of energy flying past her face, barely missing contact with her. 'Yikes.' She turned her attention back to her enemies, who didn't look too happy with her. "What? Did I upset you because I didn't start kicking your butts? I'm sorry, would you like me to do that now? I mean, I will if you want." She scanned her eyes across the group and noted their changes in height.   
  
"Shut up, girl. You are no match for us. We are stronger than you now. There is no way that you will be able to defend against so many of us. Your days of victory end here. We will kill your four, and take the blonde girl captive, as our father instructed before we were made."   
  
Makoto watched, half in horror, as her foes took to their fighting stances. "Are you going to be so unfair as to attack me all at once." She didn't get an answer. Not only did they seem to have gotten more power in a matter of a few hours, but they were also more arrogant. "Fine. It doesn't matter. We can beat you with our combined powers."   
  
What appeared to be the leader crossed his arms and smirked. "Do you actually think that you will be able to over power us? We will just keep coming back even stronger and stronger. We will grow stronger every day. Do you wish to know how we even became this strong in such a short time?" He didn't wait for a reply as he knew that she would be curious. "We have found a way to extract the energy that was left over in out brothers' bodies by absorbing them into our bodies. So it is no use. The more you kill, the more powerful we become. It really is a wonderful thing."  
  
Makoto looked down to the ground once again to see everyone, including the Cells, looking up into the sky, listening to their conversation. She looked back to the group in front of her. "You just don't know when to stop, do you?" There came no answer from the other party. "Fine."   
  
With no further words spoken from either group, Makoto began her attack. She started out with a cluster of Ki attacks as she heard her friends start their attacks below, too. She made sure that she didn't get any closer to her foes than 50 feet. She didn't want to be close enough for them to launch their own attacks and have a good hit on her. She couldn't afford anymore energy loss than what she was putting out.   
  
Soon, a cloud of dust covered the group of Cells. Makoto could no longer see any of them. But she could sense them easily. And what she was sensing was not something that she wanted to. They weren't really being hurt by her attacks. They were, but not enough to do much damage. At the rate that they were being affected by her attacks, she would have to use all of her energy at once in the form of one attack just to kill maybe the first couple of rows. The rest would still be alive and well enough to strike back. 'Maybe I should try to get down to the girls.' She looked down to the ground for a good spot to land. 'There.' She looked back her foes, who were approaching her with great speed. "See ya!" She discontinued her energy in her body and immediately began falling down to the ground in the style that Vejita first taught Usagi.   
  
One of the Cells left the group and followed Makoto to the ground. He flew faster than she fell. "Hey kid! Watch yourself!" He reached out and grabbed her by her ponytail.  
  
"AHOWWW! HELP!" She kicked her feet around, hoping that she could swing free, as she lifted her hands and dug her nails into the wrist of her attacker.  
  
Usagi, now Super Saiyan, looked up from her fight, which she was currently winning. She glared at the being who was holding Rei in place while dozens of the others kicked at her dangling body. "You JERKS!" She blasted one last Cell in the face before leaping into the air and going to Makoto's aid. "Get away from her!" She pulled back both of her arms as far as she could.  
  
"Usagi! Behind you!" Makoto pointed to the heard of Cells that tried to creep up behind Usagi as she continued to struggle free of her enemy's grip.   
  
Usagi was already one step ahead of everyone though. She fully sensed the attack being formed behind her back. She wasn't about to let them go through with it though. She flew further up into the sky and performed a backward flip to be facing in the direction of her opponents. They hadn't quite been ready for her speed as they had never encountered her before. Usually any one of their people that did would die before telling others of her power. She did this for a reason. She didn't want any of them to be prepared for her. "If you ever think you can beat us, you're wrong!" She would not accept their assault on any of her friends. They would all pay, sooner or later. She didn't give her opponent a change to comprehend what was going on. Her goal was not to put them into awe over her power. "Say buh-bye now." She pulled her hands to her side. She wanted a fast and easy attack that would take out everyone in a wide area. "Ka-Me-Ha-Me-Ha!" She threw her hands back out in front of her, only this time she had a Ki blast in them to send to everyone down below her. "Try that on for size, guys."   
  
Usagi turned back to Makoto before her last victims were even destroyed. She had faith that they would be gone within a few seconds. "Your turn." She grinned as the looks on their faces turned into that of a horrified person. "Scared? Why? I wouldn't be doing this if you would just leave us alone." She felt the sudden absence of power levels in the area. "Looks like your friends are gone."  
  
"Yes, but their death will not be in vain. Our brothers down there will absorb them for their power and get stronger. The more you kill, the more powerful we become. Have I not already stated that?" He released his hold on Makoto and let her fall into the hands on one of his brothers. "I wish to for you to sit this out."  
  
Usagi nearly burst out laughing at that one. "Are you nuts? I'm NOT sitting this one out. You're just afraid that I'm going to beat you all today. I'm not going to let you beat up my friends. Not in a million years. Anyone who tries ANYTHING is going to get it, big time. I don't care how, but I will defeat each and every one of you." She all of a sudden felt and increase of power below her. 'Uh-Oh. I should cut back on killing these guys. But if I do that, then they will live and kill us. Anyway we go about this, it's going to turn out bad.'   
  
"We can't do that, little Usagi." 100 more Cells rose up to Usagi's altitude. "We're just getting started." The all laughed as Usagi turned around.   
  
Usagi frowned. "What do you creeps want?" She didn't know how much longer she would be able to hold up against them. If she continued to kill them they would gain more power than her in a day. On the other hand, if they were to retreat now, they would be able to devise a plan to strike back against them all without having to worry about them getting more power. They would gain power everyday as they grew older, but not as fast as they would if they absorbed each other.   
  
She looked down to Makoto, keeping her senses on her enemies. Makoto didn't look all that hurt, even though she was in the arms of one of the Cells. She had been through worse. Especially with the hair pulling contest they used to have when they were younger. Makoto should have been used to it by then. But there was the still the question of Rei, Ami, and Minako. They had all ventured away from the base with their fights. Usagi could still feel them, but their power was being trampled over by the Cells. "Why don't you just release her? You know I can come down there and kick you away from her any day, right? Why don't you make it easier on yourself and just let go."  
  
The Cell smirked. "Like I'm going to fall for that. Your friend will be out of harms reach and then you're going to kill me, right? Yeah right. I think I'll just hold onto your little friend. That way you can't do anything to me." He tightened his grip around Makoto's arms.  
  
Usagi shook her head in disgust. "I can come down there and kill you even WITH Makoto there. I'm just being nice."  
  
"Right little girl. Right."  
  
"I am." She frowned. "Fine. Be that way." He obviously wasn't going to let Makoto go. She pressed her fingers to her forehead and teleported to the space just behind him, in between him and another Cell. Without saying a word to either, she karate chopped at both of them, hitting one in the chest and the other back. "I told you I wouldn't kill you." She didn't hit either of them hard enough to kill them as she didn't want any of the others to gain their power. She wanted to talk over some plans with the others first.  
  
"Hey, hey, hey. Kid, what's that behind your back?" One of the Cells with more power jumped behind Usagi and grabbed her tail, which she had failed to tuck securely under her Gi before she entered the fight.   
  
Usagi curled up from severe pain racing around her body. 'I'm such an idiot. Why did I forget that? Daddy told me to always keep it away from the enemy.' "OOOOOWWWWWE!!!" She couldn't help but scream out in pain.   
  
The Cell who held onto her tail laughed out. "Hey guys, this is the kid's weakness. I say we kill her friends while we have her in our hold since we can't kill her." He held her upside down by her tail as he pulled her up to his face. "Even though I think we should since she already killed so many of our brothers." He poked at Usagi's stiff body. She didn't seem to feel it at all. "Heh, you're not so tough when your tail is held. In fact, you're kinda cute."  
  
"Don't go soft on us now. We still have a mission to complete. You hold her. We'll take care of this other kid who thinks she can beat us."   
  
Makoto looked in straight, to her left, to her right, and then behind her to see that she was completely encircled by hundreds of Cells. She gulped as she made sure that she was in the direct center of the circle, as far away from any of them as possible. She could no longer feel any of Usagi's energy. It was completely drained down to her normal life energy, which was not exactly the best thing in the world. She knew that this was probably what was happening to the others. But there was only one way to go through a situation like this. And that would be to go through it doing your best and no worry about outcomes. Just worry about staying alive. She prepared for the fight of her life.  
  
Usagi found that she couldn't move at all. This had been the longest that she had ever lost energy due to having her tail being pulled. She didn't know how much longer she would be able to stand it. 'What kind of a weakness is this anyways? Why does it have to be the tail?' "Re…tre…at."   
  
"Huh?" Makoto lost her concentration as her attention was directed back to Usagi.   
  
"RETREAT!"  
  
"Not without you I'm not!" She turned back to her opponents as they began to come at her, full speed. "Whoa!" She couldn't even dodge them coming at her. With the near hundred who got major power ups from the Cells that Usagi killed, they were too much for her. They all jumped onto her as if she had the ball in a game of football and was just standing there with it. 'A little help guys!'   
  
~*~*~  
  
Ami had a similar problem. Each Cell that she had killed only produced a stronger one. She had done what Usagi had and just resorted to not killing any more. But before she had a chance to teleport back to base she was bombarded with attacks. 'I would if I could but I'm having a bit of…' Her bond was broken off by a swift punch to the jaw bone and was then tossed around as if she were a volleyball. Her body felt as if it was being thrown off a mountain side.  
  
~*~*~  
  
'Having the same problem here. Where'd Usagi go?' Minako was a bit better off than the rest of her friends. While they had maybe a hundred to deal with, she had maybe fifty. Most of them seemed to want to follow Usagi though. She was glad of that. Usagi could easily deal with them, where as the rest couldn't.   
  
There was no response from Rei.  
  
~*~*~  
  
'Rei…What's wrong with her?' Makoto covered her face with her arms and curled her legs to protect her stomach. There really was no way to get out of the attacks that were being thrown upon her.  
  
For the first time that the egg had hatched Usagi actually felt fear. There was nothing that they could do at this point. She had heard the mental messages that were sent between her friends. She had heard of the trouble they were in. She had also not heard Rei, who was already low on energy when all of the Cells attacked. This time things didn't look as if they were going to work out for them. "Retreat, Makoto! Please!"  
  
The Cell who held Usagi's tail raised his hand and slapped her in the face. He tightened his grip on her tail, causing her to howl out in even more pain. "Shut up!"   
  
Makoto hadn't seen what just happened, but judging by the sound of the slap and her Usagi's crying of pain, she knew what was going on. But even with the knowledge of what was going on, what could she do? Nothing. She was stuck in the middle of a bunch of Cells being beaten, probably to death. 'Why am I thinking this way? Why am I thinking that this is the end? Goku never taught us to give up. He always told us to believe that we would win. And if we did, we would. Yeah. That's it.' "I AM NOT GIVING UP!" Her muscles tensed up as she became angrier and angrier with the current condition of the fight. "YOU WILL NOT WIN!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
The Cells that had been playing with Ami let her fall to the ground as they felt a sudden rising of power coming from the girls' base. "What is that? It feels like that brown headed kid."  
  
Ami sat up and scowled at the so called people who had just assaulted her. She too felt the increase in Makoto's power, but she didn't know what it was. Then all of a sudden she could no longer feel Rei's power. 'Oh no.' She turned her head to the direction that Rei's power formerly was. 'They didn't…' She looked harder for the power, which should have been Rei's. But to her dismay, there was nothing there. "REI! NO!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Minako's chasers also stopped to feel the increase in power. Only now there were two power increases. One coming from Makoto, and the other coming from Ami. "What are these kids? where can they get such power even though they've been beaten nearly to death?"  
  
Minako couldn't believe what was happening. She never knew that Ami and Makoto possessed such power. They were powering up to be even stronger than her. "See? We WILL beat you guys."  
  
The Cells turned back to Minako, all with a smirk on their faces. "Will you now?" They all jumped onto her without giving her time to react to the statement. Each one got in as many kicks and punches to Minako as possible. They weren't about to let her get powered up like the rest of her friends seemed to be doing. "Looks like one of your friends is already dead."  
  
A bright red light filled the air in the distance, which the Cells didn't bother to take notice. With this spectacular light came a power like no other. It had a unique flavor to it. Something none of them had ever felt before. But still, they didn't pay attention to it. They just kept beating into Minako, who was getting very put out with the attacks. Though, she did note the new power that was oddly born. 'That's gotta be Rei. I thought she was gone.'   
  
One of the Cells picked Minako up by her feet and threw her into the air. He jumped into the air and jammed one of his feet into her chest. He could hear the bones inside crack as he pushed up harder. "You wont win this, girl."  
  
Minako grinned. "Oh yeah?!" She quickly made a Ki blast with the last of her power and fired it down to Cells below. She could feel the anger rushing through her veins, which made her push harder and want to kill them even more. She would not let them win. She couldn't let them win.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Even though Rei seemed to be ok, Ami couldn't keep from being angry. It seemed to have overtaken her body. "You will pay for what you have done. You wont get away with this!" Her body began to glow a soft blue as her angry increased and her muscles grew stiffer.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The Cells backed away from Makoto as her power increased more and more. They weren't sure what was going on but they had never felt her power. It was much different from that of Rei's new power, and that of Ami's increasing power. Even Minako had started to gain power somehow. None of them knew what was going on. Their father hadn't warned them that something like this would happen.  
  
But there was Makoto. I'm the center of a ring of hundreds of Cells, gaining power by the second. Her body began to glow pale green as she stared into the hate filled eyes of her enemies. All they wanted to do was destroy her and her friends. They didn't care that they too were living beings. They didn't care that their deaths would affect the lives of others. They just didn't care about anything, which is why she had to make them pay. Beings like them couldn't be free to roam the universe. "I'm not going to let you get away with THIS!" Her aura darkened and shot out in all directions as her power boosted up one last time.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei teleported to Ami's destination to help her out. "Ami! These guys mean business. They nearly killed me. Come on. Let's get the others and get out of here. We won't be able to be them right now. The ones I killed are being absorbed as we speak by thousands of others. So le…Ami, are you listening to me?"  
  
"We can't let it happen Rei. We can't let them gain power. We have to stop them now." She closed here eyes to try and calm herself but it was no use. She didn't like not having control over herself. She didn't know what was going on. "What's happening to me?!" Her aura slowly grew as her power increase came to a halt. Once this happened, her emotions were much more controllable. Her whole body felt strange as she turned to Rei. "What's going on? Why did that happen?"  
  
"I don't know. It was much worse for me though? My power just burst out. Makoto's did too. Did you see it?"  
  
Ami shook her head. "I tried to make my anger go away, I think that's why mine didn't get so violent. You guys just let yours out."  
  
"You're probably right. You always are. But I think we should go and get the others. You go to Makoto and Usagi to find out what's going on there. I'm going to go and get Minako before anything bad happens to her. Then we need to figure out what just happened."  
  
One of the Cells approached the two girls, who currently seemed to have larger power level than him. "We aren't letting you two go anywhere."  
  
Ami turned to the Cell and smirked. "Look, we have to go." Rei and Ami both teleported to their destinations, which only made that group of Cells angrier.  
  
~*~*~  
  
When Rei got to Minako and her group of Cells, she was still firing her attack upon them. She seemed to have the upper hand at the moment. Little did she know what she was gaining power every second, just like Rei and the others had. Her will to come out of the fight alive was her motivation to keep going. And her motivation for more power. It amazed Rei that they could all reach new heights just by being put into danger. Just by wanting to live and prevail over evil. She thought that only Saiyans or any race with natural power could do that. What kind of power could a human possess that would make them do that. It would only be a matter of time before Minako would let her anger go all the way and she would have new power, just like the rest of the girls.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto laughed into the faces of all who stared at her. She had done it. She had gained more power than them and now there was no way that they could really harm her. As long as she didn't kill anyone she would be fine. She only had one more thing she had to do before she was finished though. She turned to the direction of Usagi, who was still being held by her tail. But the one who was holding her appeared to be somewhat frightened. "I suggest you put her down, unless you want to die."  
  
The Cell stood tall, trying to show that he wasn't in the least bit scared of the girl in green. "Kill me if you please. My brothers will just take my power."  
  
Makoto thought about her options and remembered how Usagi saved her. "I don't have to kill you." She teleported behind him and kicked in the center of his backbone, causing his back to break. "Freak, you can't even stand up to a kick in the back anymore."  
  
One of the Cells from the group that had previously beaten Makoto analyzed her new power as well as the other girls' power. "Why is that power in my knowledge bank? Why would father know what that kind of power is? Especially since it is all different kinds of power."  
  
Ami appeared just below Usagi as she fell to the ground. She caught her friend in her arms and looked up to Makoto, who kick the Cell with the broken back down to the ground. "Minako and Rei will be here soon."  
  
Makoto looked down as she wiped her forehead. "Glad to see you're all right." Everyone's attention was diverted to a loud explosion followed by the sky being lit completely in orange. "Go Minako!"   
  
Ami put Usagi down on the ground. "Are you ok?" She didn't see any physical injuries on her.   
  
Usagi panted as her energy was being returned to her body. "I'll be fine. Just make sure you don't kill anyone right now." She couldn't wait to find out why her friends were getting power ups, and why their new power felt so different than their normal power. It didn't have the same feel to it. It felt as if it were from a totally different person, as if it were added onto them.   
  
(Well there you have it. That's it for this part. What did you think? Was it good? Or was it Bad? Gotta go. Ja Ne )  



	67. Part 29

~~Room of Spirit and Time~~  
  
Minako and Rei hovered closely by Usagi, Makoto, and Ami as they all five watched the Cells retreat. Now that the girls seemed to have more power than them, they were scared. Though they knew that even if they died their brothers would use their left over energy to become stronger. But still, none of them WANTED to die, so they left.  
  
Usagi lay on the ground as a smile began to form on her face since her energy was returning to her body. She hated being vulnerable like that and her tail was her worst form of vulnerability. She continued to scold herself for not remembering to keep her tail hidden well. But that didn't matter now. She was fine and her friends would be able to protect her until she regained all of her energy back. "Yeah! Run away! Cowards! You only fight when you know you can win." She slowly hoisted herself up to her feet as she looked to Makoto with a bright smile on her face. "Thanks for saving me back there Makoto. I didn't know what I would have done if he kept holding my tail like that." She turned to Ami with the same warm smile planted firmly on her face. "And thanks for catching me. I probably would have gotten really hurt if you didn't catch me."   
  
Minako looked around to all of her friends, all of which were powered up much more than usual, except Usagi. She herself had even been powered up. The four of them stood facing each other with their bodies surrounded by a soft glow of their respective colors. "We should get inside before they come back."  
  
Each of the girls nodded. "Right." They performed their teleportation and soon found themselves inside their base, which still could not be penetrated.   
  
Usagi let herself collapse on the floor with all of her limbs spread as far away from her body as she could. She was still short of energy and teleporting took most of what she had already accumulated. "You guys are awesome."  
  
Rei sat next to Usagi, still powered up. "What just happened here? Where did all of this power come from?" She looked at her hand, which had a small aura around it just as the rest of her body did. Although she wasn't angry, nor was she powering up, the aura stayed, which puzzled her even more.  
  
Ami overlooked arms and then her legs on up to her body. It seemed to be totally covered in blue. "This is strange. How come Goku never told us about this before? I don't think that even Krillin is THIS strong. Isn't he supposed to be the strongest human? Mamoru isn't this strong either."  
  
Makoto tested out her new speed by punching at imaginary enemies. "I don't know, but I like it." She stopped throwing her punches and looked to Usagi, who was now sitting up and leaning against a wall. "Hey, is it just me, or does each of our power feel unique? I don't think that Minako's power feels at all like Rei's or Ami's. Or even mine for that matter. None of them feel the same."  
  
Usagi stayed silent as she did not have an answer to that question. Actually, the same question raced through her mind too. She wished that her father were there with them. Maybe he would have had the answers. But part of her knew that he probably wouldn't have known either. "I have a feeling that we aren't going to find out any time soon. This is just one of those things that happen…I guess." She let her head flop to the side.  
  
Minako stopped examining herself and looked to Usagi with a worry. "What's wrong? You sound so…well…calm." She kneeled down and looked into Usagi's eyes. "You're scaring me, Usagi. Normally you're so hyper, even after something like that."  
  
Usagi let out a small sigh. "Nothing. I'm just really tired. Getting your tail held for that long, and being hung upside down by it really takes a lot out of a person. But I can't exactly sleep right now. There's work to be done."  
  
Minako stood up. "You've got that right. We need to talk about what just happened. You know, we need to tell each other what happened." She looked to Rei. "What happened to you? Everyone thought you were dead."  
  
"I…uh…nearly did die, actually. I was ambushed by hundreds of Cells. My power was drained to almost as low as it could go. I was ready to give up. But then something inside my head clicked. I couldn't give up. I wouldn't give up. I wouldn't let myself become lunch for those stupid alien wanna bee's. I would not let them claim victory over me or any of you. But most of all, I thought about you guys. I wanted to be there to help you guys. I wanted to make it though so we can keep being best friends. I didn't want to be the one to make you guys upset because I was dead. I guess you could say that you were my motivation. That's how I got my power up."   
  
"Well you sure made me upset, Rei. I lost control of my emotions when I thought you were gone. Once that happened, I was gone. Just the thought of loosing any of you to the hands of these monsters angered me, even after I knew you were all right. And you know the rest. You came in about the time that I gained my power." Ami had to stop there as her anger was rising just thinking about it."  
  
"Rei was one of the reasons why I decided to fight back against those things today." Minako added. "I thought she really was dead. A million things were running through my head at that time. I needed to survive. I needed to help you guys too. I knew that if we came together as a group that we could make it through this. But, I also wanted to find Rei and help her if she was in fact still alive. But luckily, she was fine."  
  
Makoto looked down as she thought about what happened to her. "I had given up at one point. But then I saw Usagi being held by that monster. I just had to help her. Even after she told me to get out of there, I stayed. And it ended up being the right thing. I wasn't about to leave without her." She turned to Usagi, who looked as if she was dozing off to sleep. "HERE THAT!? DON'T EVER TELL ME TO LEAVE YOU AGAIN! IT WILL JUST BE A WASTE OF GOOD ENERGY!"  
  
Usagi jumped from the sudden noise. "WHAAA!?!?" Her heart raced within her chest as she looked around the room, half expecting to see someone being eaten alive. "What's going on?" She calmed down as she heard the soft laughter of her friends. "Fine! Be that way! Laugh at the unfortunate. See if I care!" She crossed her arms and looked away. But she couldn't keep a straight face for long. She too joined in the laughter of her friends. "Ok, ok. I guess that was a LITTLE funny." She smiled widely as she thought about her friend's words. "And thanks Makoto. I should know better than to tell any of you to leave me and save yourselves. You're all the best."  
  
"Usagi, I've been meaning to ask you something. I know you used your dad's Kamehameha wave against Cell when there was still one of him before the fight got to big. And you used it again today. When did you learn it?" Makoto was thankful that she did know it. The Kamehameha wave was one of the most powerful attacks. Without it Usagi wouldn't have been able to kill off mass amounts of Cells at once.   
  
"I kind of learned it from dad. But I also kind of taught it to myself." Her friends looked confused so she went on. "Ok here it goes. I studied his technique very, VERY carefully for a long time. Ever since we started training. I never asked him to teach it to me because I wanted to learn it on my own. And guess what, I did. And you wanna know when the first time I tired it was?" She paused long enough for everyone to nod. "Right before the androids showed up." She playfully smiled as her friends' faces were taken up by complete shock. "Pretty neat, huh?"  
  
"Neat?! That's better than neat. And what would you have done if that hadn't worked? And one more thing, TEACH ME!" Makoto had always been interested in learning to Kamehameha attack, but never asked Goku for assistance. It looked like it took way too much energy to perform. Energy, which she didn't think that she had.  
  
Usagi shrugged. "I dunno what I would have done if it didn't work against Cell. But it was worth a try. And it seemed to work. Too bad the androids had to show up otherwise we probably would have won." She leaned her head back against the wall.   
  
The room was silent for about five minutes while everyone took the time to rest from their previous fight. Usagi taped her fingers on the floor, which produced the only sound around to be heard, until she decided to break the silence. "Do you guys ever wonder what it's like to have a normal life?"  
  
This caught Minako's attention. "What do you mean? Aren't we normal? I mean, we aren't like mutants, are we?"  
  
"That's not what I mean. What I mean is, how many kids our age have a dad like mine who teaches his kids how to fight like he does with us. How many kids, besides us, fight against creatures like Cell." The room was taken with silence once again as the group of girls thought about Usagi's words. For the first time, they finally began to realize that they in fact did not exactly live a 'normal' child's life. "Actually, I kind of liked not fighting for that year before we found out that we couldn't return home. I don't know why. It just seemed…well…right."  
  
Minako unconsciously nodded with Usagi as she remembered back to the days when she didn't even have a single thought about fighting. "But you have to admit, fighting is a lot more interesting than just doing boring every day things."  
  
"You guys are all lucky. I've been fighting since I was a little toddler. My dad has always wanted me to be a strong fighter. He started training me when I was very young. My mom once told me that he tried to teach me even when I was only a year old. Pretty pathetic, huh. It's pretty obvious that he wanted a boy. Whenever I'm not fighting, he tells me that I'm just being lazy. Boy, if he could only see some of the stuff I do." Makoto sighed as she remembered her parents. How she wished she could go and see them. While Usagi had the luxury of seeing younger versions of her parents, her own parents hadn't even been born yet so there was no way that she could have gone to visit them.   
  
"I'm kind of with Makoto. My grandfather raised me around fighting. Though he didn't really ever make me fight. He just took me to all of the tournaments." She rested her head on her knees as she sighed. "Did you guys realize that there's a connection between our power that we got today?" She waited for a reply but when she didn't get one, she continued. "Well think about it. It's kind of like the bond. We all got it because we thought about our friends. We were each other's motivation. And Usagi got her power one, because she's a Saiyan, and two because her life was in danger and so was ours."  
  
"Weird. I never thought of that Rei." Usagi lifted her head to look at Rei, who seemed to be drifting into thought. "Why do you think that is? I don't think any other human has ever gotten this…form you guys have. What should we call it?"  
  
Minako jumped up and held her arms up as if she were a world champion. "I AM… SUPER MINAKO!" She giggled as did her friends.   
  
"That's it, Minako. I can go Super Saiyan, why can't you guys go Super too? I guess that's what you would call it, right?" Usagi stood up and stretched her arms over her head as she yawned.   
  
"I don't see why not. It sounds plausible to me." Ami powered down so she could rest. "I'm tired, what about you guys?" She lifted herself into one of the beds.  
  
Usagi dashed to the other bed in the room. "Do you have to ask?" She quickly laid down without a second thought. "I'm going to sleep. If any of you aren't, I have one word for you. CRAZY!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Outside the of the room of spirit and time everyone was still trying their hardest to figure out a way to get their fellow fighters out. So far, it looked quite hopeless. They couldn't really touch the door without completely destroying it, leaving the girls trapped inside forever.   
  
Goku was probably the most persistent of them all. While the others began to give up after a while and decide to wait for Cell to come back and open it up for them, he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. So there he stood, with Gohan, in front of the door that led in, trying desperately to find a way in. Only five minutes had past and everyone was already throwing in the towel, which angered Goku. Though they didn't really know Usagi and the others, it didn't give them a right to quit. "Gohan, you're a smart kid. How do you think we should go about this?"  
  
Gohan shook his head as he gained a puzzled look from his father. "I have no idea. Maybe we should get Kami. He may know what to do."  
  
"Already thought of that, Gohan." Chi-Chi walked through the group of fighters that stood in front of her husband and son. She stepped to the side as she reached her destination. "Kami is here. He might be able to help us out."   
  
Kami carefully walked passed Goku and Gohan and began to analyze the door. Words were of no use at that point as his face told the whole story of what was going to happen. His face turned from concerned to worried in less than a second. "Well I don't see how we can do anything to get them out. One little jerk and this thing is gone. It's the only way that the thick metal wall can be opened too. Unless you find a way to get them out of there without using this door, the girls are going to be stuck in there forever. And you had better work quickly because if you wait more than a day and a half, the door vanishes and all hopes of retrieving them are out of the question." He turned to Goku and immediately felt a knot in his stomach by the look on his face. "I know you can do it Goku. You have never failed us before."  
  
Goku looked to the ground in disappointment. He never would have thought that something like this would have happened. "It's my fault. I should have been more firm when I told her to leave."  
  
"You did all you could dad. She's just more stubborn than I am."  
  
Goku looked down at his son with a hint of a smile on his face. "Thanks. You both ARE pretty stubborn, aren't you?" He looked towards the metal wall behind the broken door for any cracks. "They've probably already gone through a month in there."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Inside~~  
  
One week later…  
  
It was about two in the morning and all of the girls, except one, were fast asleep. The one who was awake was Usagi, who was being kept up by a faint tapping sound in the distance. A tapping unlike anything that she had ever heard before. Though the tapping was faint it was still obviously there and could be heard clearly. It was loud enough to wake her up, though, not her friends.  
  
She climbed over Minako, who way lying beside her, and tiptoed to the doorway to look out and see if anything was coming. There was nothing unusual about the night. The outside world still had its pink tint from the shield that protected them, which still held up quite well since the Cells didn't seem to be gaining too much power. She grabbed her arms as she tried to sense the area for any unusual presence, which got her no where for she couldn't read anything because of the shield. 'Dang. I wish I knew what that was.'   
  
Usagi turned back around and walked back to Minako, placing her hand on the sleeping girl's shoulder, and shook her to wake her up. "Minako," She whispered. She didn't want to wake any of the others up if they didn't have to be wakened up. "Do you hear that?"  
  
Minako groaned as she slapped Usagi's hand away. "Leave me alone. I want to sleep. Go play with Makoto." she rolled over onto her side, pretty much blowing off Usagi.  
  
Usagi frowned at this and walked over to the other bed where Ami was sleeping on the outside. 'She better listen to me.' She kneeled down to look Ami in the face. "Hey…Ami…wake up. Don't you hear that?" She twitched her tail with annoyance as Ami pretty much did the same thing as Minako. "COME ON YOU GUYS! SOMETHING'S UP!"   
  
THAT got everyone's attention. More like it gave everyone a heart attack. The four girls, who were previously sleeping, all jumped out of their beds, screaming I might add, and ran franticly around the room looking for what caused the disturbance. Usagi jumped backwards to the middle of the room and laughed as her friends bumped into the wall and each other, each time they challenged each other. "You guys, it's ok. Be quiet. I need to listen for something."  
  
The room got quiet all right. But not because of Usagi's request. The room became quiet as the girls realized that it was their friend, Usagi, who had caused them to freak out. Now they glared at her, wanting desperately to get back at her for what she had just done.   
  
Ami curiously walked over to Usagi and watched as she put her hands to her ears while concentrating hard. "What's wrong, Usagi. I know you wouldn't have waken us up for nothing? Do you hear something?"  
  
"Well she obviously hears something. Look at her. Either that or she's trying to cover her mistakes up. And if that's true I'm SO going to get back at you, Usagi." Rei jumped to the center of the room and playfully threatened Usagi with her fist.   
  
Usagi stopped concentrating. The room was now quiet enough for her to be able to hear the sound again. "Don't you hear that?" She waited for a response as her friends listened for what she was hearing. But they didn't seem to hear anything. "How can you NOT hear that? It's so loud. It kept me awake."  
  
"Usagi, didn't you once tell me that a Saiyan has better hearing than humans?" Usagi nodded as Ami began to go on. "Well, you're picking up something that we can't. What kind of sound is it?" Ami was already sure that it had to do with their enemy.  
  
"It's sounds like a tapping. Well no, more like a thousand feet marching. You know, like marching sounds from all those old war movies and…" She paused to shudder, "Documentaries that they make us watch at school? It's creepy."  
  
"Uh-oh. I think they are planning on attacking us. All of them. They are gathering their troops to move in on us when they think that we are most defenseless. But we'll show them. Wont we girls?" Ami raised her fist into the air like a ring leader would when he was rallying his troops to prepare for battle.  
  
Makoto jumped at a chance to defend their temporary home. She didn't have a problem with it, especially since the Cells didn't seem to be gaining enough power to REALLY hurt them yet. "I say we do it! I say we kill them all before they kill us. I know that they just use the dead bodies of their friends to gain more power faster, which is why we haven't been killing any. But since they all seem to be wanting to kill us right now, and they are getting all of their people to get us, it should be easy if we plan everything out right." She could tell that her friends were confused so she decided to map everything out. "Well, there are only five us of and well, probably a hundred thousand of them left, right? But they are weaker than us. If we just start killing them there will be lots and lots of bodies for them to absorb. But here's where my brilliant thinking comes into play. Now, if we wait for them to come to us, we have the advantage. We have the usage of our base here. So here's how that works. We can have three people fighting and killing off those monsters and the other two gather bodies and pile them in here until the rest are dead. It will be easy."  
  
Ami thought hard about that one. It did seem good. "That's good. Too good to be true. Why would they be marching here if they knew that we have this shield, which they do know about. Maybe they are planning on knocking it down or something."  
  
"I never thought about that. Well fine then. Two people are on killing duty, two on gathering bodies, and the other protects the base. This way, we can really work as a team for real. One person who is killing is followed around by another person who picks up the bodies. All we have to do is teleport in and out."  
  
Usagi's face began to fill with a smile as she realized that that was actually one of the best ideas that any of them had come up with. "And once we get rid of them all, we only have to worry about getting out of here and beating the real Cell."  
  
"Exactly, so what do you say girls? Wanna do this?" Makoto knew the answer before anyone even began to answer.   
  
"YEAH!"  
  
"Whose doing what duty then?" Usagi hoped that she had something good like elimination of their enemy. She looked around the room at her friends and thought of what their best placements would be. "Well I definitely think that Makoto should be out there fighting."  
  
"I agree with you on this one, Usagi. And so should you." Ami smiled when she saw the happiness in her friend's eyes. "I'll gather the dead bodies. I'll stick close to Usagi. Rei, you and Minako figure out what you want to do."  
  
Rei turned to Minako in hopes of doing one thing. "Can I guard this place? I want to kick their butts too. I also want to use my new power."  
  
"Go ahead. I don't exactly want to fight them anymore. But, I will if I have to. I'm not going to let them walk all over me anymore. I guess I'll stay close to Makoto then." She looked around the room to her friends, all who had half excited looks planted on their faces. "READY!?"  
  
"READY!" They all shouted with enthusiasm as they teleported out of their fort.   
  
Once out in the open field again, they took their positions. Rei hovered directly over their protection, ready for an attack from any given area. She was completely alert. Usagi hovered over the building while Ami was on the ground beneath her. On the opposite side of the building were Minako, who was on the ground, and Makoto, who hovered directly above her.  
  
Usagi got into fighting position as the marching became louder and louder. She was positive it was loud enough for the others to hear now. "Ready!? Prepare yourselves. This is the real thing. If we thought we were outnumbered last week, well this is worse. But we can do this. With my Super Saiyan power and your…I guess Super power we can do this if we try hard enough. Just like dad always says, if you believe in something, it will happen. I've found this to be true. Just promise me one thing, don't give up, and don't die. Because if you do, when I die I'm going to hunt you down and kill you again. Or at least beat you up." This got some laughter to arise from her friends.  
  
Ami prepared herself and took to her fighting stance. She made herself more alert now. "That's one promise we all plan to keep."  
  
"Just making sure." Usagi carefully wrapped her tail up around her waist and under skirt so she wouldn't have a replay of what happened before. Her muscles tensed up as she felt the Cells' presence coming closer. "Power up girls. They're almost here."  
  
In a split second the whole area lit up in an array of magnificent colors. All of the girls stood with anger written in their eyes as their sparkling auras flamed around them. They couldn't wait to start the battle. They needed to rid themselves of all the Cells. They were angry at them. They were angry at what they stood for. They were the invaders. They needed to be taken out before they could further harm anyone.   
  
Usagi bowed her head and closed her eyes. Her aura all of a sudden became tranquil and had the feeling of peace within it. "We must not let them succeed. The world shall not be allowed to fall by the hands of these people. Only the true keepers of peace will do harm to those that oppose it." She opened her eyes and looked up with the look of utter calmness as she remained silent for a few minutes.  
  
Ami looked up to Rei as Rei looked to her and the two fighters on the other side of the building. All of them had the look of total confusion on her face. Though Rei seemed to be less confused than the rest. She sensed something inside of Usagi that she had never sensed before. 'Odd.' She forced herself to resist the temptation of leaving her post and going to Usagi. "Usagi…Usagi…USAGI!"   
  
Usagi shook her head as if shaking something out of her head and looked back to Rei. Her aura went back to normal as well. "What is it? What's wrong?" She looked around the area. "I don't see any of the enemies around, what's the matter. I know that you're mad at me for waking you up but I har…"  
  
Rei frowned as she put her hands on her waist. "What's your problem? You just say something really freaky and you act like it's all good again."  
  
Usagi cocked her head to the side as she once again became perplexed by her friend's words, as she often was. "What are you talking about? I didn't say anything just now. Are you hearing things?"  
  
Ami looked directly up at Usagi. "Yes you did. You said something about how the real keepers of peace will be able to do harm or something like that. That the world mustn't fall into the hands of these guys. Don't you remember any of that?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "Nope. I think you guys are crazy. You're just trying to get back at me. Well forget it. It ain't going to happen any time soon. I'm too smart for that." She glared at Rei as she heard quiet giggling coming from her area. "And what's so funny about me being smart?"  
  
At that precise moment thousands of black creatures encircled the girls along with their base. None of them were without a scowl. None of them had a single ounce of their bodies that wasn't covered with power of hatred. They looked to have been prepping for this battle, which they believed that they would win.  
  
Usagi stopped arguing with her friends and looked on towards her opponents. She took a deep breath in as she readied herself for the fight of her life. "Hey look, it's the wanna bee's." There came no reply. "Fine. Be sticks in the mud. See if I care. It wont matter. Soon we will dominate over you and there will be nothing left. You will learn what happens when you try to hurt us. Go!"   
  
The fight started out with a bang, literally. Usagi and Makoto both dashed out towards their enemies, with Ami and Minako following closely behind. Usagi and Makoto both hit their enemies at the same time, which created the bang as well as a large Ki wave that swept over area, forcing everyone who was in the air away from their positions. Of course, the Cells who were attacked didn't live through the force. Especially Usagi's enemy. Her punch sent him flying backwards head first with a giant chunk taken out of his face where he was violently hit.  
  
Usagi didn't waste any time waiting for the next ones to attack. She took the liberty of firing a huge Kamehameha at a rather large group of fifty, destroying them all in a heart beat. "This isn't any fun. It's WAY too easy. There's gotta be a catch." She looked down to the ground at Ami who was scrambling around trying to gather all of the bodies before the other Cells had a chance to grab them. She did her job by teleporting in and out of the protected base.   
  
Usagi looked back to the Cells, who were attacking in all directions. Rei seemed to have her hands full with trying to protect their base from any attacks from their foes. "You're all up to something." She heard the screams of the other Cells behind her as Makoto did her job. "You wouldn't be attacking us with such a low power if you weren't up to something. Unless you really are as stupid as you seem." She threw her hand out to the side and blasted a hole right through the stomach of one of the Cells. "You guys are pathetic. Not even any fun. Come on, I know your dad is A LOT stronger than this. I know he wants you all to beat us. Why aren't you waiting to attack us?" She couldn't figure out why in the world ever one of the Cells were attacking them at that point. All of them would be dead in no time and there wouldn't be anyone left to carry out their father's wishes. Until it hit her. "You DORKS! I know what you're doing. You came here so we would kill some of you huh? You were hoping to get power, weren't you? AH, HA, HA, HA! Well we showed you! We were prepared for you!"  
  
One of the Cells smirked as he flew out to Usagi. "You think you know us so well, don't you?"  
  
Usagi performed a round house kick to his head and pretty much kicked it off of his neck. "EWW! Why don't you put your head on tighter. That's gross." She glanced back at Makoto, who seemed to have over half of her opponents cleared out. 'Now I know they're up to something. With what he just said and all. And I know it's going to be something I don't like. We need to get out of here. But how? The door is broken and we can't budge it out of place either.' "Makoto, how's it going? And Rei too."  
  
"Just great!" Rei smashed her fist into the jaw of her foe.  
  
"Yeah! These guys have gained power in the past week, but not enough to beat us. I wonder what's up."  
  
"Who cares. As long as we get rid of them."  
  
~*~*~  
  
About a half hour later the girls had totally taken out the Cells. The whole time they did it, it was with ease. But something didn't feel right about the whole situation. It didn't set right with them. For some reason, they didn't feel as if they had completed anything. They felt more like they had only begun something new. But they couldn't quite put their fingers on it. Though they didn't feel any more of the Cells. They seemed to be all gone and out of the way now.   
  
They now sat in their little base packed with the bodies of Cell's children. There were so many that they had to even leave over half of them outside. But even though it was an easy victory, they were still very proud of themselves. They were proud that they kept their heads through the whole fight. And now it was over, for now.  
  
Rei let out a sigh of relief as she leaned her head onto the shoulder of Minako. "That was exhausting. How about we don't do that again?"  
  
"I'm for that." Usagi said as she scanned to impaled bodies of their opponents. "So what are we supposed to do with these guys?"  
  
"Get rid of them I guess." Ami turned to the door. Now that the Cells were gone, that was their main objective. "I wonder how we're supposed to get out of here."  
  
"Wait a minute I think I know how we might be able to get out. I've been thinking about this for a while." Her friends perked their heads towards her in curiosity. "I remember a time when I was really little and my big brother Goten was babysitting me. Him and Trunks were talking about 'the olden days'. You know, all that stuff that adults always talk about that we have no idea about. Well, I guess they fused to make this guy named Gotenks and they were talking about the time when they first met dad. I think they said something about getting stuck in here one time when they were first learning how to be Gotenks and they had to blast themselves out of the room because the door disappeared. I was thinking, what if we tried the same thing?" She jumped to her feet and walked to the wall, knocking on it when she got there. "It's like, pure metal or something."  
  
Minako shot up from sitting. "Why didn't you tell us before?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "I dunno. I didn't think that we should have left before all of the Cells were killed. Plus, I didn't know if it would work. But I only thought of it a couple of days ago. I was going to tell you all real soon anyways."  
  
Ami walked to the wall and knocked on it as well. "Yeah. I don't know how they could have broken it down. This stuff is pretty tough you know."  
  
"Well it's worth a try, isn't it? I don't exactly want to stay in here for a year. I want to leave now, especially now that we have all these gross bodies to deal with. Gross. They stink too." When she got no reply decided that she had better go on. "Well here's an idea. If Goten and Trunks together make a person double the strength who could break down the walls of this place, why couldn't our combined attack work? I mean, we've got five people here who are really powerful."  
  
Rei unconsciously nodded to agree with Usagi. "That sounds like it MAY work. I say we try it. If it fails, oh well. At least we tried." She jumped over the dead bodies and landed by the wall with Ami and Usagi. Minako and Makoto were soon to follow.   
  
The girls positioned themselves together much like they did when they made their shield. Only this time Usagi was the only one who would be distributing power. She planned on giving it one last bit of power before it was thrown out of her body and into the wall. "Ok girls, pass your power along to each other down to me and we can get started."  
  
The girls did what they were told as they once again created their bond between the five of them. The exchanged thoughts and power once again as the hoped that it would be for the last time while they were in the past. The powers came already mixed to Usagi. All she had to do was add her power and a little extra to make it stronger. 'Here goes nothing.' She fired a massive Ki attack, which contained no color at all. It was as white as the moon.  
  
The girls' mood grew happier by the minute as they watched the beam of energy shoot from Usagi's hand onto the wall. It was slowly but surely puncturing the metal wall that was supposed to be energy proof. But it obviously was not. 'Just a little bit more. I can see some light.'  
  
'It's dissolving the wall along with the shield.' Ami noted that the pink shield was disappearing.   
  
'Who cares. At least it's working, right? No complaints here. There are no more Cells.'   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Outside the Room of Spirit and Time~~  
  
Only a matter of seconds had passed since Kami came out and pretty much told the gang that things were hopeless unless they found a new way to get them out. But now there was a small opening right by where the door stood. Behind it was a light to bright to look directly at.   
  
Around the door stood a group of dumbfounded fighters just itching to see what was going to emerge from behind the hole that was slowly growing by the second. The power that seemed to be causing the hole to grow was nothing like they had ever felt before. It didn't feel at all like the girls' power either. It was too great for any of them anyways, even Usagi.   
  
Goku squinted and bent down to look at the hole, which was almost big enough to fit a year old child through. "This is strange. Who do you think it is? It's not the Cell from the egg. It couldn't be that big this early. At least I don't think it could."  
  
All of a sudden the metal around the blast was completely dissolved and a the giant colorless beam of energy came spiraling out. All of the fighters outside the room jumped away and readied themselves for whatever was about to come out. They would be prepared for any attack that would come from the new being.  
  
But to their surprise, nothing new came out. Instead the five girls, Minako, Makoto, Ami, Rei, and Usagi, all came bouncing out with smiles that shone as bright as the sun. They made their happiness obvious as they turned to each other and screamed from being overjoyed by their escape.   
  
Once they calmed down they turned and looked to the still shocked faces of their adult friends. Usagi stepped forward an acted as the spokes person. "What? Don't we get a welcome home party or anything?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Room of Spirit and Time~~  
  
Inside still lurked an evil that had the potential to be as great as the original Cell. A single child still lived on without the knowledge of Usagi and the others. One that had purposely stayed behind the rest. He stayed as far away from the fight as possible and did not move until the girls were in their base so as to not be detected. The less movement one made, the less likely that one will detect them.  
  
He landed next to the dead bodies of his brothers and smiled as he began to absorb them all, one by one. His power increased tremendously as he did this. His goal, to make his power just as large as his father's so he could be there to fight along side of him.  
  
(Well there it is. The next part. And now I can honestly say that this chapter is almost over. ^_^ anyways, what did you think? Good, or bad? Gotta go. Ja ^_~ )  



	68. Part 30

  
  
The girls stepped away from the room, which had previously been holding them prisoner. Each went their separate ways, scattering into the crowd of their fellow fighters, who were completely silent from shock. Not a single word arose from any single person.   
  
Naturally, Usagi walked to where her mother, father, and brother were standing. Not a word was spoken from either of the four as they just stared at each other. One party in awe, and the other in curiosity. Usagi opened her mouth to speak. "What's wrong? You're freaking me out. Stop looking at me like that."  
  
Chi-Chi threw herself down to her daughter and hugged her as tightly as possible. "Oh Usagi, I was so worried about you. Don't ever do that to me again. You hear that? I already have Goku and Gohan to worry about, I don't want to add you to the list."  
  
Usagi smiled as she hugged back. For some reason, she felt closer to her mother of this time. They seemed to connect more. She wished that her own mother acted like this with her. Had she have done that in the future she knew for sure that she would have gotten chewed out for following the egg inside the room. She didn't think that she would express her worry for her at all. "I'm ok, mom. Honest. They never had a chance."  
  
Goku lightly tugged on his wife's shoulder, letting her know that he wanted to speak with his daughter. Chi-Chi-Chi complied with his wishes and moved out of the way, allowing Goku to kneel in front of Usagi so he could look her in the eyes. "What did you mean by that? THEY never had a chance. Was there more than one?"  
  
Usagi nodded as her friends came up from behind her. "Yup! There were thousands of them, daddy. They were afraid of us at first so they ran away."  
  
Goku's face was taken over by concern. "Tell me everything that happened."  
  
"Ok. When the egg first hatched, they were really weak. We were going to attack them all but we needed a plan first. So we made this 'bond' thing were we can talk to each other by concentrating our energy. With that, we made this energy shield around the building inside. The Cells pretty much took themselves out after that, well, a lot of them did because we sort of messed up with the shield. We accidentally made it rubbery. But it still worked. And that's not the best part either."  
  
Goku raised a brow in interest. "Really…"  
  
"Nope. When they started to get more power they attacked us. They came at us with over half of what they had. They were more powerful than the others, but I could take them. But that's when one of those stupid things grabbed my tail so I couldn't help them. And then that's when IT happened."  
  
"It?" At that point all of the people on Kami's lookout were gathered around the two Saiyans, eager to hear what the girls had gone through.  
  
"Yeah. IT happened. When Makoto and Rei and Ami and Minako were all about to be killed by the Cells, they snapped. Kind of like I did when I went Super Saiyan. They got major power ups."  
  
Goku looked up to the girls that stood behind his daughter and smiled. "Is that so? Would you be interested in showing me this new power?" 'I wonder if it's as strong as a Super Saiyan.'  
  
"Right you guys. You heard him. Let's show him what we're made of." Makoto smiled as she couldn't wait to see the look on everyone's faces once they felt their power. They would be blown away by the amount of power that had been gained in such a short time.   
  
They all began to raise their power levels as they tensed their muscles to help the process along. Immediately, their bodies were covered with an aura of their color that shimmered in the light. Each had a separate feeling, but at the same time, felt the same as the next. Once finished, they relaxed and grinned, counting down the seconds before everyone would freak out and congratulate them on their success.  
  
Goku was left unable to say anything. Though him being speechless was not the result of the power, more like the opposite. He just stared at the four young fighters, not knowing how to tell them. "Um, would you like to keep going?"  
  
Makoto frowned. "What are you talking about? We're done."  
  
"Are you sure?" Goku hoped that he wasn't sounding too rude. He could see the disappointment on the girls' faces.  
  
Minako crossed her arms and glared at Goku, who obviously didn't know power when he felt it. "Of course we're sure. Don't you feel it? It's huge."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. "Yeah. It is huge. Why are you being mean, daddy? Are you just trying to get them stronger like you did with me?" She looked in the direction of Krillin. "Do you feel it?" She frowned when he hesitated. "Come on. You've got to feel it. Are you all stupid or something?"  
  
Chi-Chi smacked her daughter on the back of the head. "Watch your mouth. And no, they aren't stupid. Your father knows not to treat you girls badly just to get power. And I know he's not lying." She shot a glare over at her husband to make sure she wasn't lying to her daughter by saying that.  
  
Goku gulped as he didn't know what to say. But he had to say something. "I'm failing to feel anything. All I see is a unique aura. And…well…maybe a slight increase in power."  
  
Usagi frowned. "Why are you saying this? I know you feel it. How can you not? It's just so…big." Usagi was ready to hall off and slap her father. She knew that he had to be lying. He had been rude to her before, why wouldn't he be doing it again? Though this time he had no reason to do it.  
  
"Odango, I feel it."  
  
Usagi turned to Mamoru, who was looking quite beaten up. "You do? Honest?"  
  
Mamoru nodded. "Yeah. Just like with Cell's power. Remember what we talked about before?"  
  
"But why is it the same with them?" That could have very well been it. None of the others seemed to feel Cell's extra power, they probably just couldn't feel the girls' power. "This is way strange."  
  
Kami stayed silent through this whole ordeal. Even though he too somewhat felt their power. It seemed oddly familiar too.   
  
In the distance, soft clapping could be heard. Everyone turned their heads to the sound. They were not at all shocked at what they saw. Goku grabbed Usagi and threw her behind him so she wouldn't be easily accessible. "What do you want?"  
  
The intruder grinned. "Well I felt some new power coming from here so I thought I'd come check it out. It's nice to see that the girls have gained in power. It's just a pity that on one feels it. But I now know that I am to rid the world of those four in particular. They could become a problem if left to grow. So all of you, out of my way."  
  
Goku nudged Usagi back further. "Get out of here while you can. I don't want you involved in this anymore. Take the others with you."  
  
17 grabbed Goku by the arm and threw him to the side. "Screw this. I'm tired of playing with this thing. It's time to get serious." He bent his knees so he would be in correct fighting position. "Let's go, Cell. You and me. If you want to fight me and kill me that badly go ahead. I'm right here."  
  
Cell smirked. "You know 17, I wasn't going to kill you. I was only going to kill 18. But when you started fighting against my clones instead of with me, that's when I decided to kill you. I have other things I need to do right now, but I can get to you later." He stepped forward but immediately had to step to the side due to an undetected attack coming from the android in front of him. He glared at 17. "You idiot! You almost hit me. I hate Dr. Gero for building you with an undetectable power level. But no matter, it wouldn't have hurt me anyways. You're not match for me. But because your pissing me off, and I feel like killing you, I'm going to cut you a deal. You be a good android and stay there while I attack, and I'll make it fast and pain free." Without a second thought he fired one of his smaller Ki attacks at 17, immediately disintegrating his body. "What a bore. No one is powerful enough to beat me."  
  
"17! NO!" 18 tried to jump and save her comrade before he was totally gone but found herself being held back by Krillin. "What are you doing? Let go of me!" She struggled to free herself from Krillin's hold.  
  
"Don't do it! He'll kill you too. He just said that he originally wanted to kill you. He doesn't care about you or anyone else. He'll kill us all if he gets the chance."  
  
18 frowned. "Why do you care? We were going to kill you too." She violently pulled her arm away from Krillin. "So what are we supposed to do? Just sit here and watch this thing kill us all one by one?"  
  
"No, Goku will think of something. And I care because you are one of us. You are a victim of Cell's violent ways."   
  
'One of them? How can I be one of them? They don't know my suffering. They don't know what Gero put us through, what he made us do. Still, this one seems to show interest in my safety. Maybe I should spare him.' "Fine. We'll see what happens."  
  
Cell walked to the room of spirit and time and peered into the hole that the girls had created with their combined attack. "Well look at that. They got smart." He scowled at the dead bodies of his children, but wasn't too angry as he could feel his one remaining offspring left inside the room as he powered up. "Seems as though you killed them all." He said as he smirked. He would save the last one as a surprise. He turned his head towards Usagi. "You may have killed all of my children, but you will never defeat me."  
  
Goku jumped in front of his daughter and her friends as Cell moved closer to them. "Get the hell out of here, Cell."  
  
Usagi giggled. "Daddy, you said a bad word."  
  
"Don't worry about that, Usagi. You just get yourselves out of here…NOW! And if you don't listen to me this time ther…" 'Why can't I feel their power? Is it THAT big?'  
  
"Don't worry, we're leaving." Usagi continued to giggle as she and her friends, including Mamoru, began to walk away to seek a safer place.  
  
But Cell wasn't going to let that happen. "I've wasted enough time playing with you people. You're annoying me now. I need to get that girl's power NOW! And then I'm going to kill off the rest of your friends for if they are allowed to live everything will fall out of place. Now if you don't mind." With one swipe of his hand, Cell had Goku flying across the lookout.   
  
Chi-Chi ran to her husband's side in near tears. "Goku! Goku! Are you alright?!" She kneeled down beside him and grabbed his hand. "Don't give up Goku. You can't give up."  
  
Goku slowly sat up and shook off the pain that had been distributed to him when his head hit the concrete at full force. "I don't plan on giving up. Cell has been beaten before, it can happen again."  
  
"Maybe you should let Usagi and the girls help. They seem to have a lot of power according to Cell, and even themselves."  
  
Goku grinned as he turned his head to look into his wife's eyes. "THAT did not just come out of your mouth, did it?"  
  
Chi-Chi giggled as she nodded. "Usagi taught me a few things while we were training. I honestly think that they can help."  
  
"Can Gohan fight too?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Goku, I've been telling you for the past five years, NO! He needs to study to get a good education. NOW GET OUT THERE AND FIGHT!"  
  
Goku laughed. 'Same old Chi-Chi after all.' "Don't worry. I'm going." He bounced to his feet and teleported in front of Cell to block his way from Mamoru and the girls. "Do you really know what you're doing, Cell? I mean, with us all attacking you at the same time, you wont get very far."  
  
Cell chuckled. "You fail to see the truth of this situation. No ONE can beat me. I'm unstoppable. Unless that ONE was here. But she isn't so forget a victory over me." He once again swatted Goku to the side as if he were just a fly buzzing around in his face. "Now back to business." He reached out for Usagi's throat but his hands only grasped around air as Usagi had jumped out of the way at the first sign of movement. Cell grinned arrogantly. "Fast little bugger aren't you? It's useless to try and escape. Resistance will only cause more pain and suffering."  
  
Usagi quietly waddled her way over to Mamoru. "Hey, make a diversion." So wouldn't be heard, she whispered.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Just do it. Trust me."  
  
Mamoru shrugged. "All right. But if I die, I'm coming back to haunt you in your sleep." He jumped into the air. Since he wasn't on Cell's 'to kill list', he was easily able to fly away. He positioned himself right behind Cell's head and held his hands out so they would fire directly at the neck of his target. He was soon joined by Gohan, Piccolo, and Goku. "GO!" From the four fighters came four massive beams of Ki, all directed in the same spot. The neck of Cell.  
  
Usagi turned to her friends with a bright smile, a smile that not only told how happy she was, but also told that she had something planned. "You know how we couldn't ever do our combined attack because we would have to shout out? Well guess what? We don't have to do that anymore. We have our bond to do that for us."  
  
"But we've never used it while we were apart." Ami hated always being the skeptical one about things.  
  
"Who says we have to be separated." She glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Cell was still being distracted. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw that he was.  
  
"Cell will feel the power accumulating when we start making it. He will most likely turn around and try to attack us. We will be all in the same place. That's the same as when we first made it. That's why your dad didn't want us to use it. But if we are separated and concentrate on one spot, he'll have a hard time locating us."  
  
"Yeah, we already figured that out when your mom was training with us, Usagi. If we're going to do this we better do it quick. And I say that we DO, do this. It's out only option at this point. He seems to be too strong for your dad and yourself Usagi." Rei was getting nervous that Cell would turn around and see them and then attack them at any moment.  
  
Usagi nodded. "You're right, Rei. Let's do this now, while we can, while he's distracted." She jumped backwards into the air and took her position just above the room of spirit and time.  
  
Makoto stayed on the ground while Minako hovered just above Usagi only on the opposite side of the lookout. Ami flew up to the highest point just across from Makoto. They all looked to Usagi as she would once again lead the attack, since she had already done it twice before.  
  
Usagi took a deep breath in before she too nodded to let them know that she was ready. 'Right about Cell's head is the place. That way if he detects it before we get a chance to finish he'll try to attack it. But then it will explode right on his head. He, he, he. Too bad for him.'  
  
Minako couldn't help but giggle at that. 'I would pay to see something like that.'  
  
'We should get this started. Ready?'  
  
'Ready.'  
  
'Alright then. Start building up now.' The girls all concentrated the majority of their energy directly above Cell's head as directed by Usagi. This time they had the link to let them know the exact point above his head.   
  
Slowly but surely a white ball of energy began to form above Cell's head. It proved to be even stronger than his power was at the moment. Even to the girls, who had the benefit of feeling his real power. They knew that his was going to do some damage. They would finally see Cell suffer from what he had done.  
  
Cell stopped worrying about Mamoru and the others' attacks and concentrated more on the energy pile up that was happening just above his head. "What the…" He looked up only to be blinded by the magnificent bright Ki attack of the girls. "WHAT IS THAT!?" He could feel its energy, which was in fact larger than his own. There was no way that he would be able to attack against it.  
  
'IT'S READY!' "NOW GIRLS! HAND IT OVER TO ME!" The others gladly complied with Usagi's wishes for none of them knew how to control such a massive energy. Usagi herself was even having trouble holding onto the attack once they let go. She found that she had to pull against the attack just to keep from flying into its pull. "It doesn't look like you're going to be killing anyone else today, Cell. Your terror stops here."  
  
Cell decided to play it cool. He didn't want them to know that the truth was that he was feeling sort of scared by this attack. "Go ahead. It wont do anything."  
  
Everyone else backed away from the two fighter. They felt the potential of the attack and didn't want to be anywhere near it when it hit. "It's lights out for you. You've tried to kill me and my family and friends. No more. I know daddy probably would have given you mercy, but not me. Not after what you've done. It's unforgivable." She became silent as she bowed her head once more. It became easier for her to hold onto the attack as well. "All the suffering your people have cause is unjustifiable. You will not go unpunished. In the name of all who stand for love and justice, you shall parish from this plane." With that, she raised her head and smiled. "Say buh-bye now." She released her hold on the combined attack that she and her friends created and watched as it felt onto Cell and crushed him into the ground and creating a shallow crater.  
  
Mamoru looked to the girls. "Is she always that carefree about killing people?"  
  
Rei rolled her eyes. "Only when they're a threat. Unlike you. You'll just kill people for the heck of it." She walked away from him and smiled as she felt a giant chunk of Cell's power get stripped away. "And that's all we ever had to do in the first place is that one stupid attack. That's kind of depressing."  
  
"Not exactly, kid." Cell emerged from the crater with his shell completely torn away. "I'm not gone yet." He looked at his arms and hands and nearly freaked out. "YOU BITCHES! YOU GOT TRHOUGH MY SHELL!"  
  
Usagi frowned. "Don't call us names. It's not nice. And as for your shell, good. Now we can take you out easier." She let herself land gracefully onto the ground. "You really don't have people skills do you?" She gasped as Cell fell forwards onto his face. "What just happened?"  
  
Behind him stood 18 with her hand directly out. "He killed 17. I had to get back at him. He was weak and had no power. He was a boring enemy." She walked up to his body and examined the black blood that seeped out of it. "This thing wasn't what Gero created. It was something else. Something more evil." She looked up to Usagi. "So kid, what did you do to make this queen or whatever mad at you?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "I have no idea. I didn't know that any queens existed. Not any with any sort of power anyways." She let her legs drop out from underneath her as her power had been almost completely drained from the last attack. "I still say he was way to easy. Just like his stupid kids."  
  
Goku walked over to his daughter and sat next to her. He put his arm around her shoulders and smiled. "Well kiddo, you guys saved the day…sort of. With the help of 18. But he was already pretty much dead. Umm…and just a quick question. What happened to you just before you threw that attack?"  
  
Usagi looked up to her father's curious eyes. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"You said some pretty strange stuff. It sounded like you were an adult. You said something about his people and how they caused a lot of suffering and something about he shouldn't go unpunished.   
  
Usagi giggled. "Are you sure? I don't remember saying anything like an adult. I don't remember even saying that. I think you're hearing things."  
  
"Usagi, this is just like what happened right before we started fighting all of those Chibi Cells. You said something weird like that." Ami sat down in front of the duo. "It's really strange if you ask me."  
  
"I have no idea what you're talking about. Really I don't."  
  
"Oh well. All that matters is that you're alive and well." Chi-Chi smiled down at the girls. She was so proud of them at that point. They had come so far since she began training with them. They had even established a link. "What are you guys going to do with your time now? There's nothing to train for."  
  
Usagi looked down to the ground with sadness written all over her face. "I was hoping that the guardian of time would let me go home now. I fought Cell. Isn't that what I came here for? That had to be because now there's nothing to fight."  
  
'Do you want to go home THAT badly, little one?'  
  
Usagi looked up to the sky. "Is that you, guardian of time? Yes I want to go home! Can I now? Please?"  
  
'You've learned all you can here. I guess it would be acceptable to allow you to come home now. Things can play out there.'  
  
"Play out? What do you mean by that?" Everyone looked to Usagi as if she were an idiot. All except Goku. This was just as if he were talking to King Kai. ( I know that's probably wrong. I just don't remember the Japanese spelling at this time. )   
  
'Don't worry, little one. Things are out of your hands now. You have done well. Now you may go home to be with your families…where you belong.'  
  
A white light filled the area at Kami's lookout. Once the light was gone, a time rip was left. On the other side were the mountains where Usagi's house was located not too far from. Usagi's eyes were filled with tears of joy as she looked upon the rip. "We can go home now you guys. It's really true. She said we can go." She was so happy that she couldn't even stand up when she tried. She didn't even care that she would get into major trouble when she got there, she just wanted to be home again.  
  
Goku stood up and helped his daughter from the future up. "So you're actually leaving?" The truth was that Goku didn't really want them to leave. He had gotten himself rather attached to them.  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yes. I don't belong here. None of us do. But I'm going to miss you all. You're like a whole different group of people to me. I wish there was a way that I could stay, but I can't." She could see that it was hard on her family. It was probably harder on her though. She had just gotten used to living with them and now she would be torn away from them again. She wrapped her arms around her father's waist and hugged him as tight as she could. "Promise you wont forget us when we leave."  
  
Goku returned the hug with much love. It was harder to give her up now than it was when she first tried to leave. He had grown to actually think of her as his real daughter, and it just ripped his heart to think of her leaving. Though he would be blessed with her as a daughter later in life. "Don't worry, I wont."  
  
Usagi pulled away from her father and went to her mother next. "Thanks for the earrings, mamma. They're really pretty. I can't wait to try them on."  
  
"I'm glad you like them, dear. We wont forget you, but you have to promise not to forget us either."  
  
"I wont ever forget you, I promise." She turned to her older brother. "Gohan, I have one thing to say to you. You're the coolest. I mean look at you. You're powerful and smart. What else could you possibly wish for, besides being rich."  
  
Gohan chuckled as he blushed from embarrassment. "Thanks, sis. You're pretty cool yourself. Along with your friends. You can be a little annoying at times, but I think that's what a sister's job is."  
  
Usagi looked once more around to the group. "You guys have all been good to us and we thank you for that. We wont ever forget you since you have been forever engraved in our hearts. We'll see you in the future." She turned around and face the time portal. "I guess it's time to go."  
  
"Wait." Usagi turned to her father. "Don't ever listen to your dad about that combined attack. He told us that you shouldn't use it because it's a waste of time. But it's a valuable asset. Just make sure you only use it when you know that you can safely do it."  
  
Usagi smiled. "I'll keep that in mind." She turned back around. "Thank you all for everything. Oh, and 18, why don't you use the Dragon Balls to revive 17. I know you cared a lot about him since you were pretty much best friends. You told me that in the future." With that, she took her first step into the future. Her friends were soon to follow.  
  
Before the time rip closed, however, a large black creature jumped through, which caused the rip to collapse behind it.  
  
Goku's stomach turned inside when he saw that. "That was one of the Cells from inside the room. It had to have been."  
  
Gohan turned to his father. "WHAT!? How? They defeated them all inside. Cell even said that himself." He leaned his head around his father's body and looked the spot where Cell had fallen. "Wait a minute, why is Cell's body all shriveled up like that, dad?"  
  
"What?" Goku turned around to look at the body to see that it was, in fact, shriveled up. "That bastard of a monster. He must have absorbed Cell's body without being detected, but how?"  
  
Chi-Chi put her hand on her husband's shoulder. "All we can do is hope that the Cell Jr. Doesn't get to Usagi and the others before she gets home. If she can tell the others they will be able to destroy it for her."  
  
"Hoping is all we CAN do at this point. We can't go to the future."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Future~  
  
Usagi squealed with joy as he foot landed on the grass of what she considered to be HER mountains. "WE'RE HOME! WE'RE FINALLY HOME!" She jumped around a bit and did a little victory dance.  
  
Mamoru snorted as he rolled his eyes. "Calm down Odango. It isn't THAT big of a deal. I mean yeah, we're home. And we're going to get our asses kicked by our parents."  
  
Usagi stopped moving around and continued to smile. "I don't care. And you know what Mamoru, you helped get us home." She walked towards him. "You distracted Cell from noticing our attack." Once she got to him she threw herself onto him and hugged him. "Thank you."   
  
"Gross Odango! Get off me!" He grabbed her arms and ripped them off of his waist. "All you have to do is say thanks. You don't have to hug me."  
  
Usagi giggled as she jumped back. "You're no fun." She playfully stuck her tongue out at him. "Hey guys, let's go find everyone."  
  
"They're probably still at Bulma's trying to find a way to get us home. That's where we were when you wished us to the past." Makoto couldn't wait to get back and tell everyone of their adventure.  
  
"Well then let's go to Bulma's. I hope mom isn't TOO mad at me. I mean, we only saw her coolest side in the past. I never knew she had it in her. Maybe she'll let me off the hook." She pressed her fingers to her forehead.  
  
Minako laughed. "Yeah right. That'll be that day." She too pressed her fingers to her forehead.   
  
"It's worth a try." Usagi looked to Mamoru. "Are you coming? Piccolo is probably there too."  
  
Mamoru frowned as he seemed disgusted with Usagi. "I'm going home. If he wants to punish me he can to it there." He flew into the air without any further words. He didn't want to be around other people when he got chewed out by his father. He especially didn't want to be around Usagi so she could laugh at him.  
  
"Fine. I'm going to find my parents though."  
  
"I should probably go home and tell my mom that I fight. And that I fought. Gee's I don't want to see what she'll do. She's probably already really mad at me for even going to the past. I'm going to be grounded for months." Ami shuddered at the thought of facing her mother after she expressed her hate for fighting to her on many occasions. "I'll see you guys later. Probably at school since I wont be able to do anything at all this vacation. Usagi, keep studying with that music since it seems to help you." With that she teleported out of there to face her mother.   
  
Rei sighed. "Vacations over for me too. My grandfather will be angry at me for leaving like that. But he'll be happy with all that I've learned. I'll catch up with you later." She too teleported away.  
  
"I want to go tell my dad what I've learned too. I want to rub it in his face. Even though he never believes half the stuff I tell him anyways." Makoto resented her father for that too.  
  
"I need to get home too. My mom isn't worried about me or anything, I just don't want to be around when everyone yells at you Usagi. I've seen too many of your family fights."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes. "Oh gee thanks Minako." She watched as the last of her friends teleported away. 'I guess that just leaves me.' She took a deep breath and teleported to her mother's Ki.  
  
(DONE! Ok there you go. There's that part for ya. What did you think? Well, gotta go. Ja. ^_^ )   



	69. Part 31

~~Capsule Corp.~~  
  
Bulma sat, hunched over, at her desk trying to piece together some part for the new time machine that Piccolo had brought in for her. Only but a few seconds had past since Goku had returned back from the past. He hadn't even had a chance to teleport home and tell everyone what had just happened.   
  
To Bulma's side stood an irate Chi-Chi. Though she wasn't as angry now as she had been before the strange angel had summoned her to her realm, where she met her past self. "How much longer, Bulma? I need to see Usagi. I want to make sure she's all right. I have a bad feeling that something big is happening in the past."   
  
A bright golden light caught her attention as she looked into Bulma's computer screen, where she was typing in a formula for the new wrist bracelets that were needing to be made. "Who's there?" She turned around and nearly went into shock at what she saw. "USAGI!"  
  
Bulma quickly turned around, thinking that her friend was hallucinating. "What?"  
  
Usagi's smile grew wider as she jumped into her mother's arms. "Mommy!" At that point Usagi didn't care what kind of trouble she would be in. She was just happy to be in familiar grounds, meaning her OWN family. Not the one from the past, though she would miss them dearly. Usagi nuzzled her face into her mother's neck as she began to cry. "I missed you so much, mommy."  
  
Chi-Chi was in a pure state of bliss. She hugged Usagi back as if she hadn't seen her in years. She felt like she had when she was finally reunited with her son, Gohan, after a year of being ripped away from him. "Usagi, I missed you too." Chi-Chi hadn't planned on acting like this when her youngest child were to return home. She had in fact planned to just let into her, but once she saw her, she couldn't bring herself to yell at her right away.  
  
Unconsciously, Usagi began to raise her power level from being so excited. "I'm sorry I left. I wont ever, EVER do it again. I promise." She and the two adults who were in the room with her turned her head as another flash of light quickly came and left. Usagi's eyes widened as she smiled brighter. "DADDY!" Usagi ripped herself out of her mother's arms and ran for her father, who in return kneeled down to catch her.  
  
Goku wrapped his arms around his daughter and picked her up. "When did you get here? I was only here for a few seconds before I felt your power." He smiled as Usagi rested her head onto his shoulder. "You look tired, what happened in the past?" Goku asked as he walked over to his wife.  
  
"Daddy a lot of stuff happened after you left. Mom came to practice with us."  
  
Goku sat down on the table next to Bulma's computer as the two women traveled over his way to listen to the story. "I know. I asked her to go there. I didn't trust myself to go in there with you?" He looked over to his wife, who was looking quite confused. "I'll tell you in a minute."  
  
"Before we even got a chance to finish up in the room, Cell attacked us. You and Gohan had to come and get us out of there so you could train together to become stronger."  
  
"What?! I thought that Cell couldn't be in that timeline." He thought about the situation for a moment. "Wait, when I left there was still about a year before the androids were even supposed to attack. What happened?"  
  
"Oh daddy it was horrible. He was from THIS timeline." She waited for his reaction and decided to continue when he got an even more stunned look on his face than before. "He said that his queen or whatever revived him so he could get my power for her."  
  
"What did she want with you. Wait, who is this lady?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "I don't know. But I started fighting him and he had this protective shell around his body that his queen gave him. We had him under control until the androids showed up. After that everything went worse. I almost died because he started sucking my life out of me."  
  
Chi-Chi jumped in front her daughter's face as she sat on Goku's lap. "HE WHAT!? ARE YOU ALL RIGHT!?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yeah. Daddy from the past came and got me. He gave me a Senzu bean. But before that, Gohan went Super Saiyan and saved me. And when he left he went to fight Cell. And when daddy came to get me, he was at level two. And a lot of stuff happened after that until Cell became more powerful than us and spit out this egg thing. Me, Minako, Makoto, Ami, and Rei got locked in the room of spirit and time with it. It hatched into thousands and thousands of little Cells. Luckily we fought them and became more powerful and learned cool stuff and killed them all."  
  
"And how did you defeat Cell if he was more powerful than all of you?" 'Gees, we had a hard enough time in this timeline. It sounds like I didn't even die in that timeline either.'  
  
"The combined attack. We figured out a way to make it work. But really, I'm tired now."  
  
"I bet. You've had a long day from what you're saying. You deserve a break." Goku stood up and sat his daughter down on the ground. "We should get you home and into bed."  
  
Chi-Chi crossed her arms and frowned as she watched her husband take their daughter away. "Oh no you don't. Now that we've gotten the reunion done there is still the matter of my little talk with her, Goku."  
  
Goku groaned as he turned around to face his wife. "Come on Chi-Chi, she's tired. Let her rest, then do it."  
  
Chi-Chi's frown turned into a glare. "Goku you promised that you would let me handle this. Now don't try to stick up for her. She put herself in more danger than ever before. She even admitted just now that she nearly got herself killed."  
  
Goku sighed as he looked down to his daughter, who was currently looking up at him for redemption. Though he had agreed to let Chi-Chi handle things, he hardly thought that now was the most appropriate time for something like that. Usagi's power was lower than half of its max. Goku looked up to Chi-Chi with a slight hint of a frown. He hated to be put in a situation like that. He was torn between the two. On one part, he wanted to save his daughter from being scolded, and on the other, he didn't want to go back on his word to his wife. "Fine." He stepped away from Usagi, hoping that he hadn't hurt her too badly by agreeing with Chi-Chi. He had, after all, told her in the past that he would let her mother take care of things.  
  
Bulma quickly walked passed Chi-Chi and Usagi to get to the door. "I think I should leave. I don't want to get into these family squabbles." She opened the door and walked out, slamming it shut behind her.   
  
Usagi looked to her father with fear written all over her eyes. She couldn't believe that he was actually going to make her go through this on her own. She gulped as she looked back over at her mother. "Mom, I'm sorry. I di…"   
  
Usagi backed away as Chi-Chi walked closer. "You're not going to be able to talk your way out of this one, young lady. You've put us all in a very bad position with this little stunt of yours." She tried to keep in mind what the white angel told her about how her daughter was important to the good of the earth and that she could keep letting her fight. But at the point it was a struggle for Chi-Chi to not take her fighting privileges away. "You broke the trust of almost everyone you know. Do you realize that? There's me, your father, your brother Gohan, who trusted you enough to let you stay in his house without supervision. There's Bulma and all of your friends' parents. What was going through your head when you made this decision? Did you think that no one would notice that you weren't here for two days?! Because if you did you were sadly mistaken!"  
  
Usagi's heart begin to race inside her chest as she listened to her mother. She was afraid that she would start hitting her. She had done it once before, there was really nothing that would be stopping her now. "I didn't think that we would have been gone that long. I'm sorry." A single tear trailed down her cheek as more began to form in her eyes.  
  
Chi-Chi stopped approaching her daughter when she had her up against a wall with no where to go. "Oh, and that just up and makes it all better. As long as your parents don't know about what you're doing it's all right, is that how you think? I don't EVER remember teaching you that it's all right to go behind our backs. Honestly Usagi. Why are we even here? Why have parents if you're never going to listen to us? We aren't here just to hear ourselves talk. We do serve a purpose." The room went silent for about a minute as Chi-Chi tried to collect her thoughts. She shook her head in disbelief. "Well I just don't know what I'm going to do with you, Usagi. Every time we set rules for you, you just turn around and break them. Do you think we're stupid? Is that it? Do you think that we are just going to let you break rules?"   
  
Not a single word came out of her daughter's mouth. "Well fine then. You know what, you can consider yourself grounded until I say otherwise. No friends, no T.V., no fighting with your father, and no leaving the direct yard of our house. That means no going into the woods. I want you to apologize to Bulma, and all of your friends' parents."   
  
She quieted down to let her daughter say anything that she may have wanted to say in protest. She became angrier when it continued to stay silent. "Are you listening to me, young lady?" There was not a single sign of motion to let Chi-Chi know if her daughter was listening to her or ignoring her. "Are you just going to ignore me now?" She raised her hand and laid a hard slap upon her daughter's already bruised cheek from fighting off the Cells. "Listen to me when I'm speaking to you!"  
  
Usagi looked up into her mother's eyes with more tears flowing down her face as she reached up and grabbed her cheek. No matter how much she had prepped herself for this, she still wasn't ready. She slowly turned her head to her father, who didn't seem to be trying to intervene with the situation, which upset her more. A pile of emotions were building up inside her. Fear, anger, sadness, etc… It was just too much for her to handle on her own. "I never know what I'm supposed to do with you guys. You want the perfect daughter who doesn't do anything wrong. Something I can't be because I make too many mistakes. Daddy wants someone who doesn't whine. Someone who is tough and doesn't make mistakes while fighting. Something I can't be either. I don't know what to do. If I try to be what you want me to be, I get yelled at by daddy for being a whiner. If I try to be like what daddy wants, I get yelled at by you. I can't do anything right."  
  
Chi-Chi was a little shocked by her daughter's response, but she had to stay firm. She had to let her daughter know that her recent behavior was unacceptable. "What does this have to do with you going into the past?"  
  
"I went to the past because I was scared. Daddy didn't seem to care if I was born there or not. When I was talking to him about the past and asked him what would happen if Trunks wasn't there to save it from the androids and give daddy the medicine all he said was, 'This is just the way things work out'. He didn't sound like he cared If I was born or not. Maybe you both just didn't want me to be born at all. You always want me to study, and you're always telling me what I do wrong. Never what I do right. And Daddy always thinks the worst of me. Teasing me by telling me something, then complaining when I want to know, only to tell me I have to WAIT until later if I want it. When I first started training he thought the worst. When he made me run and I ran into those people who wanted to kill me, he was disappointed in me. Almost angry that I didn't live up to what he wanted me to be." She paused to catch her breath. It felt somewhat good to finally get all of this out of her system. It had been playing on her mind for some time now. "And you're not like your younger self. I know she loves AND likes me."  
  
Chi-Chi felt hurt as she looked over to her husband, who looked the same way as she did. She quickly turned back to her daughter. "I love you."  
  
"I know you LOVE me. But I know you don't LIKE me. Mom, She came with cookies while we studied. Something you never do for me. She even believed Ami and Me when we found out music helps me learn, not music with words, just the instrument kind. You and daddy always yell at me when I listen to it. And she even let us train her. She never slapped me, or hit me, though Daddy did, but I know that he liked me in the past too. Both of you did. I DON'T know if you ever liked me. Maybe you didn't want me to be born at all. That's why you're mad at me for going to the past. I went to make sure daddy was safe and that I would be born, something you don't want. You never believe me or believe in me. I know what I did was wrong. I'm ready to be punished." Not wanting to go on for fear of getting even more emotional, she teleported to her special spot in the woods where only she and her father go when they are upset about something.  
  
Chi-Chi's face grew pale as she turned back to Goku, who was about to teleport away to find their daughter. "Leave her, Goku. I think we've made a terrible, terrible mistake here."  
  
Goku brought his hand down to his side as he walked towards his wife. "You're telling me. I never knew she felt that way. She thinks we don't like her and that we didn't want her to be born? How could we have sent that message to her. We always show her that we love her."  
  
Chi-Chi's muscles began to get numb as she felt that she was slipping further and further away from her daughter. "What have I done? She thinks I hate her now. I've told her that I think she's just a big screw up. How could I have done that to my baby?" She covered her face with her hands.   
  
Goku wrapped his arms around his wife and pulled her close to him. "This is still fixable, Chi-Chi. It's ok. We've made many mistakes. But we just have to try harder." 'How could I have been so stupid as to let her think that I didn't want her to act herself. I guess I did tell her to stop whining too much. I expected her to be too much like Gohan and Goten.'  
  
"I don't understand what I could have done. Do you really think we can fix this?" There came no answer from her husband. "She's right, you know. I do put too much pressure on her to be someone she isn't. I just want what's best for her. She has so much potential, I just don't want her to waste it. But I don't want her putting herself in danger either. This time she went too far."  
  
"You have to admit that you were a little harsh on her. I mean, she is only eight years old. It's not like she's a teenager. She doesn't always understand. As much as we would like her to."  
  
"I know. It's just so hard to see her get herself hurt and then NOT punish her."  
  
"Maybe we should find another way to get our point across to her. Like talking civilly."  
  
Chi-Chi giggled. "What did you do with my Goku? He never would have said something like that."  
  
"I'm starting to see things more clearly, I guess."  
  
"You're right about that. Now if we can only get Usagi to see things our way. She needs to understand that we don't hate her."  
  
"Maybe we should tell her this. She would probably like to hear it."  
  
"But Gohan and Goten never reacted to us this way. Are we THAT bad of parents? Maybe it was wrong of us to think that we cold raise another child. Look how badly we've screwed up her life." She sobbed into his chest as he tightened his grip.  
  
"She isn't like Gohan or Goten. She's far more sensitive. And we haven't totally failed. Obviously she loves us otherwise she wouldn't be so upset about this whole thing. She cares about what we think about her. I don't think we should leave her alone right now. She's probably not expecting us to follow her right now."  
  
Chi-Chi pulled away from her husband and looked into his eyes. "Are you going for her? Is that the right thing to do? She probably just wants to be alone."  
  
Goku smiled. "Trust me. If she wants to be alone, I'll leave. But I don't think that's the case right now. She's hurting right now because she thinks we hate her. If we go there and don't yell at her, then it may help her trust us again."  
  
"I hope you're right. Don't say anything to upset her though. Be careful about what you say.  
  
"You aren't going with?"   
  
Chi-Chi shook her head. "No, I need to collect my thoughts. I don't think I could handle myself if I saw her right now."  
  
"Gonna fly off the handle again?"  
  
"No. I'm not. This is just too emotional for me. I would probably just end up…well I think you know." She turned around and walked out the door, leaving her husband to make his decision of whether he wanted to leave or not.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi sat on the top of a rock that sat on the edge of a large lake surrounded by trees covered completely in snow. The lake was totally iced over. It was her favorite place to go when she was upset about anything. And now, she was upset more than ever. She wasn't angry about her punishment, it were the words that accompanied it. Her mother just reassured Usagi's feelings. Her mother didn't even care that she was hurt from battle. Her mother only cared that she was well enough to yell at. Sure she was worried about her, but she didn't wait to yell at her. Usagi had only been there for a matter of minutes when her mother laid into her. Sure her mother from the future yelled at her, but she also showed that she like her. She didn't just seem to ignore her when she wasn't doing something wrong. She sighed just as she felt her father's energy appear just behind her. "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"  
  
Goku waited to answer as he walked to the rock and sat down by his daughter. He just gazed at the ice, not know exactly what to tell her. He knew that there were going to be many questions. "No, you aren't in trouble. It's quite the opposite actually. Your mother and I are in trouble."  
  
Usagi looked to her father in confusion. "How are you and mom in trouble?"  
  
"With you, we are. You were completely right."  
  
"I was? You mean you didn't want me to be born?" Usagi felt her heart shatter into thousands of tiny pieces.   
  
Goku was quick in his reaction. "NO! We were happy to hear that you were going to be placed into our lives. There is nothing in this world that would ever make us want to change the past and not have you born." He wiped away a tear from her face with his thumb.  
  
Usagi looked around to the snow covered trees, not fully believing him. "Then how was I right?"  
  
"Your mother and I DO put a lot of pressure on you to be how we want you to be. We both have our idea on what a perfect child should act like. But that doesn't mean you have to act how we want you to. We want you to act like yourself and we want you to enjoy it as well."  
  
"Why didn't mom come, too?"  
  
"She didn't think that she would be able to handle the emotional effects."  
  
"So I made her cry?" Usagi wasn't sure if she wanted to make her mother cry or not.  
  
"No, no. You didn't make her cry." He wasn't sure if that was the right answer as his daughter's eyes grew heavier with sadness.  
  
"So she doesn't like me enough to cry about something like that?"  
  
Goku frowned as he wrapped his fingers around his daughter's chin, guiding it up to look at him. "Don't ever think that, Usagi. Your mother and I will always, always love you. And like you for that matter. I know we usually only point out all the bad things you do, but you see, that is our failure as parents. It's nothing you did."  
  
Usagi sighed. "Are you sure? I mean, mom always…"  
  
"Do you know why mom always yells at you?" Usagi shook her head. "I didn't think you would. You're still very young. Your mom yells at you because she wants you to know the difference between right and wrong. But that's just the half of it. Other times she is just upset because what you did put you in extreme danger. As you and I both know your mom has a thing about letting her emotions come out in her speech. Most of the time she yells at herself for being so hard on you kids. But she does it to make sure you don't do it again, so you have less of a chance of endangering yourselves. This isn't something that only you have to go through. Your brothers and I all had to go through it too. That's how we know that she loves us." He put his arm around her shoulders to keep her warm as it began to start snowing and she was only wearing her Gi.   
  
"Really? But she was so much different in the past." Usagi was beginning to warm up to her father again. She could sense his feelings and how difficult of a time he was having with all of this.  
  
"She's still the same person, Usagi. You just have to hit her at the right time."  
  
Usagi let on a hint of a smile. "Literally?"  
  
Goku laughed. "No, of course not. Though that would be a funny sight, don't you think?"  
  
Usagi giggled. "Yep. That would. Mom hit you in the future you know, she stuck up for me. She was really cool."  
  
"Hey now, your mom is cool here too. I bet if you ask her to train you in her ways that she would be glad to do it. All you have to do is ask."  
  
"Daddy?" Usagi leaned into her father as he was completely in her good graces again. "Can we go see mom now?"  
  
Goku smiled. He had managed to calm her without a fight. "Of course. I think that that would make her happy."  
  
"So do I." She hopped to her feet and put her hand out for her father to grab. "Let's go."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Another Dimension~~  
  
Cell Jr. angrily stormed through the corridor of his new queen's giant castle. His feet clicked and echoed throughout the large hallway that led to her lair as he passed the room where his father was remade. 'If those brats think they can kill my whole family PLUS me, they're mistaken. With my new power that I got from my brothers AND father I am unbeatable. There is no way that I can be beaten now. Even if we are in the future. I've even got that brat's energy that father stole from her before her brother came and saved her. He shall pay for what he did, even if this is another time. He's the one that originally killed father anyways.' He stopped just before entering his queen's lair and took a deep breath. He hoped that she wouldn't take her anger out on him since it wasn't exactly his fault that his father failed her. He raised his fist to knock on the door.  
  
"Come in!" Cell Jr. hesitantly pushed the door open, creating a large squeal from the door hinges. "Just push it open fast you annoying fool!"   
  
Cell Jr. jumped and pushed the door open all the way. "Yes your majesty." He quickly dropped to his knees and bowed his head to pay his respects to his queen. "I have come from the past."  
  
The queen smiled. "Ah yes. Cell. You have returned soon. It has only been a few seconds since I sent you away. You may rise and bring me my power."  
  
Cell Jr. stood as he was told. "Your majesty, I am not Cell. I am his one remaining son. He was killed by Usagi and her friends. I miraculously survived and am here to serve you as you wish. I have some of the power that father absorbed but I wish to keep it until I beat them. These people are tricky an…"  
  
The queen's happy mood soon deteriorated into an furious one. "ALL THAT WORK I HAD MY PEOPLE PUT IN ON THAT BASTARD AND HE SCREWED UP BY LETTING HIMSELF DIE!!??"  
  
Cell Jr. coward away. "Yes, but he was weak. I am stronger than he was."  
  
The queen looked directly into Cell Jr.'s eyes. "And that little bitch Usagi has screwed me over for the last time. I will not put up with her any longer. Give me her power. I shall put it to good use."  
  
"Ma'm, I can do this. I know I can."  
  
"I'm threw with you people." She stuck out her hand and a white web like energy emerged from it and wrapped itself around Cell Jr. "Give me the energy, now!" The web like energy seeped into Cell Jr.'s body and extracted Usagi's energy. But this wasn't her normal energy. It was her special energy that was to be protected at all times, which was why Gohan thought that Cell hadn't taken any energy from her body. "I'm not going to waste any more time with you." With a snap of her fingers a white portal opened up underneath Cell Jr., causing him to fall through to Usagi's dimension. "Get yourself killed for all I care. I've got what I want." She laughed as she held Usagi's pure white energy in her hands. It lit up the entire room even though it was only as big as a marble. "Usagi will pay for sure."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~DBZ Dimension~~  
  
Usagi and her father arrived in Bulma's living room where her mother, brothers, Piccolo, Vejita, and Bulma sat. Usagi stood behind her father as she was afraid that her mother would yell at her again. "Hi everyone." She sheepishly hung her head low.   
  
Gohan stood up and walked over to his sister and knelt by her side. "Hey there. Long time no see. Heard you had quite an adventure in the past. Did you have fun?"  
  
Usagi nodded as she barely lifted her head enough to look her brother in the eyes. "Yes." She quietly replied.  
  
"Well that's the important part. As long as you had fun. Now if you didn't have fun I would have to yell at you for wasting your time."  
  
Usagi raised her head. She knew that she wasn't going to get yelled at by her brother. "Of course I had fun. I got to hang out with you."  
  
"What did you think? I was a stud in my young age." He ran his fingers through his hair.  
  
Usagi giggled. "You're funny, Gohan." She emerged from behind her father and kept her attention on Bulma. "I'm really sorry, Bulma. We ruined your time machine. It blew up on us and we couldn't get back. Are you mad at me?"  
  
Bulma squirmed in her chair. She was mad that all her work was destroyed, but she couldn't yell at Usagi. "Why do you have to do this to me, kid? You're just too cute to stay mad at."  
  
"Thanks, Bulma. I'll find some way to repay you for the damage." She started to inch her way to her mother.   
  
"Don't worry about it. I think we've learned something important from this. We shouldn't tamper with time. Maybe it's better that we don't have the time machine. I'm not even going to rebuild it."  
  
"I don't think you have to worry about her going back in time." Chi-Chi met her daughter half way and bent down to hug her. "Come with me. I want to talk to you." She grabbed her arm as she stood up and pulled her off to the side.   
  
Chi-Chi led her daughter to the hallway that led out of the living room and looked her straight in the eye. "There are some things we need to talk about and I think you know what I mean."  
  
Usagi groaned as she anticipated what was going to come up. But she kept in mind what her father had told her about how her mother expresses her feelings through yelling at people. "I do."  
  
"I know we don't always see eye to eye on most of the things. That's just something that happens between a mother and daughter. But I know I do have a tendency to make situations bigger and more miserable for all of us when it can be avoided. I'm not perfect, as you know. But you have to understand where I'm coming from. Like today, I have been worried sick about you for the past two days. I know that's not a long time to you, but for a mother it seems like an eternity. But I also knew what kind of danger you were in with Cell. And when I heard you say that you nearly died I was even more scared."  
  
"You were scared?" 'Maybe she does like me after all.'  
  
"Of course I was scared. You're my little girl and I don't know what I would do if you were taken away from me or if you died in a battle. It's bad enough that your father takes your brothers out to a fight every time that one is going on. I worry about you four whenever something attacks the earth."  
  
"Well if you fought with us maybe you wouldn't be so scared. You could be there to help us."  
  
"I can't fight with you guys. I'd be nuts to try."  
  
Usagi shook her head with high hopes of luring her mother into the world of fighting. "You trained with us in the past. I know what you can do. It was your training that helped us through the fight with Cell. You believed in us when daddy didn't. He didn't want us to do our combined attack buy you knew that we could do it."  
  
'The angel said something about that attack. Should I tell her about the angel? Maybe not. I think she's been through enough. I'll tell her later.' "You really think I am capable of being a fighter?"  
  
Usagi smiled. "You already are. You beat up dad in the past. It was SO funny. I really think that you should learn how to fight our style, even if it's just the basics. If you do, I'll promise not to ever do anything bad again."  
  
"I appreciate that, dear, but that's not a promise that any child can keep. Just listen to your parents when they tell you something. They know what they're talking about. We only set rules to protect you. I know I can't promise to let up on the yelling, but I'll make an honest effort to do so. And maybe I'll give fighting a chance. It may be kind of interesting."  
  
"Thanks mom."  
  
"I can't withdraw your punishment though. What you did was wrong. I'm sorry."  
  
"I know. I've done a lot of thinking about it. I deserve it." The mother and daughter duo went silent as they turned to join their friends and family, but for some reason Usagi stopped. "Mom, I love you."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled as she looked down into her daughter's wide eyes. "I love you too. Don't you forget or ever doubt that." Usagi smiled as she happily skipped down the hallway with her mother.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Mizuno Household~~  
  
Ami crept around her house ever so quietly so as not to scare her mother. She was certain that she was working on something important. She was probably worried sick about her too and unable to really concentrate anyway. "Mom?" She quietly asked.  
  
Mrs. Mizuno popped her head up from looking at the computer screen with tears in her eyes. "Ami? Is that you?" She bolted up from her chair, letting it fly out from underneath her as she ran to the main hall where, to her surprise, her daughter was standing. "AMI!" She flew down the stairs and scooped her daughter into her arms. "I was so worried about you!"  
  
Ami smiled as she leaned into the familiar touch of her mother's arms. "I missed you too. I'm sorry I left."  
  
Mrs. Mizuno frowned. "It was the influence of that Son kid wasn't it?"  
  
"Not entirely. It was MY decision." She didn't want Usagi to take the heat for everyone. And it WAS her decision to listen to her friend. She could have just ignored her.  
  
"I'm just happy to have you back home with me. I don't ever want you to leave again."  
  
"Aren't you going to punish me now?"  
  
"No. I think you've been punished enough. Bulma told me that as one day passes here, a whole year passed there. So what did you do while you were there?"   
  
Ami was a little on the reluctant side to respond to her mother. But she knew that it had to be answered sooner or later. She wanted to get it out in the open as soon as possible. "Well, I sort of started training with the girls and got pretty powerful."  
  
Mrs. Mizuno pulled away from her daughter and looked straight into her blue eyes to make sure she was just joking, but she wasn't. Her eyes were more serious than ever. "YOU WHAT?! YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THAT!"  
  
Ami sighed. 'Here we go.' "I know, mom. But the girls needed my help. This guy Cell came and…"  
  
"Cell!? I heard Bulma and the rest of the people telling me about him. He's the one that nearly killed off everyone on the face of this planet. What in the hell were you thinking about when you decided to fight him?!"   
  
"Mom, please calm down. I didn't get hurt. I was trained by the best."  
  
"By the best I'm guessing that you mean Mr. Son?" Ami nodded. "He's an animal. You saw how he let Usagi get hurt that one day when you first met her. He LET'S her fight like a beast."  
  
"Well, mom, technically they ARE both beasts. Heck, they're even aliens, sort of."  
  
"Well that doesn't mean I want you to fight. Did you think that just because you went into the past that I would want you to start fighting? Leave it to the rest of the girls. I don't think you should be hanging out with them."  
  
"Give me a break!"  
  
"And what's with that language, young lady. You never used to use slang like that."  
  
"Mother! My FRIENDS have taught me to live a little! Maybe you should come and see me fight before you shun all who do it!"  
  
Mrs. Mizuno continued to frown. "I don't like the position that you're putting me in, Ami. I really don't. But I'll give you a chance. The first time you come home severely hurt, you're stopping, do you hear me?!"  
  
Ami smiled. "Yes mom."  
  
( Hmmm….This WAS supposed to be the last part of this chapter but I added some stuff and made it longer. So I think that tomorrow's part will be the last part of this chapter. So what did you think? Good or bad? Ja )  



	70. Part 32

~~Rei's house~~  
  
Rei crept around her house so as to not let her grandfather know of her presence. She wanted to think about what she was going to tell him. She didn't know if she would be in trouble or not, but she knew she didn't want to find out without having a story to back herself up. The wooden floor creaked as she walked towards her room.  
  
Her grandfather poked his head out of his room and smiled as he saw his granddaughter walking down to her room. "So nice of you to drop by every now and then."  
  
Rei froze in her spot, not wanting to look back and see if her grandfather was angry with her or not. "Well I thought you'd like it."  
  
He emerged from his room and walked in her direction. "Everyone was worried about you kids." He proceeded to walk closer. "Did you learn anything from this whole ordeal?"  
  
Rei turned around, expecting to see her grandfather angry with her, but to her surprise, he was smiling. "Yes." She couldn't understand why he wasn't laying into her for leaving. Normally he didn't approve of her leaving to go anywhere overnight without telling him.   
  
"Good, good. I hope you enjoyed yourself while you were there since you're going to be doing extra chores around here for the remainder of this vacation. What did you learn?"  
  
'That's it? No grounding? No yelling?' "I...uh...opened a link between me and my friends. I even reached a new level of power."  
  
"I knew I felt something different about you when you walked into this house."  
  
Rei jerked back. "What? You mean you knew I was here to whole time?"  
  
Her grandfather nodded. "I'm not at all stupid, Rei. I could feel your presence. I do know a little about martial arts, you know. Just make sure this doesn't happen again." With that, he turned around and slowly walked back the way that Rei had come in. "I'll be in the dojo if you need me." 'There's something more odd about that girl now then there was when she left.'  
  
"Ok." 'Weird...why is he acting that way?' She just shrugged and turned back to go to her room. She didn't want to make a big deal off of getting off easy.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" Minako kicked her weighted shoes off and ran into the kitchen of her home. Her parents weren't there so she ran to where she figured that they would be, in the living room watching T.V. "Where are you guys?" She skidded into the living room and wasn't at all surprised to see her parents cuddling on the sofa. "Hey! I said I was home!"  
  
Mr. Aino looked back to his daughter with a slight smile. "We know. You don't need make your presence known every time you enter a room. You said you were home when you entered the house, that's enough."  
  
Minako frowned at her father. She looked to her mother, who had a little bit more sympathy in her eyes. "Don't be mean to her. She didn't do anything wrong. Dear, how were your dance lessons?"  
  
'Huh? Oh yeah, I was supposed to be at the lessons today. They don't even know I was gone since I didn't go with them in the first place. I was wished there. COOL!' "Oh they were fine. We didn't do much today. We'll be doing more tomorrow though." She giggled at her pouting father.  
  
"That's good. Honey, why are you wearing your Gi? And look at that one; it's completely torn up. Did you decide to fight with your friends after class?"   
  
Minako let out an 'eep' as she looked down to her Gi, which she had forgotten that she was wearing. "Uh...Yeah. We just wanted to try out this new attack that we thought of. Then it got a little out of hand. Nothing to worry about."  
  
Her father frowned. "Good. She's fine. Now let's get back to the movie. Minako, go play with your friends or something."  
  
"I don't know what you have against her. You don't have to be jealous of her all the time." Mrs. Aino slapped her husband in the back of the head. "Now settle down."  
  
"I'm not jealous. I just want to watch the movie. Look at that! Now I've missed part of it. Minako, make yourself useful and bring your father a cold beer."  
  
"What? So you can get yourself drunk again? I'm not going to help kill you! If you want to poison yourself with that garbage go ahead! But I'm not going to help!" She turned around and stormed down to her room.   
  
~*~*~  
  
"Where have you been Makoto!?"   
  
Makoto hung her head low as she stood before her father, who was at the moment scolding her for reasons unknown to her. All she had done was casually walk into the house, knowing that her parents wouldn't know that she had gone to the past since she had really only been gone for half a day and she was supposedly at martial arts school all day. But when she walked into the house her father had been at the door ready to yell at her. "I've been fighting."  
  
"Bull crap! You've been out playing with your little friends, haven't you? The martial arts school called today and asked where you were! You didn't show up there at all. So I ask you again! Where have you been!?" He grabbed the front of her Gi and pulled her up to his face.  
  
Makoto could hear her mother screaming at her father to let go, but he wasn't listening to her. Makoto wasn't the least bit scared. She knew that her father couldn't do anything to her. In the past, she had been afraid of him, but not now. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."  
  
"Try me!"   
  
Makoto grinned. "Ok. Well, I've been in the past with my friends. We fought a huge fight with Cell and we all nearly died. But we ended up winning."  
  
Her father glared into her eyes that came to her as a challenge. "You dare to lie to me!? You aren't nearly strong enough to even beat Mr. Satan, let alone Cell. Mr. Satan barely beat him, but he was stronger than him, luckily! There is no way to even go into the past so don't even try to go there! How do you expect to be able to beat Satan when you get older if you don't ever train when I tell you to!?"  
  
Makoto burst out with laughter at that one. "You think that Mr. Satan is stronger than me! Oh man, that's just TOO funny. Dad, you crack me up!"  
  
Her father threw her to the ground. "Oh you think you're pretty funny don't you? Why don't you continue to laugh in your room, which is where you are going to be for the remainder of winter vacation. You will only be allowed to leave when you are at martial arts school."  
  
Makoto stood up and brushed herself of. "So, I don't care. But, you really don't get it do you? Goku is SO much stronger than Satan. I'm stronger than Satan. Anyone can be stronger than Satan."  
  
"You dare to mock Mr. Satan!?"  
  
"What's there to mock?" She laughed inside. She could tell that she was making her father angrier and angrier with every time she opened her mouth.  
  
"You better have some respect. He's the only reason why you're here today."  
  
"That would be false. As I believe, Gohan beat Cell. And in the past, me and my friends beat him."  
  
Makoto's mother ran to her side and grabbed her by the shoulders fearing that he father would try and hit her. "Sweetie, maybe you shouldn't aggravate your father."  
  
"Well maybe if he wouldn't be so closed minded and BLIND to everything that goes on around him, I wouldn't have to aggravate him."  
  
"You're treading on thin ice, young lady." Her father was getting ready to slap her.  
  
"Fine, fine. I'll shut up. But just keep in mind, Mr. Satan isn't nearly as great as you think he is. You should try talking to him. He's really just a big dork."  
  
"Wait a minute, you've met him?"  
  
"Oh yeah, Satan? I've known him since I was about five. Usagi's older brother married his daughter, Videl. She's a nice person. She's actually strong, unlike her father." With that, she pulled away from her mother and began walking back to her room. "Maybe I'll let you meet him one day."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Capsule Corp.~~  
  
Usagi sat in between her parents on the sofa as everyone waited for her to try and explain to them what exactly had happened. "Well, first I want to apologize to everyone for being stupid. I know what I did was wrong. I knew what I was doing before I even left."  
  
Vejita, who sat the farthest away form the group and had a scowl on his face, couldn't resist saying something in reply. "You're damn right you were being stupid. You lied to me. I should kill you on the spot for lying to me. Kakkorotto, how many times have I told you that you need to control your brat now?"  
  
Goku shot a nasty glare over at Vejita as he let out a quiet protective growl. "Don't even go there, Vejita. I'm not in the mood for an argument." He looked down to his daughter. "You weren't exactly being stupid, you were just being a kid."  
  
"Yeah, sis. This is kind of like the time I snuck out of the house on hire dragon to go to the Kame house with Krillin, even after mom told me not to."  
  
Chi-Chi looked over to Gohan, who seemed to be pretty proud of himself. "Don't think I've forgotten that. Along with that bimbo Marron."  
  
Goku chuckled when he remembered the stories that his wife told him about that girl. "Anyway, Usagi, why don't you tell everyone who the real enemy was."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Ok. It was Cell." She paused for a moment to let everyone in the room gasp. All except Bulma and her parents. "Yup. He was back with more power than before. He was pretty tricky but we got him under control. He even had all these kids, but we killed them all too."  
  
"Wait a minute, how did he have kids?" Piccolo was pretty sure that he knew how that happened. He had, after all, had his cells put into him. "He did the egg thing, didn't he?"  
  
"Yeah. We killed them all after they ambushed us."  
  
"THEY ambushed you?"  
  
"Yeah? What's the big deal?"  
  
"You did check the area for more, did you not?" Usagi shook her head. "YOU IDIOT!"  
  
"Why are you calling me names, Piccolo? That's mean! We didn't need to look around. We didn't feel any more power coming from anywhere."  
  
"Shut up! You always need to look! You even said yourself, Cell is tricky! I'll bet you now that the past is being attacked by any of the Cells that were left! You really messed up this time!"  
  
Usagi dug her face into her father's side. "Don't yell at me. I didn't know."  
  
"And where was Mamoru when all of this was happening?" 'He's going to get a good beating for this.'  
  
Usagi pulled away from her father as he wrapped his arm around her. "He was outside the room of spirit and time with everyone."  
  
"Oh, and all of this happened in the room?" He arrogantly replied  
  
"What's wrong with you?"  
  
Piccolo rubbed his temples. "Nothing. Look, I'm leaving. I have something I need to take care of." He walked to the door and stopped just before leaving. "Don't take this personally." He opened the door and walked out.   
  
Goku curiously looked to Gohan. "What was all that about?"  
  
Gohan shrugged. "I have no idea." The room went silent for a few minutes as no one really had much to say to each other. They were just happy that the whole ordeal was done and over with. Now they could finally move on.   
  
All of a sudden, Usagi began to shake with fear. "Daddy..." Her eyes grew wide as her face turned pale.   
  
Goku looked down to his daughter with worry. "What is it, sweetie? What's wrong?!" He got began to get a bad feeling when she didn't answer. Her fear just rose inside. "Tell us what's wrong."  
  
"He's here. HOW DID HE GET HERE!?" She gripped his hand and held it with all of her strength, which wasn't that much since she was still tired from performing the combined attack.   
  
Goku tried to pull his hand away but Usagi wouldn't let him. She just tightened her grip every time he tried. "Usagi, you have to tell us what's wr..."  
  
That's when Gohan felt it too. "Father...That wouldn't be Cell...would it?"  
  
"Huh?" He looked up to his son and froze in place when he felt the power level of Cell appear in Satan City. "Oh no..." He looked down to his daughter and tried to pull his arm back. "Usagi, you have to let go. Daddy needs to go take care of this."  
  
"No! Daddy, this one is stronger than the original Cell."  
  
Vejita jumped up. "Original Cell? What are you talking about, girl?! Are you telling me that you ACTUALLY did let one of those monsters live? AND NOW HE'S HERE!" In a flash, he powered up to Super Saiyan, level two. "That bastard wont get far. I'll break it in half with my hands." He shot up through the roof.   
  
Bulma frowned as she looked at the hole that was just created by her husband. "You animal!"  
  
"Usagi, what are you talking about?"  
  
She looked up to her father. "Just what I said. He's stronger than the original. I don't know how. Wait a minute...maybe he absorbed all of the Cells that we killed. Oh daddy, Piccolo was right. I am an idiot. I let one of those things live."  
  
"Stop it! You aren't an idiot! You're just learning. Now let go!" He ripped his hand away from Usagi's and jumped to his feet. "I'm getting out of here. I'm not going to let that thing go on a rampage."  
  
"Goku!"  
  
Goku looked back to his wife. "I'll be ok. I'm not going to die this time, Chi-Chi."  
  
"Be careful."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father in fear. Part of her wanted to go, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to hold up against the monster. He was too strong for just her. She figured that her friends wouldn't want to fight it again anyways. They would just have to leave it up to the others.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Mizuno Household~~  
  
Ami's head poked up from the book she was reading while her mother was making dinner. "Mom, Cell is here."  
  
Her mother turned back with a face filled with horror. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"I mean, he's here! Cell is here! We have to fight him again!"  
  
"You ARE NOT going to fight that thing. Leave it up to Usagi's family. They can do it."  
  
"I don't think so, mom. They are going to need our help." She grinned. "And plus you said I could fight. Remember?"  
  
Mrs. Mizuno sighed. "All right. Just this once. But I'm coming with you. I want to see what goes on at these fights."  
  
"What!? You'll be..." She stopped to rethink what she was going to say. Had she have continued her mother wouldn't have agreed to let her go. "Ok, grab my hand." She stood up and held her hand out to her mother, who hesitantly grabbed it. "Hold on."   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Capsule Corp.~~  
  
Usagi looked up at her mother, who seemed to have trouble sorting out her feelings. She couldn't quite remember a time when she had seen her mother so scared. Except when all the Saiyans were becoming ill. But this fear exceeded even that. "Mom?"  
  
Chi-Chi didn't jerk her head one bit. "I'll be ok. I'm just remembering what happened last time Cell came here. I hope everyone is all right."   
  
Usagi turned her head to Bulma when she felt the Ki's of her friends in that direction. "What are you doing here?" She stared upon her friends and someone she didn't expect to see at a time like this. "Mrs. Mizuno?"  
  
Mrs. Mizuno pulled her hand away from Ami's and glared at Usagi. "It's your fault that Ami is fighting. You and your bad influence."  
  
"What is that supposed to mean? I didn't force her to fight. She just wanted to one day."  
  
"Oh don't give me that. I'm watching you. One false move and that's it."  
  
Chi-Chi wasn't about to just sit by and watch her daughter be once again slammed by anyone. She had gone through enough with almost everyone she cared about, it was time for all of the yelling to stop. "Don't you accuse my daughter of anything. I know she isn't perfect, but who is? Your daughter isn't all high and mighty herself."  
  
That offended Mrs. Mizuno. "Look Mrs. Son. I raised my daughter to be a good person. Not a thug like yours. If your daughter can't handle hanging around good people, then I don't want her to run around Ami, at all, period. I don't want Ami to learn her bad habits."  
  
"Are you trying to start something with me? Usagi is not a thug! She just knows how to live, unlike Ami! You shouldn't shelter her to the point that she doesn't know how to make friends! Maybe you should rethink the way you raise her!"  
  
"Well I never!"  
  
"Well now you have!"  
  
Usagi giggled as her mother continued to fight with Ami's mother. 'Wow...daddy was right. Mom is cool here too.' "You guys, stop it! This isn't the time for fighting! Cell is here and we need to go help dad and the others." She looked to her friends, who were looking kind of shocked by Chi-Chi's behavior. "That is why you came here, right?"  
  
Ami pulled her mother back a ways so she wouldn't be able to talk to Chi-Chi without yelling, something she didn't exactly like to do. "Yes. We know how to fight Cell. They don't. At least not this one."  
  
Usagi nodded. "That's true. I guess we should be going then."  
  
"No. You aren't going anywhere near that fight, Usagi. Let your father handle it. He is the strongest one out there right now."  
  
Usagi ignored her mother. She knew that it would be hard for her to let her go, but it was something that both of them would have to live with. Usagi didn't know how well she would be able to hold up against the Cell Jr., but it needed to be done. Even if she were only to give them pointers on how to fight him. "Let's power up, hopefully for the last time. We made the mistake of letting him escape. Now is our chance to make everything better."   
  
Chi-Chi was in awe as she watched her daughter's hair and tail turn silver. "You're a Super Saiyan too? NO! I've lost my little girl!"  
  
"Relax, mom. I'll be fine." 'I hope.' She stepped forward towards her friends, who were also powered up to their fullest. "Let's get out of here before it's too late."  
  
"I said no! You're not going. Leave it to your father!" Chi-Chi lunged for her daughter and grabbed her tail. In return, Usagi collapsed to the ground from the loss of power. "I'm sorry Usagi, but this is for your own good. You don't have enough power to do something like this again. You said so yourself. Goku even said so."  
  
"Mom, please. Don't do this. They don't know how strong Cell Jr. is. Let me go." 'Why does she have to be so stubborn?'  
  
"I may let Gohan and Goten go out to battle, but not you. I'm not letting you go. You've fought enough for one day."  
  
"Mrs. Son!" Mrs. Mizuno shouted. She had seen enough. "Let your child go. I'm taking her with me. You two aren't fit to be parents."  
  
Usagi and Chi-Chi both looked up. "What?"  
  
"You heard me. You are obviously hurting your daughter. First you allow her to fight evil beings and now this. Tell me, do you beat her too?"  
  
Chi-Chi scowled as she let go of her daughter's tail. "What did you say?" She angrily approached Ami's mother wanting nothing more than to throw her out of the house for accusing her of being an abusive parent.  
  
Knowing that her friend wouldn't hesitate to do something horrible to Mrs. Mizuno, Bulma decided it was time for her to step in. "Ladies do NOT fight in my house. I already have to deal with one hot head I don't need anymore. Now Mrs. Mizuno, none of my friends are as bad as you think. I know you don't approve of fighting but keep your opinions to yourself. And Chi-Chi, I think you better watch Usagi better. She just teleported away with the other girls."  
  
Chi-Chi looked around the room. "What? She didn't! She..." She clenched her fists. "That girl is going to make me go insane! What am I supposed to do with her? She wants to fight but she'll get hurt if I let her."  
  
Bulma could empathize for Chi-Chi. She remembered what it was like when Trunks was fighting with Vejita. She had worried about him when Buu was there. "It's ok. She'll be fine. Have a little bit of confidence in her. She made it back home alive. She can do it again."  
  
"I just worry about her. She's too much like Goku for my comfort."  
  
"Ok, now THAT I can agree with."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Satan City~~  
  
Cell Jr. rampaged through the city like it was nobody's business. He destroyed buildings, crushed cars, and killed thousands of innocent people. The people who had not been killed by Cell Jr. were congregated in front of Mr. Satan's mansion , waiting for him to come and save them like he had all those years ago. "SATAN! SATAN! SATAN!" Chanted the people. The crowd went wild when he finally decided to come out.  
  
He threw his hand up with just his index and middle fingers out to make a 'v' sign, which made the crowd even more hysterical. "Citizens of Satan City, I have watched the news. The news of Cell has spread faster now than it has before! I, Mr. Satan, shall once again save everyone from death!"   
  
"HA! You couldn't beat Cell JR. If your life depended on it, Satan!" The crowd quieted down as they turned around to see five girls arrogantly standing behind them.   
  
Satan panicked. He knew that Usagi didn't like him. She always tried to expose him at every chance he got. "Aww...look. It's little Usagi. Citizens, this is my daughter's sister-in-law. We play fight all the time and I usually let her beat me. You know. I don't want her to have hard feelings. But Usagi, this is no time to act like this. It is dangerous for you to be here. You should leave."  
  
"Oh cut the show already, Satan. You're a fraud. Gohan, Goten, Dad, Vejita, Piccolo, 18 and all of the other REAL fighters might let you get away with this, but I'm not. You shouldn't get the glory! Gohan should and you know it!"  
  
The crowd gasped at the way that the little girl was talking to their savior. "Hey learn some respect kid!"  
  
"Yeah! You wouldn't be here if it weren't for Mr. Satan."  
  
Makoto smirked. "No, we wouldn't. We would be somewhere else fighting Cell Jr. Instead, we have to make sure you don't try anything stupid like going there to get yourselves killed."  
  
Mr. Satan glared down at the girls. He had to think of something quick to say so that his fans wouldn't think he was a wuss. "Don't you mean that YOU guys should get out of here?"  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes. "Give it up." She jumped into the air. "I have a trick for you! WANNA SEE!?" She built up a small Ki blast and shot it down to an unoccupied area of the ground. Everyone ran for cover as the ground blew up. "Why don't you try doing that? Why don't you try to even fly? Videl can fly, why can't you? I'll tell you why, it's because you're weak! That's why!"  
  
"Usagi that's enough!" Gohan lowered himself to his sister's level of altitude.   
  
Usagi gulped as she turned around to the angry voice of her brother. "Oh hi Gohan...Uh...Sorry about this."  
  
"This isn't the time to be doing this. In fact, you shouldn't be doing this at all. Let's go." He looked down to the ground where screaming people were running in all directions. He squinted to find the other girls. "Come on! Dad wants to talk to you guys!"  
  
"Gohan, you can't just let Mr. Satan take credit for what you did. It isn't right. It isn't fair for us who fight for real."  
  
"I don't care what you think about this, Usagi. It isn't your place to decide. You weren't even a part of the fight with Cell. Now let's go before dad gets mad."   
  
Usagi frowned as her brother flew off and her friends came up behind her. "Why is he being mean all of a sudden? And what was that supposed to mean!? I was a part of the Cell fight!? I just helped kill him!" She gave herself a burst of power and quickly caught up to her brother. Her friends were soon to follow.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Cell Jr. flew from the city the woods, where he felt the Ki of Usagi and her friends flying to. His objective was to kill them since they had somehow managed to kill his father. He also wanted to pay them back for killing off all of his brothers. 'I'll get Usagi's power as well. I don't care if the queen wants me to or not. She is sure to except me if I bring back her special power.' Cell Jr. smirked as he increased his speed.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Gohan arrived to where the rest of the fighters were with the girls. Cell Jr. was close behind him. It would only be a matter of about five minutes before he would arrive and all hell would break loose. "Father!" He stopped where he was and waited for a response.   
  
Goku turned around to the sound of his son's voice and began to approach him. He poked his head to the side to see his daughter and her friends close behind. "Hey! Come here!" He waved for them to come and watched as they complied. "Ok then. We don't have much time, but you guys know how Cell Jr. works. Or at least a little bit. How much stronger than the original is he?"  
  
Ami looked to her friends. They all appeared to not really want to talk about it. "I don't think he's that much stronger. But any more than he was is still bad."  
  
Piccolo and Mamoru arrived on the scene at that moment. "Look Odango, you let one live." Usagi didn't say anything. She just turned to him and stuck her tongue at him. "Now we have to fight this thing all over again. You guys had better be ready to do your little shit attack again."  
  
Goten came up from behind Mamoru and slapped him upside the head. "Would somebody get this kid to shut up already? He's starting to piss me off."  
  
"You two be quiet. We have no time for a fight between us. We have to prepare ourselves." Goku powered up to Super Saiyan two.  
  
"Daddy, you're going to need more power than that. Is that as high as you can go?"  
  
"I'm just getting myself ready for the power. I haven't gone level three in years." 'Looks like I'm going to need it, too.' He crouched into his position that would allow him to go level three.  
  
Rei turned around when she sensed Cell Jr.'s power right behind them. She concentrated her energy to speak to the girls. 'He's here. Why can't they feel him?'  
  
'Huh?' Minako turned around and nearly screamed.   
  
Cell Jr. raised his fighting power up to his maximum. "This is fun. Scaring you guys like this, I mean." He noted the frightened look on Minako's face. He let himself glide on over in the middle of the gathered fighters just in front of Usagi and Goten. "My, my. How much you are all so different in this time."  
  
Goku finished up his transformation and turned to Cell Jr. with a scowl on his face. 'He's a lot different than the Cell we fought. That black layer must have be the protective layer that Usagi was telling us about. Better be careful about that.' "How did you get in here undetected?"  
  
Cell Jr. stretched his arms and legs as he cocked his neck from side to side. "You know, this dark energy I have is really useful. It allows me to lower my energy nearly all the way but I still have the same amount of power. Pretty nifty, huh? That should answer your question, Goku."  
  
"Why don't you enlighten us with the story of your queen and this 'dark energy' you speak of." He hovered towards Usagi. Cell Jr. was getting a little to close to her for his liking. He knew how the queen was after her energy.   
  
"Must I really tell you that boring story. While I would love to tell you of it, I would like to talk of something else, first. Something that I'm sure my father would have wanted me to do, since I do have his memories now, as well as all of my brothers'. That's just a perk of being able to absorb your family members."  
  
Makoto reached into her pocket where she found one single Senzu bean. 'Hey, I found a Senzu bean. Why don't we split it and then take this guy out right away with our attack?"  
  
'I don't think he's going to be so stupid as to letting all of us get out of his vision. He just said that he had his father's memories. He's going to be watching us especially.'  
  
'Dang. you're right, Ami.' Makoto ditched the Senzu idea and tried to think of something else. 'If we get a chance to do it, I think we should take it.'  
  
'Agreed, what do you guys think? Minako, Rei, Usagi, any suggestions?'  
  
'Wait, I think we should see what dad has planned first. He's a pro at these kinds of fights. His power is even as strong as Cell Jr.'s, unless we count that dark energy stuff, which adds a lot of power. But so far, that energy hasn't done much for him.' They all lost a small amount more of their energy as a result of using the link.   
  
Cell Jr. smirked as he decided to start with his story. "Yes, it was a nice sunny day in the mountains. The birds were chirping, the flowers were blooming, the grass was a nice shade of green and the trees gave off a sent of pine. But somewhere, deep in the forest, things weren't all cheery for one little girl. One little girl who opposed one of the most powerful beings in the universe. This child was sentenced to death for foiling my queen's plans. As a result, my father was sent to kill her, but before that, steal her energy. Yes, the little girl soon learned not to try to go against the almighty Cell. He didn't waste any time taking care of things. He threw her about, beating her like the animal that she is. He laughed as she screamed out in pain and for help. He even sold the lives of her friends just to make sure that he would be the one to kill her. She had no hope. She wasted her chance to kill him. She underestimated him. And he..."  
  
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Goku let his fist fly into Cell Jr.'s face, causing the monster to fly down to the ground. He didn't want to think about his daughter in such danger. He didn't even want to hear about it. Goku let himself fall to the ground as well. "I'm not going to waste any time ripping into you! You have come once before. Or at least Cell has. I'm not letting you do the same damage as he did! I've had it with you!"  
  
Cell Jr. looked up at Goku in terror. "What power you posses. Why was I able to be thrown to the ground like that. I am supposed to be unstoppable."  
  
"Shut up!" Goku raised his leg and kicked Cell Jr. in the ribs, causing some of his protective skin layer to crumble away.  
  
"Hey! This is just like when dad and me came back to the fight right after he reached level two. Do you guys remember when the clones were still out and about?"  
  
Makoto positioned herself above Cell Jr. "That's right! Goku, keep going!"  
  
Goku listened carefully to the words of the younger fighters for they knew exactly what they were talking about. "Gladly. Cell Jr. I know you're not your father, but you have his memories. Here's what I've wanted to say to you for the longest time. You've screwed with my family in more ways than one. And now, with what you just told me about what you did to Usagi, oh now you've crossed the line." He jumped backwards into the air and pulled his arms to his side. "You aren't so tough!"  
  
"You always have to show off, don't you Kakkorotto?" Vejita flew away without even waiting for a reply. He hated to see Goku always get the victory. He hated, even more, to see Goku powered up to level three.  
  
Goku continued to glare down at Cell Jr., who seemed to be having a hard time getting up. "Your time has run out! KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!" A massive golden ball of energy emerged from Goku's hands. He fired it upon the enemy and watched as it ripped through the air down to the ground. "Don't even think about coming back, again. The Kamehameha wave completely tore Cell Jr.'s body apart until there was nothing left. Goku's glare turned into a soft frown as he powered down since the final threat was gone.  
  
"Way to go dad!" Usagi flew up from behind her father and hugged him. "He was easier here than in the past."  
  
Goku smiled as he powered down and turned around to look at Usagi. "Did you get your mom's permission to come here or something?"  
  
Usagi shamefully looked down to the ground. "No. I kind of snuck out when she was talking with Ami's mom. She didn't want me to go, but I wanted to help."  
  
Goku sighed. 'Great, another fight. Chi-Chi's going to blow up when we get back. When will these two stop going at it?' "We better get you back then."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Capsule Corp.~~  
  
The living room of Capsule Corp. was completely quiet as the women awaited the return of their families. They had been waiting for about a half hour already and had only been quiet for about ten. Their had been about three separate up stirs from Chi-Chi and Ami's mother that Bulma had to mediate.   
  
And one was about to begin once again. "Honestly. How long does it usually take for them to beat one little enemy?"  
  
Chi-Chi was quick to turn to Mrs. Mizuno and reply. "Why don't you go out there and try to fight them! They have risked their lives a number of time to save this planet! You should be thankful!"  
  
"Well if my Ami comes back all beat up I'm holding your family personally responsible! It was Usagi who put the idea in her head anyways!"  
  
"You disrespectful little...oooooh you make me so mad! Usagi is not a bad kid! Did you ever stop to think that Ami WANTED to fight!? Usagi wouldn't have forced her to fight if she didn't want to! She's not that type of kid!"  
  
Bulma stood up and put her hands in front of each woman's face. "Ladies! Please refrain from continuing this POINTLESS fight!"  
  
The three turned their heads towards the front door as it busted open and every fighter walked in. Goku was the first to come in and was followed by the rest. "Did we come in at a bad time?"  
  
Chi-Chi jumped to her feet. "Goku, tell her that our little Usagi is not a bad kid! Tell her to SHUT HER MOUTH!"   
  
"Huh?" He looked to Mrs. Mizuno who looked as if she were about to explode with anger, much like his wife. "Mrs. Mizuno, I've told you this time and time again. We don't push our kids into something that we don't think they can do. Maybe you should give Usagi a chance."   
  
He began to make his way to the kitchen but was stopped by the angry face of his wife. "What? I told her what you wanted me to."  
  
"That's not it! This is about you!"  
  
Goku gulped as he jerked back. "Me?"  
  
"YES! What do you have to say for yourself?!"  
  
"About what?"  
  
"You know what I mean! What just happened!"  
  
"What did just happen?"  
  
"YOU LET USAGI STAY OUT THERE WITH YOU! I DIDN'T WANT HER TO BE OUT THERE! I TOLD HER TO LET YOU HANDLE IT!"  
  
"Oh...well...she...didn't..." 'Crap, I can't make Usagi look like the bad guy. Not again. I can't let her get yelled at.' "She didn't want to come back so I didn't make her. It was all right. I had everything under control." Usagi smiled up at her father. She would have to thank him for taking the fall for her later.  
  
"Goku, I'm sick of this!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Don't play stupid with me! You're always let her have her way. I'm the only one who ever sets limits for her while you always play the good guy. You make me look bad in front of her. Actually, you've done this with all three."  
  
"I set rules."  
  
"Not exactly. While you set rules that keep them safe, you don't set rules that allow them to learn and grow into well-rounded adults. If it were up to you, fighting would be all they know. Without me, they never would have gone to school, just like you never did. Is any of this making it past your thick skull?"  
  
"Why don't you learn how to control your woman Kakkorotto? You shouldn't let them think that they can act this way. Don't let her talk to you like that. Show her whose boss." Vejita snickered at Goku's behavior.   
  
"You pig!" Bulma punched her husband in the lower back, a place that he wasn't expecting.  
  
"I have been putting up with this ever since you first started training her. I'm already having a hard time getting her to do her chores and her homework. All she wants to do is fight or be where you are. I even have a hard time trying to get YOU to do anything around the house. All you do is sit around and watch television or go off and train with the kids. You make me do everything around the house and whenever I try to get Usagi to do anything, you always tell me to lay off."  
  
"Chi-Chi, do we need to be talking about his right now?"  
  
"YES!" She looked to her daughter, who seemed to be enjoying all of this. 'Well, she said I beat him in the past. Why not...' "Goku, I challenge you."  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
"You heard me!"  
  
Piccolo and Vejita couldn't help but burst out and laugh at that one. Vejita especially. "You can't beat a Super Saiyan. Hey green man, you seem to be having a good time over there with this. Why don't me make a little bet. 10,000 to one that Kakkorotto will win."  
  
"Hey, we'll take you up on that bet, Vejita"   
  
Chi-Chi looked hurt as she looked over to her daughter. "You're betting against me?"  
  
"NO! Mom, we're betting FOR you, aren't we girls?" Chi-Chi's heart nearly melted with joy when she heard that.  
  
"Oh yeah. Go Chi-Chi!" Minako threw up fist up into the air as she began to get excited.  
  
"Here." Ami held out twenty dollars. "This is all we have. If Chi-Chi wins, then we keep this money and GET the money you're putting out on the table. But if we loose, you can have our twenty."   
  
Mrs. Mizuno slapped her daughter's hand. "Shame on you!"  
  
"Hump. I knew you were a fool, Usagi. But I never thought you were THAT much of a fool. Chi-Chi could never win. But we can't make it just twenty dollars if we're putting that much money out on the table. You're going to have to work it off. For the next two months, after school and on weekends you have to be our servants and do as we say."  
  
Usagi grinned. "Fine."  
  
"For once I agree with the Namek. You're all fools, I bet 1,000,000 to one odds the woman will lose." Vejita smirked at Chi-Chi, which only made her blood boil more.  
  
The girls turned to look at each other and only giggled over their victory, which was sure to happen.  
  
Piccolo decided to have a little more fun. "No sense letting a once in a lifetime agreement go up, I'll see half of it, and make it 2,000,000 to one."  
  
Chi-Chi was about to go off when her daughter interrupted her. "Ooh, I think I like that better. What about you girls?" They nodded to add their agreement.  
  
Goku was completely stunned by their decision, even Chi-Chi was stunned. Both fighters wondered what the girls could have been up to.  
  
Vejita continued to smirk as he laughed. "Just like taking candy from a baby. Kakkorotto, you're raising a bad gambler." Piccolo just glared at them, knowing that they were up to something.  
  
Makoto sat down on the floor as she prepared to watch the fight. "Put your money where your mouth is."  
  
Piccolo and Vejita were infuriated. They intended to teach the brats a lesson or two about gambling.  
  
Vejita continued to laugh, almost to the point of cackling "Your loss. We'll buy a couple of shots and toast your stupidity. Then we'll make you our slaves until you've worked off the debt."  
  
Piccolo chuckled. "Incredible, three agreements in a day. Am I starting to like Vegetable boy? Nah..."  
  
Usagi thought for a moment about what she wanted. "Well we'll use for... "  
  
"College funds." Interrupted Ami.  
  
The other girls all groaned at that. Minako rolled her eyes. "Always thinking about school. Come on, we want to use it for something cool."  
  
Ami sighed. "All right, all right. We can use 10,000,000 of it for College. Splitting it between the five of us should cover the costs for each of us."  
  
Usagi's eyes sparkled as she thought of a great idea. "I got an idea, how about a Super Tree house."  
  
Minako was quick to respond. "Yeah, we can build it to withstand any thing. That would be SO cool."  
  
"And have all the comforts of home. And maybe even a place where I can talk to the spirits."  
  
Makoto thought of something that she had always wanted. "Big screen TV. How sweet would that be?"  
  
"Top of the line stereo and surround sound. You know, so I can practice my singing. After all, if I want to become a Super Star, which I am, I need to practice." Everyone laughed at Minako.  
  
Usagi grabbed her stomach as it grumbled to be fed. "A HUGE FRIDGE PACKED WITH FOOD."  
  
"And a big kitchen so I can practice my cooking." Everyone curiously looked to Makoto. "What? It's a hobby."  
  
"Toys. Lots an lots of toys!" Usagi had always wanted to go on a toy-shopping spree.  
  
"Cloths and jewelry. A Super Star has to have a full wardrobe." Minako stated as she went starry eyed and looked up to the ceiling.  
  
Minako quickly looked down to Usagi as an idea seemed to hit both of them at the same time. "VIDEO GAMES!"  
  
Ami thought of what they really needed if they wanted all of that stuff. "It's own power generator, with back up."  
  
"Always thinking, aren't we Ami?"  
  
Ami blushed as she took Rei's words as a compliment. " You do realize that we'll have to build on several tree's. Connecting them all."  
  
Usagi was completely lost in her daydream. She couldn't wait for her mother to win them the money. "Yeah, but give it a natural feel, we can have rope bridges between the sections as well. Do it with a main house at the center. We can make it by the lake. Yeah and have swing ropes from it into the water. THAT WOULD BE SO COOL! Maybe we can build it together with all our families and friends help. But make it really strong. Maybe we can put our shields around it to help make it stronger."  
  
"But then it'd be an ugly and rubbery."  
  
"I don't think so, Minako. I think we can make it so it enters into the tree's and what we built so they keep their natural look. It'd just take practice. Something that will take time, but will be rewarding."  
  
Usagi continued to have ideas flow into her head. "Cool. And we...."  
  
Vejita began to get annoyed with the girls' dreams. "Enough you won't win"  
  
Usagi smirked. "I should warn you two, we will win. Well MOM will win. Do you want to back out."  
  
The rest of the fighters laughed at that. Except Bulma who just studied the girls' facial expressions.  
  
She turned back to Vejita and just glared at him. "If you do this idiotic stunt and lose, it comes out of your savings, not mine or capsule corps. Better hope you win too. You may have the remains of the Saiyan treasury, but even that will have a big bite out of that Billion in the account. Especially, with all the damage you always have to have repaired with your tantrums.'"  
  
Vejita just turned and smirked as he replied. "But of course. It's a sure thing."  
  
Piccolo began to get a bit nervous now. He had a VERY large savings himself from his time of being just Kami and Piccolo as two separate people. As big as Vejita's, it wouldn't hurt him TOO much if he lost. But for the first time, wondered what they knew. But his pride wouldn't let him back down. Though, they did seem to be a little bit on the confident side for whom they were rooting for.  
  
Chi-Chi listened to this and continued to stay stunned. The girls had faith that SHE would win. Betting their entire allowances. Also they wanted to use some of the money too collage, a swell of pride entered her heart at that. But the tree house. Oh well, it'd be a nice place close to home that they could go to Her anger quickly grew again as the laughter from her supposed 'friends and family' grew loud again. 'They're making fun of me again.' she turned to her husband and realized that he too was laughing at the thought of her winning. 'He doesn't think that they should bet against him.' She gasped as he slowly began to turn to them and forbid that they bet against him. She wouldn't allow that to happen though.   
  
"Fine you can make the bet. But Twenty-five million goes to collage and trust found so you don't need to work during that time or afterwards. The other fifteen you can use for your tree house and any left over in an account for you to use with MY discretion."  
  
Goku turned to his wife and looked at her as if she were crazy. "You're going to let them throw their money away? Or are you planning on having me lose intentionally?"  
  
Chi-Chi's anger grew out of control. "Do not even think of holding back. I want you to TRY to go Super Saiyan, IF you can, DON'T hold back. I WON'T."  
  
Horror entered his eyes as he realized that she was utterly serious. "Chi-Chi you got to be kidding, please. I don't want to hurt you."  
  
Gohan and Goten added their agreement to their father's, making her impossibly even angrier. But not Usagi. She knew what the outcome would be. She looked up to her father. Not only did she know the outcome, but also she knew the reasons. "Daddy, it's not about love, it's about respect."  
  
Both of her parents looked down to their daughter in confusion. That's about the time that Chi-Chi realizes that Usagi really DID understand. But Goku was still confused. "Huh?"  
  
Chi-Chi's temper had reached its final point. "Enough, the fight begins now. Power up to Super Saiyan, now if you can."  
  
Goku would have to give in to this one. Chi-Chi wouldn't drop this until one person was a victor. He sighed. "Fine" He began to concentrate his energy to return to the form of being Super Saiyan, as he was when he fought Cell.  
  
Chi-Chi didn't give Goku a chance to so much as move before she made her first move. Knowing that if she were to allow him to, she would have lost, she rushed towards him, making it look like she was going to ram into him, but instead skid down between his legs and hit him in the groin as hard as she could with both of her hands put together to form a bigger fist. Losing concentration, Goku collapsed to the ground.  
Chi-Chi quickly stood up and turned to her husband, who was now on the ground in pain. "You have to concentrate to become Super Saiyan that's a weak spot that you may want to fix."  
  
Usagi jerked back. 'Whoa! That's EXACTLY how it happened n the past! They ARE the same. COOL!'  
  
This time, Chi-Chi wanted to do something new. She wanted to teach herself a new thing. She remembered how Goku had told Usagi how concentrating Ki inside your body first and then outside made it possible to use it with ease. So, concentrating her ki as she had seen her husband and children do for years, and having, listen to her daughter talking about it when she was first learning from her father, she powered up a power punch and hit him in the back of the neck just above the shoulder. Normally this secrete nerve punch her father taught her wouldn't effect Goku, but with the added ki energy and his pain, it worked, causing him to become immobile.  
  
Everyone gasped as they became shocked over the fact that the mighty Goku has in fact been defeated by his wife.  
  
Usagi jumped to the air. "WAY TO GO MOM! That's exactly how it happened in the past."  
  
Chi-Chi, who was out of breath, looked to her daughter with happy eyes. "Thank you, Usagi."  
  
Vejita became furious. He looked down at Goku and opened his mouth to yell at him. But Chi-Chi was in no mood for any more yelling "Don't even think it." She said, in a cold deadly voice.  
  
Bulma laughed as she saw the anger build up on her husband's face. "Well you idiot. It looks like you and green jeans just lost twenty million each." Vejita was stunned by the thought and was about to protest, when she cut him off. "Oh no you don't. They gave you a chance to back out of the bet, and you refused. On the honor of Namek and the Saiyans you are now honor bound to pay off. Let it teach your arrogance a lesson. Beside, they intend to use it well. Let the kids have some fun."  
  
Mrs. Mizuno laughed her hardest as she walked up to Vejita and Piccolo. "I'd have paid to seen this fight. HAHAHA. But not as much as you did!"  
  
(YAY!!!! I'm FINALLY done with this chapter. Can you believe it? I can't. HEHEHE, I'm happy now. Wow, 16 pages for ya. I should have split this into two parts. But because I know you all would have yelled at me if I did, so just for you I made it into one. Hope you like it. What do you think? Gotta go start on part one of chapter five. JA ^_~   
P.S. Comet moon was responsible for that last bit. You know, the tree house and betting bit. I though it was a cool idea so I wanted to use it.)  
  
  
  
  
18  
  
  



	71. Teachings of a Child Part 1

(Well look at that. I made it to chapter five already. Can you believe it? I never thought I would make it this far. Chapter four took forever to write. But that's in the past now, ne. Here's the next chapter of the story, Teachings of a Child.)  
  
"Ooh, Ooh, Ooh! I'm going to beat you this time Minako! You're going down! You can't win again!" It had been two years since the incident with the girls going back in time, something which they would NEVER forget. Though they learned many new things from their experiences with fighting Cell, it was something that they would never want to go through alone again. But Cell was still engraved on the outer edges of their brains for one fact. They had never found out who his queen was or what she wanted with Usagi's power. They figured that they would one day find out. They just didn't know when that day would be. But until then, the girls had decided not to worry about it. They would just carry on with their everyday lives.   
  
Now the five of them, closer than ever, were all huddled around one of the most recent installments of their favorite hangout, the video arcade. The arcade was built shortly after their return to the future. Minako was the first to stumble over it. One step inside and she immediately fell in love with the place. Once she brought in her friends it became their new favorite place to be when they weren't training, and the place where they spent all of their allowances.  
  
Minako and Usagi were now in the middle of playing a new racing game, something that both of them were known to do whenever a new game came to the arcade. Both of them wanted to have the top scores of all of the games in the place, which usually led to many challenges between to two.   
  
Minako loved the rush of competing for the best spot with Usagi. They were the best gamers in the place and no body could ever beat them, especially with their fast reflexes. "There's no way you're going to beat me Usagi! Let's face it! I'm just too good at this game!"  
  
"I'm going to beat you!" Usagi playfully taunted.   
  
"Nuh-uh!"  
  
Usagi grinned as she saw Minako's car up ahead of her. They were on their last lap and only had a fourth of the track left before the finish line. Usagi was not about to loose again. She shifted into overdrive and stepped on the gas petal as hard as she could as she caught up to Minako's car. "Move outta the way!"  
  
"Make me!" Minako turned to look over at Usagi and stuck her tongue out. "I'm gonna win, as usual!" She turned her wheel sharply to the left and bumped into Usagi's car, nearly causing her to spin out.  
  
"So you wanna play dirty, huh? Well I can deal with that." She turned her wheel to the right and rammed into her opponent and kept turning into her, even after she was off the road. "We'll see who the better driver is!"  
  
Behind the two blondes stood Ami, Rei, and Makoto, who all giggled at their friends' rivalry. Usagi and Minako were the only two people that they knew of who got so into games like this. The looser would usually challenge the winner to a spar to even things out, which made it all the more fun.   
  
Minako pulled her wheel to the right and then to the left, crashing her car right back into Usagi's. "Get offa me you oaf!"   
  
Usagi looked beyond the two cars, which were screeching along. They only had a few feet before they reached the finish line. "You get offa me!" She continued to try to push Minako off of the road. Who ever was off of the road would end up loosing as the grass slowed down the car. But Minako pushing back too made it impossible for her to be pushed off.   
  
Minako looked beyond the two cars that were crashing together just in time to watch them cross the finish line together. Both girls just stared up at the screen with their mouths hanging open. The giggling of their friends behind them could be heard, but it wasn't exactly clicking inside their heads as they were much more concerned with the race. Minako crossed her fingers as the stats for who one popped up on the screen. Her eyes fully widened. "WHAT!?"  
  
Usagi jumped at the screen. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT WAS A TIE!? I WON, YOU STUPID GAME! MY CAR DEFINITELY HIT THE FINISH LINE FIRST!"  
  
Minako looked away from the screen onto Usagi. "What do you mean YOUR car? Don't you mean MY car? It was obviously my car that won. The game is just messing up."  
  
Usagi frowned as she looked to Minako. "You're just upset that I won for once."  
  
"Then how come your name isn't on the top of the high scores list like mine is?" She grinned deviously as she knew that would make her friend's blood boil.   
  
"You CHEAT! That's why!"  
  
"I CHEAT!? I can't believe you're calling ME a cheater. Your best friend. What has this world come to?" The girls proceeded to argue, friendly, with each other as they did every time they came into the arcade.   
  
Ami walked over to the main counter where a 16 year old boy stood as he rearranged a shelf. She cleared her throat and the boy turned around, smiling at Ami. "Hey Ami." He looked up and took notice of the argument. "I guess they had another challenge, huh? Who won today?" He turned around and pulled a glass off of a shelf and began to fill it with soda.  
  
"It was a tie and now they're fighting over who really one. They're insisting that the game is messed up." She sighed as the boy gave her the soda. "But that's Minako and Usagi for you. You gotta love them the way they come." She handed him a dollar bill as she sipped the soda from the straw. She looked up at him and smiled. "How did you know that I wanted a soda?"  
  
The boy smiled. "Because every time you come here you ask for one. I thought I would just give you one before you asked for one."  
  
She grabbed the glass off of the counter and smiled up at the boy. "Thanks Motoki (Andrew). I think I've been hanging out here too long if I'm THAT predictable." With that, she walked back to the argument between her two friends, which was already beginning to cool down.   
  
Usagi and Minako now had their foreheads bound together as they planned to stare down each other. Makoto couldn't help but laugh at her friends. "You guys crack me up. Why don't you just admit that you're both equally as good as each other at this game."  
  
Usagi pulled back and got into a fighting position. "No! I must claim victory over this weakling! This game will be mine!"  
  
"Is that a challenge?" Minako clenched her fists. She loved having friendly spars, especially if it was over a game. She grinned as Usagi nodded. "In that case, I rise to your challenge, missy." She crouched to a fighting position much like Usagi.  
  
"Hey, HEY! Girls don't do this again. My dad will kill me if you destroy the place. Remember what happened last time you fought in here?"   
  
Usagi laughed as she stood from her fighting stance and looked over to the teenage boy behind the counter. "Sorry, Motoki. I don't think I want to spend everyday after school helping you clean up again." She turned to Minako, who was looked to still be in the mood to fight. "Maybe we should take this outside since I don't have any money left to beat you with."  
  
"You've spent your whole weeks allowance already?" Rei shook her head in disappointment. They had had many talks about money management.   
  
Usagi chuckled as she put her hand behind her head to scratch it. "Yeah."  
  
Rei frowned. "You just got that from your mom today. You wasted five bucks on one video game trying to beat Minako. Now what are we supposed to do for fun on days we don't have to train?"  
  
"Well gees Rei. You act like it's a crime to spend all of my money here. I'm only ten years old. Give me a break. I'll just beg mom to give me more."  
  
Ami slowly sipped on her soda. "Didn't your mom get mad at you last time you asked her for an advance? She gave a long lecture about managing your money, like Rei does all the time. Remember?"  
  
Usagi glared at Ami. "Don't remind me. It was one of mom's famous lectures about how I should be more responsible." Her attention was caught by the glares of four young men who were just walking into the store. Usagi immediately felt an uneasiness take her over as the continued to glare at her all the way over to the bar, where Motoki was. "Who are they?"  
  
Makoto turned to look at the boys, who seemed to have been in a recent fight as their faces were all beaten up. "I don't know, but for some reason I feel that they're bad news."  
  
"Hey, I saw those guys hanging out with Mamoru, Haruka, and Michiru when I was walking to Capsule Corp. to work with Bulma the other day. They didn't seem to friendly." Just then, the front door was once again opened and in came Haruka, Michiru, and Mamoru. Ami set her soda down on a stool next to the racing game as she sighed. "Oh great you guys. Here comes more bad news."  
  
Mamoru smirked as he noticed Usagi and the others. "Hey! It's Odango and her cronies."  
  
"Monkey girl?" Haruka squinted as if she were having trouble recognizing the girl. "Well what do you know. It is. I haven't seen you in a few months. How are things shaking down in dork lane?"  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes as she tried to act more civilized than the group of bullies. "Why don't you grow up already? I mean, you've been making fun of me since you were in fifth grade. What grade are you in now? Tenth?"  
  
Her words caught the attention of one of the boys, who had blonde hair tide back in a pony tail at the bottom of his head. He wore a black Gi, just as the rest of the boys did. Just as Mamoru, Haruka, and Michiru did too. "Is this that little brat you were telling us about, Mamoru?"  
  
Rei turned to look at the blonde boy, who was now standing up and approaching them. "Who are they? Another one of your followers for your cult?"  
  
"Ouch, a hot head. I like that in a girl." He walked closer to the girls and kept a close eye on Usagi's tail. "You were right, she is a freak."  
  
Usagi inched away from the boy. "Get away from me. You smell like spoiled milk." She glared up at Mamoru, who seemed to be having a good laugh at her. "Who are they, Mamoru! I demand to know!"  
  
Haruka laughed hard at that one. "Oh look at that! The monkey DEMANDS to know."  
  
Mamoru stopped laughing and motioned for his friends to stop, as well. "Well, if you must know, these are our friends, from America."  
  
The girls all looked back to the boys, who had their full attention on the conversation. "America?"  
  
"Yes America. Seems that Yamcha has been training with them there for some time now. He met them there at a Karate competition and saw that they had, strangely enough, a high potential. He and dad have been training them ever since. They just recently moved here with the permission from their parents."  
  
Usagi turned back to Mamoru with a smiled. "Well I'm happy for all of you."  
  
Michiru snickered. "Fruit."  
  
"WHAT WAS THAT!? Might I remind you that you are on OUR turf right now!" Makoto jumped to her fighting stance. She didn't care where they were, she was strong enough to take all of them on.   
  
"It's all right Makoto. I'm happy that they finally have more friends. It's just sad that they had to go all the way to America to do it. I never knew that you three were so unpopular." She looked up at the clock above the door. "Uh-oh, I was supposed to be home twenty minutes ago. Sorry Minako, we have to fight later. See ya. Oh yeah, it was nice meeting you all." She didn't waste any time teleporting out of there and to her home. Normally she would have flown home, but in cases of emergencies, like this, she needed to get home fast.   
  
"That girl is going to get herself into some major trouble one of these days."  
  
Minako looked to Rei with a smile on her face. "GOING to get herself into trouble? Girl she's always getting herself into trouble. She's gotten herself into more trouble in one year than we have in two."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi arrived just outside her house. Her mother didn't like it when people teleported in and out so she always had to come just outside the house. 'Quick, gotta think of an excuse of why I was late.' She looked around for anything that may make her think of a good reason of why she would be late to getting home. 'Ah ha! I've got it!'   
  
She put on a smile as she opened the front door and casually strolled into the house. "I'm home!" She heard her mother slam a pot down on the counter. 'I'm ready for ya mom.'  
  
"Usagi, please come in here…now!" Chi-Chi looked back to her husband, who sat at the table while he was looking at a magazine.  
  
Usagi walked into the kitchen with confidence. She wanted to make it look like she wasn't hiding anything. "Yeah mom?"  
  
Chi-Chi directed her full attention to her daughter. "Where have you been? It's three fifty! You were supposed to be home twenty minutes ago. I know on Fridays you don't have to train until after dinner, but that doesn't mean you can stay out all night. You know what time you are to be home."  
  
Usagi sat down at the table across from her father, who seemed to be more interested in their conversation than his magazine. "Well you see, I was having trouble with this really hard math stuff we're doing at School. We were working with fractions. I stayed after a little bit so Ami would help me. And we also were working on our map project."  
  
Chi-Chi looked at her daughter with suspicious eyes. "Really…" 'She's lying to me. I just know it.'  
  
Goku grinned. "Is that a fact."  
  
Usagi's facial expression turned from calm and cool to worried. She didn't like the way her father said that. "Uh…yes. Of course."  
  
"Then why did I feel your Ki at the arcade with Minako and the rest of the girls? I felt yours and Minako's especially though. You should learn to control your Ki when you get excited."  
  
'Yikes!' "Uh…what are you talking about?" Usagi looked around for an escape route, but pretty much knew it was impossible to go anywhere since both of her parents would just grab her and punish her anyway.  
  
Goku frowned. "Don't lie to me, Usagi. You know how I feel about that. You wont be in as much trouble if you just admit that you were at the arcade. We already know that you were there."  
  
Usagi sighed. "Ok. I'm sorry daddy. I was at the arcade with the girls. I lost track of time when me and Minako challenged each other to see who was better at this new game they got."  
  
Chi-Chi put her hands on her waist as she frowned down to her daughter, who only stood above her waist. "That's no excuse to lie! First you come home late and then you lie to your own parents."  
  
"Chi-Chi…don't do this tonight. Please."  
  
"You got lucky, kid. Real lucky. So how much money did you spend?" She pretty much knew how much she spent, she just wanted to hear it for herself. "Don't be shy. Tell me how much you spent."  
  
"All of it." Usagi replied almost to quiet to hear. Her father picked it all up though. He let out a small laugh and got a glare in response from Usagi. "Don't laugh."  
  
"I can't help it. You're worse than me when it comes to money."  
  
"You spent all of it? Usagi! We've talked about this. That was supposed to last you all week. I'm not giving you anymore."  
  
"I don't expect you to. I knew what I was doing. I just REALLY wanted to beat Minako. And what's bad is that I nearly beat Minako in the last race and then it ended up being a tie. I was SO mad."  
  
"I bet you were. That really sucks." Goku looked up to Chi-Chi. "Hey, come on. Let me give her some more money so she can go beat Minako."  
  
Chi-Chi, now fuming mad, turned to her husband and smacked him a good one on the back of the head. "You idiot! We don't want to encourage her bad spending habits. I don't want her to think that she can spend everything she has and then come back here. Absolutely not!"  
  
"Awww…Come on Chi-Chi. She's only a kid. Let her have some fun." He winked at his daughter, letting her know that he would somehow find a way to get her some more money.  
  
"I can't believe you Goku. She comes home late, lies to us, and asks for more money and you actually want to give her more? What are we teaching our children? She needs to learn some responsibility."   
  
Usagi rolled her eyes. "Not again with the responsibility bit."   
  
Chi-Chi turned to her daughter, more angry than before. "Yes again with the responsibility bit! And I know just how you're going to do it. You can also earn some more money while doing it."  
  
Usagi perked up as she grinned. "I'm listening."   
  
"We want you to go with us to Capsule Corp. after dinner to meet someone."  
  
"Ooh, ooh, who?!" Usagi jumped off of her chair and stood in front of her mother.   
  
"Bulma has a new scientist working for her company who just transferred from Nagoya. He has a little girl about the age of five. Just turned five two months ago actually. Anyway, he let's her stay in the daycare right there at the building but she seems to have a hard time getting along with the other kids. Seems like she doesn't let anyone get close to her ever since her mother died a couple of years back. When Bulma mentioned it to me I told her that you would baby-sit for her."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened. "WHAT!? I can't take care of a kid. I'm only a kid too. I'm not old enough."  
  
"Don't worry, this will give you a chance to learn responsibility. And like I said, you will earn money from it too. As for you being too young, while you are young I think that you are very capable of taking care of this girl. You have a knack for making people happy anyway. Remember what Ami was like when you first met her? Don't worry, if you need help, we'll be here for you."  
  
'What is she doing to me? If I have no responsibility at all, how does she expect me to take care of someone younger than me.' "What's her name?"  
  
"I didn't get the name. I only talked to Bulma for a few minutes. She seemed ecstatic about you taking care of her. Seems her father has been looking for a baby-sitter for some time now." She could still see the doubt on her daughter's face. "Your father and I have talked this over and we both think it's a wonderful idea."  
  
Usagi turned to her father in disbelief. Though she wanted her parents to believe in her, she didn't want the burden to be this big. "Daddy…"  
  
Goku nodded. "Your mom seems to really want you to do this. I didn't see the harm in it. But in order to do this I'm going to have to stop your training for a while."  
  
"WHAT!? You CAN'T do that! What if I fall behind!? THIS IS INSANE! It's cruel and unusual punishment!" She ran to her father and grabbed the front of his shirt. "TELL ME YOUR JUST PLAING A SICK JOKE ON ME!"  
  
Goku cringed at that. She was beginning to remind him more and more of Chi-Chi whenever she yelled. "Don't worry sweetie. It will only be for a while. I want this girl to get used to you and get to know you. Before long you can bring her to our training sessions. But this will also give me a chance to train your mother a bit better. And I also want to train myself harder, something I can't do with you because I don't want to hurt you."  
  
Usagi sighed. There was no getting around it. "FINE! BE THAT WAY!" She turned around and stormed out of the room.  
  
Goku laughed. "That's my Usagi. The little fireball."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Bulma led the Son family down long corridors of her company that night not hoping that Usagi would be able to get along with the girl. There was something about the girl that frightened nearly everyone around her except for her father. She had a menacing aura around her that all children were afraid of, thus, this girl had no friends. She knew that Usagi had a way with getting in people's hearts. She knew that Usagi had a joy for life and hoped that she would bring the girl our her shell. "Now Usagi, there are some things that you must know before we meet her. She is very shy and quiet. Be careful about making big movements around her since she scares easily." She stopped outside a glass window that showed the outside playground for the children at the daycare. She sadly gazed out upon the children, immediately noticing a small figure that sat apart from the rest of the group on the swing set. Where ever the girl was, the other kids were on the opposite side.   
  
Bulma turned to her friends and sighed. "It's always like that. Others just shy away from her. They're afraid of her. They are mean to her because of it. She's been through so much already with loosing her mother."  
  
Usagi curiously looked up to her blue haired friend, who she considered to be her aunt. "How did she loose her mom?"  
  
Bulma, not knowing if she should answer, looked to the girl's parents. They nodded and let her know that it was ok for her to tell. "Well Usagi, she was killed. No one knows how, but they found her body slaughtered one day when they came home from playing at the park."  
  
Usagi gasped. "Who did it? Did they ever find out?"  
  
"Sadly, they did not. The girl was traumatized. She wouldn't talk for nearly a year. She was two when it happened. Her father didn't know what to do with her. He took her to see physiatrists of all sorts, hoping that one day she would return to normal. She hardly ate anything. As a result of that, she didn't grow at the normal rate. Then one day, she just started acting normal again. It was a mystery, even to her father." Usagi inched closer to her mother as she listened to the story. She didn't ever want to think about something like that happening to her own mother. "She still isn't the same. She really only talks to her father."  
  
She looked down and proceeded to continue. "Even I am a little scared of her, though I don't know why. It's like a primal fear of existence, and I can't control."  
  
Goku and Chi-Chi looked at the child and also seemed to sense what Bulma meant. Goku felt it much more than his wife had. He wondered if Usagi felt it too. "I know what you mean by that, I can sense her Ki. It's filled with deathly things, but don't know why myself. But that's wrong to treat a child in such a manor for no reason. Still, I'm not sure anymore that this is such a good idea."  
  
He turned to address his daughter but noticed that she was no longer at their side. "Usagi?"   
  
"Huh?" Chi-Chi looked down to her side, where her daughter formerly was, and frowned. "Where could she have gone? Don't tell me she got cold feet? I know that girl seems somewhat frightening, but that doesn't mean she can bail out."  
  
"Chi-Chi! Look!" Bulma exclaimed as she pointed out the window where Usagi was skipping playfully towards the girl.  
  
Chi-Chi sighed in exasperation as she realized she should have known better then to think her daughter would be afraid of a little girl or turn her back on one. She smiled in quite pride and observed her daughter with an amused Bulma and a clueless Goku.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi skipped towards the frail figure, who was dressed in a pink jumper dress with a white turtle neck shirt underneath it. She looked too depressed to be a kid. 'I know just what's she's feeling right now.' She turned her attention to the group of kids on the other side of the play ground as they called out for her to come and play with them. 'Those are her bullies.' "No! I can't play right now!" She decided to ignore them from then on. She had already told them that she had other things to do.  
  
The girl looked up when she heard Usagi yelling. It sounded too close to her. The girl seemed to be skipping towards her. 'Why is she coming over here? She's going to make fun of me. I just know it.' She felt more hurt inside just thinking about being made fun of once again as she looked down to the ground in envy and loneliness, sinking deeper into the shell she had placed her heart in for the last three years since her mother died. She became confused when a shadow fell over her and no taunting was heard. 'Why does the shadow feel bright? Without sun it should be dark, but it's not.' She looked up and saw the smiling face of Usagi.  
  
Usagi smiled down upon the girl with a large grin that put the sun to shame with its brightness. She couldn't wait to get to know the girl. More over, she couldn't wait to let the girls meet her.  
  
The girl's eyes became huge as she realized that the bright light she felt upon her was only the other girl's smile. She herself couldn't help but smile at the fact that this girl wasn't looking at her with fear, but only of friendship.   
  
Usagi smiled at the dark haired little girl and immediately felt a closeness to her that she had only felt with her friends and family. But she could also sense the severe hurt and emptiness and loneliness that radiated off of the girl with painful clarity, that saddened her.  
  
She realized that, just like her, she was feared and made fun of to fell like a freak just because she was different. But Usagi had friends to help her though the rough times. And her family was there for her whenever she needed them. But most of all, she had a forgiving heart and nature that eventually won over the rest of her classmates. They no longer feared her as she was no longer made to be the outcast. She would try to teach this child to love all even when they don't always love you.   
  
Usagi looked deeper into the child's violet eyes, that held far too much pain for any child. They showed her fear of forever being alone, something that, when she was younger, thought she would always feel. Usagi decided it was time to take action. This girl had know loneliness had hatred for far too long. She extended her hand to the girl and impossibly increased the wattage of her smile. "Hi! I'm Son Usagi! What's your name!?"  
  
The girl looked at the hand in front of her and hesitated to respond. 'Is this some sort of game? It has to be. No one has ever been nice to me before.' She glares at the hand and then back at Usagi, having a hard time believing that this was for real. That Usagi didn't want to hurt her but only be friends. "What do you want?"  
Her voice was full of anger and suspicion. But underneath, hidden from all, except the empathetic Usagi who opened her heart to all, is a desperate plea for someone to care.   
  
Usagi looked the girl in the eye and continued to hold her hand out, not in the least taking offence to her tone. She knew how it felt to be shunned by people because you were different. "To be your friend."  
  
The girl was shocked by Usagi's statement and feared that was a trick. She was about to lash out at the young Saiyan for lying but as she was about to, she looked deeper into Usagi's eyes and only sees honesty, compassion, and the caring that she so desperately longed for. Her eyes began to tear up as she realized that, for once, someone ACTUALLY wanted to be friends with her. "I'm…I'm…Tomoe Hotaru." She states in a quivering voice as she finally grabs the hand extended to her.  
  
Usagi let out a slight giggle as she, once again, made another victory. "Hi Hotaru, it's nice to meet you! my friend Bulma told me about you and asked if I could watch you while your dad works. I think that's a great idea. I just know we're going to be the best of friends. Come on, let go play on the swings."  
  
She grabbed Hotaru's startled hand and drug her over to two empty swings beside each other. All of the kids herded away from the duo as they didn't want to get close to Hotaru. They looked at Usagi as if she were crazy for even talking to Hotaru, let alone touching her. They seemed to think that it was strange that someone as bright and cheerful as Usagi would hang out with Usagi. Some of them even began to think that Hotaru may not be so bad.   
  
While they didn't stop fearing her completely, they did stop glaring at her and even allowed them to join in on some of their games. Usagi made sure that Hotaru was included in each game and got as much of an equal chance to play as all of the other children. She taught Hotaru all of the rules of each and every game. The children soon realized that Hotaru wasn't as scary as they had made her out to be.  
  
~*~*~  
  
For the first time since her mother's death, Hotaru actually smiled. Bulma was shocked out of her mind when she heard the five year old laugh at loud. She had known Hotaru for around three months now and had never seen the girl smile or laugh. She looked over at Usagi's parents in a flabbergasted trance with her mouth open and ready to speak out of but she couldn't find a thing to say to the couple.  
  
Goku and Chi-Chi just smiled proudly as they watched their daughter work her magic. Chi-Chi was especially proud. "I knew she could do it. Once you told me of the girl I knew that Usagi would be able to penetrate her shell. She just has room in her heart for everyone." Goku just grinned as he watched his daughter.   
  
Bulma could only nod and agree with her friend as slow grin appeared on her face. 'That girl sure has a special gift.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
By the end of the night, any reservations that Hotaru had had about Usagi had vanished. She happily looked to the clock and realized that it was getting very late. All of the children had had already left the center, all except herself and Usagi. "This has been really fun, Usagi. It's the most fun I've ever had."  
  
Usagi smiled as she tried to scan the area for her parents. 'DADDY! YOU WENT TO BED ALL READY!' "That's cool. I had a lot of fun too." 'At least mom is here.' She too looked to the clock, which read ten o'clock at night. It was an hour past her bed time.   
  
"Do I get to meet your parents, Usagi?" She leaned into Usagi as she yawned. She couldn't wait for her own father to come and meet Usagi, her new best friend.  
  
Usagi wrapped her arm around Hotaru as the girl cuddled into her. "You can meet my mom. My dad already left for home." 'I wanted him to meet her, too.'  
  
Hotaru currently had her eyes locked right Usagi's tail, which was happily twitching in its place. "Usagi, can I ask you a question?"  
  
"Sure. Ask me anything you like." She looked down into the little girl's violet eyes.  
  
"Why do you have a tail?"  
  
"Oh this?" Usagi grabbed her tail and looked at it. "Well that's easy. I'm part Saiyan. My dad is full Saiyan."  
  
Hotaru's face let on a hint of fear. 'Saiyan?' "Oh, why do you have it?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Why don't you just cut it off?"  
  
"NO! It's a part of me. My dad wanted me to keep it on me for some reason. He said he wanted to keep me natural. Even though this thing has gotten me into a lot of trouble, I wouldn't get rid of it for anything." The duo went silent as the continued to wait for Hotaru's father to arrive. "Hotaru, does your dad always make you stay here this late?"  
  
"Only on night when he has meetings with important people." She looked to the door just in time to see her father walking in. She ripped herself away from Usagi's loving hold and launched herself into her father's arms. "PAPA!"  
  
Professor Tomoe was shocked as he looked down into his daughter's eyes and didn't see any tears of suffering. "Hey! How's my little firefly?" He nearly fainted as she beamed up at him with a dazzling smile on her face, one that he hadn't seen in years. Tears began to well up in his own eyes at the return of his daughter's happiness. He sets her down as he was curious as to what could have possibly made his daughter so happy.  
  
Hotaru latched on to her father' hands and drug him over to Usagi, who was smiling up at him. "Daddy this is my NEW BEST FRIEND USAG! She is the one that Mrs. Bulma told us about, the one you said might be my new sitter. I'm not a baby. I don't need a BABY sitter. CAN SHE?! CAN SHE!?" She asked with great enthusiasm as she hopped up and down like a kid high on sugar. "I really like her! We played tag, and the others actually let me play with them. They weren't afraid to touch me or anything. And we played on the swings, and made a sand castle in the sand box, and she even showed me some of her martial arts training and how she can fly, and use energy, and she even said that she would ask her daddy if he could teach me a little. But only if you let me. CAN I!? CAN I!? It would be fun learning with her! PLEEEEEEEAAAADEEEE DADDY! I want HER to be my sitter. PLEEEEEEAAAASEEEEE?!" She huffed and panted as she tried to catch her breath from THAT mouthful.   
  
He couldn't help but smile as he looked down at his daughter's glowing face and then at Usagi's. He realized what he had heard from Bulma and Dr. Mizuno was true. Usagi did have a way of getting into the hearts of others. He remembered what Bulma and Dr. Mizuno had mentioned about Usagi's fighting skills. They had said that she was one of the most skilled fighters that they had ever met. Though Dr. Mizuno was a bit more leering of it, of course, she admitted that Usagi was one of the reasons why her own daughter wasn't still in her shell. Along with her other friends who help with that little matter. They had also told him that they didn't fight to pick on people. They fought for fun and to defend themselves.   
  
He sighed as he realized that there was no way he could stop the positive change in his daughter that today's miracle had brought. He turned to Usagi with a concerned look on his face. "If I let her train, do you promise not to let her get hurt?"  
  
Usagi thought of how her father trained her and realized that he would have to train Hotaru differently. But she knew that he would be willing to. "Don't worry, sir. I'll ask my dad. I'm sure he'll train her so she doesn't get hurt."  
  
The professor smiled at her. He could see the sincerity in he eyes that she was telling the truth. 'At least she's polite.' "Let's go into the office and talk to Bulma and Usagi's parents. I think she will be a great SITTER. Plus, if the Sons don't mind training you, I have no objections."  
  
Hotaru once again threw herself into her father's arms with great happiness. "YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"  
  
(Well there you go. That's part one of chapter five. Part of it was Comet Moon's work with my additions, like the part where Hotaru and Usagi meet. What did you think? Good or bad? Ja Ne )  



	72. Part 2

Usagi, Hotaru, and Professor Tomoe walked down to Bulma's office, where Usagi knew that both she and her mother would be waiting for their arrival. Professor Tomoe watched his daughter as she and Usagi happily skipped down the hallway in front of him. He was overjoyed to see that his daughter had finally gotten a friend. Usagi seemed to be a nice person, from what he could tell. "So tell me Usagi, how old are you?"  
  
"Ten!" Usagi chirped.  
  
"And you live in the mountains, right?"  
  
"Yep!"  
  
"Not to sound rude or anything, but how do you travel from the mountains to the city without taking at least three hours with the fastest airship." He quietly gasped as his eyes were caught by the slight movement of Usagi's tail. 'A tail?'  
  
"We fly, sir." She looked over to Hotaru, who was giggling at the fact that her knew friend could fly.  
  
"Yes. Well, you must be a fast flyer to travel from the city to the mountains every day in such a short time."  
  
"I am. So are the rest of my friends."  
  
Hotaru smiled brightly as she looked up at Usagi. She squinted to get a better look at a silver glow that was coming from her knew friend's ears. "What's that on your ear?"   
  
"Huh?" Usagi looked to Hotaru and immediately knew what she was talking about when Hotaru pointed. "Oh these? My mom gave these to me. They're crescent moon earrings. Aren't they pretty?"   
  
Hotaru could only reply with a 'WOW' as she gazed at them. They were unlike anything that she had ever seen. For some reason she felt as if they gave off a sense of calmness. Usagi giggled as she remembered what happened when she asked her mother if she could get her ears pierced.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Flash Back~~  
Two weeks after the kids returned to the future…  
  
Usagi sighed as she put on her school uniform one morning. It was the first day of school since winter vacation had ended. Though Usagi had been grounded, she had rather enjoyed herself during the vacation. She pretty much just lazed around the house, something that she never really had a chance to do since she began training with her father. She was going to miss being lazy.   
  
"Usagi! Get down here before your father eats your breakfast!"  
  
"Coming mom!" She grabbed her school bag and quickly ran to the door that led out of her room so she could actually eat. But halfway there, she was stopped by a silver sparkle coming from her Gi, which she had thrown atop a pile of cloths when she had gotten home the day that Cell Jr. was killed.   
  
As any curious child would do, Usagi quickly forgot about breakfast and went to investigate what could have possibly been creating such a mesmerizing light. She grabbed her Gi and immediately, a pair of silver earrings fell out onto the ground. "I totally forgot about these!" She dropped her Gi and bent down to pick up the gift from her mother. "They are so pretty." She held them up in the direction of the window and let the sun's rays beat down on them, causing their glimmer to increase. "Whoa…"  
  
"USAGI!"   
  
Usagi jerked from being startled from her mother's words and dropped the sparkling earrings. "COMING!" She quickly picked them up again and didn't waste a single second darting out of her room. She knew what would happen if she hadn't come right then.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku had already gone through ten servings of breakfast by the time Usagi had finally gotten to the kitchen. "Hey there!" He said as he stuffed another plate of food in his mouth.  
  
Usagi, still with the earrings in hand, sat down on the opposite of the table to her father. "Hi daddy." She looked to her mother with uncertainty. She didn't know how to ask her if she could get her ears pierced. She knew her father wouldn't really care, it was just her mother that she would have to worry about. "Mom?"   
  
Chi-Chi walked to her daughter's side and began to serve her breakfast. "What?"  
  
"Umm…" She couldn't find the words to say. She wanted to ask her in the perfect way, she just didn't know how.  
  
Chi-Chi sat down next to Goku and began eating her own breakfast now that everyone was served. Had they wanted more, they would have to serve themselves. She looked up to her hesitant daughter. "What is it, honey? You can tell me."  
  
"Well, I was wondering if maybe I could possibly get my ears pierced?" She closed her eyes and pulled back her head in fear that her mother would lash out at her. But to her surprise, nothing came out of either of her parents' mouths. She opened her eyes and looked to her mother, half expecting to see her fainted on the floor from the silence. "Mom?"  
  
Chi-Chi just stared at her food. She didn't know what to say, but knew she should or else Usagi may have been offended. "I knew this would come up one day." She sighed as she knew that there was no way of getting around it, but still, she would try to talk her out of it. "Usagi, don't you think you're a little young?"  
  
"No. Other girls in my class have had their ears pierced since before they were in school. I want to get my ears pierced now."  
  
'Well at least she wants something that a normal girl wants.' "But Usagi, I don't think your father and I want you putting holes in your body quite yet."   
  
Usagi lowered her head in disappointment. She wouldn't argue with her mother on this one. She knew better than to go against her mother when she was grounded. "I understand, mom."  
  
Goku finished up with his twelfth serving and turned his attention to his wife. "Well actually Chi-Chi, I don't really mind. I think she would look cute with them pierced. Pan had her ears pierced when she was a little girl."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she slapped her husband in the face. "DON'T GET INTO THIS!" She hoped that that hadn't put hope into Usagi.  
  
"Mom, if daddy doesn't mind, why can't I get them pierced? Please? Look, mom." She placed the earrings onto the table for her parents to look at. "These are why I want to get my ears pierced."  
  
Chi-Chi was speechless as she gazed upon the shining silver earrings in front of her. She had never seen anything so spectacular in her entire life. It's glow was greater than that of a Super Saiyan's glow. "Usagi, where did you get these?" Her voice made her sound as if she were half way in a trance. 'Where have I seen such a glow?'  
  
Usagi smiled as she watched her mother gawk at the gift. She turned to her father, who didn't seem phased by the intensity of the glow for it was the same light that her aura gave off when she turned Super Saiyan. "So?"  
  
Chi-Chi shook herself from her trance and angrily frowned as she brought her eyes back up to look into her daughter's eyes. "Where did you get these!? I know for sure that you don't get enough allowance to pay for something like that! You haven't even gotten your pay from Piccolo and Vejita yet!" She slowly stood up as she crossed her arms as she waited for an answer. "I'll ask you one more time! Where did you get them, young lady?!"  
  
Usagi gulped as she looked up to her mother. Though she knew her mother wasn't very strong, she was intimidated by her. She had witnessed her beat her father in a challenge, TWICE. "You gave them to me, mom."  
  
"Now THAT is a lie! I've never, EVER, had anything THAT nice. Where did you get them?!"  
  
Goku reached out and grabbed the earrings, examining them as he tested their durability. No matter how much pressure he put on them, they didn't seem to want to break. "Usagi…" He looked up to his daughter, not knowing what to believe. He knew that Chi-Chi was right. She had never owned anything like it before, but there was also the fact that Usagi was never known to steal things.  
  
"I'm not lying." She turned to her father. "I didn't steal them. I promise! When I was…"  
  
Chi-Chi cut her daughter off by slamming her hands onto the table. "Don't try to make excuses. You've been caught. You snuck out of the house in the past couple of weeks, didn't you?!"  
  
Goku studied his daughter's eyes and saw that truth was written in them. "Chi-Chi, that's enough. Give her time to explain herself, and no, she didn't sneak out. I would have felt her energy." 'Especially since I'm always sensing around for her to make sure she doesn't get herself into any more trouble.'  
  
Usagi was somewhat surprised by her father's reaction. Only a few moments ago he was leaning towards doubting her. Now he was on her side. But that's the way he was. He usually did end up taking her side. "I was going to say where I got those and you cut me off, mom."  
  
Chi-Chi growled as she sat back down. "Then go ahead and explain." She glanced over to her husband, who was still holding the items in question. "Wait a minute, I have seen that glow before. The angel had that SAME intensity of light all around her body.'  
  
"You gave them to me in the past, when you first started training with us in the room of spirit and time. I must have forgotten about them since we were in there for a few months. Then Cell came and it was totally wiped from my memory, I guess."  
  
Chi-Chi dropped her head in shame. 'I should have known better than to doubt her.' "I'm sorry, sweetie."  
  
"It's ok mom."  
  
"Did she say where she got them?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No. She just gave them to me. Aren't they cool?"  
  
"They are beautiful." She snatched the earrings from her husband and looked at them closer than before. "Crescent Moons. One of the most beautiful things around."  
  
"Did the moon actually look like that?"   
  
"On some nights it did. On a clear night, the moon would even give off a glow much like these earrings. It was a magnificent sight."  
  
"I bet." She leaned her head into her hands as she watched her mother rolled the earrings in her hand. "I wish I could have seen the moon."  
  
"No you don't. It's a good thing that the moon is gone. If you look at a full moon, you would turn into a giant ape and go on a rampage. You would loose control and end up killing many innocent people. It happened to Gohan and I when we were young."   
  
"Is that why you, Goten, and Gohan don't have tails anymore, daddy? And Vejita and Trunks and Bra and Pan?"  
  
"Yes, dear. That's why."  
  
"Why do I have one?"  
  
"Because there was no threat of the moon. It was already destroyed by the time you were born. It was destroyed way back when Gohan was only four years old." Goku hated to think back to those days. The days when earth was constantly being attack. The days when his family was so violently ripped apart.  
  
"Oh." She turned to her mother, who was finally beginning to put the earrings down. "So? Mom? Can I do it? Please?"  
  
Chi-Chi looked up to her daughter with a smile. "I guess it's alright with me if it's alright with your father."  
  
"I don't care. I've already said that."  
  
Usagi jumped out her chair with joy. "Thank you! Thank you!"  
  
Chi-Chi giggled as she loved to hear the joy of her daughter. "You're very welcome. We can't have something THIS beautiful go to waste, can we?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~End of Flash Back~~  
  
Usagi stopped just in front of Bulma's office door and knocked on it. "Mom, Bulma, we're here." She proceeded to enter when she heard an ok from Bulma to come in.   
  
Usagi and Hotaru were the first to walk in and were soon followed by Professor Tomoe, who went directly to Chi-Chi to introduce himself. "Hi Mrs. Son. I am Hotaru's father, Professor Tomoe. It's nice to meet you." He extended his hand to the woman in front of him.  
  
Chi-Chi stood from her chair and reached out and met his hand for a firm handshake. "Good evening, Professor. It's nice to meet you too. Bulma's told me a lot about you and your daughter."  
  
Professor Tomoe turned to Bulma and nodded at her to say hello. "Mrs. Son, your daughter is amazing. She is very well mannered for her age. And from what I can see, she's going to be a great friend for Hotaru." He sat down at one of the chairs that sat in front of Bulma's desk.  
  
Chi-Chi smiled with pride as she sat back down in her chair. "Thank you." She turned her attention to her daughter and the fragile looking girl, who stood beside her. "Hi. I'm Son Chi-Chi, Usagi's mother. Nice to meet you."  
  
Hotaru smiled as she crawled up onto her father's lap. "Nice to meet you. I'm Hotaru."   
  
Usagi walked to her mother and hopped up onto her lap. "Mom, Hotaru is cool!"  
  
Hotaru's smile got brighter at that as she giggled. "Papa! Tell them, TELL THEM!"  
  
Professor Tomoe chuckled as he ran his fingers through his daughter's black hair. "Ok, ok. I will. Mrs. Son, we have decided to accept your offer of letting Usagi watch Hotaru. Hotaru seems to have taken quite a liking to your daughter."  
  
"Well that's fine with me. I'm glad to hear that."  
  
"When will she be available?"  
  
Chi-Chi looked down to her daughter as if to ask her when she wanted to work. When no answer came about, she decided to answer for her. "When do you need a sitter?"  
  
"I usually have Hotaru here on weekdays from three to six. And on Saturday's from noon to four or five. Is that all right with you?"  
  
"I think that's workable. As long as Usagi has time to do her homework, I'm happy."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes. She was lucky that her mother didn't see it. "Yes, sir. That's good."  
  
"YAY! I can't wait until tomorrow!" Hotaru could hardly hold in her excitement.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Next Morning~~  
  
Usagi aimlessly walked around her house all the next morning not really knowing how she was going to ask her father if he could train Hotaru. She knew that he was wanting to take time to train her mother and to train himself harder, but it was for a good cause. She was sure that he would understand. She walked into the living room where her mother was watching one of her shows. She casually walked to the sofa and climbed up over the back and plopped herself down next to her mother. She looked at the clock, which read eleven thirty in the morning, a half hour before she was supposed to be at Hotaru's. 'Better do it before it's too late." "DADDY!"  
  
Usagi ran out of the house, hoping that she would be able to convince her father to let her train Hotaru. Outside was where he was, stretching his legs and preparing himself to go and train with Vejita. "Daddy!" She ran to his side and looked down at him with a hesitant face.  
  
Goku looked up to his daughter and smiled. He found it odd that she was dressed in her training Gi, though. "Hey there kiddo! What's on your mind?"  
  
"Well you know how I have to watch Hotaru now, right?"  
  
Goku quirked his eyebrow, knowing the tone she used all too well. He knew that it meant that she wanted something from him. "Yes."  
  
"Well I have to watch her on the weekdays from three to six and on Saturdays from noon to five at the latest. And I was wondering if you could possibly…well…ummm…"  
  
Goku stared at his hesitant child and became quite curious as to what was making her afraid to ask him whatever was on her mind. "Ok Usagi, what is it?"  
  
'Well, there's no better way than to get it all out in the open.' "Well…CanyoutrainHotaruandnothurtheratallyouknowtrainnice?"   
  
Goku stared at his daughter in wonder. 'I thought I was the only one capable of doing that.' "Would you like to repeat that in terms that I can understand?"   
  
Usagi took a deep breath. "Well, Can you train Hotaru and not hurt her at all, you know train nice?"  
  
Goku's expression turned to an offended one. But he was also interested in what she meant. "I thought I did train nice."  
  
Usagi put her hands behind her back and squirmed at that. She didn't want to hurt his feelings, but she had promised Hotaru and her father that if she were to be trained that it wouldn't be rough training. "Well you do, daddy, I just meant, uhhh, not as rough, yeah that's it."  
  
Goku began to slightly frown. "Not as rough…" He wasn't sure if he quite grasped what the point of training someone without being rough.  
  
"Well, daddy, you can be a bit tough especially in the beginning, maybe if you just train a little gentler it wouldn't cause her as many hurts."  
  
"Usagi, being hurt is a part of fighting. You know that. It makes you tough and ready for things." he stood up and brushed some dirt off of his Gi.  
  
"Well, yeah, in regular fights, but I don't think training it should. At least not at first. I think that a student should know kind of what they're meant to be doing before they get a beating. Kind of how you did to me. I didn't know what I was doing and you started out with pushing me around."  
  
Goku began to loose his patients as he got upset with her words. "I told you what to do before I started fighting you."  
  
Usagi took a step back as she could see that she was aggravating her father. "Sort of."  
  
"So what are you telling me? That you don't like the way I trained you?"  
  
"No, NO! I LOVE the way you trained me. It's just that…"  
  
Goku didn't know how much longer he would stand there and listen to his daughter bash his training style. "Yes?"  
  
"Hotaru's different than me. She's more fragile, I guess you could say." She hoped that he wouldn't get to angry. She hoped that she wasn't making him to angry with her.  
  
"And would you do it differently, might I ask?"  
Usagi thought hard at that one. She hadn't really thought about how she would train someone since it had never come up before. But she finally came up with an answer. "I'd sort of train like you do, with some of mom's training, but a little differently then that too."  
  
Usagi thought about her past experiences to find a way to justify herself. "Mostly though I wouldn't try and force a power jump like Vejita did when I first trained with him. I wouldn't try to get them to learn a technique by beating it into them, like Vejita and Piccolo do, but more gentle."  
  
Goku pondered Usagi's statement, and decided it was time for her training to take a step forward. Though he had said that he wouldn't be training her for a while, he found the perfect way to do it without HIM actually having to be there for it. "Well I DID say that I had to train your mom and myself harder."  
  
Usagi wasn't sure if that statement was meant to be a good one, or a bad one. She crossed her fingers as she hoped for the best. "I know but…" She didn't know what to say. "PLEEEEEEASE!?"  
  
"Usagi I won't train Hotaru."   
  
Usagi could have crumbled into pieces right there and then. She couldn't believe that he had just said that. "Daddy, please. I'm sorry I made fun of the way you train. I take it all back. Just please, PLEASE train Hotaru."  
  
Goku grinned. "Now if you said that you take it all back, you'd be lying because now I know that you really DO feel that way about it. That doesn't really bother me all that much since you have a valid complaint. I'm not going to train Hotaru, but you can"  
  
Usagi's mouth dropped open as she stared at her father in disbelief. "ME?! I can't train someone! I don't know how! What if I mess up?"  
  
Goku chuckled at his daughter. "You wont mess up. Trust me. You're a great fighter. You've already figured out so many more techniques that none of us other fighters ever could have thought of. You know what you're doing."  
  
"But…"  
  
Goku put his finger over his daughter's mouth to silence her. "If you want her trained the way you want, gentle, than you're going to have to do it. If I train her, I'll do it the way I always have. That would be the way you were trained."  
  
"But what if I DO mess up. What if I fail, or do something wrong? What if I hurt her? What if…"  
  
"What if, what if, what if? What's with all this doubt Usagi. Just think of this as an extension of your own training. Teach her everything you know, the way you want to. If you need help, I'll always be there to consult. Your brothers will be there if you need their help. You have nothing to worry about."  
  
Usagi was about to protest her father more when she remembered the look in Hotaru's eyes. She saw nothing but the need to be accepted. Most of all, though, she remembered the excitement that came into them when she suggested that she be trained with her and her friends. She sighed as she felt defeated by her own father. Though he was being over reasonable, she didn't have enough faith in herself to do it.   
  
She looked up at him and saw that he would accept her decision, whichever way she chose to go. Before she made her final decision, she thought of Hotaru once again. She thought of how much it would mean for her to be part of everything, to feel accepted. But Usagi also feels something towards her. For some reason, she felt a closeness to Hotaru as if she were the little sister that she had always wanted. "Ok, I'll do it."  
  
Goku smiled at her decision, the one he knew that she would pick. "That's my girl. I have to go round up your mother so we can leave to train."  
  
"K! I have to go too. Professor Tomoe and Hotaru are expecting me in about fifteen minutes."  
  
"Ok, I'll see you tonight then."  
  
She bounced into the air. "See you! Bye daddy!" With one burst of power, she was off to collect Hotaru.   
  
'She really is a good kid.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Hotaru's House~~  
  
Usagi was lead into the Tomoes' home by a woman with long read hair trailing down to her lower back. "Please wait while I go and fetch the Professor and his kid." She walked out of the room into a hallway.  
  
Usagi walked to the sofa that sat in the middle of the room and looked around in complete awe. 'Whoa, this is greater than Bulma's place. It's not as big, but it's got all this neat old stuff in it. Cool! This stuff looks really expensive too.' Her sensitive ears picked up quiet footsteps approaching from behind.  
  
Hotaru ran to Usagi and jumped onto the sofa, sitting next to her new best friend. "USAGI!" She wrapped her arms around Usagi's waist and hugged her tightly.  
  
Usagi giggled as she hugged back. "Hi Hotaru! How are you today?"  
  
"Great now that you're here!" She looked up and saw her father standing in front of them. "Papa I'm so excited!"  
  
"That's good. Now Usagi, I'm in the middle of a rather large project at work so I'm probably not going to be getting off until five tonight." He still couldn't get over the fact that Hotaru had finally gotten a friend.  
  
"Ok. I'll make sure she stays safe, sir."  
  
Hotaru pulled away from Usagi, still with a huge smile planted on her face. "Did you ask your daddy? Did you? Did you?"  
  
"Yep! I sure did! He said that I could train you, isn't that neat?"  
  
Professor Tomoe wasn't sure he liked the sound of that. "Aren't you still a student yourself?"  
  
Usagi looked up to Professor Tomoe. She knew that he would have doubted her. "Yes. But my dad said that this is part of my training. He said that I know enough to start training her." She could still see the concern on his face. "If you don't want me to, I understand. I can still ask dad to do it."  
  
"I don't mind. I trust that your father has good judgment. Bulma told me about all the times he saved earth from near destruction. I don't think that I have anything to worry about."  
  
"Thank you, sir. I promise not to hurt her while she's with me." She looked down to Hotaru, who looked more excited than ever as she anticipated what would happen next. "Should we go?"  
  
Hotaru leaped out of her sofa and impossibly widened her smile. "YEAH!"  
  
Professor Tomoe laughed at his daughter as Usagi stood to her feet. "Ok then. Well, if you're going to train, you need a Gi."  
  
"A Gi? You mean those things that the Karate people on T.V. have?" Hotaru's eyes glimmered even more as her excitement grew.   
  
"Sort of. Yours will be like mine, only purple. I think that purple is your color, for some reason."  
  
"Purple's my favorite color. It'll match my eyes. When do I get it?"  
  
"Right now." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small capsule. "Even though I didn't ask my dad last night if he could train you, I knew he would agree so I had Bulma make you a Gi last night after you left and we put it in this capsule." She clicked the top and immediately a purple Gi was wrapped around her arm. "See? It's just like mine."  
  
"COOL!"  
  
"Now if you want, you can go and put it on so we can start our training." She tossed it to Hotaru, who, in return, caught it.   
  
"I will!" She happily squealed as she scampered down to her room.  
  
Professor Tomoe wasn't exactly sure what it was about Usagi, but for some reason he knew that she was going to be a real friend to his daughter. "Thank you, Usagi. You don't know how much this means to Hotaru and I."  
  
Usagi smiled as she was happy for what she had just done. "You're welcome, sir. I can't wait to hang out with Hotaru."  
  
"She's just had such a hard life so far. I'm just overjoyed that she has met someone like you who can pull her out of her shell. I haven't seen her this happy in years."  
  
"I know what's she's going through. When I first started school, almost everyone was a bully to me. Everyone made fun of me all the time. There were these two bullies, especially, who made fun of me. Me and my friend, Minako, were victims of one of their attacks. That's when I decided that I wanted to fight. I needed to be able to defend myself. Once the kids at school learned that I could fight, they left me alone. I think it was because they were afraid of me. Even now I have people who make fun of me, but I've learned to ignore them. Deep down I know they don't mean it. I hope I can make Hotaru see things that way. I want her to just learn to ignore people who make fun of her."  
  
"Thank you, Usagi." He looked down at his watch. "I have to run. Tell Hotaru I said goodbye." He walked passed Usagi towards the door. "You two have fun today."  
  
( There you have it. Another part. What did you think? Was it any good? Gotta go. Ja! )  



	73. Part 3

Usagi flew to the lake in the woods with Hotaru on her back. She glanced back as Hotaru laughed as loudly as she could from excitement. "I know you've flow here from Nagoya on a plane. I bet you never though in a million years that you would be flying on top of a person, did you?"  
  
Hotaru continued to look around herself in awe. She had never seen anything quite like this before. The view was certainly breathtaking. "This is great, Usagi! GO FASTER!"  
  
Usagi complied with her new friend's wishes and increased her speed, very slowly though as to not cause Hotaru to loose her balance and fall off. "I thought you'd like it. I know I did when I first learned that my dad could fly. I was four when he first let me ride on his back like this. Before that he made me ride on this yellow cloud called Nimbus. Though he never really took me on his back because mom said it was too dangerous. But sometimes he would break the rules. Those were the best times too because he always went a lot fast on Nimbus."  
  
"Your daddy sounds like a nice person, Usagi. When do I get to meet him?" She looked down to the ground where a mother deer and it's fawn were grazing on a patch of open grass. 'Neat!'   
  
"He is a great person. Maybe you can meet him tonight. Wait, I think he's going to be training tonight. You may have to wait a little bit to meet him. He's going to be doing a lot of training for a while." She decreased her altitude as soon as she had the lake in view. "Here we are! This is one of my favorite places to come." She landed near the water and let Hotaru slide down her back.  
  
Hotaru was in pure bliss. She looked at the environment all around her in astonishment. Never in her life had she seen anything quite like it before. "This is amazing. This is SO much better than Fuji San."  
  
"That's because it hasn't been turned into a place where tourists come. It's untouched and left for the animals. Me and dad don't really tell anyone about places like this. If we did, a company would come and make houses here for people to live in. They would totally ruin it."  
  
"Then why did you tell me about it?" Hotaru walked to the edge of the lake and waved her hand around the water a bit.  
  
"I don't think you're going to go and get a construction company to come and bulldoze this place." Usagi bent over and touched her finger tips to her toes without bending her knew to stretch her legs. "We should get your training started though. The first you thing you always want to do before you do it though, is always make sure you're muscles are nice and stretched before you do it so you don't hurt yourself."  
  
"Right." Hotaru began to copy Usagi's movements and stretched her arms over her head. "Like this?"  
  
Usagi turned over to Hotaru. "Yep. Just like that." She stopped stretching for a moment and thought about how she was going to go about training Hotaru. She still wasn't fully sure that she would be capable of doing it. 'Why daddy has faith in me, I don't know. I'm just a big screw up when it comes to important stuff like this.' Usagi went over a few ideas in her head on how she was going to do this. She thought up, rejected, revised various ways that she would do it on the way to the lake. She almost went out of her mind trying to think of the best way to do it, but decided to start the new fighter on Ki strength and physical endurance build up first. That way, she would be able to take blows that would come when she began to fight for real.  
  
Usagi took a deep breath for not only was Hotaru's training going to begin, but so was Usagi's. This was a test for the both of them. It wouldn't be easy, but they would both get through it, together. "Ok Hotaru, we are going to start with some knowledge of Ki and how to use it to increase your strength and toughness of your body."  
  
Hotaru clueless looked up to Usagi. "What's Ki?"  
  
"You don't know what Ki is?" Hotaru shook her head. "Well, I guess Ki is kind of like someone's inner soul energy."  
  
"Do I have any?"  
  
"Of course you do. Everyone has Ki. It's just a matter of being able to control it. I was controlling my Ki energy when I was flying."  
  
Hotaru's eyes widened when she heard the word fly. "WHEN CAN I LEARN TO FLY!?"  
  
Usagi laughed. "First you have to learn how to control it, then we can teach you the basics of flying, but I think flying may be for another day." She noticed that she had Hotaru's undivided attention so she decided not to stop there and let her ask more questions.   
  
Usagi smiled down at the curious girl and continued. "I think we should start with a nice run first though. That's what my dad did when I fist started out. He had me run for two miles. But because I'm a Saiyan, I could handle it. Since you're human, I think we should start you out with one."  
  
Hotaru opened her mouth for protest. "A WHOLE mile?"  
  
"Yes. It wont be that hard. We can go at your pace. And if there's ever a time that you feel like you're going to collapse, please tell me. I don't want to force you to run if you can't take it." 'But then again, I can't always go easy on her. I have to be tough like dad sometimes. Otherwise she wont learn. But I have to be reasonable like mom. Oh daddy! Why did you do this to me!? Why couldn't you just be fair and train her the way I asked?' "Come Hotaru, let's see how much you can do. We'll run a mile and then turn back to do some work with your Ki."  
  
"What if we get lost?"  
  
"That wont happen. Me and my dad always come out here and do this. I know the woods like the back of my hand. Just stick with me and we'll be fine." She readied herself for her run, which wouldn't be that stressful on her since she wasn't going to be going at anything like her full speed. "Ready when you are."  
  
Hotaru gave one nod. "Ready." She burst out running at her fastest speed, with Usagi right by her side. "I'm going too slow, aren't I?"  
  
"No. You're doing fine." Usagi was amazed at the girl's speed. 'She's going as fast as I did when I first started out. That's faster than a normal human should be starting out at.' "Just don't speed up and you'll be fine. You want to keep a steady pace so you don't wear yourself out. Once you start out at a certain pace, you should try to keep it. Never go up or down, unless it's an emergency."  
  
Hotaru knew that she wasn't going to have a problem with slowing down. For some reason, she felt like she could have gone on forever. "This is kind of fun. I don't get a chance to run a lot."  
  
Usagi was shocked as she looked down to the little girl next to her. 'What?!' "Well for someone who doesn't run very much, you're fast."  
  
Hotaru smiled as she let out a squeak. "Thanks."  
  
"Now listen to what I say. This will help you in your running. Feel your body as it moves. Make a note of what it feel like. Then, when se start Ki training, I want you to feel how it works with your body. I want you to be able to compare it to what it feels like when you aren't using you Ki. I think it's a good idea to know how Ki affects your body. In the end, the best fighters know how their bodies work inside and out. They have their heart, mind, and soul as one."  
  
"Wow, Usagi. You're smart. Did you learn that from your daddy?"  
  
"Some of it. Other parts I came up with. I feel that a fighter should know their body. I ask you this, Hotaru, how can you expect to over come someone if you don't know how your own body works?"  
  
Hotaru was tongue tied for words. She could only think of one thing to say. "Whoa…"  
  
"As your legs and arms get tired, try and feel how your heart is beating. Breath with it to help it along. Breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Never breath in with your mouth or else your throat will get dry and you will want to stop."  
  
Hotaru absorbed the information with wonder. She had never known that there was so much to the art of fighting. "How much further."  
  
"You tell me, how much strength do you have left? Do you have more energy that gone go further than a mile?"  
  
"I think I can go further. I'm not THAT tired."  
  
'Amazing. She isn't at all like a normal Human. Even the girls couldn't really run for a mile without getting really tired. I could barely go two. We're already coming up on the mile mark.' "Ok then, let's keep going."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The two young fighters fan for a total of thirty minutes before Hotaru started to gasp for breath and slow down. Usagi took this as a sign to stop. Hotaru had had enough for the day. "Let's stop now. You need to stop before you hurt yourself."  
  
Hotaru stopped her running to a complete stop only to look up and have her eyes be met by a slightly frowning pair of blue eyes. "What did I do wrong?"  
  
"Never just stop running like that. You'll hurt yourself. Your legs will cramp up if you do that. Come on, we have to walk for a cool down."  
  
"Oh, sorry." She began walking and grabbed Usagi's hand with her own. "Did I do good?"  
  
"You did really good. That was quite a good distance for your first run. Even though you slowed down near the end, you kept going, which as good. You almost went two miles." 'Amazing for a human. Wait till daddy hears about this. He'll be surprised.' She slowed to a complete stop, with Hotaru doing the same.  
  
Hotaru bent over and rested her hands on her knees as she continued to gasp for breath. "Thanks."  
  
Usagi grinned as an idea crossed her mind. "Now I want you to hop on my back."  
  
Hotaru looked up in confusion. "Huh? Why?"  
  
Usagi giggled. "Well I want to get a good work out today, too, you know. You can't have all the fun."   
  
Hotaru hopped onto the Saiyan's back as directed and wrapped her arms around her neck so she wouldn't fall off. "K!" She couldn't wait to see what was going to happen.  
  
Usagi prepared herself for her own workout. "HOLD ON CAUSE HERE WE GO!" Without any further conversation from either of the girls, Usagi took off at an impossible rate of speed. She heard a small 'eep' from Hotaru as she felt tiny nails being dug into her skin. Unknown to herself, she was using a small portion of her Ki to hold the small girl in place. Both girls began to laugh with enjoyment.  
  
Usagi stopped laughing once she got another idea of training. "Try now to feel my energy as I run. Try to feel it moving through the wind."   
  
Hotaru closed her eyes and tried to feel the energy that Usagi spoke of. She tensed her muscles trying to find it, but had no luck. She opened her eyes with disappointment. "It's not working."  
  
Usagi lowered her speed just in case she was running to fast for Hotaru to feel. "Try it again. But don't do it by trying to use your strength. Try sensing it. Try to see it by closing your eyes."  
  
Hotaru once again closed her eyes and tried to feel and see the energy moving at the same time. But it just wasn't clicking for her. She couldn't grasp the idea of being able to see energy moving. But all of a sudden she felt something warm around her. Not only was a warm, but bright. Her dark world inside her closed eyes soon became filled with a golden beam of light that was twisting and turning all around. Whenever she would feel her own body being thrown to the right, the yellow beam would turn that way too. She smiled as she realized what she had stumbled upon. "I DID IT! I CAN SEE AND FEEL IT!"  
  
"Good job!"  
  
~*~*~   
  
~~Capsule Corp.~~  
  
Goku walked into Vejita's gravity room as he was going to challenge to him to a spar before he trained with Chi-Chi. "Vejita?" He looked around the room and saw Vejita sitting in the middle of it looking more aggravated than ever. "Hey there."  
  
Vejita glared up at Goku. "What is it?! Can't you see I'm busy!?"  
  
"Hey Vejita. Just thought you'd like to spar with me."  
  
"I never want to spar with you! I only want to kill you! Which is what I feel like doing right now."  
  
"Come on Vejita. We've known each other for nearly fifty years and you still haven't killed me. Can't you drop it now?" He walked to what he considered to be his friend and put his hand on his shoulder to try and be friendly.  
  
Vejita violently pulled away from Goku. "DON'T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN! I WILL kill you. You piss me off!" He looked behind Goku and smirked in interest. "Where's your brat? Doesn't she like to hang around you all the time?"  
  
Goku frowned. "She isn't a brat, Vejita. I would appreciate it if you didn't call her one. She happens to be training someone right now."  
  
Vejita burst out laughing. "OH GOD KAKKOROTTO! You actually let HER go and train someone? She's not a fighter. She's too much of a whiny baby to do ANYTHING. How could you have been dumb enough to let HER of all people do that."  
  
"Shut up! She didn't think that the way we trained would be suitable for this girl. She wanted me to train her gently."  
  
Vejita stared blankly at Goku as if he had never heard of the option of training gently. "Gently? Gently?! How the HELL do you train someone gently?"  
  
Goku shrugged. "You got me. I think it's a little outrageous myself, which is why I told her to do it. I would never train someone gently. They wouldn't know what pain they should be expecting if I did. But I let her have her way. It didn't seem like it was going to harm anything. She seemed to know what she was talking about, too."  
  
"And I thought she was an idiot before. Kakkorotto, your kid just keep getting dumber and dumber. This is just too funny. I can't believe you're going to let that other kid be trained improperly."  
  
"I have faith in Usagi. But, if her way doesn't work, we can always correct the problem."  
  
"Yeah right. Don't expect me to help. I've already tried to train that girl the proper way, she just doesn't want to listen."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Forest~~  
  
  
Usagi ran for about an hour with Hotaru on her back, which added up to be much more than the mile and a half that Hotaru had run. When she was ready to stop, she ran back to the lake where they had come from. Before completely stopping, she walked around the giant lake once so as to not let her legs cramp up.   
  
She set Hotaru down on the ground when she did finally stop, she let Hotaru slip off. "What a rush. I love running like that. Me and dad always do that. We usually end up racing each other, even though I always loosing."  
  
Hotaru was trying to get used to being still as she let her eyes get used to not seeing everything flying by her. "You daddy BEATS you?!"  
  
"Yep. Dad's a lot faster AND stronger than me. But that's ok. I'm practicing all the time. I plan to actually beat him one day. Hopefully."  
  
"Wow, I can't wait to meet him. Will I ever get to fight him?"  
  
'Wow. She's already getting into this fighting thing. She's kind of like me and Makoto.' "When you get stronger. Dad is REALLY strong. Even my friends still have a hard time beating him, though they're getting a lot better at it."  
  
Hotaru's eyes sparkled with happiness as she couldn't wait to meet everyone that Usagi knew. "DO I GET TO MEET YOUR FRIENDS TOO?!"  
  
"Yep. You get to meet them on Monday after school. You would have been able to meet them today, but my mom wanted us to get to know each other better before the others came." Hotaru appeared to be too happy to even be able to reply. "So, you wanna continue?"  
  
"YES!"  
  
Usagi giggled at the girl's enthusiasm. "K! Now we are going to get more into the Ki stuff, like I said before. Now, what we need to do, is sit down and clear our minds." Both fighters sat down by the lake and faced each other with their legs crossed. Usagi held her hands in front of herself with only six inches in between them. "Put your hands out just like this and imagine your own Ki energy flowing from your body into this small space." Hotaru looked at her friend as if she were crazy, but went along with it. Usagi could see that Hotaru was struggling with her task. She could see her muscles tensing. "Remember what I told you when I was running? Don't try to do it with your own physical strength. Relax and let your energy do the work. As long as you're concentrating your energy to do something, it will work."   
  
She became more interested in the girl's progress as she felt her Ki moving inside of her. 'Wow, she's actually doing it.' A small bead of purple energy built inside the opening between Hotaru's hands. Usagi couldn't believe it. Even her own friends had had more trouble controlling their Ki when they first started. It had taken them around two days for them to fully be able to control it. 'How is she doing that? She did it almost as fast as I did.'   
  
A small smiled appeared on Hotaru's face as she looked down to the bead of energy that was in her control. It was giving off an intense purple light that expanded even beyond the area of her hands. It was at that moment, for some reason, she began to feel that she had more power to do anything than ever before. "Am I doing good?"  
  
Usagi nodded in awe. "Ye…ah…" 'Why does it feel so powerful? Almost like a…' "Can you feel it moving within you? Do you feel like you can control it and what it will do?"  
  
Hotaru nodded with much excitement as she opened her eyes. "Uh-huh. This is like nothing that I've ever felt before. For the first time I feel like I have control over what my body does."  
  
"That's good." Usagi decided that I was time to take the five year old to a new level since she seemed to be learning fast. "Now take that energy back and let your energy lift you up. Let it make you float away from your troubles."  
  
A soft breeze was created around the two girls as Hotaru brought her energy back into her body. She could feel how it was flowing through her veins now. "This is the neatest thing I've ever felt before." She closed her eyes again and concentrated her energy all around her body. She then concentrated the energy as pushing her body up. From no where, Hotaru felt a sense of weightlessness come over her. She felt as if she were a feather just floating around aimlessly in the atmosphere. "How am I doing?"  
  
Usagi still couldn't believe how much progress Hotaru was making for a human. 'Wait till I tell daddy about this. He's going to be surprised.' "Why don't you look down and then you tell me."  
  
"Huh?" Hotaru opened her eyes and noted that she was ACTUALLY floating about fifteen feet from the ground. "OH MY GOSH!" She screamed from the shock. As a result, she lost concentration and fell down to the ground.  
  
Usagi ran to Hotaru's side and helped her up to her feet. "That was great. You're learning really fast." She giggled. "My best pupil yet."  
  
Hotaru giggled as well and objected. "I'm your only pupil."  
  
Usagi's giggles turned to laughter. "See what I mean?" She turned her head in the direction of a field not to far from where they were, where her mother, father, and Vejita seemed to be powering up. "Hey Hotaru, here's something for you to try and do. There are three people powering up not to far from here. I want you to try and sense them just like you did when you sensed mine."  
  
Hotaru nodded and complied with her Sensei's wishes. "K!" She closed her eyes and tried to feel around for the power levels that she was told to sense. Though it was somewhat hard since she didn't know exactly WHAT she was searching for. "Usagi, this is hard."  
  
"I know. But it's something you should know how to do. It could make a battle easier if you know your opponent's power level. Just look harder, it's alright if you don't get it."  
  
Hotaru dropped all of the physical strength that she put into searching as she remembered Usagi's words. 'Now where could they be?' Little did she know that she was feeling around for the three distant fighters with her own energy. Though she had the power of her Ki on her side, she still didn't have any luck. "I can't do it."  
  
"Don't worry, you will sooner or later. But you've done really good already today." 'Almost as good as I did when I first started with using Ki. That's sort of scary. I wonder what they girls will think.'   
  
Hotaru's face was once again overtaken with excitement as she began to ask Usagi what she thought was an important question. "Can I learn how to fly NOW?!!"  
  
Usagi continued to laugh at Hotaru's eagerness as she began to answer "Yes, but not today. I want to show you something before you have to be home, plus, for a job well done, I want to give you ice cream."  
  
Hotaru jumped for joy. "ICE CREAM!"  
  
"Alrighty then. Let's go shove off. I'm going to show you something that only my friends and my parents know about. We can walk there since it's not too far from here."  
  
"Usagi, I'm really tired though."  
  
Usagi reconsidered the walking idea after hearing that. She remembered back to what happened when she first started using her Ki and how she was passed out for almost two days. "Ok, I can carry you. Do you wanna go REALLY fast again?"  
  
"YEP!" Chirped Hotaru.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru hopped off of Usagi's back and looked around the area of the forest that she was in, in a state of being confused. "Where is this thing you wanted to show me? I don't see anything. Did you get us lost? I thought you knew the forest really good."  
  
Usagi giggled at her friend's confusion as the answer was all to simple. "I know where we are." She pointed up into the trees.  
  
Hotaru slowly raised her head and peered into the tree tops, only to drop her mouth in amazement. "WOW!"  
Bringing her gaze higher, her mouth falls open. No other comment went through her head. That was the only thing that she was able to say.  
  
Usagi only continued to let the new comer stare for a short time. Once she thought that Hotaru had had enough time to gawk, she decided it was time to take action. "So? What do you think?" She was referring to her 'super' tree house that spanned out over nearly a mile long and half a mile wide.   
  
Hotaru's violet eyes widened to their fullest as she turned to Usagi. "It's fantastic. How was it made?"  
  
Usagi couldn't help but laugh out loud as she remembered back to how the money for it was earned. "Well, a couple of arrogant people me and my friends know, we won a forty million dollar bet."  
  
Hotaru gasped in disbelief. "That's a LOT of money."  
  
"Yeah. You're telling me. My mom has twenty-five million of it put away in he bank for college. She said that if we have money put away for it, then we don't have to work while we're in college. Not that I want to go. Then we used a whole FIVE MILLION of it to build this super tree house with the works."  
  
Hotaru gasped louder. "What did you do with the rest of it?"  
  
"Mom put it away in another bank account. She said that we can only spend it a little at a time and when she SAYS that we can. Since she's the one who won us the money. We decided to give half of what was left to my parents though."  
  
"Why?" Hotaru didn't think that she could ever even imagine having that kind of money.   
  
"Well, I guess they've been living off of my grandpa's fortune ever since they got married a LONG time ago. When it started to run low, my dad and brother's entered this fighting tournament to get more money since the winners got A LOT of money. And when we made the bet, everything was running out. So me and my friends decided that, since my mom won it for us, that we would give them half of what was left."  
  
Hotaru smiled. "You're really nice, Usagi."  
  
Usagi grinned as she took the compliment. "We like to call this place Sanctuary. The five of us came up with what we wanted it to be like. Ami, one of the smartest people around, used a Capsule Corp. Computer and designed it. All of us, plus my brothers and parents built it after that." Usagi pointed to a water fall right behind the main house. "That water from that water fall flows into that lake that we were just at."  
  
"Awesome!"  
  
"The house blends perfectly with the trees. The main house is right off of the waterfall that flows into the lake. We kind of altered the trees to make a place to sit the house though. In the middle is the biggest and strongest tree. Around it are other huge trees that act as the supporting edges.   
  
  
"As you can see, it blends in perfectly with the trees, save for a few choice alterations. The main house is right off the water and below the waterfall that flows into the lake. It is built around the strongest tree, with three other huge trees supporting the edges. That way, it wont collapse."   
  
"The tree house has a safety device as well, so that if we ever needed to we could store it and the surrounding trees in a capsule, that way in can be moved if ever needed. And, the additive the girls and I made, was a Ki shield system in it."  
  
Hotaru curiously looked up to Usagi. "Ki, shields."  
  
"Yep, we have like SO gone beyond our original ugly shield. When we first made a Ki shield it was ugly and rubbery. We can still do that kind of shield, because it's useful in some cases. But we didn't want to see that ever time we came here. So we practiced doing it and made it to where we don't even see it." Usagi could see that her student was still a little curious as to WHAT a Ki shield was. "A Ki shield is basically all of our auras that act together and deflect any attacks that are weaker than it. If an attack comes at it that is stronger, than it will begin to break it down and give us time to get out. Ami and my one of my other friends, Makoto, figured out that we could merge our Ki with the tree house and the trees themselves to make them more sturdy. Ready to go up and check it out?"  
  
Hotaru smiled a smile so bright that it put the sun to shame. "OF COURSE!!"  
  
"K!" She grabbed Hotaru and let herself float up to the main area of the house. "The main part of the house is the only part that has indoor plumbing. But that's ok. We kind of like the outdoor feeling we get when we go into the other parts." She guided her into a large kitchen. "This is our Kitchen that Makoto spends most of her time in. It's filled with all the cooking supplies and weird looking gadgets that Makoto could think of. She's a GREAT cook. We have a HUGE walk in refrigerator and freezer that I insisted on having. I mean, what good is a house without food?"  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"Darn right."  
  
"Can't forget the snacks either."  
  
"THAT'S WHAT ME AND MY DAD ALWAYS TELL MY MOM!" Both girls laughed as Usagi led Hotaru into the large living room. "This is the living room. Here is where we keep our big screen TV, stereo with surround sound, and enough couches and bean bag chairs for all of us. This is where Minako likes to spend her time. She's going to be a super star one day. I wanted to put another fridge and microwave by my chair, but everyone else said that it would be ugly. I don't see what's wrong with the idea."  
  
"Neither do I."  
  
Usagi grinned. "I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship." She pointed to a staircase on the far side of the living room. "This is the main stair case that leads down to the two lower levels. There are a couple of slide poles that me and Minako wanted to put in. Everyone agreed when I said to…" Usagi grinned. "Put in slides from the top floor to the ground. In the summer time, we even turn them into water slides."  
  
Hotaru knew that she was definitely going to like hanging out with Usagi and her friends. "COOL!"  
  
Usagi grabbed Hotaru's hand and guided her down the staircase into another large room. "The next level is our meeting room. Now just by looking around you can already tell that this isn't the usual meeting room that you see in 'normal' buildings. Look at all the comfortable chairs around. And there's a HUGE table in the middle of the chairs. That's where we usually play games or eat when we're here. Over there on the right is a bar with another little fridge. The bar ACTUALLY has a slush machine, my favorite! Coke and Cherry mix are my favorite."   
  
Usagi walked to the wall by the stairs and pressed a red button. From the walls emerged seven computers and monitors. A humongous computer console was revealed by part of the wall sliding away just across from the bar on the other side of the room.   
  
"WOW."  
  
"Yep, Ami insisted, and no one argued. State of the art, most advanced available, with upgrade possible, computers. There is one for all of us, with one back up. This is where we meet for studying. My mom was pretty happy with us for getting these things. Even though I hate studying. Most of the time I just play games on them. Then my mom and Ami gets mad at me."   
  
"Ok, if you follow me into the room over here by the bar, we arrive at the library that has TONS of books."   
  
Hotaru followed Usagi into a large room filled with the most books that she had ever seen. "SO COOL!"  
  
"Our library has comfortable pillows to lay on, and everything from our comics, which I wanted, to Ami's choice of 'proper' reading material. From kindergarten to college and beyond. I don't come in here very often since I hate reading. That's another thing they get mad at me about."  
  
Usagi led Hotaru out of the library down to the last floor, which was closest to the waterfall. "This is where we have the showers, the sauna, the Jacuzzi, the baths, the lounge chair, and the back up generators."  
  
Hotaru looked out one of the windows by the Jacuzzi and saw one of the slides that her friend was talking about earlier. "Usagi, that one looks really close to the water."  
  
Usagi smiled. "That's my favorite one. With that one, you actually land in the water."  
  
"COOL!"  
  
Usagi led Hotaru outside where there was a walkway around the bottom floor and all the two floors above. "Here we put a walk way around each floor. We kept this as natural as we could. Wood boards and Real vines."   
  
"Up on top is our sundeck and windmill. We keep the lounge chairs up there all the time. The windmill brings up water for the water slide. It also has a back generator power supply. As you can see there are several of them, made to look just like rocks, but smooth. And those vines over there we can swing off into the pool of water below the water fall. It's Really fun. The water below the water fall is like a mini lake."  
  
Hotaru giggled in awe as she looked around the area. Usagi grabbed Hotaru hovered up to the main floor and stood on the outside walkway. "Off this floor are bridges that lead to rooms that have different purposes. One room as a thing kind of like a dojo for Rei. Another is a room dedicated just to TOYS! We have a sun room and then another room with nothing in it but chairs and stuff to relax. That's about it."   
  
"Do you come here a lot?"  
  
"Not as much as we'd like to. Usually, we are at school, or training, or at the arcade." She looked at a clock that hung over the door that led back inside the tree house. "Uh-Oh!! We have five minutes before you have to get home! Why am I always late for EVERYTHING!?"  
  
Hotaru shrieked in worry. "WHAT!? We'll never EVER make it home in time." She began to panic.  
  
Usagi thought of all her options and came up with only one conclusion. If she wanted to keep her job and keep training Hotaru there was only one thing that she could do. "Grab my hand, Hotaru."  
  
"K!" Hotaru did as she was told and grabbed onto her friend's hand. She held tightly since she knew what Usagi was capable of.  
  
"Ready? Let's go." She pressed her fingers to her forehead and teleported to Hotaru's home. 'I've gotta stop relying on this or else daddy might get mad at me.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
The two girls arrived at their destination just as the Professor was hover car was pulling into the mansion's driveway. Usagi sighed. "Made it just in time." She looked over to Hotaru, who didn't appear to be able to say anything about what had just happened. "My dad taught that to me. It's called teleportation. It's hard to do. It took me almost a year to REALLY get. It takes a lot of energy. I'll ask if he can teach it to you later, once you get become a good fighter."  
  
"Why can't you teach it to me?"  
  
"I wouldn't trust myself to do something like that."  
  
"Oh." Hotaru looked down to her father, who was just getting out of the car. "Papa!!" Hotaru waved down to her father as she giggled.  
  
Professor Tomoe looked up and nearly freaked out when he saw his daughter and her friend hovering in the air. "Hotaru?"  
  
"Papa! This is COOL!"  
  
Usagi lowered herself and her friend to the ground just in front of the Professor. "Hi, sir."  
  
Hotaru ran to her father and jumped into his arms. "PAPA! I MISSED YOU!"  
  
Professor Tomoe laughed as he hugged and kissed his child. "Hi there, my little firefly." He turned to the miracle worker, Usagi, and was once again happy that his daughter had met her. "Hello, Usagi. How did your first day go?"  
  
Hotaru didn't even give Usagi the chance to open her mouth before she jumped into the conversation. "It was great, daddy! She taught me about Ki power, and let me ride on her back when she ran REEEEEEEALY fast, like a million miles an hour! She showed me how to sit with my legs in weird position while I figured out how to use MY OWN Ki, and then I hovered. She even showed me this COOL tree house that her friends and her made."  
  
The professor laughed at his daughter's antics, but stopped short when he realized that she had mentioned the word, hover. "Hovering? As in, a step towards flying?"  
  
Usagi took that as her sign to step in. "She did great, sir. There's nothing to worry about. She's a fast learner. And me and my friends will be there to make sure nothing goes wrong."  
  
Hotaru jumped out of her father's arms and looked up to Usagi. "I want your daddy to teach me to teleport like you did. That's how we got home, daddy."  
  
The Professor looked a little shell shocked by all the incoming information as he glanced at Usagi for an answer. "Teleportation?"  
  
"Uh…yeah. It's kind of like energy transfer." She sensed that her mother and father were just arriving at home, which was her why she knew that she was to start heading home herself. Her mother knew that she would only be out until a little after five. She would have had a cow if Usagi was out any later. "I better get going before I get in trouble. My mom hates it when I'm late."  
  
Hotaru grabbed her father's hand as she leaned into his legs. "I had fun today, Usagi."  
  
Usagi smiled. "So did I. Don't forget to bring your Gi to school on Monday. My friends will want to see all that you've learned."  
  
"I can't wait to meet them."  
  
"They'll love you." Usagi walked to Hotaru and gave her a hug, which made Hotaru feel all the more better. "See you Monday."  
  
"Bye, Usagi."  
  
In a flash of gold, Usagi had teleported out, leaving the Professor flabbergasted. His daughter only laughed at the 'funny' face that he made.  
  
( There is yet again, another part. What did you think? Gotta bounce, ja )  
  
  
  



	74. Part 4

~~Later that Night~~  
  
Usagi had just finished taking her nightly bath as she walked out of the bathroom with damp hair hanging down to her lower back. She wasn't sure how she was going to approach her father about Hotaru's training. Though she had told him that everything had gone smoothly, she had also failed to tell him about how well her progress had been in one day.  
  
As she was shutting the door behind her, she noticed that her father was just getting up from watching television. 'Better now or never.' "Daddy, wait."  
  
Goku stopped in his place and turned to face his daughter, who was approaching him. "What is it?" He could tell that by the look on her face that she had a question for him, so he sat down, knowing that it was probably going to be somewhat important.   
  
Usagi threw herself down by her father and tried to collect her thoughts. She hadn't at all known exactly what she had wanted to say to him. "Umm…I wanted to talk to you about Hotaru's training."   
  
"Oh? Didn't you tell me already that everything was going fine? Is there something wrong?"   
  
"No, nothing's wrong. It's quite the opposite, actually. It's just that…well…how long did it take before Minako and Makoto, and Rei learned how to control their Ki?"  
  
Goku tired to think back the when he first started to train the girls. He hadn't really kept track of the time it took for them to learn things. "Well, I'm not sure. I think it was somewhere around three days for them to fully control themselves. Why? Is Hotaru having trouble with controlling it? You shouldn't be upset, it takes a while for humans to learn, even though your friends didn't take very long." That little fact still puzzled him.  
  
"No. It's not that either, daddy. Actually, I was wondering, would it be really strange for a human to learn to use their Ki say after, oh I don't know, only about a half hour of training?"  
  
Goku wasn't sure if he had heard his daughter right, but he wouldn't doubt Hotaru's ability. She did seem to have a strange and powerful aura around her from what he could feel the night before. "A half hour?" Usagi nodded. "Only a half hour? Wow, that's strange. I don't think that I've ever met a human who could use their Ki in such a short amount of time. Was that what the strange energy we were feeling today was?"  
  
Usagi once again nodded. "You felt it too? Wasn't it big for a human who is just starting out?"  
  
"Yes, it was."  
  
"I think it's kind of cool."  
  
"It's definitely something to be proud of."  
  
"Do you think there's something wrong with her?"  
  
Goku frowned. "Just because people are different, doesn't mean there's something wrong with them. You of all people should know that."  
  
"I didn't mean it in a bad way." She hoped that she wouldn't get a lecture for that one.  
  
"Ok, but no, I don't think there's anything wrong with her. She just learns fast." 'I thought there was something odd about her. I'll have to keep a close eye on her.' "Is that all?"  
  
Usagi thought about anything else that she could have possibly wanted to ask her father. "One more thing, when Hotaru becomes a better fighter, can you teach her how to teleport?"  
  
"Usagi, I thought we had a deal of sorts. You were going to expand your training by training Hotaru, your way. Shouldn't you be the one to teach her how to teleport?"  
  
"Come on daddy. I can't teach her. I know how to do it, I just don't know how to explain it. Please? You tell how to do it the best way. Better than I could ever do."  
  
Goku sighed. She would have him beaten before the night was out, no matter how much he protested. She had a certain charm about her that always made him give into her in times like this. "All right. All right. I'll do it. But only if you go to bed now."  
  
Usagi turned her head to the clock that was sitting atop the television. "It's only 8:55."  
  
"It's only five minutes until nine."  
  
I have five minutes until I have to go to bed. My bed time isn't until nine. So there!" She stuck her tongue out at her father and giggled as she had, once again, proven her point to him.  
  
"Fine, five minutes. But no later. I know how you are when you don't get enough sleep."  
  
"And how's that?"  
  
"Cranky!" Chi-Chi walked into the room with a basket full of cloths. "You're always complaining and snapping at everyone if you don't get your sleep. I don't want to put up with it."  
  
Usagi sighed. "Yes mom."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Two days later~~   
(Monday)  
  
School had just ended and the girls had also just changed from their school uniforms, to their Gi's. The girls couldn't wait until they could meet Hotaru.   
  
Usagi walked out into the main court yard with her friends, who were busy talking about their day at school. "Hey, guys, why don't you come by Hotaru's school after me. Just wait close by until I send you the message to come."  
  
Minako looked to her other friends with half confusion, but nodded. "Ok, why?"  
  
"We're working on trying to get her to sense other people's Ki today. I was thinking that if you guys fly there when I tell you to, that she might be able to try and sense you guys coming."  
  
"Oh, I get it. That's a great idea. We'll follow you there but stop half way. What school does she go to anyways?"   
  
"That new infinity school or whatever." Usagi let herself slowly rise into the air with her friends soon to follow.  
  
Ami became somewhat jealous as she turned to face Usagi. "She actually GOES to Infinity College?"  
  
Usagi opened her mouth to reply but soon shut it to let the last word of Ami's sentence sink in. "Wait a minute, college? She goes to college? As in SMARTER than us?"  
  
Ami shook her head, still in wonder, but ended up nodding to agree with Usagi. "It's not JUST a college. It's just sort of the name. That school is for the gifted. For people who are smarter than their age group. You only get accepted after many, MANY tests of all sorts. Hotaru must be very smart to have been accepted into that school."  
  
"What about you, Ami? Why don't you try to get in. You're WAY smarter than all of us."  
  
Ami turned her attention to Minako and took the compliment quietly. "I don't want to go there. I mean, I wanted to go before I met you, I was even in the process of completing some of the tests. But after I met you all, I decided to stay here so we could, as you all say, 'hang out'."   
  
Usagi smiled as she started to inch her way towards Hotaru's school. "And you're the one who told us to away when we first met you. My, my, how things have changed. But that's ok Ami, we're glad to have you here. But anyways girls, we have work to do. FUN work to do, actually. One of you go and get Rei from her school and then come meet us."  
  
"I'll do it." Makoto interrupted. "It sure would be a lot easier if Rei just went to our school. Does anyone know what the story is with her coming here? She said something about asking her grandpa about coming here."  
  
"I remember her telling me that he almost said 'yes' one night, but then something happened and they had to leave. I think he's going to let her transfer really soon." Minako picked up her pace as she began to fly towards Hotaru's school faster with Usagi and Ami, leaving her own school, and Makoto behind. "See you there!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Half way to Hotaru's school, Minako and Ami stopped and awaited for Usagi's signal while she went on further to the school. She flew at a leisurely pace. She wasn't in a rush. She hoped that if she waited long enough, Hotaru would start to wonder where she was and she would try to feel out for her Ki, since she knew what it felt like already.   
  
When Usagi did finally arrive at the school, an excited Hotaru, dressed in her purple Gi, sat on the edge of a fountain and waved up at her best friend. "USAGI!"   
  
Usagi smiled as she descended to the ground. "Hotaru! I'm so happy to see you!" She couldn't wait to begin training her again. She wanted to see how much she would learn during this next session. She let herself lightly land on the ground and looked down at Hotaru. "Ready?!"  
  
"YEAH!" Hotaru jumped up with eagerness and darted out for Usagi. But she couldn't quite make it without tripping over a crack in the concrete and stumbling onto Usagi, causing both girls to topple backwards and burst out with laughter. "Oops!"  
  
Usagi gently pushed Hotaru up to a sitting position sat up herself. "I guess everyone has their off moments."  
  
Hotaru turned up to Usagi with curious eyes. "You mean you do clumsy stuff too?"  
  
"Sure. Everyone does stuff like that all the time. One time, when I was in second grade, I was leaning back in my chair and laughed so hard at something that I fell back. Everyone in the whole class laughed at me. I was SO embarrassed."  
  
Hotaru couldn't help but giggle at her friend's bad luck. "I guess me tripping isn't as bad as that, huh?"  
  
"Yeah, just don't try to hold it against me later."   
  
Hotaru let her giggling go to a stop. "Ok. Let's just forget about it then and start training."  
  
"You've got it, Hotaru. You're just like me. Always wanting to train."  
  
"Fighting is fun. Well, it looks fun anyways, I don't know much about it yet."  
  
"Key word in there would be yet. But that will all change when me, my friends, and my dad get through with you. Today will be a little different than Saturday. We're going to begin with the run again, though. Dad says that you need good en…endur…endurance? I think that's what he said it was. Anyways, he said you need to run to get en-dur--ance so you can run long distances and be able to fight for a long time without getting really tired. And to tell the truth, I think it works. After that we'll work on your upper body a little bit. I'll show you some fighting moves and you can try them out and practice them a little bit."  
  
Hotaru got her same excited grin on her face. "Can we fly too?!"  
  
A group of older kids, who were about the age of Usagi, overheard Hotaru's excited outburst of wanting to fly. The kid who appeared to be the oldest, led his friends to the two girls. He ignored Usagi and turned his attention straight to Hotaru. "Hey look, it's the freak. Now she thinks she can fly?" He turned to Usagi with concern. "You shouldn't hang out with her. She's bad news. She's such a loner. Never talks to anyone else. She's always feeling sorry for herself because her mom got slaughtered." He cocked his head back and laughed along with his friends.  
  
Usagi looked empathetically upon her friend. She knew exactly what kind of torment that Hotaru was going through. She could still remember being picked on when she was younger. Though it was rare, she was still picked on by people to that day.  
  
Usagi wasn't just going to sit by and let Hotaru be picked on. Though she couldn't stop it when she was younger, she could definitely do something now that she was older and Hotaru was the one being picked on. "You retards! She's not a loner. You guys are just BULLIES who don't have lives! Why don't you leave her alone and leave other kids who are younger than you alone! Now shut up and get out of here!" 'I guess there's one in every school.'  
  
The boy stopped laughing and glared into Usagi's eyes with hatred. "No one talks to me like that and gets away with it."  
  
Usagi wasn't about to back down and glared right back into his eyes, minus the hatred. "Well it looks like I just DID." She ignored the group of kids and turned back to Hotaru. "Now what was I talking about? Oh yes, you wanted to fly."  
  
Hotaru wasn't exactly listening as she was paying more attention to Usagi as she was more paying attention to the angry faces of the kids who stood in front of her. Her face told of her horror as she coward behind Usagi so as to not be in reach of any attack. "Usagi…I don't think that you should have talked to that guy like that. He looks really mean."  
  
Usagi smirked as she swiftly turned around to the boy, who had his hand right above her neck and ready to attack. But Usagi was all too fast for him. She grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back, though not enough to REALLY hurt the boy. She put her mouth close to his ear and proceeded to speak quietly to him in quite an intimidating tone of voice. "Don't underestimate me because I'm a girl with a tail. You should actually kind of be careful around people you don't know. You never know who is strong, and who is not." She let go of the boy's arm and pushed him into his friends. "Anyone else wanna try me?"  
  
Hotaru just stared in awe as the other kids high tailed their way outta there. "Wow, Usagi! No one's ever done that for me before."  
  
Usagi smiled as she looked down to Hotaru. "That's what friends are for. We have to look out for each other. But let me tell you one thing that my dad always tells me. Don't hit anyone unless they hit you first. Now you see what I did wasn't exactly wrong because I didn't hit him. I just kept him from hitting him. That doesn't count does it?" Hotaru just shrugged. "Oh well, can't do anything about it now. Just don't tell my dad and everything will be ok. So, about flying, we'll see about that. We still have lots to cover before than. Like getting on with our run. Shall we?"  
  
Hotaru nodded. "Yup!" She readied herself for her run as she looked over to Usagi, who was also getting herself prepared. "Are we running until I can't go any further again today?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No, one and a half miles flat. We have things we have to do today and not much time to do it in. Yesterday we had like five hours and today we only have three. Plus I still have to get you that ice cream that I promised you."  
  
"OK! ICE CREAM! I forgot about that! READY LET'S GO AND GET THIS DONE! I want ICE CREAM!" Without even waiting for Usagi, she bolted out at an incredibly fast pace. Faster than the first time that she had done it, which only left Usagi puzzled.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto arrived with Rei not too long after the other two girls stopped and waited for Usagi to give them the signal to move out. Rei walked to Ami, who seemed to be busy with some of her homework, of course. "Ami, can't you leave your homework for later? We're out here to have fun."  
  
Ami giggled. "I know, but I'm working on a this science project for our school's science fair and I want it to be perfect."  
  
"Ami Puhleeze. You're going to win no matter what. You're a genius. But, that's also cool. You can really give those teachers a run for their money since they're not nearly as smart as you, as least not at our level they aren't."  
  
"Ha! I never thought of it that way. Oh Rei, we were wondering about what was going on with the situation of you transferring to our school. Has your grandfather said anything about it yet?"  
  
The other two girls, who were listening, were now more interested in what was about to be said than ever. Rei smiled as she remembered what he grandfather had told her only one night before. "Well as a matter of fact, he did say that he would make his final decision tonight."  
  
That sent Minako and Makoto jumping for joy. Though Makoto quickly regained herself soon after. "REI! You SO have to call us ALL tonight and tell us the verdict!"  
  
Rei could barely keep herself from squealing in happiness. "I KNOW! And what's better is that when he said it, he said it in a way that just HAD to mean something good. I think you all know the tone I'm talking about."  
  
Minako nodded. "Oh yeah. That would be the one when you want something from your parents and they say maybe but you KNOW they mean, yes."  
  
"Definitely. That's how grandpa said it." Rei turned her head as she felt Usagi approaching them at a rather slow speed. "Is she doing that thing that Goku made us do when we first started out? You know, the running long distances?"  
  
Ami nodded. "I think so. On the way here, she said that she was only going to have her run for about a mile and a half. That's about two miles from here. She's going to try and have her read our power levels as we fly there."  
  
Rei grinned. "One of the only smart things that she's ever thought up."  
  
"Hey. She's come up with other stuff. Remember that shield improvise she thought of? She just used her technique from the other attack and used that for it. She got us out of our bind."  
  
"Well I take that back then. She's pretty smart when it comes to fighting. When it comes to other stuff, she's well…you know."  
  
Ami didn't answer back at that, neither did any of the other girls. She just nodded and continued to work on her science project.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Once Hotaru had run her mile and a half for the day, Usagi began to walk towards a park, letting Hotaru know that she was through. "You did good today, Hotaru." 'Wow, she's good. How did she get so good?' "So, are you tired enough yet?"  
  
Hotaru slightly nodded. "Not really. I mean, I'm a little short of breath but I'll be ok. Running is kind of fun."  
  
"Now it's time for you to meet my friends. They should be getting here soon." She raised her power level a bit so she could have more energy to call in her friends. 'Hey! Guys! Get your lazy selves out here! But come slowly. At a REALLY slow pace. I want her to have plenty of time to feel you.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Minako laughed as she stood up and looked at her friends. "That would be our signal from our very own Usagi."  
  
Ami began to put her notebook and plans for her project away into her bag. "That would be correct, Minako."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Ok, Hotaru. My friends are officially on their way here now." She noticed that Hotaru looked a bit uneasy all of a sudden. She sighed as she knew that the youngest fighter was still quite nervous. "Don't worry. These are my best friends. The ones I told you about. You have nothing to worry about."  
  
Hotaru looked to the ground as she put her hands behind her back. "I'm sorry. I know I don't have to worry about anything if they're YOUR friends."  
  
Usagi smiled as she took that as a compliment. "While we're waiting, why don't we start exercising a bit. We'll start with push-ups. These get your arms strong. Here, I'll show you the RIGHT way to do it."   
  
Hotaru watched as Usagi got down on the ground and held her body totally straight with no part any higher than the other. She watched carefully as Usagi let her chin almost touch the ground along with he chest. "Do you HAVE to go down THAT far? It looks painful."  
  
Usagi nodded to the best of her ability. "Yep! It is painful too because you're pushing up your full body weight with pretty much just your arms." She leaped back up to her feet after she felt that her demonstration was finished and wiped some tiny pebbles off of her hands. "Why don't you try now? I'll even help you. You know, act as a coach. My dad used to help me with this all the time when I first started out. He says if you don't do it the right way, then it's not worth doing at all. So that's why you're going to do it that way."  
  
Hotaru opened her mouth to protest but soon closed it as she knew there was no way of getting out of it. "Ok." She got down to the ground and tried to imitate Usagi's position exactly. "Is this good?"  
  
Usagi examined Hotaru's posture and tried to find anything wrong with it at all so that Hotaru wouldn't learn to do pushups the wrong way. "Almost. Try to keep your legs as straight and in line with your head as possible." She kneeled down next to the girl and put one hand on her back and the other on her stomach as Hotaru adjusted her legs. "Ok, let's start."  
  
Hotaru took a deep breath before she started. "Ok." She began to let her arms flex out as her body dropped closer to the ground. She found that it became somewhat harder for her to breath as she went down further. "Is this far enough?"  
  
"Is your chin almost touching the ground?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then it's far enough." She began to slightly push on Hotaru's stomach to help her up as she knew that the girl would have some problems supporting her own weight at first. 'Now see? This is how daddy should have taught. It's better to learn the stuff first and then try it out in the field. Won he be surprised when he sees how I trained her.' Her mind left that point as she went in search of her friends' Ki. 'Hmm…they still have a mile and a half before they're going to be here. There's still time to do a little bit more.' "You're doing good, Hotaru, you've already done a couple. If you can get at least five done today you'll be doing good. This builds muscle in your arms. This is even something easy enough to practice at home."  
  
Hotaru's body got the feeling of being hot as she lowered herself for the third time. "This is harder than it looks." Her arms shook as she tried to push herself back up.  
  
"I know. It's a pain for everyone. It gets even harder when you start adding weighted clothing and what not."  
  
Hotaru gasped. "WEIGHTS?!"  
  
"Yeah, you get stronger with them. You'll have an easier time with weights than I did though. I was first trained with weights by this guy, Vejita. He was SO mean to me. He yelled at me because I couldn't stand up with them. But that's ok. I know he was only doing it so I would learn." She pushed on Hotaru's stomach again so she could complete her fifth and final pushup for the day. "That was great!"  
  
Hotaru sat up and let her arms shake with a lack of energy. "Are you sure? My arms are shaky now."  
  
"That's ok. That just means that you shouldn't do anymore right now. Safety comes first when it comes to training." She sensed for her friends' energy again. "Ok Hotaru. We are moving on. I want to try to get you reading Ki's again. Try to do it like you did with mine on Saturday. First feel your own energy."   
  
Hotaru closed her eyes as she continued to sit on the ground. She did as her Sensei told her and felt around for her own energy. It wasn't too hard to find as she knew what she was looking for. In doing this, a dark purple aura began to form around her small frail body. The strength of the aura alone left Usagi amazed. "Now, I want you to reach out and feel my energy, like you did on Saturday. This time it will be harder since I'm not moving. Just let your own energy act as your senses for this. Imagine it as a hand trying to feel around in the dark for it."  
  
"Like a blind person does?"  
  
"Yeah. Kind of like that."  
  
Hotaru did as she was told and began to let her energy take over. She let her energy move freely out towards Usagi and, as a result, she felt a brilliant golden aura that was more powerful than she could ever wish to be. "I can feel it. I can almost see it. It's a bright gold light."  
  
"Good, good. Now do the same thing and search around for my friends. They should be close by now."  
  
Hotaru concentrated harder and let her energy/senses flow out to scan the entire area. Once she had found Usagi's energy, she pretty much knew what she was doing. She soon found the four energy signatures that she was supposed to be searching for. "I can see them too. They are warm, just like yours. They are red, green, orange, and blue."  
  
'Wow! She's good. How can she do that?' "That would be Rei, Minako, Ami, and Makoto. Now here's where the tricky part comes in. Tell me any changes you feel with them." She quickly rose her power level again to get more energy to talk to them. 'Fly around a little bit. Do whatever you want. Land, spin around in circles, dive. Just do something BIG so that Hotaru can detect it.'  
  
No answer came from Hotaru as she was too busy concentrating to answer. Though she did hear the words of her sensei. In her mind she could only see dark except for the five power levels that she was detecting, which showed up as little balls of energy in their respective colors. "The blue one is landing behind me. Yours keeps getting brighter."  
  
Usagi smiled as he raised her power level again. 'Minako, Rei, land on opposite sides of the park.' "Very good. I'm raising my energy, that's why mine is getting brighter."  
  
Hotaru concentrated harder as she saw two of the energy balls moving together. "The orange and red one are landing on opposite sides of us."  
  
Usagi grinned as she turned to her friends and saw the looks that they were giving Hotaru. They were looks of astonishment. She knew that they could feel her incredible power. "Ok Hotaru, focus on he green on and look towards it with your eyes open."   
  
Hotaru opened her eyes as a girl with a flaming green aura landed down next to three other new girls who were Usagi's age. All of them had friendly smiles planted on their faces. She stood up as she just continued to stare at the girls in curiosity. She hoped that they would like her.   
  
Usagi walked to her friends as she pointed to Hotaru. "Girls, this is my new friend Tomoe Hotaru. We're going to be training her for a while. Hotaru, these are my best friends. Let me introduce them to you." She walked to Ami. "This is Mizuno Ami. She's a girl genius and a great friend. She's a bit on the shy side, though. I'm currently trying to break that."  
  
Ami blushed as she gave Hotaru a gently smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Hotaru."  
  
"You have to watch out for her though, she uses big words all the time. Ones I can't hardly understand." She walked to her next friend. "The tall one with the lopsided grin is Kino Makoto. She's a LOT stronger than she looks but makes GREAT cookies."  
  
Makoto's grin became even more lopsided as she addressed Hotaru by extending the girl her hand. "Hi Hotaru, and if you know Usagi at all, you know who eats most of them."  
Hotaru giggled at that and Usagi's facial pout as she grabbed Makoto's hand and shook it with a firm, yet gentle shake.   
  
Usagi continued to pout as she went onto he next friend. "This is Minako. You gotta watch out for her too. She wants to be an idol and is always practicing her new material for us. She's pretty good."  
  
Minako smirked at her recognition. "Yep, I'm going to be world famous. But don't worry , I won't forget my friends." She gave her wink and V sign with her fingers. Hotaru giggled again at this group's diversity.  
  
Usagi walked to the last person to be introduced. "And this would be Rei. She's a great friend, but has a temper that is easily set off."  
  
"Hey, I do not." Rei growled, as she stuck out her tongue.  
  
Usagi responded in kind and an all famous tongue war engaged. "Do too!"  
  
Rei's concentration of the 'war' was broken as she heard yet more giggles coming from Hotaru. "Pleased to meet you Hotaru. Don't mind Usagi. She's just like this all the time."  
  
Usagi playfully scowled at her friend as the rest of her friends, including Hotaru, laughed at her. "Fine. Just make fun of me. I don't care."  
  
"Usagi, I think I like your friends."  
  
Usagi smiled. She loved to make Hotaru happy. "I told you that you'd like them. I told you that they would like you back. Now if we're all done, let's continue training."  
  
Hotaru calmed down just to immediately become excited again. "FLYING!?"  
  
Usagi groaned as she had to dish out disappointment to the beginner once again. "Not exactly. My friends and I are going to start our training again today. What you're going to do is float three feet off the ground and maintain that. Also, if you want to do more than just float, you can use your Ki to sense and look at how our power levels change back and fourth during the fight."  
  
Hotaru's eyebrow quirked as she became more interested in the rest of her day's training. "I GET to see a REAL fight?!"  
  
"That's right, Hotaru. And if we're lucky, maybe Usagi and Makoto wont turn it into a hair pulling fest." Minako laughed as both Makoto and Usagi stuck their tongues out at her.   
  
(Well that's about it for now. Sorry I got it out SO late. Anyways, what did you think? Good or bad? Gotta go. It's late. Ja! ^_~ )  



	75. Part 5

Once at an open training field, Hotaru did as she was told to do by Usagi. She immediately went to the side of the field and began to concentrate her energy all around her body. As she did that, she also concentrated it as lifting it up into the air, which is precisely what happened when she did that. "Look Guys! I'm doing it again."  
  
Makoto looked up to Hotaru with a friendly smile. "It's amazing that you've only been teaching her for two days now and she already knows so much about Ki. You're really training her different than your dad did, aren't you?"  
  
Usagi sat down and stretched her legs out away from her body as far as she could as she reached for her feet with her arms. "Yeah. I know dad doesn't totally agree with training her this way, but it's the only way I can do it since her dad doesn't want her to get hurt too bad. She needs to know what she's doing in order to do that." She smiled up at Hotaru, who, in return, smiled down to the rest of the group. "You're doing great! Just keep that up and you'll be doing better."  
  
"K!" She nearly lost some of her height as she lost concentration with answering. "Oops."  
  
"Concentration is the key." Usagi jumped to her feet. "Now let's get out there and have some FUN!" She ran to the center of the sparring field and waited for her friends.  
  
Minako and Makoto turned to each other and nodded. "LET'S DO!" With on leap, the two girls were in the center of the field with Usagi.  
  
Hotaru watched in interest as Rei and Ami joined the trio in the center. She couldn't wait to see what her FIVE new friends were capable of. She didn't know exactly to expect, but she knew that coming from them, it had to be something great.   
  
Without words spoken either in the open or in secrete, the girls powered up to their max. All except Usagi, that is. While the girls powered to what was considered their 'Super' form, Usagi only powered up until she was on the brink of powering into a Super Saiyan. She never went further than that when she was fighting her friends as she didn't want to have an unfair advantage. But when she was fighting with any of the other Saiyans, all who were capable of being stronger than her, she didn't worry about such a tedious thing.  
  
Hotaru definitely wasn't for that. She had not expected that the girls' energy would go from basically nothing to such a high level. It was overwhelming to her. She gasped out in surprise, loosing he concentration, and feel to the ground. 'What power.'  
  
The girls playfully laughed at Hotaru as she just stared at them in awe. Usagi proceeded to walk over to her student. "Now you know why concentrating is important. Eventually, you'll get to the point where you wont even need to concentrate to float, but it's not a good idea to loose your concentration no matter what."  
  
Hotaru could feel tears coming on as she looked into Usagi's eyes. "I'm sorry." 'They're laughing AT me.'  
  
Usagi could sense uneasiness coming from the youngest girl there. She knew that the laughing didn't help either. "Don't be sorry. We've all had our fair share of that happening to us. Remember what I told you earlier about what happened to me in class?"  
  
Hotaru covered her mouth with her hands to hold in a giggle that was bubbling it's way up. "Yeah. I'll try it again." Once again, she began to concentrate her energy as lifting her body up into the air. "But Usagi, you have to admit, your guys' power level is really big."  
  
"Don't try telling that to anyone else."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"No one but us seems to feel it. There are a couple of others who can feel it though. Like this guy Mamoru and these two girls, Haruka and Michiru." She turned around and slowly walked back to her friends as she thought about their power. 'Wait a minute…why can SHE feel the power if daddy can't feel it? Even Piccolo, Vejita, Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Pan, and mom can't feel it. Why can SHE?! It doesn't make ANY sense. I guess I better tell daddy about this too. This girl is freakin me out.'  
  
She looked up to the curious faces of her friends. "She FELT our power. That's why she fell down."  
  
"Why are you saying it like it's a bad thing?"  
  
Usagi turned her attention to Rei, who was almost pretty much in her face. "Well have you forgotten?! Remember when we got out of the room of spirit and time in the past? Dad and the others couldn't feel your new power. They said that we were full of ourselves. But Mamoru could feel it. And when we got back here and you guys powered up for them for a spar, they STILL couldn't feel it. Now don't you find it kind of weird that SHE can feel it but no one else can?"  
  
Rei slowly turned her head to look at the child who was once again floating in the air, as did he friends. "That IS kind of strange, Usagi. But Mamoru, Haruka, and Michiru can feel it too? Why can only a select group of people feel it?"  
  
"Hey, remember Cell and that hate energy we felt from him?"  
  
Minako shuddered. "Makoto, how could anyone forget that? It had such a gloomy and dark feeling to it. It made me uncomfortable to be around him. All of his little 'children' also had that same feeling."  
  
"But don't you find it odd that, again, only WE could feel that power? Just like with our power." Makoto looked down to the ground as the five of them pondered the situation.   
  
It stayed pretty much silent for about five minutes until Usagi thought of something that would break the silence. "What about that queen that Cell talked about? We haven't heard anything from her since we defeated Cell Jr. Do you think that Cell was telling the truth, or just lying to us."  
  
That was one subject that Ami had thought long and hard about since their arrival in the future. She didn't exactly think about it because she was concerned about her showing up. Actually, the truth was that she was worried about her coming. If Cell was under her, and he was as powerful as he was, then she would be even stronger and harder to beat. "I don't think he was lying. He wouldn't have any reason to."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru began to get bored with just watching her new friends stand around and talk. 'When are they going to do something? What are they talking about?' She looked down to her watch, which held the time of five . "USAGI! We only have and hour until daddy expects me home!"  
  
Usagi turned to face Hotaru, who didn't look to happy. "Uh-oh! Only an hour!? We wasted the whole day already! Sorry Hotaru, you're going to have to wait to watch a fight. There's still one more thing you have to learn to do today before you get your ice cream that I promised you."  
  
Hotaru's disappointment was soon cured by the word 'ice cream.' "ICE CREAM!" That time, she did not loose her concentration. She made sure that she would not.  
  
Usagi motioned for her friends to follow her as she walked towards Hotaru, who was still very well floating in the air. "Hotaru I have something that you may like."  
  
Hotaru perked up after hearing that. "What more could I want besides ICE CREAM?!"   
  
Usagi grinned. "You wanna fly to my house when we get to the foothills of the mountain for some ice cream and so you can meet my dad?"  
  
Hotaru dropped her concentration as she was once again overcome with happiness. Though this time it wasn't a surprise. This time, she had meant to drop her concentration. As a result, she landed more gracefully, to add to it, she actually landed on her feet. "THREE THINGS!? YAY! YES! YES! I WANNA FLY TO YOUR HOUSE!" The girls couldn't help but giggle at Hotaru's enthusiasm. Even though they had not known her for more than a few hours they had already come to like the girl.  
  
Usagi couldn't wait to have her father and new friend meet each other. She wanted to show her father all that the young fighter had learned in such a short time. "Hop on my back and we'll run to the foothills. Is that alright with you guys? I mean, since we didn't really get to spar, we still need some sort of work out otherwise dad will get mad at us for not training enough."  
  
"That sounds fine to me, Usagi. I haven't really trained since last Thursday anyway. And then Friday, well you know what happened at the arcade."  
  
Usagi grinned as she thought back to the arcade. "You know Minako, when I get more money, I am SO going to play you at that game and I'm going to BEAT you! Just wait until Friday when I get my allowance from mom. You are SO going down."  
  
Minako put her hands to her waist as she slowly approached Usagi in an intimidating way. "You keep telling yourself that, girl. No one will EVER beat my score on that game."  
  
Hotaru began to get jealous she listened to Usagi and Minako argue. She wished that she was better friends with these girls so she could do that. "Let's go Usagi. I want to fly and then eat ICE CREAM!"   
  
Usagi quieted down as she looked over her shoulder at Hotaru, who was beginning to grow weary of waiting. "Fine, fine. I guess we shouldn't make you wait any longer. Hey guys," She looked back to her friends. "Let's make this a game. Let's race there. I'll beat you ALL in a heart beat."  
  
Makoto rolled her eyes at that. "Yeah, yeah. Sure you will, Usagi. You've got yourself a deal."  
  
Hotaru wrapped her arms around Usagi's neck for she knew that they were going to be going at an unimaginable fast speed. "Be careful you guys."  
  
"Don't worry, Hotaru. Usagi wont let you fall." Rei gave Usagi a quick glare. "RIGHT?!"  
  
"Of course not! I would NEVER hurt Hotaru on purpose. I know what I'm doing. Don't start doubting me now. That's for Piccolo to do and you know it."  
  
"Usagi, can I ask you something?"   
  
"Sure, Hotaru. What's on your mind?"   
  
"Right before you said that your friends were officially coming, why did you put your fingers on the side of your head?"  
  
Usagi smiled softly. "Well Hotaru, the five of us have this sort of link that let's us talk to each other even when we're not around each other. Normally we only use it in case of emergencies because it takes a lot of energy."  
  
Hotaru's eyes grew wide and replied without thinking about what she was saying. "Can I join?" She quickly rethought her reply as the faces of her new friends turned somewhat shocked. She felt somewhat left out by their hesitation but understood why they didn't appear to want her in it. "I'm sorry, guys. I shouldn't have asked. This is something special. You don't have to let me in." She let a weak, but fake, smile appear on her face so that none of them would feel sorry for her.  
  
Ami put her index and middle fingers to her head and opened up the link as she raised her power level. 'What should we do? I don't really mind letting her in because, for some reason, I feel close to her.'  
  
Makoto mimicked Ami's movement. 'I don't mind either because I feel the same. It's like I know her from somewhere.'  
  
Minako could see sadness written all over Hotaru's face as no one spoke. They were all to busy conversing about the situation. 'We better think of what to say quick before Hotaru gets really upset. I don't think any of us mind letting he in, I just think we all know what's stopping us.'  
  
Rei let her mind wander from the conversation and looked up to Hotaru. For some reason, ever since she had met her at the park, she had felt a strange power emitting from the child. It wasn't just any old normal power, either. It felt as if it had the potential to become larger than her own in no time. But it wasn't the potential that worried her. It was the feel of the power. It had a dark feeling to it. The feeling of destruction, though, not as horrid as Cell's. She just didn't understand how anything so sweet could have such a feeling to it. 'I think we should try it, girls. Somehow she can feel our true powers even though no one else can. Who knows, she may even be able to be brought into the link.'  
  
'Good thinking Rei.' Usagi nodded in agreement as she broke the link by opening her mouth to answer. "Hotaru, we don't mind letting you in. We would love to let you in. It's just that we have never been able to add anyone else to the link. The closest we came to the link was mom, and even then she didn't quite fit in. When we tried putting dad in, we really had a problem. We almost got him in, but right before it was completed, his power did something and rushed through us all and shorted everyone out of their own power."  
  
"Even though we have failed twice before, we have all agreed to give it a try. But we'll have to do it tomorrow since we don't have much time." Usagi smiled when she saw Hotaru's face light up with excitement.   
  
"I think that we should all think about this tonight. We should completely think this through and make sure this is all what we want. Especially you, Hotaru. This is a big step for you and we want you to be sure that it's what you really want." Ami hoped that the link would work. As Usagi had said, they had had two failed attempts of additions, she didn't want another one. She especially hoped that it would work with Hotaru for if it did not, she feared that the youngster would be heart broken.  
  
"Well girls, we should get going. It's a fifteen minute run from here to the foothills."  
  
Hotaru's eyes widened with fascination. "Only fifteen minutes from here to the foothills?! The mountain is a LONG ways away from here though."   
  
Makoto grinned at the flabbergasted expression on Hotaru's face. "Usagi's is exaggerating." Hotaru's face calmed down as she thought that Makoto was going to come up with a more reasonable term. "It's more like ten."  
  
Hotaru immediately became speechless as she tightened her grip on Usagi. "I'm gonna die today."  
  
Usagi laughed as she set out at one of her fastest paces with her friends by her side. She would have gone her fastest, but she didn't want to leave everyone behind. "You're not going to die. Now let's pick up the pace. It's going to take a while to get home once we reach the foothills."  
  
The other four nodded as they powered back up to their fullest and dashed out in front of Usagi. "You AREN'T beating me!" She too powered up to being back on the verge of becoming Super Saiyan again and pushed her way through Ami and Minako. "See you later, slowpokes!"   
  
Hotaru struggled to turn around and look at Makoto, who was hot on their tails. "Usagi! Makoto's catching up!"  
  
Usagi grinned. "Is that a fact…" Without taking her eyes off of where she was going, she took one of her arms out from under Hotaru's leg and faced it behind her towards Makoto. She began using some of her Ki to hold Hotaru in place. "She's not going to win." With that a rather small golden ball of energy built up in her hand.  
  
Hotaru gasped as Usagi let go of the energy upon Makoto. "WOW! THAT WAS AWESOME!"  
  
Makoto easily dodged the attack and jumped to Usagi's side. "So you want to play dirty, do you?" She extended her arm to her side and pulled back her forearm back, leaving her elbow out. "Move outta the way. You're taking up space." She moved to Usagi and rammed her elbow into the girl's side, causing her to nearly completely loose her footing.  
  
Seeing Usagi stumbling around, Rei took her opportunity to jump over Usagi and take her place as second. "You're pitiful today, Usagi."  
  
Once she regained her footing, she reentered the race. Because of Makoto, she was already in last place. "You guys want a piece of me!?"  
  
Hotaru perked up as she saw the area where the foothills of the mountain started. "Quick, Usagi! We're almost there! You're going to loose! Speed up!"  
  
Usagi smirked. "No I'm not! I can't loose! Especially to Minako!" Her aura flamed around her body, along with Hotaru, as she gave herself an energy boost to catch up to her friends. "Hotaru! Hold on tighter! I'll try to hold you on with my energy!"  
  
"What!?" She turned her attention ahead to where a red ball of energy had crashed into a tree.  
  
"Trust me!" Once she felt Hotaru tighten her grasp, she pulled her arms out from holding Hotaru. "This wont take long!" She extended her arms on either side of her and increased her speed. She could feel Hotaru tensing up. "Don't worry. If I feel you slipping, I'll grab you. I wont let you fall." She built up two golden balls of energy in both of her hands as she came up from behind Rei and Ami. "Think fast!"  
  
Rei and Ami slightly turned their head to get a quick look at Usagi. "Huh!?"  
  
Usagi grinned as she smashed her hands into the backs of her two friends, causing them to fall to the ground. "Weren't you just in second place before I got left behind?!" She quickly put her hands back under Hotaru's legs so she wouldn't fall.  
  
Rei and Ami smirked at each other as the agreed upon attacking with no words. In a flash of red and blue, the two girls each shot an attack at Usagi.  
  
Right before the two attacks hit her, Usagi jumped up, barely missing a hit. "Ha, ha, ha!" She and Hotaru both laughed as they watched the attacks spiral towards Makoto, hitting their target when they got there.  
  
"Look, Usagi. Only Minako is left."  
  
"Hey Hotaru. You wanna try to fire something at her?"  
  
"What?! I can't do it! I can barely hover."  
  
"Whatever. You can hover just fine. That's why we're letting you fly to my house. Now come on before we reach the foothills. We have just enough time for you to fire one attack."  
  
Hotaru glanced over her shoulder when she felt three power levels rapidly rising behind them. "I don't know if I can, Usagi. Don't count on me to do it."  
  
"Don't worry, I wont get mad if you mess up. Everyone messes up at first. Come on! Do it before something happens."  
  
Not wanting to disappoint her friend, Hotaru took one of he hands away from Usagi and held it out to face Minako, who was just about at the end of the run. "Here I go!" With that, she quickly concentrated her energy into a small ball just as if she were going to be flying.   
  
Usagi quietly gasped at the power that Hotaru seemed to hold. It was much too high for a beginner. "You're doing good. Now just release the energy and you'll be doing better." 'Why is it so strong? It's almost as strong as the girls' Super power. WOW! I wonder if daddy felt that. Or even any of the others.'  
  
"Ok!" She did as her Sensei directed and fired her purple ball of energy at Minako, who, in return, jumped into the air to dodge it. "NO!"   
  
Minako grinned as she landed for she had reached the foothills before any of her other friends. "I BEAT YOU! IN YOUR FACE!" She began to do a wild little victory dance as she threw her arms all about.   
  
Usagi mischievously glared at her friend as she slowed down to a complete halt and let Hotaru slide down to her feet. "Quit bragging."   
  
Minako stuck her tongue out at Usagi as she giggled. "You're just mad that you didn't beat me. I'm better at video games AND real racing. I thought you were supposed to be a Super Saiyan, but look at you, you can't even beat a puny human like me."  
  
The other three girls arrived shortly after, all were panting from the run. Makoto laughed at Usagi's loss. "Man, Usagi. I guess we can add that to the many losses you've already suffered."  
  
"Shut up, Makoto. I don't loose all the time."  
  
"Well I guess we have to give you that one. You do win a lot. But not all the time. We actually gave you a run for you money this round though. And look at it this way, Hotaru learned how to make a fast Ki attack."  
  
Ami nodded. "And powerful at that. Hotaru, how did you do it?"  
  
Hotaru blushed with embarrassment as all of a sudden everyone was becoming amazed over her new skill. "I don't know. I just did it. Usagi told me to try and fire it at her, and I did."  
  
"Well Hotaru, you did a good job. You should be very proud of yourself." Ami, much like Usagi, found it quite strange that Hotaru had such a powerful attack. But aside from being curious, she was also somewhat jealous. She wished that she had been that powerful when she was first starting out.  
  
Hotaru smiled. "Thank you, Ami."  
  
"Girls, we have to get to my house before it's too late. It will take a while to get there since Hotaru isn't as fast as us…yet."  
  
Hotaru couldn't have been happier that Usagi, and even the others, had so much faith in her. "You guys are the best." Everyone was stunned by that. They had definitely not been ready for something like that to just come out. Hotaru could see the confusion in her new friends eyes. By seeing that, she knew that she should probably try and justify herself. "You are the only people, besides Mrs. Bulma and my daddy, who haven't been afraid to be around me. You are the only ones who have ever taken the time to get to know me, before you pass judgment. I just wanted to thank you and tell you that I HAVE HAD SO MUCH FUN TODAY!"   
  
Minako laughed at the child's enthusiasm as she patted her on the back. "You're welcome Hotaru. We've all been down the same road that you have. At least more than once in our lives, we have all been made fun of by the others around us."  
  
Hotaru's eyes became watery as she looked down to the ground with sadness. "Probably not as bad as I have."  
  
"Did Usagi ever tell you what happened to us on the second day of our first year in school? We got totally beaten up by these two bullies. Usagi was being picked on non stop for two days by virtually the whole school. It was horrible. That's why we decided to fight. We wanted to be able to defend ourselves."  
  
"That's horrible." Hotaru looked up to Usagi, who seemed to be saddened just by thinking about the memories.  
  
"But that's ok because we have each other. We don't really ever pay attention to people who try to make us feel bad anymore. We just ignore them."   
  
Hotaru hoped that she would be able to ignore the kids at her own school. But their taunts came at her every time she wasn't in class. She had always been afraid to leave for recess or after school. "I'll try to be more like you guys." She looked down to her watch to see how much time they had left before she were to be home. "You guys, we only have forty-five minutes before I have to get home. I don't think we're going to make it in time. I'll just slow you up."  
  
"Yeah, I remember how slow we all were when we first started learning. But I told Hotaru that she could fly today. Hey, do you think your dad would mind if we kept you out a little later than six if we ask him?"  
  
Hotaru smiled. "I don't think he'll mind. But do you guys actually want me to hang out with you guys when you don't have to watch me?"  
  
Usagi let on a slight frown. "Of course we do! You ARE our friend you know."  
  
Hotaru smiled as she threw herself onto Usagi and hugged her as tightly as she could. "Thanks!"  
  
"Welcome!" It was at that moment that Usagi realized that she was actually getting quite close to Hotaru. It was also that moment that Usagi realized that she REALLY did want a little sister. "We can teleport to my house then and you can meet my dad and have some ice cream."  
  
Hotaru giggled. "ICE CREAM!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Son Household~~  
  
Goku had just finished up with taking a shower after a long day of training as he walked into the kitchen where a sweet aroma of his wife's cooking called to him. "Mmm…Chi-Chi, that smells good." He walked to the stove where his dinner was cooking in a pan. "Is this going to be ready soon?" He reached out for a container of food that didn't need to be cooked, but just heated up.   
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she punched Goku in the arm. "GET AWAY FROM THAT!" She turned to him and pushed him away. "Get out of here! Go eat some wild animals like you used to if you're THAT hungry. We aren't eating until your daughter gets home!"   
  
Goku rubbed his arm as she sadly walked away with his head hung low. "Gees Chi-Chi, you don't have to get rough." His head quickly perked up as he felt his daughter's energy signature appear in their family room. "Usagi's here! Can we eat now!?"  
  
Chi-Chi looked to the clock that was on the stove. "Why is she home now? She still has forty minutes before Hotaru has to be home." She turned to the doorway that let out from the kitchen to the family room. "Looks like she brought her friends with her. How could she have done that?! She knows better than to bring them home for dinner without asking."  
  
Usagi skipped into the kitchen to be face to face with his father, who was nearly drooling he was so hungry. "Hey daddy! Hey mom! I'm home!"   
  
Chi-Chi put one of her hands on her waist as she proceeded to stir her food around with her other hand. "What are you doing home so early? You still have almost an hour before Hotaru has to be home. Is she here with you? And most of all, why did you bring the others with you? You know how I feel about that."  
  
"We're not going to be staying." She jerked back when she began to get an evil glare from her mother. "Whoa mom. It's ok. We still have something we need to do with Hotaru before then, is that ok?"  
  
"You watch what you're saying there, young lady." Usagi looked to her father in confusion as she didn't have the slightest idea what she had said wrong. In return, he only shrugged. "You don't just go and make plans without consulting us first. Now what do you have to do? Girls! You can come in here! You don't have to be shy!" She watched as four girls basically waddled their way into the kitchen.   
  
Usagi slowly inched her way to the doorway that led out into the family room. "Just a minute mom." She turned around and walked out.  
  
Usagi doing that only mad Chi-Chi madder. "That girl is really skating on thin ice. She can't just put me on hold when I ask her a question."  
  
"Chi-Chi, don't be so hard on her. She's not doing it to make you mad."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned harder as she turned to her husband, who appeared to be serious with his scolding of her. "Don't you start with me." The two of them turned their heads back to the doorway as their attention was caught by their daughter walking back in the room with another girl, who came up just below her chest, by her side. Chi-Chi put on a friendly smile. "Hotaru, how have you been doing?"  
  
"GREAT!" She chirped in reply.  
  
Usagi took Hotaru by the hand and lead her to stand in front of her father. "Hotaru, this is my dad. Daddy, this is Hotaru."  
  
Goku smiled as he extended Hotaru his hand. "How do you do? Usagi has told me a lot about you."  
  
Hotaru reached out and met Goku's hand for a handshake. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Son."   
  
Goku chuckled. "Mr.? You don't have to be so formal about it. Just call me Goku. I only make teachers call me by Mr." 'What a grip. That's not just any grip. Where did a human of her age get so strong in such a short amount of time?'  
  
Hotaru giggled. "Alright…Goku."  
  
Usagi ran to the table and sat down in her spot. "Mom, can you get Hotaru some ice cream. I said she could have some since she did a good job at training."  
  
Hotaru jumped to Usagi's side and rested her elbows on the table. "ICE CREAM!"  
  
"Usagi, dinner isn't going to cook itself."  
  
"Please mom?"  
  
"Why can't you do it?"  
  
"Because whenever I try to, you always yell at me for being in your way."  
  
"She's got a point there." Goku walked over to the table where a pile of papers were sitting and sat down. He began to shuffle through the papers until he came across a flyer of some sort.  
  
Chi-Chi shot a piercing glare over to her husband. "You shut up. Fine Usagi, I'll get her some ice cream." Annoyed, Chi-Chi threw down her cooking utensils and walked to the freezer and proceeded to pull out the ice cream. "Is strawberry ok, Hotaru?"  
  
"Strawberry is my favorite!"  
  
While Chi-Chi was away from the stove, Makoto decided to go over and see what it was that she was cooking. It smelled wonderful and she couldn't keep herself from seeing what it was. When she got there, she found that it was a kind of stew. One of the many dishes of Chi-Chi's that Makoto loved to eat whenever she was there. 'Hmm…I wonder what would happen if I put this in here.' She reached up to the spice rack and pulled out a random spice and poured some of it in. She then dipped a spoon in it to get a taste. "YUM!!!" She quickly covered her mouth, hoping that Chi-Chi didn't realize what she was saying that too.  
  
It was too late. Chi-Chi had seen Makoto over by her dinner. "MAKOTO!" She dropped the carton of ice cream and ran to the stove, pushing Makoto away when she got there. "What did you do to it?!" She stirred it around a bit. "Makoto, I know you like to cook, but DON'T experiment on MY dinner. I wont be able to get these guys to eat it if it doesn't taste good. Wait, Goku will eat anything, but Usagi wont." She glared at Makoto as she tested it to see what the results of Makoto's actions were. "WOW! This IS good. What did you put in it?" Makoto just blankly stared at Chi-Chi as she shrugged. "Well what ever you did, it's really good."  
  
Usagi turned her attention away from her mother and Makoto onto her father, who was still holding the flyer in his hands. "What's that, daddy?"  
  
"Huh?" Goku looked up to see the curious face of his daughter. "Oh this? Actually, I think it's something you may like."  
  
"Ooh, ooh, what is it?"  
  
"Seems like Mr. Satan is holding some sort of kids tournament in a couple of weeks for ages five through twenty. He wants to let the 'young-ins' try their luck at beating him. What a weird word."  
  
"Would the winner be fighting Satan?"  
  
Minako grinned. She knew that Usagi would take ANY chance she got to expose Satan for the fraud he was. "Going to have yourself a little fun are you?"  
  
Hotaru's eyes got as wide as possible as a giant bowl of strawberry ice cream with whip cream on it was placed before her. "WOW! THANKS MRS. SON!" She immediately began digging in and blanked out the conversation around her.  
  
Goku laughed at Hotaru's eagerness to eat the ice cream. "Looks like she's enjoying herself."  
  
"Of course she is, daddy. It's ice cream. Everyone likes ice cream. Now then. Does the winner get to fight Mr. Satan? I have to know."  
  
Goku grinned. "Yes."  
  
"I am SO entering this little tournament then. I'm going to beat him once and for all. If Gohan wants to let him go around and lie that's his business. But I'm not going to let him!" Usagi paused for a moment as she looked down at Hotaru, who had ice cream all over her face. "Hey, why don't we have Hotaru enter?"  
  
Goku looked down to Hotaru. "Will she be ready? I mean, you are training her differently than you were trained. You're training her 'gently'."  
  
Usagi frowned as she looked up to her father. "Don't knock it, daddy. She's doing really good so far."  
  
Hotaru looked up just as she was putting in the last spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. "I am?"  
  
"Yep! You wanna show daddy how much you've learned? We still have twenty minutes before your dad expects you home."  
  
"That's enough time to FLY!" Hotaru jumped out of her chair. "I WANNA FLY!" She ran like a maniac out of the room.  
  
"Guess that's a yes, right, daddy?" Usagi, too, got up from her chair and walked out of the kitchen to join her student. Her friends were soon to follow.  
  
Goku stood up from his spot and turned to his wife. "That girl reminds me of someone."  
  
"Usagi when she was first learning?"  
  
"That would be correct. She's just as eager."  
  
"You better get out there before Usagi comes in here and complains that you're taking too long."  
  
"Gotcha." Goku walked out of the kitchen into the family room to join his daughter and her friends. "Well let's get outside to see what she's learned so far." 'Too many girls.' He proceeded to follow the six of them outside to see what Hotaru could do.  
  
(Well there's, yet again, another part. What did you think? Was it ok? Gotta Go. Ja )  



	76. Part 6

"So let's see what this kid has got to show." Goku was surrounded by his daughter and her friends as they all looked down upon the youngest of the group, who was being put to the test. Goku was reminded of the times when Usagi was first learning as he looked down to Hotaru.  
  
Hotaru timidly walked away from the group. She hoped that she wouldn't forget how do use her energy like Usagi had shown her. She hoped that she would be able to do everything well enough for Goku. She wanted to impress him with how much she had learned like she had with her new friends. "Here I go."  
  
Hotaru closed her eyes as she visualized her energy being spread around her body. Usagi grinned up at her father as Hotaru did that. She knew that Hotaru would do great, and even prove her father wrong at the same time. She would prove to him that you learn just as much when you train gently as you do when you train rough. She could tell that he didn't quite agree with the method, but he would soon find out just what Hotaru could do in just two days of training. "Looking good, Hotaru."  
  
Hotaru opened her eyes and looked DOWN to Usagi. "Huh?" She took her eyes off of her Sensei and looked down to the ground. "I did it again! And this time I didn't even loose concentration when I got startled."  
  
Usagi laughed when she saw her father's face. It told of his astonishment. "What's wrong, daddy? You look a little surprised." She turned back to Hotaru and brought her hands around her mouth to act as an amplifier. "Hotaru! Do what you did on our way here. Try to do it without landing."  
  
"K!" Hotaru brought her hands in front of her stomach and began to concentrate a portion of her energy between them to build up a small Ki ball. "Look! I did it!"  
  
"Make it as big as you can."  
  
Goku looked down to his daughter with concern. "What are you doing? She's just starting out. You don't want her to pass out, do you? Don't forget that she isn't Saiyan."  
  
Usagi listened to her father and took into consideration that she might be making Hotaru do too much. After all, she was doing something new, what with using her energy to fly AND make an energy ball. "Hotaru, if you're feeling dizzy, stop."  
  
"I'm ok, Usagi." She concentrated more and more of her energy into her ball of energy, causing it to become larger and larger.   
  
Goku focused his senses onto the small child and her attack. Her power was amazingly high for such a young girl. 'Where did that come from? I've never seen a human with such strength. These guys worked fast, but not as fast as this one. She's learning things just as fast as Usagi did.' "Usagi, is this what you were talking about?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yep. I told you she was strong. She even felt the power from the others. You know, the power you guys can't feel."  
  
"Ah yes, that mysterious power you girls keep talking about. She can already feel power levels too, huh?"  
  
"Yep. She's getting good too. You should see her running. She can run almost two miles. Already."  
  
"Usagi! What do I do with this?!"  
  
Usagi and Goku turned their heads to look back to Hotaru to see her with a Ki attack the size of a beach ball in her hands. "Whoa! That's huge!" Usagi deviously grinned as she looked up to her father. "Daddy…"  
  
'Uh-oh. This could be bad.' Goku turned to his daughter and feared the worst. He knew that she had something planned. "Yes?"  
  
"He, he…Can Hotaru fire that at you? Pleeeease?"  
  
Goku looked down to his daughter as if she had gone nuts. "Are you crazy? I'm not taking a free hit from something THAT strong."  
  
Usagi frowned. "Are you chicken? CHICKEN! CHICKEN! DADDY IS A CHICKEN!"   
  
"Why don't you take the hit?" Usagi shut up with that one. "Just as I thought. Now WHOSE the chicken?" Goku grinned. "Chicken, chicken, Usagi is the BIGGEST chicken of them all." Goku yelled in a mocking voice. Minako and Rei broke out in laughter.  
  
Usagi crossed her arms as she continued to frown. "Daddy that's NOT funny."  
  
"Someone! A little help! What do I do with this thing?!" Hotaru could hardly hold onto the attack anymore. It was becoming more than she could handle as her energy grew weaker and weaker, which made the ball of energy seem a lot heavier than it really was.  
  
Usagi quickly turned her head in response to her friends plea for help and smirked as she glanced over at her father. "Ok. Fire it at daddy here."  
  
"What?!" Before Goku had a chance to do anything a dark purple ball of energy was bouncing at him. "Whoa!" He tried jumping to the side, but wasn't quite fast enough. Before his attempt to flee was successful, he was hit from the side and throw down to the ground, unable to get up.  
  
Usagi snickered as she rolled her eyes at her father's antics. "Give me a break, daddy. Her attack couldn't have hurt you THAT much. Now come on and get up." When he didn't move, she walked on over and peered down.  
  
Hotaru let herself drop to the ground and ran over to see how much damage she had caused. "Goku! Goku! Did I hurt him really bad, Usagi?  
  
Usagi had a slight grin on her face as she looked up to the scared little girl before her. "No. He's just faking. If he was really hurt, he would be wheezing or something."  
  
"I don't know Usagi…look at his arm." Ami pointed to a tiny pool of blood that was beginning to form on his side where he had been hit. "I don't think he's faking, Usagi. I think it really DID hurt him."  
  
Horror took over Hotaru's face as she began to feel dizzy from the shock of actually hurting her best friend's father. "I DIDN'T MEAN TO!" Tears began to form in the child's eyes. She knew that Usagi would hate her forever because of this. There was no way that she would be forgiven for doing such a horrid thing.   
  
Seeing the fear that had risen in Hotaru, Minako ran to her and wrapped her arms around her as she pulled her away from Goku. "It's alright, Hotaru. We know you didn't mean to hurt him. It's just something that happened. Don't kick yourself for this. Usagi isn't mad." She pulled the child's face away from her own and wiped some of the tears away from her cheek. "Don't cry, Hotaru. This happens all the time. It's normal for all of us to pass out every now and then."  
  
Aside from Hotaru, Usagi was having a crisis of her own. "Daddy wake up! Wake up! This isn't funny!" She kneeled down next to Ami, who was using some of her knowledge about medicine to examine the wound, which spread from his under his arm all the way down to his waist. His arm was completely covered in blood. "Is he gonna be ok, Ami?"  
  
"I think he'll be ok, just as long as we have something to fix him up with. Makoto, run inside and get   
Chi-Chi. Tell her to get us something to stop the bleeding."  
  
Usagi shook her head in disbelief as she felt the tears coming on. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't have told Hotaru to fire it at him than none of this would have happened. IT'S ALL MY FAULT!"   
  
"It's not your fault. It's no one's fault. No one knew that this was going to happen. Now snap out of it." Rei frowned down at her friend as she walked towards her with her hands on her hips. "Come on Usagi, instead of just sitting there and crying about it, DO SOMETHING!" She became more aggravated when nothing came out of Usagi's mouth. Not a single sign of movement was implied either. "USAGI SNAP OUT OF IT!" She raised her hand and slapped Usagi across the face.   
  
Usagi slowly looked up to Rei with tears streaming down her face. "You don't understand, do you? If he dies…" Usagi's face became pale with the thought. "If he dies…" She can't even get any further than that before she starts to choke. "If he dies…" She finally gets out with a whisper. "We can't bring him back, even with the Dragon Balls."  
  
After a long struggle, Hotaru finally broke free of Minako's protective grasp and ran back to where Goku was lying, unconscious, on the ground. "GOKU!" She tripped over her own feet with and, with great frustration, dragged herself to be by Usagi's side, who seemed to be in a world of her own. "I'M SORRY!"  
  
At that moment, Makoto ran out of the house with Chi-Chi, carrying a first aid kit and a pile of towels.   
Chi-Chi didn't waste any time dashing to her husband's side. "Goku…" She looked up and around at the girls with fear and anger written in her eyes. "Who did this?"  
  
Everyone became silent as Hotaru coward behind Usagi, not wanting to be seen by Chi-Chi. In her short time of knowing the woman, Hotaru knew that she had a short fuse. She had witnessed that when she was first yelling at Usagi when they first arrived at the house and when Chi-Chi became angry with Makoto for messing with her food. "I did it." She barely whispered.  
  
Usagi was the only one who heard Hotaru speak for Hotaru spoke at an interval that a Saiyan could pick up. She quickly wrapped her hand around Hotaru's mouth and opened her own mouth to speak. "I did it, mom, it was an accident. I'm sorry."  
  
Hotaru gasped as she slowly let her eyes rise up to Usagi's. "Huh?" She looked up to Rei, who was standing above her, and then to Ami, who was busy wrapping Goku's wound with the towels. She turned her head to Minako, who was once again pulling her away from the crowd. 'What's going on? No one is telling the truth. They are all lying…for me?!'  
  
Chi-Chi stood up and stepped closer to Usagi. "You did this, young lady? You can not call this an accident. Your father has never, EVER had any accidents like this with you and he is MUCH stronger than you!"  
  
Usagi hung her head low. She couldn't look her in the eye. She glanced over to Ami, who looked back at her with great sympathy. "I know." She didn't regret taking the heat at all. She wouldn't let her mother ever find out that it was actually Hotaru who had done this to her father. Usagi leaned over her father's face. She hoped that he would be alright. "I think daddy has some Senzu in the house, mom." She laid her head on his chest. "I'm sorry this had to happen, daddy, it's all my fault." 'I just HAD to tell Hotaru to fire it at him.'   
  
"WHAAAAAA!" Usagi screamed as she felt something wrap itself around her body. She tried desperately to pull herself away from her father, but whatever had a hold of her wasn't about to let her go. "HELP ME!"  
  
"Whatever for, Usagi? You're the one who got yourself into this whole mess."  
  
Usagi stopped struggling as she widened her eyes to their fullest. She could hear the gasps of her friends around her. "DADDY!?"   
  
Goku sat up as he laughed at his daughter's surprise. "Looks like I got you back pretty good this time." He continued to hold her in his lap, she didn't seem to have a problem with this though.  
  
Usagi glared at her father. "HOW COULD YOU!?" Without even thinking about what she was doing, she proceeded to punch him, somewhat softly, in the chest. "We were worried about you and everything!"  
  
Chi-Chi crossed her arms as she scowled down at he husband. "The next time you want to play a game, Goku. Tell me first." Without any further care or worry, Chi-Chi walked back into the house.  
  
Goku chuckled as his wife left the scene, but his laughing soon stopped when he turned back to the angry face of his daughter. "What can I say? You had your fun, I wanted to have mine, just like the time I tied you to that tree. Remember that? You thought you were pretty sly, tricking me like that. You should know better than to mess with the master."  
  
"That WASN'T funny. You scared us ALL. You owe us all an apology."  
  
"Oh I owe you all an apology? I don't think so. I think you owe ME an apology for trying to pull a fast one on me."  
  
"FINE! I'm sorry." She clenched her teeth as she said it. She hated to be called out on a mistake like that in front of her friends.   
  
"Getting kind of temperamental, are we?" Goku laughed as his daughter began to tense up. "Calm down, sweetie. I know what I did was wrong. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have worried you all like I did." He turned to Hotaru, who was still pale with fear. "I guess I should apologize to you most of all, Hotaru. I didn't mean to pull you into this. I'm sorry. But that attack was amazing. It actually cut into me." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Senzu bean.  
  
Hotaru leaned forward to see what Goku was doing. "Are you sure I didn't hurt you too bad? You looked really hurt just a minute ago."  
  
Goku chuckled. "Don't worry about me, Hotaru. I've been through a lot worse. I'll be fine." He popped the Senzu in his mouth and his wound was immediately healed. "You should enter that tournament with these guys. You have great potential. Especially for a human."  
  
"You think so?"  
  
"Hotaru, you broke my skin open. That's not the easiest thing to do unless you're, well, to put it frankly, you have to be strong, which is definitely something you are."  
  
Hotaru smiled widely. "THANKS GOKU! Usagi, can I enter the tournament with you?"  
  
"I don't see why not. I'm only entering so I can beat Satan." Usagi giggled as she thought about what the face on Satan would be when she finally beat him once and for all in front of his fans.  
  
"Well there you have it, you can both enter the tournament. It will be a good learning experience for Hotaru, and…well…just something fun for you kiddo." Goku turned back to Usagi and grinned as he rubbed to top of her head. "Oh how your mother freak out if she knew that you lied to cover up the truth just now."  
  
Fear took Usagi over once again as she thought of how BOTH of her parents felt about her lying. "Don't tell her, daddy. Please. I'm sorry. I…I…I…"  
  
Goku put his finger of his daughter's mouth to stop her from worrying about it. "Don't stress it. I'm not going to tell her. I know why you did it. I don't mind good lies like that."  
  
Usagi was confused. "Good lies?"  
  
"Yes, good lies. Lies that keep you or someone else safe."  
  
"Oh. Ok. Like we did when I was younger."   
  
Goku nodded. "Exactly." He turned to Hotaru, who was slowly pulling away from Minako to walk towards them. "How much time until you have to be home, Hotaru?/"  
  
Hotaru timidly looked down to her watch. She was still scared from what previously happened. "We have five minutes."  
  
Usagi stood up from her father's lap, completely happy that he wont tell her secret to her mother. "Ok, I think we should leave now. We can teleport to the city by your house and I'll let you fly for a while."  
  
"Usagi, I'm tired right now. Can we just let me fly until Papa gets home?" She rubbed her eyes as she walked closer to Usagi. The recent up stir on top of using her energy to fly AND fire a Ki attack had worn her out more than she would have thought it would.  
  
"Ok. I don't mind. We can work more on flying tomorrow then. Shall we get going?" She extended her hand to her friend, who, in return, reached out and grabbed a hold of her hand. Usagi looked around to her friends. "Sorry about this, guys."  
  
"That's alright. It was quite an…exhilarating day. We all had fun, right girls?" Ami looked to her friends for agreement.   
  
Usagi smiled. She appreciated the fact that Ami was trying to ease the tension. "I guess it was kind of fun. And Hotaru learned a lot too. But we really should be leaving now. The Professor will be home soon."  
  
Goku stood up just before his daughter and her friends departed. "Don't be home too late, Usagi. Your mother will have a cow if you do." He turned his attention onto the youngest of the group, who seemed to be starring back at him with great interest. "Can I help you?"  
  
"Can I ask you something?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Why are you all bulgy and Usagi, Minako, Ami, Rei, and Makoto aren't?"  
  
Goku chuckled at the girl's inquisitiveness. "That's because I have muscles."  
  
"What do they have?"   
  
"Well, they have muscles too, but you see, in girls, muscle doesn't show as much. So that's why girls can be really strong, like these guys here, but they don't look like it. But they have it."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Usagi, you better get her home now if you want to teach her to fly. I'm counting on you to be home on time. I'm HUNGRY and mom wont let me eat until you're home."  
  
"K!" With that, the six girls teleported back to the city near Hotaru's home.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The City~~  
  
"Are you ready to fly, Hotaru?" Rei could see the excitement building up in little Hotaru's eyes. She couldn't help but giggle for the child looked as if she were going to explode from being so happy.  
  
"Do I really need to answer that again?"  
  
"Well then go ahead and knock yourself out doing it." Usagi let herself float three feet into the air. "Try to fly higher than this. I'll fly below you just in case you fall or something."  
  
"Ok." Hotaru barely had to concentrate to get her float up above Usagi. She was beginning to become more familiar with hovering and it was at the point where it felt somewhat natural for her to lift up into the air.   
  
Once she was above Usagi, she looked down in wonder. "What do I do now?"  
  
"Well, flying is just as simple as hovering. You know how you concentrate your energy as lifting you up?" Hotaru nodded. "Instead of concentrating it as lifting you up, concentrate it as moving your body forward."  
  
"I think I get it. It IS almost just like hovering." Nothing happened for a few seconds. When she did start moving, however, she shot forward faster than everyone had expected with a dark purple aura to accompany her. "WOW!" She spread her arms out to her side and flew almost as fast as Usagi had when she first learned. "THIS IS GREAT!"  
  
Usagi hadn't expected to have to power up AT ALL, but she had had to just to keep up with Hotaru's speed. She couldn't just fly at a normal pace. Hotaru was flying like it was nothing. 'This girl is amazing. Of course, she was pretty good at hovering before we started her out on flying. Gohan and daddy started us out with flying almost immediately after we learned to hover.' "Lookin good, Hotaru."  
  
Hotaru laughed as she looked down to Usagi right after adjusting herself to fly upside down. "I feel like I'm a bird!" She slowed her speed down when her senses picked up one of her friend's power levels behind her. "Minako is right behind me isn't she?"  
  
"That would be correct." Minako opened her arms and caught Hotaru. "Isn't flying great?"  
  
"YES! I can't wait until I can fly as fast as you guys!"  
  
"That may take a little while." The duo's attention was caught by the sound of a car door slamming shut below. "Look Hotaru, it's your dad."  
  
Hotaru smiled as she watched her father start talking to the other girls, who were on the ground. "Hey Minako, you're right. Come on." She pulled away from Minako's grasp and grabbed her by the hand. "I want you to meet him."   
  
"Alright."  
  
"PAPA!" Hotaru yelled as she, Minako, and Usagi came falling from the air.  
  
Professor Tomoe took his attention from the three girls in front of him and looked around, but couldn't see his daughter anywhere. He began to worry, until he heard giggling right above him. 'Huh?' He looked up with great curiosity and dropped his mouth. He couldn't believe what he saw, his daughter floating in the air all by herself with no one holding her up. "Hotaru?"  
  
"Yep! It's me, papa." She gently let herself float down into his arms. "I had a GREAT day! Usagi taught me to fly, and shoot Ki blasts, and I even learned how to read Ki signatures so I know when someone is coming close to me. And I even made MORE friends."  
  
Professor Tomoe smiled as he was again overwhelmed with hearing about his daughter's activities. "I thought there were more people here than there was yesterday. Why don't you introduce me to all of your new friends?"  
  
"Ok. The one in green is Makoto. And the one in orange is Minako, the one in red is Rei and the one in blue is Ami. They're all REALLY nice. They're even going to try to let me join in on their mind link."   
  
The Professor's eyebrow quirked with half fascination have with doubt. "Mind link?"  
  
Before Hotaru had a chance to try and explain, Usagi interrupted. "Don't worry sir, me and my friends have had it for two years now. Though we're not sure it will work, for some reason, we think it may work with her so we're going to give it a try. We want her to think about it tonight to make sure that it's something that she REALLY wants to do."  
  
Hotaru pleadingly looked up to her father and began to beg for his approval. "Please Papa, Please?! I really want to do it! PLEASE!"   
  
The Professor sighed as once again, he has been defeated. He didn't mind though. "Ok my little firefly. But like Usagi has stated, think about this tonight. If you still want it by the time they come to pick you up, you have my permission."  
  
"YYYYAAAAYYYYYYY."  
  
Usagi and her friends grouped together to say their goodbyes. Professor Tomoe set his daughter down and took his opportunity to talk business with Usagi as he tapped her on her shoulder. "Umm…Usagi, I forgot to pay you on Saturday. Why don't I pay you now for today and Saturday."  
  
Usagi had totally forgotten about the paying part of her agreement to watch and train Hotaru. She thought about what she might want to do with her pay. The first thing she thought of was challenging Minako to a game at the arcade. She would call her mother and beg her for a later curfew, just for that night. But then she looked down to Hotaru and how happy she was. 'Hmm…What to do, what to do. I still have allowance from mom.'   
  
Usagi raised her hand and placed it on the hand that Tomoe was pulling money out for her from his wallet. "That's ok Professor. Why don't we make Fridays payday? That way, we can take Hotaru somewhere on Saturday with it and take a day off from Training."  
  
Tomoe warmly smiled as proceeded to pull out his money to pay Usagi with. "You don't have to spend your money on her. You earned it, you should spend it on yourself."  
  
Usagi only replied with more protest. "Professor, I always wanted to have a little a little sister and Hotaru has pretty much fitted into that slot. I WANT to spend some of it on her. Besides, I'm going to have fun with her."  
  
Tomoe reluctantly put his money back into his wallet as he continued to smile down at Usagi. "If that's what you want, I wont stop you. Just make sure you don't spoil her with it."  
  
"Thank you, sir." She looked down to Hotaru and waved to her. "See you tomorrow. Come on girls, we have to be leaving. Rei, don't forget to ask you grandpa about coming to our school." She leaped into the air.  
  
"You think I would be so crazy as to NOT ask him?!"   
  
Professor Tomoe rested his hand on his daughter's shoulder as the two of them watched the five girls fly away as they wandered off into their own conversation. "I think we have found some true friends for you, my little firefly."  
  
Hotaru looked up to her father with tears of happiness. "I think you're right."  
  
Her father's face grew serious as he continued to look into her eyes. "But you must never tell the truth about yourself."  
  
Hotaru's eyes saddened as she looked onto the ground for she knew that if she had told the truth of her herself that she would loose her newly acquired friends, something she definitely didn't want to happen. She allowed herself to be gathered into her father's arms for a comforting hug.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Son Household~~  
  
Goku sat at the table with his eating utensils at hand, waiting desperately for his daughter to return home anytime so he could dig into the dinner in which his wife had prepared. "She needs to hurry up."  
  
Chi-Chi angrily scowled at her husband from across the table. "You don't deserve any food."  
  
"What? Oh come on, you can't tell me that you're still mad about earlier. I wasn't seriously hurt."  
  
"You let those poor kids believe that you were dying, you even had me fooled. That was a sick, SICK joke to play on your family."  
  
"Don't freak out, Chi-Chi, I apologized to them."  
  
"And to do something like THAT in front of company. Honestly Goku, what was going through your head?"  
  
"Hey, hey, I had my reasons for doing that." 'Hotaru is way too strong to be a human. She can't be human. But she has to be. What else could she be? I know she's not an alien. I can feel her human energy running through her body.'  
  
"You just make sure you don't ever do that again or you may find yourself in trouble with more people than just me."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Rei's Temple~~  
  
When Rei arrived home, she ran directly to her grandfather's room, where she knew he would be. She couldn't wait to find out if she was going to be able to go to school with her friends or not. She had been asking him for two years now, ever since she came back from the past. "Grandpa!" She threw her school bag into her room while she ran past it. "Grandpa!"  
  
"In here, Rei."  
  
Rei poked her head into her grandfather's room as he sat at his desk and read a book of sorts. "Grandpa, have you made your decision yet?"  
  
"What decision would that be, Rei?"  
  
Rei groaned. He always had to play games when she wanted something from him. "You know what I'm talking about?"  
  
"Really? I don't recall anything that I was supposed to decide."  
  
"GRANDPA!"  
  
Mr. Hino grinned as he turned around to look into the anticipating eyes of his granddaughter. "Ah yes. You wanted to know if you could go to school with your friends."  
  
"Yes. Did you decide yet?"  
  
Mr. Hino turned to his side and pulled a packet of papers out of his desk. "Do you know what these papers are, Rei?" Rei shook her head. She wished that he would just get on with it. "These are your report cards. They show that your grades are almost as high as you can get."  
  
"That's all very nice, grandpa, but can you please tell me your decision?"  
  
"Don't you want to know why I have all your past report cards out?"  
  
"Because you wanted to see if I deserved to go to school with my friends and now that you see that I do, you're going to do it, right?"  
  
"That would be incorrect. I hold here, in my hands, your transfer papers, which just happen to hold all of your past grades on them."  
  
"What? Are you serious? YOU'VE ALREADY TRANSFERRED ME?!" Rei couldn't believe it. She had expected that he would make his decision and she would start at her new school the next year.  
  
"Yes, I've been working on it ever since the beginning of the year. You start tomorrow."  
  
"Tomorrow?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Rei couldn't help but throw herself into her grandfather's arms. "THANK YOU SO MUCH!"  
  
(Ok, there you have. Yet again, another part. So what do you think? Is it good or bad? Gotta go, ja )  



	77. Part 7

~~The Next Morning~~  
  
Usagi was exceptionally fast the next morning in getting herself ready for school. She had wakened up earlier than normal and everything. In the past couple of months, she had fallen into the habit of waking up with just enough time to take her morning bath, get herself ready for school, and eat breakfast. She would barely have enough time to make the flight from home to school, which only lead to angering her parents. But on this particular morning she had, for some unknown reason, wakened up at 6:30, a more suitable time to get up.  
  
Though, she hadn't just gotten up early to please her parents. She had gotten up for a more, in her words, 'practical' reason. Once she was finished with her morning bath and getting dressed and putting her hair up, she snuck into the family room and picked up the phone. She looked around to make sure her parents weren't in the kitchen. She didn't smell breakfast so she was pretty sure that her mother wasn't in there, and if her mother wasn't in there, then her father definitely wouldn't be in their either. But, still, she wanted to make sure. 'Perfect.' She dialed the number to Bulma's private home phone when she saw that neither of her parents were around.  
  
~*~*~   
  
~~Capsule Corp.~~  
  
Vejita woke to the screaming phone that lay next to his bed. He groggily turned onto his side and shook his wife awake. "Woman…answer the damned phone."  
  
Bulma groaned as she slightly opened her eyes. "Answer it yourself. You're closer."  
  
Vejita forced himself to sit up as he grew angry with his wife. "I'm not answering that stupid thing! It's never for me! Why should I waste my time with it?!" He placed his hand on his wife's head and pulled her up by her hair. "Answer the phone!"  
  
Bulma violently yanked her head away from her husband's grasp as she glared at him. "Damn it, Vejita! You're just not happy unless everyone suffers as much as you do! Hand me that damned thing!" Vejita smiled evilly as he reached over and picked up the phone to hand to Bulma. Bulma grabbed the phone from him as she continued to glare at him. "You're just too lazy for your own good."  
  
"Hello?!" She asked with anger in her voice, which only startled the child on the other line.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Son House~~  
  
"Bulma?" Usagi cautiously watched the hallway to make sure that neither of her parents were coming.  
  
"Oh, hello Usagi. Sorry about the wait. Vejita is just being incredibly PIG-HEADED AGAIN!" Laughter coming from Vejita was heard in the background. "Yeah. Laugh now, but you'll get your payback sooner or later."  
  
Usagi began to get nervous. She wasn't sure how much time she had before her parents showed up. "Bulma, I don't have much time."  
  
"Sorry, kid. What can I do for you? Is something wrong?"  
  
"No nothings wrong. I just wanted to ask you if you could make me something." She turned her back to the hallway so her voice wouldn't travel down it. She knew that she wouldn't be on long so she wouldn't have to worry about her parents coming. If they weren't already coming now, they wouldn't be there very soon.  
  
"Make you something? Like what?"  
  
"Well, you know that I'm training Hotaru, right?"  
  
"Yes. Your father told me all about it."  
  
"Hotaru is almost at the stage where she is going to have to start using weights. But I was doing some thinking. Weighted cloths are expensive and I don't have enough money to keep buying her new Gi's every time she wants to go to a higher weight level and I don't think mom will let dad buy them for her like he does me."  
  
"I think I know what you're getting at. You want me to make her weighted training cloths, right?"  
  
"No, not really. I was thinking, you know those wrist bracelets that you made to go along with the time machine? Is there a way that you could remake those only instead of making that time field, maybe change the field to a gravity one? But maybe not make it as ugly as a wrist band."  
  
"I think I get it. I'll try to see what I can do, Usagi. Why don't you drop by with Hotaru after school today and see if it's done."  
  
"Thanks Bulma." Usagi perked her head up when she heard an almost silent creek in the floor behind her. "I have to go."  
  
"Bye, Usagi. I'll see you later today."   
  
Usagi quietly and gently placed the phone back on its base and turned around. She froze in her spot as she saw the face of her father starring back at her. "Uh-oh…" She cocked her head to the side to see if her mother was behind him or not. To her relief, she was not.  
  
Goku grinned. "What were you talking to Bulma about?" He casually walked over to the chair that sat by the opening of the hallway, giving off no indication as to whether he was angry or not. "Seemed kind of important to me. You were looked like you were trying to be inconspicuous about it."  
  
"I…uh…how did you know that I was on?" 'I was too into asking her if she could make it. I shouldn't have turned my back like that and shut down my senses.'  
  
"Usagi, tell me you didn't forget that I can hear just as well as you can. I heard your little feet sneaking around out here. I heard your voice. Sound carries easily when the house is quiet. I thought there was something strange about you getting up this early. You're just lucky that I was the one to come out here and not mom."   
  
"You mean you're not going to get mad because I used the phone without permission?"  
  
Goku forced himself not to burst out in laughter. "Get mad? Of course not. It's your mothers rule that you have to ask to use the phone and can't answer it when it's ringing. I could care less. I know nothing's going to happen to you. But your mom just doesn't want to accept that. Don't worry, I'm not telling her."  
  
Usagi let out a long sigh of relief. She was glad that she had him on her side. He always had ways of looking out for her. "Thanks. Didn't you already hear what I was asking Bulma though?"  
  
"I said I heard your voice. I didn't eavesdrop."  
  
"I just want her to make a device for Hotaru that is can control the gravity around her instead of having to keep buying her weighted cloths over and over again."  
  
"Good idea. Maybe we should have Bulma make you girls one too. It could actually help your training."  
  
"How so, daddy?"  
  
"Well, if we add that little device to you guys while you already have your weighted Gi's on, then it will be even more weighted. You can only put so many weights into one Gi before it becomes impossible to add anymore. You may want to think about still getting Hotaru a weighted Gi."  
  
"But I don't have enough money for that."  
  
"Don't worry about that. Don't tell your mom, but I'll give you some money for it."   
  
Usagi's face brightened up as she stood to her feet just as he mother was walking into the room. "Thanks, daddy!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~School~~  
  
As a result of Usagi getting up earlier, she also arrived at school before it started. She smiled as widely as she could once she felt the energy signature of Rei. "This is going to be SO cool!" She landed in the middle of the playground in front of her classroom, where a group of younger kids stared at her, almost in fear. 'Whoops, maybe I should have landed in the parking lot like I usually do. Most of these kids don't know that there are people that can fly.'   
  
She decided to ignore the younger kids and walked into the outside entrance of he classroom to see her friends, all of them, sitting at their table in the back of the room. The teacher was at his desk. "Rei! You made it! You're finally here in school with us!"  
  
Rei looked up to Usagi with a huge smile planted on her face. "I know! This is going to be SO cool. Grandpa made sure that I was in you guys' class. He wouldn't have transferred me if I wasn't."  
  
"We're going to have so much fun together. We're all going to be in the same class for the rest of our school careers. I just love that. Once you've been placed in a class, you stay in it until school is over."  
  
Rei turned to Ami with even more excitement. "You mean you don't switch classes at the end of the year?"  
  
Minako shook her head. "Nope. That would be a negative there, Rei. This isn't like private school. I've been in the same class as Makoto and Usagi ever since we were in kindergarten. We've all had the same classmates too."  
  
"WOW! It is different than private school. But at least we know that we get to stay together forever. All we have to worry about now is those nasty entrance exams that all the older kids talk about."  
  
Usagi slammed her head on the table. "Don't mention that. I hate exams."  
  
Ami turned to Usagi, who now had a big red spot on her forehead. "Why? You're improving a lot in school."  
  
"I HATE, I DESPISE, studying. I don't care if I'm improving. Just because you can be good at something, doesn't mean that you have to like it." She looked up to the clock to see how much time was left before school started. There were still about one minute before the morning bell would ring. "Oh, listen, meet me and Hotaru at Bulma's today after school. I'll call for you when we get there and then you can fly there. I have something that we need to pick up."  
  
Her friends nodded. "Ok."  
  
The five girls turned to the door as they heard their screaming classmates pilling into the room to take their seats since the bell was ringing. They then turned to face their teacher, who stood in the front of the room. "Students, please take your seats so we may begin. I have a few announcements that need to be made before we start our day of learning." He motioned for Rei to join him in the front of the room.  
  
Usagi, Minako, Makoto, and Ami all took their seats as directed. They were lucky enough to sit at the same table as each other, something that they had worked hard for. They had had to proved to the teacher that they could handle sitting together without disrupting class, something that proved to be a challenge for Minako and Usagi. But somehow, they had proved themselves as being able to handle the responsibility.   
  
"Class…" The teacher put his hand on Rei's shoulder as his students quieted down. "This is our newest student, Hino Rei. She transferred from a private school on the other side of the city. Please make her feel welcome. I know you will all treat her with the greatest respect." He looked down to Rei. "Please take your seat in the back of the room."  
  
Usagi leaned over to Makoto, who sat to her right. "She even gets to sit by us?"   
  
"Yep. Before you even got here, we asked if she could sit back here. He said that if she is as quiet as we are, she can sit back here. Isn't that cool?" They both turned their heads back to the front of the class to see that their teacher was going to add another message to the class while Rei was walking back to her table.  
  
"I also have some more news for those that are interested. Seems as though our savior, Mr. Satan, is going to be holding a tournament for youngsters of all ages. There will be three champions. A beginner level, an intermediate level, and an advanced level. It just reached the press yesterday. It will be held One week from Saturday. I urge all of you who love to fight, to take part in this once in a lifetime event. The winners will be able to have a chance to fight Mr. Satan himself." He paused long enough to hear a chorus of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' fill the room. "Yes, I know, it's a very spectacular thing indeed. I hope to see you all out there. I'll be out there myself watching the fun."  
  
Minako put her head down on her table and whispered a reply that only her friends could hear. "The only spectacular thing about it is that he doesn't know that Usagi is entering. I can't wait to see the look on his face when Usagi has to fight him." She smiled when she heard the muffled giggling of her friends.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Lunch~~  
  
Lunch was the same as it had been for the past five years for the girls, even with Rei. Though, Rei just made lunch more interesting. Especially since it was her first day. A group of girls from a sixth grade class, who were playing basketball, noticed Rei walking out to the designated eating area of the playground with her friends. These were the kind of girls who were beginning to think of themselves as better than everyone else.   
  
The oldest girl of the group walked in front of the younger group and stopped them from going any further. "Hey, I haven't seen you around." She said as she pointed to Rei.  
  
"That's because I just transferred here." She pushed past the girl with long black hair and continued walking forward with her friends.  
  
The black haired girl frowned. "Hey you! I wasn't through talking with you. I just want you to know that you probably shouldn't be hanging out with those kids. They do freakish things like fly and shoot things out of their hands. Before they could even do that they were just a bunch of loners. Why don't you come hang out with the cool kids? We'll forget that we even saw you hanging out with those trash."  
  
Rei stopped in her spot while her friends kept walking, but soon stopped when they noticed that she was no longer walking with them. The black haired girl smiled. "That's more like it. Come on over here kid, we'll teach you to have some REAL fun."  
  
Minako frowned as she realized who was actually talking to them. "Give it up, Emiko. You aren't any better than the rest of us. Just because you're in sixth grade you think you're all high and mighty now. But you're not, you aren't anything. Come on Rei, let's keep going."  
  
Emiko smirked. "Whateva, trash. You can't talk to me like that and get away with it. Come on, bring it if you're so tough!"  
  
Rei grinned as she got an idea and raised her power level to open up the link. 'No, I'll go along with them. I know what I'm going to do. Just watch me. They'll learn what happens when they talk about my friends like that.' "I'll go. I don't want to hang out with the likes of them, anyways. They were just making me angry." 'I don't mean any of that you guys.'  
  
'We know. We'll be standing by to see what you do.' Usagi grabbed Rei's lunch bag from her and backed away from the area that Rei and Emiko and her friends were in.  
  
"So, Emiko is it?" The girl nodded. "Well I'm Rei. Nice to meet you." She shook hands with Emiko and put on a fake smile. "Hey, do you fight?"  
  
"Hey girls, she asked if I fight." She slightly tipped her head back to her friends who laughed at the question. "Of course I fight. I'm entering that tournament that Mr. Satan at the advanced level. I'm going to win. But I'll probably loose to Mr. Satan. No one is as strong as he is. But it will still be a treat to fight him. I'm going to get his autograph. Do you fight, Rei?"  
  
Rei grinned. She couldn't decide how she wanted to handle the situation. "Yes."  
  
Emiko's brow tweaked a bit with fascination. "Oh really? Are you entering the tournament?"  
  
'Might as well just do it in the most fun way.' "No, it would be boring. I would win to easily. But Usagi over there is entering just so she can beat Satan once and for all."  
  
"Thinking very highly of yourself there, Rei. Wanna try me and see if you're really as good as you think you are?"  
  
"Of course. It would be my pleasure." She lowered herself into her fighting position, not even raising her power level the slightest bit. She knew that she wouldn't have to for the fact that she was fighting a human with a low power level. She posed no threat. "Now watch closely." She curled up all of her fingers except for her index and slapped Emiko in the face with it, causing the poor girl to fly into her friends. "Wow, I thought an advanced fighter would have been more challenging than that. I guess I'll just still have to keep fighting with the REAL strongest man in the world, Usagi's dad. Keep in mind the fact that I beat you with my index finger the next time you want to mess with me and my friends." She laughed as she turned back to her friends, who too were laughing. "Man guys, this is a great school to be in."  
  
Emiko jumped back to her feet as quickly as possible. "Come back here you double crossing piece of shit! I'm going to kick your ass! What the hell did you do to me!?" She noted that blood that ran from her mouth down to her chin. "I'll get you back. Mark my words, I'll get you all back!" Rei and her friends just continued to laugh as the ignored Emiko and walked away.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~After School~~  
  
Hotaru changed as fast as she could after school ended. She couldn't wait until Usagi would arrive so they could get training again. She especially couldn't wait to start flying again, and to do the mind link. She hoped that she would be able to accomplish the task of the mind link. From what she heard, it was a hard thing to do, but she was determined to become a part of it.  
  
She grinned as she turned her head to see the same group of kids walk by that had made fun of her yesterday. "Hey! You!"  
  
The same boy who Usagi had scared just the day before looked to Hotaru with fear. But the fear soon disappeared when he noticed that Usagi was nowhere in sight. "Hey look! It's the loner!"  
  
"Don't make fun of me anymore! I'm strong now! I can FLY!"  
  
The kid snorted. "Yeah right!"  
  
There came no reply from Hotaru. Her only response was a slight lift of her body into the air, which only frightened the boy. "I can go higher. Wanna see?" The boy shook his head, but she didn't care. She wanted to show him what she was capable of. She let herself float higher into the air until she reached about fifteen feet. "Look! I told you I could…" Her sentence was cut short by a sensing of Usagi's energy just above her. She looked up to the source of the energy and smiled. "Usagi!"  
  
Usagi laughed at the boy's surprise. 'Looks like two bullies got showed today.' "Let's go Hotaru, I think Bulma has something for you."  
  
Hotaru's smile became brighter at the mention of a gift. "FOR ME!?" She let herself shoot out towards Usagi, without even knowing that she controlled her power to bring her forward. She looked down to the kid, who stood with his jaw wide open. "I have to go now! You just stand there and think about how much of a meanie head you were." She looked back up to Usagi and smirked. "Let's go."  
  
"Right. We should get going. We have a lot to do today." She looked down to the boy, who was STILL, in awe. "Yeah. Do as Hotaru said. Think about how you're going to treat people who are different from now on." She took Hotaru's hand and urged her forward. "Shall we go? We don't have time to waste. We have to get you ready to enter that tournament. Once we get this link thing done, we're going to try and teach you some fighting moves and a basic fighting stance."  
  
"I can't wait!" She ripped her hand from Usagi's and burst forward with GREAT speed. "I don't want to go slow, Usagi. I want to have fun! Come on!"  
  
Usagi smiled as she chased after Hotaru and left the bully down on the ground to collect his thoughts of what just happened. He still stared up into the, now, empty sky. He still couldn't believe what he had just seen.   
  
The boy was not the only one in awe. Usagi, too, was in awe. Though for a completely different reason. She couldn't believe how fast Hotaru was. Yes, she, herself, had gotten very fast the first time she flew to school with her father, but she had a reason. She was Saiyan. Hotaru was not. Hotaru had no reason to be so fast. Not that she was complaining. She was quite happy with Hotaru's progress. "Let's see how fast you can go. Try to raise your speed by putting more energy into it."  
  
"Ok, Usagi!" She obeyed with Usagi's wishes and dug around her body for as much energy as she could, causing her to have an amazing boost of energy. "WHOA!" She was going so fast that she could barely keep her eyes open.   
  
Usagi was so surprised at Hotaru's speed that she nearly lost control of her own body, nearly letting herself fall to the ground. 'She's going almost as fast as Nimbus. What's up with her?' "Hotaru, we're almost there already!"   
  
"Huh?" Hotaru looked forward and down to the ground. To her own surprise, Usagi was right. They were almost there. "But Capsule Corp. is about ten miles from my school."  
  
"That just means you're going REALLY fast." She abruptly stopped her energy flow and let herself fall to the ground. "COME ON!" She shouted up to Hotaru.   
  
Hotaru complied and discontinued her own energy supply and fell to the ground, only not as nicely as Usagi. Instead of landing on her feet, she began falling backwards with he back facing the ground. "WHAAAA!"  
  
Seeing this, Usagi jumped into the air and pulled Hotaru up by her leg. "Pull your energy out, I'm going to teach you to fall."  
  
"Huh? You have to be taught how to FALL?" She concentrated her energy back into her body and pulled her leg away from Usagi's grasp, brining herself to be face to face with her friend.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Little did either of the girls know that Goku, Vejita, and Chi-Chi, who had been training together, watched them from a window of the building. They had felt the duo approaching just moments ago. Vejita was especially curious as to know where the younger one had gotten her power. But not only that, for some reason, the way her energy felt seemed oddly familiar to him.  
  
They were all curious as to see what Usagi had planned for Hotaru to do since she pulled her back into the sky.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Yes, there is a correct way to fall without really letting yourself get hurt. I learned it the hard way. Vejita made me figure it out for myself, but I'm going to just tell you. What you do, is fall with your feet facing down. But don't tense them otherwise they'll break when you hit. If you keep them relaxed your body will just kind of collapse. But since you already know how to use energy, try to use your energy to guide your landing. The only time you should use an unguided landing is one, if you want to hide your Ki from someone, or two, if you don't have enough time to pull out your Ki and stop yourself from falling this way. Like when you're in the middle of a fight and you've been hit."  
  
Hotaru stayed silent as she engraved all of Usagi's words to memory. "Ok. I'll make sure I do guided falls from now on."  
  
"Now, do as I do." She stopped her energy flow and fell fast to the ground. "NOW SENSE WHAT I'M DOING!" Right before her feet touched the ground, she let her energy come out and stop her from hitting hard, allowing her to fall safely.  
  
"I get it." With that Hotaru once again let her energy flow stop as well and she too fell to the ground. She mimicked what Usagi did and concentrated her energy to stop from hitting the ground hard. "I DID IT!"  
  
Usagi smiled. She loved to see Hotaru happy about her progress. "There now, you've just learned something big in a small amount of time. Now let's go see if Bulma is finished with what I had her make you."  
  
"Ok!" She followed Usagi's lead to the front door of the living part of Capsule Corp. "Are we allowed to be here? This is Bulma's house."  
  
Usagi looked down to her curious friend. "Haven't you ever been here before? I always come here. I've known Bulma since as far back as I can remember."  
  
"No, I've only been to the business part."  
  
"Oh, well now you can come here all the time with me." She reached out and rang the doorbell. Immediately after, the door swung wide open to reveal the angry face of Vejita. "Hey Vejita, what's shakin?" She slightly raised her power level to open the link again. 'Ok. We're here. You can come now.'  
  
Hotaru perked her head up. "Usagi, I just felt the others power up."  
  
"Good job, Hotaru. I just told them to come, through the mind link."  
  
Vejita growled in annoyance. "Shut up, brat. I don't want any of the congratulation crap here. You know I hate you and your cheery people! What do you want?!" He scowled down at Hotaru.  
  
In return to Vejita's scowl, Hotaru cowered behind Usagi for protection. "Who is HE?"  
  
Vejita emerged from the door and got into Hotaru's face. "I am Vejita! Learn to respect me, brat and get off of my property!"  
  
Usagi pulled Hotaru to the other side and smiled at Vejita, something he hated. "Hotaru, this is Bulma's husband. He may appear to be mean, but he's really just a sweetie pie." She playfully winked at him as she led Hotaru into the house. "I'm going to marry him when I get older."  
  
Vejita slammed the door shut and grabbed Usagi by the back of the neck and, violently turning her around when he got a good enough grip on her. "Listen here, GIRL! I'm not marrying YOU! I'm not…" He paused to shudder. "Sweet. Don't ever refer to me as…" He paused to shudder again. "Sweet again."  
  
Usagi led Hotaru over to the sofa, where her parents were looking quite worn out as they sipped on cold drinks. "What are you guys doing here?"  
  
"We were training with Vejita today. We just stopped about ten minutes ago to take a quick break."  
  
Usagi looked over to her mother in disbelief. "Mom? You trained with…VEJITA?!"  
  
"Yes. I'm getting pretty good at it too. Vejita is tough, but your father thinks that's what I need. He seems to have trouble with being tough on me. Don't sound so surprised. You're the one who had the most confidence in me."  
  
"I know." She sat down on the floor with Hotaru and looked up at her parents. "I just know how rough Vejita can be. He still hurts me even."  
  
"That's because you deserve it brat. You're the most annoying of Kakkorotto kids."  
  
Hotaru glanced over her shoulder at Vejita. "I thought Goku was Usagi's daddy."  
  
Vejita picked up a vase and threw it on the ground, letting it shatter. "DAMN YOU KAKKOROTTO! QUIT BRINGING YOUR BRAT AND HER FRIENDS HERE!" He turned around and stormed out of the room. "I'M TIRED OF ALL THEIR DAMNED QUESTIONS!" He yelled from down the hall.  
  
"Hotaru, Kakkorotto is my Saiyan name. But I don't consider myself nor do I consider any of my kids to be Saiyan."  
  
"I thought I heard voices out here." Bulma walked out of the opposite hallway, the one that led to the business part of the building. She was carrying something silver in her hands. She walked to Hotaru and kneeled down in front of her. "This is for you. Usagi wanted me to make it for you." She held out her hands to reveal a beautiful silver amulet that could be worn around the neck with Hotaru's name engraved on it.   
  
Hotaru's eyes glimmered with amazement as she reached out and carefully took the gift from Bulma's hand. "Wow, thanks. It REALLY pretty."  
  
Before Hotaru could ask any questions about it, Usagi began talking. "Not only is it pretty to look at, but it also works to raise the gravity around your body. When me and the girls first started training, we had to wear these ugly weights to help increase our strength."  
  
Bulma took this time to interrupt the young Saiyan. "That is correct, Hotaru. This amulet can increase the gravity around your body from ten times the normal gravity to a hundred times. And as Goku requested when he got here…" She reached into a small back that was tied around her waist and pulled out yet another silver amulet. "Usagi, this one is for you. I've made one for all of you kids."  
  
Usagi reached out and grabbed the amulet from Bulma. "Cool. Look Hotaru, now we both have one."   
  
Hotaru traced the edges with her fingers to find a very small button on it. "Is this how you turn it on, Mrs. Bulma?"  
  
"Yes but don…"  
  
Before Bulma could finish, Hotaru pressed the button and immediately fell face first on the ground. "Owe…" She struggled to lift her arms just enough to be able to attempt to push herself up. But her attempt soon failed as she couldn't lift a single inch of her body off of the ground. "This is HARD."  
  
Usagi giggled as she looked over at the fallen fighter. "Well get used to it because that's what you're going to have to learn to use weights. But not today, today we have things that we need to do."  
  
Goku laughed at Hotaru as she still struggled with all her might to get up. "You're having about as much trouble as Usagi did when she first started out with weights. Maybe we should have you do the same exercise that I did when I had my first experience with ten times gravity."  
  
Usagi frowned as she looked up to her father. "NO! This is MY job. Remember?! You said that I had to train her so let ME decide how to do it."  
  
Goku jerked away. "Whoa, gees, it was just a suggestion."  
  
"Don't talk to your father that way."  
  
"She's fine, Chi-Chi. I don't mind. She's right." Goku and the rest of the fighters turned their heads to the door, where they felt the energy signatures of Rei, Makoto, Minako, and Ami. "Usagi, your friends are here."  
  
Usagi grabbed Hotaru's amulet out of Hotaru's hand, relieving the child of her pain, and turned it off. "Let's not turn that on until tomorrow when we're ready to work with it." She handed it back to Hotaru, who put it in a pocket on her GI.   
  
"Usagi…" Goku grinned. "When you get home tonight, we're going to try that little thing out."  
  
Usagi turned to her father in protest. "What? Why can't I do it on my own?"  
  
"For the same reason why you wont let Hotaru mess with it. You don't want her to hurt herself, I don't want you to hurt yourself. Working with gravity is trickier than working with weights. Remember that. Now go run along and teach Hotaru whatever it is that you want to teach her."  
  
Usagi stood up and help Hotaru up as well. "Yes, daddy." She looked down to Hotaru, who seemed to want to take off. "Let's go see if the mind link works with you. Then we're going to teach you the basics of fighting."  
  
Hotaru smiled as she skipped ahead of Usagi to the door, where Bulma was just letting in the others. "Hey guys! Guess what!? Bulma made us this really cool thing!" She held out her amulet to the others. "It can control gravity."  
  
Bulma pulled out each of the other girls' amulet and handed them their new gift. "You can thank Usagi for this. It was her idea. I just took the challenge to make it for you girls. It should help you all with your training. But you shouldn't use it without someone else being there with you at first, just in case something goes wrong and the gravity gets turned up higher than you can handle. It's just not exactly safe. I haven't tried these things out, that's why." Each girl reached out and took their gift from Bulma and thanked her with a smile.   
  
Minako kneeled down to Hotaru to look her in the eyes. "So, are you ready to see if this thing works or not?"  
  
Hotaru nodded with much enthusiasm. "I can't wait. Can we leave now?!"   
  
Usagi emerged from the building and leapt into the air. "Yeah, we should get going. Let's go to the lake where it's totally quiet and there wont be any disturbances. It's the perfect place to go, really. You better watch out for Hotaru when you're flying there, though. She's pretty fast for a beginner. I'm thinking that it will take us about ten minutes to fly there with her speed."  
  
"Ten minutes? That's it? That's over twenty miles!" Makoto looked up to Hotaru, who was now in the air next to Usagi. 'Man that kid is going to pass us all up soon. It took us forever to get as fast as she did.' "Alright. Let's shove off then."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The six friends landed at the clearing by the lake. The five original girls turned down to look at Hotaru. Hotaru only smiled and opened her mouth for reply. She knew what they were wanting to know. "I wanna join. I thought about it last night and I really wanna do it."  
  
Usagi smiled. She knew that Hotaru would want to do it. She had expressed her enthusiasm for wanting to do it the day before. "What about you guys? Did you all think about it last night? Minako?"  
  
"Yeah, she's a great kid, I don't mind." Minako giggled at Hotaru's obvious added happiness from her reply.  
  
"Rei?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Makoto?"  
  
"Yes, It'd be cool."  
  
"Ami?"  
  
"Affirmative. I believe she will enhance our bond with her intellect since she does go to Infinity College."  
Everyone, including Hotaru, groaned at Ami's reply. She just HAD to bring school into everything she did.  
  
Usagi smiled as she placed her hand on Hotaru's shoulder. "Well everyone knows I love her like a sister already, so… YES. Hotaru, what's your decision after hearing all of ours?"  
  
Hotaru jumped up and down. "YES, YES, YES!"  
  
Everyone laughed. "Then it's official. We try the bond."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Everyone sat in a circle at the edge of the lake, with Hotaru in the very center. The girls all held hands to ensure that the bond would work. The bond was stronger when they held hands, too.  
  
Rei remembered exactly how to perform the 'ritual' from the times that they had tried to bring in Chi-Chi and Goku, both failures. "Ok, Hotaru, I want you to concentrate your Ki so your aura surrounds you, like when you fly, and hover above the ground. Everyone else will form a chain around you and float and spin around you, letting our Ki to mix with yours. Then all of us need to open our minds and we'll try forming the bond."  
  
Hotaru complied with Rei as she began to call upon her energy to create a dark purple aura around her body. Once it was clearly visible to the world around, the girls began to open their bond, creating their clear aura around their bodies. The clear aura represented the purity of their friendship. It held within it each and every unique aspect of the girls' energies, showing that they were one.   
  
The circle of girls, along with their aura, picked up off the ground and began spinning around Hotaru, who was also hovering. She wasn't even concentrating to hover, a true sign was that the link was working. She watched as her dark purple aura began to mix, with ease, with the others' clear aura. She knew it was working because her own aura was becoming colorless. A dead give away that it was working was the fact that she could begin to hear some of the others' thoughts as they could hear hers. Though, she kept once hidden and very secret from this link. She had to hide it deep within her heart, somewhere that not even the link could penetrate.   
  
Once Rei saw that there was no longer any of Hotaru's purple aura in sight, she concentrated on sending the message to the others. 'Girls, she's in.'   
  
'YAY! I HEARD YOU REI!' Hotaru's eyes began to tear up with happiness from being accepted and loved by her FRIENDS.  
  
Slowly, the aura around each and every one of the girls stop and they all went crashing down to the ground. Hotaru stood up and ran to her friends, which she knew were for real. "I love you all like you were my own sisters!" She dropped to the ground and pulled them all in for a hug.   
  
(Hmmm…. I guess I wrote a little more than I normally do with this part. Oh well, what did you think? That bond thing was pretty cool huh? I thought it was. All the credit for that goes to my very good friend,   
Comet Moon. Anyways, what did you think? Gotta run, Ja ne. )  



	78. Part 8

Hotaru sat and watched her friends as they discussed what they were going to teach her. She couldn't wait what to learn more. She wanted to be just like each and everyone of them for she admired not only their skill, but their friendship. Not once in her short life had she ever expected to have any friends, especially none like the ones that she had, ones that filled her life with joy that she would never trade in for anything.  
  
When the link had been created, she realized just how much they liked, even loved her, which only made them even closer. 'Wait until Papa hears about this. He's going to be so happy.' She smiled when she saw the others walking towards her. "Did you think of what you wanted to teach me?" She jumped to her feet, eager to learn even more than what she already knew.  
  
"Yeah, we did. We're going to start you out with the basics of fighting, like punching, kicking, evasive movements." Usagi walked to Hotaru and grabbed her by the arms. "This is the tricky stuff. It can be taught and learned, but whether you use it right is up to you. We're going to try to teach you how to use it right, yes, but it's one of those things that you have to learn from experience."  
  
"So listen and watch carefully to what we have to say and show." Makoto interrupted. "We will show you the moves, you will figure out when to use them."  
  
"We will demonstrate and then let you try." Usagi pulled Hotaru out close to the lake, away from the trees and looked down at her. "I'm going to teach you how to make effective hits. First, you make a fist, like this." Usagi clamped her hands tightly and held her newly created fist in front of the youngster. She motioned for Makoto to join her, who promptly complied. "Now that the fist is made, you're going to want to hit. First I'll show you what to do." She turned to Makoto and VERY slowly punched her in the stomach, turning her fist just as she hit, which allowed her to also push in harder.  
  
Hotaru moved her eyes in closer to watch everything that Usagi was doing. "Why are you turning your fist like that, Usagi?"  
  
"I'm glad you noticed that. We've learned that when you turn your fist like this that your punch is more effective, it also let's your fist dig deeper into the skin. What you can do after this, is lift up your fist a little bit, which makes your opponent hurt more." She pulled her fist out of Makoto, who hadn't really felt a thing since Usagi didn't put any strength into the punch.  
  
"So you twist and push harder? Gotcha. Can I try?"   
  
"Sure, punch your hardest. Oh yeah, and when you feel comfortable with it, you can make a power punch by adding some of your Ki energy to it. Try it on me." Usagi moved in front of Hotaru and nodded for her to begin.  
  
"Ok. Here I go." Hotaru tightened her fist and, unconsciously, concentrated a small portion of her energy into it. Doing the same thing that her Sensei just showed her, she raised her fist and planted it in the center of Usagi's stomach, twisting it, slightly, and pushed harder to make Usagi fly backwards into a tree with a large crash. "USAGI, I'M SORRY!"  
  
  
Hotaru didn't waist any time running to Usagi. She had already hurt Goku, she didn't want to hurt Usagi too. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hit that hard. Are you all right?"   
  
Usagi grabbed her stomach as she dizzily sat up. "Whew! What a rush!" She looked over to Hotaru, who seemed to be scared and confused. "I'm fine. But MAN. That was GREAT. I SO was NOT prepared for THAT. Where did you get so strong? I felt you building up power in your punch, but gees, I didn't think it was going to be strong as it was. That was fun, actually. That was the first time that I've ever been thrown around like that and not have it hurt."  
  
Hotaru blushed as she showed a hint of a modest smile. "You really think I'm strong?"  
  
"Oh yeah…You actually threw me into a tree." She turned her head to look at a fallen tree and laughed. "I guess I have a hard head. I think you're going to do just fine with punching." 'Wait till daddy hears about this, too. He's going to be SO surprised.' Usagi crawled up to her feet. "Now you know how to punch, I'm going to teach you some tricks to punching. Now then, I've learned lots of things about fighting with boys because, well, I always fight with my dad and brothers, and this jerk Mamoru. If it's one thing I know, you want to punch the back of their neck cause' there is a special nerve or something that paralyzes them, but momentarily. Mom showed me where it was." She stopped when she heard the giggling of her friend. "What's so funny?"  
  
"Or you can hit them where it really hurts."  
  
"Ah…the most painful spot for a boy. Yes, I've used that a few times. But only on Mamoru. Mom used it on dad a couple of times. We all got a good laugh out of that. But yes, that does work too. You can also try punching the knees, from the front. That will either lock them up, or even break them. That's why we don't usually use this attack, but it works when you're trying to defend yourself. What also works is that little lump in their throats. They choke when you do that."  
  
"What about girls?"   
  
"Go all out there. Believe me when I say this, girls can be harder to beat than guys. They fight dirtier and usually turn into crazed maniacs." She could see that Hotaru was thoroughly enjoying herself. "Ok, there are lotsa different kinds of punches. There are uppercuts where you would lower your fist and then smash it right into someone's jaw. There's this other one where you put your hands together to make a double sized fist. That's good for hitting someone in the back or the back of the head. Well, that's all I can think of for now, Hotaru. Why don't we get you over to Makoto so she can teach you the art of kicking? She's the best at that."  
  
"When will I get to learn reversal stuff?"   
  
"Reversals? Been reading up on fighting have you?"  
  
"Not really. My daddy likes to watch wrestling. I only know stuff from that."  
  
"Oh, well, we'll teach you that a little later after you learn all of the necessities of fighting."  
  
"K!" Hotaru chirped as she ran back to the other girls, who were in a slight spar of their own while they waited for Usagi to get through with her teaching. "MAKOTO!" She yelled just as she was wrapping herself around Makoto. "You're turn!"  
  
"Ok. Did you learn a lot from Usagi?"  
  
"I learned how to hurt a boy."  
  
Makoto giggled as she lead the younger child away from the group of girls. "Her specialty." She grinned as she and Hotaru passed Usagi, who stuck her tongue out at them. "So, you want to learn how to make an effective kick, huh? Well, not only am I going to teach you how to kick right, but I'm also going to teach you how to block them, as well."  
  
"So what do I do first?"  
  
"Well, why don't you show me how you think a kick should be done."  
  
Hotaru nodded. "Ok, I think I can handle that." Hotaru became quiet as she raised her leg and kicked Makoto in the stomach, though, it didn't affect her. When she hit, her leg was still half curled in on itself.  
  
"That would have been good, but…" Hotaru groaned, "It's all part of the learning process. Your major problem with the kick. You weren't standing far enough away from me to make it REALLY work. When you make a kick, by the time your leg hits with your target, it should be fully extended."  
  
"Why?" Hotaru curiously asked.  
  
"Well, look at it this way. Kicking with your leg, with OUT having it extended all the way is like attacking with half power. When you give yourself time to extend your leg all the way before you kick, then you are also letting your kick get full speed and power."  
  
"So it's stronger than way then, right?"  
  
"Yeah. Now you're starting to see it. Good. Now we'll move on. Now keep in mind that kicks are sometimes trickier than other things because you have to know what technique to use for a certain type of kick. You have to know WHEN to use the kick, too. I'll also be explaining when you should perform them."  
  
Hotaru smiled with excitement. "I can't wait!"  
  
"I bet you can't. Now let's start with the basic kick. What you do is…well…kick. Try not to kick in front of the person. Make the hitting area on their side or even back, unless they are all beaten up."  
  
"What happens if you try kicking from them in front when they aren't all beaten up and staggering around?"  
  
"Well, Hotaru, they will most likely grab your leg and reverse your attack. It's not a good thing. Until they have lost a lot of their control with themselves, try to do things less obviously. Now, if you find yourself in a bind or you want to try something different, you can jump and at someone's chest, or even head."  
  
"Makoto, I know how to do a roundhouse kick from watching T.V." Hotaru beamed with pride for knowing that little bit.  
  
"That's good. I was just about to get to that. I guess I can skip that. Onto the next type of kick, my personal favorite. What you do is kneel down to the ground, extend your leg, and swing it into your opponents feet, making them fall of their feet." Makoto could see a look of confusion on her temporary student's face. "Here, I'll show you. You don't mind if I demonstrate on you, do you? I wont do it for real."  
  
"I don't mind, Makoto." Hotaru watched as Makoto kneeled down to the ground, as she had said to do. "I think I get it."  
  
"Good. I'll show you anyways." She proceeded to extend her leg all the way and then pull it back away from Hotaru's feet, only to immediately swing it back, stopping it right before it hit the target. "Just like that, get it?"  
  
Hotaru nodded. "Yep. I get it."  
  
"Great. You catch on fast. I like that." She hopped back to her feet and decided to tell Hotaru of just one last kick. "Here's a trickier kind of kick. I'll demonstrate this one too. Now watch, and don't worry, I wont hurt you." Without even waiting for an 'ok' from Hotaru, Makoto reached out and grabbed the child's hands, pulling them away from her body. "Pull your opponent's arms away to reveal the body more. Then do this." With one swift movement, Makoto's knee was placed firmly within Hotaru's chest. "This is what we call a half kick, otherwise known as kneeing someone." She pulled her leg back and put her foot on the ground. "That's about all I can tell you right now about kicks. I'll teach you some even cooler ones when you master these."  
  
"COOL! But…how do you block?"  
  
"Well…let's say that I was about to kick you, anywhere, it doesn't matter. And you sensed my movements. What you would do, is either jump out of the way, attack before me, or block it with your arms." Makoto could tell that she had just confused the younger fighter even more. "Ok, here's a scenario for you. A leg is headed right for my foot. So I would, look over to where it was coming. If I didn't have time to jump away without getting hit somewhere on my body, I would do this." She looked to her side as if something was coming out at her and raised her forearm to be in front of her face. "My arm would be hit, and I would probably be thrown back, but my face wouldn't too injured, if at all. It's better to have a face, than an arm. Don't you think?"  
  
Hotaru nodded in complete awe. She had never known anyone her age who knew ANYTHING about fighting, let alone THIS much. "Wow."  
  
"Well, Hotaru, I'm about through for now. Come back when you have mastered these and I'll teach you more." Makoto slowly let herself rise into the air to look at her friends on the ground, who were still engaged in a small spar. "OK GUYS! TIME TO TELL HER EVERYTHING ELSE!" She screamed down to the ground.  
  
Hotaru smiled as she looked over to her friends, who were flying for her with bruises and cuts from their spar. 'I can't wait for that kind of action.' "What else are you guys gonna teach me?!"  
  
"Well, Ami is going to tell you some ways to keep yourself safe when fighting, right Ami?" Usagi stated as she turned her attention to her friend in blue.  
  
Ami nodded. "Right. Now, Hotaru, there are so many ways to get yourself hurt when fighting. Fighting is one of the most dangerous things to do, especially the way we fight. But I'm going to give you some hints that reduce your chances of getting severely hurt. First rule, KNOW your opponent. Now I don't mean throw yourself into conversation before you fight. What I'm saying is, analyze your opponent as much as possible before you fight. Don't just run into it without knowing what you're doing. I guarantee that if you do this, you will have a much easier time fighting your opponent."  
  
"Second, don't underestimate your opponent. Be ready for ANYTHING. Don't drop your concentration. If you do, you're stuck. If the enemy gets a hold of you when you've dropped concentration, you can kiss your victory goodbye."  
  
"Third, don't believe ANYONE unless they are on your side. The enemy will say ANYTHING to get you in their grasps. They will lie to your liking, but you must have enough strength to resist. When it comes to fighting, you must always trust those close to you."  
  
Hotaru let the information sink into her as if it were coated with candy. "Wow, Ami. You're smart. Anything else I should know?"  
  
"Yes, always be ready for an attack." She giggled as she saw Usagi hovering over Hotaru, ready to attack.  
  
Hotaru just looked up and deviously smiled back at Usagi as she reached up and pulled her down to her level. "I knew you were there the whole time, Usagi."  
  
"Did you now?"  
  
Before Hotaru had a chance to get in her reply, she turned around and brought her arm in front of her face in response to a kick coming from Makoto, who was testing her ability to expect an attack at any moment. "Too slow, Makoto. I felt your energy building up."  
  
Usagi laughed as Makoto landed to the ground. "Wow, this really DOES Work. Wait till I tell dad. He'll be surprised. He thought that teaching gently couldn't be done, well, it works better. Now Hotaru knows that to do."  
  
Hotaru pulled her arm down and looked at it. A large red mark now lay on it where Makoto's leg made contact. "Wow, I actually blocked it? COOL."  
  
"Now you know the basics of fighting, Hotaru. What are you going to do with your newfound knowledge?"  
  
"Well, Minako, I'm going to FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! LET'S HAVE US A GOOD WRASTLE RIGHT HERE!" Hotaru happily squeaked.   
  
Rei grinned as she looked down to the girl in purple. "Fine. Dog pile on Hotaru!"  
  
"AHH!" Hotaru got her act together and high tailed it out of there as soon as she saw her friends approaching her like zombies. "You're all crazy I tell ya!"   
  
"First one to catch her gets a reward! Find the prisoner I say!" Minako jumped to her feet and into the air, giving herself a burst of power as she flew towards the child weaving in and out of the trees around the lake.  
  
"I'll take you up on that one, Minako." Usagi set out in search of Hotaru, who was still running at her top speed away from her friends. "Come on Hotaru, we just want to…Play with you." She laughed out loud as she continued to hunt around for her.   
  
Hotaru persisted as she ran forward. She glanced over her shoulder when she felt Rei's energy signature hot on her tail. "AHH! I'M GOING TO BE CAPTURED BY CRAZY PEOPLE!" Just as she had seen the girls do the day before, she fired a Ki blast at Rei, which made the girl in red jump to dodge. "You will never catch me!"  
  
"Really?"  
  
"WHAT?!" Hotaru quickly turned her head back to face forward only to be faced with an upside down Makoto, who was hanging from a tree. "NO!!" She put her hands in front of her face to block as she tried to stop. But at the pace she was going, she couldn't JUST stop. She slid right into Makoto, causing her to fall out of the tree and land on Hotaru.   
  
"I caught her!" Makoto dug her fingers into the ground and wrapped her legs around Hotaru's. "We have you now. Now you must suffer the consequences."  
  
"I will not be caught by you! No one can catch me! I am the great HOTARU!" Hotaru laughed as she tried to struggle free from Makoto's hold. She soon found out that it was no use, though. Makoto was just too strong for he to break free from. "No fair! Not fair!"  
  
Usagi landed just above Hotaru's head and laughed hysterically down at her. "You have done good, lady Makoto. You have found the prisoner, the great Hotaru. Great Hotaru, what do you have to say in your defense?"  
  
"I'm innocent I tell ya! I didn't do it! It was rock. He hypnotized me. He made me do it." Hotaru pointed to a giant boulder sitting on the edge of the lake. "Bad rock! Bad!"  
  
Rei giggled as she looked over at the boulder. "I don't know, lady Usagi. She has a pretty promising story. The rock does look kind of suspicious."  
  
Usagi skipped over to the rock and bent down to look at it. She could hear Hotaru laughing in the background. "Well Mr. Rock, what do you have to say for yourself? You look guilty. Did you frame The Great Hotaru?" She knocked on it. "Hello in there…It's official ladies, this rock is guilty. Release The Great Hotaru and all the charges on her."  
  
Hotaru stood to her feet and brushed her Gi off as a result of Makoto moving out of the way. "What were my charges, lady Usagi?"  
  
Usagi thought for a moment. There hadn't really been any charges, it was just a game, but she thought of something good soon after the question was asked. "Well Great Hotaru, you were charged with being too cute for you own good. But we clearly see that the rock was feeding us all a bunch of lies and it's ok to be cute."  
  
~*~*~  
  
After Usagi and her friends had taken Hotaru home, she hurried home. They had accidentally returned Hotaru home fifteen minutes late, but the professor wasn't angry. He didn't mind as long as she was safe, which she was. Usagi wasn't worried about getting yelled at by him, though. She was more rather worried about getting chewed out by her mother, who would probably end up fussing about dinner having to be thrown out because she was late.   
  
Once she arrived home, she threw down her school bag by the door and also threw her shoes there too. "Mom, daddy, I'm home." Her attention was caught by her father walking out of the kitchen. "Hey daddy. Sorry I'm home late but we…" Goku put his hand on his daughter's shoulder and led her out of the house without a single word. Usagi found that to be strange. "Look, daddy, I know I'm late but I didn't mean to…"  
  
Goku quietly closed the door behind him so it wouldn't make any noise to alert his wife. "I'm not mad. It's your mother that you have to worry about. Let's just let her cool off for a while." He led her away from the house and into the woods by a small river. "As you've guessed, she's angry about you being home late."  
  
"I know. Daddy, we didn't mean to be late. We were training with Hotaru and lost track of time. Can't I just explain that to mom?"  
  
Goku let out a small laugh as he sat down on a stump and looked into the river. "Do you know what you just said? You just said 'mom' and 'explain' in the same sentence."  
  
"But I didn't mean to be late. What was she saying?"  
  
"Whew…you really want to know?"  
  
Usagi cringed when she heard his 'scared' tone of voice. "Uh…is it really that bad?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Oh yes. She's going through one of those 'times' again where she's just moody all the time. She didn't have dinner ready yet, don't worry. We actually just got home ourselves. She expected to find you home, though. When she didn't, she locked herself in our room and told me to send you in when you got home. But, for obvious reasons, I'm not about to do that."  
  
Usagi sat down and waved her hand around in the water to scare some fish away. "Thanks, daddy. I guess I'm going to get in trouble again. Oh well, I'm used to it. It's nothing new."  
  
Goku could see that his daughter didn't really want to talk about it. He didn't blame her, either. He wouldn't want to talk or think about getting chewed out by Chi-Chi. But that was why he had taken her out of the house. He wanted to give his wife time to cool down. "So, what did Hotaru learn today? Did the link work?"  
  
"YES! We finally got someone else to join. Isn't that COOL!? It was easy too. It didn't even take as long as yours and mom's failures did, no offense."  
  
"That's great, sweetie. Sounds cool. I bet she's happy."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Oh yeah. You should have seen the look on her face when we it worked. Man, nothing is more exciting than making her happy."  
  
"Now you know how your mom and I feel when we see a smile on your face."  
  
Usagi looked up into the sky where stars were becoming visible. "She also learned how to fight, sort of. We taught her all the basics. She even used a few of them. She even punched me into a tree. She's really strong for a human, don't you think daddy?"  
  
'She hit one of them into a tree on her first day?! We had all better watch out for this girl.' "Sure is. I don't know how a human could have gotten such power. The other girls never learned that fast nor did they have that much power when they first started out. I know you did, but you have a reason. But that's good that she's a fast learner. That means that she'll grow up to be strong." He stood up and stood behind his daughter as she continued to look up. "Think we should take this opportunity to mess with that gravity enhancer?"   
  
"Ok." Usagi stood up and pulled the amulet that Bulma had given her out of her pocket. She handed it over to he father, since she knew that he would want to look at it. "Set it REALLY high."  
  
Goku barely raised his eyes enough to look at his eager daughter as he held the device in his hands and changed the gravity setting. "Honey, gravity is not the same as weights. Gravity is harder to work with than weights. Believe me, I had to learn that out the hard way."  
  
"Please? I'm strong. I can do it."  
  
"But you're not going to be able to raise your power level just to be able to withstand this. I wont let you. If you want to become stronger, you have to be at your weakest level when you overcome your obstacles. You know this already. Do you still want it really high?" Usagi nodded. "Ok, if you say so." Goku turned a little dial on the side of the amulet and set it to fifty times earth gravity. "Here you go." He held out the amulet.   
  
"I can do this." As soon as Usagi grabbed the amulet out of her father's hands she fell flat on her face. Her body now felt like it had the day that she had snuck into Vejita's gravity chamber. She felt as if she were being crushed to the floor. Her lungs felt as if they were going to collapse, which only made it more difficult to breath. She couldn't even lift her chin off of the ground.   
  
Goku chuckled as he bent down and grabbed the amulet out of his daughter's hand, immediately releasing the pressure off of her body. "Now do you believe me? I wasn't lying, you know."  
  
Usagi wheezed as the pressure on her lungs returned to normal. She was actually able to keep in more oxygen than she was breathing out. "Oops." She looked up for her father's approval of her mistake.  
  
"It's ok. Just don't mistrust me next time. I'm setting it to twenty times earth's gravity. It will give you a challenge, yet, you will still be able to walk around. It will be like the time when you first started using weights." He once again held out the gravity controlling device to his daughter, who was reluctant to take it from him.   
  
"Like when I first started using weights?" Usagi thought back to her first day of using weights. That was the day that she had been left behind by her father and the day that she and Minako had run into the two muggers in the alley. That was the day that Vejita had taught her how to fall 'correctly.' The day that he had made her get up, even with the weights. That was also the day that he had taunted her because she had trouble getting used to the weights.   
  
Goku wished he knew what was going on in his daughter's mind. She looked to be deep in thought, he knew about what though. It was obvious. She was contemplating whether she wanted to take this next step or not. "Come on, I'll help you get used to it. Let's just see if twenty times is ok. Trust me."  
  
'Trust me', The words that Goku had said to her over and over. Words that were always able to be believed by her. "Ok." She hesitantly reached out and held the amulet tightly in her hands. 'hmm…' She immediately felt an increase of gravity around her and had to lock her legs in place to be able to stay standing. 'This is a lot like the time that I first started using weights.'  
  
"Is that too easy, or hard?"  
  
Usagi struggled to shake her head. "No…it's…fine."  
  
Goku chuckled at his daughter's struggle. "Go ahead and try to step forward. You'll find it to be a lot harder than trying to walk with weights."  
  
"K…" Usagi struggled even more to lift her right foot, she could barely get it up off the ground before it came crashing back down, only it didn't land on the foot. Her calve collapsed beneath her and caused her leg to curl up. "Owe!" She quickly unlocked her other knee and let it do the same to leave her sitting on her knees. "This stinks!"  
  
"Well I think we've found your new training for this evening."  
  
"I thought you said that you weren't going to train me for a while until we got Hotaru used to fighting and all."  
  
"Well Hotaru isn't here right now, is she? So now I'm training you how to properly use this thing. You're going to need it if you plan on walking around school tomorrow. I don't think you want to look like an idiot walking around on your knees, do you?" He laughed as he turned around and began to walk very slowly back to the house. "Come on, let's go home. Your mom has probably cooled down by now.  
  
"I have to wear this to school tomorrow? What if I don't get used to it by tomorrow?"  
  
"Don't worry, you will. It's a long walk home. It should be enough of a walk to get used to it."  
  
"What? It's only a half mile walk from here to home. All we do is cut through those trees." Usagi put her hand on the ground before her and with great effort tried push herself back to her feet. Though even moving her hands was a great struggle to her.   
  
"Who said anything about cutting through trees. We're going out to the road."  
  
Usagi widened her eyes. "What?! The road itself is two and a half miles from here, daddy. Then it's another four miles to the house."  
  
"I know. Like I said, it should get you used to the new gravity enough to at least be able to walk up right. We better get going now if you want any sleep tonight. And don't worry, I wont walk ahead like I did before. I'll stay by your side. So let's get ourselves moving out."  
  
"Daddy! This isn't fair."  
  
"Don't complain. It's good training."  
  
Usagi groaned as she lifted up her foot again, but this time she lost her balance completely and fell flat on her face. She rested her head in her hand as she struggled to just pull up a few grass blades. "This is going to be a LONG night."  
  
(Ok, end of part. What did you think? Good, or bad? See you all later…Ja ne. ^_^ )  



	79. Part 9

~~The Next Day~~  
  
Usagi walked into class about an hour late the next day. The class became quiet of its activities and turned its attention onto her as she stiffly walked to her seat with dark bags under her eyes, which made her turn red with embarrassment. The teacher noticed Usagi's struggle to even walk back to her seat and frowned. "Usagi, this is unacceptable. You have just walked into class exactly fifty-seven minutes late. What have you go to say about this?"  
  
Without much movement at all, Usagi let herself drop down in her chair as she stared up at the angry face of her teacher. "I don't have anything to say at all, sir, except that I was training with my dad last night and…"  
  
"Ms. Usagi, would you please explain to your father that he should try to control how much training you do during the week? It is slowing up your performance in school." The teacher looked around the class, who still had their eyes planted back on Usagi, who looked as if she were about to drop off into a deep sleep. "Let us continue with our discussion class."  
  
Usagi let her head slam against the table as the lecture continued. Letting her head drop was probably the worst thing that she could have done. It only caused her to want sleep even more. The sound of her teacher's boring voice didn't help much either. "Must…stay…awake."  
  
Hearing Usagi's whisper, her friends turned their heads in her direction and wondered what could have possibly been keeping their friend so tired. They wondered why type of training she could have gone through the night before. "Usagi, are you ok? You look like you're about to crash." Rei set her head on the table so she could talk quietly enough to where Usagi could hear her, but none of the other students around.  
  
"That's what I feel like doing. Dad made me walk six and a half miles home last night with twenty times earth's gravity. It took forever to get home. We didn't even get in until 11:00. Now every single muscle in my body aches, it hurts to move anything, I just want to sleep, but I can't because I'm in school. Then we have to work with Hotaru after school and I wont be able to sleep then. It would be a lot easier if I could turn this gravity off."  
  
Minako sympathetically looked down at her worn out friend, half in shock. "You have it on right now? That's amazing. I would never be able to walk as much as you did with twenty times gravity and then be able to come to school. You didn't fly here, did you? We didn't feel your energy coming."  
  
Usagi buried her face into her arms. "No. Dad let me sleep in late and then teleported me here. He felt sorry for making me stay up that late and making me work that much. I hope you guys are watching my stiffness closely and make sure you remember how I look when you turn your little amulets on today."  
  
"WHAT?!" The four of her friends cried out, disrupting the whole class and causing the teacher to turn around and glare at them. They quickly shut their mouths and lowered their heads in embarrassment.   
  
Usagi couldn't help but let out a tired giggle at her friend's outburst. "Yeah, he wants us to work with Hotaru for just a little bit today as a group. He's going to come by and pick you guys up to get you all used to the gravity change. Be prepared, he's probably going to make you guys walk a nice hike to do it." She closed her eyes and smiled with comfort. "Don't worry…you can sleep when you get it…done…" Without realizing it, Usagi had begun to fall asleep.   
  
~*~*~  
  
After school, the girls set out to meet Hotaru at her school so they could train with her before Goku came to train them with using the amulets, the hard way. They felt a bit of envy towards Hotaru since Usagi was going to train her more easily. They wished that Goku would be as easy on them, as Usagi was easy on Hotaru, but they knew that that was not possible.   
  
When the five arrived at Hotaru's school, she was no where in sight. Usagi found it odd that Hotaru wouldn't be waiting for her at the fountain as she had for the past two days. "That's odd. I wonder where she could be."   
  
'Usagi!?'  
  
Usagi, as well as the rest of the gang, perked their heads in one direction. That would be the direction in which they were feeling a sudden increase of power coming from behind the school. "Hotaru! She's in some sort of trouble I think. We need to help her."  
  
"Wait!" Before Usagi had a chance to aide her friend, Makoto reached out and grabbed the back of Usagi's Gi. "Don't interfere. This is just like what happened with Haruka and Michiru. Your dad was there the whole time but he let YOU triumph over them by yourself. We can go and watch, but Hotaru is strong enough to show them what she's made of."  
  
Usagi ripped away from Makoto. "I know what you're saying, Makoto, and, I guess you're right. But we should at least let Hotaru know that we're there for her. Can we at least go and see what she does? The other kids don't have to know that we're there. We can watch from a far and use the link to communicate."  
  
Makoto's face stayed serious as she stared into Usagi's eyes. "Well…" She couldn't hide her smile any longer. "Sure we can. I think it would make her feel a lot better if we did, right girls?" Makoto looked around the her friends to agree with her, which they did without a second thought.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru let out an almost silent 'eep' when she felt her back hit against a cold brick wall as her classmates walked toward her, taunting at her with every step they took closer to her. "Why are you being mean to me? I'm just like any of the rest of you." Before Hotaru had met Usagi, she would have been terrified to say anything to her bullies. She feared that they would have beaten her up, like they had done so many times without reason at all.   
  
The students of the school picked on her for more than just reason. There were three major reasons why they always picked on her. They were jealous of her father's financial status, which made them hate her. They thought that she was too much of a baby because she was always, in their words, 'feeling sorry for herself' because of her mother. And then there was the third and most important reason why they hated her, the one reason that made them want to keep away from her. They could sense her evil and what she stood for, though her evil feeling was only the half of it. They knew of her special secret and found her to be a freak for it.  
  
A boy who was in sixth grade at the Infinity College school approached Hotaru as he shoved his fist in her face. "Hey kid, you think you're all tough now, don't you? My little brother told me that you flew yesterday." A series of gasps filled the air. "You aren't anything more now than you were before. You ain't shit. And that freak you were flying with, she has a tail."  
  
"Usagi is not a freak! You're the freak! Usagi is the nicest person in the world. You're just a pile of doggy doo-doo compared to her." 'Usagi, guys, where are you?'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi and Minako peeked over the edge of the roof to find themselves directly over Hotaru's head. 'We're on the roof, right above you. Don't look up though. We don't want the other kids to know that we're here.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
The boy reached out and grabbed Hotaru by her Gi, pulling her up into his face. "What did you call me? Did you just call me shit? No one, not even little loner girls will get away with that." He raised his hand and slapped Hotaru across the face. He then let her drop to the ground in tears. "That's more like it. Get on the ground where animals belong."  
  
A girl about the same age as the boy pushed her way to the front of the crowd and sneered down at Hotaru. "Look at that, she's too weak to fight back, just like her mother was. That's why she died. She couldn't block the attackers."  
  
Hotaru frowned as she crushed a rock in her hand, scaring the crowd of kids behind her. "It wasn't HER fault. She wasn't a fighter!" One of the only things that would ever turn Hotaru was the subject matter of her mother. "She told me herself that she wasn't a FIGHTER!" She let herself float off of the ground so she could turn herself right side up again and landed on her feet. "Don't you get it!?" She grabbed the girl and looked her in the eye. "Don't EVER talk about my mom like that AGAIN!" She violently pushed the girl into the boy, who had verbally beaten her. "I'm not an animal, I think YOU need to get on the ground!" She closed her eyes and let a light purple aura radiate off of her body as she built up to power punch the boy.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi gasped with shock as she looked down to Hotaru, almost in complete fear. "Gu…gu…guys? That's not Hotaru's energy…is it?" Usagi couldn't keep from trembling at what she was feeling. From Hotaru, she was feeling a Ki energy so dark, so full of death that she could hardly try to even THINK about figuring out what was going on.  
  
Rei poked her head over the side of the roof and looked down to Hotaru. "Whoa…you're right, Usagi. Hotaru's power is in that, but not like we know it. I'm sensing almost pure hatred coming from that power. But, not so much as an evil hatred, more like a sense of protection kind of hatred. This is unusual."  
  
Makoto held onto the edge of the roof so she would be able to lean further out to see what Hotaru was doing. "This is kind of freakin me out here."  
  
Usagi could have cried right then and there for Hotaru. What those kids had said and done to her had driven the poor girl to her current state. Slowly, she raised her own power level to open a link with her. 'Hotaru, calm down. Please, if you hit him while you're powered up, you could kill him and then dad wont let me train you anymore.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru calmed very little at the sound of Usagi's comforting voice. 'This boy…he is weak.' Hotaru's thirst for teaching him a lesson increased as did her light purple Ki aura.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Ami was too busy trying to figure out what was different about Hotaru to even listen to what her friends were saying all around her. She scanned Hotaru's body from top to bottom, she even tried to sense what was different about her and all she could come up with was that her energy had a hateful feel to it. She jumped to her feet when she noticed it. "That's it! Girls…look at her aura! It's not its usual dark purple. Something is wrong."  
  
Usagi looked more closely at her friend. "I see it, Ami. You're right…it is a lot lighter. But what do we do? She seems so…"  
  
"Savage?"  
  
"Yes. She does. She's reminding me of someone…Vejita. It's like she is going to enjoy dominating over someone weaker than herself. She knows that he's weak, like she said in the link." Usagi jumped into the air. She had had enough. She turned to look down at her friends, who shortly joined her. "Hotaru! Don't do this!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru looked up to her best friend with a scowl. She was too blinded by her anger to realize who it was and shot up a light purple ball of energy. "Stay out of this!"  
  
Usagi dodged to the side, but her added gravity didn't allow for much speed. As a result, she was hit in her leg. "Hotaru!" At that point, she had lost her concentration and fell to the ground, causing the crowd of kids to run away, screaming, in all directions.   
  
The boy and girl who had made fun of Hotaru didn't get very far before she was in front of them, ready to attack. "Don't you EVER make fun of me and my mom again! You got that!?" She grabbed the boy by his arm and pulled him closer to him. Once he was in her grasp, she let her hand hover over his chest as she smiled down at him, but all of a sudden, she dropped him right before she was going to make her move, also letting herself drop to the ground as her light purple aura disappeared. "Mommy helped me…" She whispered just as her tiny body was hitting against the ground.  
  
Minako landed by Hotaru and kneeled to her side while the others tended to the fallen Usagi as well as the frightened group of kids, who Hotaru had terrorized. "Hotaru, Hotaru…what was that? Are you all right? Hotaru?" She slipped her hands under the girl's body and placed her on her lap. "Hotaru?"  
  
Hotaru groaned as she looked up into Minako's eyes. "Minako? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to loose control like that. But Mommy helped me get better."  
  
"How did she help you? I thought she was…" Minako hesitated to go on in fear of hurting the child even more.  
  
"Dead? Yes she is dead, but her spirit is still here, with me. I remembered her words that she spoke to me right before she died. She told me that I was a special girl and she was special too. She said to always remember what she taught me."  
  
"What did she teach you, Hotaru?"  
  
Right before Hotaru was about to speak, she looked up and saw Usagi limping towards her with Rei. "Usagi! I'm SO sorry!"  
  
Usagi smiled as she kneeled down to Hotaru, who lunged out and gave her a hug. "Don't worry about it. I'll be fine. We were just worried about you, that's all. But now that you're ok, we can get on with it. We all loose control sometimes. We should get going though, before it gets too late."  
  
Hotaru smiled as she stood to her feet and helped Minako stand up. She was glad that no one really asked questions about her sudden outburst. They just thought that it was a loss of control, yet, it was much more than that.  
  
"Ok, why don't you guys go ahead and go to the lake. I have something I need to do before I get there, ok?" Usagi pressed her fingers to her forehead and teleported home to consult her father about what just happened.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Capsule Corp.~~  
  
Usagi appeared just outside the gravity room, where he father and mother were sparring inside. She knew better than to walk in for the fact that they would have had the gravity up higher than her body, and especially muscles could have handled.   
  
She lightly knocked on the door to let them know that she was standing outside. She didn't want to waste her valuable training time with Hotaru, but she wanted to see if they had felt her power. And if they had, she wanted to know why they hadn't come to help.   
  
Usagi backed away from the door when she heard it opening. Behind the door stood her mother, more beaten up than she had ever seen with bruises all over and cuts to go with them. "Mom?"  
  
Chi-Chi panted heavily as she motioned for he daughter to come in. "The gravity is turned off." She walked to the center of the room and leaned against the console as she took this much needed break.  
  
Goku picked up a towel and wiped the sweat from his face as he walked towards his daughter, who appeared to have some urgent news. "What's up?"  
  
"Umm…is it normal for someone to get really mad and then change the way their energy feels because of it?"  
  
Goku looked to his wife in confusion and got pretty much the same reaction from her. "What do you mean?" He looked back to his daughter.   
  
"I guess you didn't feel it then." Usagi looked down at the floor in disappointment. "This would have been so much easier if you would have felt it."  
  
"Would you care to explain, or is this not THAT big of deal?"  
  
Usagi looked up with wide eyes. "Oh it's big. Hotaru was being picked on after school and when they made fun of her mom she totally blew up. She powered up, but not normally. Her energy had the feeling almost of destruction. Her aura was LIGHT purple, instead of DARK purple like it normally is. She was acting like Vejita in the sense of wanting to 'get back' at the kids. And worst of all, she didn't seem to have any control over herself because she attacked me."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she stood up. "She WHAT?! She ATTACKED you?!" Usagi nodded. "Well, did you get hit?!"  
  
"My leg, but I'm ok. It didn't hit too hard."  
  
Goku looked at his wife with great concern and the quickly turned back to his daughter. "Don't worry about it. The subject of her mother is probably a hard thing to talk about. When people make fun of you over a loss, it's hard to keep control, that's just one thing that you're going to have to teach her though, how to keep control."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes. Now get outta here so we can train some more. Tell your friends that I'll be there in a couple of hours to pick them up and do a little bit of training with them."  
  
"Ok." Usagi backed up and left the room, letting the door slam shut behind her.  
  
Chi-Chi walked to her husband and slapped him in the back of the head. "Are you nuts!? Your daughter just told you that she was attacked by her student and you allow her to go and train her MORE?! Obviously that child has some things to sort out before she learns to fight! She could be a danger to us all."  
  
Goku raised his hand to quiet his wife as he continued to stare at the door. "I've got a hunch about that kid. I've been watching he closely ever since Usagi first brought her over on Monday. That kid is not what she seems. She'll be fine. Right now a friend is what she needs to bring her out of her shell. Don't worry, Hotaru posses no threats to us. Especially Usagi."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi appeared at the lake, where her friends had already started in with her training. "Hey guys! What's up?" She yelled as she ran to where everyone was training. "I have an idea on a new way of training!" Everyone turned their attention to Usagi in wonder of what she could have had in mind. Usagi stopped just before she was about to run into Hotaru, who was currently using Rei as a punching dummy. "Remember yesterday when we were chasing Hotaru and how much fun we had?" Everyone nodded. "Well, I was thinking, that could be a good way to train, sort of. But not quite like that. You see, we can make our training a game. Three on three now that there are six of us. What we do is hunt for the people on the other team. First team to capture all of your enemies, wins."  
  
"But that's too easy. All we have to do is search for everyone's power level."  
  
Usagi deviously smiled as she turned her attention over to Ami. "Always wanting a challenge, aren't you? Well I knew you would say something like that. I'm already one step ahead of you. To make it more interesting is we don't raise our power levels at all and we don't try to sense out for each other. Then, when we do find each other, we duke it out with only using physical attacks and no Ki energy and no flying either. It will help us get better with physical attacks, like mom likes us to do, and it will also help us to not ALWAYS rely on sensing for our enemy, but it's also more fun that just regular training."  
  
Hotaru brightly smiled as she latched onto Usagi's arm. "Cool! I want to be on Usagi's team!"  
  
"That sounds like fun, Usagi. Let's try it. But let's make it more interesting. Let's make a base that is kind of like our protection zone that on one from the opposite team can come into. This is where we can keep our 'prisoners'." Minako jumped to Hotaru and Usagi. "I'll be on this team."  
  
"Good, now then, everyone lower your power levels and DON'T cheat." Rei playfully glared at Minako and Usagi. "I'm glad you two are on the same team. That way there wont be any rivalry between the two of you."  
  
"Yeah, now if one of you looses, you both loose. We don't have to go through that whole 'you cheated' thing like you guys did on Friday at the arcade." Makoto looked down to her watch. "I guess we better get started before we run out of time. Usagi, when is your dad supposed to come and get us?"  
  
"He said in a couple of hours." Usagi grinned. "By then we will have dominated over your team."  
  
Makoto snickered. "Yeah right. We'll beat AND capture you before you even have a chance to know what's going on."  
  
"Bring it on, Makoto." Usagi reached down and grabbed Hotaru's hand. "Let's get this show on the road, shall we? We only have two hours." She looked down to a puzzled Hotaru. "You're coming with me. You need to learn how to fight without really using your Ki. I'll show you." She tugged on the child's hand and proceeded to lead her away from the group, which was now dispersing into their separate ways.  
  
~*~*~  
  
As Usagi and Hotaru walked around the woods and hunted for members of the opposite teams, Usagi explained some key tips to playing a game like they were. "Well, in a game like this, Hotaru, you have to be very quiet if you don't want to alert members of the opposite team. You're just lucky that you're on my team. Because I'm a Saiyan, I can hear things a lot better than everyone else, which makes it harder for people to sneak around me. Something else you should watch for and listen for is any kind of unnatural movement."  
  
"What do you mean by 'unnatural movement?'" Hotaru watched the ground carefully and stepped lightly so as to not create very much sound.  
  
"Well, by that I mean, let's say that you were walking and you heard footsteps. That could be considered unnatural since it's not the sound of trees rustling. When you hear those kinds of sounds, you want to find cover as soon as possible and hope that the other person didn't see you. But also, be on the lookout for colors other than tree and plant colors moving around."  
  
"What do I do if I get attacked?"  
  
"I'm sure the other girls will go easier on you and not go all out, but you have to watch their movements carefully and make sure you don't miss any of their oncoming attacks. I always try to keep moving so they don't have time to really do anything, but that's me. You may want to find your own style. But pretty much just fight back to the best of your ability. If you don't feel that you can do it or if you're being double teamed, don't be afraid to run away and find help."  
  
Hotaru held her head high with pride. "I'm not a baby. I don't need help. I can take care of myself."  
  
"That's the spirit. Now then, why don't we split up and have us some fun?"  
  
Hotaru smiled as she nodded with joy. "Yeah! Let's catch us some people!" She looked up to Usagi, who looked down at her and nodded with approval for her to leave. "I'll do my best, Usagi."  
  
"I know you will, Hotaru." At that point, the two friends split and went their separate ways in search of their opponents.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Meanwhile~~  
  
Makoto sat high in the tree tops as she carefully, and quietly watched Minako creep around the forest floor below. 'Heh…now I've got you, Minako.' She calmly so as to not let the girl below hear her movements, and waited for just the right moment to jump down, right when Minako was exactly below the branch that she was on.   
  
Minako turned around when she heard a creek in the tree behind her. She was probably more alert to the noises around her, now, than she had ever been before. She was not about to let herself be captured. Though, when she turned around, she only saw a pile of vines fall to the ground to create a thump. "Whew, just my imagination. Get a hold of yourself girl."  
  
Makoto poked her head out of a rose bush, now with tiny cuts all over her body. 'It's a good thing I grabbed the vine when I saw her turning around. She would have dodged my attack and gotten one me instead if I hadn't have moved. I better be more careful around her.'  
  
"Hey you!"  
  
Makoto turned cautiously turned her head around to the voice of Hotaru. "Hotaru." She quickly jumped out of the vines that held down her body.  
  
Makoto's struggles weren't fast enough as she soon found out after Hotaru had planted a firm fist in her face. "Makoto, did I hurt you?"  
  
Makoto grinned as she ripped the vines away from her body. "Another rule, never feel sorry for hurting your opponent." She reached out and grabbed Hotaru's arm, twisting it as she pulled her in closer.  
  
"Hey!" Hotaru tried desperately to free herself from Makoto's grasp, but the girl in green seemed to be stronger than her. "Let go!" Now against Makoto's body with her arm twisted behind her back, Hotaru raised her leg and swung it back behind her to hit Makoto's thigh, leading to her release. "Ha! Beat that!"  
  
On the ground from not expecting Hotaru to react the way she did, Makoto grabbed the girl's ankles and with one swift pull of her arms, she too was on the ground. "I just did."  
  
Both girls scrambled to their feet, not wanting the other to get the next attack in. Hotaru looked around for anything useful that she could have used and let her eyes stop on a small pointed stick. "Hey! It's Minako! She's come to help me!"  
  
Makoto smirked as she wiped some dirt away from her mouth. "Yeah right. I'm not falling for that."  
  
"I'm serious. She's right there behind you." Hotaru pointed to Minako, who she claimed to be standing behind her opponent. "Fine. If you don't want to look, that's your problem." She bent down to pick up the stick that had caught her eye.  
  
"You shouldn't take your eye…" Her words were cut off by a swift kick to the back of the head.  
  
"Actually, Makoto, she was telling the truth." Minako stood, quite confidently, over Makoto, who was now fallen to the ground with pain. "Whatcha got there, Hotaru?"  
  
Hotaru reached down and pulled out what she thought was just a stick, but it turned out to be a rusted metal spear of some sort. "Cool! Look you guys! Can I keep it?"  
  
Makoto rubbed her aching head as she sat up and looked at what had the girl amazed. "Why would you want that? It's all rusted."  
  
"I bet if we sand the rust off, it would be a pretty cool fighting tool. What do you think Minako?" Hotaru turned her attention to Minako for her answer.  
  
"Hey, that would be pretty cool. I've never fought against anyone with a weapon before. But look at that thing, it's double your size when you hold it up right." She walked to Hotaru and grabbed the spear from her, holding it up by the girl's side to see just how much taller than her it would be. "Yep, just about double your size."  
  
"Can I keep it, guys? Can I, can I, can I? Huh? Huh? Huh? Pleeeese?" Not only did Hotaru think it was cool, but for some reason, she felt that it was right for her to have it.  
  
Makoto gave the spear one more close look and then looked back at Hotaru's anxious face. "Well, I don't see why not. I mean, it's obviously been here for a long time so no one's going to be looking for it. It would be kind of cool to have a weapon user and specialist in the group, though none of us know how to use something like that. You would have to ask someone who did."  
  
"Maybe Goku knows someone who could teach her. He knows lots of people who fight. Maybe that turtle hermit guy who lives on that island would know how to use it. He's the guy that taught Goku."  
  
"I don't see why we couldn't give it a try." Makoto turned to Hotaru, who was getting herself excited. "Well Hotaru, as long as your dad says that you can keep it, I don't think any of us mind."  
  
"COOL!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Two Hours Later~~  
  
Usagi and Rei were engaged in a serious battle. They had been for at least an hour. Neither of them would give up as they didn't want to become a prisoner for the other team. Usagi was probably more badly beaten than Rei, though, as a result of her new gravity. Though, she was finding it easier to move in now, than when she had first started her battle. But her increased gravity had slowed her down tremendously, which gave Rei the upper hand and made it easier for her to get in hits.  
  
Now the girls stood face to face with each other as they stood about 100 meters apart. They were both terribly tired and out of breath, but still, they would both persist until there was only one left standing. Usagi scanned her surroundings to see if there was any flaw in the land that she could use to her advantage. Unfortunately, she was unsuccessful.   
  
"Usagi! Let's raise the stakes. It's obvious that we are going to keep beating each other up with no victor. So I say let's do this, let's give it one last attack to each other, using all of our left over energy. Whoever is left standing or is still conscious will take the other as their prisoner."  
  
Usagi grinned. "You're on. But I must worn you, I wont loose."  
  
"Sure, sure. That's what you said Monday and look where that got you. You still lost."   
  
Usagi frowned as she prepared herself for her last attack that she was sure would claim her victory. "Bring it on, Rei."  
  
"All right, you asked for it!" With not a single word more spoken, both girls set out at their maximum speed, without feeding themselves even more energy than what they already had. Had they have done that, they would have been cheating and forfeited their victory as a lose for the team.   
  
They tore through the area as if they were a heard of wild bores, both with the same ambition as the other. Just as their fists were about the meet, an interruption took place and their fists met with something much more hard, and much more large than the other's fist.  
  
Seeing what they had hit, both Rei and Usagi jumped back in fear. "AAHHOWWWE!" Goku had teleported between the girls without even knowing what they were doing. When he had begun teleporting, they hadn't quite gotten into their attack.   
  
He fell to the ground and grabbed his chest in pain. Their hit had not been expected and had therefore, hurt him much more than he would have if he were to have known that the attack was coming on. At least then he could have tried to block it. "What were you guys doing!?"  
  
Usagi ran to her father and kneeled down to his side. "Daddy, are you all right? We're sorry, we didn't know you were coming!"  
  
"Yeah, Goku. Are you ok?" Rei held her hand out to Goku, who accepted her kindness and allowed himself to be helped up by her. "You look ok."  
  
Goku rubbed the sides of his chest, where he had been hit. "I'll be ok. I've been through worse. What were you guys doing coming at each other with such force at a low power level anyways?"  
  
"We were playing a game, daddy. We were hunting each other and we wouldn't go down without a fight. We couldn't raise our power level to make it more fun."  
  
"Cool. Sounds like a fun way to train."  
  
"It is."  
  
Goku looked around the area. "Where are the rest? We have to get going if you they want to learn to use their gravity amulets."  
  
"They're probably out playing the game still. Just a sec." Usagi slightly raised her power level just enough to once again open the link. 'Ok you guys, we have to stop now. Dad's here to take everyone but Hotaru so they can use the gravity amulets. Have fun with your workout you guys.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Everyone could just see her grinning as the groaned. 'We'll remember to thank you for rubbing it in, Usagi.'  
  
(Ok, that's that. There's another part out. What did you think? Was it ok? Gotta go. See ya! ^_~ )  



	80. Part 10

Once Goku had taken Minako, Makoto, Ami, Rei to train them with gravity, Hotaru approached Usagi with a question that she thought was pretty important.   
  
She slowly emerged from behind a tree to see Usagi washing out some of her wounds with the lake's water. "Usagi…" Hotaru made sure that she had her newly found spear in her hand as she ran to her friend.  
  
Usagi looked away from the lake to the voice that was calling out to her. Hotaru had almost as many cuts and wounds on her body as she, herself, had. She let her eyes wonder to the spear in which Hotaru was carrying. "Hey Hotaru, Whatcha got there?"   
  
Hotaru looked down to the rusted spear and then back up to Usagi with pleading eyes. "We found this in the woods when we were playing the game. It's a spear and I thought it would be kind of cool if I could learn how to fight with it." Hmm what are my true intentions?   
  
Usagi smiled at the young fighter. "I think it's a great idea, Hotaru. That would be even cooler if we had to fight against someone with a weapon. Just like Trunks has is sword, even though I never spar with him. I think dad used to fight with a stick or something. Maybe he can teach you how to use it, cause I for sure don't know how to teach you how to use something like that."  
  
"Cool! Do you think he would teach me how to use it…without hurting me?"  
  
"I don't know. We'll have to ask. I'm sure he will though."  
  
"Yay! That would be so cool if I could learn how to fight with a weapon. But don't worry, I'll still learn how to fight with my body. I still wanna learn that too. All we have to do is sand this rust off of it and…"  
  
"Change it a little bit."  
  
Hotaru curiously looked up to Usagi. "How?"  
  
"Well, just the blade part of it. We should make it the knife part longer, and then add another, small blade on it that kind of curves down and in on itself at the bottom of where the long blade starts. And if we really want to make it cooler, we should make it double sided."  
  
"I don't want to hurt anyone. What if one of my friends is standing behind me and I try to jab my opponent and then they BOTH get hurt? That would be bad." Hotaru smiled when she said the words, 'my friends'. She never thought in her life that she would have the pleasure of saying something like that.   
  
"Maybe you're right. Maybe we should just leave it one sided. But anyways, it's a really good idea. You know what would be cooler?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Is if somehow we could find a way to put Ki energy into that thing and make it even stronger. I don't mean like a shield, but to attack with. Like, if you put energy around it and hit someone with it, not only would they be hurt by the being hit with it, but they would also be hurt with the energy around it too."  
  
"COOL!"   
  
Usagi looked down to her watch and noticed that they only had about an hour and a half before she Hotaru was to be home. "We should get training with that gravity before it's too late."  
  
Hotaru nodded as she set her new weapon down. "You're right." She dug into her pocket and pulled out her amulet, which had her name engraved on it. "Here it is."  
  
"Great." Usagi reached out and grabbed the trinket from her friend, who smiled happily up at her. "I'll set it to the lowest possible gravity since it was hard for me to even get twenty. I'm still having a hard time moving fast with it, but I'm almost there." She turned a small dial on the side of the amulet to the word 'ten', which stood for ten times earth's normal gravity. "Here." Once it was set to the correct settings, she fell to the ground, unable to hold her own body with the added gravity. "Take it QUICK!" She couldn't move a single muscle for she was still too tired and weak from the night before and from the fight with Rei.   
  
Having a better idea of what to expect with the gravity, she prepared herself for the force that would be placed on her body as soon as she were to take the amulet from her Sensei. She stiffened her whole body for impact as she reached out and grabbed the amulet.   
  
As soon as it was within her grasp, she had trouble holding her body up. It took all of her strength to keep from bending her knees. Though, even that didn't hold up very long before she gave up and let herself fall to the ground. "Wow, this IS hard." Her lungs felt as if they were being pressed together, which only made it harder for her to breath.  
  
Usagi stumbled back to her feet ever so slowly as she recovered from thirty times earth's gravity, back to only twenty. "Yeah…it gets harder." Usagi wasn't sure how she was going to go about training Hotaru with the gravity. There really wasn't a 'safe' way to do it without making her walk around with it for a while. "We're supposed to keep the gravity on unless we're sleeping to get ourselves used to it."  
  
Hotaru pulled her arms against the gravity and let her hands crash into the ground to get a grip on it so she could try to push herself up. "How are you supposed to walk around?"  
  
"I have an idea on what we can do without really making you train the way I had to last night. And I'm going to be nice about it. Until you get your body fully used to the new gravity, we will only have it on while we're training."  
  
Hotaru smiled with appreciation. "Thanks, Usagi. So what are we going to do?" She once again fell face first into the grass beneath her.   
  
"Simple exercises." To show the puzzled child what she meant, she walked behind her and grabbed her by the chest. "First we'll start with your legs since you need to walk above anything else." She picked her up and placed her in a sitting position, while she dragged her over to the accused rock and placed her against it. "Here, what you do is you lift your legs against the gravity as much as you can. When your begin to feel tired, and I mean REALLY tired, stop, rest for a few minutes, and then do it again. When you get better at that, then we can have you do it without leaning against something."  
  
"Cool! That makes it a lot easier. It's just like if I were at a gym and started working on the weights there, huh, Usagi?"  
  
"Yep. So why don't you go ahead and give it a try? I'll just sit here and watch while I try to regain some of my energy so I can fly with you home."  
  
"K!" Hotaru did as she was told and began lifting her legs, one after the other as if she were walking. It was a hard strain on her, but she wasn't about to give up.   
  
While Hotaru did that, Usagi walked to a tree that sat kitty-corner to the boulder that Hotaru sat against. Usagi just kind of let herself drop without effort as she yawned. "Don't let me fall asleep, Hotaru. I already did that in school today and got busted for it."  
  
Hotaru giggled as she continued to exercise her legs with the gravity. "Ok, I wont." Usagi let her head fall to the side as she closed her eyes. "Don't fall asleep, Usagi."  
  
"I'm not. I'm just resting my eyes."  
  
"Usagi, that's what I tell daddy when I'm tired and I don't want to go to bed. I always end up falling asleep. So OPEN YOUR EYES!" Usagi didn't do anything. She didn't move, nor did she say anything. "Usagi? Usagi?" Still no answer. "Great…she fell asleep. Now what am I supposed to do? I can't move." She stopped moving her legs and struggled to pick up a small rock to throw at the sleeping Usagi. It didn't get too far since Hotaru could barely move. "USAGI WAKE UP!"   
  
Usagi jumped to her feet from being startled awake. "WHA…?!" She looked around to see what the danger was and giggled when she saw that it was only Hotaru keeping her word. "Oh…heh, heh, I guess I fell asleep, huh? Sorry about that."  
  
"That's ok. I just didn't want to be stranded here with you asleep."  
  
"Well, you always could have called the girls out here. But, they're probably having their own problems with dad and the gravity."  
  
Hotaru began moving her legs to get used to the gravity again as Usagi walked around her. "Yeah, I know. But waking you up was more fun."  
  
"Gee, thanks." Usagi with sarcasm. "How are your legs feeling?"  
  
"TIRED!" Hotaru smiled. "But I'm not stopping. Not until I can't move them anymore."  
  
~*~*~  
  
On the way home, Hotaru was actually the one to be watching Usagi just in case she lost concentration, instead of the other way around. The day's activities seemed to be wearing on her more than they had both expected.   
  
Hotaru couldn't wait until she got home to tell her father all about her day. Well, there was one part of the day that she didn't really want to tell him about, but she would because it was probably the most important part. She hoped that he wouldn't be too terribly angry with her. It wasn't the first time that she had slipped up in school, but she couldn't help it. She would allow the kids to make fun of her, but not her mother. Her mother couldn't help it. She had been in danger ever since she was born. "Usagi! We're almost there I think!"  
  
Usagi looked up to Hotaru, who was flying directly over her. "Yep! We are! I can feel your dad. He just got there."  
  
"I know. Let's go faster!"   
  
"Alright!" Both girls increased their speed to their max as they were fast approaching Hotaru's home, where Professor Tomoe was just coming out of his car.  
  
"Daddy!"  
  
Professor Tomoe already knew that it would be pointless to look for his daughter on the ground so he looked up into the air, and sure enough, she was flying to him. "Hi Hotaru!" He waved up to her as she waved back.  
  
Hotaru and Usagi slowly let themselves drop to the ground, once they arrived the house. Hotaru, of course, ran to her father and gave him a giant hug with a hello. "Daddy! Look at what I found!" She held her rusted weapon up for her father to see.  
  
Professor Tomoe was surprised to see that Usagi would let Hotaru bring home such a thing. "Don't hurt yourself with that, Hotaru."  
  
"I'm fine, daddy. Usagi's going to ask her daddy if he can train me how to use it since he used to fight with a weapon."  
  
"Only if it's ok with you, sir." Usagi could see his hesitation. "It may be all rusty now, but we can take it into a place and get it all fixed up nicely. We even have a plan to alter the blades a little bit."  
  
"We'll see, Hotaru. I'll think about it."  
  
"Yay! Thank you daddy! And guess what else? We played this really neat hunting game today and I learned how to fight with my hands and feet, and also, I got this really cool gravity enhancer from Bulma yesterday and we tried it out today to make the gravity around me ten times earth's normal gravity. Isn't that cool?"  
  
"Oh…yes…very cool, honey. I'm glad you're having fun with Usagi." He looked up to Usagi with grateful eyes. "Thank you."  
  
"You're welcome sir. But, I really have to be going. I'm going to go home, take a LONG bath, and then go to bed. I'm beat. I'll see you guys tomorrow." Usagi jumped into the air and turned around to wave goodbye to her friend and her father.  
  
"Bye Bye Usagi! See you tomorrow!" Hotaru turned to her father. "Usagi has to train with twenty times gravity. Isn't she cool?!"  
  
"Very. Now why don't we get inside and get you all cleaned up for dinner?"  
  
"Good thinking, daddy? So are you really going to think about letting me use this weapon? Don't you think it would be cool? I think it would."  
  
Professor Tomoe laughed as he guided his daughter into the house. 'So much like her mother.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Two hours Later~~  
  
Hotaru, the little sister that she had come to be thought of in only five short days by her friends, was happier than she had ever been. She had great friends who accepted her. She knew they accepted her because of the link. Though her happiness could never cover up her sorrow for her mother as she would never forget her mother, but she was finally letting go of the pain that came with the loss.  
  
Hotaru sat on her bed in her room and thought about the day's activities. Well, more like the main thing that happened that day. She couldn't stop beating herself up over what had happened that day after school. She had totally let her anger override her sense of what was right, as her mother had told her she would. But her mother also told her that she could fight it, because she was special. She had the best of both worlds, and then some.   
  
After a long hour of thinking of what took place after school, something her father still did not know about, she had come to a hard decision that she knew would alter her life forever.  
  
Hotaru approached her father with what she needed to tell him, as well as a request. After a quiet dinner, which had become abnormal over the past five days because Hotaru had been going on and on over and over about her new friends, the father daughter duo made their way outside to relax and watch the sunset to wind down from their hard days. Hotaru stared up at the red and purple sky, trying to come up with a way to bring up the subject that was weighing on her mind. After minutes of thinking of a satisfactory way to bring it up, she heard her father clear his throat, unknown to her for the third time. She looked up and noticed a worried look on his face. "Is something wrong, papa?"  
  
"Actually, little one, that's what I was going to ask you."  
  
Hotaru was startled by her father's question, of sorts, and stammered her reply. "What do you mean?"  
  
The Professor chuckled as he did not mean to scare her with his question. "Well, you've been distracted all evening. You hardly touched food except to play with it. Is something wrong? Did something happen at school again?"  
  
Hotaru's eyes widened as she looked deeper into her father's worried eyes and then hung her head, sheepishly. "Well, as a matter of fact, papa, something did happen at school today."  
  
Professor Tomoe sighed as he rubbed his daughter's face for comfort. "Tell me what happened. Was it the same kids again?"  
  
Hotaru nodded as she thought back to the day, which only made her want to cry into him. "Yes, it was. They started picking on me and made fun of mom. I tried to tell them that she wasn't a fighter, but they just didn't understand."  
  
"They wouldn't."  
  
"I know, but I wanted so badly to think that they would. I lost control of myself again, just like mommy said I would. I was going to hurt a boy weaker than me. I even attacked my best friend."  
  
Tomoe pulled his daughter in closer to him and wrapped his arms around her. "Did your friends ask any questions about you?"  
  
"No. Luckily. I was scared, daddy. But I don't regret getting angry. I just regret loosing control and acting so…so…savage, like a monster." The tears started to flow out at that point.  
  
"There, there, now my little firefly. Don't cry. The children just don't know."  
  
"I don't care, daddy. They hurt me all the time. They pick on me. No one picks on Usagi and her friends at her school."  
  
"What are you saying?"  
  
Hotaru hesitated to go on, but knew it was for the best. "You see, I've been thinking…"  
  
Trying to lighten the mood a bit, the professor grinned and interrupted. "Uh-oh, not that's dangerous."  
  
Hotaru giggled as his plan worked on her, for now. "Papa."  
  
"Sorry." Though the grin on his face made it to be a lie.  
  
Hotaru took a deep breath to start again. "Well, you know how I had to take all those special tests to get into Infinity College?" Her father nodded, curious as to what she was getting at. "You know how if I were at a regular school I would be in the fourth grade range?" Her father nodded again, this time knowing a little more what she was going to try and ask him. "Well I don't want to go to Infinity College anymore. The people there are mean, even the teachers make fun of me. I want to go to a school where no one knows about my past. So…CANIGOTOSCHOOLWITHMYFRIENDSANDBEINFOURHTGRADETHATWAYTHEYWOULDONLYBEONEGRADEAHEADOFME, PLEASE?!"  
Here it is: can I go to school with my friends and be in fourth grade that way they would only be one grade ahead of me, Please?!   
  
The Professor tried to decipher the sentence that was said in one breath, but since he had already suspected what she wanted, he managed. He observed his child's hopeful intent and sighed. He knew that she had never been happy at school. She had always been shunned by the others in her school because they could sense and knew her secret.   
  
He thought about the past five days and how she had come out of her shell so much. It was the obvious love for her friends. Her only real pain came from being shunned at school. Then he thought of his meetings with Usagi. He saw how she protects, cares, and loves his daughter as if they were sisters.   
  
He grinned slightly, knowing that he had already come to a decision. "So, what's it worth to you?"  
  
Hotaru stared into her father and realized at that moment that he was going to say yes. She hugged him as tightly as she could as she showered him with kisses. "Thank you! Thank you! I'll give you kisses and kisses for it, and the more kisses than that!"  
  
Professor Tomoe laughed as he hugged her back. "I already get that. Darn, nothing new." He slowly pulled himself from his daughter and continued to smile at her. "We have a lot of work to do to get this set up, though, you know."  
  
"Yep, but its worth it."  
  
"Says you. You're not the one who has to do all the paper work. You also don't have to tell the principle of Infinity College that you're leaving. I do."   
  
"PAPA. Live with it." She let out a small giggle as her father tickled her.  
  
"Ok, ok. You win. I'll start the paper work tomorrow. I'll get you in school with your friends as soon as possible."  
  
"YAY. Um, Papa?"  
  
"Uh-oh. Yes dearest?" He was slightly afraid of what she would ask him next.   
  
"Can we save this as a surprise for the rest?" Her father chuckled as he agreed to keep it on the down low. "Also…"  
  
He stopped laughing and quirked his eyebrow in interest of what her next question would be. "Yes, my inquisitive firefly?"  
  
"What about the spear!? Have you thought about it yet?! Have you made your decision yet!?"  
  
He grinned as he looked down into his child's excited eyes. "Well…I have thought about it. And well, I've decided to let you do it because I know that Usagi would never let you do something unless she knew that you would be trained safely."  
  
Hotaru smiled wide and bright as she jumped up with joy. "YAY!"  
  
"I'll take it to a specialist tomorrow to get it fixed up. Just tell me how you guys wanted to modify it and I'll get it done."  
  
"YAY!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Son House~~  
  
When Usagi had gotten home, her parents were no where around. She just figured that they were still out training. She took a quick bath and then it was off to bed with her. She couldn't stay awake another minute if someone had offered to pay her to do it.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku and Chi-Chi walked into, to their surprise, a quiet house with all the lights turned out. They had not expected Usagi to be home alone, and have the house so…quiet. Normally when they would leave her home alone, which was VERY rare, she would have all the lights turned on, as well as the T.V. and the kitchen would be a complete mess due to her Saiyan appetite. But this was strange.   
  
Chi-Chi could feel her anger rise as she turned on the light in the family room. "She's not home, is she Goku?"  
  
Goku proceeded to walk down the hallway. "She's here. I think she's in bed though."  
  
"What? It's only seven-thirty. She would have only gotten home an hour and a half ago. Why is she going to bed this early?" She followed her husband down the hallway and to her room.  
  
"She didn't get much sleep after her workout last night, remember. She's just worn out." He opened the door and peeked into his daughter's room to make sure she was there. "See?" He moved aside.  
  
Chi-Chi let her eyes wander into her daughter's room to see her asleep and nearly falling out of her bed with her legs hanging off the side. She giggled as she walked into the room. "She can fight, yet she can't get a little thing like sleeping in a bed. Who does she remind me of…"  
  
"Hey now. I can sleep in a bed. It's just other things I have trouble with. But I'm getting better about it." He walked over to Usagi's side and lifted her feet back onto the bed and recovered her up.   
  
"Mom…?" Usagi groggily opened her eyes to see both of her parents standing over her and looking down at her. "What time is it?" She looked over to her clock, which sat right by her Dragon Ball. "It's only seven-thirty?"  
  
"Yeah. You must have been tired to go to bed before your bedtime." Chi-Chi sat down on the foot of Usagi's bed. "Are you hungry?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Sort of." She looked up to her father and tried to smile.   
  
Goku grabbed his stomach as it started to growl. "I'm STARVING!"  
  
Chi-Chi laughed as she stood up and walked to the door. "Ok, I'll make dinner then." She left the room.  
  
"Daddy?" Usagi asked as she stood up. "Can I ask you a favor, please?"  
  
"Sure, what's on your mind?"  
  
"Well today, when we were playing our game, Hotaru found a spear and we were all kind of wondering if you could teach her how to use it, since you used to fight with that pole or what ever it was. It's all rusty but we're going to get it fixed up."  
  
Goku pulled his daughter's chair from her desk and set it down next to her bed. He then proceeded to sit in it. "You want me to train her? I thought that was your job."  
  
"Yeah, I know, but, none of us know how to use a weapon and we all think it's a good idea to do it. It would be fun sparring with her. Please? You let Vejita train me sometimes."  
  
"Well…" He grinned at his daughter as she impatiently awaited his answer. "I don't know…yesterday you told me that it was YOUR job to train her and not mine."  
  
Usagi playfully frowned at her father. "Daddy, that isn't fair. This is TOTALLY different. This time I'm asking you to help."  
  
"Well you hurt my feelings." Goku immediately changed his expression to that of a sad person, though he wasn't doing a good job of it. "I don't think you love me any more. You just shoot down my offers to help." He let out a wail of *fake* cry as he dropped his head into his hands. "My baby hates me now! What could I have done to deserve this?"   
  
Usagi sighed as she laid back down. "Daddy!" Her sighs soon turned to giggles. "Now you're sounding like mom."  
  
Goku smirked as he stopped his fake crying and looked up at his daughter. "Hey, you're right. That did sound and awful lot like mom, didn't it?"  
  
"Yes, now daddy, for real, seriously, can you PLEASE teach her how to fight with a weapon?"  
  
"Sure, why not? It might be interesting. I'll give it a try. But we'll wait until after the tournament to do that since she should be ready to fight with just physical attacks."  
  
"Thanks!"  
  
"Speaking of the tournament, do you think she's going to be ready in time?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Definitely. She's making GREAT progress. I just wish I knew what happened with her today. It was scary."  
  
"Strange things happen all the time. That's just the way our lives go. We expect it. Don't stress yourself trying to figure it out."  
  
Usagi became curious about her father's words. "What is that supposed to mean?"  
  
Goku didn't exactly expect her to understand, but he would be happy to explain himself. "Well if you think about it, we, as fighters, live the most interesting lives. We meet all sorts of strange people. Like us for instance, we have to be the strangest. We aren't exactly normal ourselves."  
  
"Because we're Saiyans, right?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Correct. We have met many bizarre people, like Frieza and Majin Buu. Those aren't everyday people."  
  
Usagi was still puzzled. "Are you saying that Hotaru is an enemy?"  
  
"No. Not at all. What I'm saying is that when you should expect to meet people unlike yourself. Hotaru is different than you, yes. But she is not an enemy. And I suspect that the reason why she acted the way that she did today was just because she has some deep feelings for her mother. She just doesn't know how to control them, much like you couldn't when you were younger. Teach her how to keep her feelings under control and how to ignore the taunts, like you have learned to do."  
  
"I will, daddy."  
  
Goku stood up and proceeded to walk to the door. Before he left, he stopped and turned around. "Just think about what I said about meeting 'strange' people. You'll find that they really aren't all that strange, in the end."  
  
( Ok, there's another part finished. What did you think? Is it ok? Is it horrible? See ya later! )   
  



	81. Part 11

~~Day of the Tournament~~  
  
Over the course of the next week and a half, Hotaru learned a great deal more about fighting than she had ever imagined that she could. She learned more about physical fighting and become surprisingly good at it for a beginner. Even her training with gravity had proved to do well. Within three days of training with the gravity, Hotaru could easily move around with out trouble at all. She had become much stronger in such a short time that even her father was beginning to see the changes in her. Her appetite had even gotten bigger. He was happy to hear her laughing more often, with seldom fits about her mother. Everyday she seemed to be getting happier.  
  
Professor Tomoe had tended to the paperwork that was required to be filled out to get his daughter out of her current school and in the school with her friends, which had made her overjoyed. After many meetings with the principle, who had on many occasions refused to give up her transcripts and test scores, he had finally convince the woman that Infinity College was doing Hotaru more harm than good.  
  
Now, it was the day of the tournament, the day that would not be forgotten by either Usagi or Hotaru as they both had a reason to be excited about it. Hotaru would finally get to put her new knowledge of fighting to the test, while Usagi would finally get her wish to beat Mr. Satan in front of everyone.  
  
So there the two friends stood, in the middle of an open field, two hours before the tournament started. They were going to have one last spar before the whole ordeal started. Though neither of them could really concentrate on what they were doing from all of the excitement. They had been trying for a good hour to try to start a good spar, yet, it only ended in fun, games, and laughter.  
  
Usagi remembered back to when she had participated in the Tenkaichi Budaki tournament. She remembered how scared for her father she had been, also how nervous she had been. She had barely made it through the spar with Piccolo before the tournament started she was so nervous. "So, Hotaru, shall we try this again?"  
  
Hotaru nodded as she cocked her neck from side to side with confidence. They were going to attempt to have a spar with no power levels, meaning no Ki attacks and no flying. "Let's try to do it without playing around this time."  
  
"Yeah, no more imitating those funny Kung Fu movies and all those funny noises they make in them. We need to get ourselves ready for this tournament, even though I know we're both going to be ready."  
  
"Well I just want to be warmed up. K?" Usagi nodded. "Ok, let's go." Hotaru quickly took to her fighting stance so she would be ready for anything that Usagi could possibly dish out to her.  
  
"Ok." Usagi started out walking slowly to Hotaru. She was careful to have as much of an emotionless face as possible so Hotaru could not read what her intentions were. Hotaru turned her body towards Usagi as she walked around to her back. "Good, you're keeping your back guarded."  
  
"Of course." Hotaru looked down and dug her foot underneath some loose dirt. She quickly looked back up to Usagi to make sure that she wasn't watching what she was doing. To her relief, Usagi hadn't seen anything.  
  
"You're planning something. I can sense it." Usagi pulled back from Hotaru, so she wouldn't be caught in any trap or attack that Hotaru was sensing.  
  
Hotaru grinned. "Aww…you know me all too well, Usagi." Hotaru pulled her foot out of the sand and rushed for Usagi with her fist. She had had it with talking things slowly. She wanted some action.  
  
Usagi jumped back from Hotaru's attack and caught the younger fighter's fist in her hand. "I thought we taught you better than to just jumped out at your enemy."  
  
"You did." With that she lifted her knee to Usagi's stomach, but soon found it being held in Usagi's other hand. "Hey!"   
  
"Too slow!" Usagi pulled Hotaru back by her fist and knee. "Beat this." She quickly let go of the girl and spun her around so she was facing out away from herself. She then proceeded to push her forward with her foot.  
  
Before Usagi got a chance to push Hotaru out too far, Hotaru bent her arms over her head and reached for Usagi. She quickly grasped her hands around her shoulders and then went down to her arms. Usagi didn't even bother with pulling her arms away from Hotaru. She just continued to push on the girl's back, which started to get Hotaru's grip to loosen up. But Hotaru wasn't about to give up. She pushed back on Usagi's leg. She heard her friends quietly cry out in pain, but that was the point to the game, to win no matter what. With Usagi's slight loss of concentration, Hotaru took her opportunity to tighten her grip on Usagi's arm.   
  
"Watch this!" Hotaru used Usagi as her brace as she lifted her feet into the air and flipped over Usagi. Now both girls stood back to back with no idea if the other was moving or not as they didn't have their power levels raised up.  
  
Usagi grinned. "That was pretty good, Hotaru. Where'd you learn a move like that?"  
  
Hotaru smiled as she took the compliment. "Ami taught me that little move when we were sparring yesterday in the woods. Actually, she used it on me. That's why I became their prisoner."  
  
"Heh, she's getting good." With that, as if it were instinct, both fighters turned around at the same exact time. "Trying to show me up, are you?"  
  
Hotaru smirked. "Maybe."   
  
'Ok, now she's starting to freak me out. She's acting like she's been fighting for a long time. Of course, she doesn't have her gravity turned on today since it's the tournament and all, but still…' Without further conversation, Usagi ducked to the ground and swung her leg out at Hotaru's ankle, causing the younger fighter to fall to the ground. "Ha!"   
  
Hotaru rolled away from Usagi and swiftly bounced back to her feet. "Good one. I didn't see that coming." Just as Hotaru went to retaliate against Usagi, she sensed her friends flying towards the location. "Usagi! Everyone's coming!"  
  
Usagi looked up into the sky for she too sensed what Hotaru was feeling. "Yeah. It must mean that they want us at the stadium already."  
  
Hotaru looked down to her watch. "But we still have an hour and a half left."  
  
Usagi jumped into the air. "I know. But it's usually a good idea to get there about an hour before it starts to get yourself mentally ready and so you can see when you have to fight."  
  
Hotaru hopped into the air after Usagi. "Are you sure that I'll be ok in the intermediate division? I mean, I only started two weeks ago and all. I don't want to look stupid in front of daddy."  
  
Usagi gave Hotaru a sarcastic look. "Give me a break, Hotaru. With the way you've been trained, you would've been bored in the beginner's division." Usagi waved to her friends, who were nearing them.  
  
Hotaru sighed as she flew with Usagi towards their friends. "I hope you're right. Hey, if I win in my division does that mean that I would be able to fight Mr. Satan too?"  
  
Usagi smiled as she looked down to the child. "I never thought of that! Of course you will! Oh how great that would be! Getting beaten by a ten year old and a five year old in just ONE day. Oh how much fun we're going to have today."   
  
"Hey you two, what's up? You don't look like you've been fighting very much." Rei noted the fact that neither of the girls had any scratches on any part of their bodies. "I thought you were going to train her for the last two hours free time we had before we had to be there."  
  
Usagi groaned as she turned to Rei, who was sure to get on her case for goofing off again. "Uh…well about that. You see, we kind of got sidetracked a lot and JUST really got into real sparring about a half hour ago."  
  
"Well that's going to have to do because they are starting the tournament in forty-five minutes and your dad is freaking out about where you've been."  
  
"Excuse me? Did you just say FORTY-FIVE MINUTES! I thought we still had an hour and a half left to go." Usagi looked to Hotaru with a ball of nerves. She knew she was going to get it from her mother for being irresponsible and getting there late.  
  
"Usagi, you dork! You got the time that the tournament starts. Come on before it gets even later."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Tournament~~  
  
Usagi arrived at the stadium with her friends with a half hour left on the clock before the tournament started. She couldn't believe that she had gotten the time screwed up, though she did wonder what really was supposed to happen in an hour and a half.  
  
Just before Usagi entered the room where her family was, she stopped. Inside, she saw Mr. Satan talking with them. Though she couldn't tell what. Even her sensitive Saiyan hearing couldn't quite pick up what they were saying, but she knew it was bad.  
  
She frowned when she thought of what she was doing. She was acting scared. Scared to go in and join her family because Mr. Satan was in there. She wouldn't let him intimidate her, after all, she hoped to beat him in the tournament that day. She figured that it was only fair to let him know of his destiny. "Hey Mr. Satan!" She finally decided to merge into the room.  
  
Mr. Satan nervously looked over to Usagi, whose friends had already come into the room before her. "Uh…hi Usagi." He turned back to Goku and Gohan. "We'll talk about this later. Please think about it." He turned back to Usagi and calmly nodded good by to her. "Good day, Usagi."  
  
"Hey Satan, just a minute." Mr. Satan turned back to see the smirking face of Usagi, which only made him feel even more uneasy. "I'll see you at the end of the tournament…when I'm kicking your butt. Don't worry, though. I'll go easy on you."  
  
Mr. Satan sympathetically turned to her family for help. He to get a response from Gohan, who frowned down at his little sister. "Give it a rest already, Usagi. No one cares if you're going to try to beat Mr. Satan."  
  
Usagi was a little hurt by her brother's statement. She knew he couldn't have possibly meant it though. He had never said anything rude to her before, she doubt that he was meaning to be rude now. She knew how adults got whenever they were stressed about something. "Gees, Gohan. Don't have a cow. I'm just having some fun. I mean, this has got to be the greatest day in my life."  
  
"Yeah Usagi. YOUR greatest day. You just can't stop to think of others, can you?" Gohan turned away from his sister and walked out of the room without letting her speak. He couldn't help but feel ashamed of her.  
  
Usagi wasn't sure how she was meant to take that, but that time she actually took it as him being rude to her. She looked to her father in question. "Why is he mad at me, daddy? What did I do?"  
  
Goku just shook his head as he too turned away. "Don't worry about it."  
  
Usagi got an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach as she watched bother her oldest brother and father walk away from her. She didn't know how to take her father's reaction either. "I know I'm late but…"  
  
"I said don't worry about it. Now leave it alone."   
  
Videl could see the tears building up in her sister-in-law's eyes. She ran to her side and hugged her. "It's ok. It's just a man thing. Men always get like this from time to time. Especially when they have things on their mind. Don't take it personally, Usagi." She didn't want to get Usagi upset if there was no need to. And at this point, things hadn't been decided yet, so there WAS no need to get the child upset…yet, and hopefully there would never be.  
  
Usagi smiled as she hugged Videl back. "Ok. I wont. I'll just concentrate on winning so I can beat your dad. No offense."  
  
Videl giggled. "Non taken."  
  
Usagi pulled away from her sister-in-law and walked to her friends. "Well you guys, let's go check out what times we fight. I wonder if I'll get to fight Mamoru. That would be cool."  
  
Ami remembered back to the last time that Usagi had fought with Mamoru for real. That was the day that she had first met Usagi. She remembered how they had both fallen to the ground from exhaustion. "What makes you think that he's going to come? I mean, he knows that he's no match for you."  
  
Usagi grinned as she put her arm around her friend's neck. "Well my dear friend, Ami, I know Piccolo. Need I say more?"  
  
"Yeah, Piccolo will be sure to make him go." Makoto walked backwards out of the room so she could face her friends while she spoke to them. "Remember when we went to the tournament before and he had to take us? Now THAT was interesting. And how he yelled at us when we called Mamoru a bully. Man, that was scary. We thought he was going to beat us up or something."  
  
Videl watched as the six youngsters left the room to find themselves some entertainment while they waited for the tournament to start. When she saw that they had fully left, she turned back to Goku and Gohan who were both acting like pigs at the moment. "I hope you BOTH are happy. You are acting on something that hasn't even been decided yet! Can't you just keep your big mouths shut!? There may be no reason to even act that way towards her! And Goku! You should be ashamed of yourself for what you did to her!"  
  
Goku frowned as he crossed his arms. He hated to be told how to act with his daughter. "And what was it that I did so horribly."  
  
"You told her not to worry about it!"  
  
"Well it isn't something that she needs to worry about. It's none of her concern until we have further reason to tell her."  
  
"You could have at least told her to her FACE instead of turning your back to her like that!"  
  
"Father, speak for yourself, I've made up my mind. It's my decision to make anyways."  
  
Goku turned to his son with a slight frown. "She's MY daughter. I think it's MY decision to make. You're only her brother." Goku turned to his wife. "What do you think, Chi-Chi?"  
  
"I'm with you, Goku. We need more convincing."  
  
"Yeah, dad. So am I."  
  
Goku smiled as he turned to his second son, Goten. "Try to knock some sense into your brother then." With that, he walked away from the group so he could have some time to think about his decision.  
  
Gohan frowned at his father as he walked away. "I don't care if he agrees with it or not. It's not right. If he goes along with Usagi, he's being just as selfish as her."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku walked out into the main room of the stadium, where he found his daughter and her friends looking at the bored to find out when they would be fighting. He sighed as he leaned against the wall. 'Videl was right. I just keep screwin up, don't I? But I'm still not convinced enough to tell her anything.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Usagi! Usagi! When do I fight?" Hotaru hoped up and down with excitement. She couldn't wait to be able to show her dad everything that she had learned from her friends.   
  
"Well, Hotaru, it looks like you're fighting first for you division, which is the very first fight of all. You should start getting ready soon, then."  
  
Hotaru was all of a sudden taken over with fear. "FIRST!? That means I can't watch any of the fights that go on to see what I'm supposed to do."  
  
Minako turned around with a friendly smile and looked down to Hotaru. "Don't worry. Just fight these guys like you would with us. Just remember not to fall for anything that they say."  
  
Once Makoto found when she would be fighting, she turned around to look at Hotaru's nervous face. "Yeah, Minako's right. And remember, there are only three ways to get kicked out of the tournament. If it's a total knockout, which we wont have to worry about, if you are beaten by your opponent twice, or if you fall out of the ring."  
  
Rei could see the nervousness in Hotaru's face diminishing. "Remember these rules and you'll be fine. But you also have to remember that you can't raise your fighting power at all. That's why we've been practicing with only our normal energy level." She looked around to all of the people who were passing by and smiled. "Man you guys! This is great! I've been to so many tournaments before but this is the first time that I've actually been able to PARTICIPATE in one."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Not too far from the girls, a group of seven were fast approaching them. The oldest of the group was Mamoru, who was now fifteen years old. He stopped when he saw the little kids. "Hey people, looks like we've found ourselves some entertainment."  
  
Michiru looked up to see the girls laughing and carrying on about who knows what. "Whoa, it's Monkey Girl. Are you sure we aren't making a mistake by entering?"  
  
Mamoru snorted. "Of course we aren't. We've gotten stronger in the past two years. We can take them on. They wont be THAT hard to beat." He let his eyes wonder down to the newest addition to the group. "Hey, looks like they've integrated themselves a new brat. Come on, let's go show that kid whose boss around her."  
  
Haruka smirked. "Yeah. She looks like a person who would be dumb enough to be hanging around Monkey Girl. Come on boys, let's go formally introduce you to them." Haruka pushed out in front of Mamoru and led the way to the girls, who they would soon be trying to harass.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Minako's attention was soon taken by the approaching of her most despised group. "Oh look at that. It's Mamoru and his followers."  
  
Usagi looked away from the bored that told what times they would be fighting and laid her eyes upon Mamoru's knew friends, which they had met two weeks earlier. "What do THEY want?"  
  
Haruka stopped just in front of Hotaru and sneered down at her. "Look at this little runt. I hope she doesn't think that she can fight. You've really caught yourself a dumb ass friend this time, kids. You can tell by looking at her that she's a loner."  
  
Hotaru stepped back from Haruka as she moved closer to Usagi. "Who are they? Why are they looking at me with such hate?"  
  
Rei grabbed Hotaru and pulled her to the side. "Leave her alone you FREAKS! What do you want?! No one asked you here! No one here talked to you first!" Rei looked over to Usagi, who seemed to be paying more attention to the newcomers from America than the argument that had broken out between the two groups.   
  
Usagi pushed past Michiru and Mamoru as she looked up to the faces of the Americans. "Americans sure do look funny, aside from sounding funny with their accents. I bet you have some pretty strange names too…don't you?"  
  
One of the boys, with white hair hanging down to the middle of his back, growled as he took the liberty of speaking to the girl. "Our names can't be as bad as Usagi. I mean, really. Listen to how that rolls off your tongue…Usagi."  
  
Another boy, with blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail at the bottom of his neck, stood to join his friend. "Yeah. It sounds like something that you would order in a big fancy restaurant. Usagi…I wonder if that IS something you can eat."   
  
Usagi glared at the two boys as the laughed, making the others join in with them. "At least I don't look funny."  
  
The blonde boy stopped laughing just in time to reply. "YOU don't look funny? Oh man that's just too good!" He stopped to laugh more. He could barely hold it in. "You look the funniest out all of them. I mean, look at you. You have a TAIL and you wear your hair up in the strangest style I've ever seen. Face it kid, you look like a complete dork."  
  
Michiru snickered. She couldn't let this great opportunity to pass. "She LOOKS like a dork? Try she IS a dork. Along with all of her friends." She and her friends laughed harder as they saw the pouting face of Usagi.  
  
Usagi crossed her arms as she turned away from the group. "I hope you guys can swallow your jokes since I'm going to beat you ALL in the tournament. I plan on going straight to beating Mr. Satan." With that, she motioned to her friends that it was time to go as she walked away.  
  
Hotaru gave the group one last glare as she turned her back to them and walked away. Michiru grabbed Haruka's hand as she pulled her to the side. She stared into her eyes, both in wonder and in concern. "That little one is strong. We may have some trouble with her later on."  
  
Haruka watched as Hotaru happily waddled away from their group. She frowned when she sensed her body for her power. "She's got the potential to become very strong. Feel that energy that her body is emitting. We mustn't let her become part of that group. She must be ours."  
  
Michiru nodded. "Right. We will prepare to take her under our way of thinking." Michiru evilly smiled as she continued to watch Hotaru skip away. She couldn't wait to finally get Usagi back for what she had done to Mamoru, she knew that Mamoru would appreciate it as well. "Little kids are so easy to trick."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Half hour Later~~  
  
Hotaru and all of her friends stood at the door that allowed them to peer out onto the stage, where things were just starting. Out on the stage stood a man with a microphone, who was introducing the contestants who would be fighting in the first fight.   
  
Hotaru poked her head slightly out the door to look for her father, who she spotted sitting in the front row with Mrs. Mizuno and Usagi's family. Seeing her father only made her more nervous for she didn't want to look like a fool in front of him. She gulped when she heard her name called over the intercom. "Looks like I'm up."  
  
Usagi kneeled down in front of Hotaru and looked into her wide violet eyes. "Don't get nervous on us, Hotaru. Just remember everything that you've been taught and you'll do fine. Don't get cocky, either. Make sure you don't underestimate your opponent and don't turn your back on him either."  
  
Hotaru nodded as she smiled. "Ok. I'll try my best." She turned around and took a deep breath. "Here I go." She took a deep breath and picked up her foot, placing it outside into the main arena. She looked up to her father and waved.  
  
Usagi turned to her friends with a grin. "I'm going to go watch the fight from a more fun place. Anyone wanna come?"   
  
Minako rolled her eyes with half wonder. "Usagi, you go and knock yourself out. We're going stay here. This is a perfectly good place to watch. I don't like watching from the stands anyways."  
  
Usagi shrugged as she turned around. "Ok. Your loss."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Professor Tomoe could have gone nuts with pride right there and then as he waved back down to her. But, because he didn't want to embarrass her, he stayed calm. "I can't wait to see how much she's learned."  
  
Mrs. Mizuno let her eyes travel with the child as she made her way to the ring. "Well she must be pretty good if she's entering the intermediate division."  
  
"Yeah. That's true." He smiled brighter as she took her first step onto the fighting platform. 'She's finally found something that makes her happy.'   
  
~*~*~  
  
Once she was in the middle of the ring, Hotaru looked back to the walkway, where she had just come from, to see another young girl, about Usagi's age, walking towards the ring. 'At least she isn't any older than the girls. That's a relief.'  
  
The girl walked to the ring held high. She smirked when she and Hotaru made eye contact. 'That's the girl that was hanging out with Usagi earlier.' She stepped up to the ring and continued to smirk down at the child in purple, which only caused her nervousness to sky rocket.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei squinted to get a better look at the girl who stood on the fighting platform with Hotaru. "Wait a minute, isn't that that Emiko girl from school?"  
  
With great curiosity, Minako pushed Rei aside to look upon the girl. "I think it is. I thought she was going to join in the advanced division, though."  
  
Rei giggled as she walked to the other side of the door and looked out. "Yeah, that's what she told me. Maybe she chickened out after I beat her with my finger. Hotaru should have an easy time with this girl. She's just a bunch of talk."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The announcer walked off the fighting platform and turned to the girls. "Ladies and gentlemen, Hotaru and Emiko!" The crowd went wild in anticipation of the fight as he turned to go to the judges desk.  
  
Emiko continued to smirk at Hotaru as she walked towards her. "Aren't you a little young to be an intermediate fighter? I think that you meant to sign up for the beginners division."  
  
Hotaru crouched into a fighting position with her hands in front of her, ready to block anything that Emiko may have had for her. "I am a beginner, but I've been taught by one of the best."  
  
Emiko stopped walking towards the child as her smirk only strengthened. "Yeah right. Let's test out your skills, then." With that, she quickly balled her hands into two tight fists as she jabbed at Hotaru.  
  
At the first sign of movement, Hotaru jumped to the side, causing Emiko to hit dead air. Before Emiko got a chance to recover from her failed punch, Hotaru promptly ran to her and lifted her leg to kick her in the thigh. "You shouldn't tell people when you're going to attack. It's no fun that way." Hotaru jumped away from Emiko to give her a chance to recuperate from that kick.   
  
Emiko grabbed her thigh and stumbled backwards, but caught composure before she fell. "I didn't tell you anything, BRAT!" With frustration, she jumped at Hotaru with her foot heading right for the child's head.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Professor Tomoe looked away just before Hotaru got hit in the face. "My god! She finds THIS fun?" He didn't want to watch his only child get beaten up.   
  
Mrs. Mizuno, knowing full well what Hotaru's father was going through for she felt the same way about Ami fighting, placed her hand on the man's shoulder. "Don't worry, Hotaru dodged it. She's been trained well."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru frowned as she landed near the edge of the platform. "Come on. This is boring. I can get better entertainment sparring with Usagi."  
  
Emiko grunted as she threw another punch at Hotaru, who dodged it, effortlessly. "Then go fight with the BRAT!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru laughed as he watched the older fighter struggle to keep up with Hotaru. "That older one is horrible. She should have gone into the beginners division. She's giving that little pipsqueak false hope of winning later matches."  
  
Michiru eyed Mamoru with annoyance. "Mamoru, that kid has a good potential and she's just young enough to fall into out grasps. All we need to do is get some time alone with her. Can you arrange that?"  
  
Mamoru grinned, evilly, as he turned to Michiru. He knew exactly what she had in mind. "I can indeed. Though, not today. Things like this take time to plan out, correctly." He looked back down to the youngster, who had yet to attack Emiko anymore than just once. "She also needs to learn a thing or two about finishing off boring opponents."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru jumped into the air when Emiko came running at her with full force. "Do something besides JUST attacking head on!"   
  
Emiko stopped herself short as she furiously turned to face Hotaru. "You annoying little brat! How dare you try and show me up!" She tried to jump kick Hotaru, but as always, Hotaru dodged.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi giggled from afar as she watched the fight from the top of the roof of the open arena with her brother, Goten. "That girl is pathetic. Can you believe that she actually thought that she was going to be good enough to fight in the advanced division."  
  
Goten chuckled. "You've gotta be kidding me. Man, this is horrible. Forget that kid, I feel sorry for Hotaru. This is an insult to her fighting ability. Of course, when Trunks and I entered the tournament, right before Buu came to earth, most of the kids weren't worth fighting."  
  
"Yeah but still. I know that there's GOTTA be at least one person in this division worth fighting."  
  
Goten nodded. "There is. I was watching some of the other kids warm up before everything started. They're pretty good. Hotaru may have a hard time defeating everyone, but that's the fun of it."  
  
"I just can't wait to see the look on Mr. Satan's face when me AND Hotaru beat him in front of everyone."  
  
Goten became silent as he looked down to his little sister. "Uh…Usagi, maybe you should go easy on the guy. I mean…" He stopped when he got a quick glare from her.   
  
"Hey! He's the whole reason why I entered this thing. I'm not going to go easy on him just because he's a retard. And besides, you said that Trunks threw him into a wall. Am I wrong?"  
  
Goten sighed as he had been defeated by his sister. "That's right. He was thrown into a wall. But he said that he threw the fight. So even if you do beat him, he's going to win. But, you have to remember that he's just a wimpy human who can't even fight like us. So that's why you should go easy on him." 'Forget it. I'm not going along with Satan, but it's not my decision.'  
  
Usagi smiled as she looked back down to the fight. "Oh but of course. I wouldn't want to hurt him TOO bad."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru frowned with annoyance as she looked upon her supposed opponent. "You don't know how to fight, do you?"  
  
Emiko jumped away from Hotaru. "Of course I do! It's you who doesn't know how to fight! That's why you keep running away from me. You wont attack me because you know that I'll beat you and then…"  
  
Hotaru's fist went flying into Emiko's stomach, causing her to fly backwards through. Emiko fell on to the ground just before she landed outside the platform. Hotaru walked to the fallen fighter and looked down at her with pity. "And I thought I was going to have a challenge. It looks like I'm going to have to wait for the next round. Oh well, I guess that's ok. Better luck next time."  
  
Emiko grabbed her stomach as she tried to sit up, but every time she moved the slightest bit, a sharp gush of pain rushed through her body. "Damn you!"  
  
Hotaru grinned as she turned to look back at her friends, who watched from the door. "Who says I don't know how to fight?"  
  
(There it is, the tournament, well at least part of it anyways. What did you think? See ya later )  



	82. Part 12

Mr. Satan arrogantly walked around the main hall of the arena, giving the young participants his autograph. He acted as if he was the main event of the whole show, though everyone pretty much went along with it. Even after all these years the people of the world still saw him as their savior. It was sickening, well, it was sickening to begin with even.   
  
He happily looked up to the sky as he was turning from a fan, freezing in his place when he saw Usagi and her brother jumping down from the fifty foot roof that enclosed the room where the fighters were to be getting ready. "What are they DOING!?" He darted his attention in all directions to make sure that no one had seen what the two siblings had done. They were just lucky that no one seemed to be too concerned with anything but their own business.  
  
Mr. Satan frowned as he angrily began to walk towards the duo. "What were you two doing up there?! That's fifty feet high with NO stairs leading up there!"  
  
Goten took the liberty of answering for the both of them. He knew that Satan wasn't too happy with Usagi…ever. "Don't worry. We don't need stairs, remember? We can fly."  
  
Mr. Satan began to freak out as he pushed the two Saiyans into a low traffic corner. "I know you can fly! THAT'S the POINT! Some one may have seen you! It's a little unnatural that you climbed up fifty feet just to watch a fight! And then when you came down, you BOTH landed on your feet! DON'T do it again!"  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes as she listened to the man's rambling. "Why do you care? In a few hours me and Hotaru will beat you good." Usagi grinned as she placed her hand on Mr. Satan's shoulder. "Don't worry, you wont have to cover your secret with lies anymore. You can get yourself out in the open. Believe me, when you tell the truth, you'll feel better about this whole thing…trust me."  
  
Mr. Satan pulled away from the child as he smirked down at her. "We'll see about that."  
  
"What you think you can bea…"  
  
"USAGI!" Hotaru emerged, running, from the fighter's building and sensed for Usagi's energy, which she found just by the door. She quickly slowed herself down, nearly knocking another person down, and turned back around to see Usagi with Goten and Mr. Satan. "USAGI!" Once she was completely turned around, she picked up the pace again and ran straight for Usagi to tell her of her fight.  
  
Usagi smiled when she saw Hotaru. "Hotaru! Great fight!" Hotaru tried to stop herself before she hit Mr. Satan, but her feet slipped in some soda that had been spilled on the floor and went flying straight into the liar, causing him to fall to his face and let Hotaru use him as a pillow. "Oops."  
  
Usagi laughed as hard as she could when she saw Mr. Satan grab his head. "Oh man! That was classic. You should have seen the look on your face when Hotaru ran into you."  
  
Hotaru let on a slight smile when she realized that she wasn't going to be yelled at for hitting him. She quickly rolled off him to let him up before he got too terribly angry. She looked up to Goten, who also seemed to find the situation funny, which only caused her to laugh.   
  
Mr. Satan jumped to his feet as fast as he could to risk any further embarrassment. "Hey you kids! Don't laugh at me!" He turned around and frowned at Hotaru. "Why don't you watch where you're going!?"  
  
Hotaru only continued to laugh along with Usagi. Usagi poked Mr. Satan on the back of his shoulder to get his attention. "Come on Mr. Satan. Loosen up. Have some fun…live a little."  
  
"That's easier said than done. But your time will come. And then we'll see how much loosening up you will have to do." With that, he threw his shoulders back and conceitedly walked away as if he had no care in the world. At times, he actually thought himself to be the world's TRUE hero.  
  
Hotaru shrugged of her curiosity for the man and ran to Usagi with a bright smile. "Usagi! I won! I won!" She calmed down a bit. "But only because my opponent wasn't very good. She didn't do anything that you taught me. Like she just went at me without knowing if I was capable of dodging or anything. I hope they all aren't THAT easy."  
  
"When I was fighting in these tournaments they were. My only competition was Trunks. Though, now that I'm older, my competition is pretty much our friends still. I just moved up to the adult division." Goten grabbed his sister and her friend by the hand as he began to lead them to the stands. "Come on. Let's go let Hotaru rave about her victory to her dad."  
  
Hotaru walked ahead of Usagi as she tugged on Goten's arm. "Come on! Let's go faster!"   
  
Goten chuckled as he sped up the pace. "She sure reminds me of someone." He accusingly looked down to his sister, who only responded with an innocent smile. "Are you sure you're only training her in the art of fighting and not your personality as well?"  
  
"Nope! I'm not!" Usagi looked around the area as she walked with her friend and brother to the spectator's stand. "Where are the others, Hotaru?"  
  
Hotaru shrugged as she continued to pull on Goten's arm. "I don't know. They were with me when I came back from the fight. Then they were gone. They're probably watching the next fight already." Hotaru pulled away from Goten's grip when they came to the top of the stands. "Look! There they are in front!"  
  
Usagi, too, pulled from her brother and joined Hotaru as she ran down the stairs. "Look, the others ARE still down there watching the fight from the door."  
  
"Can we stay up here until my next fight?"  
  
Usagi nodded as she directed Hotaru to move into the stands. "Sure."  
  
Hotaru ran to her father and hugged him from behind. "Daddy! What did you think?!"   
  
Professor Tomoe smiled as he glanced back at his daughter. "What can I say? You were great. When's your next fight?"  
  
"I think it's a couple fights after this one." She looked down to the fight that was going on. Currently, Emiko was fighting to stay in the tournament.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Two and a half hours Later~~  
  
It had been one hour since Hotaru's first fight and she had fought four times since then. She had barely beaten her third opponent by hitting him out of the ring and had actually lost her fifth fight. Her opponents were proving to be quite formidable, which was what Hotaru found herself wanting more of. She didn't want things to be easy. She wanted a challenge to make her stronger. Though, she didn't win her first through third battles because she was stronger than them. Though, that did play an important part in her winning for her hits were received harder, but, that's not why she won. She won because she had better skill than her opponents. Though, her fifth opponent seemed to know more what she was doing than Hotaru, but that was to be expected. Hotaru hadn't even expected to get as far as she had.  
  
Now, she was getting herself prepared for her next battle, even though she had only lost a few moments ago. This next fight would determine whether she would be staying in, or if she would be leaving. If she won this fight, she would only have one more fight to do and then she would leave with either first, or second place, both very high honors.  
  
Hotaru worriedly looked over to Usagi as the announcer was preparing for the next fight. "Usagi I'm scared. What if I loose again?"  
  
Usagi turned to the concerned little girl. "Don't worry, Hotaru. You're going to do great, just like you have been for this whole tournament. You're going to win."  
  
"How do you know? I'm TIRED."  
  
Usagi giggled as she remembered back to when she had been worn out at the tournament. She had wanted nothing more than to sit out and rest, but she wasn't able to. She had to keep on fighting. "I know that you're going to win because I said so, and whatever I say, goes. You just keep your motivation in your head."  
  
"What's my motivation?"  
  
"There are two things to motivate you to do win. One, you want to beat Satan up. This is broadcasted so when you win, you will show everyone of your classmates that you aren't a wimp. You'll show them that you're one tough cookie. Now get out there and do your best. We're rooting for you."  
  
Hotaru nodded with a smile as she turned around. "I'll show them all that I'm not weak!" With that, she walked out to the fighting platform with her head held high with pride.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Meanwhile~~  
  
Gohan snuck around the arena, quietly. He didn't want anyone to know that he had left. He definitely didn't want anyone to know WHY he had snuck away from the family, either. That would have been disastrous. He had his power level lowered as far down as he could get it to risk being caught, by his wife especially.  
  
He sensed out for the one person he was searching for. He felt the energy reading near the front gate of the stadium. He hesitated to go any further to make the deal. He wasn't sure it was the right way to solve the problem. He though once more about Mr. Satan, which jolted his hesitation out of place. He knew what he had to do.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back at the Fight~~  
  
Hotaru was occupied with a rather tough opponent back at the fighting arena. She was fighting a seventeen year old male who seemed to have much more strength than her. Though, she was smaller and more mobile while he was slow and unable to keep up with her speed, which made the fight a little bit easier. But his attacks were very accurate and Hotaru took a terrible beating for it.   
  
Now the two fighters stood face to face, both panting for breath from the previous fights that they had taken part in. They took this bubble in their fighting as a small break to replenish their energy reserves, though it would be much harder for Hotaru since she was nearly beaten as much as she could be. Her body was already beginning to bruise all over. Her face was covered with cuts from her opponents beating her in the face. But she wouldn't give up. None of her friends would give up so she wouldn't give up. She wanted to make her father, as well as her friends proud of her.  
  
Without a single word from either fighter, they both began to move again as if they knew it was time to end their break. Hotaru followed the big guy's movements very carefully and placed her body into a fighting stance. She watched him for any sudden movements. She couldn't afford to take any more hits from him. She was afraid that if she did, she would be done for. Her energy was already depleting without the help of any assaults. She was relieved when she had heard that there would be a fight in between the last and final fight to determine who she would be fighting up against, if she got that far.  
  
The big guy, who looked very intimidating, smirked down at Hotaru. "You look pretty silly with all those fancy movie moves, kid."  
  
Hotaru jumped to the side as the guy came closer. "They aren't movie moves. This is what REAL fighters fight like."   
  
The boy just let out a 'humph' out of annoyance and jumped up and forward towards Hotaru. "They shouldn't let little girls fight in these things. Girls need to be in the kitchen, where they belong."   
  
Hotaru acted fast, faster than the older fighter could follow. She had expected him to try something like that. He may have been strong, he may have known a lot about fighting, but he sure didn't know HOW to use that knowledge. Just before his fist hit the top of her head, she ducked to the ground, barely missing the hit. "A little too close for my liking."   
  
The older fighter fly over the crouched Hotaru and landed with his fist into the ground. He quickly bounced back to his feet and turned to Hotaru with a fist full of blood. "Not bad, kid."   
  
Hotaru grinned as she jumped into the air and swung her leg into the boy's face. She gracefully landed back on the ground just as the boy crashed into the concrete. 'Too slow.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Professor Tomoe couldn't believe he effort his daughter was putting into this fight. Though, he was happy that she was enjoying herself and had finally found something that she was good at. Even if he didn't care too much for the wounds that came along with the fighting. 'Her mother was right…'  
  
~*~*~  
  
The teen pushed himself off the ground and once again stood in front of Hotaru with a bloody lip. 'Damn that kid is strong. No wonder why a pipsqueak like her made it this far.' He jumped forward at Hotaru with his hands in front of him and open. Before Hotaru had a chance to react, he had his hands gripped around her tiny arms and pulled her close to him. "Don't get cocky now, kid." With that, he spun her around and threw her forward, she landed with her head hanging over the edge of the platform.   
  
Hotaru turned her head to look at the soft turf below and gasped. If she didn't do something fast, she would loose the whole tournament. She lifted her head to see her opponent running to her. 'Heh…' He looked as if he were going to try the same thing on her.  
  
Just as he was about to run into her, he began to jump into the air. But before he got a chance to go very far, Hotaru lifted her hands up and grabbed the wrists of the boy. Immediately, he began to fall backwards, meaning, over the edge. Hotaru helped with that though, as she brought her hands over her head as well as sticking her foot into his stomach to push him even more.  
  
The big guy landed with a large thud and the bell was rang to claim Hotaru as the victor of the fight. Hotaru jumped to her feet with a smile. She rubbed her wrists from the strain that had just been placed on them. 'I actually won?! Cool! Now I can compete for the championship of my division!' She began walking forward, but found herself on the ground with her arm wrapped around her leg. "I guess he took more out of me than I thought."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back with Gohan~~  
  
Gohan hastily approached his destination, who still stood within the gates. Him and his friends. He wished that he didn't resort to this particular method, but he didn't think that his father would go along with what he wanted. It wasn't that he ONLY wanted it, it was what was right and they both knew it. But Usagi being his daughter only made the situation tougher on his decision.   
  
"Mamoru!" He called out once he saw him and his friends in full view.   
  
Mamoru turned around, annoyed. He knew that voice. He would know the voice of any Son in a heartbeat. Especially if it were Goku, Gohan, or Goten. He resented them for always trying to protect Usagi. "What is it old man?"  
  
Gohan tried to keep from frowning. He wanted Mamoru to go along with his proposition and if he were going to get him to agree with anything, he would have to be on the boy's good side. Though, he hated to be called an old man as he didn't feel or look like one. "I need to talk to you. All of you, actually."  
  
Mamoru's expression lightened up when he heard the sincerity and kindness in Gohan's voice. "Is that a fact? Now tell me, Gohan, what could you possibly have to say to us except leave your damned sister alone?"  
  
"Please, Mamoru. I'm trying to hold an adult conversation with you. Don't make this any harder than it already is going to be." Gohan couldn't help but frown at that. Though he felt somewhat angry with the reason why Usagi had come to the tournament in the first place, he still loved her and didn't want Mamoru going around, bashing her.   
  
Mamoru grinned as he looked into Gohan's eyes. He knew that there was something playing on the man's mind. He also knew that he was going to ask him a favor. "So tell me, Gohan. What did you want from us? If it's to loose to your kid sister, don't even think about it. We've got our eyes set on having our names put in the hall of fame. Well, actually, just Haruka, Michiru and I. These guys here are just in to watch, though they're going to be entering in the next tournament so tell Usagi to watch herself."  
  
Gohan just shook his head. "I don't want you to loose to Usagi. Actually, I want her to loose to you."  
  
Mamoru quirked his eyebrow in interest. "Oh really? And tell me, why would and older protective brother such as yourself want his kid sister, like Usagi, to loose to an ass like me? Isn't that how you like to refer to me? Or better put in your words, a pain in the ass."  
  
Gohan made a tight fist as he tried to control his anger. "Look here, Mamoru! This isn't funny! Stop changing the subject."  
  
Mamoru smirked. He was enjoying seeing Gohan suffer all too much. "I didn't. I asked you a question. Why do you want her to loose?"  
  
"That's none of your concern. Now what is, is this little bit of information that can help you beat her. Listen up because I know that you are going to be going up against her at least once, unless you get your asses kicked by one of the other girls, but here it is. I've been sparring with Usagi ever since she first started out so I know her fighting style as well as her weaknesses. Haruka, Michiru, Mamoru, you well know that her tail is he biggest weakness. But, there is a dilemma, she hides her tail when she's fighting so it wont be grabbed. So here's how you're going to get it. I've noticed that she swings left when she does her roundhouse kicks, leaving her tail wide open. If you could somehow dodge her attack and grab her tail she'll be defenseless."  
  
Haruka frowned as she crossed her arms. "You know what, I don't even know why we're even listening to this guy. He's her brother who NEVER fails to stand up for her. WHY in the world would he want her to loose to "scum" like us I ask you? This is a trick. they've planned this out. This is just a way to make sure that she wins."  
  
Gohan glared at Haruka as he grabbed her by the front of her Gi. "Now listen here you little shit! I don't have time to deal with this! My sister wouldn't EVER have to cheat against the likes of you to win. You're just child's play to her. Even that little kid, Hotaru, gives her a better challenge than you would ever dream of." He released Haruka and pushed her away from him. "Now, do we have a deal or what? This is for real, I don't want her to win this tournament."  
  
Michiru couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for Usagi. Here she was, trying her hardest to win and her older brother was trying to ensure her lose. "What has to world come to when a girl can't even count on her older brother?"  
  
Haruka punched Michiru in the stomach. "Don't be going soft on us here, Michiru. That kid has it coming. This is for our fifth and sixth grade years. She humiliated us in front of the whole school. Now we humiliate her in front of her family."  
  
Michiru doubled over in pain as she grabbed her stomach. 'I'm not going soft you idiot. I just don't think it's right for her brother to go behind her back like this.' "Fine! Gohan, why are you telling us this?"  
  
"I'm doing it to protect her me." No one said a single word for they weren't exactly sure what he meant by that. "You heard me. Now DON'T tell her that I set this up. If you do, it will be each and every one of your hides. Even the ones who DON'T participate. I don't care anymore." He particularly glared back the Americans. "Make sure your friends don't spill, unless you want to deal with me, that is."   
  
Mamoru patted Gohan on the shoulder. "You're a good man, Gohan. My respect for you has grown." He smirked as he watched Gohan walk away. "We've got him in a very interesting position."  
  
Haruka grinned as she turned to her friend. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"  
  
Mamoru nodded. "Oh yeah. We can use this to our advantage. Blackmail."  
  
For the first time in her life, Michiru disagreed with what her friends were planning. The one thing that she didn't exactly like doing was getting the middle of a family quarrel, though, she wouldn't dare tell her friends in fear that they would shun her and try to jump her.   
  
~*~*~  
  
While the next to last fight was going on for the intermediate division, Professor Tomoe went down to the fighters' preparation room, where he found his daughter laughing with her friends. He smiled as he walked forward to congratulate her. "Hotaru…"  
  
Hotaru stopped laughing as she turned to her father. "Daddy! I got into the FINAL fight for my division! That means I got either second or FIRST place! Isn't that great?" She didn't even let her poor father get in a word before she starting in again. "I think it's wonderful! I mean, who would have thought that I, of all people," would have gotten to the LAST fight?" She quite her jabbering and ran to her father.   
  
"That's great Hotaru."  
  
Hotaru looked up at her father as she felt his hands picking her up. "Look…" She pointed to a cut under her eye. "I got a boo boo and guess what…it doesn't hurt! I got it when I threw that guy over me."  
  
The Professor hugged his daughter as he eyed her wound. "Well as long as you're having fun."  
  
Hotaru's mood soon became grim with tears. "I wonder what mommy would think? She knew that I was a fighter. She told me so herself. That's why I'm able to fight good, isn't it daddy? Cause us fighters love to fight."  
  
Tomoe sighed as he set his daughter down. "Yes, Hotaru…" He hadn't heard her speak of THAT since she was about four years old.  
  
Hotaru became confused at her father's sudden sadness. "What's wrong? Did I say something wrong."  
  
Tomoe shook his head. "No, I'm fine. I'm just remembering your mother." He rubbed his hand on her back as he led her back to her friends, who were gossiping about recent happenings at their school. "I'm going to watch the last fight from down here, if that's all right with you, fire fly."  
  
Hotaru took her father to the doorway that led out into the fighting area. "You're going to watch from down here?! Cool! You'll love it. You get to see a lot more down here." She turned her head when she sensed the slightly raised power level of Gohan walk into the building. "Gohan!" She looked up to her father. "Look, daddy! That's Gohan's older brother Gohan."  
  
Gohan faked a smile as he indistinctly waved to the young child. He wasn't too happy with himself for what he just did and didn't feel like talking to anyone at the moment. But he knew that since Hotaru had called out to him that his sister would come over and demand to know what was wrong. "Hey, Hotaru." He looked up the man who stood with the excited child. "Hi, I'm Gohan."  
  
Professor Tomoe returned the smile that Gohan gave. "Hello, Gohan. I'm Professor Tomoe, Hotaru's father. It's nice to meet you. Usagi has told me a lot about you. She really looks up to you."  
  
Gohan dropped his head in shame. 'She wont look up to me for long after what I just did. Though, she wont ever find out if I can help it.' "Yeah…" He couldn't stand to stay there any longer. He wouldn't be able to look Usagi or any of her friends in the eye again and not feel guilty. But then he thought about the reason why he had done it. Not only was it to protect Usagi, but Mr. Satan as well. "Good luck out there, Hotaru."   
  
That's when it hit him. Hotaru would also be going up against Mr. Satan. She would be able to beat him in a heart beat. He shot his head back up and looked down to the laughing girl and her friends. 'Whoa crap. I think I have somewhat of a problem now.'  
  
"Hey traitor." Goten walked into the room with anger written all over his face. He glared at his brother as he shook his head in shame.   
  
Gohan turned around, stunned at what his brother had just called him. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"   
  
Usagi turned her head up at the sound of her brother cursing. "Language people! Language! I don't want to hear that kind of stuff coming from you."  
  
Goten chuckled down at his sister. "Dad sure did teach her well. Though, he never took the time out to stop himself from cursing in front of us."  
  
Gohan frowned as he punched his little brother in the arm. "Don't change the da…subject. What was that supposed to mean? Why are you calling me a traitor?" 'Crap. I thought that he was still in the stands.'  
  
"I saw you talking with Mamoru and the others. I know I didn't see them getting mad, so you couldn't have been yelling at them for anything. What was it? What were you talking to them about? I already think I know what it was, but I want to hear it come from your mouth."  
  
Gohan turned around to see if his sister was still listening. Goten was talking loud enough for her to hear, even if she was on the other side of a loud room. Her hearing could still pick up low frequencies. "It's not any of your business. Don't worry about it."  
  
Goten grabbed his brother by the arm and pulled him close enough to his face to where he wouldn't have to talk very loud. "It IS my business. Now spill."  
  
Gohan ripped himself away from his brother. "Don't do this, Goten. It's not that big of a deal. But it's also not any of your business. Just don't worry about it." He stepped to the side and proceeded to walk away from Goten. "And by the way, not a single word to anyone, especially Usagi. I hope I can at least trust you to do that for me."  
  
Goten scowled forward as his brother left. He didn't even want to watch him leave. He couldn't believe what Gohan was doing. Never in his life had he ever seen his brother acting in such an awful manner. 'To think, I used to look up to him. What was I thinking? I always thought that he had a straight head on his shoulders. I guess not. But I don't think he's doing it to be mean. But I'm NOT going to keep something like this from Usagi.' "Usagi!"  
  
Usagi once again tore herself from her friends and turned to her brother, this time with more annoyance. "What?"  
  
Goten motioned for her to come to him, which she did. He looked down into her light blue eyes that sparkled in the light shining in from the door behind him. "I have some bad news. I think Mamoru got some information from…" 'Maybe I shouldn't tell who…' "Somewhere. Information about your fighting style or a way to beat you. I'm not sure what it was but I overheard them talking about a sure-fire way of beating you so you may want to watch yourself extra carefully."  
  
"Who could have told?"  
  
Goten shrugged, though he knew. He didn't want her to become disgruntled with Gohan. That would have been hard on both of them. "I have no idea. But that isn't the important thing. What is, is keeping you informed, which I have done."  
  
"Are you gonna tell daddy and mom?"  
  
Goten shook his head. "What can they do?" 'Besides giving Gohan a giant lecture, nothing. He isn't under their control anymore. Besides, their leaning towards going along with Mr. Satan anyways. Why tell the traitors anything.' "You just worry about yourself and giving Hotaru over there good advice for her next fight."  
  
Usagi smiled. "You got it."   
  
( Wow, this got out late, but that's ok. At least it got out, right? Anyways, a little note from me. I'm going to do this tournament in fast time, meaning that I'm going to be skipping a lot of time, as I already did with Hotaru's fight. There is a reason for this. It's because if I did all the fights LONG like I should, this chapter would span out FOREVER. Anyways, so what do you think? I guess I should be going. Ja ne! )  



	83. Part 13

Hotaru confidently stood in the middle of the ring as she faced her last and final opponent. She couldn't wait to see if she would win or loose the fight, though, she was still very tired from her last fights. She hoped that she would even be capable of doing the job right, but, her friends and father had confidence in her, and she would as well.  
  
Once she heard the bell ring to begin the fight, she crouched into her fighting position. Hopefully for the last time. She wouldn't even have to use strategy to beat Mr. Satan. It was a one punch and he's out sort of thing with him. He wouldn't be too hard to beat.  
  
She looked into the face of her opponent, a blonde girl not even a year older than her. 'That's a girl from my school, I think.' She grinned as she stepped forward.   
  
The girl followed Hotaru's movements and took a step forward, as well. She had been watching Hotaru throughout the whole tournament and had noticed that Hotaru would be a hard enemy to beat. Though, she had also learned to not rush into things. That Hotaru seemed to wait for others' movements before she would do anything. "Your move."  
  
Hotaru blinked in surprise. 'Looks like she's not going to rush things.' "We're not playing chess. You don't have to wait for me to move."  
  
The girl frowned at Hotaru's cheeky statement. "Oh, you want to mess with me now, do you? I have to admit something, I'm not your average fighter." With that, the girl pushed herself forward to Hotaru at full speed.  
  
Hotaru wasn't in the least bit phased by the girl's speed. She had seen more, but, she didn't want the girl to know her full potential. So, she just stood there but ready to do anything if needed.   
  
Right before the girl rammed into Hotaru, she jumped to the side and kicked at Hotaru. Hotaru quickly performed a back flip to avoid being hit, only to be met with a pounding fist in her face as she was standing up. "Heh!"   
  
Hotaru didn't take too much of a hit from that for the girl didn't really hit hard enough for her to be phased by it. She hastily recovered from the punch to retaliate with one of her own to the girl's chest, causing her to fly backwards. Hotaru gasped when she realized that she had hit her too hard, thus, the girl was about to fly over the edge. "I'm not going to win because she fell out of the ring!" She burst out towards her opponent at full speed and caught her by the leg just before she flew over the side. "Gotcha!"   
  
The blonde looked up to Hotaru with hateful eyes. "Don't think that because you kept me from falling that I'm going to let you win!" She jumped to her feet and kicked Hotaru in the stomach and punched her back with a double fist when she bent over with pain.  
  
Hotaru brought her eyes to look upon her opponent and smiled. 'Now this is what I call a fight.' "I don't want you to let me win." With that, she dropped herself to the ground, letting herself to appear to be in pain, but there was no real truth to that.  
  
"Oh come on. I didn't hit you THAT hard."   
  
"I know." Hotaru reached out and grabbed her opponent's legs. With one quick tug, the girl fell flat on her back with a loud smack that was echoed throughout the whole arena. Hotaru promptly scrambled to her feet and stood over the blonde.  
  
The girl angrily stood to her feet and stared directly into Hotaru's eyes. "Enough of this child's play." She threw a punch at Hotaru, which was easily blocked. She threw her other fist at Hotaru, which was caught in her other hand. "You're good…but not good enough." She lifted her leg and kicked Hotaru in her leg, causing her legs to give way and let her fall to the ground. "You need to get some more training." She pulled her fists out of Hotaru's hands and pulled back for another assault.  
  
Hotaru rolled to the side when she saw a fist coming right at her. She looked over just in time to see it smash into the concrete, making some of it crumble. 'That would have hurt.' She pushed herself off the ground to once again find herself facing her opponent. Without saying a single word, she jumped at her and began throwing a series of punches and kicks. Most of them didn't make it for she was having to dodge and block attacks coming from her opponent.   
  
~*~*~  
  
From the fighter's building, the Professor actually found himself enjoying the fight that was taking place. Though, he still didn't like watching his daughter get beaten up. But, he did enjoy watching her beat up the other kid, not that he would encourage it outside of the tournaments. "Girls, tell me, do you always get this rough when you're training with her?"  
  
"Of course." Makoto replied.  
  
"Always." Ami turned to the professor. "We find that it's the only way to train effectively, but, we only do it if we know that we are up to it."  
  
Usagi turned to her friend. "And don't forget it's just plain fun. But of course, we didn't start doing this with her until we knew that she was ready for it." She turned back to the fight just in time to see Hotaru deliver a s punch right to her opponent's face. "Now that's what I'm talking about!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru jumped back as she saw her opponent fall back to the ground. 'cool.'   
  
The girl quickly bounced back to her feet, only slower than usual. She was beginning to wear out from Hotaru's continues rough attacks. She smirked as she rubbed some blood away from her lip. "Not bad." She jumped out at Hotaru.  
  
Hotaru mimicked her competitor's movements and met her halfway. Both girls locked hands in the middle of the ring and glared into each other's eyes. Both pushed against each other with their greatest strength. Hotaru was lucky that she had been training with her gravity or else she wouldn't have been able to hold up any longer against the girl.  
  
She could sense that the girl was nearly out of energy. It wouldn't be too long before she was done for. Hotaru pushed against the girl's force as hard as she could. The other girl did the same. It wasn't long before both fighter's were crying out with pain for their arms ached with great pain.  
  
The girl was the first to give into as she dropped to her knees. She was ashamed of herself. Ashamed to have been the first brought to her knees when she knew that she was the better fighter. Hotaru pulled away. She didn't want to win by way of making her challenger give up, either.   
  
Her foe didn't exactly take too kindly to Hotaru's sympathy, though. Letting her obvious frustration show, the girl lifted her fist to once again swipe at Hotaru.  
  
Hotaru jumped back and stopped the girl's fist from hitting her by grabbing it. Without hesitation, she began to twist it around her competitor's back, causing her to cry out in even more pain. Hotaru pulled her up to her knees and continued to hold her hand behind her back.  
  
At that point, the girl had had enough. With her free hand, she punched backwards. Hotaru let go of the girl's hand and barely missed being hit as she jumped over her and kicked her back down to her back.  
  
The girl was dizzy and out of energy at that point. She frowned as she jumped up for one last attack. She looked at Hotaru with hate and disgust. "So the rumors about you are true. You're just a monster. I knew you were that kid from school."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
The girl didn't respond. Instead, she just ran for Hotaru with her hands out and ready to grab anything that came in her way. Within seconds of a collision, Hotaru ducked. The girl couldn't exactly stop at the point she was at, either. She ran into Hotaru, but neither of them fell. The girl found herself being slowly raised to the ground. She looked down and saw that she was on Hotaru's back, who seemed to be flipping her over. 'Oh crap…'  
  
Hotaru stood straight once again. She felt her competitor slip off her back and heard her smack, hard, against he ground with a loud thump. She turned herself around, ready for any other attack that she could have needed to dodge. But, to her surprise, the girl was still lying on the ground, barely able to keep her eyes open. "Hello…? Are you ok?" She bent over to look into her eyes.   
  
The announcer slowly walked back to the platform where the last fight of the intermediate division had taken place. "Ladies and Gentlemen," He walked to Hotaru and grabbed her hand. "The intermediate division winner…Tomoe Hotaru!"   
  
A million thoughts were running through the head of Hotaru at that moment. She couldn't believe that she had just won the whole tournament of her division. She had never expected to, at all. Now that it happened, she couldn't have been happier.   
  
She looked around the stands at the people who were going wild at her victory. They were cheering for her, the winner. Once the initial shock had worn off, though she was still shocked, she smiled and jumped for joy as her whole body was rushing with adrenalin. "WOW! I WON?!"  
  
The announcer looked down to Hotaru, who still wasn't quite able to grasp the facts. "Yes, Hotaru. You have won. Your name will go up in the hall of fame, or hall of winners as it's called. You will have the first name up there for the intermediate winners. After the next division, we will be holding our fights between each division winner and Mr. Satan. I know you all will be looking forward to it."  
  
Hotaru couldn't bring herself to calm down as she looked over to the fighters' building at her father, who was smiling back at her. Without thinking, she began to walk to him, but, was stopped by the groaning of her opponent. She sympathetically looked down at her and smiled. "Good fight." She extended her hand to the girl.  
  
She gladly excepted Hotaru's kindness and allowed herself to be helped up. "Thanks. You're not as bad as everyone says you are."   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Meanwhile~~  
  
Goten searched the premises for his brother. He wouldn't just let him get away with telling Mamoru secrets about their sister. That was just not something that family members were supposed to do to each other. "Gohan where are you!?" He furiously looked around the area. "I know you're here somewhere! I can sense you!"   
  
"Calm down, Goten. I'm right here." Gohan emerged from a room that was used for nursing fighters who had been badly injured. Currently, no one had been using it and Gohan needed a good out of the way place to do some thinking.  
  
Goten irately turned to his brother with a scowl on his face. "Calm down? How the HELL am I supposed to calm down when you're acting so STUPID?!"  
  
Gohan didn't frown nor did he become angry with the tone of voice that his younger brother was using with him. He deserved it, but he wouldn't let him think that he could be walked all over. "Don't go there, Goten. I already said that this was none of your business."  
  
Goten shoved himself in his brother's face as he impossibly scowled harder at him. "This IS my business. It was bad enough when Mr. Satan asked dad if he would force Usagi to throw the fight, but now THIS?! Do mom and dad know what you did?"  
  
Gohan shamefully shook his head. "I did what I had to do. If I didn't take action, no one else would have. Do you seriously think that mom and dad would have really hurt Usagi so much as to force her to throw the fight? I don't think so. That's why I did it. If dad told Usagi that she could beat Mr. Satan, than she wouldn't listen to me telling her not to. I just wanted to make sure that Mr. Satan wasn't embarrassed in the worst way. Videl doesn't want to see her father suffer. I don't want to see Videl suffer. It's better this way."  
  
Goten shook his head in disgust as he looked upon his brother, who he thought to be out of his mind. "You would just rather see your little sister suffer, wouldn't you?" He couldn't even look at his brother anymore. He didn't think that he would ever see him the same. Goten turned around, not wanting to hear anymore excuses.  
  
Gohan frowned as he watched his little brother walk away. "Don't do this, Goten. You know it's the right thing to do. Mr. Satan wont be embarrassed because of this. His family name wont be brought to shame."  
  
Goten stopped to leave his brother with one last thought. "It's NOT the right thing to do. You're letting him get away with the lie of a century. You're hurting your sister, in the long run. You only care about VIDEL! That's all you EVER cared about. Ever since you met her you let her control you. I'm ashamed of you, brother." Not wanting to share anymore words with the man, he continued to walk away towards the stands, where he would have a few words with his parents. If he couldn't convince Gohan, he hoped that he could at least get his parents to see things straight.  
  
Gohan let up on his frown as he thought about what had just been said to him. Some of it, most of it, was very true. He did let Videl get away with telling him what to do, a lot. But this time it wasn't only Videl's idea. It was both of theirs. Mr. Satan may have been a big lying buffoon, yes, but he also had feelings. But so did Gohan. And at that moment, his feelings were being trampled upon. Not only by himself, but by his brother, who spoke the truth.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back at the fighting Arena~~  
  
Hotaru ran into her group of friends with a bigger smile than anyone had ever seen her with, which at that point was almost impossible. "I did it! I did it! I did it!" She hopped around the room with excessive joy. She was too happy to even know what to do with herself.  
  
Professor Tomoe laughed as he scooped his daughter into his arms. "We're all proud of you, firefly. You did well out there. Now you can rest a while until your fight with Mr. Satan."  
  
Makoto couldn't help but burst into laughter when she heard that. "What fight? One little finger punch from Hotaru and Satan is going to be out for the count. He wont even have enough sense left to think of something to cover it up with."  
  
Usagi giggled. "Yeah, he's going to have permanent birds flying around his head for a while." Usagi imagined what it was going to be like seeing Mr. Satan totally knocked out by real fighters. She could just imagine the audience going nuts finding out about his true secret. "You know, this is great. My brother will finally get recognized for the true hero that he is. After all these years. I don't know why he never told anyone about it before. There were so many times when he could have, too." She turned to Hotaru, who was, again, on the ground standing by her father. "This is great! I knew you'd win."  
  
Hotaru rubbed some blood away from a cut on her forehead as she smiled. "Thanks! If you hadn't believed in me so much, I probably would have given up. But next year, I'm going into the advanced division. I just KNOW that I'll be ready."  
  
Ami handed Hotaru a wet tell to wipe herself with. "Of course you're going to be ready. You were THIS good with just two weeks of training. That gravity was a big help with your progress. It made you so much stronger, it's amazing."  
  
Professor Tomoe smiled as he bent down to his daughter's level. "You have done well. And to reward you, I'm taking you all out for ice cream tomorrow."  
  
Hotaru smiled as she threw her arms around her father's neck. "YAY! ICE CREAM!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Between divisions, there was a twenty minute wait to give the spectators a chance to get up and move around for a while. Goten took this opportunity to go and speak with his parents. He spotted his father with Mrs. Mizuno in the front, where they had sat throughout the whole intermediate division fights. He figured that Videl and his mother had gone to either find Gohan, or they had gone for food. He took a deep breath as he began to walk down the stairs. He hoped that he would be able to convince his father to do the right thing. Though Gohan believed that they were leaning towards letting her fight Mr. Satan, Goten believed that they were leaning more towards the side of making her throw the fight, if she even got to that point now that Mamoru knew valuable information about Usagi's fighting style.   
  
Goten sat next to his father, who were talking to Mrs. Mizuno about fighting. "dad…"  
  
"Excuse me a moment." He turned over to his son, who sat in the chair next to him. "Yes?" He could see the concern in his eyes. "What's wrong?"   
  
Goten sighed. "It's about Gohan and this whole wanting Usagi to throw the fight thing. Dad, listen to me, please don't make Usagi throw the fight with Mr. Satan. Do you know how upset she would be if you did that?"  
  
Mrs. Mizuno could see that this was obviously a family thing, so she got up and left the two men alone to quarrel. Goku looked back down to the platform, where Mr. Satan had begun talking to the crowd. "Do you think that I haven't thought of that? Believe me, that's the last thing in the world that I want to do to her. That's why I'm not going to make her do it until I'm presented with a good enough reason to do so. Your mother and I have already decided on that."  
  
'So Gohan was right. They DON'T want to force her to not do it.' "But dad, Gohan has already tried to go over your head with this one."  
  
Goku lifted his brow in interest as he turned back to his son. "What?"  
  
"I saw him myself. He was talking to Mamoru, Michiru, Haruka, and those boys from America that Yamcha is training. I'm pretty sure he told them some of Usagi's weak points because he wont tell me what he was talking to them about. He just keeps telling me that it's none of my business."   
  
Goku could feel himself getting angry as he began to stand up. "Well it is MY business. I already told him that it wasn't his decision to make. Satan may be taking the credit for what he did, but that's in the past. That doesn't give him the authority to do something like that."  
  
Not wanting any further confrontation with his older brother, Goten grabbed his father by the wrist. "Don't talk to him, dad. I've already taken care of it. I've already told Usagi that someone told Mamoru and the others her moves. Don't worry about it. I just wanted you to know."  
  
Goku let out a quiet protective as he stiffly sat back down. "Fine. I wont talk to him, nor will I tell Usagi that Gohan was the one to sell her out."  
  
"Thanks, dad. So does this mean that you aren't going to make her throw the fight?"  
  
Goku unconsciously shot an annoyed glare over to his son. "As of now, no. But, if I see that there is reason to, then I will make her do it."  
  
"Reason? Gohan thinks that there is plenty of reason to do this. He said that Satan would suffer and then Videl would suffer."  
  
"I know that. But right now, I'm trying to weigh the good vs. the bad on this. So far, the good of Usagi beating Mr. Satan far outweighs the bad of her doing it."  
  
Goten smiled as he slowly stood to his feet. "Great. Don't tell mom or Videl either."  
  
"Sure. Whatever." Goku wasn't really paying attention to his son at that point. He was more lost a bundle of his own thoughts.  
  
~*~*~  
  
From outside the fighters' building, Michiru peered in upon Usagi and her friends. She knew that if her friends knew of what she was about to do, she would be rejected from the group and made fun of for insubordination, which was highly intolerable. But, she had also grown a few morals with her age and knew that it was wrong to take advantage of family feuds like Mamoru was going to willingly do. "Usagi!" She talk at an interval that only Usagi could hear so she wouldn't cause all of the others to become interested in what she wanted.  
  
Usagi turned to look at the door, which led outside, only to see nothing. 'Must be my imagination.' She shrugged as she turned back to her friends, who were watching, as well as laughing at Mr. Satan, who try to show people how to do some really screwed up fighting moves. "Man, he needs to go back to school. You actually learned from him before we met you, Makoto?"  
  
"Sadly, yes. But those horrifying days are over."  
  
Michiru poked her head inside the building again. "Usagi! Come here!"   
  
Usagi frowned that time as she turned around. To her surprise, there was actually someone there. And to an even greater surprise, it was Michiru. She turned to look back at her friends, who more too occupied with what Satan was doing to even know if she was gone or not. With a bigger frown, Usagi turned back around and began walking towards Michiru to see what she could have possibly wanted.   
  
Once she saw that Usagi was coming, Michiru led her out and away from the fighters' building. She could sense Usagi's anger rising when she had said nothing for a long period of time. "Don't worry, Monk…Usagi. There is a point to this."  
  
Usagi stopped in her place as she crossed her arms. "This is far enough! I swear, the first thing you say mean to me…" She cut herself short as the realization of what she had just called her sunk into her head. "You just called me Usagi."  
  
Michiru turned around. "Yes. That's because I'm being serious. Let's put aside our differences for just this ONE time. This changes nothing. I still despise you."  
  
Usagi looked around the area in which she was in. 'Hmm…there's no one around. None of her friends are here either.' "Fine. What do you want?"  
  
"I think you should know this. Now, I know it's not exactly my place to say, but, your brother Gohan told us a way to beat you today. He said that he didn't want you to win the tournament."  
  
Usagi turned her frown into a hateful scowl. "You idiot! Do you ACTUALLY think that I'm going to believe that GARBAGE!? I know that you're jealous of me and my brothers but you don't have to try to rip us apart like that. Gohan would NEVER do anything like that to me, EVER."  
  
Michiru looked down to the ground. She had suspected that Usagi would react that way. "Look, I know what I heard. I was standing right there when he told us."   
  
Usagi was ready to beat Michiru into the ground. She couldn't believe that she would try to be so low as to tell lies about her brother. "It's not true, Michiru, and you know it as well as I do. You can just take your lies and go back to your stupid friends." With that she turned around and angrily stormed away to rejoin her friends. She knew that she didn't even have to go and ask Gohan for reassurance for she knew that he would never do a thing like that to her, or so she thought.  
  
Michiru frowned at the child's ungratefulness. Here she was, trying to let her know the truth, and Usagi wasn't accepting it. But, she could hardly blame her. After all, she had been making fun of her ever since they first met. "You'll be sorry when you find out the truth, again. And just so you know, our temporary treaty is off. We're enemies again."  
  
Usagi stopped long enough to get the last word in. "We were always enemies."  
  
~*~*~  
  
A half hour had passed since the advanced division participants had started. Ami and Minako had already each had their first battle, though they were easily won since their level of fighting far exceeded anything that anyone could have even tried to match. They were in it to fight each other as well as Mamoru, Haruka, and Michiru. They wished that they could have fought with the new comers, but they had needed parental consent to join and their parents were in America.  
  
Now, it was Usagi's first fight. She was happy to hear that she was going to be fighting with Michiru. Now she would be able to get back at her for trying to pull her and Gohan apart. She wouldn't even hold back in this fight. There was no reason to.   
  
Usagi cocked her head from side to side to prepare herself for the one sided battle as her father walked into the room from behind her. "Hey daddy." She grinned as she watched the announcer step up onto the ring.   
  
"Usagi, don't do it."  
  
Usagi dropped her cool composure as she turned around to see the face of her father glaring down at her as if she had done something wrong. "Do what?"  
  
"You know what I mean. I can sense that you're going to be extra tough on Michiru. Didn't I tell you that you need to learn to control your power level when you're excited? You're power level is rising as the fight grows nearer."  
  
"What am I not supposed to do? If this is about being rough on Michiru…"  
  
Goku cut his daughter off. "That's exactly what it's about. What have I always taught you about fighting?"  
  
Usagi sighed. She could feel a parental lecture coming on. "To always be fair and don't loose your temper not matter what."  
  
Goku nodded. "That's right. Now, if you go out there with a power level like that, you're not being fair to Michiru or yourself. You're also loosing your temper because you are letting your history with her get in the way of a fair fight."  
  
"I know but, earlier, she said that Gohan told them what my weaknesses were. She lied just to make me hate Gohan."  
  
'What is that girl doing telling her that?' Goku squirmed in his place as he looked down into the innocent eyes of his daughter. He knew that what Michiru told her was the truth, but he couldn't bring himself down far enough to rat on Gohan. "Just ignore it. Now, go out there and have some fun beating Michiru, the right way."  
  
Usagi nodded with a smile. "Sure thing." She turned around and walked to the door, where she could see the announcer, who had just called out Michiru's name. 'I'll have to watch my back now that she knows my moves and weaknesses. I wonder who really did tell them. When I find out who did it, I'm gonna give them a nice talking to.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Please welcome Son Usagi to the show as well!" The crowd clapped and cheered as Usagi began to walk out to the ring to face Michiru.  
  
(K! I'm done for now. So what did you think? Gotta run. Ja )  



	84. Part 14

Usagi and Michiru stood face to face in the middle of the ring. Both glared at each other as the crowd screamed down for them to start. However, they weren't fighting for the crowd. They would start when they pleased. At that moment, they were attempting to intimidate one another with their stares. Both of them had a reason to want to defeat the other. he tension between the two grew as they each took a step forward. Neither of them wanted to fall to the other.   
  
Usagi knew that she had to be extra careful in her fight against Michiru and any of her friends if she wanted to win the fights against them. She would have to watch their every move more carefully than she had ever had to before. Though, she was up to the challenge. "Bring it on, liar." She stopped to crouch into her fighting stance.  
  
Michiru frowned as she did the same as her opponent. "It's none of my business if you don't want to believe me, but don't call me a liar."   
  
Usagi could feel her anger rising within her as she picked her foot up off the ground. "You're just making things worse by lying." She slowly and gently placed her foot back down in front of herself.   
  
Once again, Michiru mimicked Usagi's movements. "You're being close minded. You're brother isn't a total saint, you know. You can't always trust family. That's just something that little babies like you have to learn." At that precise moment, both fighters were enraged with one another. Michiru was only trying to help Usagi, even though she didn't care for her. Usagi, on the other hand, was tired of Michiru trying to pull her family apart with her supposed lies.  
  
Having had enough of a calm situation, both Michiru and Usagi jumped at each other and locked hands on the left side of the ring. Unconsciously, they had both risen their power levels just above normal. Though, they had risen them enough to create a clear wave of energy that was thrown away from them and out towards the audience. The crowd went wild when the action started.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku sighed as the power levels of the two youngsters gradually grew. "I knew this was going to happen."  
  
Goten walked up beside his father with a smile. "This is going to be a great fight. I can see it already."  
  
"I know. But they weren't supposed to use their energy in the tournament. But they just have too much of a history to control themselves enough to keep their power levels out of the fight."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi didn't let her power level rise any further than Michiru's for she didn't want to have an unfair advantage. She wanted to win this battle for real instead of having it handed to her. She wanted to triumph over Michiru once and for all so, fairly.  
  
Michiru grinned as she increased the strength of her grip, causing Usagi to cry out in pain. "If you want a fight, then a fight is what you'll get." With that being said, she gave herself a small burst of power and pushed back on Usagi's hands, making them push backwards.   
  
Usagi dropped to her knees with pain as she glared up at Michiru with fire in her eyes. "Don't use your Ki energy you cheater."  
  
Michiru moved her face to be right there with Usagi's. "What's wrong? Is the monkey complaining because a superior fighter is going to win?" She ripped her hands away from Usagi's. Before her opponent had a chance to do anything, she made a tight fist and punched Usagi square in the face, throwing her all the way onto the ground with blood to follow. "This brings back memories of when we beat you and your freakish friend up in kindergarten. Do you remember that? You got your ass kicked in front of you own class."  
  
Usagi growled as she pushed herself back up to her feet. "Things have changed since then." She lowered her power level some since she was no longer locked with Michiru. Though, she kept it high enough to be able to block. "You're the freak now." Usagi angrily lifted her leg and planted it right into the stomach of Michiru.  
  
Acting with Usagi's kick, as she was flying back, Michiru performed a swift back-flip to avoid dropping to the ground. Instead, she landed on her feet and was completely ready to retaliate, which was exactly what she did. She jumped to the side and ran for Usagi, only to end up jumping overhead and land on her left side.  
  
Confused by all the movements, Usagi barely had a chance to catch Michiru's fist, which came at her from the left. "Too slow." With Michiru's fist in her hand, Usagi began to squeeze as tightly as she could. "Now it's your turn." Usagi pulled away from Michiru and jumped up to do her roundhouse kick.  
  
At the sight of seeing Usagi begin her attack that Gohan had warned her about, time seemed to be almost stopped for Michiru. Thousands of thoughts were running through her head. She didn't want to cheat to win, but her friends would be angry at her, but on the other hand, she didn't have the heart to mess with the situation.  
  
She could see her friends cheering for her to go for the kill in her peripheral vision. 'Damn it!' She took a deep breath as she side stepped and laid her eyes upon Usagi's tail, which was calling out to her to grab. She reached out to grab a hold of it but moved her foot into a crack in the ground and made it appear that she had tripped and fallen to the ground.  
  
Seconds later, Usagi landed and turned around to Michiru, who starring back with a pale face. "What's the matter with you?"  
  
Michiru jumped away from Usagi and stared blankly at her. 'I was so close. Why did I not just grab it? What's wrong with me? I hate her, but…'  
  
~*~*~  
  
During that whole situation, Goku and Goten had found themselves just outside the door anticipating what would happen next, while Gohan found himself ready to tear into Michiru. 'What the hell is wrong with her? Does she not hate Usagi or something? Why didn't she just grab it and make her loose?'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Michiru shook away her thoughts as she dashed out for Usagi once again. "You should consider yourself lucky, brat."   
  
Michiru took swift a punch at Usagi, which was easily blocked. With her forearm holding Michiru's fist away from her face, Usagi made a fist of her own and threw a similar punch at Michiru, which didn't quite make it to her face for Michiru pulled away and jumped over Usagi. Not letting her opponent react, Michiru lifted her leg to kick Usagi in the back, but Usagi could sense her movements. She ducked to the ground and in retaliation, she extended her leg and swung it underneath Michiru's feet, causing her to fall to the ground.  
  
Michiru rolled onto her side just as Usagi soundly planted her fist into the concrete beside her head. "You just don't give up, do you monkey?"  
  
Usagi frowned as she jumped to be standing over Michiru again, with both feet on either side of the girl. "I'm not a monkey!" She bent down and grabbed Michiru's Gi. "How does it feel to be beaten by me?"  
  
"Huh?" Michiru could feel the anger rising within the body of her foe.   
  
"You liar! You want me to hate my big brother, Gohan. Well tough luck!" She made one last fist and pulled it back as far as she could.  
  
Michiru glared up at Usagi. "I'm not through with you yet, monkey." She lifted her legs up and kicked Usagi in the back.   
  
Usagi's eyes became wide with pain as she dropped Michiru, letting her slam against the ground. That hit from Michiru had hit closer to home than she had wanted it to. Though Usagi's tail was safe from being grabbed, it was still very vulnerable to rough hits to the waist, which is exactly what had just happened when Michiru had kicked her. "Owe…" She stumbled backwards as she tried to regain her energy.   
  
Michiru pushed her hair out of her face as she stood up. "What's the matter little monkey? Did your precious tail get hurt?" 'That was an accident. It's ok if I win this way."  
  
Usagi gave Michiru a piercing glare. One that would scare just about anyone. "I'm not a monkey!" She jumped into the air, with fury, and kicked Michiru's chest, forcing her to fall right back to the ground.   
  
Michiru grinned. "Oh, I forgot, you're just a beast."   
  
Usagi tried to control her anger as she looked around to the screaming audience. All they seemed to want is a good fight, something that they were definitely getting. But, the stakes were to high. They didn't understand what was going on between both fighters. "Michiru, I'm NOT a beast! YOU ARE!" With that, she, again, jumped into the air and landed over Michiru. This time, she let her feet dig into Michiru's side, making her cry out in pain just as she had made Usagi near the beginning of the fight. "Say you're sorry! Say you're sorry for making fun of me! Say you're sorry for lying about Gohan!"  
  
Michiru winced as she looked up to the angry face of Usagi. For the first time, she had actually been afraid of her face. She had never seen her so full of rage. "You're nuts! I'm not apologizing for something that isn't a lie! I'm NOT apologizing for making fun of you, either!"  
  
Usagi jumped away from Michiru. She didn't want to get disqualified from the tournament. "You're the real beast then. Stand up and fight!"   
  
Usagi's statement only put more fear into the eyes of Michiru. She had never seen her so eager to fight in her life. True, she had challenged her and Haruka when she was only in kindergarten, but she only did it to get her Dragon Ball back. She had never actually truly hurt them, either. "Do you ACTUALLY think that you can beat me?"  
  
"Enough! Apologize!"  
  
"There is nothing to apologize for. Except making fun of you, which I'm not sorry for!"   
  
Usagi growled as she set out for Michiru. At that point, she had completely powered down, to her families liking. She didn't even give Michiru a reply before her fist was planted firmly in her stomach. Even then, she didn't want to talk to the girl, who was crying out for the pain to stop. Before Michiru fell away from Usagi, she felt the small hands of Usagi wrapping around her shoulders. Usagi looked into Michiru's eyes, not with hate, but the want for a truce that she knew would never happen. "Apologize and tell the truth!" Usagi released her grip on Michiru and let her fall, one last time, onto the ground.  
  
Usagi wiped her cheek, which was covered in blood that ran down from just above her ear, as the announcer walked to Michiru to see if she was all right. It was obvious who had won. He took one look at her and knew that she was out of it. "Ladies and gentlemen, Son Usagi," He grabbed her hand and raised it in the air. "The winner of the match!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Gohan punched the wall at the top of the stands out of sheer anger. 'Damn it! She wasn't supposed to win. Michiru was supposed to grab her tail!' With immense fury, Gohan turned to the door that led out of the stands. He was going to have to go and have a word with her, as well as look at the board that determined who fought when.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi staggered over to Michiru, who was beginning to move. "Good fight." She held her hand down to her with a friendly smile.  
  
Michiru cautiously looked up to Usagi with hesitation. "Is this some kind of joke."  
  
Usagi giggled. "We may be enemies, you may be a jerk, but I'm not going to be sore about it."  
  
Michiru showed a slight smile as she reached out for Usagi's hand. She hesitated to make contact as she cocked her head to the side to see the angry faces of her friends glaring down at her. 'Gees.' She wiped her slight smile off her face and slapped Usagi's hand away. "We are enemies and that's all that counts, monkey. Now get out of my face. I can get up by myself."  
  
Usagi turned around to glare at Haruka and Mamoru, who were laughing as they were walking away. 'Those jerks.' She turned back to Michiru. "Fine. I can respect that. You don't like me. I know." Usagi turned to walk away from the ring where she would await her next fight.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goten turned to his father, completely stunned. "I know what Gohan told the others. Her roundhouse kick and how she swings to the left when she does it. It exposes her tail. Michiru had a chance to get it when she dodged. I wonder why she didn't grab her tail when she had the chance. It was right there for her."  
  
Goku smiled as he watched his daughter walk back to them, Michiru followed close behind. "She's growing up. Unlike her friends. She's just trying to hide it from them so she's going along with what they say. You can tell that she really didn't want to do it." He backed up to allow the two tired fighters to enter. "Good job, Usagi." He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to him, examining her face as he did it. "Don't let your mom see your face. She'll freak out."  
  
Usagi looked around the room. "Where is mom?"  
  
"In the stands, rooting for you of course. Along with Videl and Gohan."  
  
'Gohan? He's rooting for me…I knew he didn't want me to loose. Stupid Michiru.' "So, you think I did good?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Of course. I knew you would."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Thanks!" She looked up at Goten just as Michiru was walking by with her head hung low. "She didn't try anything. At least, I don't think she did."  
  
Goten turned to his father as if he were asking him if they should tell what they knew. But he only got a shake of the head in response, telling him that they shouldn't tell her. Goten frowned. 'He's still thinking about making her loose. I knew it. How could he go along with it?' "No, she didn't do anything." 'Not technically.'   
  
"Usagi, you increased your power level out there."  
  
Usagi opened her mouth to protest. "I know but…"  
  
"Hey, hey, I never said there was anything wrong with it. I was actually going to say that it was good that you lowered it at the end there. I'm proud of you. You actually beat her while she was still at a higher power level than you were."  
  
Usagi looked to Michiru, who was just leaving the building. "She let me do it. I could tell. She could have blocked it easily. But she chose not to."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Once Gohan had found Michiru, he ran to her and grabbed her by the shoulder, violently turning her around to face him. "What the hell was that?!"  
  
Michiru frowned. "What the hell was WHAT?!"  
  
"Don't screw around with me, Michiru. You've been trying to get back at my sister for years now. Why choose now to not jump at the chance to beat her in front of everyone? Are you that chicken?"  
  
"Me? Chicken? I hardly think so, Gohan. What was the main word in that sentence that you just used? Let's see, 'sister' I believe it was. Shouldn't you be protecting her from people like me instead of helping us try to beat her?"   
  
"That's beyond the point. We've already discussed this. We had a deal. You had the chance to beat her and yet you chose not to. What the hell was going through your head?"  
  
Michiru frowned harder as she got up into Gohan's face and glared into his eyes with her own fury. "Don't think that just because I'm young, means that I'm naïve. I'm not going to do your dirty work. I'm definitely NOT going to cheat to win some stupid tournament because you don't want your kid sister to win. That's not the way I bounce. If I want to beat her, I'll do it for real. I want to know that I can actually beat her. Now get the hell out of my face so I can prepare for my next fight you moronic excuse for a brother." She turned around and walked away, not wanting to even look at him anymore.  
  
Gohan turned around in shock. Even Usagi's own enemy was yelling at him for what he had done to his little sister. He had t have been terribly desperate to resort to doing something as low as finding a way to cheat to make her loose, but he didn't want her to expose Mr. Satan. The man didn't deserve the torment that came with the exposure. He smiled when he saw Mamoru and Haruka approaching him. "Guys, I have a proposition for you on how you can beat Usagi."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Hey old man, we're listening."   
  
Gohan once again cringed at being called an old man. "Ok, now, you know that your objective is to get Usagi out of the tournament, right?" The duo nodded. "Great, then all you have to do is work extra hard to stay in and fight Usagi."  
  
"Well, Gohan, I would love to do that but I don't think I'm going to be able to fight her until really late in the tournament from the way things are going."  
  
Gohan groaned inside as he turned to specifically look at Mamoru. "Then you have to hold up against the other girls as long as possible. You have to win against Usagi. Either of you. Now, what I suggest is save all of your energy to fight the girls since they're going to be your only challenge."  
  
Now Haruka was the one grinning. "Right. So you want us to take out the others as easy and as soon as possible. Got it."  
  
Gohan shook his head. "No, let the others have a chance. Just don't waste your energy."  
  
"No, no. Haruka, I think that's a great idea. Let's just take them out as fast as possible. We don't need to give them a chance. Why give them false hope?"  
  
Haruka, who was now ignoring Gohan, turned to Mamoru. "Agreed. Let's get this done and go home."  
  
Gohan stopped trying to knock sense into the duo as they walked past him without even saying a word of thanks for his ideas. Though, he didn't exactly want them to just beat every opponent without giving them a chance. That wasn't the point of what he had been tying to say to them. But, those two did seem to like to see others suffer for their own sadistic pleasure. He had learned that when Mamoru had first torn into Usagi, something that could never be forgiven.   
  
And that's when it hit him. The true severity of what he had just done. He had given the most brutal and aggressive people that his sister knew, information on how to beat her. Who knew what they would do to her once they had a hold of her tail. Who knew if they would try to rip her apart just as Mamoru had when he had first met Usagi. He had just put her into the most danger that anyone could have put her into, but he wasn't willing to allow that to happen. All he had wanted her to do was loose the tournament and not expose Mr. Satan at all. 'Damn.'   
  
He turned to the fighters' building and began walking to it. He could feel his father's Ki there. He needed to tell him what he had done, but little did he know that Goku already knew of the problem.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi was leaving the building with her friends and Gohan just as he arrived there. He gulped as he walked by her smiling face. Even though he knew that she didn't know of what he did, he still felt as if she did. Like she could read what was playing on his mind. He looked up to his father, who was watching the fight that was taking place. He seemed to be getting a kick out of their ignorance of how to fight. "Dad, I really need to talk to you."  
  
Goku frowned when he heard the sound of his oldest son's voice calling out to him. "Yes?" He turned around to see Gohan approaching him with shame.   
  
"Father, I've done a horrible thing."  
  
"I know."  
  
Gohan looked up to his father's face. He cowered away ever so slightly from the anger that was coming from him. "You do? Did Goten tell you?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes. He seemed very concerned about it. As am I. Why did you feel that you had cause to do something like that?"  
  
"Don't worry about that right now, father. That isn't the most important thing in the world. What is, is Usagi's safety. I kind of told them how to grab a hold of Usagi's tail."  
  
Even though Goku had figured it out, he still acted surprised. "You what?"  
  
Gohan dropped his head in shame. "I know. It was wrong, I know. But Usagi shouldn't be allowed to fight Mr. Satan. It's wrong and we both know it. But now, I'm worried about Usagi. If Mamoru gets a hold of her tail, he'll rip her apart just like he did before, when they first me. I never saw what she looked like because I was sick, and I'm glad of that, but what you and mom and Goten told me, it was something awful. You have to tell Usagi to quite the tournament. Make up some silly excuse. Tell her that there is a danger that is making you pull her out, because there is."  
  
Goku was ashamed of his son at that point. "Gohan, not only did you go behind my back and pull something so stupid as this, but now you want ME to lie to cover it up? Well, I'll tell you what. This is your decision now. If you want her pulled, you go ahead and do it, but I'm coming with you to make sure you tell her EXACTLY why you're doing it. I want you to tell her that you were the one that released the bit of information to Mamoru and his gang. I want you to explain why you did it, and they better be GOOD explanations with GOOD reasons because I, myself, am interested in knowing WHY it was SO important to have her loose to Mr. Satan. I'm still waiting on being further convinced. Now, what'll it be, son?"  
  
Gohan glared down at the ground as he squirmed to make his decision. "I'm NOT telling her any of that crap."  
  
"I agree, it IS crap. And you're the one who created. You're a grown man now. I'm not always going to take the heat for you. If you don't want to tell her that, then she stays in the tournament, it's as simple as that."  
  
Gohan smirked as he slowly brought his head up, though, he erased the smirk off his face when he looked at his father. "Then you're just going to let Usagi get hurt again, are you not?"  
  
Goku laughed at how Gohan was trying to get him to go along with that he wanted. "It's not my problem. It's yours. You got her into this mess, now you get her out. If something goes wrong, I'm here. But I doubt that anything will. So pick what you want to do."  
  
Gohan weighed the situation in his head for a moment. It was true, their father would be there to help if it was needed. There really was no reason to worry, and besides, it was a sure-fire way to keep Usagi away from Mr. Satan. "Great. Then I'm letting her stay in. She'll loose and that's that." He turned around and walked away from his angry father.  
  
"Great, Gohan. I'm glad you've become such a loving, caring brother." Goku grinned as he tried to spite his son. With that one last sentence from him, he summarized his feelings towards the whole situation.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Twenty minutes Later~~  
  
It was twenty minutes before the next major fight took place. Ironically, it was a fight between Makoto and Usagi. Both were extra excited about fighting each other on this day since they both wanted to excel into the rest of the tournament, though, Usagi knew that she wanted it more than Makoto for obvious reasons.   
  
When the bell rang for the fight to begin, both fighters took to their fighting position. They both kept a calm emotionless face so they couldn't read each other's intentions.   
  
Makoto was the first one to make a move. She quickly ran for Usagi at full speed, ready to attack at a moment's chance. Usagi kept calm for she knew that Makoto wasn't stupid enough to just run at her and expect to get a hit on her. No, she had something else planned and she was pretty sure she knew what it was. Makoto had been using the same routine for the past two weeks. She would always jump into the air just before making contact. Well, this time Usagi would be ready. She would meet her in the air and pull her down with her.  
  
Just as Makoto was about to run into Usagi, she made it appear as if she were going to jump by lifting up her foot higher than if she were just trying to run. Once she saw Usagi begin to jump up, as she knew that she would, Makoto jumped into her plan. She dove to the ground and rolled under Usagi, who was still in the air.  
  
Usagi looked down to see Makoto lying on her back. She knew that she had something planned, but without the power of her Ki at hand, the situation of falling into Makoto's hands was unavoidable, except for one thing. Without much time before she hit the ground, Usagi flip herself upside down and met Makoto's body with her hands. "Did you actually think that you could outsmart me?" She grabbed onto Makoto's arms and pulled her out from underneath herself.  
  
Makoto rolled over to her side and pushed herself back up to her feet before Usagi had a chance to do anything more. "That was pretty good."  
  
Usagi bounced to her feet and jumped away from Makoto. "So was your move. I was sure that you were going to jump into the air."  
  
Makoto smirked. "Yeah, I had that planned ever since we first heard about the tournament. It's my little way of tricking whoever I fought first. But my plan kind of backfired on me."  
  
"I'll say. Shall we continue?"  
  
"Certainly." Makoto took a step forward to reenter the fight that she hoped to win.   
  
This time, it was Usagi's turn to make the first move. Instead of running towards Makoto, she circled her as she looked for a good opportunity to attack in, though, Makoto didn't make it easy for she was turning right along with Usagi.   
  
Makoto grew weary of Usagi's circling and decided it was time to make a move. So, with a simple jump forward, she was within reach of Usagi. She reached out and grabbed a hold of her arm and pulled her closer. Usagi grinned as she realized what her friend was attempting to do. "Not so fast, Makoto." With her free hand, Usagi grabbed Makoto's arm and ripped it off her own. "Heh."   
  
Makoto was already one step ahead of her, though. She had planned for Usagi to do something like that. She lifted her leg and kicked Usagi in the legs, causing them to collapse from underneath. She bent down and picked Usagi up and placed he back on her feet. "Come on." She jumped back to get a running start.  
  
Usagi didn't stay in place that time. She dove to the side, leaving her leg in its original place to trip Makoto. But Makoto was too smart for that. At first movement of Usagi, she jumped to the side right along with Usagi rammed right into her because she was unable to stop herself in time.  
  
Usagi stumbled backwards. She wasn't about to let herself fall down and give Makoto the upper hand, but it would have been for the best if she had let herself drop. She couldn't get her footing back before she found herself falling over the edge, out of the ring and into disqualification, loosing the match. "NO!"  
  
Makoto ran to the edge and looked down to a pouting Usagi. "Gees, Usagi. You were supposed to win."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi grumbled as she walked into the fighters' building. "Why me? I WAS supposed to win that match. I'm supposed to beat Mr. Satan."  
  
Gohan smirked as he watched his little sister walk out of the building with her friends close behind, trying to comfort her. "Well I guess that'll teach you to just let yourself fall every once and a while."  
  
Usagi froze in place as she perked her head up and the sound of her brother's voice. "Shut up, Gohan!"  
  
(Ok, there is yet another part. What did you think? Good, bad? See ya later. Ja! )  



	85. Part 15

(Hey, here's a little note from me. Now, you all know I haven't really ever kept a chapter from you for more than one day, but this time I've made a bit of an exception. I've been spending the past week writing this, staying up until VERY early morning so it would be good. Though, I had help from Comet Moon. He wrote the fight between Usagi and...well...her last fight before Mr. Satan. I added in some detail but the initial message was his work. Be happy! This chapter went back and fourth between us a couple times and went through at least three times of editing, so if it's bad, then we're bad editors. Well here it is, 35 pages of one VERY long part. )  
  
Gohan flew away from the tournament with one thought, and one thought only in mind. He flew deep, deep into the forest where he found a very well hidden house. A house that only came to be not even sixteen years before.   
  
Gohan landed behind a patch of trees so as to not be spotted by the inhabitant of the house. 'Well, it's now or never.' He slowly emerged from the trees as he kicked himself a head of time for what he was about to do. It wasn't WHAT he was doing that was making him upset, it was the reason why he was ABLE to do it that wore on his mind.  
  
The being who resided inside sighed when he felt his former student's uneasiness as he approached his home. He knew that it had something to do with his son, as well as Gohan's sister. Those two always seemed to be going at it for some reason or another.   
  
Gohan approached the house with hesitation as he became more and more nervous. 'God, he's going to act just like Goten I bet.' He stopped at the door and raised his hand to knock on the door that kept him from entering.   
  
Before Gohan even had the chance to knock, the door was thrown open with Piccolo standing behind it looking rather annoyed. "What is it, Gohan?"  
  
Gohan dropped his hand with embarrassment. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that Piccolo knew what was going on. It could be heard in his voice. "I have a favor to ask of you."  
  
Piccolo backed away from the door and motioned for Gohan to follow him. "What?" He grabbed his friend's shoulders and shoved him down to sit in a chair.   
  
Gohan jerked away from Piccolo's grasp. "Mamoru and Usagi will most likely be fighting in the last fight because we...kind of...rigged the tournament to lean towards that outcome." Before Piccolo could have any say in what was going to be said next, Gohan spit out more words, more excuses. "We did it so Mamoru would win. I also told him and his friends how to grab her tail."  
  
Piccolo widened his eyes as he looked upon Gohan with utter shame. "You did what? What the hell is going on in your head? You know that Mamoru will take that opportunity without a second thought. He'll win for sure, not to mention put her through agonizing pain."  
  
Gohan let his guilt take over as his main emotion as he was reminded of the danger that he had put his sister in. "I know that. I've been given the opportunity to take her out buy father has given me his word that he'll make sure he takes her out when he thinks that she can't handle anymore. I did it so she wouldn't show the world Mr. Satan's true side. He would be utterly humiliated if we were to allow her to do that."  
  
Piccolo didn't seemed interested in his excuses. "That's nice. Now why are you here?"  
  
"We don't want Mamoru to do it either. I'm here to ask you to make him lose the fight. He doesn't have anything against Mr. Satan like Usagi does. It wont be as hard for him to give up the chance to beat him. If you just add in the fact that Mr. Satan isn't the most difficult enemy to beat and theirs no honor in beating an enemy of lesser strength, then I'm sure he'll give into it."  
  
Piccolo growled as he walked to the door and ripped it open. "Fine. You better consider yourself lucky."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back at the Tournament~~  
  
Haruka walked out of the fighters' building with a scowl on her face. She hatefully grumbled as she walked towards her laughing group of friends. "What are you laughing at?" Haruka blushed with extreme embarrassment as she looked up to her friends.   
  
There was a very good reason for her embarrassment. She had just been publicly humiliated in front of everyone who was watching the fight by Rei and Minako. Her first two fights were against these two, and were also her last. She didn't stand a chance against either of them. When she was fighting Rei, she had held up pretty well until Rei got in a hit on her face. From then, everything went downhill. Her vision became blurred and she could barely walk at all, let alone walking straight.  
  
When she had fought Minako, which was the fight directly after the fight with Rei, things were much worse. She didn't even have time to recuperate from her fight with Rei before the fight with Minako. She had put up a good fight with Minako, but it wasn't good enough to win. She let her anger get the best of her and had been quite careless as to what she was doing, which was her downfall. Minako got in a lot of defendable hits.  
  
Mamoru laughed the hardest as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Man, you crack me up. You lost TWICE in a row. Now you're out of the tournament and me and Michiru have to take out the other kids all by ourselves. But don't worry, we'll make those two pay."  
  
Haruka pulled herself away from Mamoru as she glared at him. "Don't mess with me, Mamoru. I'm not in the mood right now. All I know is that I'm going to pay them both back. As well as their friends."  
  
"I'll get Ami. I have a fight with her next. Why don't you all come root for me?" Mamoru arrogantly turned to his friends. "I'll show you what a real fighter is."  
  
"Will the fighters of the next fight please proceed to the ring..."  
  
Mamoru looked up when the intercom interrupted. "Come on guys. Let's go have some fun."   
  
Michiru happily followed her friends to the ring. She couldn't wait to watch the fight. It was sure to be good, though she knew who was going to win, Mamoru. It was always the same. He won every match that he had. Though, this was the first fight he was going to have against the girls. But she knew that Ami definitely couldn't beat Mamoru so there really was no point in thinking that he would loose. "Let's just get this done and over with. I'm hungry."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Please welcome Mizuno Ami and Chiba Mamoru to the ring ladies and gentlemen." Clapping of an excited crowd could be heard all around the stadium. They couldn't wait to watch yet another excellent fight. Though, they knew that it would end very grim for the younger fighter. Mamoru hadn't lost a single match since he first started, knocking most of his opponents out with a single punch, but this new fighter seemed to be very confident.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mrs. Mizuno waved down to her daughter and blew kisses at her. "AMI! You can do it!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Ami gracefully walked to the ring, which only made her mother proud, while Mamoru strutted conceitedly to the ring. He didn't look too concerned with this fight. And to tell the truth, he wasn't. He didn't regard Ami as one who would know how to keep her own in a battle. He hadn't watched any of her previous fights. The only time that he had seen her fighting was when Cell had attacked them in the past. Even then he didn't see as too good of a fighter. One reason was because she was inexperienced, and the second was because she spent all of her time gawking and not enough time acting upon her finds. "Look, it's the weakling."  
  
Ami ignored Mamoru as they both stepped up to the ring. She knew better than to even try to dignify his comment with an answer. Instead, she just walked to the left side of the ring while Mamoru stayed on the right.  
  
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Mizuno Ami, age ten." The announcer pointed to Ami, who respectfully smiled at him. He turned over to Mamoru, who only looked at him as if he were an idiot. "And Chiba Mamoru, age fifteen. Kids, let us begin." He jumped down off the platform and ran to the judges table where he would watch the spectacular fight that was about to begin.  
  
Mamoru smirked as he readied himself. "Like a brain could ever beat me. You should just give up now before you embarrass yourself."  
  
Ami remained emotionless as she, too, prepared herself. "Talking only ruins concentration. I advise that you stop."  
  
Mamoru chuckled. "Oh look who this is coming from, Ms. Champion of the books."  
  
A little put out by his comment, Ami elected not to reply to him. Instead, she responded by jumping to the center of the ring. Her eyes implied a request for him to join her to begin the fight.   
  
Mamoru gladly accepted her disguised request. 'Now she thinks she's all hot cause she's calling me out. Ha!' Now, both fighters stood, face to face and close enough that they could reach out and touch each other with much ease. 'She's just going to stand there while I attack like she did when Cell came.'   
  
Ami dropped to the ground when Mamoru reached out to grab her. She performed a quick leg sweep and had him on his back within seconds. Mamoru jumped to his feet and caught Ami's arm as she went to punch him. "Too slow." He began to lift her up by her arm to flip her into the air. "Go back and train some more bef..."  
  
Ami allowed herself to be flipped upside down. But once she was in mid-air and looking directly down at her foe, she twisted her arm away from and unsuspecting Mamoru. She quickly acted and grabbed a hold of his arm and proceeded to use his own weight against him to slow herself down from falling. Slowing down allowed her to get a hold of herself so she would be able to land on her feet. But that wasn't all that she had planned. As she was falling to the ground, she began to lift Mamoru up by his arm. In mid-air, she had reversed his attack on him.  
  
As soon as her feet touched the ground, she hurled Mamoru into the air, though, she had overshot the amount of strength she used. Mamoru went flying, head first, into the fighters' building, disqualifying him immediately. Ami giggled at his misfortune. "Whoops. Guess I went too far."   
  
The announcer, as well as the entire crowd, went completely silent in shock. Not once in their lives had they seen a ten year old girl of Ami's small frame be able to lift a fifteen year old boy, who was weighted with muscles, let alone hurl him across an entire arena. But they had witnessed it and found it completely amazing.   
  
The announcer ran to Ami and held up her hand. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mizuno Ami!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Mrs. Mizuno jumped out of her seat and threw her soda on the person next to her from being so excited. "GO AMI!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Ami blushed as she took her victory quietly. She wasn't one to make a big thing out of a small win like this. She thanked the announcer and walked down off of the ring. She walked to a pouting Mamoru and giggled down at him. " That's what happen when you talk too much. Looks like I'm also the champion of you too and not just books." She laughed as she began to walk away. "I would have at least expected more of a challenge from you."  
  
Mamoru sneered at Ami as she walked by. "That wont happen again, kid. Just watch, we're sure to meet again." He pounded his fist into the ground. 'Crap! I can't lose again.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru jumped to Ami with a giant smile. "That was SO cool how you showed him what you were made of. You showed that bully real good, Ami."  
  
Ami blushed again as she modestly looked at the child. "Oh, it was nothing."  
  
Makoto grinned at Mamoru, who came walking into the building. "What's the matter? Don't you like being beaten by a girl?"  
  
Usagi snickered. "Not only by a girl, but by a bookworm." The girls couldn't help by burst out in laughter at the situation. They never would have thought that Mamoru would have gone so easily.  
  
Goku couldn't help but break a smile at his daughter's comments. "Heh...no kidding. Mr. Muscle-head isn't as strong as we thought." If she had made fun of anyone else, he probably would have scolded her for it, but Mamoru was an exception. For one, he always seemed to have something smart to say about his daughter as well as the fact that he was going to try and use her weakness against her. 'Hopefully he'll lose against these others and Usagi wont even have to go up against him.'   
  
Usagi giggled as she backed away from a fuming Mamoru. "Why don't you run along now? Go cry to your daddy."  
  
Mamoru turned around with fire in his eyes. "WHY DON'T YOU!? YOU ALWAYS SEEM TO DO THAT!" He knocked over a tray of glasses with juice in it as he stormed out of the room.  
  
Usagi scratched her head with confusion. "Wow. That was strange. He's acting like a crybaby."  
  
Goku walked to the door and watched Mamoru cockily punch one of his friends from America. "I guess he's still insecure about himself. Most bullies are. Oh well, maybe this will open his eyes and show that he isn't the only one in the world."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Two hours Later~~  
  
Two hours had passed. Everyone had been kicked out of the tournament except for Usagi and her last opponent, Mamoru. Who else? Mamoru had knocked out Michiru along with a majority of the other kids who had entered.   
  
Now, Usagi was preparing herself for her fight against Mamoru. She was in the fighters' building with all of her friends and family. Well, all except for Gohan, who resided in the stands to watch the fight away from his family.   
  
Usagi questioned her father as he watched the announcer walk to the ring. "What if Mamoru uses my weakness against me?"  
  
Goku looked down to his worried daughter. "Then he uses it against you. There's nothing that we can do about it."  
  
"Well I've come to a decision. I don't want you or mom or Goten or Gohan to interfere in the fight if he does use it against me, k?" Goku looked a bit startled as he looked down to his daughter. "This is a tournament, I guess I have deal with it, right? I mean, I don't want to get disqualified. I want to beat Mr. Satan."  
  
Goku nodded as he smiled down at her. "That's correct." 'If she only knew what her weakness was, but I can't tell her. That's Gohan's thing to do. But, if something goes too wrong... Gohan, you had your chance to take her out, now you have to live with it, I guess. As much as I disagree with it. I just hope she doesn't get too hurt with doing this.' "Good luck out there."  
  
Hotaru came bouncing from behind Goku with a giant smile on her face. "Yeah, Usagi! Good luck! We're going to be rooting for you one-hundred percent."  
  
Rei walked to Usagi with a grin. "Here's some spiritual advice. KICK HIS BUTT AND YOU'LL LIVE IN HAPPINESS!"  
  
Usagi giggled. "I'll use that as my motivation, Rei." She looked up to the smiling face of her brother.   
  
"You have nothing to worry about, sis. Mamoru isn't any kind of match for you."  
  
"Thanks!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Please welcome to the ring, Son Usagi and Chiba Mamoru!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi turned to look outside with excitement. "It's starting already." She felt a slight hint of nervousness, but she would persist until she won. She had made it this far into the tournament already. "See you after the fight, when I've won."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The announcer stepped into the middle of the ring, the audience was clamoring for the fight that is about to take place. He smiled around to the cheering people with great pleasure of announcing the next fight. "And tonight we've had a magnificent set of battles in this tournament. With two outstanding fighters winning their classes. For the Intermediate, Tomoe Hotaru. And for the beginners, Kichigai Joshi ." (AN: This was thought and written by Comet Moon, Dizz-Chan didn't put it in. Love ya kid. A truly great writer.) "And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, the final fight in the tournament, to see who will be the grand champion of the advance fighters. Both having lost a match each, this will be the deciding factor. Winner takes all."  
  
The announcer pointed to Mamoru as he slowly approached him. "In this corner, at age fifteen, the powerful, ruthless, Chiba Mamoru!" Many spectators around the stadium booed at the fighter, who had fought so brutally throughout the entire tournament as well as his companions. Mamoru was annoyed at the ridicule coming from the crowd, but he didn't want to cause any trouble and get himself kicked out of the fight so he merely glared back at them. He smirked at Usagi as he thought of the beating that she was about to receive from him.  
  
The announcer walked to Usagi and pointed in her direction. "And in this corner, at age ten, the sweetheart that has taken this tournament by storm with her abilities and sense of fair play, Son Usagi." The mass went wild as they cheered her on. All of them seemed to have been caught up in the glow of the shining child. Even her teachers watched in amazement at their pupil's skill. Only seven youngsters and two adults out of the whole crowd glared down at her. One who looked on her with fear, the other glared at her, wishing only for the match to end in her defeat. Although this particular person was utterly ashamed of himself for having such thoughts.  
  
Usagi was a bit stunned by the response of the people, but it warmed her heart to know that people would actually want her to win. She looked into the audience and waved to them. She then proceeded to look back at her family and threw a kiss to them. On the outside, her family responded with kind faces, but each and every member of this family had worries of their own on how this fight would turn out.   
  
A seething Mamoru growled as he became upset at Usagi's popularity. "Hey! Odango! This isn't a beauty contest, you won't win by winning over the audience." He shouted as he sneered at her. "Not that you would ever win one with a face like yours." His cronies laughed uproariously at that, nearly falling to the ground. Many of the Mass threw jeers back at him, yelling that he was very wrong at his assessment.  
  
Usagi pouted at the comment, feeling a bit inadequate in that department, but was encouraged by the crowd. "Yeah, well I don't need good looks to take down a meanie blowhard like you." Having said this, she stuck out her tongue at him.   
Many of the crowd laughed at the girl's spirit, while Mamoru glared daggers at her. "Let's just get on with the main event shall we."   
  
Usagi nodded her agreement as she got into a ready position. The announcer once again had control over the fight. He hastily walked to the referee and handed him the Mic. "Alright, here are the rules. Get kicked out of the ring and you loss the match. Five good point hits to the front and you lose. Or when you concede defeat or have the towel thrown in at your corner. Knocked Unconscious and your out. No kidney blows or groin shots. No blows to the spine. Lets have a good clean fight and the best of luck to the both of you."  
  
Usagi smiled at him. "Thanks." Usagi grinned back at Mamoru. She couldn't wait to beat him and get on with the business of beating Mr. Satan. She could feel herself getting excited, but she kept her power level down so she wouldn't seem as if she were cheating.  
  
While Mamoru simply smirked. "Ha, it'll be no contest. We both know who the better fighter is here." Mamoru stared into Usagi's eyes. They were too confident for his liking. He remembered what happened at their last battle. He had lost to her and heard it big time from his father. Ever since then, he had been training for the next time that he would be able to fight her. Now, he was more confident about beating her. He was certain that, now that they didn't have the power of their Ki that he would be able to beat her. Their power levels would be the same. This fight was a challenge of real skill, something that Mamoru knew that he definitely had more of as he had been fighting for many more years that Usagi.  
  
The referee smiled and the little one. He was shocked at how far and skilled one so small and young could be. He only frowned over at her opponent. 'He's what gives fighting a bad name, one who just enjoys hurting others. While she is what makes fighting an honored sport. Fighting with spirit and fair play.' Not wanting to be hurt by the fighting that was about to take place, he stepped out of the ring and put his arms up in the air. "And, Begin!"  
  
Neither fighter took the initiative. Both circled each other, searching for openings. Mamoru, having lost to that brainiac Ami, wasn't nearly as cocky as he appeared to be. He knew that he would have to be careful around Usagi for she could be tricky. He just wanted to her think that he wasn't paying attention, but he knew in the back of his head, much to his fury that she actually was the better fighter. He just didn't want to admit it. He knew that he would have to use all his skill to beat her, but also refused to use his Ki power. This was between him and her, and only one will win. 'Of course, using her weakness isn't cheating. She's the one that let's her guard down in that round house kick.' He grinned a feral grin as he launched his first attack.  
  
Usagi acted quite quickly in response to his attack and deflected his punch with her forearm, guiding it to her left, and bringing her elbow into his face as he momentarily lost his balance.  
  
The Referee smiled as he gladly gave Usagi point. "Point, Son Usagi." The crowd cheered as both fighters backed of slightly.  
Usagi grinned cheekily at him as he wiped off some blood from his split lip. 'This time first blood was mine.'  
  
Mamoru glared at her, seeming to know exactly what she was thinking. 'She's going to get it good for that.' They then proceeded to launch themselves at each other in a series of spectacular fighting techniques. Mamoru led off with a side quick, which Usagi easily caught. She twisted him so he fell right and sent a back-kick into his thigh, throwing him off his balance once again. He rolled away from her open palmed punch, which she aimed at his jaw. He somersaulted to his feet and, in turn, threw a roundhouse kick at her crouching form. But Usagi rolled forward, and again circled her foe. This time, Usagi and Mamoru slowly stalked forward to one another, circling again. Their arms were in defensive positions in front of them.   
  
Usagi grinned at Mamoru. She was highly enjoying this spar. She was having almost as much fun fighting him now as she had when she beat him only three years before. This time, she wasn't beating him to prove herself worthy. He was the last wall that stood between her and Mr. Satan, or so she thought.  
She ran right at him, but before she reached him, she jumped into the air, using his shoulders to spring over the top. She landed behind him just as he was attempting to turn. She didn't quite let him get through before she performed a leg sweep, bringing him to his back. She gave a swift chop blow to his chest and   
landed on him.   
  
Referee; "Point Son Usagi."  
  
Cheers everywhere descended upon her, but she was too focused on Mamoru, who was snarling and forcefully getting into a ready position. Angered, he rushed at her with a series of punches raining down on her, only to discover them being blocked and having to deflect the blows that were coming from her. After a few minutes of this, Usagi managed to get a blow to the chest past his guard.  
Referee; "Point, Son Usagi." Both were breathing heavily in exertion, neither having boosted their strength with their Ki. They stared at each other with tired eyes, but neither was about to give up.   
  
Circling each other again, Usagi decided to use her speed, which was much greater than Mamoru's due to her Saiyan heritage and gravity training. Sliding forward, she threw a series of punches at him, backing him up into the corner, the last, she scored a direct blow to the chest, but this also caused him to fall backwards as he started to topple out of the ring.   
Seeing him nearly falling out, Usagi reached forward and grabbed him, pulling him back into the ring. The stunned Referee called out Usagi's fourth point. He was completely shocked by her actions.   
  
Both fighters backed away, breathing heavier than ever. Snarling, Mamoru shouted for all to hear. "Why'd you stop me? You would have won!"  
  
The audience listened for her reply. "This is a battle of skill, WHEN I win, I want it to be because I'm the better fighter, not because you lost your balance." She smirked at him, which only made him grow angrier.  
  
He continued to glare at her, humiliated that he needed her aid. The crowd just continued to fall even more in love with the little Champion of Justice. (Ha, wonder where that came from?).  
  
~*~*~  
  
Gohan watched from the crowd. He was having some serious conflicting emotions going through him. He was feeling pride at her skill and sense of fairness that she had learned from him and their father. He was also feeling shame of his own actions, but most of all, he felt anger, which was the emotion he felt most comfortable with. The anger took a firm hold on him and shoved all other emotions away.   
  
'Why can't she just lose? Damn it Mamoru, I thought you were closer to her level. We even saw to it she had to fight all her friends girls to tire her out for you. Why can't you get your act together? Blast it, I even talked Piccolo into a favor for past friendships to have you throw the fight against Mr. Satan when YOU WON. Come on, use her weaknesses against her. She's young, this won't affect her much. But Satan, and my wife and daughter will be devastated if she wins and my father-in-law and their father and grandfather come to shame. WIN!'  
  
Mr. Satan was sweating in the grand chair that was made just for him for this tournament, which was designed so he could watch over the games as a king would their kingdom. In the center, looking down at their flock. 'Anyone but her. Please anyone but her. She's the only one that won't take a fall. She'll wipe the mat with me. It's not fair. Why should I be put to shame for this girl's pigheadedness? Com'on punk, FIGHT!'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru ran to Usagi. Glaring at her, he quickly realized his mistake. He was going in too close to her. she wouldn't get off a roundhouse kick. He smirked as he circled her, keeping a distance from her, making her come to him.  
Usagi wondered why he was smirking. She only needed one more point to win. She saw no reason why he should have been smirking. Though, she did remember that he had advantage over her with knowing about he weakness. She set aside her worries as she cautiously advanced at him.  
  
Trying to close the gap, she threw a punch at him, but he kept his distance, easily evading it. Goku, Goten, and Gohan realized exactly what he was up to. All three of them had totally different views on it.  
  
Goku didn't say anything. He didn't plan on saying anything at all, either, though the fear for her getting hurt was like ice running through his veins, but the weakness and flaw in her fighting IS hers, Mamoru didn't invent it. He was just using it to his advantage. Just like any fighter would. Even though that was true, Goku wasn't sure if he would be able to handle himself when it happened. He so hated to see her hurt.   
  
Goten was utterly furious that his brother had betrayed their baby sister and that their father wasn't giving her his one hundred percent support. He didn't understand how any type of father, or even brother for that matter, could do such a thing. But the matter was out of his hands. Their father had already been made upset by the fact that Gohan had tried to go over his head and now it was leading up to one horrible thing.  
  
Gohan was ecstatic that the jerk was finally fighting right and could actually win this. He ruthlessly shoved all other emotions deep down so he didn't have to feel the guilt in which he had brought upon himself. He anticipated what would happen next. He wasn't sure what would happen once he got her tail, but he knew it wouldn't be good. But, at that point, he didn't exactly care, well, he didn't let his soft emotions get through his hardened ones. The important thing was making sure that Mr. Satan was kept safe.  
  
Mamoru's gang smirked, having figured out, as well, his game. Every one but Michiru had an evil grin on their face. She had a slightly sad expression at a family's betrayal, family that meant the world to the child.  
  
The girls were more on the nervous side of things. They could see the grins on the rivals' faces and wondered why they seemed so sure of themselves. Videl cheered for Usagi. She knew that if Usagi were to win, that a confrontation would be brought about, most likely by her husband.  
  
The crowd booed his cowardly retreat, not seeing the strategy for what it was. Mr. Satan was clueless as to what was transpiring. He just sat there biting his fingernails in anticipation as to what was going to happen, thinking that he should have washed his hands that day since they tasted lousy.  
  
Usagi came forward with a series of punches and kicks that just couldn't reach his retreating form. Finally, she got annoyed with him and threw a roundhouse kick at him. She was certain that her supposed weakness wasn't the roundhouse   
kick since she had used it on Michiru and nothing had happened.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku and Goten groaned as when they saw her begin her attack, anticipating the outcome. Goku probably felt more fear for her than Goten had. He didn't want to watch it happen, but he had to. If something horrible were to happen to his daughter, he would have to go out there and throw in the towel for her.   
  
Gohan's guilt took hold for a second, but again shoved it down. He knew that this was the best way for all. He couldn't give in. It was too much of an important moment to give into his guilt. He had come this far, he wouldn't got soft now.   
  
The rat pack grinned. They knew right then and there that they've finally won.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru could taste his victory as he ducked under to the right. Sure enough, there was her tail. He threw a direct punch at her exposed tail, causing it to stand out from her agonized body.   
  
Usagi hollered in severe pain as she felt all energy fly out of her body. Her motionless body crashed hard into the concrete below. The impact caved in the cement just big enough for Usagi to dip into.   
  
Goku cringed at the sound of his daughter's cries of pain. He wished that there was something that he could do to help without disqualifying her from the fight. He could barely hold himself back from throwing in the towel. He hadn't heard her cry out in such pain in years.  
  
The hit wasn't a point blow, nor was it a foul, no rules for tails was called for and the referee looking to Mr. Satan for his thoughts, found him grinning. "There's no rules for tails. That's a valid hit." He rubbed his hands together for he knew there was nothing to worry about anymore. 'That boy shall be rewarded for this. A loss for the girl is a victory for my family. Sorry kid, you're just going to have to be humiliated over me. What a sacrifice.'  
  
Mamoru stalked up to her and slammed his foot onto her twitching tail. Usagi let out another piercing wail from her lips. Gohan tried to shut out the sound of his little sister crying out by covering his ears. He had never heard such a horrible sound in his life. It made it even worse that he had sharper hearing than the audience due to his Saiyan hearing, which only amplified the wailing .  
Goten was horrified at the spectacle. He turned to glare at his brother with hatred for the first time in his life. He was already planning to beat the crap out of him. Well wouldn't you?   
  
Gohan didn't even try to hold his brother's glare. He winced at their mother's cries of agony at her baby's pain. The girls cried out in pain for their friend and sister. Mr. Satan even winced at Usagi's pain. He consuls himself with the thought that she had brought this on herself. He had not part in this what-so-ever. All of Mamoru's cronies, except Michiru, patted themselves on the backs for a job well done.  
  
Grinning evilly, Mamoru kicked her in the chest. 'Boy! This is great!'  
The Referee was absolutely furious with him kicking a downed opponent. He wished that he didn't have to give him a point, but it was the rule. "Point Chiba Mamoru."  
  
The crowd was shocked by the turn of events as well as the appearance of the mysterious tail. They all booed at Mamoru. They couldn't understand why he was able to beat her so badly all of a sudden, but they were outraged by the fact that he was beating a defenseless foe.   
  
Mamoru smirked with a sense of superiority as he sneered down at her. "Well Odango, looks like you lose." He lifted his foot only to bring it down with another pain filled stomp onto her tail, making her even more defenseless. He added to the pain with another stomp, followed by a hard blow to the face.   
The referee gulped with fear as he listened to the cries of Usagi. "Point, Chiba Mamoru."  
  
Usagi's family was incensed at the beating that Mamoru was giving her. The couldn't believe that anyone could be so ruthless. Gohan looked down in horror. 'What have I created?' He looked down to his parents, who seemed to be trying their hardest from taking her out of the battle. He wished very much that he could have gone to their side and cried right along with his mother, but he knew that his father, or even brother, would have lashed out at him with their rage. It was, after all, his own fault that his little sister was in such a situation. 'Why isn't dad making her quit? He said that he would. She's in too much danger down there. What's wrong with him? Wait, this is a punishment to me, isn't it? This is because I wouldn't tell her.'  
  
Mamoru walked to her head and kicked her roughly in the face, causing blood to splatter around. "Point Chiba Mamoru."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi and Goku stood at ringside with a towel in their hands. They couldn't help but think about throwing it in. They wanted to spare their daughter the pain. It was obviously too much for her to handle. Chi-Chi looked into her daughter's agony filled eyes. "Goku..."  
  
Goku walked from behind his wife and grabbed her shoulders. "I know. We can't stop it though. She isn't in enough danger to stop her. Her life isn't being threatened. This is a tournament, she should have expected something like this Besides, she doesn't want us to." 'Even though this wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for Gohan.' He shot a piercing glare up at his first son, who was looking horrified. Goku wanted to close his eyes and have it be over. He didn't want his daughter to have to go threw the pain any longer. He knew exactly what it felt like to have your tail grabbed or stepped on and he knew that it definitely wasn't something that anyone wanted to go through. He could feel her pain.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru smashed his fist into her tail to make sure she didn't regain her energy anytime soon. He was enjoying this entirely too much it was scary. "Odango, this sure brings back memories of when I kicked your sorry ass before." He followed up with a blow to her wounded chest.  
  
"Point Chiba Mamoru. Tie score. Four, Son Usagi. Four, Chiba Mamoru. Next point is the winner." The crowd went quiet, the fate of the fight lay on the next blow.  
  
Mamoru smirked down at the helpless form. "Pathetic. Truly pathetic." He thought back to all the times he was compared to her in a less than shining light. Of the last fight he lost. At her greater strength and power that she had shown that day. 'Now I get my revenge. At all the times father has put me down. He has praised her skills and zest for life over me. He shunned me for loosing to her. He always tells me how much of a better fighter she is!' "Well Odango. Looks like a winner has been found. Now how to beat you?"  
  
He stomped on her tail again as she tried to push herself up. He walked around her and gazed down on her limp body with wonder. "Hmm...should I just do a simple blow? Pick you up and throw you out of the ring? Hmm, decisions, decisions."   
He walked to her face and put his face in hers. "I know. I'm going to make you surrender. I'm going to make you call out, to everyone, that I'm the better fighter here. Come on Odango, call it quits. You've lost."  
  
Tears streamed down her eyes as the pain coursed through her. She glared up at him. "No...never!"  
  
Mamoru said nothing as he stood up and walked back to Usagi's tail. He smirked at her face, which with its expression, was begging him not to do it again. He lifted his foot and stomped down on her tail twice more. "And just for good measure..." He lifted his foot and stomped down on it again, only this time, he twisted his foot around on it to force it further into the concrete.  
  
Usagi screamed out in excruciating pain. So much pain was gushing through her body that she was almost becoming numb. She couldn't believe that this was happening to her. She thought that if she had her tail hidden that it wouldn't become a problem. That's what her father had told her. But already twice in one day it had been used against her.   
  
She winced in agonizing pain as she brought her eyes up to see her parents, who looking worriedly down at her. She mustered up enough energy to halfway reach out to them, as if she could feel their comforting touch. She cried harder when she saw her mother's tears.  
  
Chi-Chi cried right along with her daughter. Seeing her reach out like she had only caused more pain for both parents. They could barely hold themselves together. While Chi-Chi cried, however, Goku had his attention fully fixed upon Gohan. He never would have thought Gohan to be someone to do this kind of thing. Especially to family, let alone a child.  
  
Goten, too, was glaring up at his brother. At the moment, he wanted to kill him for what he had done. He had lost all respect for him and it would take a LONG time for him to earn it back. He would think twice before he ever trusted him again. He hoped that their parents would think twice when they wanted to leave her in his care again.  
  
Once she began to feel her energy returning, Usagi struggled to rise. Mamoru was soon to stop her as he pushed her over and stomped on her tail. "It's simple Odango. Just give up."  
  
Usagi's friends looked on as they cried. Ami grabbed Hotaru and pulled her in towards her. She covered the young fighter's eyes with her hands to shelter her from watching such violence. Even though her eyes were covered, Hotaru could still hear the screams loud and clear.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Up in the stands, the rat pack laughed at the spectacle that they found to be hilarious. They were the only group laughing. Even Gohan had let his feelings for his sister take over what he wanted Mamoru to do. Michiru put her hand to her eye to wipe away a tear before it could show. She didn't want Haruka to think that she as going soft.  
  
Haruka looked back to Michiru, who was only halfheartedly laughing. "Come on Michiru! This is the greatest thing we've seen in our entire lives. This is even greater than the time we beat ol' Monkey Girl up."  
  
Michiru nervously looked over to her friend. "I know. My stomach hurts, though." 'A sad excuse.'  
  
Haruka laughed. "Don't tell me that all this excitement is making you nauseous.'   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku looked over at his wife, wanting to cry himself. He couldn't stand to see his youngest child, his baby, in such pain. "Chi-Chi, give me the towel."  
  
Chi-Chi turned to her husband in surprise. "But Goku, you said..."  
Goku frowned. "I DON'T CARE! I can't stand this anymore!" He snatched the towel from his wife and approached the referee. "REF..."  
  
Mamoru laughed when he saw Goku talking to the Referee. He smirked down at Usagi. "Looks like daddy wants his baby back in her pen. Ha, the perfect ending! Beaten by me and your father. What more could I possibly ask for, well, except watching you die but we all know that wont happen as long as your stupid family is around."  
  
Usagi glared at him with hateful eyes, for the first time, but then she let his words sink in. She looked up to her father in horror. 'He doesn't think I can do it? If he doesn't believe in me, who will?' Not wanting to let her father down, she took off her gravity amulet, which she was secretly wearing throughout the entire tournament. She didn't even let her friends know that she was wearing it. She had worn it turned on to fifteen times earth's gravity to compensate for her Saiyan strength, not wanting an unfair advantage. The rest of the girls had theirs off, but since Mamoru was using her Saiyan weakness against her, she RIGHTFULLY determined that it was only fair to use her extra strength against him.   
  
She held the amulet in her hand and with all the strength she could collect, she hurled it at her father, hitting the towel out of his hands. Chi-Chi was stunned by that as she tried to pick it up, only to find that it was still on. She had a hard time lifting it. 'What is she thinking?' "Goku."  
Goku turned around and grabbed the amulet from her. He looked up to his wife with a smile. "She wore it to give the rest of the fighters a chance. That's our Usagi." A smile of pride appeared on his face as he and his wife simultaneously turned around to their daughter.  
  
Usagi had a slight glare on her face. "This is my fight, stay out of it. I can do it. Just give me a chance."  
  
Amused by the by-play, Mamoru looked over to them, He smirked as he stamped down on her tail once more, just to spite her parents.  
  
Goku and Chi-Chi gave a piercing glare at Mamoru. They then turned to their daughter and mutely nodded to her. Mamoru furiously stamped down on her tail again. "Tell your parents to quit being so loving and maybe I'll consider letting up a little on the tail." He evilly laughed as he pulled away from her to study her immobile body. "You've lost Odango. Admit it. I'm better than you."  
  
Usagi scowled up at her nemesis. "Never! I'll never give into bullies! Never! This is for all the kids who get picked on by people like you!"   
  
Mamoru let his rage snap like a twig as he threw a punch aimed at her jaw that was sure to at least break it, if not kill her.  
  
Gohan looked on in rage as he struggled to keep from pulling his hair out. He couldn't believe that Mamoru would try to hurt another in such a dishonorable manner. "That BASTARD! How could I have trusted HIM!?"  
  
Haruka turned around with a smirk as Gohan's scream was heard where she was. "So that idiot has finally come to his senses. He was a fool to trust us."  
  
Goten now had two people on his kill list. No, make that three, Satan must die. He was the only reason why any of this was happening.   
  
Mr. Satan considered hiding behind his chair and running far away, where the Son family couldn't find him. If something horrible were to happen to Usagi, he would be the first that they came for, after Mamoru, that is.  
  
Mamoru smirked. 'She'll be fine. We'll just get a Senzu bean to help her.'  
Usagi didn't blink. Using the last of her strength, no longer hindered by the Gravity amulet, she threw her left arm to block the blow coming from Mamoru, turning the blow away from her into the cemented ring, while at the same time, using her right fist to hurl a blow into to his jaw with all her might. Subconsciously, she added a bit of Ki energy into it. Not to increase its power, but as her father, Piccolo, and brothers realized, it was to defuse the blow so it wouldn't kill him with its force.  
  
Unable to stop his momentum, shocked that she had any strength left after her beating, Mamoru was unable to turn from the fist before it connected with him, full force. The blow sent him hurtling through the air and out of the ring. He landed with a thump, falling unconscious.  
  
Usagi struggled to rise to her feet. She limped her way over to the fallen form of her enemy. She didn't quite make it before she found herself on the ground again. Her legs were much too weak to hold up her body. But she didn't let that stop her. She quickly scurried to her feet again and slowly staggered to him. She once again let herself drop to her knees as she looked down at him. "Five points. Knocked out of the ring. Knocked out. Two losses. Three strikes Mamoru, you're out." She whispered. She could barely keep herself up.  
  
The referee walked over to the two fighters in shock. "You did great, little Usagi." He bent down and helped her back to her feet, raising her arm into the air while he was at it. "The winner by knockout of the advanced class, SON USAGI!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
The cheers that came from the crowd were deafening, though, very much appreciated by the young fighter. Her friends and family were leading most of the pack.  
  
Goku couldn't have been more proud of his daughter at that point. She had made an almost impossible comeback from such a beating. But she had done it and he was proud and there was nothing in the world that would keep him from letting her know, even if there still was the question of Satan's fight with her riding on the line. That would be worried about when the time came. But, until then, they wouldn't speak of it.  
  
Chi-Chi could have fainted right then and there. She was certain that her daughter had finally met the end of the tournament. But, she had again been proved wrong. "She did it."  
  
Goku smiled as he put his hands around his wife's shoulders. "She sure did."  
Chi-Chi turned to her husband with wide eyes filled with concern. "Gohan and Mr. Satan aren't going to take this win too well, are they?"  
Goku lovingly smiled down at his wife as he moved his face closer to hers. "Who cares? Their plan hasn't worked yet, has it?"  
  
Mamoru's gang looked down in shock. Even after all of that, Usagi STILL won. They weren't angry at Mamoru for not finishing the job when he should have, but they were angry at USAGI of all people. Except for Michiru. On the outside, she was angry at Usagi, but on the inside, she was sort of happy about her defeat over Mamoru.  
  
Gohan felt a mixture of relief, pride, shame, and yet anger, which had returned when Usagi won. "All this heartache and she still wins. DAMN! Now we have to go into the other plan. I didn't want to do that."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi pulled away from the referee and turned back to Mamoru, who was bleeding. She gulped as the medical personal came to attend to him. She let herself drop next to him. She dug around in her pocket for a tiny item, which she promptly took out and handed to Mamoru when she found it. "Here." She popped the bean into his mouth and made him chew it.  
  
Mamoru came to and immediately became confused as where he was and what had happened. He looked up to Usagi and the stunned medial personal. "What the hell is going on?" He winced in pain as he spoke.   
  
"You lost." She told him quietly.  
  
Mamoru glared at her in shame by being beaten by her again. "You may have won on this on, but understand this. It's far from over. We're enemies for all time." He stood to his feet, with much trouble and began stalking off towards his friends.   
  
"Mamoru! That's your choice! I just want to finally put this behind us! It's stupid to keep fighting like this! Let's just be friends!" She caught up to him and awaited his answer.   
  
Mamoru looked into her eyes and saw the sincerity in them. He considered it for all of one second and then let his pride take over. "NO!" He turned away and walked away.  
  
Usagi was left behind with sadness, but soon forgot it as the cheers for her rose from the crowd. Smiling, she realized that she had won. She walked back to the ring where she responded in the most dignified manner that a ten-year old could give. She clasped her hands together and began jumping up and down. "I WON! I WON!"   
  
She looked up to the booth, where Mr. Satan was and grinned. 'Heh! You're going down. I finally get my wish.' Usagi jumped with joy as she stood as the final victor of the advanced division. She couldn't wait to dig her hands into Mr. Satan and finally reveal him as the true fraud that he was. She would finally put an end to his escapade. Well, she as well as Hotaru both would show him what they were made of.   
  
She proudly stepped off of the fighting platform, though not for the last time. She smiled, widely, as she walked back to the fighters' building, where her family and friends awaited her. She couldn't help but be happy that the crowd was cheering for her. She wondered what was in store for her when she beat Mr. Satan. She wondered if they would boo her out of the arena for beating their savior, or cheer her on for it.  
  
She smirked at Mr. Satan as she passed him. "Good luck out there with me and Hotaru...you're going to need it." 'Not that it's going to do him any good.' She laughed at his fearful face as she joined her friends, who were also laughing at the man's misfortune. "What fun I'm going to have."  
  
Usagi looked up to her smiling parents. "I told you I could do it."  
  
Chi-Chi was still in tears as she kneeled down and hugged her daughter as tightly as she could. "My baby! I thought you were going to die!" She pulled away just enough to where she could shower her with a series of kisses.  
  
Goku joined his wife and daughter with a smile filled with the pride of a father. "You did great, Usagi. I'm just sorry that you had to be hurt so badly. But, you made a great comeback and we're all very proud of you."  
  
Usagi beamed with happiness as she pulled herself from her mother's grip and launched herself onto her father. "Thanks daddy!"  
  
Hotaru ran to Usagi with excitement. "You were SO cool out there, Usagi! Except, it wasn't cool when you were getting hurt. You're going to be even cooler when you fight Mr. Satan."  
  
Mr. Satan slumped over as he began to walk towards the door that would take him out into the crowd, where they would cheer him on, but not for long. He sighed as he wondered what would happen to him after his fun was over. "Even the little one is against me."  
  
Goku watched Mr. Satan walk away from the group with sympathy. He could sense that the man was having trouble with this. But he still hadn't been fully convinced. "Good luck...Mr. Satan."  
  
Gohan watched Mr. Satan walk out into the excited crowd and then turned to his little Sister with a frown, who was laughing it up with her friends. He angrily walked over to the group of children and glared down at them for their rude behavior, Usagi most of all. "I hope you're happy!"  
  
Usagi turned to her Brother in utter confusion. "What are you talking about?"  
  
Gohan squinted his eyes at her in disappointment. "You know what I'm talking about. You better enjoy this day while you can before you start to feel the guilt." Not wanting to talk to her any longer, Gohan turned around and rejoined his Wife.  
  
Usagi frowned at her Brother's back as he walked away. "Aren't you even going to congratulate me? I mean, I did make a good comeback after having my tail attacked! Don't you even care that I was in a lot of pain!? I don't know what's wrong with him. He's been mean to me all day. He needs to just tell me what's the matter and be done with it."  
  
Makoto put her hand on her friend's shoulder, who was obviously beginning to be troubled by her Brother's behavior. "Don't stress it. Remember what my Mom calls it? The Spontaneous Pissy Man Syndrome."  
  
Usagi giggled as she was reminded of Mrs. Kino's saying. "Yeah. Maybe you're right." She turned back to the group with a smile, though not forgetting the incident that just took place. "I guess I should get ready for the fight. Who wants to come get a drink with me first though? I'm SO thirsty! I think there's a soda machine just outside."  
  
Hotaru threw arms around Usagi's waist and looked up at her with a smile. "I DO!"  
  
"We'll come with you, wont we girls?" Minako looked to her friends for an agreement, which they gladly complied with. "Good, cause I'm thirsty too."  
  
The girls left only the adults in the room. All of them had separate feelings about what had happened. All of them were sure that they were going to have it out before the day was out. And Goten was probably the one who wanted it the most. "Gohan! You call yourself a brother!?"  
  
Gohan sighed as he turned to his brother. "I don't want to hear it from you, man. It was bad enough that I had to watch and listen to it."  
  
"Don't give me that crap! You SHOULD want to listen to it! That was only Usagi, your sister who was out there being agonized like that!" Goten got up into his brothers face. "You're not brother I would ever want!"  
  
"Well maybe if dad would have done something like he said he would." Gohan turned his glare upon his father, who frowned back.  
  
"Don't give that line of crap to me, Gohan. You know damn well that I gave you the chance to back out of it. To take her out. I told you that I would intervene if something terrible were to happen. I know that her getting her tail smashed into the ground is terrible, but I mean, terrible as in life threatening."  
  
Gohan rolled his eyes. "Sure. That's why you were getting ready to teleport when she was about to be hit by Mamoru?"  
  
"There was plenty of time to teleport in and out if I needed to."  
  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru angrily grumbled as he roamed the grounds of the arena. He couldn't decide if he wanted to stay and watch Mr. Satan be publicly humiliated, or if he just wanted to take off and face the music from his father. 'Guess I'll stay here.' He began walking towards the stands when he was stopped by the angry face of the only person who had control over him. "Father!"  
  
Piccolo roughly pushed his son back and glared down at him. "How could you do that?"  
  
Mamoru sheepishly looked down to the ground. "I know. I lost, but I'll win next time, father."  
  
Piccolo punched his son for being so blind to the severity of what he had done to Usagi. "You idiot! I don't care that you lost! I expected that! But what you did to Usagi was uncalled for! I don't remember training you to be so ruthless!"  
  
Mamoru smirked as he looked up, though he wiped the smirk off his face as soon as their eyes locked. "You didn't. That was a little something I picked up from hating her so much. Gohan told me about it, I got back at Usagi for everything that she's done to me."  
  
Piccolo once again raised his fist and punched his son in the face. "SHE'S DONE NOTHING TO YOU!"  
  
Mamoru grabbed his lip, which was now bleeding, as he looked back up to his father. "She did. She's made me look like an idiot in front of my friends. She beat me when she was just a little brat, still is actually."  
  
"She only did that to pay you back for the brutal beating she received from you. You may be fifteen, but you've got a lot to learn. From now on, your training becomes more intense. You also need to learn some respect for the people around you. You fought without honor today..." Piccolo smirked as he turned away from his son.   
  
Mamoru's face became filled with fear. He had caught a glimpse of his father's smirk. "He's up to something and I really don't think I'm going to like it."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mr. Satan stood, nervously, in the middle of the fighting platform as his loyal fans cheered and called out to him. He couldn't help but sweat with all the worrying about what his fans would think when the "Tricks", as he had referred to them, would be his downfall. He stood tall and firm, though, as there was still the hope that Usagi's parents had made their decision. He grabbed the microphone from the announcer and held up his hand to make the "V" sign, which only made the crowd grow wilder. "Citizens of Satan ci..." He dropped the microphone and curled up with supposed pain in his stomach. "Oooh..."  
  
The announcer ran to the "Hero's" side and kneeled down to see what could have possibly been causing the man to drop with pain. "Mr. Satan, are you all right? Do you need a doctor?"  
  
Mr. Satan grinned as he looked at the ground. "I'll be fine. I just have to talk to my Daughter. She has my medicine. I've been a little under the whether lately, but I wont let my fans down." He allowed himself to be helped up by the announcer.  
  
"You hear that folks, he'll be fine. He's just going to get something from Videl and he'll be right back." The announcer proceeded to walk Mr. Satan back to the area where Videl and the Saiyans were. "Here you are, Mr. Satan. We'll be waiting for you to return." He worriedly turned around and walked back out to the ring, where he would proceed to speak of Mr. Satan, most likely.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mr. Satan pathetically looked around the room and gave a long sigh of relief. "Good, none of the kids are here." He looked up to Usagi's parents. "Have you come to your decision yet?"  
  
"Dad..." Goten approached his Father with concern. He knew that he was debating on it and leaning more towards the 'yes' side of things. "Don't do it. This man..."  
  
"Be quiet, Goten." Goku stared into Mr. Satan's pitiful black eyes and let on a sign of a frown. "Please tell me why I should crush my Daughter with breaking her heart like this?"  
  
Satan evilly smiled. He knew that he almost had Goku convinced now. "Because. Do you know how embarrassing it will be if she comes out after all these years and shows the world what a liar I am NOW? It will follow me around for the rest of my life. People all over will taunt me forever. I wont be able to find a moment's peace. This will dirty my family name. I won't be able to go out in public ever again without having to worry about what the people will think. Usagi will be upset, but at least she wont be publicly humiliated."  
  
Chi-Chi pushed her Husband aside. She herself was beginning to become convinced that it was the right thing to do. "So that's why you want us to force her to throw the fight."  
  
Goku pushed his Wife back behind him. "Mr. Satan, I want you to realize that we've never forced our Daughter to do anything that she wouldn't benefit from."  
  
Now Gohan was the one pushing people around. He grabbed Mr. Satan and pulled him away. "Father, you have to learn to be able to stand firm in your decisions. Usagi will just have to understand that she can't publicly humiliate someone just because she WANTS to. You and I BOTH know that it's wrong. Mr. Satan isn't hurting anyone with his secret. Now, if he were hurting someone, I would say no more. But I really see no point in letting her ruin his life over it." He winked back at Videl, who appreciated him for what he was doing.  
  
Goku found himself not agreeing with his Daughter's wants, but his Son's. Mr. Satan did seem to have more at stake here than Usagi did. "All right. We'll make her throw the fight."  
  
Goten widened his eyes with shame. Shame for his Father for agreeing with Gohan. Shame for Gohan persuading their Father like he had. And shame for his Mother because she obviously wasn't going to try and intervene. "I can't believe you guys. This man has no RIGHT to lie to these people." He glared at Mr. Satan, causing him to cower away.   
  
Goku sighed as he turned to his second Son. "Goten, you were obviously not listening to a word that Mr. Satan or your Brother said. He will be humiliated and put to shame for the rest of his life. I don't think we want to be responsible for allowing Usagi to do such a thing. She'll understand."  
  
Goten snorted with disgust. "Yeah right. I just want you all to know that Usagi will NOT understand. She's just a kid. She wont understand something like this. And who's to say she's wrong about this." He crossed his arms. "I'm not going to stand by and watch you do this to her."  
  
Once Mr. Satan knew that he had Goku's support, he was once again fearless of the youngest Son. He walked to him and put his arm around the boy's shoulders. "No one is making you stay here, you know."  
  
Goten moved his eyes to look at Mr. Satan, the annoyance. "Don't push me, old man. I'm not in the mood to be messed with."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned at her Son as she put her hands to her hips. "Goten! Don't talk to people who are older than you in such a rude manner! I'm ashamed of you."  
  
Goten wiped the frown off his face and looked to his Mother. "I'm sorr..." He shook his head. His frown reappeared on his face. "I'm not sorry. I'm ashamed of you ALL. You have no idea how much you are going to mess with Usagi on this one. And I'm not going to be associated with it. I have better things to do than to see my kid Sister be crushed by her own family...AGAIN!" He pulled away from Mr. Satan and stormed out of the room.  
  
Chi-Chi began to chase after him. "GOTEN!" She was soon stopped by a firm grip pulling her back. She looked back to see her Husband. "What are we going to do with him?"  
  
"Absolutely nothing. He's not a kid anymore. We can't control him or what he thinks. Just let him leave. He doesn't have to be a part of this anymore." He shot a glare in Satan's direction. "You owe us all...big time!"  
  
Feeling bad vibes coming from Goku, Satan slightly chucked like the idiot that he is as he backed out of the room. "No hard feelings." With that turned around and ran out of the room.  
  
Just as Mr. Satan was leaving, Usagi was returning with her friends, not knowing what was about to happen. "Hey, what was with Goten? He just left saying something about honor and pride." She took a sip of her soda, which she had gotten from the soda machine outside. "What's up? Why are you all looking at me funny? Is there something on my face?" Chi-Chi sighed as she shook her head and turned her back. She didn't want to see what would happen when she was told the news. "Mom?"   
  
Gohan pushed his Father to the side. "I'll take care of this, Father." He walked to Usagi and kneeled in front of her so he could be face to face with her. He put a smile on his face so as to not make it seem like she was being punished for anything. "Now look, I know you wanted to beat Mr. Satan in front of everyone but you have to understand that you can not do that." 'Blast, She wasn't supposed to recover from her tail being attacked. Why was she able to recover like that?'  
  
Usagi stared at her Brother blankly as she tried to comprehend what he was saying to her. She looked into his serious eyes as she thought about what it was supposed to mean. Though, when she did figure it out, she knew that it had to be a joke. "Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Gohan! Good one! You really had me going there for a minute with your serious expression and all." She stepped to the side, to avoid hitting her older Brother, and began walking forward. "Don't try to make me loose my concentration with jokes, Gohan."  
  
Gohan stood to his feet and grabbed his Sister by the shoulders, turning her around to face him. He still had the most serious expression on his face. "I'm not joking, Usagi. We're all very serious. You have to throw the fight."  
  
Usagi frowned. She didn't like the tone that he was using. "Whatever, Gohan! I'm not throwing the fight. That's why he IS such a big liar is because you guys have let him do it all these years. If you guys aren't going to beat him, then it's my job to do it."  
  
Gohan frowned as he tightened his grip on her shoulders, causing slight pain in the child. "It's not YOUR job to do ANYTHING but GROW UP! This isn't YOUR decision to make. It's MINE! You weren't even alive when Mr. Satan lied and took credit for something I did. It is NONE of your concern. So you be a good little girl and lose the fight like you've been told to. Do it for the family honor."  
  
Usagi pulled out of her Brother's painful grasp and turned her frown into an almost hateful scowl. She knew now that he was very serious. "Don't tell me what to do, Gohan! You aren't my Dad! And Daddy already said that I could fight with Mr. Satan! So there!" She crossed her arms as she stuck her tongue out at him.  
  
"Actually...Usagi..." Usagi felt her confidence fly out the door when she heard the hesitant tone of her Father. "You are to loose the fight to Mr. Satan. Your Mother and I made the decision, not Gohan. He was just delivering it to you."  
  
Usagi slowly turned around in disbelief to see her Father give her a stern serious face. "But you SAID that I could fight him and BEAT him! Why are you changing it? That's not fair!"   
  
"Things change, Usagi. It has come to our atten..."  
  
"I don't care. YOU SAID I COULD BEAT HIM! She turned from her Brother and walked to face her Father, whom she couldn't believe was going along with this outrageous act in the first place. She couldn't believe that any of them would let Satan tramp about and lie to the world. "You can't go back on what you said. I worked hard to get to this point! I went through the most pain I've ever had in my life, having my tail beaten to get to this point! Do you think I liked getting my tail crushed?!"   
  
"Usagi! Don't interrupt your Father like that! You should know better than to do that when someone is scolding you. Now stop it! You are losing to him and that's final! And we know that your tail was hurt, but that's just the way things go sometimes. We didn't plan this to happen." Usagi looked up to her Mother in near tears. The only one who hadn't yelled at her yet was Videl.   
  
Videl didn't totally agree with throwing the fight for she knew her Father's pride. She hated that factor of him. But her love for him made it impossible for her to truly go to Usagi's aide.  
  
'That's the way things go?! MY TAIL WAS CRUSHED! That's all she can say?' Usagi looked around to the faces of her friends, who had backed away from the family, not wanting to get pulled into the feud. They all looked at her with great sympathy. Usagi turned back to her family. "I'm not going to do it. Even if you try to make me. It's wrong and..."  
  
"Usagi!" Gohan turned his Sister around by her shoulder. "Don't mess with this! It's already a done deal! You AREN'T going out there unless you throw the fight."  
  
Usagi looked down to the ground. She had to force herself to reply. "Then I'm not going out there."  
  
"Oh yes you are. And you're going to loose with honor. You are going to be a good sport about this. You aren't going to whine or pout about it." Chi-Chi grabbed her Daughter by the arm and dragged her to the doorway that led out into the arena. She pushed her against the wall and bent down to stare her in the eyes. "We aren't asking much of you. Now just do as we tell you and loose."  
  
Usagi pulled her arm away from her Mother as she looked into her unforgiving eyes. "I'm NOT going to do it." She said with her teeth clenched. She knew that she deserved to be slapped for talking to her Mother the way she just had, but she didn't care. She wouldn't contribute to the giant lie that her family had already started. Even if it meant making her own family angry with her. "You can't make me...Mother..."  
  
Chi-Chi backed away from her Daughter in shock. Her Daughter had just spoken to her as if she had mistreated her. Something she had never done before, which only built fear in the Mother's eyes.  
  
Gohan glared down at his Sister in fury for what she had just done to their Mother. She didn't deserve such a harsh and cold treatment from such an ungrateful child, at least, that's the way he saw things. "If you had only LOST the stupid match against Mamoru things wouldn't have even come to this."  
  
Shock entered Usagi's eyes as she realized just how much he had wanted her to loose. "You did it, didn't you? You really did it." She shook her head with disgust as tears for a new reason entered her eyes. "You were the one who told the others about my weaknesses." She whispered in a voice that even a Saiyan had to strain to hear. "YOU IDIOT! YOU REALLY DON'T CARE ABOUT ME!"  
  
Gohan, feeling guilt overcome him, hardened his emotions and just glared at her. He couldn't cave in, in front of her. Though, he could have kicked himself over and over for what he had done. He still believed that it had been the best thing to do. His glare just answered her question without a single word. 'Great, now she thinks I hate her.'  
  
Usagi slowly turned her head to her Father and realized, just by looking into his eyes, that he knew that Gohan had told the others. "You knew, Daddy? You knew and you told me to ignore it. Let me blame someone else for what he did?" 'More lies...' She looked at her Father with a wounded expression.  
  
Feeling guilt as well, but letting his stubborn pride get in the way of a quick and easy apology and finally having been fed up with his Daughter's adamants, Goku issued an ultimatum. They weren't asking too much of her. Only to throw the fight to save a man's pride so he wouldn't be ridiculed for the rest of life. He saw no reason for her to be putting up such a fight. "USAGI! That's enough! You will not beat Mr. Satan in the fight...period! Don't make this harder on yourself than it has to be."   
  
Usagi cringed from the rough and stern voice he was using with her, something that she hadn't heard in a long time for he never really spoke to her like that unless she did something really bad. "But..." She was already feeling defeated.  
  
Gohan ran to Usagi and glared down at her. "ENOUGH! Quit being such a selfish brat!" No one protested to that, though, Videl looked as if she were about to lay into him big time for his outburst. He had no right to talk to her that way. There was no excuse for it.  
  
Usagi looked down to the ground in utter defeat and tears in her eyes. 'Brat? Is that what I am because I don't want to carry on a lie? Mom and Dad always tell me not to lie, but now that I don't want to lie, I'm a brat? Does this mean that Gohan hates me now? Vejita calls me a brat and HE hates me.' Her heart began to ache with the thought. "Fine." She agreed in a defeated tone that no one, not even her friends had ever heard her use before. She pulled away from the wall and slowly and sadly began to walk out of the room, but, before she left, she stopped in her place and halfway turned around to see her Brother and family in her side vision. "I was wrong, that wasn't the most pain I've ever had."  
  
She continued out the door. On her way out, she caught Gohan's eyes once more. "I thought you were supposed to be my Brother."  
  
At that moment, each and every one of her friends, who were lined up against the wall, wished that they were strong enough to take Gohan out right there and then. They had always respected him because of his kind nature, but now, they weren't sure if they would ever like him the slightest bit again. Seeing this only made Hotaru all the more nervous of revealing her secret to the world.  
  
Goku turned to his Wife in apprehension. "I think we went too far." His face filled with fear and anger as he turned to his Son. "Gohan, don't call your Sister a brat EVER again."  
  
Chi-Chi turned her attention to the ground, as she wanted to burst into tears for the way her Daughter had just spoken to her. "We DID go too far, Goku. We should have just explained everything and laid down the law without loosing our tempers."  
  
"Goten was right. She doesn't understand why we're making her do this. She would have been more willing to go along with it if she did understand." If he could have, Goku would have beaten himself up right there and then for what he had done to her. He couldn't believe that he had spoken to her in such a tone when she really hadn't done anything. She didn't deserve to be treated the way she did. 'I did it again...'  
  
Gohan just stood there and stared at his Sister in shock. He felt much more guilt after hearing her last statement than he had about the whole Mamoru situation. He couldn't believe himself. But then again, he had gotten his point across to her.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The announcer stepped onto the platform with Mr. Satan and the microphone in hand. The crowed wildly cheered with anticipation of the next fight. "Now ladies and gentlemen, we have witnessed some great fights here today. We have also seen some great fighters. Now, we have three winners here today that will get to try their luck at beating our world's hero, Mr. Satan!"  
  
The crowd grew wilder as their cheers grew for Mr. Satan. "SATAN! SATAN! SATAN!"  
  
"Now we will be watching the fight between the great champion of the earth, and the new comer from the advanced division. The one who has taken this tournament by storm. Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome back Son Usagi!"  
  
Everyone applauded as they turned their attention to the young fighter making her way towards the ring. Usagi's last fight was being broadcasted all over Japan and even across the world. She was being basked with cheers. But, as she walked forward, there was no smile on her face. Not even a slight hint of one wanting to come out and show itself to the world. There was no joy of honorable battle that she had shown throughout the tournament. There was no sign of anything like that in her tiny body. No, what she had on her face was worse than anything her family and friends had ever seen. It was the hurt look of a lost little girl, not going unnoticed by her guilty feeling family. From the top of the fighters' building, Goten watched her walk slowly to the ring, with her head down. He had heard the whole fight between her and their family. He wished that he had been there at her aid, but, knowing Usagi, she would have felt that he was against her too. He needed to go to her when no one else was around.  
  
Mr. Satan strutted over to announcer and grabbed the mic out of his hand. "Greetings again, citizens of Satan City and visitors from all around. Here we are again. Time to show this new star what she may one day become. Well, close anyway. After all, no one can equal the great Mr. Satan, savior of the world."  
  
Usagi stepped onto the platform and looked up to the lying buffoon. She winced more than a few times. Her heart was bleeding inside from the verbal beating in which she had just received. That's how she thought it to be, anyway.   
  
Mr. Satan met her eyes as he looked down into her small face. Her eyes were emotionless, which only scared him. He had never seen her look so upset before. There wasn't even a single tear in her eyes anymore. He couldn't just stand there and feel sympathy for her though. He needed to put on the show for his fans. "Don't worry, little girl, I'll go easy on you." The crowd grew wild at their hero's generosity and sense of fair play.   
  
"You two know the rules." The announcer left the platform and rung the bell to signal the fight to begin.   
  
Mr. Satan took a confident step towards Usagi, who stepped away. "Come on kid, let's lose." He whispered under his breath to remind her of her duty.  
  
Usagi's eyes formed a slight glare. She couldn't believe that her family, her supporters, had turned their backs on her. She couldn't believe that they had promised her that she could finally beat him only to take that privilege away from her. In the manner that they had told her, she felt as if someone violently ripped her heart out of her body and then pranced all over it. But most of all, she couldn't believe that she was THAT close to Mr. Satan and she was being force, by her own family, to throw the fight. "You evil little..." Without thinking, she pulled her fist back and raised her power level. She could feel her Father's power level rising higher than her own as a form of keeping her under control. She knew, at that moment, that she had better knock it off or else she would have had to pay the consequences. She knew that her family was totally serious about this. 'I've been defeated without a single hit.'  
  
Usagi dropped her power level as well as her fist and lowered her head, which caused her Father to drop his power level back down to normal. Without moving her head, but only her eyes, she glanced over at her angry parents and Brother who stood in the doorway. She knew that she had messed up big time. A part of her didn't even care. "You win. I surrender. I don't want to fight the great Mr. Satan. I'm too scared." It was true. She was entirely too frightened to go on. Though, not of Mr. Satan, but her own family. She backed up and turned around to walk towards the exit, not her stunned family.  
  
Usagi's coward-ness shocked the entire stadium as well as the home viewers. Immediately after her forfeit, jeers and boo's began to arise within the stadium, all of them directed towards Usagi, which didn't make things any better. Mr. Satan, himself, was even stunned at her behavior. Though, he quickly regained his composure and decided that for the child's sanity, he would address the audience. "Hey, don't make her feel bad. After all, she can hardly be blamed for fearing the greatest fighter on earth."  
  
Usagi stopped when she heard that, full of tears once again. She slowly began to turn her head, utterly terrifying Satan. She shook her head in disgust as she walked out of the arena, her head was held low in defeat and shame.   
  
Videl was the first of the family to come to their senses. She sent a cold glare out to her still preening Father. Feeling her glare, Mr. Satan turned to her and realized that maybe he had taken it just a little too far. After all, Usagi was only a child who obviously didn't understand how important it was to him to keep his image. But his pride wouldn't let him back down. The image of his Daughter's face that filled with disappointment and shame for him would follow him for the rest of his days.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Videl stepped out of the fighters' building and began running across the ring to hopefully catch up to Usagi, with her Husband and his family close behind, leaving the girls all alone.   
  
Hotaru walked to the doorway once there was no one left but them. "Shouldn't we follow them to make sure that Usagi is all right?"  
  
Minako looked to Rei, who looked to Makoto, who looked to Ami, who looked back at all her of her friends. They then proceeded to turn to Hotaru with Ami as the spokes leader. "I don't think that's such a good idea considering the fact that this is one of those family things."  
  
Hotaru couldn't take that as a valid answer. Yes it was true, it was a family argument. But at that moment, not even Usagi's family seemed to be on her side. "She needs a friend, you guys. Usagi was there for me when I was down in the dumps. I want to be there for HER when her family leaves." Without even getting an ok from her friends, she darted out in pursue of Usagi and her family.  
  
Minako hesitated to turn to her friends in question. "Should we follow her?"  
  
Rei shook her head. "No. Well, maybe we should, but then again...I don't know. This is too confusing."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi numbly emerged out of the upset crowd of people with tears streaming down her face. The crowd threw taunts of disgust at her as they walked past her. Usagi just lowered her head more as she felt like she hadn't a single friend in the world, though she knew she did. This was brining back horrible memories of her first two days of school.   
  
Videl was the first to spot Usagi in the main hall of the stadium. She couldn't remember any other time that she had seen Usagi, or any child, as upset as she was then. "Usagi, hang on."  
  
Usagi didn't respond. She just continued to walk away from her family, who was sure to scold her for what she had done. But she didn't care. She wanted time alone to think, which was something that she wouldn't be allowed to have.  
  
Gohan followed his Wife and Sister. He was more upset with Usagi now than he had been before the fight. It was one thing to try and ruin a man's life, but it was another to make the family name look bad in front of so many viewers. He was unable to imagine what could have made her put on such a show. 'Why couldn't she just have fought and lost like the rest of us do? What was she thinking? That we'd feel guilty about it? She's the one who should feel guilty.' Gohan became even angrier at his thought. He let his anger show in his voice. "You're just going to pout now, huh? You had to do something right for a change and not do it the way you wanted to, and now you're going to make everyone feel guilty."  
  
Goku had mixed feelings about this whole situation. He had wanted her to lose to protect Mr. Satan, but he hadn't wanted her to just surrender like she had. Though, he could hardly blame her after they way they had treated her. "Gohan..." He sternly glanced back to his Son. 'Neither of them understands the other, obviously. Do I?'  
  
Usagi froze in her place when the harsh words of her Brother once again wounded her heart. 'What was the difference in me loosing the fight? It was either him or me who was humiliated. Why did they want ME to be humiliated over him?'   
  
Seeing that Usagi had stopped, but not turned around, Videl slowly walked to her and placed her hand on the child's shoulder as a form of comfort. She looked down at Usagi, who had her face turned away. Videl figured that she didn't want anyone to see her tears. Tears that had been brought upon by her Brother. By all of them. "Us..."  
  
Usagi wrenched her shoulder away from her only supporter, thinking that she was against her as well since it was her Father that they were all trying to protect. 'Why don't they just leave me alone?'   
  
Her whole family was stunned at her refusal to even cooperate with Videl. Though, no one was more stunned than Gohan. He jumped to his Sisters side and bent down to her face. She refused to even look at him. "You little brat! How dare you to that to my Wife! She's practically your Sister! You should be ashamed of yourself! You've changed into nothing but a selfish brat! And now it shows because for once Mom and Dad didn't cave into your begging, and you act like this." Anger had forced him to respond with more fury than he had intended to, but he didn't back down. 'If Mom and Dad aren't going to get their hands dirty with disciplining her, I have to.'  
  
The parents of this duo were going to get their hands dirty all right, just nothing to Gohan's liking. Chi-Chi was too shocked to do anything at all, though; Goku still had a hold of himself. He tried to keep his cool as he began to speak for he didn't want to be just like Gohan. "Gohan! What did I tell you about that? Knock it off!"  
  
If Usagi were in any other kind of a mood, she would have smiled and thanked her Father for trying to stand up for her, but the truth was that she was still angry at him for telling her that she could beat Satan and then ripping that privilege away from her. He had let her go through that whole tournament thinking that she was going to show the world his true side only to force her to loose right at the very end. "I AM ashamed of myself." Every single person there turned their shocked attention down to the child who had just softly spoken, barely loud enough for any of them to hear.  
  
Gohan stood back up and smiled down at his Sister as he took a step back. "At least you know that what you did was wrong."  
  
Usagi shot a deadly glare up at her Brother. Not only was she angry with him for calling her a brat and being an utter jerk to her for the entire day, but also he had tried to keep her from winning by selling out to the enemy. "AND I'm ashamed of all of you, too. But most of all, Gohan, I'm ashamed of you." She narrowed her eyes, which only made her look angrier, scaring her Brother. "You're the worst, Gohan!" She let her head drop back down in shame as she wiped some tears away.  
  
Gohan, once again, lost his temper at that. "Oh I'M the worst?!" Right when he was about to go to her again, his Wife intervened. He furiously looked up at her. "Videl! Move aside!"  
  
Videl shook her head. "NO! You MOVE!" Gohan growled as he backed away. Videl calmly turned to Usagi and once again placed her hand on her shoulder. "Usagi..."  
  
"I'm leaving for...somewhere else! I need to get away from you guys!" She raised her hands to her face to gaze upon and in a low voice added, "I want a bath. I feel so...dirty."  
  
Gohan couldn't control his anger any longer. Especially after that remark from his Sister. "You brat! We're here, in the middle of a conversation, and all you want to do is leave to take a bath? I..."  
  
Usagi scowled up at her Brother. She had listened to enough of his ranting. "SHUT UP! I don't care about what you have to say!" Everyone was utterly shocked at the cold voice that she used to scold her Brother.   
  
Not even trying to control his fury anymore, he roughly grabbed her arms and turned her to face him all the way. "Now look here Usagi! You..." He didn't get any further before an angry Super Saiyan threw him off.  
  
Angry at both of his kids' attitudes about the whole thing, Goku too, went Super Saiyan as he knew if he didn't, they would probably end up fighting each other right there and then. That could have ended up very messy considering the fact that Gohan has his mystic powers, which greatly exceeded the powers that of a Super Saiyan. And with Gohan's current rage, Goku feared that he wouldn't hold back against the weaker fighter. "Both of you! Stop this garbage!" He glared back and fourth at Gohan, who was returning to his feet, and at Usagi who didn't seem to want to power down. She more concerned with starring down Gohan. He crossed his arms as he upped his power level to Super Saiyan two, just in case they didn't want to listen. "Usagi..." He couldn't believe that he was having to witness this. Never in his life had he expected Usagi and Gohan to ever argue to this extent.   
  
Chi-Chi rushed to her Husband's side and stared directly at Gohan. She wasn't too concerned with Usagi for the fact that she was just trying to defend herself, even if she had gone overboard. "Don't try anything, Gohan."  
  
Usagi continued to stare into her Brother's angry eyes, though, hers weren't quite filled with rage, as his were. Hers were filled with fear. Fear of loosing her relationship with her Brother forever. "Whose the REAL brat here, Gohan?" She kept her power level at Super Saiyan against her Father's wishes. She couldn't power down. That would be telling Gohan that he had won against her again.   
  
Gohan glared down into his Sister's eyes, still at the same power level that he had been at when she had thrown him off. "You are. You're the one attacking me."   
  
Usagi found that to be absolutely outrageous. "I only did it because you grabbed my arm. I didn't know what your intentions were going to be. Plus didn't want YOU touching me." 'He's acting like Mamoru. He's the selfish pig! Not me!' She took a step forward to intimidate her Brother. It was her turn to do the yelling.  
  
Goku could see things heating up very quickly. He hated to intervene in this for the fact that it was mainly between Gohan and Usagi. He had caused it to escalate higher than it needed to be. "Usagi! Power down!"  
  
Usagi stopped in her place and slowly turned to face her Father. With one cold word she had greatly defied her Father, to his face, for the very first time. "NO!"   
  
Goku was a bit disoriented at her reply. She had never refused to do anything that he had told her to do in her life. She had always obeyed him. Though, the last time she followed what he had said for her to do, she had become heartbroken. "Fine! Just don't try anything and you can stay powered up." He let his power go down as he grinned at her, telling her that he wasn't angry about her decision to challenge him.   
  
Usagi lost her train of thought as she became surprised at his reply. She had expected him to yell at her, maybe even lash out at her for rebelling against his wishes. But he hadn't, he had agreed with her and even powered down. She quickly regained herself and turned to her Brother with a returned grimace. "Now YOU listen here, GOHAN! I've listened to all of you. Now it's MY turn!" She let out a growl as her eyes reflected the sunlight, making them almost completely silver right along with her hair and tail, which was beating angrily against her legs, not going unnoticed by her family.   
  
Videl could see that Gohan was going to try and do something again so she stepped in-between the arguing siblings as a barrier. Gohan glared at his Wife. "Videl!"  
  
"Shut up! We've made her do what you and my Father wanted. We're the ones who made her this distressed. Now it IS out turn to listen to what she has to say. Something we should have taken into consideration earlier." She paused and looked back to Usagi. She still saw the ashamed look that had entered the child's eyes, but now, the fire of justice again blazed within them as well. "Go ahead and speak your mind, Usagi. We're listening."  
  
Usagi slowly turned to her Mother, who was in a state of crisis at the moment. She had things to say to her, but she just couldn't bring herself down to her Brother's level and knock her while she was down. So she turned to her Brother. "You speak of family honor and doing this FOR family honor, but it's not that. It's pride. You let that crazy man fool the world into thinking that he is the TRUE hero." She turned to her Father, who knew he was in for it for many things, and he was definitely ready to listen. "You and Mom always, ALWAYS yell at me for lying to you. But here, today, not only did you lie to me, but also you made me lie. You said that I could beat Mr. Satan, but then right at the last minute you said I couldn't. You forced me to lie by letting Mr. Satan to win. You didn't even let me try to defend myself and my reasons." She turned back to her Brother to let her Father think about what she had just said to him. "When Cell Jr. was attacking, you made me leave the area when he was going on about how he was going to save the world again. You told me it was none of my business. And you call that honor? I call that lying, something I don't believe I'm supposed to do." Usagi turned to her Father once again. "Maybe you should punish me for lying so much FATHER!" She stated in the most sarcastic voice she could.  
  
Gohan looked down at his Sister. Most of his frown had diminished. "Why do you even remember me making you leave?"  
  
Usagi looked back up to her Brother. "Because I remember the things that hurt me most so I can avoid running into that same situation again. That's what happens when you're picked on throughout your WHOLE life, Gohan. You learn to be tough, to harden yourself. But you wouldn't know about that, would you?"  
  
Gohan was shocked by his Sister's statement. He wasn't too sure what she was trying to say to him about not knowing about it. "I don't know..."  
  
Usagi frowned. "Of course you wouldn't. You do NOT know the difference between honor and pride. I don't know the dictionary definitions right off hand but I do have my own. Honor is truth, justice, love, caring, doing your best. That isn't what you guys had me do. What you had me do was for pride. Honor is most always sacrificed for pride. When Cell Jr. attacked, that idiot had that crowd out in the open. They thought that he could protect him. What if Cell Jr. would have attacked when they were there and no one was there to help because of your lies. Would you try to bring them back with the Dragon Balls? Would that make it right? I ask you this, Gohan? How many other kids have had their day and victory destroyed because HE had to be in the spotlight? Why else would he fight the winners of the tournament if not to be the center of attention?"   
  
Heaving in exertion, she turned her eyes upon her shocked parents again. "You let the world call him a hero. I always adored heroes. All of them. The police that protect people from themselves and others. The firemen who risk their lives to help others out of danger. Parents who protect their kids from dangers. The Mothers who gives her kid the last of the food in the house, even though her hunger is just as big. The good citizens of the city that save unknown strangers. The heroes of the past and the present. The heroes with NO powers to help them do their job. And most of all, you guys." Silence reigns as she paused to catch her breath.   
  
"Now I can't help but to cry. All those heroes, from everyday ones, to the greatest in the universe. Even ones who lost their lives trying to protect others, even if they failed. All of them are great heroes. And I can't help but think that we've shamed them with our lies. I look around to you guys and all I see are liars. I look at myself now and I know that I'm the biggest liar of all. I knew this was wrong, but the weakling that I am, I gave in. I let you make me into a traitor to all true heroes, everywhere." She powered down now that everything that she had wanted to say, had been said. She didn't care how much of a lecture she would get either. She had spoken from the heart and if she were to get in trouble for it, then that just showed how much her family really cared about what she ever had to say about anything.   
  
To her surprise, no one said a single word, which made her feel slightly better. But not enough to want to stay and look upon who she considered to be traitors to all heroes. "I'm leaving. I need a bath to try and wash this horrible dirty feeling I have. I can't stand to stay here any longer. Whenever I look around, all I see are big giant LIES. I see...I see...I see Mr. Satan hurting himself with his own lies. I'm going somewhere else. Don't bother following me because I'll just teleport away as soon as you get there." She looked over to her Father and Mother to see their reaction. To her relief, they didn't seem too angry at her decision. She gave them a quick grin in thanks as she teleported away.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Gohan gulped as he grimly looked around to his parents and Wife. "I've really screwed up big time with this one."  
  
"It serves you right. You were a real ass to her. I would be surprised if she ever took you back into her heart again, after what you pulled." Goten entered the circle of his family and turned to his Father, who was trying to piece together what had just happened. "I told you she wouldn't understand, did I not? You just couldn't listen to me. No, little Goten was wrong again."  
  
"SHUT UP!" Gohan desperately tried to keep himself from lashing out at his little Brother. "You don't have to rub it in so god damned much."  
  
Goten grinned. "Getting temperamental, are we? My, my, Brother, now we know how our little sis felt, don't we?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she raised her fist and hit her youngest Son upside the head. "Goten! Don't make things worse! Maybe you should do something constructive and find Usagi for us."  
  
Goten angrily turned to his Mother. "Maybe Gohan should do that." With that, he turned around and stomped away from the group.  
  
Goku looked up to Gohan with concern. "I have a few things that I'd like to say to you. Now, first off, you know I HATE yelling at any of you three."  
  
Gohan nodded. "Yeah I know." 'This could get bad. I've done a lot of things to make him mad today.'   
  
"Let me get a few things straight. You may be an adult now, you may be out of our house now, but that doesn't change the fact that we're your parents. When we tell you NOT to interfere or try going above our heads, in regards to your Sister's life, and ours, you DON'T do it, EVER. We had our reasons for not deciding on anything and you know that, Gohan. And second, DON'T EVER call your Sister a brat again! I already told you that! You know damn well that she is NOT a brat! You're just throwing oil on a grease-fire when you do that. You know Usagi and how easily she gets upset."  
  
Gohan dropped his head with shame as he listened to his Father's words. He knew that they were all true, but, he had let his anger get the best of him and now he would have to pay for it.  
  
"And if you ask me, you're the one being a brat. You're the one being selfish. You only thought about what you wanted today. You went through all that trouble to make sure that Usagi didn't win the tournament today and when she did, you blew up on her. You didn't seem to want to take into consideration that you were putting her feelings at stake."  
  
Before Goku could go on any further, Mr. Satan struts into the group with a cheeky smile from his most recent 'victory'. "Well that went well." He wrapped his arm around Gohan's shoulder as he thought that they were great friends because of their deal. "Ha, I have to admit I thought the kid would have at least TRIED to put up a fight. Guess she knew better than to fight a real hero."  
  
Gohan, utterly ashamed of himself, beat his Wife to a response, who was about to lash into her Father. He pulled away from the man. He reached out and lifted him by the cuff of the collar. "Father..." Mr. Satan shook with fear. "This is the last time you rig a fight. AND the last time you fight the winners of the tournament. You'll make an announcement that you have decided to let the winners have their day, and that you were wrong to steal their rightfully earned glory." Gohan growled as he brought Mr. Satan closer to his face, who was about to protest to Gohan's 'requests'. "If you don't, I'LL fight you in public and beat the living crap out of you and then tell all the true story of what happened at the Cell games." He grinned. "Or better yet, I'll let my Sister."  
  
Mr. Satan shook harder as he looked down to his Daughter for support, who was glaring at him. He chuckled, fearfully. "Ok my boy, ok. No harm done."  
  
"You're wrong, but it wasn't by you, it was by me, much to my shame." He set his Father-in-law down, who jumped away, not wanting to be hurt in any way.  
  
Gohan looked in the direction in which he felt his Sister's Ki. She seemed to be at her tree house, Sanctuary. 'Poor kid. What have I done? She's going to hate me forever.' "I know she said not to follow her, but don't you think we should go and apologize?" His, as well as everyone else's, attention was diverted to a small figure emerging from the shadows.   
  
"It wouldn't matter if you went or not. Your GREAT PLAN failed and now she's not going to listen to you." Startled and cursing themselves for being so careless as to let an outsider listen in on the conversation, the family turned to the cold voice that had quietly made the statement. That small and angry voice came from Hotaru, who had quietly been watching the whole thing. She glared at Gohan and Mr. Satan without any respect at all for either of them. "I heard it. I heard it all. What you did. How you forced her into loosing, me and the others all watched it. And it was POINTLESS!" She said it almost as if she had a plan to overcome this obstacle that Usagi had not. "He still has to fight me. And I WON'T BACK DOWN! No one can make me! For my best friend, who is also my Sensei, I will beat you up!"  
  
Mr. Satan stared fearfully at Hotaru, he knew what she was capable of, though; she was also quite hurt from her previous battles. He looked back to the others for support, but there was nothing for him to rely on. He would have to do this on his own. "Now, little girl..."  
  
Hotaru glared harder as she stepped towards him, causing him to cower further away from him. "Don't you little girl me! I may be small, I may not always act like it, but I'm NOT ignorant! I'm NOT going to let you win!" With much determination, Hotaru turned away from the people she had respected, until now. "I'll see you in the ring, Mr. Satan."   
  
Before Satan could even make a single response of any kind, Chi-Chi glared at him with hateful eyes. "Don't even think about it you crazy old man. You're on your own with this one. That includes you two as well, Goku and YOU Gohan. We WILL talk about your keeping things from me AGAIN, Goku. And don't think that I haven't figured out what she meant by 'you did it', Gohan. I guarantee that we will discuss."  
  
Videl glared at her Husband, which always had a way of intimidating him, ever since they had first met. "That goes double for me." A very ashamed Goku and Gohan lowered their heads and nodded as they sighed. They felt horrible about themselves.  
  
Mr. Satan turned around and considered his position. True, he wasn't even in Usagi's league, but without the use of her Ki attacks he was sure he could beat Hotaru since she was pretty much out of it anyway. Despite everything, he was a tenth level Black belt, and one of the greatest human fighters on earth who couldn't use Ki attacks. He just wasn't capable of holding up against any of the Z team fighters and their children. A smirk appeared as he went to get himself ready for the next fights. 'I'll fight the beginner first and save the younger one for last. That way, I can save my strength for the real fight and have the crowd eating out of my hand if I need to.'  
  
Glaring at her Father's back, Videl slowly turned to the rest of her family. "He's up to something. I can feel it."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded as she considered the situation, something she was sure that her pigged headed Husband and Son weren't doing. "For now, we need to let Usagi cool off. Plus, I know that she would want us here to make sure nothing went wrong with Hotaru, that nothing happen to her during her fight. But we won't interfere with the fight in any way." She glared especially at her Son and Husband, who were known to interfere many times when it just wasn't needed.  
  
Videl smiled sadly at her Mother-in-law. "Agreed." She turned her glare upon Gohan, once again. All knew better than to comment on her agreement with Chi-Chi. That was one pair that everyone knew better than to contradict.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi walked aimlessly walked around Sanctuary with a broken heart and tear filled eyes. She replayed the previous activities over and over again in her head almost to the point where she wanted to puke because they were so awful. She wasn't sure if she would ever have the same loving relationship with her Brother. If it could ever be the same. She wouldn't have a problem with forgetting about it and trying to move on with life, but she wasn't sure about Gohan. They were two very different people with two very different views on life. She wasn't sure if Gohan would ever forgive her for talking to him the way she had, though, she just wouldn't have been able to live with herself had she not have been able to get it out in the open.  
  
Her parents were another story. Though she had been too angry with them to do as they wanted, she knew that they at least halfway stood on her side. Her Father had not once yelled at her after the fight for disobeying him. He seemed to be ok with it, though, she wouldn't push her luck and make it a habit. She knew that this was just one of those times that things like that were allowed. But, it would take a while to get things back to normal, which was something she didn't want. She wanted to skip the earning each other's trust back part and get back to the way things were.   
  
Now she sat on the top balcony with a cherry slushy cooling herself off from the draining day. She was looking forward to watching the fight between Hotaru and Mr. Satan. She was going to watch it on the big-screen TV that sat on the main floor of Sanctuary. Though, in the back of her mind she was really debating on whether she wanted to go back and watch it for real, but that would require running into her family, something she wasn't quite sure she was ready to do for if she did see them, she was certain that another conflict would arise between them. She didn't exactly want to see them again until she had recollected her thoughts enough to where she could make a good argument. She knew that once she saw her parents again that she would be in for a nice scolding. Not from her Father most likely, but from her Mother. She had worn herself out with all that she had just done. She wasn't exactly ready to go through it again, though, she wanted to be there for Hotaru. She sighed as she took a sip of her slushy. 'What to do, what to do...'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Having easily beaten Kichigai Joshi, the winner of the beginner division with a swift punch to the stomach (Poor Dizzy-Chan HEY NOW!! Heh... ), Mr. Satan proudly and arrogantly stepped into the ring again, finding himself standing across from Hotaru. He gulped when she said nothing. She only glared upon him as if he were an animal. Despite himself, he felt a strange fear of this child. Not only does he fear that he will be beaten in front of all his loyal fans, but he felt a fear that couldn't be explained.   
  
The announcer who had presented the whole fight to the audience at the stadium, as well as the home viewers, walked up to the ring for the last time. "And now for the final fight of day. Ladies and gentlemen we have seen extraordinary talent here today from this young child. She will now try her luck at beating the mighty Mr. Satan! The intermediate winner, Tomoe Hotaru!" The audience grew loud as they clapped for the youngster.   
  
Mr. Satan cockily walked up to Hotaru. He smiled a feral grin and began his attacks without any type of warning. They were fast and furious. He wasn't thinking about how hard he was hitting, though. He was imagining young Hotaru as her Sensei, Usagi. The one person in the world who dared to defy him. She had generated another hater of him.   
  
Hotaru had not expected such strength and skill to come from him. All she had heard from Usagi was that he was a big fake. Usagi never mentioned anything about whether he really could fight or not. Hotaru took a large beating from Mr. Satan and realized that she had underestimated him. But already worn out from the tournament and facing a foe with years of experience and great strength for a non-Ki fighter, she was unable to make a come back of any sort, but she also refused to fall.  
  
Mr. Satan just narrowed his glare at her unwillingness to fall as he let the punches go at her harder. "Just fall and be done with it."  
  
Bleeding, Hotaru had to force herself not to drop to her knees as she glared right back at him. "Never! I will never betray my best friend, my Sensei. I'm going to beat you for her!"  
  
An even greater fury erupted inside him. All the worry and planning over the day to make sure that Usagi was not allowed to beat him and the tension with his family got the better of him, overcoming any thought of decency. He threw a deadly full fisted blow at her, which would cripple her if it were to make contact.  
  
His family realized too late what he had done to do anything. Videl dropped to her knees as she cried out in horror for him to stop as well as the audience, but, before the punch could hit the seriously injured fighter, a small hand appeared in a burst of golden light, stopping it in mid-throw.   
  
Usagi had been watching the tournament from Sanctuary, wanting to see Hotaru's triumph, when she realized, as well as her family, that Mr. Satan had gone WAY over the edge. From the moment that he first laid a single punch upon her, from the first time that Usagi noticed that Hotaru would not be able to recover easily, she prepared to come there to cheer her on. But then she saw the killer blow. She knew that Hotaru would not be able to block against it with such a low power level.  
  
Usagi scowled at Mr. Satan as she softly kicked him in the stomach. Well, it was soft to her but not to her victim. Mr. Satan grabbed his stomach as he was knocked out of breath. Usagi didn't even give Mr. Satan the dignity of yelling at him. Instead, she just turned to Hotaru, who was now on the ground from exhaustion.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku stepped forward, not to scold his Daughter for interfering, but to scold Mr. Satan for nearly killing Hotaru. "That bastard!"  
  
Chi-Chi placed her hand on her Husband's stomach, stopping him from going any further. "Let her do this, Goku. I think she's earned it. Let her show the world who Mr. Satan really is." Goku turned to his Wife and gave her a smile and a nod.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi kneeled down by Hotaru and held out a single Senzu bean, which she had been saving just in case something were to happen. Hotaru's arm shook from being so weak as she reached out and took the small bean from her friend. "I..." She popped the Senzu into her mouth and could almost immediately feel its magic working to replenish her energy.   
  
Hotaru said nothing more as she dropped her head in shame for her defeat. Usagi didn't know what to tell her. She didn't see why Hotaru could have been ashamed of herself for what she just did. Usagi smiled to try and ease up the tension that she was feeling from Hotaru. "It's all right. He isn't as bad of a fighter as I thought he was. But, you'll pass him soon. And if you would have been able to us your Ki power, you'd have won this time. But it's great that you kept the pledge we made not to use it for the tournament. I'm proud of you. Don't be ashamed of a little loss. I mean hey, everyone looses some time. You should be proud that you won the tournament, that's all that really counts."  
  
Hotaru looked up to her friend with a bright smile planted firmly on her face. Usagi always did have a way of cheering people right up. "Thanks."  
  
Usagi giggled. "Welcome!" Usagi turned her head to Mr. Satan as he tried to regain his footing. 'He's going down today and that's all there is to it.' She quickly turned back to Hotaru and motioned for her to leave the area, which she did, not wanting to get involved in what was about to take place.   
  
Usagi stood to her feet as she glared at Mr. Satan. She could barely see her parents out of her side vision. They were watching her. She wondered what was going through their heads at that moment. She wondered if she was going to get into trouble for what she was about to do. They had to know what she was going to do. She could see Gohan, as well. He didn't look like he had any emotions towards the situation at all, but that was just on the outside. Who knew what he was really thinking about all of this.  
  
"I don't care anymore, Mr. Satan. I just don't. I don't give a blast what my Dad wants. I don't give rip about what my Mom wants. I REALLY could care less what my BROTHER wants. I don't even want to hear about what YOU want. All I know is that you're going down today. This time, we finish the fight. Right here, right now!" She yelled loud enough for the whole stadium to hear. She let herself glance over to her family, who didn't move an inch. She could see Hotaru standing, safely, in her Father's arms. 'Good. She's safe from this monster.' She changed her yelling to a soft whisper that only Satan could hear. "You've lied for the last time."  
  
Trying to back out of it, Mr. Satan began walking away with an evil chuckle of victory over Usagi. "Sorry, kid, you had your chance and you ran. Maybe another tim..."  
  
Usagi increased her energy to teleport in front of him. "Not this time. You have no choice. If my parents, or Brother want to stop me, I'll take them on to." 'What am I saying? I can't hold up to them. Well, maybe Mom, but I don't want to hurt her.'   
  
Again, not a single family member moved. The crowd looked on in confusion. They couldn't understand why their champion was letting this bratty, yet, cowardly, kid get away with speaking to him in such a disrespectful manner. Genuine fear entered Mr. Satan's eyes as he backed away like the coward he is. "I'll...I'll go easy on you." He tried to think of another reason that he could come up for his defeat.   
  
  
"No, you wont. You'll try your best and lose, just like every real fight you've ever had with a master of Ki-Jitsu." The crowd strained to hear every single word that the young fighter spoke as they had never heard of such a style of fighting.   
  
Usagi, having enough talking, lashed out with a sweep of his legs, making them collapse from underneath him. She grabbed his legs as he fell. She began twirling him a great speed, causing him to scream out as she let go, sending him high into the air.  
  
The crowd just sat in shock by the girl's strength. They were utterly stunned that their 'hero' could be so easily beaten by a mere child. They were even more shocked, though completely entertained, by the fact that she began glowing as she FLEW up to him, knocking him down, only to dive beneath him and throw him up again. This continued for just a little under five minutes until he hollered out his surrender. Usagi stopped playing with the man that she despised and let him drop to the ground. She slowly let herself fall by his side. She looked around to the gasping crowd. "The man you know before you is a lie. He didn't defeat Cell. He didn't save earth."  
  
Onlookers shouted down curses to the child in the middle of the ring with their hero. They were outraged at the girl's lies. Most of the crowd began throwing food items down at the child fighter as they told her to get away from Mr. Satan. Some even dared to call her a monster here to attack the earth. Videl sighed as she joined Usagi in the ring. She couldn't have Usagi being taunted and ridiculed because of her Father. She had already gone through that once that day. "This child, Usagi, speaks the truth." She dropped her head in shame. "My Father didn't defeat Cell. Usagi's Brother, my Husband did at the age of ten along with the help of his Father and friends." The world seemed to hold its breath as they turned their angry eyes upon Mr. Satan. Though, Videl was one of the only people who didn't look at him in such an awful way. She look at him with a firm, serious, yet, loving gaze. "It's time for this charade to end, once and for all."  
  
Mr. Satan hurtfully looked at his Daughter. He then turned to crowd with a loud groan and sense of responsibility, one he wished that he didn't have. He was ashamed at the lengths that he had gone to save his face. He, for the first time in his Daughter's life and Usagi's presence, looked utterly defeated. "They tell the truth. I didn't beat Cell. Usagi's older Brother did, just as Videl said. The truth was that I was a coward the whole time. I only fought with him once and got my ass kicked real good. I stayed with the cameraman the whole time. When there was a big explosion, I lied and said that I took care of Cell since the kid and his friends were gone." He lowered his head in absolute shame.  
  
The audience at the stadium was outraged by the story that Mr. Satan told. They were outraged enough to lash out at him with all their disappointment and sense of betrayal. The jeers and catcalls from the audience became too overwhelming for one to hear themselves think. The even began throwing food at him.   
  
Mr. Satan did nothing to stop the anger of his citizens. He just stood there, wanting to cry. He nearly did when Videl embraced him in her loving arms.  
  
All of a sudden, a bright light appeared in the sky, a golden light that put the sun to shame. The light was being generated from an infuriated Usagi, who couldn't believe the abuse that was being dished out by the crowd. "Stop it! All of you!" She shouted with tears forming in her eyes. She couldn't help but feel sad for the man down in the center of the arena. "Who do you think you are?! I would like to see you people have done better in a situation like that! Mr. Satan was brave for even going out there and trying. He tried his best for all of you! Yes, what he did was wrong and it needed to be exposed. But now that it's exposed, it's not that big of a deal. He has feelings too you know! Just like you and me! Now stop it! He didn't even tell you everything that happened. My Dad once told me about it. He told me how Mr. Satan did help in the fight. He was ONE of the heroes from the cell games."  
  
Satan looked up at the child, in shock. "She's defending me? She's saying I'm a hero after what she just did to me? And what I did to her?" Usagi's family, especially Videl, was also stunned to immobility by her statement. Out of all of them, Usagi had built up the most hate towards Mr. Satan for his deceit and now she was DEFENDING him?  
  
"True he didn't defeat Cell, but he did risk his life trying. He didn't even know what he was getting himself into. And when my big Brother Gohan was in trouble, he came into the battlefield with NO Ki powers available. He was defenseless. Because of Mr. Satan's help, Gohan was able to beat Cell. Even after the fight with Cell, Mr. Satan did try to be a hero. He visited others in need, he helped the homeless and sick with charities and support, and he tried his best to be a good person and set a good example to less experienced fighters. My only problem with him was his pride and that he LIED to everyone." Having felt she said enough, for the crowd had settled down, Usagi let herself drop to the ground to stand in front of Mr. Satan, who stared at her with a wide open mouth.  
  
"Why?" Was all he could get out.  
  
Usagi smiled. "Well, you are family, and I don't want anyone really hurt. Besides, maybe you can become what you always said you were. Not the champion of earth, that's probably my Dad or Brother. They are both about the same power level now, but I bet Gohan and Videl would train you in the art of Ki-Jitsu. Wait, Gohan WILL train you. That's his punishment after being such a jerk." Usagi giggled at the thought of Gohan teaching him out to fly as she pictured Mr. Satan out of control and flying upside down.   
  
Looking at the girl, he remembered what his Daughter had always told him about her. About her enormous heart. He actually chuckled at her statement. "Maybe I can learn to be a hero. But I think you're wrong on who the greatest is. I think that a new hero may have arisen to take the title of earth's greatest hero, in my eyes at least."  
  
Usagi smiled and noticed that Gohan was walking out onto the arena. She hoped that they wouldn't get into an argument. She knew how much he was against her beating and exposing Mr. Satan. But she wouldn't back down. She believed it to be the right thing and there was nothing that would change her mind otherwise.   
  
Gohan surprised his little Sister with a smile. "I think my Father-in-law is right about that Usagi. You were right about what you said. I so wanted everyone to be happy, and not wanting the world to hate by knowing the truth, I gave into my fears. But I totally forgot about one of the most important things." He kneeled down in front of Usagi, though he didn't get too close to her. He didn't know if she was still angry with him or not. "I forgot about your feelings and beliefs. You were right, I told Mamoru about how to get to your tail. Though I didn't think he would take it to that extreme. You did yourself honor overcoming him. I'm sorry, can you ever forgive your idiot Brother?"  
  
Usagi looked up to the sky as she pondered over her answer, making her Brother somewhat nervous about knowing her answer. "Well..." She smirked as she turned back to him. Without a single word, she launched herself into his arms and gave him her very own patented bone-crushing hug. "Of course I forgive you, silly. You're my big Brother and I love you. But it's going to cost you a few Sundays for my and my friends."  
  
Hardly realizing that she had already forgiven him, Gohan hugged her back. He let out a small laugh of relief and became very thankful that she had such a large heart. "I love you too, sis."  
  
Usagi didn't let go of her Brother until she saw the stern faces of her parents fast approaching her. 'Uh-oh.' She pulled away from Gohan and let him go onto business of tending to his Wife and her Father. She took a step back as the walked up onto the raised platform. She gulped as she looked up into the slightly frowning face of her Father, and then to her Mother, who stood beside him.   
  
'I guess I should say it.' "I wont ever apologize for this. I wont say I'm sorry. I did it, meant, and would do it again if I had to." She crossed her arms to show them that she was totally serious.  
  
Chi-Chi's frown turned into a smile as her pride grew in her Daughter even more. "We don't expect you to. You were right all along. It was wrong for us to force you to lose to him. We're sorry."  
  
Goku, too, smiled down at his Daughter, who was beginning to warm up to them again. "She's right, kiddo. You WERE right. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Gohan, I just didn't want you to lose concentration for your battles. We should have listened to your beliefs before we forced you to lose."  
  
Usagi smiled up at them. She had gotten her wish of just being able to put the situation behind her without a giant argument. "Thanks, Mom, Dad." With that she grabbed both of them and gave them each a bone-crushing hug.   
  
Usagi's head perked with interest as she remembered that she still had some unfinished business to attend to. She pulled away from her parents and looked up to them with begging eyes. "Can I go somewhere really quick? I have to go talk to someone." She looked around to the now half empty stands, but couldn't see the person she was looking for. 'Hmm...'  
  
Goku looked to his Wife with concern. He wasn't sure he liked the tone of voice that his Daughter was using. "As long as you don't get in a fight with someone I don't see why not."  
  
"Thanks! That's not what is about. Just the opposite in fact." Usagi turned around and ran out of the main arena in search of the person she was searching for. She quickly pinpointed her by sensing around the area for her. "Ha! She's in the building that fighters get ready in." With that, Usagi pressed her fingers to her head and teleported right to her target.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi spotted the girl she was looking for amongst a dozen other fighters who were collecting their belongings. She slowly walked to her, weaving in and out of the crowd of people trying not to hit any of them. She stopped just in front of the girl, who was sitting down in a resting chair, and smiled down to her. "There's something I need to tell you, Michiru. I called you a liar, when you weren't. I guess I'm just like my family, not trying to find out the truth and not wanting to listen to what you had to say. I truly thought that Gohan would never do something like that to me. But you were right; it doesn't change anything between us, except now I respect you a little more. Thank you."  
  
Michiru nearly frowned as she stood up, but she noticed that her friends were nowhere around and smiled. "You got that right. We're still enemies, but the way I see it you has changed." She walked past a confused Usagi only to stop behind her. Michiru placed her hand on top of Usagi's head. "You're all right, kid."  
  
(Well there you have it. The longest part that you will EVER receive from me. What did you think? I would LOVE to hear what you thought about it. Thanks! Ja ne! )  



	86. Part 16

~~Later that Night~~  
  
Usagi and her parents arrived back home around ten that night. After a long day filled with all sorts of excitement, all three were too worn out to go on any further. Usagi was probably the most tired out of them all. She had been through more than either of her parents combined. While her parents had gone through just as many mental beatings as she had, that would never compare to the pain that she had experienced during her fight with Mamoru, let alone her fights with her friends.   
  
When Usagi walked into the door of her house, she was ready to drop right there on the floor from exhaustion. She just wanted to get to bed so she could get to the next day when she would go out for ice-cream with her friends. "That's it. I'm done for today. I'm going to bed."  
  
Chi-Chi turned to her daughter with a contented smile. With everything that had taken place with her family earlier in the day, with everything that had happened between Gohan and Usagi, she still couldn't believe that it was all over. Usagi seemed to have forgiven them all without even thinking about holding a grudge. But she was grateful. She was glad that Usagi was nothing like her. If it were Chi-Chi, she would have held a giant grudge against them all. "You've had a big day."  
  
Usagi began walking down the hall to her room. She decided to leave them with her words of wisdom. "Yeah, but it was fun."  
  
Goku turned to his wife in complete shock as he took his shoes off and left them by the door. "She thought it was fun? After all that? After all that arguing with Gohan? After all that pain that Mamoru put her through? She actually found that fun?"  
  
Chi-Chi grinned at her husband. "She's more like you than you think." She laughed at his puzzlement as she followed her daughter to her room.  
  
Goku just stood there and scratched his head as he tried to think of what his wife could have possibly meant by that. "Chi-Chi, what do you mean?" He got his act together and followed the two girls. "Chi-Chi, hey, what was that supposed to mean?" He turned the corner and walked into Usagi's room. "Chi-Chi. Come on. Tell me what you mean."  
  
Chi-Chi giggled as she walked to Usagi's bed and sat down. "Just what I said." She turned to Usagi, who was getting into her bed cloths.   
  
"What's wrong with daddy?" She noted the bewildered look on his face. She walked to him and giggled up at him. "You look funny, daddy."   
  
Chi-Chi muffled a laugh that bubbled out of her mouth. "Your father is just being silly again. Goku, don't worry about it. We can 'talk' later, if you want."  
  
Goku smiled with amusement. "Is that a promise?"  
  
Chi-Chi stood from her daughter's bed and walked to her husband with a playful smirk. "If you want it to be, then it is." She laughed as she kneeled down and hugged her daughter. "Sleep tight, Usagi."  
  
Usagi looked at her mother and then up at her father in confusion. She had no idea what they were talking about, obviously. "What's so great about talking? You can talk right here, if you want. I don't care, just don't wake me up." She pulled away from her mother and turned around to jumped onto her bed.  
  
Goku chuckled as he looked back to his wife and then back to his daughter. "I don't think we can 'talk' here. You just go to sleep and don't worry about us. We'll manage." He continued to chuckle as he walked to her bedside and pulled the covers over her body. He seemed unusually happy.  
  
"Ok. Goodnight, daddy. Goodnight mamma." Usagi yawned as she curled up underneath her covers.   
  
"Come on, Goku." Chi-Chi opened the door and turned out the light. Now, the only light that filled the room was the light coming from the living room, which would be shut out once the door was closed. "Goodnight, sweetheart." Chi-Chi turned and walked out of the door.  
  
"Night', Usagi." Goku continued to smile as he turned and walked, fast, towards the door.  
  
Usagi rolled over on her side, barely able to keep her eyes open, but, she still had the events of the day playing on her mind. Just as her father was walking out the door, Usagi stopped him. "Daddy?"  
  
Goku groaned as he stopped in mid-step. He stiffly turned around to face his daughter, whose face he couldn't exactly see due to the lack of light. "Yes?"  
  
"Do you think that Gohan really did forgive me?"  
  
Goku was a bit stunned by her question. He wasn't sure why it was just arising now and not before, but he knew that it was serious, but so was what he wanted to do. "For what?"  
  
"For being mean to him. I was mean to him. I challenged him." Usagi knew that she was probably just being silly by having thoughts like that, but she wanted to be sure. She had already been through something like this with the kids at school. She didn't exactly want it to happen in her family too. Especially with Gohan.   
  
"You didn't do that much to him. He's fine, Usagi. He would have told you if he was mad, now go to sleep." He turned around and tried to leave, but he didn't even get out the door before he was stopped again.  
  
"Daddy?"  
  
"What now?" He sighed as he rested his head against the doorframe. 'If only she knew…WAIT A MINUTE! NO! She doesn't need to know THAT!'  
  
"Are YOU and mom mad at me?" She could see that he was getting put out with he questions, which gave her the message that he was angry with her. Even the tone of his voice gave her that message. Even thought that wasn't what it was about, he just wanted to get out of there.  
  
"No. Go to sleep, now." That time he didn't even get himself turned around before another question was thrown at him.  
  
"Are you sure? You sound mad to me." Usagi sat up, making her face fully in the light and visible to her annoyed father.   
  
Goku thought before he spoke that time. He had gotten a bit snappy with her for no reason, well, not one that he was ready to tell her. "We're not mad at you, Usagi. We would have no reason to be made at you. Don't worry abut it. Now lay back down, close your eyes, relax, and go to sleep. Tomorrow is another day. When you wake up, you can ask all the questions you want." He hoped that that would make her stop with her questioning.  
  
Usagi sighed as she laid back down. She recognized that tone of patronizing voice from when Minako was explaining what her parents do to get her out of the room when they wanted their "adult time". 'Gross!' "Ok. Goodnight, daddy."  
  
Goku smiled when she laid back down. "Great. Goodnight." Before she could ask any more questions, Goku jumped out of the room and closed the door behind him. 'Finally.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The next Day~~  
  
Early the next morning, Usagi awoke feeling quite refreshed and ready to spend the day with her friends. She scampered out of her room and across the living room to stand in front of her parents' door. She couldn't hear a single sound coming from inside so she figured that they were still asleep. Quietly, she began to turn the doorknob only to find realize that it was locked. 'Oh come on. Since when do they lock the door? Then again…' She grinned as she knocked on the door. "Mom? Dad? Are you in there?!"   
  
"What is it?"  
  
Usagi giggled at the way her mother questioned her. She knew that they were hiding something from her. "Can I go somewhere with my friends?" She laughed when she heard the her parents scurrying about in the room behind the door.   
  
After a few minutes of near silence, the door opened to reveal Chi-Chi standing behind it. She had an accusing look on her face. "Where do you want to go? Is there going to be an adult with you?"  
  
"Mr. Tomoe said that he was going to take us out for ice cream today to celebrate. But, I think I'm going to make Gohan since he owes me now."  
  
Chi-Chi turned her nose up to that a bit. "Don't bother your brother, Usagi. You don't want to reopen the wound."  
  
"It's ok, mom. He has to. He didn't disagree when I said he had to. So can I?! PLEASE!? We wont get into any trouble, I promise." She giggled when she noticed the bags under her mother's eyes. "So, how long did you and dad 'talk' last night? You look tired."  
  
'What's that supposed to mean?' "Don't worry about that. I am tired. We're both very tired. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to go back to sleep. Go ahead and go with your friends. Just make sure you're home before four so you can do your homework."  
  
'Homework? Man…' Usagi cheekily smiled. "Thanks, mom." With that, Usagi turned and around and ran down the hallway and into the family room to call Hotaru.  
  
Chi-Chi looked at her daughter in wonder. "What a strange kid."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi waited for someone to pick up the phone at Hotaru's. She couldn't wait to get out and go with her brother. She wanted to make sure that things were all patched up between them. She shook away her thoughts when the ringing stopped. "Hello?"  
  
"Usagi!? HI!"  
  
Usagi smiled with happiness. "Hotaru? You're allowed to answer the phone?"  
  
"Daddy said I could. So, are you ready to go!? ARE YA, ARE YA, ARE YA!?"  
  
Usagi giggled at Hotaru's eagerness to go for the day. "I have a better idea. Why don't we have Gohan take us? He owes us an ice cream now."  
  
Hotaru quieted down when she heard that. "Go…han?" She wasn't sure if she liked that idea, not after what she had just witnessed the day before. Sure he and Usagi had made up, but Hotaru still had her doubts about him. He had lost her respect completely and she wasn't sure if she would be able to trust him. "What if something bad happens?"  
  
Usagi knew that Hotaru was going to react that way. She had a feeling that all of her friends would react that way, but she needed to find out for herself if Gohan had actually gotten over his anger or if it was all just a show. She hadn't really talked to him after they parted from the ring. Pretty much, after she had spoken to Michiru, she had made the plans with her friends and then left. "Nothing will happen." 'I hope.' "I don't think he'll try anything. We sort of made up."  
  
Hotaru sighed. "Well…just a minute." Hotaru set the phone down and turned around to her father, who was watching TV just behind her. "Daddy? Can Gohan take us to get ice cream today? Usagi said he owes us now."  
  
Her father raised his brow in concern as he turned to Hotaru. "You mean that man who yelled at her yesterday? The one who made her throw the fight?" Hotaru nodded. "I don't know…he seems kind of dangerous."  
  
"Usagi says that nothing will happen again. She said they made up."   
  
Professor Tomoe let silence take over as he debated over the situation. He wasn't sure he quite trusted Gohan after yesterday's display of behavior. "So Usagi is sure that nothing will happen to any of you?" Hotaru nodded again. "I guess you can go. But if anything happens, you let me or the Sons know, ok?"  
  
Hotaru nodded as she put on a half smile. "Ok, Papa." She turned back to the phone and picked it up. "Usagi? I guess we can go with him."  
  
Usagi smiled. She couldn't wait to hang out with Gohan. "Cool. Why don't you call the other girls while I get ready and fly down there. Then we can go to Gohan's as a group. I should go now, though. I still have to get ready."  
  
"Ok, bye."  
  
"Bye." With that, Usagi happily placed the phone back on its base. "This is great." Usagi turned around and dashed down the hall and turned the corner to go into her room. "I don't think he'll be mad if we just kind of drop by." She giggled as she got herself dressed.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Gohan's House~~  
  
The six friends arrived at Gohan's house not even one hour later than Hotaru and Usagi had hung up. When Hotaru had called the girls like Usagi had instructed her to, the girls pretty much had the same reaction to the idea of going somewhere with Gohan. Each one of them was opposed to the idea one-hundred percent. None of them wanted to go anywhere with him. Actually, they were more afraid of what would happen if the subject of Mr. Satan was brought up. But with Usagi and her skills of persuasion had made them change their minds to give him a chance. And if he tried anything this time, that would be it for him.  
  
So there they stood, the six of them in front of Gohan's house. Gohan knew nothing of their visit, which only made five out of the six girls nervous. They so hoped that he wouldn't be angry at him for just dropping by. But Usagi wasn't worried about that. She had come by his house many times before without telling him and he had never once yelled at her. This was just a way for her to test and see if he was angry at her in any way. If she hinted anger in his voice, then she would have her answer  
  
Makoto pushed Usagi ahead to the door. "Go knock on the door."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes as she raised her hand to knock as she was told. "You guys are nuts. Nothing's going to happen."  
  
Hotaru kept her distance. "We're not nuts, or afraid, we're just smart."  
  
Minako nervously smiled. "Yeah. We're just being smart. If he gets mad, you'll be there to stop him since you're the one whose his sister and all."  
  
Usagi sarcastically laughed as she looked back at Minako. "Such a loving friend, Minako. Make me be the one to fight the fights here." She turned back to the door and just as she was about the knock, it slowly began to creak open.   
  
From behind the door, Gohan jumped out with rage filled eyes, immediately scaring the girls out of their minds and away from the house. "RAAAA!" Before Usagi had a chance to get down off the front porch, Gohan 'angrily' reached out and grabbed her from behind, pulling her into him as he tickled her.  
  
The fear that had been put into Usagi when he jumped out at them had disappeared as she laughed at his tickling. "Gohan…no more…" She softly kicked around to get loose of his grip, but he held on too tight for that.  
  
Gohan laughed as he tickled more. "You're not getting away from me little sis."  
  
Usagi giggled as she stopped struggling and looked up to the smiling face of her brother. "You're still too good for me, Gohan."   
  
Before Gohan released his sister, he bent down and gave her a kiss on her cheek to once again let her know that he was sorry. He nudged her forward as he looked around the area. None of the other girls were in sight, though he could feel them. "What are you guys doing here?" Usagi grinned as she looked up to him. "Uh-oh. Don't look at me like that, Usagi. You're scaring me."  
  
"Gohan?" She asked innocently.  
  
'At least now I know she really DID forgive me instead of just saying she did.' Gohan groaned. He knew that she was going to ask him to buy her something. She always got that tone of voice with him whenever she wanted something from him. "Yes?" He glanced over at her friends, who seemed to emerging from behind the house. 'I guess I gave them a good scare.'  
  
Usagi laughed as her friends cautiously reentered the area. "Umm…Gohan, we were wondering if you could kind of take us out for some ice cream." She smiled up at him to ease the tension of wanting him to spend more money on her.  
  
Gohan sighed as he leaned against the door frame. "I guess this is my payback, isn't it?" Usagi nodded. "Fine, fine. I'll buy you guys some ice cream. Just let me tell Videl and get my shoes on and we can go." He smirked at the other girls as he turned to go back into his house.  
  
Usagi smiled arrogantly, but playfully, as she turned back to his friends. "You were all running away like a bunch of scardy-cats."  
  
Rei crossed her arms as she impishly glared at Usagi. "Ha! You would have been right there with us if he hadn't have caught you."  
  
Usagi sheepishly laughed as she walked down off of her brother's porch. "So what?"  
  
Hotaru perked her attention up to the front door once she heard it opening again as Gohan opened it from the other side. She was beginning to think that it wouldn't be as bad as she thought it would hanging out with him for the day. "Are we ready to go now?!" She felt more comfortable with walking closer.  
  
Usagi and Minako latched themselves onto Gohan's arms. "Yeah! Come on!"   
  
Gohan chuckled as he looked down to the two blondes. "You guys are always so eager to fill yourselves full of sugar. Wouldn't you rather have a nice big bowl of spinach or something? We can even throw in some asparagus."  
  
"YUCK!" Minako stuck her tongue out in complete disgust at the thought of ever eating something so sickening. "Don't ever make me think about that again."  
  
"All right, all right. We'll stick with the ice cream. Just don't come complaining to me when you're too hyper to know what you're doing." Gohan pulled his arms from the duo as he began walking to the street. "Come on, I know a great place not too far from here. We can walk there."  
  
~*~*~  
  
When the group of seven arrived at the ice cream shop, all but two were going nuts over the wide selection of flavors. Gohan couldn't help but laugh at their amazement. He looked down to Ami, who stood next to him. "Aren't you going to get any?"  
  
Ami politely looked up to Gohan. "I've learned to wait until their enthusiasm has gone down. Aren't you going to get any?"  
  
Gohan nodded as he looked back up to his sister and her friends. "Of course. I think I'm with you on the waiting idea. Man, and I thought it was bad with just Usagi. This is worse. Even Pan and her friends weren't this, how should I put this, hyper." He looked back down to Ami as she giggled. "What?"  
  
"Nothing." 'Wow, I guess he really isn't as bad as I thought. He's being nice now. I guess we just shouldn't make him mad.'  
  
Gohan walked forward as he looked down at the scattered group of gawking children. "Come on you guys, it's just ice cream. Settle down."  
  
Usagi and Minako turned around to Gohan with a frown on their faces. Usagi beat Minako to a reply. "Hey! Ice cream is a very serious thing, Gohan. You have to treat it very seriously."  
  
Gohan put his hands up and backed away. "Hey, I wasn't complaining. Do as you wish." He nervously looked down to Ami. "These guys are nuts."  
  
Usagi smiled as she bent down to look at more ice cream. "I heard that." She stood up and indecisively looked at the menu. "Well, I've sort of decided what I want." She walked to one of the of the ice cream freezers and pointed to the very first flavor. "I want this."  
  
Gohan smiled as he walked up from behind his sister. "Good. Finally a decision has been made, now then wou…"  
  
Usagi moved down two steps. "And this." She moved down another step. "OOH, and this! Oh, and some of that blue stuff down there at the end. Maybe some of that chocolate over there too."  
  
Gohan dropped his mouth. "WHAT!?"  
  
Makoto looked up from the Ice-cream. "We can have A LOT?!"  
  
Gohan turned his head to an excited Makoto. She sounded a little too excited for his liking. "No." He nervously turned to his sister. "Usagi, what are you doing?"  
  
Usagi ignored her brother as she pushed past him. "Hey, this minty green stuff looks good."  
  
Rei turned to Usagi, who was on her right. "We can't forget the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice-cream."  
  
Minako ran to Usagi and Rei and looked at what they were drooling over. "Wow, I want that too. Plus the strawberry with a scoop of raspberry sherbet."  
  
Gohan tried to keep from pulling his hair out of his head as the girls went crazy over all the stuff that they wanted him to buy them. "You guys! I'm not rich! You're going to make me go broke!"  
  
"Hmm…This Cookie n' Cream looks good."  
  
Gohan lost all hope at that last comment. He numbly turned to Ami. "Ami? You're leaving the sane group. You're joining them."  
  
Hotaru bounce happily over to the section with her favorite flavor. Her eyes widened to their fullest when she laid eyes on the vast amount of chocolate they had. "Wow…dark chocolate fudge…I WANT THIS!!" She ran to Gohan, who was trying to pry the other girls away from being able to look at the ice-cream through the window. "Gohan!" She tugged on his pants to get his attention. "Gohan, if these guys get all they want, I want one of each flavors of chocolate, please."  
  
Gohan sighed with exasperation as he grabbed Hotaru by the arm, as well as wrapping his arm around the other five, and pulled them all away from the widow. He kneeled down so he could look all of them in the eye. "Ok, now, it was to my understanding that we were only getting a simple treat, not the whole store."  
  
Usagi grinned as she pushed through Makoto and Rei so she was standing on the side of her brother. "Don't you love me, Gohan?" She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulders.  
  
Gohan groaned as he softly tried to pull away. "Don't do this to me, Usagi. You know I can't resist you when you do this."  
  
Usagi gave him her 'puppy dog' face. "Please?"  
  
"Usagi…" Gohan dropped his head in defeat. She had done it to him again. "Fine. I'll charge it. You better be happy. And don't tell mom that I stuffed you all so full of ice-cream."  
  
Usagi pulled away from Gohan with a smile. "Thanks Gohan. I wont tell mom. I promise." She walked back to the ice-cream and once again fell into its trance. "Ok…now what do I want?"  
  
Makoto walked up beside Usagi with wide eyes. "Wow, this is great. We can have all the ice-cream we want."  
  
Gohan walked to the counter, where he would pay for their treat it was also where Hotaru and Ami patiently waited for him. "Have you two already decided?" He pulled out his charge card from his pocket. He would have to pay it off fast before Videl found out that he did it.  
  
Ami nodded. "I just want a plain and simple Banana split. I don't want to spend all of your money."  
  
"I want a scoop of each of the flavors of Chocolate they have. Unless you don't want me to."   
  
"Go ahead. You might as well. I mean, I'm spending this much money already I might as well buy everyone what they want. Man, Usagi just HAD to get me with her cuteness. I need to stop giving in to that."  
  
~*~*~  
  
After the crew had eaten their 'treats', about an hour later, they left the ice-cream shop. Gohan left Fifty dollars poorer. "Make sure you guys don't tell your parents that I did that. They would kill me."  
  
Makoto nauseously grabbed her stomach as she walked forward. "I think I'm gonna barf."  
  
Rei let herself lean on Makoto as she put one foot in front of the other. That was about all she could do at that moment for she was too sick to even think about trying to walk more than that. "Remind me never to eat that much ice-cream again."  
  
Minako let herself collapse to the ground. She couldn't remember a time when she had been as full as she was now. "I just want to stay here and rest for a while."  
  
Gohan chuckled as he looked back to the three helpless kids. "Come on. You're the ones who wanted to eat that much. Walk it off so you wont cramp up. Come on, you don't want all those sweets to go to waste. You are all going to be hyper now. We need to work off that energy before I send you home. Your parents may get suspicious if you're so energetic."   
  
Rei dropped to the ground, feeling as if she were going to throw up right there and then. "No. let's rest." She pulled Makoto to sit by her. "I need sleep now."  
  
Usagi looked up at her brother in confusion. "What's wrong with them? Why are they so sick all of a sudden?"  
  
Gohan looked back at Usagi. "They don't have bottomless stomachs like Saiyans do, Usagi. They're feeling the effects of eating too much." He turned to Ami. "I guess you don't have a problem since you barely had anything. But Hotaru…" He turned to Hotaru in wonder.  
  
Hotaru uneasily looked around. "I'm younger, I burn it off faster? Uh…yeah…that's it." She timidly laughed as she backed away from the group.  
  
'Strange kid.' "Ok. Well, I guess we should shove off then. Come on kids. Let's get moving and burn off that energy." He walked over to Makoto and picked up her, placing her back down on her feet.   
  
"We don't have anymore energy. Can't we just sleep right here? I feel so sick." Drowsy, Makoto tried to sit back down but Gohan's firm grip wouldn't allow her to. "Please?"  
  
Usagi looked around the area as she walked away from the group. She wasn't sure if it was just her, but she could have sworn that she heard a faint yelping sound of something. "Shh…" Everyone stopped complaining as they turned their heads to Usagi. "Can you hear it?"  
  
Gohan let Makoto sit back down on the ground as he stood up and listened for anything that his sister could have heard. He perked his head when he heard the faint sound that his sister had. "I hear something, but it sounds very far away."   
  
Usagi began to walk towards the area in which the sound was coming from. "I wonder what it could be.?"  
  
Ami looked around as well as listened for what the duo was talking about. "I don't hear anything. I guess it's just at too quite of an interval for me to pick up."  
  
Usagi looked forward to an abandoned building, which was just across the street from the ice-cream shop. "Maybe we should go check it out. Whatever's in there has a really faint life energy level. Gohan?" She turned around to her brother.   
  
Gohan nodded. "Go ahead and go. I don't see any danger in going."  
  
Minako protested up to Gohan with a deep glare. "I can't walk. I'm too sick."  
  
Ami joined Usagi at the road as well as Hotaru. "I'll come with you, Usagi." She turned back to Gohan, who was trying to stand the girls up but their legs just didn't want to cooperate. "Gohan? Is it all right if we go ahead?" Gohan nodded. "Ok, let's go girls."  
  
Hotaru jumped out into the crosswalk. "Great! Let's go see whatever that thing is." Hotaru happily skipped across the street ahead of Usagi and Ami, who cautiously crossed. They weren't sure what they were going to find inside, but the closer they got, the louder the whimpering became. "It doesn't sound human, does it?"  
  
Usagi searched the outside area of the building with her eyes to see if anything was moving, but there was nothing. "No, it doesn't sound human."  
  
Ami ventured away from the duo and went in the direction that she heard the noise. "What could that be? It sounds so distressed." She walked slowly, ready to defend herself if she were to be attacked. 'This is creepy.' She turned to the side of the building, leaving her wondering friends still in front. The more she walked, the more of an echo the sound had. "That sounds like a…" She fixed her eyes on a tin garbage can. She was positive that that's where the sound was coming from. It was the only thing around that could have possibly been producing and echo.  
  
Ami carefully approached the tin can. She stopped just before she bumped into it and took a deep breath. "Ok, here goes nothing." She reached out and pulled the lid off of it to peer inside. To her surprise, nothing jumped out at her, but there was a red cloth bag at the bottom of the empty garbage can. To stun her even more, the bag was moving. "Oh my gosh!" She turned around and put her hands to her mouth. "USAGI! HOTARU! I FOUND IT!" Yelling like that only scared the creature inside the bag even more.   
  
Ami turned back around and pulled the tiny bag out of the can. "You poor thing." She sat down on the curbside and gently placed the bag with its contents on her lap. "Don't worry little thing. I'll get you out soon." She let her hands do all the work as she worked fast to get the knot untied. "Who could do such a horrid thing?"  
  
When she finally got the knot untied, Usagi and Hotaru had just arrived. Ami quickly brought the bag down around the creature to reveal a chocolate brown puppy. It was so thin that its skin stuck tightly against its body to reveal its tiny ribs. Its tail was tucked under itself as it shook with fear. Ami was completely speechless as she looked upon the helpless being.  
  
Usagi sat down next to Ami and reached out the grab the frightened thing from her. "A puppy! Who would put a poor helpless puppy in a bag and then in a garbage can like that?"   
  
Ami shook her head with disbelief. "I have no idea. It's wrong though, I'll tell you that much."  
  
Hotaru kneeled down in front of Usagi and reached out to pet the puppy. "Who ever did this was sick in the head." She giggled when the puppy began to lick her hand. "But it's ok now. We can take care of it, right?"  
  
(Ok, there you have it. Such an 'interesting' part. I know, it's not as long as the last part, but that's just the way things go. It's long enough. So what do you think? Good or bad? Gotta run. Ja )  



	87. Part 17

Back at the Ice-cream shop, Gohan still had his hands full with trying to get the girls into a standing position. They just didn't want to cooperate. "Come on girls, let's go help the others try to find out what that noise is." He grabbed Minako's arms and began to pull up on her. "Don't be difficult."  
  
Minako pulled against Gohan as she looked up to a movement that caught her attention. "Gohan, they're back."  
  
Gohan let go of Minako and let her crash back down to the ground as he looked up to see the three girls approaching slowly. "What's that in Ami's arms?" All he could make out was the red bag blending in with what looked like a toy of some sort. He couldn't see that it was moving at all. Whatever Ami was carrying seemed to have the other two girls interested.  
  
Rei looked up to Ami and squinted. Her eyes became wide with excitement as she realized what exactly it was. "IT'S A PUPPY!" Surprising Gohan, she jumped to her feet and began running forward to meet her friends. Minako and Makoto nodded at each other as they jumped up with excitement to follow Rei, leaving an annoyed Gohan behind.   
  
Gohan sighed with frustration as he began walking forward to join his sister and her friends. "Why couldn't they have just gotten up when I told them too? I'll never understand females." Gohan quietly laughed as he stopped just in front of Ami and the puppy, which the girls were currently fussing over. "So this is what was whining, huh?"  
  
Gohan reached out to the frightened puppy and gently grabbed it from Ami. "Wow, this looks bad." Using what little medical knowledge that he had, Gohan began to examine it. It obviously hadn't been treated very well by its owner, who abandoned it. "It looks like it's about four weeks old. Too young to be on its own." He lightly ran his fingers over the ribs, pressing down once he got to the end. They were almost as soft as clay. "The bones are too soft."  
  
"Look at this, Gohan." Ami reached out and tugged on the puppy's skin, pulling out some of the fur with ease. "The fur pulls out to easily. Plus, the skin is too tough for a puppy."  
  
Gohan nodded. "You're right, Ami. This puppy looks as if it hasn't been fed in at least a week. And if it has, then it's been fed very little. If it doesn't get food in its body soon, it's going to die."  
  
Usagi gasped as she looked up at her brother. "We can't let that happen, can we Gohan? We can feed it, right? We can't just let it die out here all alone with no one to love it..."   
  
For the moment, Gohan ignored his sister as he trailed his hands down to the puppy's back legs. He carefully grabbed one of them and as soon as he did, the puppy cried out. "I think this leg is broken. I didn't even move it and it whined."  
  
Rei moved her face in close to the whimpering creature. She couldn't believe that someone would just leave a poor helpless puppy lying out by itself with nothing to eat and nothing to care for it. "This is horrible. Where was it?" She held her hand out for the puppy to smell.  
  
"Ami found tied in a bag in a garbage can." Hotaru scratched the puppy's head, causing it to relax somewhat. "There now, see? It's ok little puppy." She smiled when she saw it's tiny tail wiggle under its hind-legs.  
  
A smile came across Usagi's face as she anxiously looked up to her unsuspecting brother. "Gohan? Can we keep it? Please?"  
  
Rei pulled her hand away from the puppy, who was liking it. She looked up to Gohan with begging eyes. "Hey, yeah. Can we, Gohan? Wouldn't that be cool if we had a puppy to play with?"  
  
Gohan looked down to the girls. He didn't know what to tell them. He knew that he wouldn't want to keep it, but it wasn't his choice. It was the girls' parents' choice. "Usagi, I know for sure that mom and dad aren't going to let you keep a puppy. Well, maybe dad, but then again he has a thing about sharp pointy objects, which this puppy has a lot of. I don't know about you other girls."  
  
Makoto pouted over her parents' answer. "Well mines is a definite 'no'. My dad is allergic to dogs. Even if he wasn't, he still wouldn't let me. He doesn't think I need a pet screwing up my training. What about you guys?"  
  
Rei shook her head. "Grandpa wouldn't let me for sure. He says that ' A shrine is no place for animals'. I've been begging him for a puppy ever since I can remember. Ami? What about you? You and your mom are always talking about how you love animals. Would your mom let you keep it?"  
  
Ami frowned as she thought about what happened the last time they tried to bring an animal into their house. "Our landlord won't let us have any pets unless they're fish. Last time we had a pet, he told us to get rid of it or move out. Well, mom got rid of it. I can't have it at my house, as much as I would love to. Minako? Hotaru? What about you guys?"  
  
Minako, who had taken one look at the thing and fallen in love with it, sadly replied with her answer. "Nope. My parents say I'm not old enough to have such a big responsibility as having a dog. It's a real bummer though, this little thing is so adorable. I SO want to take it home with me."  
  
Hotaru thought for a moment about what her father would say. She had never really asked him about having an animal around the house for she never really felt like having one. Actually, before she met any of these girls, she had never felt like having or doing anything. "I know Kaori doesn't like pets, but what say does she have? I don't know if daddy will let me have one, but I can ask." She let her face turn to unhappiness as she continued. "But Kaori does have a lot of influence over what daddy does so there's a good chance that he'll say no."  
  
Not wanting to see the poor animal suffer anymore, Minako turned to Gohan with a begging smile. "Gohan...can you do us a BIG favor?"  
  
Gohan knew that smile. He knew it all too well. That was the same smile that the girls had used on him to get him to buy them all that Ice-cream, along with the tone as well. "No, no, no. That may have worked on me to buy you all that junk food but I'm not, I repeat, I AM NOT taking this thing home with me. It would be alone all day long while with no one to take it out. A puppy needs somewhere to run, a puppy needs people to be around. Both things that aren't at my house. So I say this again, no. Take it somewhere else."  
  
Catching on to Minako's game, Usagi latched herself onto her brother as she stared into the puppy's pitiful eyes. "But look at its cute little face with its cute little nose and the cute little eyes and the cute little feet. Don't you want to help it get better, Gohan."  
  
"Not particularly. I don't have room for a puppy at my house." He pushed Usagi away from him as he knew that if he didn't, he would probably end up having to take it home with him. Then, not only would his wife yell at him about spending so much money on sweets, but she would yell at him for bringing a dirty animal into the house without consulting her. "Here, take the puppy while you're at it." He gently transferred the starving dog into his sister's arms.   
  
Usagi looked up at her brother in confusion as she held the puppy close to her chest to comfort it. "Would you leave a human out on the street if they were hungry and abandoned?"  
  
Makoto placed her hands on her hips as she shook her head back and forth. "Tsk, Tsk, Tsk."  
  
Gohan sighed. Usagi was acting more and more like his mother every day. She always seemed to have to prove her point, though, she usually did it without yelling. "No, I wouldn't leave a starving human out on the street." He paused long enough to let Rei open her mouth to protest, but began to speak before her. "If you really want to keep it that badly, I suggest you speak to mom and dad, Usagi. I'm the wrong person to ask." He turned to Hotaru, who also pleaded with her eyes for him to take it home. "You ask your dad, too."  
  
"You're boring, Gohan. You had a Dragon when you were a kid, why can't you keep a little ol puppy?" Usagi pushed forward to her brother again as she held the puppy up to him. "Please?"  
  
Gohan stepped back to show her that he wasn't going to give in. "Take it home and ask mom and dad. I've already spoiled you guys enough for one day."  
  
Usagi pouted. "All right."  
  
Hotaru and Minako both jumped to Usagi with adoring eyes as they stared down at the puppy. Minako reached out and took it from her friend's arms and held it as if it were a baby. "Its just too cute to resist. Come on guys, let's go to Usagi's and see if we can keep it there."  
  
Ami nodded as she and Makoto jumped into the air. "Let's go slow, guys. We don't want to scare her."  
  
Rei turned to her friend in fascination. "It's a girl?" Ami nodded. "Well, what should we call it?" She asked as she turned to Minako, who had just joined them in the air.  
  
Minako shrugged her shoulders. She was too busy playing with the injured animal to truly think about one. "No idea. It should be a really good one, though."  
  
"Agreed, maybe we should call it cuddles." Stunned at the name that their friend in green just came up with, the other five girls turned to Makoto as if she were crazy. "Don't look at me like that."  
  
Before Usagi took to the air, she turned to her brother. "Are you sure you won't take it home?"  
  
Gohan nodded. He couldn't give into them all the time. He said that he would take them out for Ice-cream. He never said anything about taking home a puppy. "I can't, Usagi. I wish I could, but I just can't. I'm sorry."  
  
Usagi smiled. "It's ok. Maybe mom will be in a good mood today and let us keep it there."  
  
Gohan's sadly looked down at his sister, who was so full of hope to keep the tiny puppy. "Don't get your hopes up too high. You know as well as I do that mom will most likely not let you keep the puppy. Your best bet is with Hotaru's father."  
  
"I know. Are you coming with us?"  
  
Gohan shook his head. "No. I need to get back home. I also don't exactly want to see mom go off again." Though those were too valid reasons why Gohan didn't want to go back to his childhood home, he also knew that his parents were both terribly angry with him for his behavior of the day before. "I'll see you later, Usagi."  
  
"Ok. Bye, Gohan." With that, she took to the air to join her friends, who had already begun flying to her house.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son House~~   
  
Usagi and her friends landed just in front of her house with the puppy, whose name they still could not think of. Usagi quietly led them up to the door and took the puppy from Minako. She couldn't wait to show her parents. She hoped that they would allow her keep it there. If they wouldn't let her, than they would ask Hotaru's father. And if he were to say no, then there was no hope for the puppy at all. Unless they kept it at Sanctuary, but then there would be no one around to care for it like the it should be. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure her friends were still with her and then back at the door as she reached out to open it. "That's funny." She turned the knob from left to right, finding out that it was locked. "The door's locked. That's strange. They don't usually lock it during the day." 'They sure are stuck on locking doors today.'   
  
Annoyed, Rei pushed past Usagi and knocked on the door, nearly as hard as she could. "This is all you have to do."  
  
Before Usagi got a chance to respond to Rei's action, the door opened. Behind it, stood her father looking hungry, as usual. "Hey daddy look at what we found!" Without further words spoken, she lifted the tiny puppy up to her father for him to look out.  
  
Almost as soon as he laid eyes upon the small creature, Goku began to get nervous. "Uh...honey, put the puppy down, or at least get it away from me." He backed away, not wanting anything bad to happen.  
  
Usagi only responded with confusion as she walked forward, holding the puppy closer to his face than she had before. "She wants to say hi, daddy." She could hear her friends giggling in the background.   
  
Pretty soon, Goku was standing against the wall and even more freaked out than before. He had no where to run and his daughter was shoving the 'vicious' dog in his face. He whimpered quietly with fear as the puppy began to open its mouth to yawn, revealing each and every one of its sharp teeth. To him, they looked sharp enough to pierce even his rock hard skin. "Usagi, please. Get the animal away from me."  
  
Usagi giggled. She was rather enjoying seeing him freak out over such a small animal. "Daddy, you're silly. Isn't she cute?" The puppy wiggled around in Usagi's hands as it became more scared with not being supported from underneath. Usagi just let it hang over the ground. Seeing that only made Goku even more nervous.  
  
Minako joined Usagi at her side as she reached out for Goku to pull him closer. "It's just a baby, Goku. I think it's adorable. Why don't you pet it?"  
  
Goku turned his head away from it as Usagi pushed it closer into his face. "It's not cute. It's got teeth. Lots and lots of sharp teeth." He turned his head just far enough to be face to face with the puppy. He had to bite his tongue to keep from screaming. He closed his eyes so he didn't have to see it.  
  
"It wants a kiss, daddy." Usagi took a step closer to her father so the puppy was close enough to smell his face, as well as his fear. The puppy didn't respond to his fear with anything but a quick lick on his nose.  
  
Well, that did it. That was all that he was able to take anymore. He shot his eyes open and pushed his daughter and friends out of the way. "OH MY GOD IT'S TRYING TO EAT ME!" He turned down the hall and ran right past his wife into his room. He slammed the door behind him and jumped on the bed and threw the covers over his head.   
If you don't believe that he would do that...Watch GT   
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she walked out into the family room. She knew that Usagi had to have done something horrible to make Goku run scared stupid back into his room like he had. She looked around the room to the innocent faces of all six girls. She let her eyes stop on her daughter, who had her hands behind her back. She was completely backed up against the wall. "Ok, let's see it. I know you're hiding something. It has to be something to scare your father. Is it a needle?"   
  
Usagi slowly shook her head as she looked to her friends for help. She didn't know how long she was going to be able to hold the puppy behind her back for it was struggling to get free of her grasp. "No. It's not a needle."  
  
Makoto pushed Usagi forward and grabbed the puppy from her. As long as she stayed behind her, they would be fine. "Uh, Chi-Chi, Goku's just, playing a game with us."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "I don't think so. What are you guys hiding back there."  
  
Makoto turned to Rei, who gestured for Usagi to just come clean and show her what they had. Usagi didn't hesitate at all to grab the puppy from Makoto. She turned to her mother and showed her to pitiful creature in her hands. "We found her in a garbage can, mom. She was abandoned."  
  
Chi-Chi couldn't help but turn her frown into a sympathetic smile. "A garbage can? That's so sad. Why did you bring it here, though? You know you can't keep it here."  
  
Usagi's face could have fallen to the floor. "Come on, mom. Can't we keep her? She's cute and cuddly. I'll take care of her. We'll all take care of her. You won't have to do a single thing. We promise, right girls?" She turned to Ami for some help. If anyone would be able to talk her mother into letting the puppy stay there, it would be Ami.   
  
"Chi-Chi, I can't fully agree with Usagi on this one because I can't lie. With our busy schedules, that's one promise none of us can make. What with school and training and then homework, we wouldn't have much time to play with it and feed it like we should."  
  
Usagi turned to Ami with a slight frown, but also with understanding. As much as she didn't want it to be true, she knew that it was. "Ami!! Don't tell her that. Now we won't be able to keep her." She turned back up to her mother to see what she had to say about Ami's statement.  
  
"Usagi, it's good that Ami knows what will happen if you keep the puppy. And she's right, that's exactly what will happen. Not to mention that your father is deathly afraid of things with sharp teeth. You know that he has a fear of sharp pointy objects. It wouldn't be wise to keep it here. He would probably scare the puppy with his screaming."  
  
Usagi pouted under her breath as she looked down at the puppy, which was gnawing on her finger. "But mom..."  
  
"She can stay here until she gets well, but after that, you have to find a proper home for her."  
  
Usagi looked up to her mother with hope as well as an idea. 'That will give me time to make mom like the puppy. Maybe then she'll let me keep her if she grows to like it.' "You'll be home with her during the day when we're not, won't you? Well, when you're not training you will. Can't we please just keep her? Pleeese?"   
  
Chi-Chi shook her head. "No. I didn't let your brothers have any pets except the ones who lived out in the wild, who could support themselves. Now this is your responsibility. All of you. You will have to make sure that she's clean and is fed and has plenty of exercise." Her attention was caught by her husband poking his head around the corner. "Goku, it's safe for you to come out. The puppy won't do anything to you."  
  
Goku pulled his head back. "That thing tried to eat me."  
  
Hotaru giggled as she walked to where Goku was. She looked up at him with curious eyes. "Goku? That puppy is sweet. She won't try to eat you. She likes you. That's why she licked you."  
  
Goku looked down at the child. He was still nervous about the puppy. He wouldn't allow himself to get close enough for it to 'eat' him. "She was tasting me. She wants to dig her sharp teeth into my skin."  
  
Chi-Chi rolled her eyes as she walked to her husband and slapped him in the face. "Snap out of it, Goku. That dog has no intention of eating you. It's probably more afraid of you than you are of it. Now act like a man and get out there. While you're at it, you need to go buy some food for it."  
  
Goku widened his eyes with fear. "WHAT?! That thing's staying here?!"  
  
"Just until it gets better. After that, the girls are going to find it a home." She grabbed her husband by his arm and dragged him back out into the family room and positioned him right in front of the puppy.   
  
Goku resisted getting close to it. He wanted to stay as far away from it as he could. Rei laughed at him. She had never in her life seen anyone who was afraid of something so small and helpless. She just couldn't resist messing with him. "You know, Goku. Dogs can sense fear."  
  
Goku gulped as he looked down to the scared animal. He could sense its fear, but he didn't care. It had teeth and that's all he was worried about. "Uh..." He glanced over at his wife, who was frowning at him. He found her to be much scarier than anything needle or mouth full of sharp teeth. Not wanting to give her a reason to lash out at him, he slowly reached out to touch the puppy. His arm insanely shook with fear. He was certain that it was going to turn bad and try to eat him. His fear of sharp objects was his only flaw, that he knew of, well, besides always being hungry.   
  
Just before Goku's hand made contact, Usagi pushed the puppy up further, causing it to yelp with fear, making her father jump back. She ignored her father's fears and looked down to the puppy. She knew that he wasn't in any immediate danger. "It's ok, little puppy. Did I hurt you?"   
  
Ami walked to Usagi and grabbed the puppy from her hands. "Its leg is broken, remember? We need to put it in a cast or something like that as soon as possible." She turned to Chi-Chi and held the puppy out for her to look at. "Is there anything around here that we can use?"  
  
Chi-Chi slowly nodded. She still couldn't believe that someone would do such a thing to a living creature. "I'll go check." She glanced over her shoulder to her husband, who was as far away from the group as he could be. "Ok Mr. I'm too scared to greet a puppy, I'm going to be leaving now. Make sure you don't get yourself eaten while I'm gone." She laughed as she walked out of the room to see what kind of the bandages she had.  
  
Goku glared at his wife's back. "It's not funny."  
  
Ami sat down on the floor and set the puppy down in front of her. It just kind of sat there on its stomach as it couldn't move due to its broken leg. "So, has anyone thought of any good names yet?" She stroked the back of the puppy, which made it relax a little. Already, it seemed to be calming down a lot from how scared it was when they first found it.   
  
Hotaru sat next to Ami and smiled as she dropped her face to look into the puppy's eyes. "I have no idea what we could call her. All I know is that she's lucky that we found it."  
  
"Hey..." Rei smiled as she sat next to the puppy and scratched it behind the ears. "That's what we can call her, Lucky. Like you said Hotaru, she's lucky, the name suits her pretty good."  
  
Minako reached out and picked up the puppy to sit in her lap. "I think it's a good name. What do you think?" She gently turned the puppy's face up to hers. "Do you like the name, little puppy?"  
  
Goku watched the girls fascinate themselves over the little dog. He wished that they hadn't found it for now he would have to watch where he went. He didn't want to be anywhere near the little thing. He had bad luck in the past with sharp things as well as teeth from animals. "How can you sit that close to it? If you turn your back on it, it's likely to bite you."  
  
Usagi giggled as she walked to her father. "Daddy, I find it really funny that you can fight really strong people and get yourself all full of hurts but you're afraid of a little puppy."  
  
"Well that's the way it is."  
  
Usagi shrugged as she turned back to her friends. "Well I like the name Lucky."  
  
Minako lifted the puppy up to her face and held her in the air. "Ok then, from now on, your name is Lucky."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The next Day~~  
  
The next day, Usagi actually awoke early enough to do more than a rush job of getting ready for school. She had to, it was part of her plan. She wanted to prove to her parents, well mother, that she could handle taking care of the puppy without having to be reminded to do it. She knew that parents liked that kind of stuff. Especially her mother. She thought that if she was extra responsible in the time that it took for little Lucky to recover, that her mother would let her keep it.   
  
Before she did anything else, she took Lucky, who had slept with her in her room, and took her outside where she let her eat. Usagi knew that the puppy would be cooped up in the house all day so she also let her run around for a little while for her exercise.   
  
When she saw that her mother was in the kitchen making breakfast, Usagi kneeled down. "Lucky! Here girl!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku watched his daughter outside as she called for the puppy. He had great doubts about letting her keep the dog there while she was waiting for her to become well. He had thought about it the night before right before he had gone to sleep and came upon the conclusion that it was probably one of the worst ideas to let her keep it. "Chi-Chi, are you sure you know what you're doing with letting her keep that thing here?"  
  
Chi-Chi giggled as she set a plate in front of her husband, which only made him drool with hunger. "Don't tell me that you're still afraid of a little puppy. Goku, she's not going to bite you unless you make her angry."  
  
"I'm not talking about that. You know how attached to something Usagi gets in a short time. You know she's not going to give that thing up for anything when it gets well again. The puppy will probably feel the same."  
  
Chi-Chi walked to the window and watched her daughter disappear into the door that led inside. "I know." She turned to her daughter, who carried Lucky into the kitchen. "You're up early."  
  
Usagi smiled as she set the puppy down. "Yep! I had to let Lucky outside for a while, remember? I have to take care of her till she gets better. Right?"  
  
Chi-Chi knew exactly what Usagi was doing, but she wouldn't call her out on it. "Yes. Just until it gets better though." She felt uneasiness when Usagi got the look of disappointment on her face. "Make sure she has plenty of water before you leave for school, ok?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Ok." She turned to her father as she sat down. She giggled when she saw that he was struggling with something. "She's not going to hurt you." She bent to look under the table to see that Lucky was sniffing her father's legs. "She's saying hello."  
  
Goku nervously picked his legs up. He still had his fears. "Why doesn't she go say hello to mom?"  
  
"You'll learn to love her, daddy. You'll see."  
  
"No I won't." He softly nudged her away from him, which was a big risk in his eyes. He soon forgot about the dog when he remembered that he needed to talk to his daughter about something. "Usagi, you're not training Hotaru today, well actually, you guys won't be training her for a while."  
  
Usagi became confused. She could have sworn that it was her duty to train her and not him, his rules. "Huh? Why?"  
  
"She's got some pretty good skills so far. She showed a lot of strength at the tournament and I think she's ready to learn to teleport, plus she wants to learn to fight with a weapon, right? And if I remember right, you asked me if I could teach her to do that."  
  
Usagi smiled as she nodded with agreement. "Yep. I did. She'll be really happy to hear that. So do you want me to pick her up and bring her here after school?" Having Hotaru training with her father actually somewhat relieved. She and the other girls would be able to be with the puppy while they were training. That way, she wouldn't be so lonely.   
  
"I'll be waiting here for you guys after your schools get out. Tell Hotaru to bring this weapon she found. I'm going to work with her on that, first."  
  
"K!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~School~~  
  
When Usagi got to school that day, something happened to her that had never happened to her before. She had never even dreamed that something like that could ever happen to her. She walked slowly through the playground of kids, who were normally screaming and paying attention to their own games, but on this particular day, no one said a single word. They all just stared at her as she walked to her class to meet her friends. She found it oddly strange as well as uncomfortable. It sort of brought back horrible memories of her first day of school when Haruka and Michiru's group laughed at her, but this time it was the whole playground.   
  
Usagi stopped in her place when she got halfway to her class. She wasn't sure how much more of the staring she could take. Even a few of the teachers were staring at her. "Uh...can I help you?" She wasn't sure if she had done something bad or if there was something on her that was causing everyone to stare. "Hello? Is there something wrong with me?"   
  
Usagi let out a sigh of relief when she saw Rei approaching her. "Why is everyone staring at me like this?"  
  
Rei pulled Usagi by the arm and started leading her to the classroom. "It's not just you, it's all of us. They want to know how we got so strong and how we learned all those neat fighting tricks."  
  
Usagi looked around as she let herself be dragged by her friend. "This is kind of uncomfortable."  
  
"I know. But they saw you on TV. A lot of kids have seen us around school and thought nothing of it and now that they saw you flying on TV and beating Mr. Satan, they're all interested. It's kind of freaky." Rei opened the door that led into the classroom where their entire class was. All of the kids inside were their usual screaming noisy selves. "This is the only place we can go where others won't gawk at us."  
  
Usagi walked over to her table where her other friends were trying to figure out a way to make the entire student-body lose interest in them and their 'powers'. She took her seat and looked up at the teacher, who was just as zombie-like as the rest of the kids outside. "These guys are used to our skills, but the others," She paused to shudder, "that's just scary."  
  
"I agree." Makoto could see the faces of students from other classes looking in on them. "When I got here, my dad didn't understand why everyone was watching me. Neither did I, but he got really angry with them. He threatened them."  
  
Minako dropped her head to rest her chin on the table. "Didn't your dad watch the tournament?"  
  
Makoto shook her head. "Nope. He said he didn't need to, that I was going to lose anyways because I never train long like I used to. Well, that just shows how much he knows. The last time he watched me fight was at a competition through Mr. Satan's Martial Arts School when I was four."  
  
Rei dropped in her chair. "Man that's gotta suck. Your dad doesn't even act like he loves you."  
  
Makoto just blankly stared forward as she thought about her relationship with her father. "Yeah, I know. But I have my mom. I know she loves me. I think the deal with my dad is that he wanted a boy and when he got me, he was mad. He's just going to take it out on me forever. It's not big deal though. I don't really care about what he thinks. He doesn't believe me that Mr. Satan's lies were revealed either."  
  
Usagi frowned. "He doesn't?" She never really did care for Makoto's father. Anytime she visited her house, he always had a rude comment to make to her, to any of them actually.  
  
"Nope, he still thinks he's earth's savior. But oh well, that's just him for you. You kind of have to expect stubbornness from my dad. I just try to ignore him and be done with it." Makoto quickly forgot about her father when she looked up to her zombie teacher, who was coming towards them. "We have company."   
  
Ami giggled when she saw his stunned face. "Can we help you?"  
  
The teacher looked down and nodded. He still couldn't get over the fact that these five young girls were capable of such power. He knew that they trained with Goku, but he didn't know that they were learning how to fight with such skill. "How do you do it...?"  
  
(Ok, there's yet again, another part. What did you think? Gotta bounce! Ja )  



	88. Part 18

~~After School~~   
  
Usagi flew to Hotaru's school after school to pick her up while her friends flew to her house. They would have come with her except for the fact that they just couldn't wait to go to her house to see the puppy, which they hoped Hotaru's father would let stay at his house. He was still their only hope.   
  
Hotaru uncomfortably waited for Usagi to come to her. She was debating on meeting her half-way for the fact that all of the kids in her school suddenly seemed overly interested in her. Instead of making fun of her, they seemed to want her to put on a show of her skills for them, which she responsibly refused. Even now as she waited for Usagi to come, kids were watching, from afar, hoping that they would be lucky enough to see her in action.   
  
Every so often she would glare at them and they would scatter away for they didn't want to become her victim, but soon after they would come back just in case she decided to put on a show for them. She excitedly looked up to see her Sensei flying to her at full speed. She jumped to her feet with a giant smile. "Usagi!"  
  
The kids, who were watching Usagi, jumped with interest. They hoped that the arrival of the new fighter would mean that they would get a fantastic show.   
  
Usagi landed just in front of Hotaru and smirked at the group of spectators. "So you're having the same problem we did, huh? Why don't we really give them something be stunned about."  
  
Surprised, Hotaru turned to Usagi. "You mean you really want to show them what we can do?"  
  
Usagi giggled. "Of course. All we're going to do is fake fighting. We don't want to waste your energy because my dad is going to teach you how to use your weapon today, if you want that is."  
  
Hotaru smiled brighter as she jumped with happiness. "Of course I want to learn. I've been waiting for a long time to be able to learn."  
  
"Ok then. We'll do something quick here and then go back to your house to get it and then my house. Oh yeah, and I'll tell him to teach you how to use it first instead of attacking you first. I'll make him promise." She spread her feet apart and placed her hands out in front of her to ready herself for her fake fight.   
  
Hotaru mimicked Usagi's movements as she looked over at the group of kids. "Watch this guys." She turned back to Usagi. "Thanks."  
  
"No problem. Now, use your energy to control how hard you hit." Usagi made a fist and pulled it back. She jabbed at Hotaru, who easily dodged it due to the fact that she knew that it was coming. Hotaru performed a back-flip but was met by Usagi back on the ground, who caught her and then dropped her on the ground.  
  
To her embarrassment, Hotaru's skirt lifted up. Now, Hotaru lay on her stomach on the ground. She was about to pull her skirt down until she saw that Usagi wasn't going to attack. She wondered why she wasn't attacking again. 'What's going on? The kids wanted a fight. Why did she stop?' She looked up to Usagi, who had a very pale face as if she had just seen a ghost. "Usagi?"  
  
Usagi had her eyes fixed on Hotaru's waist where she spotted something very strange, yet, frightening familiar. Usagi was stunned speechless. She couldn't believe what she saw. She didn't want to believe what she saw. She hoped that it was fake. She didn't know what to think if it were real. Without even speaking to the younger fighter, Usagi cautiously went nearer, never taking her eyes off of the object wrapped to Hotaru's side.   
  
She kneeled down next to a worried Hotaru and didn't say a single word to her. She just kept her mouth completely shut. She couldn't say anything even if she had wanted to. Usagi carefully reached out to the object and firmly grabbed a hold of it. She gently tugged on it and got resistance, proving beyond her doubt that it was completely real. "Oh wow."  
  
Horror overcame Hotaru's face as she realized that her secret was finally out. Usagi knew and there was no way to go back. She would have to leave again. The first time she had friends and she would have to leave them because of her mother. And as much as she hated it, she knew that it was for the better that they left now, which only caused the tears to come out.   
  
Without saying a single word to Usagi, she jumped to her feet and away from Usagi's grasp. She looked back at Usagi for the last time with blurred vision from her tears. That was how she would remember her, as much as she didn't want to. She would always remember her best friends shocked by finding out her secret. Hotaru gave a quick wave good-bye to Usagi and took to the air to fly home.  
  
A stunned Usagi quickly recovered and leapt into the air after her. She didn't know what was going on, but she was going to find out. It was obviously something that neither Hotaru nor her father wanted anyone else to know, but now Usagi knew and she wasn't going to let them get away without an explanation. This wasn't one of those things that you just let go. It was much too important for that. "Hotaru wait up! It's ok!"  
  
Hotaru ignored Usagi as she increased her speed. She didn't have anything to say to Usagi. Her mother had warned her the dangers of revealing herself to others around her, especially the Saiyans. Now that Usagi knew, she was in grave danger. Hotaru knew that Usagi told everything thing to her father and there was no doubt that Usagi would tell him this since it was so major. 'Why did this have to happen? I should have known better than to let myself become friends with a Saiyan. But she was so nice to me and I really wanted a friend.' Hotaru mentally beat herself up as she continued to fly home, where she would probably lock herself in her room until her father were to return.  
  
"Hotaru! Wait! Can't we at least talk about this?!" 'Oh my gosh! How did this happen? Where did she come from? What will daddy think? What will Vejita think? What will EVERYONE think?' "Hotaru please!"   
  
They were fast approaching Hotaru's home at speeds undetectable to the eye. Hotaru made a beeline to her front-door. She ripped it open, ran in, and then quickly slammed it behind her, locking it behind her. She wiped away a stream of tears from her face and ran up the stairs to her room.   
  
Hotaru couldn't believe that this was happening. Right when things were going great. She had friends who accepted her, who actually wanted to be around her. And now this had to happen. Her life would be ruined forever.  
  
Usagi landed on the front porch and banged on the door. "Hotaru! Let me in! You can't hide forever! We need to talk about this! Please? You're only hurting yourself by hiding in there!" Usagi could hardly blame Hotaru for hiding. She couldn't even begin to imagine the fear that was building up inside Hotaru. That was such a big secret and so far it seemed to be held quite nicely until now. Why did things have to change now? Everything was perfect until now.   
  
Once it was apparent that Hotaru wouldn't respond by letting her in, Usagi sat down on the front step where she would await Professor Tomoe's arrival so she could get some answers, something which she would refuse to leave without. Her curiosity was just too high to let something of this magnitude slip out of her hands.   
  
Even though her curiosity level was dangerously high, Usagi didn't want to break into the house, nor did she want to teleport. To her, it would have been breaking the trust of Hotaru as well as her father. Something that she treasured too much to ruin, or even want to think about violating.  
  
Usagi didn't have to wait long before Professor Tomoe's Hover Car came flying into the driveway. She couldn't have been happier to see him home so many hours early. "Professor!" She jumped to her feet and dashed to the garage, where the Hover Car was flying into. "Professor!" Only one question went through her mind over and over. 'How?' As she tried to stop herself, she skidded into the car but didn't really pay attention to the newly created pain in her stomach. That was of no concern to her at that point. Instead, she looked up into Tomoe's fearful eyes.  
  
The Professor took one look at the confused Usagi and realized that something was drastically wrong. He knew that it had to do with his daughter, there couldn't have been anything else at that point. "What is it? Is something wrong with Hotaru?"  
  
Usagi roughly shook her head. "No, but we need to talk." There was no time to waste, especially since her own father was expecting them both back at home soon. If they didn't show up soon, she was certain that he would go looking for them, wondering what could have been holding them up.  
  
Tomoe was somewhat relieved by the statement, yet he knew that something was definitely wrong. He couldn't remember a time when he had seen Usagi so fear-stricken outside of a fight. "Sure." As he walked to the front door he looked around for his daughter, but couldn't find her anywhere. 'Could they have had an argument?'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru had her face in her pillows as she cried. She perked her head a bit when she heard the door unlocking downstairs. She knew that it was her father. She had also heard his Hover Car pull into the garage. She would know that sound anywhere. But, she could feel Usagi's energy with her father, someone she didn't particularly want to face for the fear of being shunned once again.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Tomoe led Usagi into the study as he took his jacket off and set it over the back of a chair that sat at a wooden desk, where he did most of his work. "What happened?"  
  
Before Usagi could reply, Hotaru walked slowly into the room. Her face was red with tears that still flowed down her frightened face. She didn't make any eye contact with Usagi. In fact, she wouldn't even look at her. She just kept her head lowered.  
  
The Professor took one look at his upset daughter and ran to her. He bent over and scooped her up into his comforting arms. He held her as close to him as he could. He turned to Usagi with an angry frown. "I thought you said she wasn't hurt! She obviously is! What did you do to her?!" At that moment, he wasn't sure that he liked Usagi anymore. He thought that she was different, but it was turning out that she was just like all the other kids that had ever made fun of Usagi.   
  
Usagi took a step back from the angry father, a little hurt that he would accuse her of doing anything. "I...I..." She didn't know the words to say. She was still trying to figure it out herself, let alone tell him what happened.  
  
Hotaru dug her nails into her father's shoulders with fear as she leaned her head against him. "She knows, Papa."  
  
Sheer Horror entered the Professor's face as he prayed that he had just heard his little girl wrong. He remembered back to what had happened the last time someone had found out her secret. He could barely even choke out his next sentence. "Wh...what?"  
  
Hotaru pulled away from her father's protective grasp and let her feet drop to the ground. She could sense her father's worry. It was more than her own was for he had already lost his wife to this secret, he hoped that he wouldn't have to go through yet another loss. She slowly lifted up the skirt of her GI and unwrapped what Usagi had seen. Slowly, a long brown tail unfolded from behind. In it was little streaks purple, which was a mystery to even her parents. More tears began to stream down her scared face as her tail now wagged behind her.  
  
Usagi stared at the tail with her mouth wide open. She didn't know what to say. She didn't even know what to think. There were really no words to be spoken at that point. It was just all too overwhelming for her to take in, but, she managed to get one sentence. One very important sentence. "You're half Saiyan...?"  
  
The Professor knew that there was no other choice but to leave again. It wasn't safe to have his daughter's true identity out, especially with what happened to her mother. He glared at the confused Usagi as he began to answer. "Yes, she is. Now that you know, you must leave."  
  
Completely horrified at his statement, Usagi looked up to him. She couldn't imagine why he would want her to leave. "Leave? Why?" She didn't know what to do.  
  
"I won't let you hurt her. We will go where you can't find us. I won't let anyone hurt her like her mother was. Especially by a Saiyan." He cold-heartedly pointed to the door as he wrapped his arm around his daughter's shoulders. "Now please leave, Usagi."  
  
"But, Professor..."  
  
"No we're leaving. Get Out. NOW!" He pulled his daughter in closer to him as she started to cry again. He hated that things had to be that way for her, but it was just the facts of life. It seemed like they were running from everyone.  
  
Usagi didn't leave, but she did take a step back just in case he wanted to get hostile. "Sir, I'm half Saiyan, you know that. I would never hurt her. None of the Saiyans here would."   
  
Tomoe just looked down at his crying daughter, who didn't seem to be following any of the conversation that was taking place. He looked back up to Usagi, who looked like she was also ready to cry. "It may be worse that you're Saiyan."  
  
Usagi scrunched her face in confusion. "What? Why? What's wrong with me being a Saiyan." 'This is just too weird. What's daddy gonna think when he hears about this?'  
  
The Professor shouted at the child with anger. He was growing weary with her stubbornness. "That's none of your business. Now just leave."  
  
Hurt, Usagi too another step closer to the door. She was somewhat afraid of him at that point. She wasn't afraid that he could do anything to her, but she was afraid of why HE feared letting Hotaru's secret out. "Please, sir. Can't we talk about this? This is kind if important. There weren't supposed to be any other Saiyans alive."  
  
Tomoe pulled away from his daughter and walked towards Usagi with both annoyance and anger. "I don't want to have to do anything to you, Usagi. You've been great to Hotaru, but things have changed. Now, if you don't leave, I will be forced to call your parents and if they don't do anything I'll take this up with the authorities."  
  
Usagi didn't need anymore convincing than that to leave. "I'm sorry..." She sadly dropped her head and turned around to leave. She wished that they would cooperate, but that obviously wasn't going to happen.  
  
Before Usagi left, Hotaru raised her power level enough to establish a small link, one that only Usagi would be able to hear. 'Usagi, I'm part Saiyan Healer. That's why Papa doesn't want other Saiyans to know about me.'  
  
Usagi stopped in mid-step and turned around to face the Professor again, who was getting ready to take action. "She's a healer? What's wrong with that?"  
  
The Professor was dismayed that she found out, but there was no way to make her forget now. "You're a Saiyan and you don't mind that she's a healer?"   
  
Usagi smiled as she felt the tension on the room lighten up. "Heck no! That's so cool! I didn't know that there WERE Saiyans that could heal."  
  
Tomoe walked back to his desk and sat down in the chair that was with it. He reached out and pulled his daughter into his lap. "You didn't know?" Usagi shook her head. She was very interested in finding out, which was obvious to him. "I guess I should explain it to you since you're obviously wanting to know why we've been keeping this such a big secret. It's only fair to you." He sighed as he looked down to his daughter, who didn't seem to mind that he was going to explain. "Healers were hated and feared throughout the Saiyan race. They were seen as weak as they didn't have any fighting ability at all nor did they wish to fight. I guess you could say that they were the peaceful ones of the race."  
  
Usagi sat down on the floor and sat with her legs crossed as she waited for him to proceed. 'Maybe that's why Hotaru said that her mom wasn't a fighter that one day after school. Maybe her mom was a healer. Wait, that would make her mom the Saiyan.'  
  
"As soon as a Saiyan was discovered to be a healer, they were killed on the spot so they wouldn't take up space in the population. We don't know how her mother escaped being killed, only she knew that. That was one thing she never told for fear of getting us involved in her problem."  
  
Usagi pondered over what she had just heard as she looked at Hotaru, who was having her own problem with listening about her mother. "That's awful."  
  
Tomoe lifted his daughter out of his lap as he stood to his feet. "Yes. We would appreciate it if you left now. Saiyans will always be Saiyans. She may be safe with you, but not the others."  
  
Usagi jumped to her feet. "Sir, they may have been hated there, but they won't be here. My dad, whose full Saiyan, has a lot of respect for doctors and has even told me that he met a few healers in his travels and wished that he had their skills. Actually, the guardian of earth, Dende, is a healer from Namek."  
  
The Professor raised a brow in interest as well as slight relief. "Really?"  
  
Hotaru looked hopeful as she stepped up to join her father. "She's not lying, Papa. I can tell. She wouldn't lie about something like this." She looked at Usagi with a smile, who responded in kind.   
  
The Professor still had his doubts but he was willing to try to make things work, for Hotaru's sake. "Ok, we won't leave, if you wanted to find us we couldn't stop you anyway. But Usagi, I want you to promise me never to tell anyone about this."  
  
Usagi quietly gasped with shock. She couldn't figure out why he didn't want her to tell anyone else. "But..."  
  
"Usagi, my family has been hurt because of this too much to trust others just yet. Give it time."  
  
"Ok, but I can't keep something this big from the girls, the link won't let it. Once we hook up with a touch link, our thoughts become one."  
  
The Professor reluctantly agreed to let them know. He knew there really was no way to stop them from knowing. "Just make sure they promise not to tell anyone. Even your parents, Usagi. I'm counting on you for this."  
  
Usagi nodded with pride. She wouldn't let the secret out for anything. "I promise, sir. You have my word."  
  
Hotaru looked up at her father with a half-smile. "You mean we don't have to leave? We can stay? I can still be friends with the girls?"  
  
Professor Tomoe chuckled as he picked up his daughter and hugged her. "Yes, Hotaru. That's exactly right. We don't have to leave." With his grandest smile, he turned to look at Usagi. " I think we finally found someone who we can trust with this." He set his relieved daughter back down on the ground. "Now go run along and do whatever you were going to do before any of this happens. You still have a full night of training left."  
  
Hotaru smiled brighter than the sun as she ran to her room., wrapping her tail around her waist again as she went. "COME ON USAG!"  
  
Usagi giggled as she began to follow Hotaru. 'This is strange. She's a Saiyan too? No wonder why she learned so quickly. No wonder why she's so strong. But man, where did her mother come from. How did she escape from being killed right away?'  
  
Usagi walked into Hotaru's room, where she found her student getting her staff. "Sorry that I hurt you back there when I grabbed your tail." She walked to the bed, which had a light purple bedspread covering it, and sat down. She let herself bounce on it as she waited for Hotaru to get ready.  
  
Hotaru looked away from what she was doing so she could look at Usagi. "You didn't hurt me, Usagi." She walked to her mirror and ran a brush through her hair.  
  
Usagi stopped bouncing on the bed. She found it odd that Hotaru would reply in such a way. "But I grabbed your tail, that always hurts."  
  
Hotaru giggled as she walked to her bed and sat down next to her friend. "My daddy didn't know everything that my mommy did. Mommy told me a lot more than she told daddy. I know I shouldn't tell you this because mommy told me not to, but I think I should tell you. Will my secret be safe with you?" Usagi nodded as she blankly stared at her young friend. "My mommy was a Saiyan healer, as you know. I'm part Saiyan healer, just like her."  
  
Usagi became confused. "What do you mean by that? How can you be part?"  
  
Hotaru thought about what her mother had told her, right before her death. "Mommy told me that I had the power of healing in me. But I also had the instinct of fighting, which could overpower my healing power. But she said that I had something about me that made me want to fight even more. Something that even she couldn't explain, but she could sense it in me. Right before she died, she showed me how to use my healing powers. The first thing we did was strengthen my tail with them, just like she did with hers. She said that it deadened the pain so that it didn't hurt more than my tail. But I can still feel other stuff with it." She became quiet as she dropped her head with obvious sorrow.  
  
Usagi couldn't empathize with Hotaru about the death of her mother for she had never suffered the death of anyone close to her, but she knew that it had to be an awful feeling. "You miss your mom, don't you?"  
  
Hotaru nodded with a sniffle. "Daddy doesn't know how she died, but I do."  
  
Usagi was a bit stunned by Hotaru's reply. 'What a strange family...' "What do you mean? I thought she was killed when you guys were gone."  
  
Hotaru gulped as she remembered back to when her mother left her alone with her father. They were memories that she didn't want to think about, but she knew that it was for the better to tell Usagi. For some reason, it felt right to be telling her. "That might have been her body, but I don't think it was. After years of thinking about how mommy died and what she told me, I don't think that she died that way. I think she was either taken away and someone left a dummy behind or they really did kill her."  
  
Usagi became more interested in what Hotaru's mother could have possibly told her. "Hotaru, what did your mom say? If you don't mind me asking, that is."  
  
"It's ok. She knew that something was going to happen. She kept telling me over and over. She told me that she was running almost her whole life. She said that she was running away until she married Papa, then her threat finally ended. But then she sensed something big going down, when I was three."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened with realization. 'Two years ago, I was eight. I went to the past...'  
  
"That's when she started to teach me to heal. She also told me that because I was her daughter that I'm in danger too, but nothing has happened to me yet. But that's another reason why I wanted to learn how to fight. I wanted to be able to protect myself just in case something bad happened."  
  
"Hotaru, who was your mom running from?" 'This is just too big to keep from daddy. How am I supposed to do it?'  
  
"I don't remember. I was too little. I know there was more that she told me, but I can't really remember. All I know is that she was preparing me for when she left, which only made it harder on me." She tried to fake a smile as she looked up to Usagi, though there was some sincerity behind it. "It feels really good to be able to tell someone this. I haven't even been able to tell daddy because I didn't want to hurt him with the truth. Am I a liar now?"  
  
Usagi reached out and hugged Hotaru as the tears began to spill again. "No. Of course not. This is one of those good lies. There's nothing wrong with that. You're keeping your dad safe." Usagi couldn't help but want to cry at Hotaru's misfortune. She didn't blame her for reacting to her death in the manner that she had. Hotaru had been keeping in a major secret to herself as she tried to get over her mother's disappearance, which she had been told was going to happen by the victim.  
  
Usagi could tell that Hotaru was going to break down any moment so she decided that it was more than time to change the subject. "Hey, Hotaru? Can you show me how to heal?"  
  
Hotaru pulled away from her friend as she tried to remember how her mother had taught her how to do it. "I think that only Saiyans with the power to heal can do it."  
  
"Come on, it's worth a try, right? And I'll even do something for you. I'll show you that you don't need to be afraid to show what you are to the other Saiyans around."  
  
Hotaru wasn't too stunned that Usagi would do that for her, in fact, she kind of expected her to be so kind as to help her. "Are you sure? You may get hurt by it though."  
  
Usagi confidently nodded as she smiled. "Yep. I'm sure. My family will understand. I know for sure that they'll like your gift." 'I just hope that Vejita won't go crazy over this. I know that he still thinks he's the prince. I hope he doesn't try to kill Hotaru.'  
  
Hotaru launched herself into Usagi's arms with excitement. The fear and dread that had clutched her heart for the past half hour had completely disappeared. She knew that Usagi would understand. "I'm glad I can trust you, Usagi. And yes, I'll try to teach you how to heal." She took a big breath of air in as she stood up and grabbed her staff. "I think we should get to your house, Usagi. Your daddy is waiting for us."  
  
Usagi stood with a smile. "You're right Hotaru. Now that it's out, it's going to be harder for you to hide it from dad. Don't act like you've got your mind on other things, but if you do, just say you're thinking about your mom. He should believe that, I hope. Now when we get there, I'll tell the girls while you train. And act totally normal so he doesn't suspect anything. Don't be quick to answer questions but don't stall either. He has a habit of being able to detect nervousness and any type of lying. Believe me, I've never really be able to pass a lie through him once in my life. He also knows when you're hiding something. It's going to take a lot for us to pull this off, but we can give it the best we've got. Oh yeah, don't look him straight in the eye either."  
  
"Why? I thought you were supposed to look adults in the eyes when you lied."  
  
"Not with my dad. He knows that kids never look adults in the eyes when they talk. If you look him in the eyes then he knows that you're lying. Look at his face, just not his eyes. You can even act like you've got your attention on something else, but not all the time. He'll know that something's up if you never look at him."  
  
"Wow, Usagi. You sure know a lot about fooling daddy."  
  
Usagi giggled. "I've lived with him my whole life. I had to think up strategies to at least hide stuff from him if I couldn't lie."  
  
"Sounds like a plan. I'll make sure I don't sound like something happened. What are you going to tell him when we get there? We're going to be late."  
  
Usagi groaned as she stood up. "You're right! We would have to lie..." She evilly smirked as an idea flashed through her head. "We'll tell him the truth."  
  
Hotaru widened her eyes with shock as well as fear. "What?! Usagi! We can't tell him yet!"  
  
Usagi continued to smirk. "Hang in there with me. All we have to do is tell him that something came up so we had to stay at your house for a while." She giggled. "We're not lying then. Something came up, we had to stay here and that's the truth. And if he asks then we're in trouble." Usagi knew that that probably wouldn't work. He would be able to tell that it was something big. She knew him too well to think that that would work, but she needed to tell Hotaru something to ease her fears. "Come on. Let's go. I'm sure Lucky can't wait to see you again."  
  
( Wow, I close one door and immediately open another one, don't I? Trust me with the Saiyan thing, k? You'll see what it's about sooner or later. Well, what did you think? Is it ok? Gotta go. Ja. )  



	89. Part 19

Back at the Son house, Goku was having a bit of a crisis...  
  
"Get that thing away from me!" Goku clung to a branch high above in the treetops as an excited puppy happily yipped up at him. He looked down at the puppy, who had its two front paws on the trunk of the tree as if it were trying to get closer to him. "That thing is vicious!" He didn't even pay attention to the tail, which was happily wagging.  
  
Minako laughed at the top of her lungs as she looked up to Goku. She couldn't even begin to think of any reason why Goku, the strongest person she knew, would be afraid of such a harmless puppy. "I think she's really taken a liking to you, Goku."  
  
When Lucky jumped up to try and get closer to him, Goku freaked. He jumped to a higher branch in the tree. "She likes the way I taste, you mean. That's why she keeps licking me." Just before any of this had happened, the puppy had jumped from Rei's arms onto Goku. As if that wasn't bad enough, she started licking his face, her way of saying hello, but Goku didn't take it that way.  
  
Makoto walked to the tree and picked up Lucky once she saw that Goku had been tortured enough. "Come on, Goku. You're being silly. She's not going to eat you. She likes you too much to eat you."  
  
"I think I'll just stay right here. As long as that thing stays away from me, I'll be happy." Goku let out a nearly silent sigh of relief when he saw the girls begin to take the menacing puppy away. No matter how much they would tell him about how the puppy wouldn't do anything to him, he wouldn't believe them. His mind was just too stuck on the fact that sharp objects always mean bad news.  
  
He looked forward once again when he felt the power levels of Hotaru as well as his daughter in front of him and sure enough, they were floating there in front of him, looking at him like he was an idiot. "What?"  
  
Usagi laughed at her father's behavior. She had never seen anyone react in such a way towards anything so small. "You can fly."  
  
Goku chuckled as he let go of the tree and joined his daughter and her friend in the air. "It was a reaction to that wild animal."   
  
Hotaru frowned. "She's not wild, Goku. She's sweet. How come you aren't afraid to fight rough, but you're afraid of a lil ol puppy?"  
  
Goku turned to Hotaru with embarrassment. He didn't exactly know how to answer that question. It was just the way he felt about it. He had been that way ever since he was a child. "You got me." He let his eyes trail down to the shining weapon that she held. "Hey, that's a nice staff you've got there. Do you mind if I take a look at it?"  
  
Hotaru proudly held out her brand new staff for Goku to look at. "Papa had it fixed. It used to be all rusty."  
  
Goku carefully took the staff from Hotaru and bounced it up and down a bit. "Whoever remade it did a very good job. It's got almost perfect balance." He barely looked up enough to see Hotaru's smiling face. "This is kind of heavy, are you sure you can handle it?"  
  
Hotaru gave a confident smile in response. "Of course. I've been training with gravity, remember?"  
  
Goku chuckled. "That's right." He let his hand glide over the smooth metal of the handle. "This is nice." He let his hand trail up to the blades, which were extremely sharp. 'Wow, this must have cost them a fortune to have done.' "Well Hotaru, you have yourself a great fighting weapon here. Now all we have to do is teach you how to use it. Are you ready to learn?"  
  
Hotaru furiously nodded with excitement. "I sure am!"   
  
Goku chuckled. "That's the spirit." He turned to Usagi with a smile. "Don't worry, I'll teach her how to use it before I just attack her. I promise. This is one of those things that you have to teach in order to really understand."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Great." An evil smirk appeared on her face as she floated forward, which only created fear in her father's eyes. "And after this, I'll be your Sensei for a while."  
  
Goku gulped as he looked down at Usagi. He wasn't sure he liked her tone of voice that she was using, let alone her smirk. "Uh, do I want to know what you're plotting?"  
  
Usagi giggled. "Don't worry, daddy. It's for the best. I'm going to teach you how to play with Lucky." She couldn't help but laugh at her father's face, which could have dropped to the ground with fear right there and then. "I want to show you that she's not going to hurt you, K?!"  
  
Goku backed away from his daughter. "N...no. It's not ok. I'm not getting near that thing. That thing will be the death of me yet. You'll see. She's going to eat you one of these days and then you'll understand what I was talking about."  
  
Usagi just rolled her eyes. "You're funny."  
  
"You'll see." Goku playfully pushed Usagi away from him and turned to Hotaru, who was laughing at the whole situation again. "I guess we should get started then, kid."  
  
Usagi took that as a hint to leave and she didn't mind either. She still had to tell the others about Hotaru. That was something she was still trying to grasp herself. Without saying a word to her father and Hotaru, she turned around to join her friends.  
  
Once she saw Usagi leave, Hotaru immediately became more nervous than she had ever been before. She didn't know if she would be able to keep her worries hidden from Goku now that she had been left alone. She hadn't expected Usagi to leave her alone with Goku like that. Alone to be nervous, to let that nervousness show. But she tried to keep in mind what Usagi told her, about how she should just try to act normal like she had been all along. "So! What are we going to do first?!"  
  
Goku took one look at Hotaru and knew that she was hiding something. He had a hunch that she was hiding something big from him all along, he just didn't know what. As well of a job she was doing trying to hide it at that moment, it was hard to pass anything by him, but he decided not to call her out on it. He knew that it must have been something big or else she and Usagi would have told him when they arrived. He didn't want to push her into anything so he decided to just let it alone until she was ready. "Well, first I'm going to tell you about fighting with weapons."   
  
Goku paused to let himself fall. Before he landed, however, he searched the area for the puppy, who could have been lurking anywhere. 'Good, they finally took it away.' When he saw that she wasn't around, he let his feet touch the ground as he relaxed himself.   
  
Hotaru giggled as she dropped to stand in front of her new Sensei. "Still afraid of Lucky, huh?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "Not afraid, just cautious. I don't want to get bitten or even tasted." He glared at her when she laughed at him more. "Yeah, yeah." He again grabbed her staff from her to begin his training. "First, there are some ground rules here. Fighting with a weapon is a serious thing, especially when your opponent doesn't have one. So, until you've become very skilled with this, I don't want you to try to spar with it outside of our training, ok?"   
  
Hotaru nodded. 'At least he's not asking why we were late.' She began to calm her nerves. It was obvious that he wasn't concerned with them being late.   
  
"Second, when I do allow you to fight others you must be extra careful around them. They could get very hurt." He paused when he saw a smile appear on Hotaru's face, which was accompanied by quiet laughter. "What's so funny?"  
  
"You're going to be fighting me when I use that, aren't you?" Goku nodded. He still failed to understand what was so hilarious about that. "Why are you going to fight me that when it's so sharp but you won't let Lucky near you?  
  
Goku groaned. He just knew that something like that would come up. "The blades aren't going to eat me!" He frowned down at the laughing child. He hated the fact that he was afraid of sharp pointy objects. "Do you want to learn or not?" Well that shut Hotaru up. She sheepishly nodded. "Good, then let's continue. Here are some basics that any good weapons user should know. First, never rely only on your weapon no matter how strong it may seem. You should use it, yes, but not all the time. You should always be prepared to get into some hand to hand combat."  
  
"I know. Because if you only use your weapon, then your opponent will catch on to what you're doing and then they'll find a good defense for it as well as a way to attack without getting defended. If you always use a weapon then you leave yourself wide open for almost any attack."  
  
Goku nodded down at her in complete awe. He didn't know that Hotaru knew so much about fighting. "That's exactly right, Hotaru."  
  
Hotaru smiled. "The girls told me all about fighting. They told me that I should be diverse in the types of attacks I use so I don't get predictable."  
  
'They taught her more than I thought.' "They're right. I guess we can move onto more important things then."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"SHE'S A WHAT?!" Usagi had just broken the news to the girls, all of whom didn't know how to take it. None of them had once ever thought for a moment that Hotaru could have been anything but a Human. She had hidden herself too well.   
  
Rei tried to calm herself down after her little outburst. She hadn't meant to react the way she had, but she could hardly help it. She threw herself to Usagi and grabbed onto her shoulders, putting her face in Usagi's. "Are you positive that she's a Saiyan? Are you sure that she's not just trying to be like you?"  
  
Usagi pushed Rei away from her and sat he down on the ground next to the rest of the girls. She herself also sat down. "Be quiet. If you yell like that my dad and Hotaru will hear. And yes, I'm certain that she's half Saiyan. She has a tail and everything."  
  
Ami stroked Lucky's back as she stayed as calm as possible. But even she found it hard to believe what Usagi was telling them. "Usagi, she can't be a Saiyan. We would have known long before this because of the link. We would have known as soon as our thoughts became one with each other."  
  
Usagi sighed. "I know that. I don't know how she hid it from us but it IS true. She IS part Saiyan. But she's not a normal Saiyan. She has the power to heal, like her mom. I think that her mom has something to do with Cell or his queen."  
  
Makoto's eyes became wide at the thought of having to face his queen. That was something that they surely didn't want to go through, especially if she was stronger than Cell. He was a hard enough foe as it was. But, she knew that it would come up one day since she was still after Usagi. "What do you mean? Are you saying that Hotaru's mom is a bad guy?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No. She's definitely on our side from what Hotaru told me."  
  
"Wait, wait, wait, WAIT!" Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned their attention onto Minako, who seemed to be getting lost more and more with each second that past. "Before we get onto the Cell deal, how did her mom get here? How come she survived but no other Saiyans did besides your dad and Vejita?"  
  
"I don't know. We both don't know. But I have a feeling that the reason why Hotaru's mom is here was because of Cell's queen."  
  
Ami picked up Lucky and put her on the ground. Lucky immediately went about he business as she began eating the overgrown grass. "Why do you think that, Usagi? What did Hotaru tell you?"  
  
"She said that her mom was running away from something or somebody all her life until she married the Professor. Then, right before she died, she told Hotaru that something big was going to happen. That was two years ago. Two years ago her mom died."  
  
Minako's puzzlement began to dissolve into understanding as she put two and two together. "Of course. It makes sense. Cell attacked two years ago when Hotaru's mom was killed."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Right. But Hotaru doesn't think that her mom was killed. She thinks that she was kidnapped by whoever she was running from. It makes sense."  
  
Rei looked around the group. It was obvious that they were trying to contemplate their position and where they stood in this situation. "Girls, what are we going to do about this?" She let her eyes pause on Usagi. "Are we going to tell anyone else?"  
  
"No way. Hotaru and her dad don't want us to tell anyone until later. Even though I think we should, I don't want to break my promise that I made to them. You guys have to promise not to let his slip."  
  
Minako stood to her feet with a smile. She couldn't wait to see Hotaru again. "I think I speak for all of us when I say, you have our word." She turned back to Ami, Rei, and Makoto, who all nodded in agreement.  
  
"Great. Hotaru is going to be so happy when she finds out that we're behind her one-hundred percent. She was so upset when I saw. She thought she was going to have to move. Now all we have to do is wait for her to get done with dad so I can learn to heal like her."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, back with Goku and Hotaru, Goku had already taught Hotaru the basic attack forms of a weapon. "Ok Hotaru, now that you know some basic attacks, let's talk about defense." Hotaru nodded without a single word. "Now then, you obviously know that you can defend with one of these babies, right?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Why don't you tell me how much you know so far then? I don't want to bore you with telling you stuff you already know."  
  
"I don't know if this would work, but I was thinking that if I'm fighting against someone who can shoot energy attacks at me that I could deflect them with the blade if I need to."  
  
Goku smiled. "Wow, you're a smart kid."  
  
Hotaru confidently grinned at the compliment. "I don't go to Infinity College for nothing, Goku."  
  
'I'll have to watch her. She knows her stuff. The girls taught her a lot for a beginner.' "That's great. Now I won't have to teach you as much. Something else that you can do to block is use the long metal staff-handle to block from physical attacks. If you're lucky, this thing will be strong enough to deal some damage if it's hit and you block just right."  
  
Hotaru smirked. She couldn't wait to get more knowledge and then try it out. She wanted to feel what it was like to fight with a weapon. To her, it felt more right to have a weapon to fight with. It felt more exciting to have one as well. "So it works as a two in one, right?"  
  
"Right. When you get more comfortable with it, you can block and the attack directly after the block. You can attack either physically or with the staff itself."  
  
"Does it give you an advantage?"  
  
Goku thought back to his earlier days of fighting for a moment. He tried to remember all the fights had had fought with his own Power Pole. Well there you have it. I don't remember the Japanese name for it "Sometimes it gives you the advantage in a fight, but other times it can just get in the way and lead to your defeat. That's why you have to know how and when to use it."  
  
Hotaru nodded in awe as she let all of the information seep into her head. She had a momentary dip in her concentration when she felt the energy of her friends, as well as the puppy, walking up from behind. She couldn't help but giggle when she saw Goku's face turn completely pale. "Uh-oh..."  
  
Goku let out a choked chuckle as he backed away from Hotaru after handing her back her staff. "Usagi...we're trying to conduct business here. Why don't you and that thing go somewhere else to play for a while? Take her to your tree house or something, away from me."  
  
Rei took one look at the puppy in her arms and then up to Goku, who was once again getting frightened. She grinned as she went to sit against a tree not too far from where he and Hotaru were. "We'll just sit over here where it's nice and safe for both of you, Goku."  
  
"Make sure you don't come any closer then." With that, he pressed his fingers to his forehead and left the area without a single word more only to once again appear before them with his Power Pole. "Why don't we have you practice what you've learned today, Hotaru?"  
  
Usagi ran from the tree she was leaning against to her father with wide and curious eyes. "Cool! What's that, daddy?" She reached out and snatched it from her unsuspecting father.  
  
Goku reached over his daughter's shoulder and pulled his orange Power Pole from her grasp. "Don't play with this, Usagi. It's not a toy. You could hurt yourself with it if you're not careful."  
  
Usagi reached out for it again, but was stopped from getting again by a firm grip on her wrist. She fearfully gulped when she saw the angry face of her father. "I just want to look at it. I won't play with it."  
  
"It isn't safe unless you know what it's capable of doing. This isn't just any normal pole here, Usagi. It was given to my by my Grandfather. It's a tool with special powers to be used only by those who have tamed its power." Goku released his grip on Usagi's wrist.  
  
Usagi dropped her head in shame. "I'm sorry."  
  
Goku changed his frown into a smile. He didn't want her to think that he was mad at her. That was the last thing that he wanted. "It's all right. Just don't be so quick to grab next time. Now why don't you go and sit with your friends while I finish up with Hotaru?"  
  
Usagi smiled as she turned around. "Ok." Usagi got a devilish grin on her face as she walked back to her friends. 'I wonder what kind of power it has...'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Once Goku was finished with showing Hotaru a few moves, they were finished for the day and there was still an hour left before Hotaru would have to be home for the evening, an hour which Usagi had already pretty much planned out in her head.   
  
"Come on, guys." Usagi stood up and stretched a bit as she walked towards Hotaru, who was more excited than before. "I have an idea."  
  
Ami stopped in her place when she heard that. Usagi was using the same mischievous voice that she had used when she first found out about the time machine. "What are you planning?"   
  
Usagi paused and grinned as she glanced over her shoulder. "Nothing...yet." She just laughed as she started up with walking towards her father and Hotaru with the puppy in her arms. Goku didn't say anymore than a goodbye before he hightailed it back to the house when he saw Usagi approaching with the tiny animal. 'He's so weird when it comes to Lucky.'  
  
Hotaru happily smiled up at her friends, who looked down at her. She didn't even wait for them to ask her anything about he training before she started in. "Usagi your daddy is SO cool! He taught me a lot of cool stuff today! I can't wait for MORE!"  
  
"I know, isn't he?" Usagi looked up to her house when she heard the door slam shut. "I'll be right back." She made sure she had a good grip on the puppy and began running at he fastest speed to the house, leaving her curious friends behind with Hotaru.   
  
Minako was the first to take action. She kneeled down and looked into Hotaru's wide Violet eyes. "Hotaru, Usagi told us that you're part Saiyan. Is that true?"  
  
Hotaru nodded as her expression filled with sadness. She slowly unwrapped her tail from her waist to show them that she was telling the truth once and for all. "Yes. It's true. I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys but we thought that it would be dangerous."  
  
Ami gasped when she saw the tail. She hadn't really expected it to be true, but sure enough there it was. 'Two half Saiyan children.' "That's ok, Hotaru. We understand. But, we were wondering how you hid this from us when we created the link."  
  
Hotaru slightly perked up. "I don't really know how I did it. I guess I blocked it out of my mind for that moment."  
  
"Well we just want you to know that we're not going to tell a single person about your secret."   
  
Rei nodded with the agreement of Ami's statement. "That's right. We won't tell anyone unless you want us to."  
  
Hotaru couldn't help but smile at that. The last person who had seen her tail was back in Nagoya. She had spread it around the entire neighborhood in which they lived. The ridicules had gotten so bad that they had needed to move away, but Hotaru found herself to be extra lucky to have found such a city filled with people who didn't mind a person who had a tail. "You guys are great."  
  
At that moment, Usagi rejoined the group, without the puppy. Without a single word, she grabbed Hotaru's wrist and dragged her away from the open field and into the forest where the trees would hide what they were about to do. The only sound that came from her was a soft giggle of joy.  
  
Hotaru didn't resist being pulled away from the field, but she did wonder what was going on in her friend's mind. "Usagi? Where are we going?"  
  
"It's the perfect time..."  
  
Minako, who followed behind the two Saiyans as well as the others, was again confused by Usagi for the second time that day. "Time for what? What are you doing Usagi?"  
  
Usagi only continued to giggle until she came upon a small pond that was deep in the woods in one of the most well hidden areas that Usagi knew of. Even her own father had never been there. "He's taking a nap while he waits for dinner. It's absolutely perfect." Usagi dropped Hotaru's wrist and turned to face her friends, who were still as confused as ever. She didn't say another word. She just stood there and stared into the air with a giant smile planted on her face.  
  
With concern, Rei walked to Usagi and put her hand on her forehead. "Are you all right, Usagi? You're starting to scare us."  
  
Usagi just turned to Rei and gave her a crazy smile. "I'm fine. I'm just so excited." She turned back to Hotaru, who was starting to understand what she wanted. "Dad's asleep. He won't be able to feel the healing power. You can teach me now. It's the perfect time. What do you say Hotaru? Can you teach me?"  
  
Hotaru smirked as she walked to Usagi. "Sure. I'll give it my best shot. I'll teach you like my mom showed me. It's all I really know so it won't take long. I've only done this once, but I'm pretty sure that I can remember how to do it." Hotaru suddenly became shy as the others gathered around her to see what she was going to do.   
  
Hotaru giggled before she proceeded. She liked the idea of having revered places with Usagi. Now she would be the Sensei and Usagi would be the student. "First, you have to understand everything is a form of energy. Wood, metal, tissue, air, water, everything."  
  
Usagi nodded with actual understanding, something that was rare with her. "Ok, that makes sense."  
  
"Then you have to focus your energy through your body to whatever your trying to heal, let the two merge as one. Then focusing on the patient, you use your energy to reform it into the way that it's supposed to. This is mostly natural to the body you're healing, a feeling of rightness as you correctly rearrange the structure to its proper shape. You can also use it to absorb the other's pain into yourself, but that hurts you just as much as the patient was hurting. But, you can use it to increase or change the structure. Like Mama and I did with my tail. We used our energy to reinforce it and deaden the nerve endings so while they can still feel sensations as good as ever, they wouldn't feel pain as easily."  
  
Everyone, even Ami, was impressed at Hotaru's knowledge of such a complicated subject matter. But with Usagi being as excited and antsy as she was to learn this skill, spoke before anyone else. "Ok, Hotaru, lets try it out on my tail." She couldn't wait to get her tail to the point of feeling almost no pain. 'If only I knew about this BEFORE the tournament, I wouldn't have had to go through all of that pain.'  
  
"Are you sure, it's hard to do at first and I only have done it a couple of times."  
  
"We'll try together. Use the mind link to guide each other. That way I can learn from you as we go."  
  
Hotaru nodded. "Good idea. Let's try it then." Hotaru pulled Usagi away from the others so they could have space to work freely. She sat down and directed Usagi to do the same, which she gladly did. "Pull your tail in front of you so we can focus our energy on it, K?"  
  
Usagi nodded as she moved her tail to sit on her side. It was just long enough to sit in Usagi's lap. "Ok. Let's open the link now."  
  
"Right." Both girls concentrated their energy into a double mind link so they wouldn't have to use all of their energy on the link. They needed as much energy as possible for the healing process. 'Start concentrating your energy, but not like you normally do. Here, follow my example.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
While Hotaru showed Usagi how to heal, Goku lay asleep in his bed. He was exhausted from a long hard day of training. Unknown to him, the tiny puppy that had been found only one day before crawled up into the bed with him. She began smelling around his face and licked it twice when she realized who it was. For the first time, he had not reacted with insensate screaming, but it was not because he liked her, it was because he was asleep.   
  
Lucky took his quietness as an invitation to do nothing more than cuddle. Hey, it was a nice big fluffy bed with one of her favorite people. She turned around in a circle a few times. After about four turns, she finally decided to lay down, right next to Goku's face and excitedly wagged her tail. She nuzzled her nose under his chin and almost immediately drifted off to sleep.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Back in the woods, Usagi and Hotaru seemed to be making progress. Granted, it was their second time trying because Usagi had accidentally built up the wrong kind of power and overloaded the link, but that was something that they chose not to speak about in future conversations for the fact that both Hotaru and Usagi both had puffed tails as well as hair from the excessive energy running through their bodies all at once.   
  
Hotaru slightly raised her power level to once again speak to Usagi. 'Now, raise your power again, just not the fighting kind. Raise your inner energy. Mama called in love energy.'  
  
Usagi perked her head at that. 'I think I know what you're talking about now.' She once again raised her energy, but not her fighting energy. No, she didn't want to puff up even more. It was bad enough that she already looked like a scared cat, she didn't want to add to that.   
  
Together, the two of them work to get her tail healed and fixed forever. As they went along, Usagi learned exactly what she was meant to do by feeling what Hotaru was doing inside her body. It was much easier to learn things through the link than it was learning by watching or being told how to do it.   
  
Eventually, Usagi's tail twitched slightly, but no real pain was felt anywhere in her body. First, they changed the nerves that ran up and down it, which actually did cause her pain. Intense pain at that. Usagi had to bite her lower lip to keep from screaming in such pain. It felt as if each and every nerve was being individually ripped from her tail as if it were part of a licorice.   
  
Soon, they began to enhance the nerve endings so she could feel sensations much better. They deadened the pain output from the nerve endings, though. They also used their energy to harden and strengthen the tail. Its dexterity was not lost at all, in fact, it was increased. The strength increased a hundred-fold.   
  
"Usagi...Usagi...USAGI!" Makoto waved her hand in front of her tranced friend.   
  
Usagi shook her head, coming out of her trance that she had fallen into halfway through the procedure. She really didn't have anything to say but, "Wow...!" She could feel a real difference in the way her tail felt let alone the knew knowledge she contained.  
  
Minako looked down at Usagi's tail, which lay in front of her on the ground just to the side of Usagi. "Did it work?"   
  
Hotaru nodded. "I think so. She's acting like I did when I first did this."  
  
Minako grinned as she lifted her foot and stomped down as hard as she could on Usagi's tail. "Did that hurt Usagi?"  
  
Surprised and acting purely on reflex, Usagi retracted her tail and jumped to her feet, grabbing Minako by the front of her GI when she could. "What are you thinki..." She stopped and looked down to her tail, which she could freely move with no trouble. She had felt the blow, yet she wasn't hurt. She was free to move with no energy loss. "It worked!"  
  
Rei bent over to look at Usagi's tail and grabbed it. "Wow, I can't believe it. That really did work." She pulled on her tail as hard as she could. "Yep, you didn't yell at all. Hey Makoto, you gotta try this."  
  
Makoto strutted over to Usagi and grabbed her tail from Rei. She dug her nails into the fur as hard as she could to feel the bone underneath. "Yep. It sure did work."   
  
Usagi violently ripped her tail from Makoto and frowned. "Hey! Just because it doesn't hurt anymore doesn't mean it's a free for all with pulling my tail." Usagi quickly forgot about her friends testing out her new tail as she walked over to a rock. "I wonder how much stronger it is." She lifted her tail and smashed it down hard on a rock, shattering it on impact. "WOW!"  
  
In almost near shock, Makoto turned to Hotaru, who was also in shock. "What did you guys to do her tail? That thing is dangerous now."  
  
Usagi impishly grinned as she walked to Minako and wrapped he tail around her waist. Without a word from either, Usagi proceeded to pick Minako up. "AHHH! HELP!" Minako reached down to her waist and grabbed the tail that was tightly wrapped around it. "USAGI!"  
  
"Serves you right. What if it hadn't worked? That would have hurt." Usagi laughed as she threw the surprised Minako into the pond, which scared a group of ducks away. "I think I can learn to like this."   
  
"Oh yeah!?" Using all of her speed, Minako jumped out of the pond and grabbed Usagi by the legs, causing her to fall backwards. Minako jumped over Usagi and picked her up, immediately throwing her into the pond when she got her completely in the air.   
  
"Hey!" Usagi jumped out of the water and grabbed Minako by the arm with a smirk. Right when she was about to throw her back into the water, she stopped and looked down at the obviously happy Hotaru. "Hey, why don't we make your tail stronger too? That way we can gang up on Minako."  
  
Minako playfully frowned as she grabbed Usagi by the back of the neck with her free arm and threw her back into the pond. "That's what you get for even thinking about using her against me."  
  
Usagi laughed as she floated out of the water. "Too bad." She landed next to her dry friends to make sure that she wouldn't be thrown back into the pond. "So what do you think, Hotaru? Do you want to make your tail stronger?"  
  
"OF COURSE!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Back at the Son house, Goku was awakened by the slamming of a door out in the other part of the house. Though, he wasn't too worried about it since it wasn't hard for him to fall back to sleep. Things would have been fine if he hadn't felt something under his chin. 'Uh-oh...' He gently pulled his head back just enough to see the other creature that was right by him. He immediately began to panic, but he didn't yell out. He didn't want to wake the sleeping beast. 'Oh god what do I do? It's got me cornered now. It's going to wake up and be hungry. It's going to want to eat me. But I can't be loud or wake it up either or else it will try to kill me with its sharp teeth.' Goku pulled away a little more, but stopped when he heard the puppy whimper as it shook its back leg. 'Maybe if I just stay here I'll be fine. Maybe I'll be lucky and it won't be hungry when it wakes up. Why me? Why does it want to eat me?' He moved his head back to his pillow and gazed down at the sleeping beast, as he thought it was. 'Well now that I look at it, she is kind of cute, but only when she's sleeping and not trying to eat me.'  
  
(Ok, end of part. What did you think? Good or bad? See ya later. Bye. )  



	90. Part 20

Over the course of the next week, Hotaru's training with Goku continued, enabling her to learn new fighting techniques as well as gain a bit more strength. She was becoming quite skilled with staffing as well. She was almost to the point that she could hold an actual fight with Goku and not have to have him go easy on her, but that was still a ways off. He wanted to make sure that she knew fully what she was doing before he backed off.   
  
He was extremely happy with the way her training was coming along. Not only was there a need to raise her gravity up to thirty-five gee's, but her skills with teleporting were amazing. She seemed to be learning it faster than Usagi and the other girls had, which only made his suspicions rise, though he said nothing. Sentimental   
  
The puppy was beginning to grow in size as well as meat on its bones, which meant that she would have to leave soon, unless Usagi was able to work her magic on her mother and convince her to let the puppy stay with them. Usagi could see that her mother was tilting towards letting her keep Lucky.   
  
Now, everyone who was associated with the Son and Briefs family gathered in a park for a Barbecue, which Chi-Chi and Bulma insisted on having due to the fact that they both felt that the diverse group of friends was slipping apart.   
  
As the adults conversed and spoke of the times that they had been through together while the kids were off in their own group doing their own thing. Actually, there were two groups made up of kids at the park. One made purely of Usagi and her friend, including the puppy. The other, the Rat Pack. Both groups stayed as far away from each other as they could, but that didn't stop them from giving each other nasty glares to try and intimidate the others.   
  
Even though Michiru was with Mamoru's group, she didn't feel that she should have been there with them. Ever since the tournament just one week before, she began having strange thoughts. Thoughts that maybe she was wrong in most of the choices she made in regards to Usagi and her friends. She had begun thinking back to all the things that she had done to Usagi. From the first day they had met, she had done nothing but make fun of her and do anything in her power to make the poor girl's life a living nightmare, and now that she thought about it, most of the things she did were just unacceptable. She didn't blame her family for acting the way that they did towards her and Haruka. They deserved it all, but she would never let her friends know that she felt that way. They would kick her out of the group forever and treat her in the same manner that they treated Usagi's group.   
  
"Mamoru, remember how I said that we need to get Hotaru to hang out with us so we can get her to kick Monkey's butt?" Michiru knew that she was going to be taking a major risk with her proposal, but she didn't care. She would try to cover it up as much as possible, though.  
  
Mamoru nodded with a smirk. "What's with the sudden censorship of the language, Michiru? Don't tell me you're getting soft."  
  
Michiru frowned to let him know that she didn't appreciate being criticized. "I'm serious here." 'Damn pig-headed bastard. How's that for not being censored?'   
  
"Fine, fine. Yes, I do remember that. I'm working on a brilliant plan as we speak. We'll train her to be our own lackey. I can't wait to see Odango's face when her own student kicks the crap outta her." He laughed at the thought.   
  
"Don't you think you put her through enough at the tournament? You got back at her pretty well, what with stomping on her tail and all. I'd say your revenge is fulfilled."  
  
Mamoru suspiciously frowned. He had noticed a change in her at the tournament when she was the only one not putting her whole heart into praising him for hurting Usagi so horribly. "No, my revenge will never be fulfilled. Until I triumph over her once and for all, it will never be fulfilled. I'm going to prove to my father that I can beat her. I'm going to prove to myself that I can beat her. I'm going to show her whose boss."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, on the other side of the park, Usagi and her friends were having a blast playing tag. Even the puppy seemed to be having fun running around with the girls as she barked at them with a happily wagging tail. None of them truly worried about the Rat Pack on the other side of the park, who was planning their next mischievous act against them.   
  
The third group sat at four picnic tables as the people there were deep in several conversations. While a majority of the group spoke, two people were busy grilling the food. One against their will, and the other just because she didn't trust the other. She had reason to not trust him since it just happened to be Vejita, who had been forced into it by his wife. The other person doing the cooking with him was Chi-Chi, who was fed up with Vejita after only ten minutes.  
  
Somehow, Bulma and Bra had gotten Vejita into a 'Kiss the Cook' apron. It wasn't easy though. He had put up the fight of his life, yelling and screaming about the respect he deserved that he wasn't getting.   
  
Bulma turned her gaze from her friends to the laughing group of children not too far from their position. She barely noticed her best friend, Chi-Chi, sit by her for a break. "They're getting so much older."  
  
Chi-Chi got comfortable next to Bulma as she rested her chin in her hands. "I know. It's almost hard to believe. It feels like only yesterday that Usagi was starting her first day of school. Where did all the time go?"  
  
"It's sad. Theses kids get older, but they stay young while we're rotting away in our old tired bodies."  
  
Chi-Chi let out a quick laugh. "You got that right. But luckily we age slower than most humans otherwise we'd be tired old grandma's."  
  
"What do you mean? I AM a tired old grandma who still has a child."  
  
Chi-Chi turned from watching her daughter to look at her friend. "Bulma, I'm the one with the child. You just have Veji...ahhhh....I understand." Both women laughed as the turned to a fuming Vejita.  
  
The fourth and final group was composed only of three. Father and Sons, sparring for the first time after the big family argument, which took place only one week before. Over the past week, the trio had thought that it would be best to take a break from each other, considering the fact they weren't nearly as forgiving at the youngest of the family. They didn't want to spar to turn into a real fight, one where they let their rage fly out the window and they actually tried to hurt one another.   
  
When they had arrived at the park, Usagi noticed that neither of the three spoke to each other, which she didn't like. She hated to see them still squabbling over such a silly subject. She wanted them to forget about it and put it behind them, so she convinced them to spar to have fun and to help ease the tensions between them all. The three men thought that it was time to put their thoughts on the subject aside and decided to engage in a friendly spar.   
  
Chi-Chi was the only one against it and no one really truly listened to what she had to say in protest to the idea. She hadn't wanted any fighting there at all. She wanted a peaceful get together with all friends, but her husband had once again ruined her plans, as always.   
  
Unknown to Chi-Chi or any of the guys, Usagi had other plans for the fight. She had other reasons that she wanted them to fight, which she was about to put to action as she noticed them walking back to the largest group. Without even saying a word to her friends, who were still playing their game, Usagi began walking back the group of adults. She noticed that her father had the most wounds of the three fighters. 'Great. He must have taken them on as a team.'   
  
Usagi walked up to her father with a sly grin. "Hey daddy, guess what?"  
  
Goku couldn't help but slightly cower from his daughter as he looked down at her face. He knew that she was planning something and there wasn't anything he could do about it. "Uh, yes?"  
  
Usagi walked closer to him and looked up to his nervous. "I learned a new kind of power with my Ki. Isn't that cool?"  
  
Intrigued, and once again proud of his daughter's accomplishments, both Goku and his wife leaned in closer in hopes that she would show them what it was. "That's great, sweetheart." 'This kid is just too much for me to keep up with.'  
  
Chi-Chi smiled as she sat down at one of the tables, next to Professor Tomoe. "What is it dear?"  
  
Usagi giggled ash she pushed her father backward into a chair. The Professor just kept quiet as he watched her. Even though he seemed completely calm, his anxiety over her actions was slowly eating him alive, or so he felt. He knew that what she was about to was going to affect his daughter in more than just one way.  
  
Usagi just smiled down at her father, who wasn't sure if he wanted to know what her knew power was if it involved him, but he knew that it couldn't have been too bad since he knew that she would never do anything to hurt him. "I want to show you what I can do. But you had to beat up for me to do it. That's another reason why I wanted you guys to spar."   
  
Chi-Chi frowned at her daughter as she became upset by her statement. "You mean you WANTED your father hurt, young lady?" She glared at her youngest.  
  
Usagi squirmed at the force of her mother's stare. That was one of the only things that could honestly scare her at that point. Not wanting to make either of her parents mad, she made haste with her reply. "No. Of course not. I really did think that it would help them get along better, but we always have bruises and cuts in spars. I counted on that to help me show you guys what I can do." She nervously smiled in hopes that her mother would lighten up with he glare.  
  
To Usagi's liking, Chi-Chi DID lighten up her glare to a slight frown. "Ok. Just make sure you tell us your full intentions next time. It's not right to mislead people."  
  
Usagi nodded with a sigh of relief. "Sure mom." She turned to her father with a smile. "Now sit still daddy. This won't hurt at all. In fact, it feels really good."  
  
The Professor, sure of what she was up to, turned to his daughter, who was walking to the table with the other girls. He worriedly grabbed her and pulled her up into his lap. They both hoped that nothing too horrible would happen with this.  
  
Usagi concentrated her energy for healing into her hands as she brought them to her father's face. She could sense slight uneasiness arising within him. "Relax, daddy. Don't be nervous." She began to gently run her hands down his face, where the major wounds were.  
  
Goku smiled when he felt the warm glow on him. It created the feeling of sunbathing on a summer day with the wind gently blowing. In other words, it was comforting. He even let out a near silent chuckle when his whole body began to tingle. Soon, the discomfort from his wounds vanished as if they were never there to begin with.   
  
Goku looked up to the smiling face of his daughter when she stopped. "Aww...why'd you have to stop? That felt good." Goku immediately lifted his arm, where he had previously had a giant gash going from wrist to elbow. Oddly enough, it was gone. "Wow." The others began to crowd around the full blooded Saiyan to check out his now completely wound free body, each was in awe.  
  
Usagi giggled as she backed away. "I told you. I've learned the art of Ki healing. I guess you could say I'm a healer now."  
  
The entire crowd was stunned at Usagi's new talent. None of them had seen anything like it. Well, they had never seen it come from anyone but a Namek. It wasn't normal for a Saiyan to have such powers. Bulma walked to Usagi and bent down to look her in the eye. "That was very good Usagi. Where did you learn such a great skill?"  
  
"YOU'RE WHAT?!" Vejita grabbed his wife and threw her aside. He purposely let his rage show. He wanted to build fear inside his next victim.   
  
Bulma jumped back to her feet and slapped her husband in the face. "Vejita! Don't be rude to Usagi! She did nothing!"  
  
Vejita turned to his wife and grabbed her wrist and squeezed it nearly to the point of crushing it. "Don't screw with me woman! This is none of your concern!" He released his grip on her wrist and pushed her down to the ground.   
  
Goku watched Vejita with an evil eye. It was HIS concern if Vejita wanted to try something with his daughter. He would gladly intervene if needed. "Vejita..."  
  
Vejita ignored Goku and reached out to Usagi, grabbing her by the collar with one hand. His other hand was thrown back and ready to release a deadly punch. He knew it would be deadly too, which was why he did it. He was getting ready to kill her for having such a frivolous power. "You've become one of those cursed weaklings that use their power to heal!? Those bastards wanted nothing but peace! I knew you were too cutesy to be a true Saiyan! You must go!" He began to power up his fist to prepare his attack.  
  
Goku walked closer to Vejita and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Vejita don't even think about it!" The only response he got was being kicked in the stomach. "Don't do this!"  
  
Usagi couldn't help but feel fear at that moment as she stared into Vejita's heartless eyes. She had no doubt in her body that Vejita would actually try to kill her, but she knew that her father was close by to stop him, which was the only reason why she didn't let her fear show, much. "Yes! What's the problem with that?!" She squirmed to try to free herself from his grip, but it was no use. He was too strong for her. She couldn't help but look at his power filled fist with fear. 'Oh great. Now it starts. A new fight.'  
  
Professor Tomoe pulled his daughter closer in for a tighter hug. He knew that something like that would have happened if their secret were to get out. He could just imagine Hotaru, his own child, the one up there in Vejita's grasp instead of Usagi, which only sickened him more. "Close your eyes, Hotaru." He put his hand over her eyes and turned her head into his chest so she wouldn't have to watch what was about to happen.  
  
Even Mamoru and his gang had their attention grasped by what was going on. "Hey look, it looks like Odango is finally going to get shown whose boss around here." Mamoru laughed as he stood up with his friends.  
  
Vejita pulled Usagi in closer to his face, which only intimidated her more. He could smell her fear, which only made him want to kill her more. "I'll tell you the problem, we kill them on Vejita. They are worthless beings that should be killed on sight. Just like you will be now. Say good-bye to your kid, Kakorrotto." He gave his fist one last power burst.  
  
Goku couldn't believe it. Vejita was actually going to do it. He was actually going to try and kill an innocent child who did nothing. It was outrageous. In a split second, Goku powered up to Super Saiyan level two. He had to protect Usagi. No more games. He reached out and grabbed Vejita's powered fist just as it was being thrown. He stopped it right in front of his daughter's face, which made both of their hearts race with fear. "Let...Go...Of...MY...Daughter!" He clenched his teeth as he spoke. He glanced over to his sons, who were about to step in as well, but he motioned for them to stay back, so they did.  
  
Frightened out of all her wits, Chi-Chi ran to her daughter, who was still in Vejita's grasp. "Honey? Are you all right?" She turned to Vejita with a frown frightening enough to petrify even Frieza. "You sick bastard!"  
  
Vejita let out a loud growl as he kicked Chi-Chi in the stomach. "Shut up you stupid wh..."   
  
Goku cut off Vejita with a kick to the chest. "Don't EVER touch EITHER of them again!" His eyes told of his severe fury. "Now LET GO!" Vejita snickered as he tightened his grip on Usagi, causing her to close her eyes in pain. Goku responded in kind as he griped Vejita's wrist tighter.  
  
Even Lucky seemed to sense that something was wrong. She had grown to like Usagi over the past week, and now that she saw her in danger, she wanted to help. Strange huh She began barking at Vejita as she ran to him, but Ami knew better than to let the small creature get to him. She knew that Vejita would not hesitate to kill her with a kick. "No, Lucky." As Lucky ran by, Ami reached out and pulled her in so she couldn't get any further.  
  
Bulma ran to Chi-Chi, who was on the ground. "Chi-Chi? Are you all right?"  
  
Chi-Chi coughed as she sat up and looked into Bulma's caring eyes. "I'm fine. That's not the first time I've been hit like that by him." She clenched her fist as she jumped to her feet. "He's not getting away with it. He had better let her go or else..."  
  
Bulma grabbed the ranting Chi-Chi from behind to keep her from going off on Vejita. "Don't do anything rash. You know his temper. Let Goku deal with it. He seems to have everything under control."  
  
At that moment, Trunks, also level two, grabbed his father's other arm and squeezed it as hard as he could. The pain was too much for Vejita, causing him to release the child. "Father, let go of your anger. There is no reason to do this."  
  
Usagi quickly got to her feet and ran to her mother, who gladly welcomed her with a giant hug. Usagi let her mother embrace her as she looked up to her friends and Hotaru, who was still with her father. She slightly raised her power to open a link. 'This could be bad.'  
  
Rei looked down at Hotaru, who had started watching again. 'You got that right. I didn't think that Vejita would react that way. He could have killed you.'  
  
Hearing the two girls secretly speaking to each other, Hotaru decided to get her own thoughts in. 'Usagi, what are we going to do? I'm scared?'  
  
Usagi looked over at Vejita and her father. Both of them were filled with hate for each other. It was apparent. That had to be the first time that she had ever seen her father filled with such hate for a supposed comrade. 'Maybe I can trick him somehow.'  
  
After collecting his thoughts for a while, Vejita let his own anger blind him of common sense. He turned to his son, ready to attack. "Let go or there will be hell to pay."  
  
Without even letting Trunks get in his words of reply, Goku let go of Vejita's wrist and grabbed him by the shirt. He didn't even waste any time lifting him up into the air. "Never, EVER threaten my daughter again, or you'll find yourself dealing with me! Got it?! And as for my wife! Don't mess with her either!"  
  
Vejita pushed away from his rival and responded in kind by grabbing Goku by the shirt. "Now you listen hear...!"  
  
Bra jumped to her father and pushed him away from Goku. "It's a great power, a gift, actually. I wish I had it. Would you kill me then, too daddy? Just because I had the power to heal people?"  
  
Vejita cringed at the sound of his daughter asking if he would kill her. He knew that he wouldn't for the fact that he actually loved her, but he didn't see any relevancy of that to this current situation. "Stand down."  
  
Trunks grabbed his father by the arm and turned him around to look at him. "I remember all the stories that mom told about the Trunks from the future. Mom said that he came from a world of pure destruction and Chaos. Someone with the power to heal would have been more use there than a fighter."  
  
Bra did the same as her brother and turned her father to face her again. "Healers, doctors, creators, they try to make the world a better place. You are a fool for thinking of them as weak just because they choose to create and not destroy."  
  
Chi-Chi looked down to her daughter, who stood in front of her. "Stay here, sweetie." She pulled away from Bulma's grasp and walked to her husband for protection. She didn't want to get too close to him after what he had just pulled with her. "If you ever pull another stunt like this, you're going to have to put up with me for a while." She let her aura swell to a high level.  
  
Usagi disobeyed her mother as she walked closer to Vejita. She still had to make it safe for Hotaru to be revealed. "Healing is a great skill Vejita. Like dad says, don't knock others because of what you can't do."  
  
"If that isn't clear enough for you, VEJITA," Bulma re-approached her husband. "It means, don't hate healers just because they're not you. Don't hate them because you can't do it."  
  
Vejita sneered at his wife. "I didn't need any sass from you."  
  
Usagi inched towards her parents in fear that Vejita may lash out again. His anger was still very obvious. "It takes a lot of energy to heal, Vejita."  
  
Vejita turned to Usagi. "ENOUGH!" He glared at the lot. He hated to admit, but they were somewhat right. "Fine. Keep the little weakling. I won't have anything more to do with her." He angrily turned around and began walking away from the group.  
  
Goku looked down to his daughter with relief. She was once again saved. "Are you all right?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "I'm fine, daddy. Just a little shaken up, but I'll be ok." She looked to her friends and nodded. Her last phase of her plan was about to take place. They all nodded at her to go on. "Does that mean that you won't hurt any healer at all? You won't hurt me or any kids I might have? Do I have your word as the Prince of all Saiyans?"  
  
Goku looked down at his daughter in confusion and lowered his head to be by her ear so he could speak softly to her. "Why are you acting scared all of a sudden?"  
  
Usagi smirked. "I want to make sure."  
  
Vejita smirked when he heard her question him in the manner that she did. He could hear obvious fear in her voice. 'She's afraid for herself. What a weakling. Kakkorotto should be ashamed of such a brat.' "No brat, I won't hurt any of them. Just ignore them as if they didn't exist. Hmmph, you have my word as the Prince of Saiyans." He jumped into the air and flew off without a single word more  
  
Bulma put her hands to her hips as frowned up into the sky. "That Vejita! Always has to screw up a perfectly good day! He never fails! Honestly!"   
  
Usagi grinned as she turned around to face her father. She had done it. She had fooled the 'almighty' prince of Saiyans into thinking that she was sill deathly afraid of him. "Thanks daddy. I was really scared when he started to throw the punch."  
  
Goku chuckled as he wrapped his arm around his daughter's shoulders. "I know. So was I. But it's all over now and we don't have to worry about it anymore."  
  
"The hell we don't! Vejita NEVER keeps his word." Chi-Chi pushed her husband aside and kneeled down in front of her daughter. "Oh my poor baby! Are you all right!?"  
  
Usagi giggled at he mother's reaction. She never failed to freak out over something like that. "I'm ok mom, honest. He didn't touch me. Dad kept him from doing anything bad." She looked up to him again in thanks as he smiled down at her.  
  
Goku looked up to everyone, who seemed to be approaching them. All but the timid Professor and Hotaru. 'There's something up with those two. I just know it.' "Well, Usagi, even though Vejita doesn't like your new skill, I think it's wonderful. Maybe you could even teach it to all of us."  
  
Usagi smiled. 'I knew he'd like it.' "Thanks dad." 'Now Hotaru and her dad will hear all the wonderful things people have to say about it and they'll know they don't have to be afraid to show.' She turned to Bra and Trunks. "Thanks for helping me guys."  
  
Trunks winked down to Usagi. "No problem. I think it's a great gift anyways. I'd love it if you would teach me."  
  
"Me too." Bra added.  
  
Goten pushed his way towards his sister and grabbed her from behind as he rubbed her head. "Great job, kid. That was pretty cool how you healed dad and all. But even greater when you made Vejita mad. I don't remember a time that I've ever seen I'm angrier, well, except for the time Trunks and I set his gravity room on fire, but let's not talk about that."  
  
Usagi once again shot a glance back at Hotaru, who was becoming reassured with the whole situation. 'See? See? I told you they'd like it.'  
  
Hotaru looked up at her father, who was in shock over Usagi. She had purposely put herself in danger to help Hotaru. He looked down at his daughter, who had tears in her eyes that everyone had accepted Usagi's healing power, why not hers too?   
  
Ami walked to Usagi and put her arm around her shoulder. She let Lucky jump into Usagi's arms. "You know, if I was in that situation, I would have gone nuts."  
  
Usagi giggled. "That's because you don't have a really strong dad who can get you out of jams like that. But I'm sure he would have done the same for you, right daddy?" Usagi, as well as Ami, turned to look up at Goku for his answer.   
  
"I wouldn't pass up a chance to help a friend. You both know that."  
  
Usagi smiled. "And neither would I." Usagi raised the puppy to her face, who proceeded to lick it. "Hey Lucky!" To her surprise, she noticed that her father's hand was on the puppy's back, petting it. "WOW! Daddy!"  
  
Goku quickly pulled his hand away from the startled creature. "Oh...uh...that..."  
  
"Well it looks like the little Monkey has once again survived a chance for death." Mamoru walked up from behind Usagi and spoke into her ear. He glared at the growling puppy in her hands. 'Damn dog.' "And I was so hoping that I could watch you take that blow to the face. It would have just made my day."  
  
Piccolo grabbed his son by the back the neck and squeezed, hard. "Shut up!" 'Something has got to be done about this. He's even corrupted the American boys.'  
  
Goku grinned as he got in Mamoru's face. "Mamoru, do be a good boy and do as your father says. Then I won't have to take more drastic measures because I've had it with you always trying to harass Usagi and her friends."   
  
While a new argument seemed to be ending as fast as it started, Professor Tomoe was trying to come to a hard decision. He could tell that everyone that was there at park wasn't upset or threatened or even angry at the fact that there was someone with the power to heal in their presence. He wanted to let them know about Hotaru, but there was still the matter of the Saiyan bit. He didn't want to get into a big explanation about her mother. It would have been too hard remembering her. He sighed as he caught his daughter's eye and nodded his head. "If you want, you can tell the others. But we keep it a secret from Vejita until we know that he can be dealt with." 'It's even worse now that I know he's the prince of Saiyans.'  
  
Hotaru slowly stood up as she nodded with a smile. "Thanks Papa." She quietly made her way to the group of people who had practically known each other their whole lives. She sort of felt like an outsider, even though she knew that these people were her friends, but they had such histories together. She hoped that her revealing herself wouldn't cause any trouble. She stopped short of running into Piccolo and Yamcha. "I have something to say." She said in a small voice that could barely be heard over the loud conversing of the friends.  
  
Piccolo was the only one who had heard the small child. He turned around and looked down at her. Her eyes were filled with anxiety. He wondered what could have made the child so nervous. "Yes, Hotaru?"  
  
Hotaru looked up to what looked like a Giant. "Is it all right if I say something, Sir?"  
  
Piccolo smiled. 'Such respect for a kid her age.' "Sure." He bent down and picked up her, placing her back down in the center of the group. "Do your thing, Hotaru." He could hear the footsteps of her father behind him, letting him know that this had to be something big.  
  
Hotaru gulped as she looked around to each and everyone one of her friends' faces when the group became quiet. She was happy at the facial encouragement she was getting from all five of them. She let her gaze turn up to the suspecting face of Goku and knew at that moment that he knew something was up. 'Better now or never.' "Uh..." 'Where do I start?'  
  
'How about the beginning?'  
  
Startled, Hotaru looked up to Makoto, who was smiling at her. 'How did the link open up without me trying?' Nothing came from Makoto again. Not even a single power level was raised to have the link opened in the first place. 'Weird.' "If I tell you this, will you promise not to ever tell anyone else?"  
  
At that moment, both Piccolo and Goku locked eyes. Both knew that this was major. Goku had known this was coming, he just didn't know when or what it was. "I think we all pretty much promise." He looked around to the agreeing group.  
  
Everyone but the Rat Pack agreed. Haruka glared down at the youngest of the group. "That little brat? Why should we promise to do anything for her?" A well placed smack was put across Haruka's face by no one other than her trainer, Piccolo. "Hey!"  
  
"Father don't you think..."  
  
Piccolo laid a nice smack across his son's face as well. "Don't even think about trying to ruin this for her. Now promise."  
  
Yamcha crossed his arms in disgust. "All of you." He evilly eyed all of his students until they agreed.   
  
Hotaru gulped as she looked around the group for the last time as a 'human'. "I uh..." She lifted her skirt part way and began to unwrap her hidden tail from her waist.   
  
Goku smirked. 'I knew it had to be something like that. That's the only explanation for it all. Her amount of power, her fast progress. Everything. But I want to know how it could be.'  
  
Bulma screeched almost at the top of her lungs. "YOU'RE A SAIYAN!?" She bent down to get a better look at the tail and sure enough, it was real. Just like the one Usagi had and just like the one she had found on Goku when they had first met. "Oh...my...god..."  
  
Piccolo took one look at the child and then looked up to Goku. They looked at each other as if they knew what each other were thinking. They nodded in agreement to not pursue any type of serious questioning.   
  
Hotaru timidly responded to the gasps that were taking place throughout the group. "I'm Half Saiyan like Usagi. My mom was full Saiyan, and like her I'm also a healer. I taught Usagi how to use the power. I knew from my Mother that healers were hated, and thought when Usagi found out I'd have to leave everything behind again. But she accepted me, and even let me train her. Then she even put herself in danger to try and help. But we can't show anyone else till Vejita..."  
  
From behind, a harsh voice filled the air. A voice, which was filled with pleasure at the thought of what would happen next. "Vejita knows."  
  
Horror and terror entered her Violet eyes as her worse nightmare appeared. "Daddy!" She nearly toppled over her own feet when her father grabbed her from behind and pulled her close to him.   
  
Vejita smirked as he made his way towards the new Saiyan. He couldn't wait to dig into her. She was a true healer, he knew that he had felt something familiar about her but he couldn't put his finger on it. It had been so many years since he had felt the energy of a healer and now that he had, he was much more disgusted. Just looking at he sickened him. "Imagine that, trying to hide your flaw from me."  
  
Bulma ran to her husband and latched onto his arm to try and stop him. He just dragged her along with him as he approached Hotaru and her father. His aura was fierce and full of the want to kill. "It's not a flaw, Vejita! Now leave her alone!"  
  
Vejita lifted his arm and hurled his wife into the air to be caught by their son. "Shut up, woman!" He continued to near the girl and her father when all of sudden found his path was blocked by a Super Saiyan by the name of Usagi. Vejita narrowed his glare down at the youngster. "You set yourself up. You made a test so you could protect her. You put yourself in extreme danger. Weakling. That's what a weakling would do. You would rather save the life of one than the life of many."  
  
Usagi held her ground as Vejita walked closer. "I had to make sure that I had your word as the Saiyan prince that you wouldn't hurt her. You said that you wouldn't hurt any healers."  
  
Vejita smirked. "I thought I told you I'd just ignore healers. I meant what I said, but Vejita law demands that I kill any true Healers, and not just healers who learned to use the power. The only way for it to be changed is if two with royal blood," He turned to look at his children, "Were to demand the change. Until that happens, your friend is a goner."  
  
Bulma watched and listened to her husband in awe. She couldn't believe what he had just done. He had actually stood by his word. He was actually going to keep up with not hurting Hotaru and any other healer around.   
  
Trunks oddly looked at his father. At first, he hadn't realized what he was trying to do, but after a few seconds he finally figured it out. He was trying to keep his word. "I officially request that the law be changed. Healers will not be exiled or killed and that they be given the same rights as and Saiyan."  
  
Bra stepped forward to join her brother. She couldn't have been more proud that he was sticking with his word. "I second my brother's request."  
  
Usagi blinked a few times in confusion. She hadn't totally grasped the reason why Vejita just gave away how to change the law like that. He had wanted to kill Hotaru just a moment ago and now it seemed like he WANTED the law to change. "Uh...Vejita?"  
  
Vejita grinned down at the flabbergasted girl. "I, Prince Vejita here by make into law the request of Prince Trunks and Princess Bra. So it will be."  
  
He looked down to the girl in front of him, who still didn't totally understand what had just happened. "Hmmph. You've earned my respect brat." He turned to Hotaru and her father, who were a little more than just grateful for what he had just done. "You and your mother are now acknowledged Saiyans."   
  
Professor Tomoe let go of his daughter and walked to Vejita with a grand smile. "Thank you sir, you don't know what this means to us." He extended his hand out to Vejita for thanks.  
  
Vejita snickered as he looked down at Professor Tomoe's hand. "Don't make me laugh. I never said I liked any of you people." He turned to look around the group. "You all make me sick." He let his eyes freeze on Goku. "And you're the worst of them all, Kakkorotto! You and your stupid brats."  
  
Usagi began to realize what had just happened when Vejita returned to his normal ranting about her father. She didn't know exactly WHY he had done it, but she knew that he had let Hotaru off the hook. "Thanks you Prince Vejita."   
  
Vejita widened his eyes at what she just called him. Never in his life had a Saiyan from earth call him PRINCE. It brought back Memories that was for sure. He only gave a small nod in reply and began to turn.  
  
Usagi giggled as she threw herself onto Vejita from behind. "Now if you marry me you can be my Prince Charming for all time."  
  
"Rotten Brat." He growled under his breath, but with a chuckle in his tone. He pulled away from Usagi and flew into the air again, hopefully for the last time if they were lucky.  
  
"I'll be waiting when you finally come to your senses, Vejita." Usagi laughed as she turned around to her group of extended family and friends as they crowded around Hotaru, the newest installment of the Saiyans from earth. She turned to her friends, who stood by her side. "I think Vejita is turning into an old softy."  
  
Rei giggled as she looked up into the air. "Yeah. It's about time. How old is he now?"  
  
Ami nervously looked at the laughing group of her friends. "You think he's soft? After how he just tired to kill Usagi? Are you guys nuts?!" Well that pretty much stopped her friends from their laughter.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku stared down at Hotaru, who was being bombarded by questions. There was one that stuck out in his mind though and he couldn't resist the chance to ask it. "Wow, I didn't know that there were anymore Saiyans alive. Whose your mom?" That little comment heard him a nice slap in the back of the head. "Hey! What was that for?"  
  
Hearing about her mother again only made Hotaru's lips quiver with the pain of the past. She had dealt with it when she was telling Usagi, but she wasn't sure if she could handle it again. She backed into her father without saying a single word to Goku.  
  
Professor Tomoe decided to sum it up for the group so the questions wouldn't keep rising over and over, creating more heartache for the both of them. "We're sorry that we were going to try to hide this from you. It's just that, we've had horrible experiences in the past with others when we told of Hotaru and her mother's uniqueness. We've been trying to hide it ever since she was born, but it always comes up sooner or later."  
  
Chi-Chi took the initiative within the group and kneeled down to so she could be at Hotaru's level. "Don't worry Hotaru, you're safe with this group. They may be a bunch of bozo's, but they also care and look after each other."  
  
Of course, Bulma was the next to say a few words of reassurance. "Hotaru, don't worry about Vejita. He did that so he could keep his promise. I think he's actually going to live with it too. He can't change the rules."  
  
Hotaru smiled. "Thanks Bulma, everyone. Thanks for understanding."  
  
The Professor watched as his daughter was accepted throughout the group. After all the years that had gone by they had finally founded a group where they were accepted and ironically, it was with Saiyans. The exact people that they feared for so long. He grabbed his daughter by the shoulders and pulled her closer to him so he could speak to her. "Honey, now that this is out in the open and Vejita is no longer a worry, you don't have to hide your tail anymore."  
  
Hotaru's eyes went wide at the though. For so long she had hated hiding her tail for fear of discovery. But now was her chance to stop hiding and just get on with life, they way it should have been without all the secrets and hiding. She knew that there would still be some hate towards her, but she knew her family and friends would be able to help her through the hard times just as they had helped Usagi. Hotaru reacted in the only way that she knew how to. She threw her arms around her father and squealed with joy. "Thank you, thank you, thank you daddy!"  
  
Mamoru walked up from behind Usagi and smirked down at her. "Humph, Odango. Looks like another tail to watch out for."  
  
Minako jabbed Usagi in the side. "Come on. Show him what you're made of."  
  
Usagi smirked as she lifted up her tail and shoved it in his nose. "Hey Mamoru, you mean a tail like this?" She rubbed it under his nose, causing in him to sneeze.   
  
Just before he was about to reach out and grabbed the annoyance, Usagi pulled it away and let it sit on the ground, right next to his feet. 'What a dumbass.' He laughed as he lifted his foot and 'accidentally' slammed it right back down on Usagi's tail.   
  
Makoto turned to the action and nearly laughed up a lung when she saw Usagi's tail latch on to Mamoru, who wasn't sure what was happening. "Oh Usagi! Come on, do it! Lift him up! This is great!"  
  
Mamoru tried to free his leg from Usagi's...tail's grip. "Hey you little brat! What the hell are you doing?"   
  
Haruka walked to the duo in disgust. "What's wrong, Mamoru? Can't get away from a stupid tail?" She lifted up her foot and kicked Usagi's tail. To her surprise, Usagi didn't respond at all. "Hey, what's going on here?"  
  
Rei snickered. "Wouldn't you like to know."  
  
Usagi giggled as she lifted Mamoru up off the ground, letting him hang upside down. "Why Mamoru, if I didn't know better, I'd think you purposely stepped on my tail."  
  
Ami laughed as she walked to Mamoru and looked him in the eye. "You know, you've been trying so hard to beat Usagi all these years. Ever since I met any of you guys you have been fighting. And every time you fight, Usagi wins. You almost won last week because of her tail flaw, but now that she doesn't have that weakness..." She couldn't even get through her sentence without breaking out in laughter.  
  
Mamoru sneered at Ami as she walked away. He didn't even dignify her laughter with a reply. Instead, he moved on to more important things. "Put me down you good for nothing MONKEY!"  
  
Goku perked his head in interest in what was going on not too far from the main group. He knew that his daughter was going to react harshly to that. He was prepared to let Usagi do whatever she was planning, too, unless it meant hurting him too much. But he had faith that she wouldn't do something too awful. Monkey was one of the worst things possible to call Usagi and they all knew it, especially Mamoru. 'How did her tail get so strong?'   
  
Usagi impishly smiled down at Mamoru. "Hey Mamoru have you ever seen the American show 'The Flintstones'?"  
  
"What the hell are you talking about, Odango?"  
  
Usagi giggled as she began smashing Mamoru up and down on the pavement. "BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!" With every 'BAM', Mamoru found himself being smashed into the ground.  
  
Hearing the commotion and the laughter of children, Chi-Chi cocked her head in the direction that she heard the sound coming from. "USAGI!" She looked up to Goku, who seemed to be getting a kick out of Usagi's antics. "You're no better than her." She gave him a slap across the face and ran to her daughter. "Usagi! Stop it!" She reached out and grabbed Usagi by the arm. "Stop it!"  
  
Usagi cringed when she heard and felt her mother. 'Whoops.' She gently lowered Mamoru to the ground and released her grip on him. "Sorry, mom."  
  
Chi-Chi glared at her daughter with the evil eye. "Don't ever let me catch you doing anything like that again. You're acting just like him when you do that."  
  
Usagi dropped her head a ways. "Sorry." She could hear the Rat Pack laughing at her from behind. 'I hate this. Why does she have to embarrass me in front of them?'   
  
Usagi let out a quick sigh of relief when her mother turned to walk away. "Don't laugh at me, guys."  
  
Makoto punched Mamoru in the chest when he didn't stop. "Have some respect!"   
  
Usagi turned around to Mamoru once again. "That's what you get for stepping on my tail. Don't try it again."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Piccolo pulled Yamcha aside from the group. There were still some things that the two needed to converse. Things that had been riding on his mind ever since he witnessed Mamoru's behavior at the tournament. He had never seen him act with such hate. He had been trying over the past three years to change Mamoru, but nothing seemed to be working. He only seemed to be getting worse and he was dragging the young Americans down with him. "Yamcha..."  
  
Yamcha didn't need to hear a single word more before he knew what this was about. He could hear it in the concerned tone that Piccolo was using. "I know. We have a problem. The kids just aren't getting along and they only get worse with age."  
  
Piccolo nodded as he looked over to his son, who seemed to be pouting over what Usagi had just done to him. "No matter what I tell him, he just doesn't listen. He needs to learn to fight with honor, like Goku and his kids. He needs to learn to respect people. Most of all, Usagi. He's given her the worst treatment of all and I can't help but feel responsible for that."  
  
Yamcha glared at his students as they picked up Michiru and threw her into a nearby pool. "Michiru is changing. She's maturing and the kids sense it."  
  
"You're right."  
  
"What do you think we should do about them? How can we get them to learn to respect others."  
  
"Well it's already obvious that they aren't going to learn it from us or any other adult for that matter. The just don't care. They're going to have to learn it the hard way."  
  
Yamcha raised a brow in interest. "The 'hard way'?"  
  
Piccolo nodded. "From the most forgiving person I know. They're going to have to learn it from the most forgiving person or else they aren't ever going to learn it because no one in their right minds will take them in without disciplining them to death like we have."  
  
(Ok, there you have it, yet another boring part from me, ne. Well what did you think? Good or bad? See ya later. Ja! )  



	91. Part 21

Two days had passed since Hotaru had revealed herself to everyone as a Saiyan. She never knew that it would feel so good to get herself out in the open. Since she didn't have anything more to hide, she felt a sense of freedom, something that she hadn't really ever had the chance to feel before. But everything seemed to be going smoother now and she hoped that it would always stay that way. Her life was absolutely perfect.   
  
After school on that Monday after the picnic, Usagi picked Hotaru up to continue her training with Goku. This time, Goku had a little more understanding of Hotaru, which meant that he wouldn't go so easy on her anymore. She was a Saiyan and could be treated as one, especially since she was already so far into her training as it was.  
  
While Hotaru sparred with Goku in a field not too far from the house, Usagi sat, by the house, with her friends and watched Lucky as she chased a butterfly around the yard. They were in a state of almost pure sadness for one more day and Lucky would have to leave, Chi-Chi's rules. Lucky's recovery was coming along faster than any of the girls had hoped. Her foot was still injured, but she was able to walk on it none the less. Chi-Chi had decided that it was time for the puppy to move into a new house with a permanent family and that permanent family wasn't Hotaru, sadly. Her father had disagreed to every request to keep Lucky that Hotaru had produced. Though, it was all Kaori's influence over him. It seemed like every time Hotaru wanted something, Kaori felt that it was her job to make sure that it didn't happen.  
  
Ami and Usagi were deep in conversation. Summer Vacation had crept up on the busy group and it seemed as though they only had a week left. In only two short days, they would be made to take a test to see if they passed into the next grade without taking summer courses, something that Usagi dreaded every year. "Ami I'm just not cuttin it anymore."  
  
"Relax Usagi. You'll do fine on the test."  
  
"No I won't. I'm probably going to barely pass the test just like I do every year. I know that music helps, but not enough. It only helps when I'm listening to it."  
  
Ami sighed. "It's ok Usagi. You're just stressing yourself over nothing."  
  
"No I'm not. Last year I got a C on the final test. My mom told me that if I come home with another C on my final test that I'm going to be grounded for the whole summer."  
  
"Well I don't know if this will work for this year, but I know it will for next year."  
  
Usagi curiously looked to Ami for whatever was on her mind. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Well, maybe you just need a better understanding of music. It works for a lot of people. Maybe you should come down to the music school with me sometimes. You get to listen to all sorts of famous works played by amateur as well as professional players."  
  
Usagi pondered over the thought of learning more about music to further help her in her studies. "Well...Maybe I will give it a try. You never know. But you're right, that's not going to help me for this summer. I'm going to get in much trouble." 'Maybe dad can help me out like he usually does. He's such a life saver.'  
  
Makoto tilted her head to the side when she saw two pairs of feet walking towards their position. She brought her hand to her forehead to shelter her eyes from the shining sun. "Hey you guys." She could hear Lucky growling at the two visitors in the background.  
  
Hearing her friend greet someone, Minako looked up in curiosity as to who it was that Makoto was talking to. "Piccolo. Yamcha. Hi!" She chirped.  
  
Usagi looked away from her conversation with Ami and looked up to Yamcha and Piccolo. 'Why are they here?' She pushed herself forward a bit through the grass to see if there were any other unexpected visitors in their midst. "Where's Mamoru?"  
  
Piccolo looked down to Usagi with a slight frown. "He's not here right now." 'I hope they agree to this.'   
  
Usagi smiled. 'Great.' "Cool. So what brings you here? Are you here to spar with dad or something?"  
  
Yamcha couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "Usagi, if I tried to spar with your dad I would probably be done for in just one hit. I haven't spared with him in years."  
  
Usagi looked up to Piccolo with eyes of curiosity. "We're not here to spar. We are here to talk to your parents though."  
  
Usagi gloomily stood up and brushed herself off. "Ok." She turned away from the group and walked into her house, motioning for the duo to follow as well as her friends.  
  
Rei walked behind Piccolo and Yamcha and bent down to pick up Lucky. "Come on Lucky. Let's get you something to drink before you make yourself too hot with all of this exercise." She blew off the dirty looks she received from Piccolo and Yamcha and proceeded to follow her friends into the Sons' house.  
  
Yamcha just looked over to Piccolo. "What a weird bunch of kids. They aren't even acting like their summer vacation is coming up in a week."  
  
Piccolo shrugged as he followed the last of the kids inside. "They've always been extra strange, but we're not here to worry about their behavioral problems, we're here to discuss business with Goku and Chi-Chi. Just let me do most of the talking."  
  
Usagi led Yamcha and Piccolo into the family room of her house and grabbed Minako and Ami by the arms. "Come on guys. While they talk, let's go to my room and play with Lucky." Before leaving the room she turned to address the duo again. "I'll go get my mom. Don't break anything or else she'll have a cow. Believe me, I've had lots of experience with that before." She turned back around and began pulling two of her friends down the hallway with the other two close behind to follow.  
  
Yamcha chuckled as Lucky yelped halfway down the hallway. "Those kids really love that dog."  
  
"Yeah, almost too much. They're babying it too much. I am in fear of what their kids are going to turn out like."  
  
"Do you think Chi-Chi will let Usagi keep it here?"  
  
Piccolo laughed out loud. "Not a chance."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi turned her attention upon her daughter and friends as they walked into the room on her right. She had previously been watching television, something that she had been trying to do all day, but was interrupted by the noisy bunch of girls entering the room. "Hold it right there. All of you. I thought I told you guys to go outside to play."  
  
Usagi turned around to her mother, pouting. "Mom, it's hot outside and we're tired of playing out there. Besides, Piccolo and Yamcha are here. They want to talk to you and daddy."  
  
Before Chi-Chi even had the slightest chance to respond to her daughter's whining of how hot it was, she let the fact that they had guests sink into her head. "Fine. Stay inside as long as you aren't loud." Without further words spoken between the two, Chi-Chi stood to her feet and left the room to greet the visitors."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi walked out into the family room half expecting to see everything out of place, but to her surprise, nothing was moved. Not a single item was broken or on the floor when it shouldn't have been. Yamcha and Piccolo were standing perfectly still. "Seems like you two behaved yourselves out here. To what do I owe this occasion?"  
  
Yamcha cleared his throat as he looked up to Piccolo, who was ready to ask away. "We have a proposition for you two that we would like to discuss. Is Goku around?"  
  
Chi-Chi sighed as she turned her head to the hallway. "Usagi!"  
  
The sound of a door being ripped open was heard. "Yes?"  
  
"Get your father!" She yelled. "It will be just a minute."   
  
Usagi knew why her mother wanted her to go. It was because of her ability to perform instant transmission. But Usagi went one step higher than that. She opened up a small link to Hotaru instead of having to leave the house, even if it would have only been for a few minutes.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru didn't receive Usagi's message at first for she was too involved in a fight with Goku, one that she seemed to be losing.   
  
Hotaru dodged a swift jab from Goku, who was fighting weaponless. With a quick retaliation, Hotaru jumped over his head and rammed the end of her staff into his back to keep him from turning around to see her. "Beat that."  
  
Goku grinned as he pressed his fingers to his head and teleported to be just in front of Hotaru, who did the same as he had. "Smart. I see you're following Usagi's example and not holding still."  
  
Just as Hotaru reappeared above Goku's head, Usagi's message had finally reached her. "Goku?"  
  
Goku's fist went flying into the halted girl's chest, causing her to fly back. "Yes?" He let himself float to Hotaru and extended his hand to help her back to her feet.   
  
"Usagi said that Chi-Chi wants you to come home because Piccolo and Yamcha want to talk to you guys." Hotaru lifted her hand and met it with Goku's, allowing herself to be helped up.   
  
Goku looked in the direction of his house in much curiosity. He wondered what they could have possibly needed him back at the house for. "Ok. I guess we're done for the day then. Why don't we take you back to the house and then you can play with Lucky before she leaves tomorrow."  
  
Hotaru's eyes grew heavy with sadness as she looked down at the ground. She so wished that they could have kept the puppy, but no one's parents would let them. "Ok."  
  
Goku could feel the anxiety of tomorrow coming in Hotaru. He knew that the girls would all have a hard time with giving Lucky up and the truth of the matter was that he himself was getting somewhat attached to her, somewhat was the key word there, though. He still his doubts about her that he would have to get over before he actually let her get too close to him. "Come on. Let's run there for the last of our workout for the day."  
  
Hotaru smiled as she looked up to Goku. "K!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Ten minutes Later~~  
  
Goku and Chi-Chi sat on one side of their family room as Piccolo and Yamcha sat on the other side. Both parties stared at each other with blank emotions, not knowing what to expect from each other. Yamcha coughed as he jabbed Piccolo in the side. He got a cold glare in response. "Fine already!"   
  
Piccolo let his eyes glance over in the direction of Usagi's room, not wanting her to overhear anything that was going to be said. "We need to talk..."  
  
"...about something major."  
  
Piccolo shot another glare back at Yamcha, which got him to shut up. 'Damn annoying little pest.' "Now you've noticed more than the both of us that our kids don't exactly..."  
  
"...See eye to eye with each other."  
  
Piccolo stood up from his chair and violently lifted Yamcha up by his shirt. "Do you wish to tell them?!" Yamcha cowered away as Piccolo narrowed his eyes. "I'll take that as a 'no'. Don't interrupt me again!"  
  
Goku chuckled when he saw the fearful face of Yamcha. "You're right. We would know about that. They've been going at it for years now. About three if I recall right."   
  
Piccolo calmed himself as he sat down once again. He hoped that he wouldn't have to burst out like that again, especially since Usagi could hear things pretty well to begin with. "Yeah, it's been about that. Quite frankly, it's ridiculous and annoying."  
  
Remembering back to the tournament, Chi-Chi frowned with near hate. "That boy has to be stopped! He's put my baby in too much pain. He nearly killed her for god's sake." She let her glare explain the fact that she was STILL unhappy that Piccolo just left her there to fend for herself.  
  
Goku reached up and grabbed his wife by the shoulders. "Don't overwork yourself, Chi-Chi. It's done and over with." His expression turned more serious when he turned back to Piccolo and Yamcha. "I'm guess you want to do something about this?"  
  
Piccolo nodded. "Precisely. We want our students to learn some respect, which they have none of. Now you know ever since you found out I was his father that I've been tying to tone his violent habits down but it didn't work. It did up to a certain point, but we all know how far that got. He corrupted Yamcha's students and as for Haruka and Michiru..."  
  
"They've always been that way. Ever since they first met Usagi they've been picking on her." Goku looked down to his seething wife. "Calm down."  
  
"That's what I thought. Well Yamcha and I were talking the other day. Ever since the tournament we've known that there we were going to have to do something about this problem. Ever since we saw the group laughing at Usagi when Mamoru was hurting her. And then on Saturday when Mamoru suggested that Usagi watch out for Hotaru's tail."  
  
Goku grinned. He knew what this was coming to, but he knew his wife didn't have a clue as to what he was getting at. "And you want them to under-go some special training, correct?"  
  
Piccolo nodded. "Yes."  
  
Chi-Chi's face cheered up quick as a smile spread across it. "And you want my Goku to teach them? Right? Goku can get them to respect others just like he showed our kids."  
  
Goku grinned and answered before Piccolo even had a chance to open his mouth. "Nope. They want Usagi to do it, don't you?" He turned to look at Piccolo and Yamcha for agreement.  
  
Stunned, Piccolo nodded. "Ye...yeah, how did you know?"  
  
Goku smirked. "Well you know as well as I do that my patience with those kids have grown too thin for mine and their own good. I wouldn't be able to put up with all the insults that they had to dish out."  
  
"That's right. Yamcha and I were talking about that. We don't have patience for them either. That's one of the reasons why they act the way they do. It's all the know," Piccolo dropped his head a bit. "Sadly."  
  
Yamcha decided it was his turn to get in his thoughts on all of this. "We want them to learn to respect others for who they are and not what they look like. We want them to learn to not pass judgment upon a person without getting to know them, something they seem to have a habit of doing. We've noticed that Usagi is one of the most forgiving people besides yourself, Goku."  
  
Piccolo raised his head. "That's right. It seems that no matter what someone does, she always forgives them. I mean look at what happened with Gohan. After everything that he did to her she still forgave him."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. She definitely did NOT want to let her youngest train a bunch of low-lives like the Rat pack. They had done too much to Usagi for her to ever really trust them. "Absolutely not. She will not be training them. Who knows what they will try to do to her."  
  
Goku, on the other hand, was a little more understanding. "Chi-Chi, this is the only way that it will work."  
  
Chi-Chi turned from her husband in disgust. "And what makes you think that it will work."  
  
"I'm confident that it WILL work. Maybe when they see that Usagi will forgive them for what they do, they'll begin to realize that their antics aren't the center of the universe."  
  
"Well not only that, Goku," Yamcha eased forward in his chair when he heard a large thump coming from down the hall. "The kids?" He got a small nod from Chi-Chi. "Whew, I thought they were coming out here or something."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "No, they're just playing in there. Honestly, they always have to make noise. They can't ever play civilly."  
  
Yamcha chuckled at the thought of having a child. He had never actually gotten around to getting married, he more rather liked going out with women for a few months and then moving on. But that wasn't to be spoken of. "Well, on with business, Piccolo and I were thinking that maybe, just maybe when the kids see that Usagi forgives them for everything that they do, they will begin to follow her example and learn to respect others. We want her as well as her friends, to train them to fight fair, as you taught her Goku. We need her to do it because well, I've never seen her loose her temper before so I think she's the perfect candidate."  
  
Goku had to force himself from bursting out with laughter over that little bit. "You think she doesn't loose her temper? She does, believe me. We almost had a few fights between her and her classmates when she was first going to school. But after a hard time of learning to control herself, I think she's finally over that. Now she just loses her temper over other things. But as far as hearts go, Usagi's your kid. I doubt she'll lose her temper with Mamoru and his friends if she hasn't already. Personally, I'm getting sick of his attitude, I don't think I would be able to do it."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled as she stood up and stretched. "You're right Goku. All of you are right. After listening to why you think she should train them, I think it's a good idea. But you guys are missing the most important part of this training. I don't blame you. I mean, you're only men and you just don't see things as clearly as us women. Usagi and her friends will be able to learn just as much from Piccolo and Yamcha's students as they will from the girls. They will open each other's eyes up to other alternatives besides what they think. It will be good for both groups if you ask me." Chi-Chi paused long enough to give a quick glare at her husband. "But you have to have their permission before you go and make any decisions. We can't MAKE them train anyone of they don't want to."  
  
Goku nodded. "I was just about to say that, dear."  
  
Piccolo and Yamcha stood up at the same time and walked to the front door. "Goku, go get your kid and bring her outside, if you don't mind."  
  
Yamcha turned to the parents of Usagi just before he followed Piccolo out. "Do something about Usagi. She's too glum for a kid. Summer Vacation's starting in a week. All of those kids are upset."  
  
Chi-Chi let on a slight frown. But not at Yamcha, it was meant for herself. "They're just upset that they have to find Lucky a new home tomorrow."  
  
Goku grabbed his wife by the shoulders and rested his chin on her shoulders. "Speaking of which, did you tell them yet?"  
  
Chi-Chi smiled. "Not yet, but I plan to later."  
  
Goku smiled, as well, as he walked back to his daughter's room and knocked on the door. "Girls?"  
  
"Come in daddy."  
  
Goku placed his hand on the door knob and turned it, allowing the door to be opened. He took one look around the room and realized that all six girls were on the floor with a distraught little puppy. "What are you doing to the poor thing?" In the center of the room sat Lucky with one of Usagi's doll's dresses on. On her head she wore a little hat that was also meant for a doll and on her feet she wore little doll socks.   
  
Minako grinned as she looked up to Goku. "We're playing dress-up." She still very vividly remembered what had happened the last time they had played dress-up, when they had some how gotten Goku to play with them.  
  
Usagi smiled up at her father. "Wanna play? We'll be the salon people and you can be the customer." She pulled her attention from Lucky, which allowed time for her to run out the room. "Lucky! Come back here!"   
  
Goku pulled out of the room. "Now you keep that stuff away from you. Don't think I haven't forgotten what happened last time you tricked me into playing that. Nuh-uh. No way. I'm never playing that game again."  
  
Minako drooped her lip as her own form of begging. "Aww...come on Goku. Don't you wanna play with us?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "No. Never. Now come on. We have to talk." Immediately, the faces of the girls turned grim. "Don't worry, it's not bad." He turned around and walked away. He took one look at Lucky, who hid under the sofa, and laughed. "Poor dog."  
  
Hotaru tapped Usagi on the shoulder. "What happened last time you played the game?"  
  
"Yeah. This sounds like it could be interesting." Rei stood up and began to make her way to the door, but she was dying to know what happened, which was the only thing keeping her in the room at that point.  
  
Minako giggled. "We made him look pretty, but I don't think he thought it was very pretty. We put loads and loads of make-up on his face and two different colors of lipstick."  
  
Usagi smiled as she remembered back to that day. "Yep. I tried to brush his hair but it wasn't cooperating so I just put it up in pig-tails."  
  
"GIRLS!"  
  
Usagi sighed as she stood up. "Coming mom! I guess we better go before mom has a fit again."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Once outside, the group of girls walked to Piccolo and Yamcha in wonder. The duo just stared back down at them, both groups were as curious as the other.  
  
Piccolo nervously turned to Goku, wanting him to ask them if they would do it. He had no hopes of asking himself. Goku just replied with a frown to let him know that he wasn't going to bail him out of this one. He and Yamcha were completely on their own.   
  
But before he could ask, Minako, curious as always, asked the first question. "So what was it that you all wanted to talk to us about?"  
  
Piccolo cleared his throat in hopes to be able to persuade the young fighters. "Yes, well Yamcha and I," He wasn't even going to attempt to do this alone. If he was going down he was going to drag Yamcha right along with him. "Have a...request to ask of you girls. First off, we are interested in seeing your training style."  
  
Makoto thought about that for a moment and took the initiative to speak out first. "Well that depends. When we're with Goku, we fight all out. But when we're alone, we fight in a playing style. It makes it twice as fun."  
  
Piccolo let out a quiet growl. "You play?"  
  
Rei frowned. "That's right. Got a problem with it?"  
  
"No. No problem." 'Except for the fact that you don't learn anything when you play. But let it up to a kid and they're going to play.' "Would you mind showing us?"  
  
The girls looked around to each other in confusion. They weren't sure why he would ask such a request. Ami turned to Piccolo with a frown of her own. "Why? You aren't planning on fighting us, are you?"  
  
Coming to one ultimate realization, Usagi glared up at the green fighter. "You're trying to find a way for Mamoru to beat us, aren't you? You're just mad that he can't grab my tail anymore."  
  
Piccolo scowled down at the young Saiyan and bent down to be face to face with her. "How dare you make such an accusation. I'm trying to reform Mamoru, not make him worse!"  
  
Chi-Chi sighed as she dropped her head in annoyance. "Usagi, he's not trying to find a way to hurt you. He's just curious as to how you fight. Just do it!"  
  
Usagi curled her nose up at her mother's request. 'Always having to yell at me in front of everyone.' "Fine, fine." She grinned as she looked back to Hotaru. "Hey, wanna do it?"  
  
Hotaru nodded with excitement. "Of course I want to do it!"  
  
'Good. Now they'll see how good Hotaru is.' "Ami? Wanna go up against Hotaru real quick?"  
  
Ami smiled over at Hotaru as she nodded. "It would be my pleasure." She walked to Hotaru. "This is just like practice. Ignore the others and forget that this is a test."  
  
Hotaru nodded. "Ok."  
  
Ami grinned as she slapped Hotaru on her back. "Tag, you're it!" Now laughing, Ami leapt into the air.   
  
Hotaru took flight after Ami. "Cheater!" Flying at half top speed, Hotaru managed to keep up, following Ami's aerial maneuvers with ease. Suddenly, Ami teleported away, followed by Hotaru. Both fighters were having the time of their life just having fun while training, as they always had.   
  
Finally teleporting back, Ami launched a Ki attack at Hotaru. Hotaru dodged the blast and retaliated with her mightiest blast, which Ami deflected back at her with another one of her Ki attacks. Hotaru was careless and allowed the blast to hit her, but it didn't really seriously hit her for Ami didn't put all that much power into it.  
  
Piccolo and Yamcha just stared up into the sky. They weren't surprised that Ami's skills were so great, but Hotaru's was spectacular. They had never seen such skill from a fighter with so little experience.  
  
Although it may have seemed like Yamcha and Piccolo wanted to see their skill, what they were really interested in was seeing how much Hotaru had learned while training with the girls. They knew that Usagi would want to show of the girl's skills, which they used to their advantage. "Well I think I've seen enough to make my decision."  
  
Usagi frowned as she turned to her mother with anger. "I thought you said they weren't plotting anything?"  
  
Chi-Chi sighed. 'That girl is always so suspicious.' "I said they wouldn't try to hurt any of you, I never said they weren't plotting anything." She looked up into the air to the still fighting children. "Girls! Come on down now!" Panting for breath, both girls looked down to the ground at Chi-Chi and nodded.  
  
Usagi turned to Piccolo to further her knowledge of what they might have wanted. She already knew that it had to do with fighting, that was pretty obvious. "So?"  
  
Piccolo turned to Yamcha. "Don't look at me. I'm keeping my mouth shut. Remember? You want to do all the talking."  
  
Piccolo frowned. 'I knew that would come back to bite me in the butt.' "Usagi, our students are having a problem learning how to treat people with respect. They have no respect for themselves either. They don't care about anyone or anything. When they fight, they do it to hurt people unlike you girls. You only do it for the fun of it, something they need to learn. We can't teach them any of this because they first have to respect themselves, which they definitely won't do if we keep losing out tempers with them, something we don't do. Also, they're having problems developing the extra skills you have. We were hoping you could teach them everything, how to respect life, how to fight with honor, how to acquire new skills. Everything."  
  
The jaws of all six girls drop open all the way. Before two seconds are up the entire area is filled with the laughter of children. Usagi bent over from producing herself with too much pain of laughing, but she managed to look up a bit. Just enough to see Piccolo's face. "For a second there I thought you wanted me and the girls to teach Mamoru's gang. AHAHAHAHA."  
  
Piccolo solemnly stared down at the uproarious girls. "We do."  
  
All laughter stopped in a split second after hearing that. None of the girls knew what to say. Never in their lives had they heard of such a ridiculous idea. "Us? Train them?" Usagi squeaked. "I know I can't do it. We don't get along. We'll fight all the time."  
  
"But, you have managed to train another in skills even I haven't mastered. I wish for them to advance, and as much as I hate to admit, they aren't under me."  
  
Yamcha continued where Piccolo left off. "My students also need this training. For some reason I can't get them to surpass this stage. We'd really appreciate it if you did this for us."  
  
Minako let her laughter over take her better judgment. "But you're also ADMITTING to the fact that you're kids are a bunch of bullies who are mean?"  
  
Piccolo growled. "YES!"  
  
"Eep!" Minako coward away from the fuming Namek.  
  
"Hang on. Let my and my," Rei smirked as she looked around to her friends. "Colleagues discuss this and we'll get right back to you." The six girls walked away from the adults and formed a huddle. They bent over, threw their arms around each shoulders, and two tails stuck up and twitched with excitement.  
  
Goku chuckled at the sight of the tails. "I think Usagi is having too much fun with another Saiyan kid around."  
  
Piccolo sweat dropped as he got a feeling of doom in his heart. "Nevermind that. Those kids are dangerous when you get them thinking."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~In the Huddle  
  
"Are we really going to do this?" Minako turned to Usagi. She knew that when it came right down to it, it would be her decision that made it all final. She knew that Usagi would have a hard time trying to do something like this.  
  
Usagi pondered over the idea. "It'd be a great way to finally bury the hatchet with them."  
  
Rei had expected that to come from her Saiyan friend. "Maybe, but they're jerks, do we want to?"   
  
"Yes, I'm tired of the fighting." 'I'm hungry.'  
  
"Ok, we agree, some more then others, but lets do it." Makoto couldn't wait to dig into the Rat Pack. She couldn't wait to teach them how to act, it would embarrass them so much.  
  
Usagi pulled back on Makoto, who was getting ready to leave the huddle. "Wait, first some ground rules."  
  
Makoto groaned. She didn't want to waste anymore time, but she knew it was for the best. "Right, that way they can't pick on us."  
  
"No calling me Odango anything. I'm sick of it."  
  
Hotaru tried to think of something that had bothered her about that group. Because of her short history with them, she couldn't come up with anything much, but one idea did stick out in her head. "And they have to fight nice. No picking on others."  
  
"Yeah, and they have follow our training, not theirs, I mean we are training them." Minako was overly amused by the fact that the Rat Pack would finally be under their control and there was nothing they could do about it.  
  
Rei nodded. "Right. That seems about everything."  
  
'Wait!' Usagi let her tail stand nearly straight up. A fact that had the adults in fear for their lives. "Wait a minute guys. If we do this, we should be paid for it. I mean, Yamcha is being paid by Dende to train them, why not us?"  
  
Hotaru thought about the idea for a while. She knew she wanted it, she just didn't know what. "Well what do we want?"  
  
Usagi gave an evil grin. She had already had something in mind. "How about, Piccolo and Yamcha taking us to Disney world in The USA, Florida when Summer Starts?"  
  
Makoto thought of anything degrading that they could have done to the boys without being too harsh on them. "Yeah, and they have to come."  
  
Ami went one of Makoto on this one, though. "Yeah, and make him wear those Mickey Mouse ears." The entire group laughed out at that one, which nearly made the adults faint.  
  
Usagi smiled, half in pride. "AMI, I didn't know you had it in you. I guess you've finally learned how to have fun."  
  
Ami blushed. "Yeah. Then we're agreed and we promise each other that we only do this if they comply." The other five nodded to their agreeing 'right'. "Ok then, disperse at once."  
  
The girls twirled around and formed a line, with Ami and Usagi in the direct middle. All six girls had huge grins on their faces. Usagi looked around to her friends, who seemed to want her to tell the adults the 'good' news. "Alright, we'll do it." Piccolo and Yamcha began to look relieved, that is, until she began to speak again. "But only on a couple conditions."  
  
Now more worried, they frowned at the girls. "What conditions?" Piccolo growled. 'Isn't it bad enough that they already got so much of my money?'  
  
Usagi smiled, with a hint of a frown wanting to form. "No one calls me 'Odango' till we finish training. AT ALL! I'm tired of it and it's mean."   
  
Piccolo considered it and decided that it was a reasonable request. "Agreed. What else."  
  
"Second, we have a say on their training till they finish. We train differently then you and that may be one of the reasons they have problems."  
  
Yamcha nodded at this. "Makes sense. Anything else?" Fear clutched both their hearts as the grins on the faces of the girls increased ten fold.  
  
"One thing more. Since we're training them, and I know Yamcha was paid too. And Piccolo has a VERY big savings from his Kami days; we thought we should be paid for our work."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Usagi!"  
  
Piccolo scowled down to the girls. If he only knew what awaited him, he wouldn't have agreed. "Fine, we'll pay you..."  
  
Usagi interrupts, "We don't want money. We want you to take us to Disney World in America this summer. We've never been to America and we really want to see what it's like. We want you to have fun there. Plus Piccolo has to wear Mickey Mouse ears with us." She said the last statement full of laughter.  
  
Piccolo's eyes bolted wide open. "WHAT!? NEVER!"  
  
Yamcha; "Forget it kids, we won't do it."  
  
Usagi cheekily grinned. "Sorry then, we promised ourselves that was the only way that we'd train them."  
  
Growling, Piccolo snarled. "Fine we'll take you to DISNEY WORLD, but I won't wear ears. That has to me the stupidest thing you've thought of Usagi."  
  
Looking thoughtful, she responded. "OK, fine then. But will you do Ami's idea then, since mine seems to upset you." 'The master of tricking people has struck again.'  
  
Piccolo thought of sweet, kind Ami and nodded in agreement. "Fine. I will."  
  
All of the girls, including the blushing Ami, began to laugh as loud and as hard as the possibly could. Makoto gasped between breaths and finally choked out the truth to Piccolo. "Great, it was Ami's idea for the ears."  
  
Goku was now in on the laughter at the thought of Piccolo in Mouse ears. "She really got you good this time, Piccolo. When are you going to learn? Please promise to take me with you, I HAVE to see this."  
  
Usagi walked to her laughing father, barely able to contain her own laughter. "Don't worry daddy, we'll take you with us."  
  
'She's always gotta fool people. One of these days I'm going to get her back.' "FINE! I'll WEAR THE EARS, only if you will train them." He got a nodded from every single laughing child. "We'll bring them by tomorrow after school then."  
  
"Ok, meet us here. See you then." Usagi dropped to the ground next to her laughing father. She still couldn't get over how easily she had tricked Piccolo and was still laughing up a lung.   
  
Yamcha and Piccolo beat a hasty retreat. The cost had been higher then they thought It'd be, but at least their students would be able to learn something for once.  
  
( Ok, there it is AGAIN. Another part. What did you think? Interesting, ne. The whole Disney World Mickey Mouse ears idea came from Comet Moon. Well, it's late. See ya later. Ja Ne )  



	92. Part 22

After Piccolo and Yamcha left that evening, the girls too had began to prepare themselves to leave, as much as they hated to. They just didn't seem to want to say good-bye to Lucky. They all tried to make excuses as to why they could stay, but when I came right down to it, they knew that they would have to leave sooner or later.  
  
So there the six of them stood, in front of Usagi's house with Lucky, saying their last good-byes before they had to see her off to a new home the next day, something they had been dreading ever since they first found her. But now it was finally coming true and all of them were in tears. They had all become quite attached the little critter.   
  
The six friends passed the excited puppy around themselves as they stood in a circle so they each got a chance to hold her one last time. Ami took Lucky from Minako and brought her to her face. "I'm really going to miss that face."  
  
Hotaru reached up and placed her hand on Lucky's back as she began to pet her ever so slowly. "I know. I can't believe we actually have to get rid of her."  
  
At that moment, the door to the house behind opened up and out walked Chi-Chi, the main decision maker in this situation. "What are you all balling about?" She asked in a rather suspicious but hinting voice. Usagi and Minako, who cried together, turned to look at Chi-Chi, letting their grief be well known to the woman. "Cheer up you guys, I've found a great home for Lucky." 'I knew this would be hard on them.'  
  
Makoto scanned her eyes over her friends. She wasn't sure about what their feelings about that were, but she was happy for Lucky, but still upset that she had to see her go. "You did?" She asked in a small voice, one barely understandable.  
  
Chi-Chi nodded with a smile. "Yes, I have." She leaned her head back when she heard her husband walk out of the house with a bowl of food in his hands. 'Figures.'  
  
Minako tried to calm herself and sniffled. "What kind of house is it? Will she be treated good?"  
  
Chi-Chi nodded, again. Only that time her smile only grew wider than it had been before. "She will be treated wonderfully. It's a house in a wide open area with lots of kids to play with in a great house. She'll love it. Trust me, she already does."  
  
The girls were to busy worrying over the puppy's departure that they failed to really grasp the words that had just flown out of Chi-Chi's mouth. Instead, they just turned up the whimpering and paid more attention to Lucky.  
  
Goku chuckled with a mouth full. "Did you guys just hear her or not?"  
  
Rei perked to Goku's question more so than her friends had. "What are you talking about?"   
  
"She just said you could keep her. If you were paying attention you would have figured that out." He shoved in another mouth full of food.  
  
The girls didn't really take in what had just been said for the same reason that they had not heard the original statement from Chi-Chi. They were too involved in what they were doing beforehand to even really care about anything else, which only caused them more pain in the long run.  
  
Ami, as usual, was really the first one to stop and realize what had been said about thirty seconds after it had been said. "Wait a minute..." She pulled herself away from what she was doing and turned to look at Goku with a stunned face. "What did you just say?" Pale faced, Ami reached back and felt around for her friends without taking her eye off of Goku and Chi-Chi.   
  
Ami's hand found its way into the face of Minako, who didn't exactly appreciate having something rudely shoved in her face. "Hey. Ami." She turned to Ami, who was still in a sort of trance. "What's the matter with you?" She looked up to the smiling parents of Usagi. "Wait, why are you two so happy?"  
  
Hotaru looked up when she heard Minako's question. "Huh?" She found it odd that anyone could be happy in a situation like this. 'Well Goku's eating so he has a reason to be happy.'  
  
Chi-Chi giggled at the faces of the bewildered children. "I said that you could keep Luck here, for the third time." Third times a charm. That got the attention of the rest. The remaining three shot their heads up with hopeful eyes to go along.   
  
"What?" Usagi took her hand away from Lucky and pulled away from the group to walk closer to her mother. "You mean we can keep her here mom?"   
  
Chi-Chi nodded. "Yes you can keep her. You all have been doing such a good job of taking care of her and you've obviously gotten quite attached to her." She grinned as she looked at her husband. "All of you have."  
  
Goku chuckled as he threw a hand behind his head. "Yeah. I guess she wasn't trying to eat me after all." He continued to laugh as he turned around to walk back into the house where he would find more food to fill his Saiyan stomach.  
  
Usagi ran to her mother and threw her arms around her. "Thank you mom! You don't know how cool you're being right now!"   
  
Chi-Chi smiled down at her daughter as she noticed her friends coming near. "You're welcome." She looked up to the others with a warm smile. "All of you. I'm kind of attached to her myself. I don't really want to see her leave."  
  
Usagi looked up to her mother as she continued to hug as she smiled with supreme happiness. "And we love you for that, don't we girls?" Usagi's question got a unified nod from all the girls as she began to play with Lucky, who was there to stay.   
  
Ami giggled as Lucky barked with happiness, sneaking in a kiss to Ami's nose every now and then. "Well Lucky, you're part of the gang now." She laughed as she turned to look back at Chi-Chi. There was still one thing left to do that day. "Would you mind if Usagi and I went to the music school for a while. I know it's late, but I know of a very good group that will be rehearsing tonight. I think that this may help her in her studies."  
  
Chi-Chi looked down to her excited daughter. 'Well if it will improve her grades even more.' "You'll miss dinner if you leave now. Your father is already inside eating."  
  
Usagi was officially shocked at her mother calm nature that went along with her answer, which alone was pretty shocking. She had expected maybe a raise of her voice along with a big lecture of curfews. 'Must be the fact that it can help my grades. Hehehe. Mom's great.' "You mean I can really go? Honest?"  
  
  
Chi-Chi nodded. "Only if you promise to call before you're ready to come home so your father or I can come and get you. I don't want you flying by yourself in the dark quite yet."  
  
Usagi giggled. "Ok mom. It's a deal." She turned to her friends, who except for Ami, had all gone back to playing with Lucky. 'Wow, three weird things happening in one day.' "You guys wanna come with me and Ami to the Music School?"  
  
Hotaru looked up to Usagi first. "Papa will want me home for dinner before too long."  
  
Makoto looked up with a frown on her face as she rubbed Lucky's belly. "Two words, my dad."  
  
Minako grinned up at her two friends who seemed to have problems with their parents. "Come on you guys, they'll understand if you don't come home tonight. Let's go to the Music store."  
  
Rei only sighed. "Minako, didn't your parents yell at you last year for barely passing the end of the year test? Don't you think that you should be studying for this years?"  
  
Minako dropped her head in embarrassment. "You just had to point that out, didn't you?"   
  
Rei giggled as she turned to Ami. "I guess I'm out too. Grandpa wants me home in time to do my chores around the temple. Maybe I can go with you guys next time when it's not so late."  
  
"Ok, that sounds reasonable. I guess we'll see you tomorrow." Ami turned to Usagi, who had found her way back to Lucky with Makoto. "Come on. We should be going before they begin."  
  
"Your mom doesn't mind if you go this late?"  
  
Ami shook her head. "I usually go to the school after practices. I like to clear my mind of the day's happenings before returning to home."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Once at the giant school of Music, Usagi looked at the outside of the building in awe. The school was on the outskirts of town and had a 400 Acre plot of land to build on, though they left a lot of it bare just to be nature. "This is amazing. It's the biggest school I've ever seen."   
  
The school looked to have at least three floors in the main building with at least five other buildings in the main part of the campus, which looked to have one to two floors depending on the building. Near the rear, there were two large buildings big enough to house at least 2000 people.   
  
Ami giggled as she grabbed a hold of Usagi's arm and pulled her to the main building. "Of course it's big. Those buildings in the back were the symphony halls, built with just the right materials for the acoustics to be heard just right. Almost everything is built with wood so the sound will bounce off instead of be absorbed."  
  
"Uh, Ami? You lost me." Usagi wasn't too concerned with Ami's wording as soon as she entered the school, where she saw hundred of people, from young to old. They were all conversing with each other, sharing their knowledge of Music as well as asking advice of others. Almost everyone there had their instrument by their side as if it was their child that they must protect. "Wow..." Was the only thing able to emerge from Usagi's lips.  
  
"I knew you'd like it, Usagi." She began pulling on Usagi's wrist to pull her deeper into the world of Music. "Follow me, I want you to meet someone."  
  
Usagi looked around at everything. She wanted to take in as much as possible. "So this will help me study?"  
  
"I believe so. Ever since your parents broke down and allowed you to listen to music as you did your homework, your grades have improved. But your class work is suffering because you are not allowed to listen to music during class. I think that if we get you a better understanding of music, you may be able to use it in everyday life."  
  
Usagi giggled at that. "How does music help in everyday life?"  
  
"More than you can believe. Not only does it sooth the soul, but it can be so powerful that it enhances the mind, as it does with yours. But not only that. It does things that I can't fully explain to you as I myself have not even gotten a good grasp upon them. That is why I'm taking you to meet my teacher."  
  
Usagi stopped and widened her eyes. "You learn here?"  
  
Ami blushed as she let go of Usagi's wrist. "Yes. I have been going to this school ever since I was little. Before I moved here, I went to a branch school in Tokyo. And before you ask, I play the harp."  
  
Usagi smiled with wonder. "Can you play for me one day?"  
  
Ami's face turned a darker color red at the thought. She hated to play for anyone but her mother and teacher. "Maybe when I get better."  
  
'Note to self, get Ami to play for us.' "Ok. I understand. Maybe in a couple of weeks then."  
  
Ami smiled at Usagi's persistence. 'She's always tryin to make people feel better. She is a true friend.' "Shall we continue on our journey then?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Sure thing." She put he arm around Ami's shoulder and the two of them began to walk forward once again.  
  
~*~*~  
  
About ten minutes after figuring out that Ami's music teacher wasn't in his room as expected, Ami knew of only one place that he could possibly be. One of the symphony halls. She led Usagi to the main hall where the group would be rehearsing for the night, but stopped just before entering. She turned to Usagi with the most serious of expressions. "Now don't make noise in here. I know you like to be loud and all, but please, they don't like it when we make noise because for one, it ruins the acoustics sine our voices get caught in the sound, and two, it ruins their concentration."   
  
Usagi grinned. "You think I can't be quiet?"  
  
"Well think about it Usagi. Has there ever been a time that you were quiet?"  
  
Usagi pondered for a moment before she came up with her answer, though they both knew very well what it would be. "I guess not. Well, I'll be quiet now. I'll break my noisy record."  
  
Ami smiled as she gently pushed in on the doors that led into the hall. "Great." She turned into the hall and led Usagi down near the front. She looked up to the wooden stage to see that the group was just about ready to rehearse, but not quite. The conductor hadn't come out yet, but a small group played by themselves.  
  
Usagi looked around in astonishment. Just like Ami had said, everything was made of wood, except for the padding part of the chairs for comfort. The floor was even made of wood. 'I guess they want the sound to bounce all over the place.' She looked up to the wall behind the group of musicians where an enormous wooden pipe organ was built right into the wall. 'This is just...wow.'  
  
"This is a group of students from this school, Usagi. You'll love them. They always put on a free symphony for the students who go to this school at the end of the year."  
  
Usagi glanced over at Ami. "You mean you normally have to pay to come here."  
  
"Of course. It takes a lot to run a place like this. But it's not only for maintenance, they have to pay the groups who come and play here."  
  
Usagi's eyes continued to grow along with her excitement as she placed her eyes on girl with aqua hair as she walked from the stage into the main aisle with a Violin. "Hey isn't that...?" Ami turned to look at what Usagi was inquiring about.   
  
The girl gave a quick smirk as she strolled by the two kids. "Hey Monkey. Never thought I'd see you in a place like this."  
  
Usagi fell over the chair next to her as she tried to race out toward Michiru. "Michiru! WAIT!" She cringed when she felt and saw the angry eyes of the performers on her. "Oops." She whispered under her breath. Usagi looked back to Ami as she stood back to her feet. "Since when does Michiru play an instrument?"  
  
Ami shrugged in shock. "I don't know. It's news to me as well as you. Let's go check it out."  
  
"That's what I was trying to do before I tripped." This time it was Usagi who grabbed Ami by the wrist and pulled her out. She didn't want anymore hold ups before they got a chance to question Michiru.   
  
"Maybe she's not so coldhearted after all." Ami pulled her wrist from Usagi once she was clear of the chairs. Both girls immediately darted out of the hall at full speed in hopes to catch up to Michiru before she got a chance to leave.  
  
"I still have my doubts. She's having some serious mood swings lately though." Once outside again, Usagi scanned the busy area and quickly fixed her eyes on Michiru, who was actually wearing a dress. 'Now that's just scary.'   
  
"I wonder how long she's been here. I've never seen her around before." Ami ran after Michiru, who just gracefully walked away. "Michiru! Stop!"   
  
Acknowledging that she had been called out to, Michiru respectfully, turned around with a slight blush of embarrassment. "Yes?"  
  
Usagi caught up to the two girls and smiled softly at Michiru. "Wow. You look really pretty, Michiru? Why don't you wear dresses more often?"  
  
Michiru turned away as she could feel her blush becoming more noticeable. "I hate dresses."  
  
Ami smiled as she made her way in front of Michiru again. "No you don't. It's obvious otherwise you wouldn't be blushing like you are." She let her eyes travel down to the glassy Violin in Michiru's hands. "That's a lovely instrument you have there. Looks like very fine craftsmanship."  
  
Michiru frowned. She didn't like all the good attention she was earning from the two. "What would you know?"  
  
Usagi walked around Michiru and reached out for the Violin. "I don't know anything about instruments but I think it looks pretty."  
  
Michiru softened up as willingly handed Usagi her instrument. "Thanks, I think. My mother ordered it from this place in London. It's supposed to be top of the line. I've never used it in a concert before."  
  
Usagi looked up at Michiru in curiosity. "I didn't know you were in to this kind of stuff. Why didn't you ever tell us?"  
  
Ami had a bit of curiosity herself. "How long have you been attending this school?"  
  
"I just started this year, but I've been hiding it from everyone. I've been taking private lessons ever since I was about five, before I met Haruka." Her eyes grew deep with anticipation and sadness as she thought back to the days before Haruka. "Now everything is different."  
  
Ami sympathetically looked up into Michiru's eyes. "What do you mean?"  
  
"I have to hide my love for playing from Haruka and the others. I have to make them think that my mother is forcing me. Even tonight because of the practice, I had to finally come clean and tell them about this. They think that I'm enjoying this, that my mother isn't forcing me. It's true, but I don't want them to hate me." Her expression hardened at the realization of what she had just said. She hadn't planned on telling them anything, but it just felt so good to finally be able to talk about it with someone. She had been holding it in for years on end. "But what would you losers care? Stupid Braniac and Stupid Monkey."   
  
Usagi handed Michiru back her Violin as she put her arm around her waist. "You don't mean that now do you?"   
  
Michiru sighed as she looked down to Usagi and then over at Ami, whose eyes were asking the same thing. "Truth?"  
  
Ami nodded. "Truth."  
  
"No. I don't mean it. Actually, I don't really mean anything I do. Not anymore I don't. Before I meant everything I did, but not now. I've grown up. I mean, I'm fifteen years old it's about time. But my friends haven't grown up yet. They are still very immature."  
  
Usagi smiled up at the troubled girl. "Then don't hang out with them. Find friends who like you for you. That's what I did. That's what all of us did. We found each other."  
  
Michiru smiled at the young girl's statement. "You're smarter than you look, Usagi. But I can't betray my friends. I still have confidence that they will come around sooner or later. It took me a while to realize what was wrong and right, and now I'm trying to get them to do it. But promise you'll keep my secret until they come around."  
  
Ami looked at the smiling Usagi and then back up at Michiru. "We promise." 'She called her Usagi and not Monkey. I guess she has changed.' "I guess this means that you'll still be picking on us around Mamoru."  
  
Michiru nodded. "Don't take it personally." She cocked her head to the side when she felt her friends approaching. "Uh-oh. Here we go again. I'm going to get yelled at now."  
  
Usagi let go of Michiru and pulled Ami to the side. "We need to help her."  
  
"I think I know how."  
  
Curiosity got the better of Usagi again. "How?"  
  
Ami smiled. "Follow my lead." She led Usagi back to Michiru and winked up at her, telling her that they were just playing along with her little game. "Whatever Michiru! You could NEVER play better than me!"  
  
Usagi grinned. 'Ooh, I love this game.' "Yeah! You suck! I don't know why you're even here! You need to go back home where you belong!"  
  
Mamoru stopped short of his next step as he scowled at the two girls making fun of his friend. "Oh no they don't." He grabbed Haruka and pulled her towards Michiru and the two younger children.  
  
Michiru glanced over at her two fuming friends who were fast approaching. 'This is great. Reverse psychology.'  
  
Ami smirked at Mamoru, which only made his anger rise up higher. "Michiru, you will never amount to anything. You are the worst Violinist that I have ever met. You need to just pack your bags and leave this school."  
  
"Yeah! They don't want low-lives like you around!" That earned Usagi a fake hurt look from Michiru.  
  
"Why don't YOU leave Odango! You're the lowlife!" Mamoru growled as he approached Michiru, though he wasn't angry with her. "You can take that brain with you too."  
  
Haruka walked to Michiru and pulled her away from the two youngsters. "Don't listen to them, Michiru. You play wonderfully. They wouldn't know good music if it bit their heads off."  
  
'Always thinking in terms of violence.' "Those kids are horrible." Michiru pretended to cry into Haruka's shoulder.  
  
Seeing that, Mamoru lashed out at Usagi, who jumped back to dodge. "You idiot! She's a great player! Better than YOU could ever be! Why don't you scram before I get REALLY mad!" Even though he wasn't into the music thing like Michiru was, he wouldn't let that stop him from standing up for her. After all, she was his friend.   
  
Usagi and Ami backed away, pleased with their results. "Are you SURE that she can play better than me? I'll bet she can't even play a basic scale on that thing." Ami could feel the anger boiling inside Mamoru. She was rather enjoying herself. Not because she was making fun of someone, but because she was helping Michiru be accepted by her good for nothing friends.   
  
"GET OUT!" Usagi and Ami giggled as they turned around and ran away. Mamoru turned to Michiru, who seemed to be getting a hold of herself. "You play great, Michiru. Don't let them pull you down. They don't now what they're talking about."  
  
Haruka kept her arms around Michiru in the form of a hug. "That's right. Now, let's go inside. I believe you have a concert to prepare for and I want to listen to the practice since I can't make it to the concert."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The next day after school, the six friends arrived at the Son house. Earlier in the day, Usagi and Ami had told Minako, Makoto, and Rei all about their night at the Music school, including what they had learned about Michiru. That had been the topic of the day. None of the five could get over the fact that Michiru had been faking her hate for them. They all wondered how long she had been hiding it. They had noticed the change in her, but they never thought that it could have been something so big.   
  
When they had told Hotaru, she hadn't been as shocked. She hadn't really known Michiru so she didn't really even know how to react. But she could tell by the way that the girls were acting that it had to be something of a big thing.  
  
Now, the girls, except for Hotaru who was training with Goku, were trying to plan out the way they were going to train their new students. They knew that they had to be firm, not too firm as they wanted to teach them respect and the only way they knew how to do that was with love and compassion just as Goku had taught them.   
  
"So how are we going to teach them?" Makoto and everyone else turned to a dazed Usagi, who seemed to be in a trance of thoughts. "Usagi?"  
  
"Huh?" Usagi shook her thoughts away and turned to Makoto, who called out to her. "Oh, I was thinking about teaching them about basic fighting. You know, how dad taught us. How to fight with honor. How to only hit someone if it's in self defense when THEY started it first. Dad always stressed that."  
  
Minako laid down on the ground and looked up at the sky. "I remember him always telling us that. That's a good idea, too. We should teach them that."  
  
Rei nodded in agreement. "They have a nasty habit of just going up to people and starting fights."  
  
"Do you think we should teach them how to make shields and how to..." Ami paused when she felt the eyes of her friends look upon her. "Well they need to learn how to do that kind of stuff too." Before anyone could truly reply to Ami's suggestion, the girls perked their heads to the south, where the Ki signatures of their new students could be felt.   
  
Rei stood up and put her hand just over her eyes to shelter them from the bright light that the sun was producing high in the sky. "Looks like we're going to have to finish this later. They're here already." In the distance, she could see Nine figures flying towards their position.   
  
Piccolo landed first, followed by his son next to him. "Here they are."  
  
Mamoru looked around to the girls in pure disgust. He could have gone of on his father right there and then for the stunt he was trying to pull on them. "Oh great. Do you mean to tell me that these are the new Sensei's that you wanted us to train under?"  
  
A look of horror entered the girls' eyes as they all came to realize that none of the older kids had been told who they were to be training with. That was not exactly the best situation for them to be in at the moment for they knew the rage of these kids. They had hoped that Piccolo and Yamcha would have at least told the kids who was going to be training them so they had time to think it over.   
  
Piccolo and Yamcha smirked down at the girls as they laughed under their breath. "Our payback to you for the stunt you pulled yesterday." That earned a groan from all five girls, though ,they didn't regret at all making Piccolo wear Mickey Mouse ears.  
  
Yamcha looked to the six teens behind. "They will be training you until you learn."  
  
Haruka sneered at Yamcha. "What do you mean 'until we learn'? We don't need any of this crap from you! I'm not learning from a damned MONKEY!" Usagi just stuck her tongue out at the girl.  
  
Michiru tried to sound convincing, but anything she said had no real heart behind it. "No. We don't want to learn from them."  
  
Piccolo grinned back at her. 'I knew she was changing.'  
  
Mamoru looked up to his father. "I will NOT lower myself to learning from these little twits."  
  
Piccolo growled as he brought his attention down to his son. "ENOUGH! ALL OF YOU! You training is at a stand still. You can't rise to another level. You, Yamcha, and I cannot decipher the new techniques that these children have created and mastered. Plus, you can't fight as a group. You also need to learn a thing or two about respect, something that these girls have learned from the master as well as use every single day."  
  
Yamcha joined in Piccolo's glare at their students. He couldn't believe that they were acting in such an unruly manner. He had never met anyone who had so much hate to give. "You will train with them. You will learn from them. You will treat them with respect. No name calling, no fighting, and you're to train as they tell you until you achieve greater heights, or we tell you otherwise."  
  
Piccolo glared at his son. "That means not calling her Odango OR Monkey."  
  
Mamoru scowled at a stunned Usagi and then up at his father. "You can't be serious."  
  
With patience running VERY low, Piccolo reached out and grabbed his son by the collar. "IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?!"   
  
Mamoru felt fear of his father as he looked him in the eye. 'Damn, I can't get out of this. He's not going to let me.' He looked down to the ground and mumbled something two quiet for any human to hear. But Piccolo's hearing, as well as Usagi's hearing heard it just fine.  
  
Piccolo grinned. He wanted everyone to hear it. "What was that?"  
  
Mamoru clenched his fist, letting his anger be shown. "I SAID FINE!"  
  
"Good." He dropped his son and walked to his last two students. He knew that Michiru wouldn't put up much of a fight in this situation, but Haruka was another story. He grabbed both by the back of the neck and brought his head in-between the gap that theirs created. "That also goes for you two, understood?" He harshly released them when he got a nod from both.   
  
Yamcha glared back at the four Americans that he had brought back to Japan with him on his most recent trip over there. "You four, I know that you don't know these young ladies all that well, but I also know you treat them like dirt. That stops here or else your training does." He got not a single protest from the group. "Good. I'm liking your attitude." He turned to the group of girls, who were completely stunned. "Let me introduce these guys to you." He baked away from the group to make them totally visible to the girls. "This is Kenneth (Kunzite), Nathaniel (Nephrite), Justin (Jadeite), and Zodiac (Zoisite) Keep in mind they're American so they have American names.   
  
"We leave you with them now." Piccolo jumped into the air with Yamcha and took one last look down at the trouble making kids. "Behave...or else."   
  
Yamcha turned once more and smirked down to the scowling girls, who still couldn't get over the fact that the Rat Pack had just now been told of their new training. "Good luck." 'They're going to need it.' Yamcha and Piccolo laughed at their joke as they both flew off.   
  
The two groups were left to face off against each other. One group literally radiated fury and defiance, while the other was more calm and down to earth. Both groups didn't exactly want to work together, but Usagi's group knew that I had to be done. They had been asked by Piccolo and Yamcha to work with them to make them better people so that was what they planned to do.  
  
Usagi gulped as she stepped forward, which none of her friends seemed to want to do. "I guess we sho..."  
  
Mamoru continued to scowl at Usagi with pure hatred. He wasn't too worried about working with the others for his hate for Usagi had grown immensely over the past week far beyond what it used to be. "Hang on Oda..."  
  
Usagi frowned. 'He did it! He called me name!' "Wait a second. NO ODANGO. I made Piccolo promise that before we started."  
  
Mamoru let out a growl in disgust that his father would ever agree to such and outrageous request. "Fine. But let's get one thing straight. We DON'T want to work with you. We're only doing it because our Sensei's are making us. But don't worry, it won't be long until they realize how incredibly stupid this all is."  
  
Makoto looked to Usagi, who seemed to be losing her temper. 'Uh-oh.' She looked up to Mamoru and stepped forward to him and pushed Usagi back. 'Looks like the Odango thing is really getting to her.' "Look, Mamoru. We want to put the past behind us. Can't we use this time to mend fences?"  
  
Ami could definitely agree with that. "Yes, it's not logical to have such a rivalry between us. Can't we just be friends?"  
  
Minako nodded to show her agreement. "Right, Lets just let it be boats under the bridge."  
  
Rei, as well as every other friend of Minako, sighed. "That's water under the bridge, Minako."  
  
Minako giggled. "Oh yeah, that works to."  
  
Haruka glared at them with no respect at all. She didn't care what her Sensei wanted. "No we can't. We don't like you at all."  
  
Usagi frowned at their unwillingness to learn. "Fine lets begin then and get it done with." 'It's gonna be hard but I'll bet I can do it.'  
  
Ami walked past Usagi and began handing their new students something. "Here, this will help you to get stronger."  
  
Minako and Usagi curiously looked over her shoulder to see what she was giving them. Minako reached over and grabbed a small pendant. "This is just like our gravity pendant that Bulma gave us."  
  
Usagi grabbed it from Minako, who only responded in a frown. "Hey. It is. Where did you get these, Ami?"  
  
"Last night I called Bulma and asked her to make them. I figured since they were still training with weights that they should move up. I picked them up today before school." She reached around and grabbed the amulet out of Usagi's hands and handed it to Michiru. "They're set to thirty-five times earth's normal gravity. You are strong enough to handle it."  
  
Usagi playfully knocked on Ami's head. "Always thinkin aren't you?"  
  
Ami giggled. "Yeah. I guess I am. Ok people, we wear these things all day everyday except when we're sleeping so I guess you guys should too."  
  
Mamoru snickered as he looked down to the necklace like item. "You've gotta be kidding me. I'm not wearing a necklace. No way."  
  
Michiru turned her amulet over to see her name engraved on it in cursive and let out a near silent gasp. She looked up to Ami, who winked at her. 'These kids really aren't all that bad.' She smiled back to let her appreciation be shown.  
  
Ami smiled. 'I knew she'd like it.'  
  
Rei grinned as she joined her two friends up with their new students. "So let's see it. Let's see you guys turn them on."  
  
Six teens reluctantly put their pendants around their necks, which Michiru happily put hers on. They pushed the button that activated them and all seven immediately fell to the ground, unable to move an inch.  
  
"It's too heavy, Od..., Usagi." Mamoru growled at the fact that he had to call Usagi by her real name.  
  
Makoto laughed as she sat down in front of the students. "You just need to get use to it, Mamoru. It's not that hard once you get used to it. Now getting used to it is the hard part." She turned to Usagi with a pale face. "I really hope that you remember how you got Hotaru used to it cause I really don't like how your dad made us do it."  
  
Usagi cringed at the thought of how she had been trained with the Gravity. "Don't worry. I do. I don't think that these guys would appreciate the way daddy did it." She turned back down to Haruka with a grin. "On the other hand."  
  
Haruka struggled to breathe as she scowled at Usagi's feet. "Just be done with it!"  
  
Usagi giggled. "Fine, fine. Lay on your backs and pump your legs like you were walking. It worked for Hotaru. Then, when you get used to that, you can try it with your arms."  
  
Makoto grinned down at the teens who were trying to turn over to lay on their backs. "After that, to make it more fun, why don't we even try having you guys shoot a Ki blast with the gravity. Or you can try to block one from us. Or even..."  
  
"Whoa girl hold on there." Rei laughed as she placed her hand on Makoto's shoulder. "Thinking mighty high there, aren't you? They haven't even gotten their legs used to the new gravity yet. I think that once they get their arms and legs able to move they should try standing up."  
  
A smile ran across Makoto's face. "And when they stand up THEN they can work with Ki blasts!"   
  
Ami thought about Makoto's method for a moment. She knew that Rei wasn't liking the idea and was about to try and stop her friend from going any further. "Wait Rei. She may be onto something. Then after Ki blasts, we can have them fly with the gravity."  
  
Usagi bent down and helped Michiru on her back. "If you feel tired, stop. I passed out once cause I didn't stop when I was tired."  
  
Michiru smiled with a nod. "Ok." She glanced over to Haruka, who was glaring at her. "But I'm not doing it because I like you and want to listen to you, MONK...USAGI! I'm only doing it because I want to stay conscious."  
  
Usagi stood up with a smile. "Great."  
  
~*~*~  
  
For that whole training sessions, which was three hours long, the girls had the Rat Pack do nothing but exercises to get them used to their new gravity. None of them truly tried at all for the didn't want to work under Usagi and her loner friends, as they referred to them.   
  
As they finished up their exercises, the group of girls sighed in exasperation. They never expected the group to resist as much as they had. Makoto was probably the toughest on them all, as well as good with motivating them to keep going.  
  
"Come on you guys. Don't you want to be stronger than us so you can beat us? I know that's what your dream is. It's fairly obvious. So work and maybe you'll be able to beat us."  
  
Minako giggled as she walked up to the teens on the ground, who were able to move their legs easier than before. "Great way to make them work Makoto. Now they're going to want to beat us up when they're finished."  
  
Haruka grinned. "We were going to beat you up anyway."  
  
Minako impishly smiled down at the two girls, who weren't exactly trying their hardest. "We'll tell Piccolo on you if you don't work harder."  
  
"Tattle tail."  
  
Minako stuck her tongue out to her. "Nahhh."   
  
Usagi turned around to the trees that surrounded her house when she heard her father and Hotaru talking in the distance. "Looks like they're done. I guess we should fly Hotaru home. We don't want to get her late again. I think her dad's getting made about that."  
  
Mamoru and Haruka turned to each other with smirks and evil thoughts. Both knew exactly what the other was thinking and knew that if they winged right, they could have their wish come true. "Usagi..." Haruka interjected before Usagi had a full chance to approach her father and Hotaru, who were looking quite beaten up. "I'll fly her home. I live in that direction and can get to know her at the same time." She put on a fake smile as if she was a changed person. "This way you can just stay here and you don't have to worry your parents with being gone."  
  
'Uh...' Usagi bent her neck backward to look up at her father, who now stood directly behind her. "Is it safe?"   
  
Goku knew it wasn't safe. He could see through that girl without any trouble. He had heard more believable lies come from his daughter, but this was for Usagi to find out. She was helping the others teach these people respect and if he were to interfere than it could risk the whole project. "I can't help you with this. It's your guys' decision to call. But let me give you advice, don't think you know them as well as you think you do." With that, he walked turned away with a grin and began walking back to his house where his dinner awaited him. "Bye girls."  
  
Justin snickered at Goku as he turned his pendant off. He noted that his friends were doing the same. "What a freak. No wonder why Usagi's just a dork. Her father's worse than her. Is he always saying stuff that don't make sense?"  
  
Usagi could feel her face become red with anger. It was one thing to make fun of her, but it was a whole different subject matter when it came to her family. "Take that back! My daddy isn't a dork!"  
  
Justin grinned and was ready to say more when he found Mamoru's hand over his mouth. "Shut up. Remember we aren't supposed to make fun of her. But don't worry, I have a plan. Just hold your tongue for a while."  
  
Hotaru wasn't sure if she knew exactly what she was doing, but she was going to try to mend fences between groups. The Rat Pack didn't really have much against her from what she could tell. "Sure. I'll go. I sounds like fun." She walked to the smirking Haruka and Mamoru. Michiru didn't seem to be enjoying herself.  
  
"What? Are you sure about that Hotaru?" Rei bent down to Hotaru's level. "What if they try something."  
  
"Stupid girl. We aren't going to try anything. We're just trying to help out. If you don't want our help then do it yourself." Mamoru pushed Hotaru away.  
  
Hotaru begged Rei with her eyes for her to let her go. "I'll be all right." She walked back to the group and waited for their acceptance.   
  
Mamoru had no intention of rejecting the child. "Come on. Let's get out of here." With no further word or thanks to the girls, he and his gang took off into the air with Hotaru.  
  
Rei turned back to her pouting friends. "I think she'll be ok."  
  
Usagi groaned. "She better be or else I'm going to be in major trouble with my mom AND Mr. Tomoe."  
  
( That's it for this part. What did you think? )  



	93. Part 23

Things were pretty silent on the way to Hotaru's house. Hotaru could tell that something was up. She could sense it coming from each and every one of her escorts. All except for Michiru. She knew exactly why she wasn't emitting hatred too, which was something she respected. Although Michiru was nothing like her friends, she still stuck by them. She didn't just up and betray them.   
  
Looking around to all of the kids in the gang, Hotaru realized that none of them would betray each other's friendship. They would always stand by each other's side through thick and thin. From what she had heard from Usagi and Ami, they had already demonstrated that the night before when they stood up for Michiru even though they didn't exactly like the fact that she played the Violin. 'Usagi and Mamoru's groups have more in common than they think.'   
  
At that moment with that very thought, Hotaru decided it was time to take action. "Hey you guys, why do you and the girls fight so much?"  
  
Haruka smirked as she glanced over her shoulder to Hotaru. "Because we're too different. They have done too much to us for us to even try to get along."  
  
"But you're not that different at all. Don't you see? You're just the same in almost every way." Hotaru lowered her altitude as she came up to her house. "Just because you guys don't see eye to eye on everything does mean anything. And besides, what is it that they did to you?"  
  
Before Haruka even got a chance to think of a reply, Mamoru lowered himself to be right next to Hotaru. "You don't know all that there is to know about these kids, Hotaru. Just like Goku said, don't think you know all there is to know about a person."  
  
"Huh?" Hotaru followed the group of departing teens as they lowered themselves down to the ground. "You guys, what did that mean?"   
  
Not a single person from the group spoke. Instead, they just continued to drop themselves until their feet touched the ground. Even then not a single sound arose from anyone. Hotaru found that to be somewhat rude since she had just asked them to explain themselves. She didn't appreciate being refused an explanation. "Hello?"   
  
Michiru looked into the gates that kept anyone from going into the yard. She let her eyes travel to the empty driveway, which indicated to her that no one was home as of yet. "Hotaru, are you ok with being home alone?" She turned around to Hotaru as her friends glared at her for being nice.  
  
"Papa's not home yet?" Hotaru tried to forget about the gang's rudeness as she ran to the gates and peered in and sure enough, her father's hover car was not in its normal place. "I wonder where he could be. I don't want to go in there alone cause of Kaori. Papa doesn't trust her enough to take care of me, but she's an excellent assistant for his project." She turned to look up at the older kids in question of what to do next. "He's not usually late like this."  
  
Haruka and Mamoru gave each other a grin of accomplishment as they approached Hotaru. So she wouldn't think that something was up, they erased their grins and gave her a warm smile. Haruka put her arms around the child and pulled her to the side of the gate. "We'll wait out here with you then."  
  
Michiru found it more odd than Hotaru did that Haruka would suggest that they do such a 'nice' thing, something that was supposedly against what she believed in. But Michiru wasn't complaining. She was just glad that she wasn't the one who would have had to bring it up. She tried to stay away from blowing her cover as much as possible, though she knew that Haruka was up to something, which was the only reason why she had done it. She just wanted to use the current situation to her advantage. "That sounds like a good idea, Haruka." She gave her a wink to show her dedication to the group. After all, this whole idea of getting Hotaru in on their side was her idea, but that was before she figured what they had in mind.  
  
Mamoru smiled at Michiru. He had begun to think that she was becoming soft, but she always had a way to prove that she was still on their side; that she was never leaving. "Great." 'I knew this would work. With this kid's power added to ours we can finally teach the brat and her friends a lesson or two about respecting authority.'  
  
With her arm still around Hotaru, Haruka sat the two of them down against the wall, trying to show her how much of a nice person she could be. And to tell the truth, Hotaru was falling into it. She was beginning to think that there was nothing wrong with these kids except the fact that no one gave them a chance. After all, they had offered to take her home and had done it without hurting her in anyway. They were even being nice enough to stay and wait for her father to return so she didn't have to be alone.   
  
"So, what do you think of Usagi?"   
  
Hotaru perked at that question. She wondered what the driving force behind it was. It couldn't have been just a simple conversation starter, but she hope to use it to try and mend the fences between the two groups.  
  
"I..."  
  
Not even giving her time to answer, Haruka went on. She hadn't ever planned to let Hotaru finish until she made her point and got out what she thought of the girl. "Isn't she just a whinny, greedy, selfish little brat? Someone should teach her a lesson in respect."  
  
Michiru sighed as she dropped her head in shame for her friends. 'How did I know?'  
  
Mamoru snickered. "You got that right. Whenever something doesn't go her way she breaks down and cries. She can't even hold her emotions let alone try to fight a decent fight."  
  
Hotaru shot a scowl up at Mamoru, who continued to go on, bad mouthing her best friend. "She can fight BETTER than you EVER can." 'I should have known something was up. Michiru is the only good one here.'  
  
Mamoru burst out in laughter at that one. "Give me a break kid. She can't fight. When we went into the past with Cell, she could have gone Super Saiyan and killed him, but instead she chose to play with him or whatever she was doing. I don't know. Maybe she was even fool enough to believe that she could have beat him without her Super Saiyan power. I don't think anyone knows what's going on in that screwed up head of hers. Because she failed to take him out when needed, she nearly died and got everyone else nearly killed. In the end, Cell powered up to his fullest, out powering Goku's Super Saiyan three of this dimension. At that point Usagi couldn't even defeat him without all of the power of her friends attached to her own. She was just lucky that his offspring's hate energy was gone by the time he got here otherwise it would have been lights out for earth."  
  
Hotaru was speechless. She had always thought of Usagi as one of the smartest and most knowledgeable fighters around. Her friends and family too. Even after hearing this, Hotaru still wasn't convinced. "Everyone makes mistakes."  
  
Haruka grinned down at Hotaru, who looked to be harder to pull in than the Americans. "Usagi doesn't really want to hang out with you. None of the girls do." She paused when Hotaru gasped. "You don't believe me? Well, why don't you ask them yourself? It's the truth. None of them like you. Usagi is only hanging out with you to get money from your dad. I heard her at the arcade. She said she would do anything for money even hang out with a dork like yourself."  
  
Michiru walked to Hotaru when she got a piercing glare from Mamoru. "Uh...that's right. So you join us where we will like you for who you are. You should hang out with people who will teach you how to fight right instead of the wimpy way."   
  
Hotaru sat in silence as the rants about her best friend's went on. She had never heard such nonsense in her entire life. Her silence only left the gang thinking that she was finally agreeing with what they were trying to pull over on her. BOY, were they wrong.   
  
With the mind link Hotaru knew that this was all a bunch of lies fed to her to make her come to their side. The dark side of the tracks. But it wouldn't work on her. She knew that her friends were real. She knew that the girls had made a lot of mistakes in the past, especially Usagi, but she also knew that she had the biggest heart in the world and that she had given a big piece of it to her. All of her friends had. "I don't know what you have against the girls. They are better people that you could ever be. You're only trying to be nice to me because you know that NONE of you can beat them so you want my help. We'll I'll never hurt any of them. NEVER. You are the selfish brats that need the lesson in respect. Why do you think that you're training under them? Just so you can be humiliated? No! It's because you don't know how to respect yourselves! And when someone doesn't know how to respect themselves they don't know how to respect others! Don't even think about trying anything like this again or else I tell them exactly what you said and let you guys deal with them!"  
  
Fury radiated off of them as they listened to her words. Never in their lives had such a young child spoken them to in such a manner. They wouldn't stand for it. She had to be stopped. She couldn't be allowed to run around, thinking that she was allowed to talk to them with such an attitude.   
  
Mamoru, acting as leader, bent down and grabbed Hotaru by the collar and proceeded to pull her up to his face. "Don't you EVER threaten me unless you want to find yourself lying in some back alley nearly dead."  
  
Hotaru curled her nose and scowled, slightly afraid up into his eyes, which radiated with hate. She knew that he would do it too. From what she heard from Usagi and her family, Mamoru wouldn't hesitate at all. "Don't threaten me!" She pulled her fingers to her forehead and teleported away from his grasp, next to Michiru, where she knew that she was safe. "Leave or I'll teleport to Usagi's house and tell her and Goku on you."  
  
Haruka looked up the street where she saw a hover car turning onto. "Parent alert."  
  
"What?" Mamoru turned to look at the car, which was fast approaching, though it still had a ways to go. He narrowed his glare as he turned to his left, where Hotaru was standing. "This isn't over kid. Don't think you've seen the last of us." With a wave of his hands, his friends followed him as he began walking away from the giant house. As they left, Mamoru realized that he was going to have to work extra hard to get Hotaru into his grasp. He was not about to let her slip through his hands.  
  
Hotaru sighed as she watched the group and her father pull up to the house. She knew that it was far from over. The only thing that she feared was how they planned to take action in trying to pay her back. They had already done such awful things to try and get Usagi back. She didn't want to even begin to imagine what would happen if she were to be alone with them again. 'Great.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Later that night...  
  
Usagi sighed as she stared into her plate of food. She couldn't decide if she wanted to tell her parents about Michiru or not. She had promised to keep it a secret from her friends, but no one else. But obviously she wanted it to be kept secret or else she would have told her otherwise. 'Hmm...but this is big...'  
  
"Usagi eat your food."  
  
Usagi looked up to her mother, who always seemed to have something to get on her back about. "Yes mom." As she began to eat to please her mother, she began to wonder if any of the adults knew of Michiru's change in attitude. She hadn't really noticed it, but thinking back she couldn't figure out how she could have possibly missed it. Michiru had only forewarned her of Mamoru's plan and that her brother was the one who tipped him off. That was the first sign that she had recognized.   
  
As she continued to eat, she realized that there had to be many other signs for the adults to catch. They always seemed to know what was going on with kids. 'Well that's it. I don't think she wants me to tell them so if they don't already know then that's their tough luck.'  
  
"Usagi..." Goku had a mouth full of food and was already stuffing in more as fast as he could.  
  
Usagi's eyes became wide at the thought that her father would ask her what was wrong. 'Uh-oh. I can't tell him, can I?' She calmly looked to her father in hopes that he wouldn't question her. "Yes?"  
  
"Would it be all right if Hotaru spent Friday training the others with you guys? The others and I want to train late."  
  
Usagi nodded with a smile. She couldn't have been happier that he didn't ask her what was wrong. 'Maybe he doesn't notice. Maybe he's loosing his touch.' "Cool. We miss Hotaru."  
  
"Great." He went back to stuffing his face full of food, only to disgust his wife. "By the way, don't look so upset. You have three days until summer vacation." Goku looked down to an excited puppy, who sat on his foot. "Hey. You want some?" Goku reached over his plate and picked up a piece of meat and dropped it on the floor. "There you go."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Three days Later~~  
  
"Five..."  
  
"Four..."  
  
"Three..."   
  
"Two..."  
  
"One..."  
  
"WE'RE OUTTA HERE!" The five friends had made it through yet another year in school. They were now officially rulers of the school. There was no one above them. There was no one left in that school older than them who knew of all their troubles. The only people left to tell the story were the people who had actually witnessed it.  
  
The five girls were the first out of their chairs and the firsts out the door to their summer freedom. They didn't even care about saying goodbye to the other kids in their class. It didn't really matter since they would be seeing them in a few months again.  
  
Minako ran silly out into the main courtyard. "Freedom is OURS!"  
  
Usagi joined Minako in their praising of Summer Vacation. "No more books! No more reports! No more math! NOTHING!"   
  
Ami giggled as she watched to two blondes weave in an out of other screaming students. "I take it you two are happy?" Usagi stopped long enough to give Ami a giant grin and a nod of the head and then she was off again.  
  
"Think we should be getting over to the training sight?"  
  
Usagi slowed down her pace as she slumped her shoulders. "Do we have to? School just got out."  
  
Makoto frowned. "Yes we have to. We need to get those guys to learn some respect, remember?"  
  
Usagi sighed. "I know. But they're just so unwilling to do anything. They don't want to learn from us."  
  
Rei nodded to agree with Usagi. "Tell me about it. They just think that they're better than everyone. But we can't give up on them."  
  
Ami nodded. "Right. We made a promise to Piccolo and Yamcha. We should try to keep it to the best of our abilities, but we really should get going. If we aren't there by the time they get there who knows what they'll do."  
  
Minako jumped into the air, still with a smile. "I'll go get Hotaru, ok?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "K. We'll meet you there."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Forest~~  
Twenty minutes later...  
  
For the past three days, no real progress was made by the teens. They didn't really want to learn and as a result, they didn't try their best. They didn't try anything near their best, actually. They were doing it just to spite the girls, something which they were all well aware of.   
  
The girls had no idea of what they were going to do. They had tried and tried over and over to get through to the kids and nothing seemed to be working. It seemed like the nicer and softer they got, the more insolent they became. They didn't care if they hurt anyone's feelings or not.   
  
Usagi even found herself becoming angry and put out by most of the stuff they pulled. If it had not been for the fact that she was doing this for a friend, she would have liked to have given up, but she knew she couldn't do that. These kids had to learn respect. No one else had given them the chance to reform. She was more than determined to give them the chance they deserved. She just didn't know how she was going to do it.   
  
"Hotaru, did dad say if you could fight others with your staff yet?" Usagi looked to Hotaru, who had been given the day off from her own training by Goku to hang out with her friends.   
  
"I can't attack anyone with it, but I can defend with it. Goku says that I need to work on my defending skills cause he's always able to make hits on me."  
  
A wide grin came across Usagi's face as an idea popped into her head. "Well why don't you fight these guys for a while and try to defend with your staff? We'll be doing dad a favor in a way."  
  
Hotaru nodded with excitement. She had never used her staff in any sort of fight against anyone but Goku. "Great." She kneeled down into a defensive position as she held her staff horizontally in front of her; ready for anything that may have been coming for her. 'Uh-oh. I hope they aren't still mad at me. But the girls are here and Goku's just a ways off in the woods training with his friends...I think I'll be ok.'  
  
"Hey!" Makoto wasn't nearly as easy on her students as Usagi was. Though she was supposed to teach them a thing or two about respect, she also wanted to make sure her friends were safe, as well as the fact that the teens needed to know their boundaries. "Don't try anything or you'll be dealing with us! And then we'll tell the adults! After that, you can kiss fighting goodbye." She grinned. "Now play nice you guys." She turned to Usagi with a more serious expression. "I hope you know what you're doing."  
  
Usagi nodded with a kind smile. "I don't think they'll try anything stupid. We have to give them a chance, remember? It's the only way they'll learn. Don't worry if something happens, we can teleport in."  
  
"There's always Goku and Piccolo not too far from here sparring in the woods." Ami added.  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yeah, if they feel us powering up all the way, they're sure to come." She grabbed a hold of Minako and Rei and began to pull them away from the fight with the other two close behind. "Come on you guys, we need to talk about a few things."  
  
As Usagi led the others away, Hotaru was left to fend for herself against the fighters who were, for now, superior to her. "Any time now is fine with me."  
  
Haruka smirked as she pulled Mamoru to her side. "She really is an idiot."  
  
"Of course. Look at who she hangs out with." Mamoru moved his head to a position that would allow him to look over at his shoulder to the remaining five teens, who stood behind him. "Leave this to us. We know what we're doing and I think you'll all understand in a minute."  
  
Haruka kept her smirk as she pulled away from Mamoru and looked at Michiru. "You'll all enjoy this little payback of ours. I promise." Haruka didn't even try to cover up her hate for Hotaru this time as she approached her. "Come on. It's as easy this. If you want to stay well, come with our group. We'll teach you all there is to know about fighting."  
  
Hotaru backed away as she forced herself not to change into an offensive position, a little nervous now, but refusing to admit it. "I don't want to hang out with you guys. Now let's just get the fight started."  
  
Mamoru grinned as he shot a Golden Ki attack at Hotaru, who jumped into the air and hit the Ki blast with the blades of her staff back at Mamoru as if it were a hockey puck. "We're not playing with you, kid." With his fist, which was powered up with Ki, he basically punched his own Ki attack back at Hotaru while he released the power in his fist into the attack to make it twice as strong. "Haruka!" 'She just needs to learn whose boss around here.' He frowned when he saw Hotaru bat the attack back to him. "BRAT!"   
  
"Right!" Haruka took to the air and went flying towards Hotaru at full speed in hopes to dodge her staff and make a hit to the child's body, but no luck came to Haruka, who wasn't thinking clear enough to do anything. Her mind was only filled with anger, which led to her down fall.  
  
Hotaru anticipated the attack and moved her staff to block the punch that came from Haruka. In a quick retaliation, Hotaru lifted her leg into he opponent's stomach. "I know you're better than that." 'Why did I just say that?'  
  
Haruka dropped to the ground with her hand covering her stomach, which was in pain. "You want more?" She didn't even wait for a reply from Hotaru before she started powering up a Ki attack in her hand. She evilly laughed when she felt Mamoru doing the same.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
"So girls, how are we going to get them to lighten up?"  
  
Makoto turned to Rei with a grin. "We can set rules. Rules that will make them WANT to lighten up."  
  
Minako giggled at her friend's idea. "You really don't like them, do you?"  
  
"They're rude. There's nothing that's ever going to change them. It's obvious. They haven't learned a single thing since we started training them. All they've learned is how to walk in the new gravity. And what's worse it they're brining Michiru down with them."  
  
"That's true." Rei, as well as everybody else, turned their heads to look at the fight, which was escalating into something big. Bigger than it should have gotten. "What do they think they're doing!? They're powering up to their max!"  
  
Makoto pressed her fingers to her forehead as her friends did the same. "Those idiots! She can't block something like that!"   
  
"We have to stop them before they attack!" With that, Usagi teleported along with her friends to the position in which Mamoru and Haruka stood. Minako and Makoto stood behind, Rei and Ami stood on the left while Usagi stood in the right by Mamoru and the Americans. She could feel the hate being emitted from the powerful blasts, which could kill Hotaru, who was on the ground from a previous attack trying to get up. "Hotaru run!"  
  
Justin smirked as he brought his hands to Usagi's back. 'Time to say lights out for the little baby girl. You fell right into it!'  
  
Usagi's eyes went wide. She realized that the attack was not aimed at Hotaru, but joined right in front of her.   
  
Kenneth, Nathaniel, and Zodiac startled all the girls with a flash of Ki energy, distracting them all.  
  
Justin, using the distraction, smirked even more evilly as he pulled his arm back only to punch a distracted Usagi in the back of the head, sending her flying forward. "Goodnight."  
  
"USAGI!" Five distressed girls called out to their friend as she fell right into the path of the powerful attacks that was sure to kill her if they were allowed to make contact.  
  
Mamoru sneered to the girls around. "It won't kill her, just make her realize that we ARE in fact the better fighters. Seeing her fall is well worth giving up our fighting privileges for a while."  
  
Usagi wasn't able to get a grip on herself to try and pull herself away from the two incoming blasts. At that moment, things seemed to slow down to a near halt. She could think more clearly now. She heard nothing around her except for the rumble that was produced by the two blasts that were nearly merged as one. They were heading right for her chest, which would surely kill her. 'Mommy...daddy...'  
  
Her thoughts grew blank as she began to glow a magnificent silver. Her face was no longer that of a frightened child filled with thoughts of her own death. It was a face composed only of tranquility and understanding. 'How did you become so merciless in this world...my love...?' Her body's silver aura grew softer and more generous as it slowly began to move her upwards away from immediate danger of the blast, though still leaving her in its deadly path. 'Until next time...'   
  
Usagi's soft, loving glow, which had left everyone awed, seeming to still time itself, disappeared, leaving Usagi completely clueless as to how she could have gotten so high up into the air. But her wonder was soon taken over by severe pain as the double blast ripped right through her forearm, tearing it completely off. "OOOOOWWAAAAHHHH!!"  
  
Usagi's halted time had ended as she fell to the ground and grabbed her wounded arm, which she couldn't exactly feel anymore, but the pain was there just the same because of the nerve endings. "OWWWE!" Usagi screamed at the top of her lungs, making a large echo throughout the forest.  
  
Usagi's friends, as well as a pale-faced Michiru, ran to Usagi in fear. The kneeled down next to her as she rolled back in forth in complete pain clutching her stub. It was a pain worse than getting her tail grabbed or smashed into the ground by an unforgiving person.  
  
"Usagi try to calm down! We have to stop the bleeding!" Ami tried to reach out to Usagi and grab her 'half' arm and apply pressure to control the bleeding, but only got a kick in the face by Usagi, who didn't know what she was doing and defended herself from any who came near. "USAGI!"  
  
Mamoru himself was even sickened by what he had done. 'My god. I didn't know it was that powerful.' "Hey!"   
  
Hotaru growled as she jumped to her feet and held her staff, blade first, to Mamoru's face. "Take one step closer and you're dead meat." She let her eyes tell how very serious she was. "Back off!" She cringed when she heard the screams of Usagi again.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Deeper into the Forest~~  
  
Chi-Chi would recognize the voice of her daughter anywhere. "Goku..."  
  
Goku nodded. "Let's go." He looked around to his sons, Piccolo, and Yamcha. "This sounds bad. I felt the power of Mamoru and Haruka go up pretty high."  
  
Goku cursed himself as he realized that the amount of energy they had expended to train this hard used too much for them to gather enough to teleport. They barely had enough to fly at a snails pace.'This is the last time we all drain ourselves to this extent. What if an enemy attacked? Now we're delayed getting to Usagi.'  
  
Goten's face whitened at the thought of something horrible happening to his sister without any protection. "And the transfer of their energy meaning they had to teleport for something."  
  
Piccolo growled as he set off to meet his son. "He's really messed up big time. Whatever it is, he's screwed up his training for a while."  
  
Yamcha nodded. "All of them have."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru looked back at Usagi, who was still rolling around, blood running out of her arm. "Usagi you'll die if you don't let us help! Listen to Ami! Please!" Tears began to weld up in her eyes at the thought of losing her best friend. 'Wait a minute...' "Usagi work with me!" She dropped her staff just short of hitting Mamoru with it and ran back to Usagi's side.   
  
Rei turned up to Hotaru with tears as Usagi began to calm down, not of choice, but because of blood loss. "She doesn't have much time. Someone needs to go get Goku."  
  
"I'll go." With that, Minako raised her power level and teleported away to meet up with Goku and the others.  
  
Hotaru knelt down by Usagi and grabbed her good arm away from her hurt one. "Usagi, I know you're in a lot of pain right now but mommy once told me that you can heal a wound like this if you put all your energy into it. You can rebuild wounds."  
  
Usagi's face was full of sweat as she began to pant for air, which she wasn't getting enough of. "I can't. It hurts too much. I'm gonna die...aren't I?"  
  
Makoto lifted Usagi's head to sit in her knees. "You're not going to die. Minako is getting your parents right now. They'll know what to do."  
  
Hotaru began to raise her energy for the use of healing Usagi's arm. "Usagi. Come on. There won't be anything for them to do except take you to the hospital. Then you won't ever have another arm. We can heal it now. Please...let me try."  
  
Usagi nodded as she tried to lift her head, but she didn't have enough energy. "Ok...I'll try to help you."  
  
Hotaru smiled as she began to go to work on Usagi's arm. She lifted her power level to its highest so she would have enough power to work with. "I don't know if this will be enough."  
  
"Why don't we give you some of our energy?"  
  
Hotaru looked up to Rei with an even greater smile. "That should work." She looked down to the tired Usagi. "Hang in there. My mommy told me how to do this before. It should work." She felt the hands of Rei and Ami on both of her shoulders as they began to distribute their energy to her.  
  
For the first time in his life, Mamoru felt sorry for what he had done. He had never expected the attack to be so powerful. "Oh my god. I'm going to get it from dad for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if he never trained me again."  
  
Makoto looked up to Mamoru with a scowl as she wiped Usagi's face clean. "I WOUDN'T BLAME HIM IF HE DIDN'T!" Her attention was taken by another hand being placed upon Hotaru's back. "Oh my..." She looked up to see the serious face of Michiru looking right back at her. She could only reply with a smile of gratitude. 'She really is growing up.'  
  
Hotaru concentrated all of the excess energy she was receiving into Usagi's body. She was trying to stimulate the cells to grow and duplicate to create a new arm for Usagi, using her cell's DNA codes as a blueprint. "This isn't working. I have enough energy, but not enough healing energy."  
  
Usagi winced as another gush of pain ran through her body. "I'll try to help." Usagi raised her power level up as high as she could, which was only an eighth of her max, but it was still something to work with.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Minako arrived just in front of Goku, who was leading the rest of the adults back to the kids. She wasted absolutely no time dashing to Goku. "Goku, Goku! Something happened! You gotta come quick!" She grabbed a hold of his hand and began pulling him forward.  
  
"Wait! Minako! What happened? Wh..."  
  
Minako stopped and turned around. "Well... wewerehavinghotarutrianwiththeotherswhilewetriedtofigureoutwhattodowiththemandtheytriedtokillherbutitwasreallyjustatricktohurtusagi. Ok LET'S GO!" Translation...We were having Hotaru train with the others while we tried to figure out what to do with them and they tried to kill her, but it was really just a trick to hurt Usagi.   
  
"Wait. Slow down. Now please calmly explain what's going on out there."  
  
Minako sighed. 'This is going to take forever... Grabbing him, she starts shaking. "There's no time, hurry."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The area where Usagi's forearm should have been began to glow white with energy. At first, the energy was just in the form of nothing; it was just a chunk of energy place where ever. After a few seconds of tense concentration, the white energy began to extend from the stub and take its form as Usagi's arm. Inside the energy, tiny veins and muscles could be seen. The bone was forming nicely as well.   
  
The kids were in awe over such a thing. Hotaru smiled. "Mommy says this is just like speeding up the process of growing."  
  
Usagi looked down to her arm, which was nearly finished being recreated. "Hotaru..." She looked up to the child, who was ready to pass out from exhaustion. "You...did this for me?" Usagi pulled her newly formed arm away from Hotaru, who had just finished and collapsed into Michiru's arms. "It worked." She started moving all of her fingers and her elbow to make sure that it was a working arm as hand. Her wrist even moved with ease. "You did it!"  
  
(Ok, now that's it until FF.Net is officially up. Seems like some of you are still able to get in so I thought I'd give posting a try, but believe me, IT WAS HARD. ^_^ Anyway, I will be back to my normal daily posting habits as soon as FF.Net is up. Enjoy this one last part until then...BTW...what did you think? Gotta go. Ja )  
  
  
  
10  
  
  



	94. Part 24

In the middle of a clear field stood the two groups. Two groups who had been destined to be rivals from the first day that they met. Not one single person from either group had expected the blast directed towards Usagi to have such a force behind it. Not even the two who had participated in the creation of the double blast. They never knew that it would have the power to rip an arm off.   
  
Mamoru, who was still trying to rethink his actions, grew pale as Usagi stood to her feet with righteous anger in her eyes. He knew he was going to get it from more than just his father. He would now have to deal with Usagi as well as her entire family, a line he never planned to cross over. "Odang...Usagi, I never intended it..."  
  
Usagi stomped over to Mamoru and let herself hover up to his height. "Don't try to play stupid with me! I know that was a trick just to get me in your path! You knew very well what kind of power you were putting into that thing! THAT COULD HAVE KILLED ME!"   
  
Mamoru frowned as he pushed Usagi away. "Don't accuse me of ACTUALLY trying to RIP your limbs off let alone trying to kill you!"  
  
Ami, Makoto, and Rei jumped to Usagi and grabbed a hold of her waist. They could feel her anger rising more and more as she continued to stare at the Rat Pack. They didn't exactly blame her for being angry. After all, they did just attempt to kill her without a second thought.   
  
Usagi glared down at her friends. "Let go!"   
  
Haruka chuckled as she joined Michiru, who had made her way to Mamoru. "You should thank your friends for holding you back there, Monkey. You're powerless against us now. You used most of your power trying to heal yourself. If you tried to beat us now you would lose."   
  
Hotaru looked down to the ground as she walked to Rei's side. "It's all my fault."   
  
"What?" Curious as to what would make Hotaru say such a thing, Rei looked down to her. "What do you mean? This couldn't have been your fault."  
  
Hotaru sighed as she let her knees drop from underneath, leaving her on the ground. "Yes it is. They wanted me to help them beat her up and I refused. That's why they wanted to take me home on Tuesday. They lied about you guys. They said it wasn't over when they left and I guess it was true." With eyes full of tears, Hotaru looked up into the eyes of Haruka, which were only filled of hate. "This was their payback I think. In the end, they still used me to beat up Usagi."  
  
Rei could only respond with a quiet gasp as she looked back up to Usagi, who was still struggling to break free. "Usagi...did you hear that?"  
  
"Yes!" Usagi said with clenched teeth. She slowly let her power level drop and lowered herself to the ground. "You will stop at nothing, will you? Imagine! Getting someone else to try and beat me up!" She grinned when her friends let go of her, thinking things were in the calm, boy were they ever wrong. "YOU'RE JUST NO GOOD!" An anger that could only be caused by the need of Justice erupted from her in the form of a Golden aura with a hint of Silver mixed in. Before her friends could react, she began stalking over to Mamoru with no compassion in her eyes that had always been shown from them.  
  
Ami gulped as she hesitantly forced herself to not go after Usagi. "Don't do anything rash." 'Don't do anything your father wouldn't do.'  
  
Usagi stopped stalking forward exactly three feet in front of Mamoru and Haruka. Mamoru gulped and tried to make light of things as he stared down into the merciless eyes of the child before him. "Neat trick with the arm, Usagi. Are you going to teach us that as well?"  
  
No smile cracked at the joke as Usagi glared at the lot of them. Only one thing was going through her mind at that point. Something that had been brought to mind many times in the past few weeks. "You have all hated me and my friends since we met. For some reason, because I have a tail, you think that's a reason to hate me." She scowled over Haruka especially. "All I did was ask for directions and you had to treat me like I was an animal, like I had no feelings to be hurt. If you're so upset that I can beat you in a fight then blame yourselves. The only reason why I wanted to learn to fight was because of people like you. I wanted to know how to defend myself from bullies. And now that I can you hate me even more. Well what do you want from me? I try to be nice...I take a lot of abuse from you...Physically and Mentally. And yet you always seem to throw it back in my face without any feeling or thought that you might be hurting me. I put up with a lot from you guys. But to try to KILL me or even Hotaru...ANY of my friends for that matter is just TOO FAR. You think SO much of yourselves, yet you care nothing of anyone around you. Well this time you went too far. Power up to your fullest. Me against ALL of you. I'm going to teach you what it's like to be on the receiving end of being a bully."  
  
"WHAT?!" Makoto dashed to Usagi and pulled her away from the Rat Pack. "What are you talking about?! Your dad would kill you if he knew of what you were about to do!"   
  
Usagi lighted up her frown as she looked over her shoulder to her friend. "I know. But I figured things out. I'm not doing this to be mean. It may actually teach them something. I've always had the power to hurt them IF I chose too. But I didn't. It's time they learned just because you have power, doesn't mean you have to use it."  
  
Makoto groaned. "But your parents will..."  
  
"I know, I know. They're going to go crazy, but that's just something I'm going to have to risk, ok?" Usagi pulled away from Makoto and turned around to look at her. She noticed the other three coming up from behind. "Are you guys all right with this? I won't do it if you don't want me to."  
  
Ami sighed as she looked back at the Rat Pack, who looked at her group as if they were all nuts. "I think Usagi has a point. There is a chance that they will learn something from this whole ordeal and besides, they do deserve some kind of punishment after what they pulled."  
  
Usagi nodded with a smile. She chose not to reply with words. Instead, she just turned around and jumped back to the Rat Pack. "Let's get this over with. Me against all of you, now." Mamoru was about to protest when Usagi went Super Saiyan and flicked him with her finger, sending him flying head first into a nearby tree. "Come on, all of you."  
  
Mamoru quickly regained his footing and powered up. Glaring at his friends he shouts, "GET HER!" 'She WILL NOT win this. She may have power, but she sure as hell does NOT know how to USE that power.' "We'll see who teaches who a lesson here!"  
  
"I'm not in a good mood so don't think I'm going easy on you. Almost getting killed and then getting your arm blown off really puts a damper on a person's mood!" Usagi barely gave the four Americans a chance to move before she gave a series of teleport kicks and punches that they could barely see on each one of them.   
  
Hotaru's jaw dropped wide open as she watched Usagi move on to Haruka. "Wow. I never knew you guys could fight so good. It's gonna take a while for me to learn to fight like that."  
  
Ami placed her hand on the younger child's shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry. I'm still trying to get to that level myself."  
  
Usagi built up a fairly small for her Ki blast and sent it Haruka's way. "It doesn't feel good to be bullied by someone stronger than you, DOES IT!?" She jumped to Haruka, who had been knocked over on the ground with her Ki blast despite her counter attack. "Remember the time you kept kicking me OVER AND OVER AGAIN!? After I was already beaten by Mamoru!?" She smirked down at the nearly immobile bully. She lifted her foot, which was coated with a metal boot. She brought it into a stumping position. She took one look at Haruka's frightened face and frowned. "What's the matter? You can dish out abuse but you can't take it in?" Haruka said nothing. Smirking, she slams her foot downward. Shaking, Haruka looks at the depression in the ground next to her head.  
  
"Because I'm not like you, you're REALLY lucky." Usagi then turned to glare at Mamoru.  
  
Haruka sighed with great relief as she watched Usagi leave towards Mamoru. 'Stupid brat.' She wasn't even the least bit thankful that Usagi had chosen not to kick her while she was down.   
  
"And you!" Usagi let her voice ring throughout the forest. "You're good you know that? You had me believing for a while that things were starting to get better between us. That whole time we were in the Past nothing came up and now THIS. The tournament and trying to kill me. Mamoru, you are FIFTEEN! You should act like it! You should respect others!"  
  
Mamoru snickered. "Haven't you ever heard of a little thing called an adolescent? I am acting like it."  
  
Usagi growled as she took a step closer to him. "That may be true, but I don't see every other teenager running around threatening and trying to kill little kids. You have been ganging up on me ever since I was Six years old. That's what now...FOUR years?"  
  
"Don't try to run the guilt crap over my head."  
  
Usagi teleported to be just in front of Mamoru and narrowed her eyes. "You SHOULD be feeling guilty." She reached out and grabbed the front of his GI, pulling his face down to her level. "Let's see how grown up you are now Mamoru. I'm offering a once in a lifetime free hit. I let you hit me, get back at ALL I've done to you. But then you have to start growing up. Start to respect other's feelings and be a good person. It will close the door on all of this! One LAST hit."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Is this a trick? This is going to give you a reason to hit me again since you've already hit you once and I've only hit you once."  
  
Hotaru gulped as she backed into Makoto. "IS this a trick?"   
  
Makoto grinned as she kneeled down. "Nope. It's a test. If Mamoru doesn't hit her, than there's hope for him yet. If he does, than he's heartless. But by hitting her, he also agrees to not bully her anymore if you're really listening to her words right."  
  
"This is NOT a trick. What I did earlier was a tap, and I think that no one would believe that tap was equal to what you did. Besides my dad has made it very clear to me NOT to challenge someone just so I can make a hit and I plan to live by it."  
  
Mamoru smirked as he pulled his fist back. "Do you do everything that your father tells you to do?"  
  
Usagi pulled her face away from Mamoru's so he could get a good clean hit on her if he wanted to. She was determined to prove her point. "When it comes to what's right and wrong I listen to him as good as I can. And when I disagreed it was not because I was trying to just be a bully, but because I felt it the right thing to do."  
  
Mamoru powered up his fist, creating a Golden aura around it. "Then his words will be your downfall..." He began to send his fist flying towards Usagi, but found it being held back by a greater force.  
  
"No they won't!"   
  
Mamoru's eyes widened to their fullest as he dropped his power level. "Oh crap..." Mamoru gulped as he turned his head only to his right to be face to face with an angry Saiyan father by the name of Goku.  
  
"Piccolo!" Goku lifted Mamoru into the air, away from his daughter's grasp and threw him to Piccolo. He took his eyes off the boy and laid them upon his daughter. "And what do you have to say for yourself? We watched you take out the rest of the gang. When Minako came to us saying there was trouble, we thought that it was you girls who were in trouble but I guess things are ok and then some here," He glared harder into her eyes, "Aren't they?"  
  
Usagi gulped. She didn't dare move away from him as she was afraid that it would only cause more anger and with anger came trouble. "Daddy this isn't what it looks like..."  
  
Goku looked around the area. The only thing he saw was the hurt bodies of the older children. Intervals between his breaths became longer and louder as he became angrier at the thought that his own child could have done something so horrible. He turned back to his daughter, who had not moved an inch. "Well then please explain to your father what this is supposed to be because to me, this looks like you just going against everything I've ever taught you."  
  
Usagi gulped as she began to try to think of a way to explain her reasoning for all of this. 'Nothing better than the truth I guess.'  
  
"We were having Hotaru train with these guys while we tried to think of ways to train them." She stopped when she saw the adults going to each of the downed kids, which had been brought down by her hands. 'He's gonna kill me.' "Haruka and Mamoru started to build up this really powerful attack."  
  
Goku nodded in interest. "Yeah. We felt that."  
  
Usagi squirmed in her father's glare. She hated it when he was angry with her. "We teleported there and then Justin pushed me in front of Hotaru. All I remember is seeing the double blast coming right for my chest and then..."  
  
Justin pulled away from Yamcha's grasp glared at Usagi. "That's an out right LIE. I did NOTHING OF THE SORT!"   
  
Goku raised his hand to Justin, silencing him. "Go on, Usagi."  
  
"I don't know how, but I found myself out of harms way, well, except my arm, WHICH WAS BLOWN OFF BY THE BLAST!" She glared over at Mamoru and Haruka.  
  
Piccolo growled as he jumped to Usagi and pushed Goku away. "And which arm would that be?" He let his eyes point out the fact that both arms were still intact.   
  
Usagi could tell this was going to be hard to prove. "My right arm, but..." Piccolo frowned as he grabbed her right arm and pulled on it as hard as he could. "Owe!"   
  
Piccolo sneered down at her as he moved her elbow and wrist to make sure they were still moveable. "Lying is a bit much, kid. Next time, don't lie about something so unbelievable."  
  
Chi-Chi walked to her daughter and glared down at her, almost as much as Goku was. "Usagi...we've been through this time and time again. Weren't you the one who was mad that we made you carry out a lie at the tournament?"   
  
Usagi groaned at her mother's tone of voice. "Guys...back me up here."  
  
Loud laughter was heard in the direction of Mamoru, who was revealed when his father stepped to the side. "The kid is delusional. How could we have ripped off her arm? I mean, its hanging right there ON HER BODY I might add." 'And hopefully was disintegrated by the blast.'  
  
Usagi looked back to her friends for help. Ami was the first to acknowledge the cry for help. If anyone could pull off getting them to believe it would be her for the fact that she had always been known as the most trustworthy of the group. "It's very true. It was ripped off."  
  
Minako ran to Usagi's side and grabbed her arm out of Piccolo's grasp. "HOW DID YOU GET IT BACK?!"  
  
"ENOUGH ALREADY!" Piccolo grabbed Minako by the shoulder and threw her to the side. "You're a conniving little brat. Quit trying to start a new fire."  
  
Usagi felt her fury mount. 'Again they think the worse. They still have no faith in me when push comes to shove.' She raised herself to Piccolo's face level and for the first time, became brave in the situation. She knew that she wasn't telling a lie and she wouldn't stand for being called a liar. "Lying? I'll give you lying!" With that, she flew off in the direction opposite of Piccolo and her family.   
  
"USAGI GET BACK HERE!" Chi-Chi rose into the air. "If she thinks she's getting away with this then she's got another thing coming."  
  
"Mrs. Son...she's not lying." Hotaru innocently looked up to the airborne Chi-Chi in hopes to calm her.   
  
Before Chi-Chi had a chance to reply, though she had thought of one, Usagi came flying back with something in her hands. "I'm NOT lying!" She threw her dismembered limb out on the ground for everyone to see. "I found it! Now tell me if I'm lying now! If it wasn't for my friends helping Hotaru with her healing skills, I wouldn't have a right arm anymore. They'd be calling me LEFTY." Usagi turned to look at Michiru, the only one who she had not hurt. She gave her a small smile in thanks. She had helped a great deal in helping with power. 'Once again I owe her my thanks. She's becoming a good friend.'  
  
Chi-Chi took one look at the limb full of blood and fainted. If it had not been for Goku standing by, she would have been out on the ground counting the stars. "Usagi..."  
  
Usagi smiled as she approached her father. "I was trying to teach these guys about what it's like to be bullied, but I guess I did it the wrong way. I shouldn't have tried to beat them up"  
  
Goku grinned. "If you hadn't have done it, I know me and your brothers would have. I'm just glad that you're ok...kind of."  
  
Usagi giggled. "I'm fine. But what are we going to do about THEM."  
  
Goten and Gohan both had a few ideas on that subject when Piccolo answered with actions instead of words.  
  
Piccolo glared at his son. "YOU will NOT fight for a year, GOT THAT?!" He looked up to Haruka and Michiru. "That goes for the both of you as well."  
  
"Actually, Piccolo..." Minako tapped Piccolo timidly on the back. "Michiru didn't do anything in this case. It would be wrong to punish her for something she didn't do."  
  
Rei winked at the surprised Michiru. "Yeah, she even helped give power to Hotaru when she realized she didn't have enough."  
  
Piccolo lighted up his glare and nods his approval to Michiru as she blushed. "Well then I guess it's just you two. No training for ONE year...GOT IT?"  
  
Mamoru and Haruka shamefully dropped their heads. "Yes sir."  
  
Yamcha glared back at his group. "That goes for the four of you as well. No powering up, no flying, no fighting or so much as looking like you're going to do it."   
  
Piccolo turned back to Usagi with a softer look of understanding. "We'll see you around. We're sorry about what happen. Thanks for trying anyway." With that, he grabbed his son and flew up into the air. "Michiru, fly your friend home."  
  
Haruka scowled at Michiru as she felt the girls arms wrap around her waste, though she found herself enjoying it...somewhat. "You've changed Michiru. You're more girlish...But I kind of like that." Michiru only giggled as she took off into the air.   
  
Yamcha looked at his students and realized that he couldn't fly all of them home. "You guys can fly home, and that's IT. Other than that, you're grounded." He turned up to Goku, who he had known since he was fourteen. After all they had been through in their lives, from fighting each other to fighting along side each other this had to be the worst fight he had ever witnessed. "I'll see you around. Sorry about all this." He shot a piercing glare to his students. "This WON'T happen again."  
  
Goku nodded with a subtle smile. "I know. The kids have learned to at least not mess with my daughter." He looked down to his fainted wife. "Better get Chi-Chi home before she wakes up."  
  
Usagi looked around to her scattered friends feeling defeated by something that shouldn't have been able to make her feel such a way. It should have been simpler than this, but in her heart she knew that the kids had started their road to recovery. She could tell that this one event had immensely helped them. They would never forget anything that she had told them nor would she forget the scared look she had placed on Mamoru's face when her arm had been blown off. But she knew that was only the beginning. They may have seen what their powers can do if left to anger, but they had to face their anger and overcome it for any true progress could be made.  
  
"Daddy, is it ok if my friends come over for a while?"  
  
"Huh?" Goku looked around to the tired faces of the girls. All of them were completely worn out, except Minako. They were all tired from giving nearly all of their energy to Hotaru. "Well, ok. Just for a while. You know how your mom feels about having them come over without her consent. She's going to think that they want dinner."  
  
Usagi nodded. "I know. We just need to think."  
  
Goku chuckled. 'There she goes again. She's going to try to make things right...as usual...'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Once at home, Usagi went right into action as she led her friends into the kitchen while her father took   
Chi-Chi off to lay her down. "I kind of feel bad about getting them into the trouble." Usagi stated as she sat down at the table.   
  
Rei quietly sat down across from Usagi and sighed. "Don't. They deserved it."  
  
Angry at what had just taken place, Makoto slammed her fist against the table. "Who cares anyway? They've caused us nothing but trouble ever since we first met them. It's their loss."  
  
Minako sighed at the same time as Usagi. She too was more than put out with the Rat Pack's attitude towards others. "Why can't we just finally be friends? We really have nothing to fight about anymore."  
  
"I agree. I'm willing to forgive them for everything they've ever done to us if all of you are willing to." Rei looked around to her friends, who softy nodded...except for Usagi, who seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. "Come on Usagi...cheer up."  
  
"They didn't want to learn from us anyway." This whole ordeal was wearing on Usagi more than anyone else. She had been the main victim of their "attacks" ever since they met and now things were escalating into situations that she had never dreamed of. "We failed Piccolo and Yamcha. Maybe we didn't try hard enough, or maybe we tried too hard. What if we were too soft of them..."  
  
"What if the fault lies within them and not you?"  
  
"What?" Usagi perked up when she heard the voice of her father from behind. "What are you talking about? It's not their fault. That's what they were taught, right?" Usagi watched her father sit down in the chair next to her.  
  
"Not totally, Usagi. Yes, it's what he was taught at first, but Piccolo has been trying to get him out of his nasty habits. He just doesn't want to cooperate. Sometimes, when kids go bad, it's hard to ever bring them back to the privileged point of view. So like I said, the fault lies within them. There was really nothing you could have done. No matter how much love you show kids like them they will never understand nor will they change."  
  
"Goku..." Ami interrupted. She had a few ideas of her own. "Maybe it's not love they need to be shown."  
  
Goku grinned at the child to his right. "You're absolutely right, Ami. What we need to do is show them how lucky they are to have all that they have. We need to show them that other people's feelings count just as much as theirs do."  
  
Hotaru sighed as she rested her head against the table. "This is hopeless."  
  
Makoto grinned. "Maybe not."  
  
"What are you talking about, Makoto? This IS hopeless. They won't ever change. They've never even..."   
  
A quick reply from Rei cut Usagi off. "It's not hopeless. What about that camp that Mr. Satan holds every summer for those kids who have...Muscular..."  
  
"Dystrophy?"   
  
Rei nodded. "Thanks Goku. That's the word I was looking for."  
  
Goku smiled with pride as he looked down to the child in red. "That's a great idea, Rei. Now those kids there ARE the real heroes of the world. They have to fight everyday."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. For some reason, she knew that he had been thinking of that scenario the entire time. He just wanted them to think of if instead of him telling them. "You really think it would change them though daddy? Mamoru didn't seem to care that I was way weaker than him when he first fought me."  
  
Ami didn't even give Goku a chance for a reply before she interjected. "I think it's a wonderful idea. I mean, they could really learn a thing or two about people's feelings there. And Usagi, don't worry about them trying to hurt the other kids there, I don't think we'll have a problem with that."  
  
Seeing his daughter sigh in confusion, Goku felt torn. He could sense the emotions of the girls and just knew that they still wanted to try and reform the gang to the best of their abilities. He was somewhat happy that there was still hope for the group, but just the thought of what had caused that day's uproar made it tough for him to not want his youngest to have nothing to do with the Rat Pack. "What ever you girls chose to do is fine with the rest of us. We want you girls to be happy and if that means trying to resolve your conflict, that's great."  
  
Usagi looked around the rooms at her friends, seeing nothing but defeat in their eyes. She was even ready to call defeat with this, but hat would mean giving in, quitting, losing without a fight, something that just wasn't in her nature. She knew that in the long run, everyone would be hurt if I truce wasn't called soon. And the only way to call a truce was if and when the Rat Pack decided to come down off their high horses.   
  
Usagi also hated having to figure things out on her own. She hated the fact that her father would present her with solutions, but would never say one way or the other which one was actually better, or which one he would choose. "I don't know if..."  
  
Makoto already had in mind what she wanted to do. She wanted to can the whole idea of trying to teach them respect. "They don't care about anyone but themselves. They think they're better than everyone and if you're the least bit weak, you're not worth their attention. It would be a bad idea to let them meet up with these kids."  
  
Usagi frowned as she looked over to Makoto. She seemed to have no patience for them, and who could blame her. She herself was even surprised that she still wanted to help the group of troubled teens. She didn't want to give up. She hadn't ever given up on anything in her life and she wasn't about to start, even if her friends didn't want to help her, she was determined to continue trying to get through to the teens. "You're right." 'But they need to learn.'  
  
Minako sighed as she sat back in her chair. 'This is going to be a long night.' "Come on Usagi, the answer is simple and clear. We need to learn to be friends. This idea of letting them meet this other kids is a great idea. They will learn not only that they aren't the center of the earth, but hopefully, in working with these kids, they will also become more compassionate. I think we should do it."  
  
Makoto glared at her friend, who pretty much knew the inner workings of the heart better than the rest of the gang. "But they are ruthless. You know that. They have done horrible things to us, to Usagi over the years. Just because they are younger than them won't mean anything. They will still be ruthless bullies. That's all they'll ever be."  
  
Tears began to weld up in Usagi's eyes as she listened to two of her best friends bicker back and fourth, not going unnoticed by her father. Both of them had very different, but very valid points to make. The duo sounded exactly like the internal argument that was taking place in her head. "Stop it. Don't you realize what you're doing? You're arguing over peoples' future."  
  
Goku gasped at what had just come out of his daughter's mouth. He hadn't expected her to understand that that's exactly what was going on. "That's right girls. You need to think this through all the way. You need to decide if you want to bring this to Piccolo and Yamcha's attention or not."  
  
Hotaru put her hand on Goku's arm and looked up at him as he gazed down at her. "Why do WE have to figure it out? You're the adult. Shouldn't you make the decision?"  
  
Goku calmly shook his head with a soft smile. "You're the ones who are supposed to figure out how to make them respect others..." He paused when he saw the distressed faces of all six children around him. "But if you want my advice, go with your gut instinct, your heart. It never betrays you. Don't listen to what anyone else has to say. If you feel it's the right thing to do, then do it. If you feel that it will only cause trouble..." He turned to Makoto. "Then don't do it. It's entirely up to you."  
  
Usagi sighed as she looked up to her father. "That's not very good advice, daddy."  
  
Goku grinned. "It's good advice, just maybe a bit more than you can handle."   
  
'Well gee, I could have figured that out on my own.' "Would you have them go?"   
  
Goku pondered over his daughter's question for a mere second. "Truthfully, I have no idea. Makoto and Minako prove very good points. On one hand, it may prove to be a very good experience for all of them to learn from, but then as Makoto said, they are rather ruthless when it comes to people who are weaker than them."  
  
"Who do we get in contact with if we decide to do this?"  
  
Goku looked up to Ami with a grin. 'I knew SHE would be up for it. I just hope the rest of them can get Makoto to go along with it.' "Mr. Satan."  
  
Usagi nearly choked on her own saliva after hearing that one. "What? Mr. Satan?"  
  
"Yes. It's his charity that has been putting this thing on for years. He likes to help out people who couldn't normally get help, you know that. Don't act so surprised."  
  
Usagi grinned as she looked down to Lucky, who had just realized where the mass was. 'I totally forgot about Mr. Satan. Maybe he CAN help us. But...' She paused to shudder. 'It's Mr. Satan.' "Maybe we should think about it." She looked up to her less than stunned friends. They had all known that she would agree to it one way or the other. "We can't just give up on them, but like dad and Makoto said, we have to think about the safety of the other people there."  
  
Goku smiled with pride. "That's my girl. Thinking off all possible options. Why don't you all sleep on it and then decide in the morning."  
  
Rei reached out and grabbed the excited puppy from the floor. "Why so soon?"  
  
"Because it starts on Monday, first weekday after school ends. It's a two week deal. Of course, if you do decide to do this, Piccolo and Yamcha will most likely suggest that you stay there with them to make sure they don't do anything wrong."  
  
Hotaru tapped Goku's arm. "How do you know?"  
  
Goku smirked. "Cause I know that's what I was going to suggest."  
  
"Why can't Piccolo and Yamcha do it? I don't think that we're training them anymore."  
  
Goku turned to his daughter with a half serious, half playful smirk. "You want to have some real fun before your test results come in don't you?"  
  
Usagi gulped. "Yes."  
  
Rei playfully grinned at Usagi. "Well way to go, Usagi. Your test results won't be back for about three weeks so your mom shouldn't freak out about you being allowed to leave."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes with annoyance. "Thanks for caring, Rei. Instead, it will be here just in time for my birthday."  



	95. Part 25

The next day, Usagi found herself walking the streets of the city with her friends following close behind. They were all discussing the Pros and Cons of having the Rat Pack go to the Mr. Satan's camp to interact with the children who would be attending for the two weeks. Though it looked like she was off in a world of thoughts of her own, she was actually very intently listening to everything that her friends were coming up with. Though she saw Makoto's points that Mamoru and his friends would be a bad influence around the younger group, she also knew that the Rat Pack, as they were lately referred to, had the power inside them to change. She knew that no one else, well maybe Minako, saw the potential, but it was definitely there. To her, everyone had the potential to be compassionate; it was just a matter of being allowed to bring it out. The Rat Pack had just never been given a REAL chance to change. That was something she was determined to give them, which was why she had come to the decision that she had.  
  
She wanted to know exactly what her friends thought, even though she was going to do it regardless of what they wanted to do or not. It wasn't fair for the Rat Pack to keep them from this opportunity. She was positive that if she was in with the Rat Pack that her father would do the same for her.   
  
"So what do you guys think?" Usagi stopped walking forward, she didn't turn around...she just stopped.   
  
Makoto frowned as she looked up to Usagi. She wasn't mad at her friend, just upset that she had to choose from two limited choices, but she knew what the right choice was. "I guess we're going to have to do it, aren't we?" She asked with teeth clenched.  
  
Usagi's blank face turned to a frown as she turned back to Makoto. "I'm not asking you what we're going to end up doing, I'm asking you what you think."  
  
Shocked at her friend's obviously troubled reaction, Ami decided to intervene before the two girls got into an argument over the tone of voice used. "You want to know if the odds are against us, right?" Usagi stayed silent as she slowly nodded. "I think we should go ahead and do it. While there are many reasons to believe that things will fail and the pack will turn against the campers, we will be there to help in those cases." All the other girls, except for Makoto, nodded to add their agreement.   
  
Makoto sighed as she began to feel left out from the group with her feelings on the situation. "It's not that I don't want to help them. I just fear for what the Pack will do. You know their anger and how they react to when they're forced to do things they don't want, and you know very well what will happen when Piccolo tells them."  
  
Seeing that Makoto was obviously having conflicting feelings about the whole thing, Hotaru walked to her and wrapped her arm around her waist. "Don't worry, Makoto. Like Ami said, we'll be there. I'm sure they won't try anything."  
  
Makoto looked down to the smiling child and couldn't help but crack a smile herself. "I know, I know. But I'm still allowed to have my doubts." She looked up to Usagi and around to her friends. "I guess I'm in."  
  
Usagi, who had already turned around and began walking away for she knew what Makoto's answer would be. That whole morning she had been unconsciously leading them to Satan City. "Great." 'They all agree...why do I still doubt this?'  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Are we sure we want to ask HIM for help?" Makoto asked as she stopped with her friends just in front of the door of a very large mansion in the middle of Satan city.  
  
Rei approached the door with caution, hoping that a security guard or dog wouldn't just lash out at her for trespassing. "Well, it is his camp you know. Not only do we need his permission, but also he could be a big help. He knows more about the attendants than we do. He can run the other gang over some rules on how to act, what to say, how to treat others there."  
  
Minako sighed as she sat down on the front step with Hotaru. "But after all that happened at the tournament, do you think he'll WANT to help us?"  
  
Usagi grinned as she rushed past her friends and rang the doorbell. "There's only one way to find out."  
  
"Hey we need to think this through Usagi before we go jumping into things. We have to figure out what we're going to say." Ami tried to grab Usagi's hand away form the doorbell before she had a chance to push it in all the way before it could have a chance to actually be heard throughout the house, but by the time she had reached out, it was too late.   
  
Usagi giggled as she backed away from the door so she wouldn't be in the way when it was opened, hopefully by Mr. Satan. "Relax, Ami. All we have to know is what we want out of him first. We can make up a speech as we go. Trust me."  
  
Minako pulled Hotaru up as she, herself, stood to her feet. "I'm with Usagi. Even if we did have something planned you know me, I'd probably end up saying half of it wrong anyways."  
  
Makoto was about to add to Minako's statement, but didn't get anything out of her mouth before she heard the squeaking sound of the front door being slowly opened. 'He must still get people coming by to harass him about his lies.' "Come out, Mr. Satan, it's just us. We mean you no harm." She stopped to snicker. "Unless you feel like fooling the entire world again. Then we'll sick Usagi on you again."  
  
Mr. Satan growled with anger, as well as embarrassment. "What do you want?" He asked in a firm, harsh voice.  
  
The girls turned serious once again as they remembered what they had come there for. They needed his help, as they were to ask, none of them knew. They wanted to do it in the most planned and strategic way, though Usagi hadn't left much room for that with just ringing the doorbell. At that moment, both Rei and Ami were trying to find the most polite way to ask him, a way that wouldn't make him angry.  
  
But again, Usagi didn't allow for that. She had a habit of just blurting things out the way there were without trying to think of a way to say it that might even make more sense than the way she said it. "We need your help."   
  
Rei rolled her eyes with annoyance as she sighed. "Usagi!"  
  
The towering figure before them looked at them in shock and did the only thing that he could have possibly thought of doing after hearing something like that. He fainted. Both sighing, Usagi and Ami bent down and effortlessly picked up the sleeping giant.   
  
Hotaru giggled as she looked down at his face. "I like him. He's funny."  
  
Usagi matched Hotaru's giggled as she and Ami began to carry Satan into the massive mansion, which he liked to call his home. "Yeah. He's all right, I guess. When he's not lying."  
  
Makoto walked on the side of the man to make sure he wouldn't fall off, and if he showed any signs of falling, she would be right there to stop him. "He's just a big loveable oaf."  
  
Ami, who balanced the man on her shoulder, turned things more serious. "I just hope he'll agree to let us have the pack work at the camp."  
  
Usagi's face started to turn pale as she was struck with realization. "You're right. I really hope that he doesn't see things the way Makoto sees them. No offense to you or anything, Makoto."  
  
"None taken. I'll just find a way to repay the favor, that's all."  
  
Usagi smiled just as she and her friends entered the living room of Mr. Satan's mansion, where his daughter, Videl sat with a packet of papers in her lap with a cup of coffee to go along with them. "Thanks Makoto." Usagi stopped short of her next step when she saw Videl, causing her portion of Mr. Satan fall onto the ground, waking him up immediately. "Videl?"  
  
"WHAT'S THE DEAL!?" Mr. Satan, who the girls were suddenly fussing over, sat up and grabbed his throbbing head. "You BRAT! Just wait until your father hears about this!"  
  
Usagi cringed as she took her attention from Videl and focused it all back onto Mr. Satan. "I'm SO sorry. I didn't mean to. Please don't tell my parents." 'Knowing mom I'll be grounded for months to come. I know exactly what she'll say too...*Don't be so absent-minded. Learn some responsibility.* Blah blah blah blah.'   
  
Usagi bent over and give Mr. Satan a quick kiss on the head. "There, all better now." 'YUCK! What does he use in his hair? Grease?'   
  
Mr. Satan scowled as he looked up to Usagi and refused any help up by the other girls. "You better watch yourself kid." He struggled to stand back to his feet as the girls backed away from him. He wasn't too sure of what kind of sick sadistic joke Usagi was trying to pull on him, but he was certain that he wasn't going to fall for it.  
  
Videl stood from her seat, placing the packet of papers as well as her coffee on the table before her. "Father, what's wrong?" She turned to Usagi. "Usagi? Why are you and your friends here? Is something wrong?"  
  
Before a single child in that room could answer the question, Mr. Satan pushed Usagi aside and ran to his daughter. "They're trying to toy with me. We should throw them out."  
  
Videl could hardly believe such a silly reply like that. "Daddy, please tell me what's going on. I'm confused."  
  
Mr. Satan glared at the children, who stood on the other side of the room. "You're not going to believe this. It's utterly outrageous. I think we should punish her! Goku's let her run wild far too long. Videl, get your husband on the line! NOW!"  
  
Videl crossed her arms as she glared at her father. "Come on, daddy. She's a good kid. They all are. Remember? She stood up for you, now; will one of you PLEASE explain to me what all the fuss is about? I'm dying to know what's got my poor father all worked up."  
  
Mr. Satan sat back in his chair, not taking his eye of Usagi once. He could have cared less about the other kids for they had never really expressed a hate for him. Though, what his daughter said was true, she did stand up for him at the tournament, but that was beside the point. "They want MY help. Can you believe it? Not only does she show the people of the world that I lied about beating Cell, but she also has to come here and mock me. Well I've got news for you, Usagi, I've been training with your bother and Videl and I think I've become quite good at this Ki-Jitsu stuff so far. So you and your little friends just run along."  
  
Videl rolled her eyes in shame for her father. "Stop it daddy. They wouldn't be here if it weren't for something important. I know these girls very well. I know that they wouldn't try to make a mockery of you, beyond the point that it has already been. Let's see what they have to say alright?" Videl hardly thought that Usagi was capable of trying to make fun of someone. It just wasn't in her nature to do so. She knew Usagi better than her father, which was why she was not in the least bit shocked that Usagi had come to him in seek of help."  
  
Getting a nod from Videl stating that it's ok to go on, Usagi looked back to her friends, who didn't seem to be trying to think of any special way to ask. "Well?"  
  
Rei frowned at her friend. "You seem to just want to dip into things. Why don't you go ahead and just come right out with it?"  
  
"You always did know just the right things to say, didn't you Rei?" Rei just grinned without adding any of her own words. "Fine." Usagi turned back to look at her sister-in-law as well as Mr. Satan. "Well, I'm pretty sure Gohan must have told you that me and the girls WERE training Mamoru's gang for a while. Piccolo and Yamcha wanted us to try to get them to learn a few things about respect but none of the adults have any patience for them. And well..." Usagi dropped her head and became quiet as she started digging the front of her foot into the floor.  
  
Mr. Satan, who couldn't believe that anyone would rely on her with the training of others in regards of respect for to him, she didn't have any. He obviously didn't know the real Usagi. "Go on, child."  
  
Minako looked up in a grin. 'Time to try out some Usagi logic.' "Mamoru and Haruka blew her arm off."  
  
Usagi bolted her attention over to the now laughing Minako. "Hey. That's my line." She turned her head over to the pale faced Videl and Mr. Satan, who looked to be frozen in their place from the shock. "Yep. It's' true. They blew my right arm off." She reached out and pulled Hotaru in close to her. "But if I weren't for my friend Hotaru here, I wouldn't have my arm back today. She and all my other friends helped rebuild it with her healing powers."  
  
"But that's not what we're here for, Usagi."  
  
Usagi frowned at Rei. "I realize that."  
  
"Then get on with it already."  
  
"Fine!" Usagi looked back at the dazed adults. "Anyways...as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted..." She looked back to Rei and stuck her tongue out at her, who immediately did the same, which was only the beginning of a tongue war between the two.  
  
Ami sighed in embarrassment. "I'll continue where Usagi left off." She said to the two laughing adults. "Apparently, we aren't going to be working with them anymore since Piccolo and Yamcha banned them from using any kind of Ki power or fighting knowledge at all. But, that doesn't stop us from trying to reform their hateful habits. But, we need Mr. Satan's help to do that." Hearing that caused the two bickering girls to quiet down.  
  
Mr. Satan puffed out his chest and grinned. "Well of course you do little girl. I'm a world-renowned trainer. None surpasses my skills. Why when I was your age..."  
  
Giggling at the thought of Mr. Satan being young, as it oddly struck her as being hilarious she kept picturing a mini Mr. Satan, mustache and all. Usagi rapidly interjected. "Not with training, but with something else."  
  
Confused and a little put off, he glared at the child before him. "What?"  
  
"Well, they are having a really hard time figuring out how to be nice. Truthfully, we've tried everything that we could think of. We've been nice to them to show them how it's done and to let them know that we aren't going to beat them up when they do something bad. We've told them how to act, but all it's gotten us is punishment from them that we really don't deserve. Then daddy told us about your camp, about all the poor sickly people who go there."  
  
"Yeah," Makoto interrupted, though not making Usagi in the least bit angry. "Those kids are the real heroes, ones that fight every day of their lives."  
  
"That's all they really need. At least," Minako added, "That's what we think. We want them to see that they aren't the center of the universe. We want them to grow in character and see that other people's feelings count just as much as theirs do."  
  
Mr. Satan smirked, but soon turned it to a frown. "Girls, I would love to help out with this, but these kids don't need abuse from others. They get enough of it just surviving as it is. Those kids are just plain rotten to the bone."  
  
Usagi sighed as she looked down to the ground. 'I knew he was going to say that.' "Well what if we promised to stay there and make sure that they get treated good. What if we made sure that Mamoru and the others didn't get into any trouble?"  
  
Mr. Satan pondered over Usagi's statement with care. He didn't want to let her down, but then again, what was worse? Letting Usagi down or having a bunch of kids being beaten by the counselors? "Are you positive that you can keep them under control?"  
  
Videl sat next to her father and looked upon the anxious faces of the kids. "Daddy, if the girls say that they'll take care of it, then there's no need to worry about it." That got a nod from all six of the guests.  
  
Mr. Satan sighed. "If any of those guys decide that they want to beat on any of the campers I'll take them on myself. I'll be there the entire two weeks. I don't want them causing any type of trouble. One problem and their out."  
  
Usagi smiled down at him with respect, perhaps for the first time. "Thanks Mr. Satan. You won't ever forget this."  
  
"Ok, it starts on Monday, you do realize that, right?" Usagi nodded. "Ok, I'll prepare bunks for you kids. I take it you don't want to share with each other's group?"  
  
"No way!" Makoto shouted before any of the other girls could respond. "We won't get ANY sleep that way. We'll just stay up fighting all night."  
  
Ami thought about that for a moment and came up with the same conclusion. "I concur."   
  
Minako gave Ami a strange look. "Ok, yeah. Whatever that means, I go along with it."  
  
Videl giggled at Minako, as well as Ami. "Ok. I'll make sure daddy gets two different bunks for you guys."  
  
Usagi turned back to her friends with a grin. "See I told you. You don't always need to plan out what you're going to say."  
  
Rei and Ami just frowned as they turned to walk away. "Remind me to get her back for that, Ami."  
  
"Will do."  
  
Usagi grinned. "I know you don't mean that. I know everyone loves me!" Usagi laughed as she ran to her friends and put her arms around their shoulders.   
  
Hotaru ignored everything that her friends were doing and walked to the tired old man. "So you'll really do it? You'll really let us all come?"  
  
Mr. Satan nodded. "Of course. I said I would and I'm sticking by it. I just hope what you want to happen, does. Otherwise it's a big waste of time."  
  
"Hotaru..."  
  
Hotaru looked back to Minako, who called to her. "Coming." She took one look back at Mr. Satan and Videl with a smile. "See ya later. Oh yeah, Videl, can you thank Gohan for all that ice cream that he bought us?" With that, she turned around and skipped off to join her friends.  
  
Videl curiously watched the Saiyan depart from the living room. "Ice cream? He never told me about any ice cream. He told me that he was taking them to the park when they left the house after the tournament... WAIT A MINUTE. He better not have spent a ton of money on those greedy little kids!" She lifted herself from her chair and stormed out of the room to find a phone.  
  
Mr. Satan just laughed at ALL of the girls as they left the room. "Females will always boggle my mind."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Outside the mansion, the girls still had a full day of convincing left. They still had to ask each parent of the girls, which would be cake. The only thing that they were worried about was the situation of Piccolo and Yamcha. They were still angry with their students for what they had done, and who could really blame them. They had blown off a child's arm without a second thought.   
  
"So, Usagi, Miss 'I don't need a plan to get my way', how do you suggest that we ask Piccolo and Yamcha?" Rei asked in a taunting tone.  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes in annoyance as she took to the air. "Just how we asked Mr. Satan. A spur of the moment kind of thing. I'm telling you, it works every time. You don't have to be so organized about everything."  
  
"I'm with Usagi." Minako exclaimed.  
  
"Me too." Hotaru added as she jumped into the air to be with her friends. "I just hope he isn't in a bad mood right now."  
  
Usagi got a big grin on her face as she proceeded to move forward. "Well, like I said before, there's only one way to find out." Without any further conversation, the six friends took off at their fastest speed into the mountains, where they would hope to find Piccolo and Mamoru.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru sat in his room with literally nothing to do. He never knew how boring life was without being able to fly and train. On a normal day, he would wake at sunrise and spar with his father for a few hours and have breakfast. Then he would fly into the city to see what trouble he could cause with his friends. Now, he was left to sleep in as early as he pleased, which he wasn't particularly complaining about. He couldn't spar with his father, meaning his fighting skill as well as power would go down. He couldn't even go to the city since it was much too far to walk to, which left him stranded in the mountains, for the rest of the summer until school started up again. At least then he could finally see his friends. He had no real human contact besides his father, who was most often gone. 'Is this how I'm to spend the next year? In these cursed mountains with no one to talk to?'   
  
He still couldn't believe how ridiculously unfair his father was being about this whole situation. It was not as if he had actually wanted to rip the girl's arm off, it was more of an accident than anything. Yet, his father didn't seem to care, which left him in his current situation. He just hoped that his punishment would ware off before it was meant to end.   
  
Outside, he could hear his father and Yamcha engaged in a fierce spar. He was so put out with his father's decision that he didn't even wish to watch that for it would only make him want to fight as well. "If Odango would have only left her big nose out of my business none of this would have happened. Why does she always have to be in my way?" He perked up when he felt the power levels of his rivals approaching his home at a rather fast speed. "They'll be here in a matter of five minutes. They're probably here to try and give me their damned pity. Well screw them. I won't even listen to them. I'll just tell them to get out. I don't need them."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The girls landed about 100 meters from the spar, which was coming to an end due to their presence.   
  
Dodging a punch to the face by Yamcha, Piccolo managed to momentarily glance over in the girls' direction. "What do you guys want? Haven't you created enough hatred in my kid?"  
  
Beating her friends to any sort of response, Makoto was ready to lash out at that comment. "We didn't create that hate and you know it! You're the ones who came to us because you said that we could cure them of their habits!"  
  
Piccolo elbowed Yamcha in the spine, throwing him to the ground. "We're through here, Yamcha." Piccolo landed onto his feet and cracked his neck. "Fine, you're right, ok? You don't have to rub it in." Makoto lightened up her frown as she tried to let out a smile.   
  
Usagi looked around to her friends, whom were all staring back at her. "Oh now because I came up with the theory I have to be the one to test it out?" She got a bunch of zombie nods from her friends, who tried to make it look as if they were mindless. "You guys are nerds." That earned her giggles from all around.   
  
Usagi looked up to Piccolo, and over to Yamcha, who was climbing back to his feet. "We still want to try to get the pack to become more respectful, if you don't mind. We have this really awesome plan on how to get it to work too."  
  
Piccolo shook his head back and forth with a frown. "No more training."  
  
Minako smirked. "Ah ha! You said no more fighting training, you never said anything about their training on learning how to respect others."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru walked to his bedroom window and pulled open the shade to eavesdrop on his father and his rivals."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Piccolo growled at the child. "They will NEVER learn. They don't have the will to. They are just going to be lowlifes for the rest of their lives."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru's face became heavy as his emotions started to kick in due to his father's harsh words. 'So that's all he thinks about me? I don't need his pity either!' Mamoru dropped the shades and went back to sulking, alone.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi frowned at Piccolo in shame, as well as disgust. "How can you say that about your own kid, Piccolo? If my parents had that attitude I might not be who I am today and you know it. I could be just as hateful as Mamoru. I probably wouldn't even like my parents, let alone love them, if I ever heard them talk about me like that, like they have no faith in me. I know you're trying to change, but there was a lot of damage already done before you changed your point of view."  
  
"Oh don't be shoving this on me, Usagi. You know nothing about parenting that kid. You only know of what he does to you, which isn't as bad as trying to parent him. Believe me, I've tried to reform him."  
  
"The question is how you've tried. Children learn from that too."  
  
"We're not here to try and knock you or him, Piccolo." Ami interrupted before any more harsh words could be spoken. "We're here to ask you for your permission to have him and all of the rest of your students to go to Mr. Satan's camp, the one that works with kids who have Muscle Dystrophy. We believe that once they see the troubles of these other kids that they will begin to realize how wrong they really are. They will, hopefully, learn some compassion towards others."  
  
Piccolo snickered. "Are you nuts? Those kids will have a beating frenzy if they go there and see helpless kids. You know that."  
  
Rei frowned at his lack of cooperation, and Yamcha's unwillingness to interject. "This is a chance for them to learn to care about others besides themselves. To see that there are all types of strengths and that caring isn't a weakness. They still believe that power gives them the right to do anything, and that's entirely too wrong."  
  
Piccolo looked back to his fellow trainer for help, but he seemed to want to stay quiet. 'A lot of good he is.' He looked back down to the eager faces of the children. He knew that they were right; this was a wonderful opportunity for the kids to learn how to care for others. "Fine. But you guys can tell them yourselves." He smirked as the girls just gave him a glare, letting their disagreement be known. Piccolo violently turned away from the group and proceeded to walk back to his house to fetch his son.  
  
Yamcha looked down at the girls, Usagi in particular. "So, your arm ok?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yep. It's as good as new. Hotaru and the others did a really good job on it."  
  
Sighing, Yamcha began to warm up to the girls after one short question and answer. He wanted to make sure that they weren't going to lash out at him for brining the Americans over. "How did your mom react? Knowing her she had a cow and went on about how if anyone else hurt her baby she would have their head served to her on a silver platter."  
  
Usagi giggled. "Something like that. More like if they tried it again she would personally go over there and rip their limbs off and leave them there to fend for themselves."  
  
Yamcha chuckled at Chi-Chi's predictability. "She always did have a knack for overprotection."   
  
"Odango! So nice of you to drop by and pay and old pal a visit." Mamoru smirked as he and his father walked towards the group, though that little remark earned him a slap in the back of his head from his father causing the girls to all frown.   
  
"Shut your trap."  
  
Mamoru scornfully scowled up at his father. He wouldn't soon forget what he had heard from him not even fifteen minutes before. "What do they want? Isn't she the reason why I had my training rights revoked?"  
  
"It's was your own fault. Now pay attention. They have something to tell you. They have an excellent idea about your next training."  
  
"I thought we weren't under them anymore."  
  
Piccolo sighed. "Not physical training you aren't, but as for learning to appreciate others, they've still got you on the hook."  
  
'Always gotta butt in. Never learns her lesson. This kid is more stupid than I thought.' Glaring at Usagi, Mamoru asked, "What's this training? Having us walk over hot coals?"  
  
Frowning, Usagi took the reigns. "No, this is to strengthen your soul. You'll be training with true heroes. Stronger then even our parents and trainers. They have no equal. To learn this we will all go to camp for two weeks and be helping them in any way possible."  
  
Mamoru looked down to the younger child in curiosity. "Camp?"  
  
Ami let out an almost silent laugh at that. Mamoru's stunned face was completely priceless. "Yes, camp. We'll be aides at the Mr. Satan camp for Muscular Dystrophy."   
  
"NO WAY. I WON'T DO IT! YOU CAN'T MAKE ANY OF US!"  
  
"ENOUGH." Piccolo roared. He was tired of his son always having to get the last word in. "The decision has been made, you will do this. All of your little friends will too."  
  
Yamcha smirked evilly as an idea came into his head. "You think you're bored now, well think about how bored you'll be if we decided to discontinue all of your training for two years instead of just one."   
  
That pretty much got no protest at all from a distressed Mamoru. He just dropped his head in irritation and sighed. "Fine. We'll go to your stupid camp, Odango."  
  
~*~*~  
  
When Usagi arrived home that night, she was unusually greeted by her father, whom had the look of concern planted on his face. "What's wrong daddy?" She asked as she looked up to him while he led her to her room.  
  
"I wouldn't suggest talking to mom right now. She's still upset about yesterday and has been wired all day. It's like walking on thin ice around her. She just lashes out about every little thing."  
  
Usagi giggled. "I understand." She sure didn't want a replay of what had happened the night before.  
  
"I think it's best if you just stay in your room until she calms down."  
  
Usagi nodded. "I think you're right, daddy."   
  
Just as the Saiyan duo turned into the living room, Chi-Chi emerged from her room with a sudden look of relief. "USAGI!"  
  
Fearing for their lives, both Goku and Usagi froze mid-step. "Yes mom?"  
  
Chi-Chi ran to her daughter and pulled her away from Goku's grasp and hugged her. "My poor baby. Is all the emotional trauma gone?" She kneeled down in front of her and pulled on her right arm. "Your arm hasn't fallen off or anything, has it?"  
  
Groaning, Usagi thinks a few weeks away from home will be a good breather.  
  
  



	96. Part 26

(Ok, I just suddenly realized how close to chapter 100 I was getting so in order to make this work, I'm cramming the rest of chapter/book/saga/whatever you want to call it five into this one last part. Don't worry; It's not going to be too much as I was already nearing the end of the chapter anyway so you're not missing anything. It's just going to go really fast, well, faster than normal anyway. As a result, this is going to be written somewhat differently than normal.)   
  
  
~*~*~*  
  
  
The next Monday, two days later, the first day of the camp for the Pack started. Everyone who was not a participant of the Pack hoped that this would be the turn around for the kids. It was the day that would prove to the world if they were able to hold any kind of compassion for people other than themselves.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi had just gotten off the phone with Mr. Satan, confirming that everything was set, as Videl has advised her to do for Mr. Satan was known for being forgetful. She couldn't wait until she got to the camp so she could get started with helping the other kids. She hadn't realized how excited she was until the night before, when she found it unbelievably hard to fall asleep.   
  
"Mom! Dad!" Usagi yelled as she stood up from her chair in the family room. She only had a few minutes before she would have to leave for Mr. Satan's to board the bus to the camp. She wanted to at least say goodbye to her parents since she wouldn't be able to see them for the next two weeks.  
  
"Coming Usagi! You can't leave without saying goodbye to me!" Chi-Chi ran out of the hallway with a camera and handed it to her daughter. "Now don't forget to take lots of pictures while you're there so you can have visuals while you're telling us about your stay, ok?" Along with the camera she handed her daughter about six rolls of film and piled them into Usagi's hands.  
  
"Mom," Usagi giggled. "I'm only going to be there for two weeks and I'm going to be helping out Mr. Satan and the other counselors. I'm not going to be able to take a bunch of pictures." She cringed when she saw her mother's face drop. "Well," She impishly grinned. "Maybe I can sneak in a few when Mamoru's being nice to the other kids. That way, he won't ever be able to deny that he was nice to them."  
  
Goku grinned as he walked into the room with a plate filled with food. "Good luck."  
  
Usagi looked up to her father with a smile. "Thanks, daddy, but I don't think we're going to need it." Without letting him get in a single word, she walked to him and gave him a giant bear hug and grabs a roll off his plate. "See ya in two weeks."  
  
Chi-Chi pulled her daughter from her husband and hugged her. "Have a good time, dear."  
  
"K!" Usagi pulled away from her mother and picked up her bags, walking out the door as she went with her parents close behind. "Bye mom! Bye daddy!" She jumped into the air and began flying towards Satan City, where she would meet her friends, as well as the Rat Pack.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Satan City~~  
  
Mamoru and his cronies were already at the bus by the time Usagi had set out. Piccolo and Yamcha had made them get an early start since they didn't have the aid of being able to fly themselves there, but that was ok with the pack. It gave them time to devise a plan to make it through the next two weeks without losing their sanity.   
  
"I can't believe you got us into this." Michiru scowled up at Haruka and Mamoru since, the way she saw it, they had caused this whole problem.   
  
Haruka sneered down at what was supposed to be her best friend. "Come on, Michiru. You can't honestly think that. If it hadn't have been for Usagi's annoying habit of wanting everyone to think the way she does, the peace and loving way, you know very well that we wouldn't be in this stupid situation right now."  
  
Not wanting to go into a real conflict with Haruka, Michiru decided to lay low with her thoughts about the situation. Especially since she didn't really mind going. She would rather enjoy herself. It was just why she was being forced to go that she was upset with. "Yeah whatever."  
  
Mamoru glared down at Michiru with hateful eyes as he pulled Haruka away. "She's changing, Haruka. Why do you even put up with her anymore? We're the originals! We're supposed to hate that tailed twit. All three of us. It's been that way for years. Why is she trying to break up the gang now? Even the others have more hate for Odango than she does."  
  
For some strange reason unknown to her, Haruka actually felt the need to defend her best friend instead of shunning her for her differences. "Just leave her alone, Mamoru." 'What's come over me? Why do I feel like I have to protect her?' "She's not bothering us right now."  
  
"Fine. But let me tell you, if she crosses the line, I'm not holding back."  
  
"I never said I wouldn't."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Good." With that, he walked over to the bus. He noticed that Mr. Satan was inside talking to the driver. "This is his fault too. If he didn't have that stupid charity we wouldn't have to go this stupid camp. This is the dumbest idea I've ever heard of in my life! It makes absolutely no sense to have US going to a camp with lots of little bratty disabled kids!"   
  
"Just pretend to change you guys." Michiru looked up to her friends. She herself was even becoming annoyed with them. "If you want to get away from Usagi all you have to do is ignore her and don't be rude to her. Then Piccolo and Yamcha won't have anything to gripe about."  
  
Mamoru snickered. "I can handle ignoring her, but not being rude to her? Now that's funny, Michiru. How can I? She leaves herself wide open."  
  
"I'm serious here, Mamoru. It's the only way to stop being harassed with stupid stuff like this."  
  
Just before Mamoru opened his mouth to protest again, he stopped to think about Michiru's words. "Hmm..." 'Maybe she's right.' He smirked. 'But I'll never let her know that. Wouldn't want to put ideas into her head.' "Don't try that stupid logic with me."   
  
Michiru rolled her eyes. "Like logic would work with you."  
  
"HI EVERYONE!" The Pack groaned as they looked up into the sky to see the first of their rivals arrive. It was Minako and Ami coming in at a fast pace looking very excited.   
  
Minako landed next to Zodiac while Ami landed next to Michiru, who was looking more than a little bummed out. "What's the matter?"  
  
"Nothing you need to know about."  
  
Minako ignored the rest of the pack and bounced over to Michiru. "Come on. We're going to have so much fun at the camp. We're all going to get along and go nuts trying to figure out why we never started out as friends in the first place."  
  
Mamoru snickered. "I think you need to let some more oxygen into your brain there, kid."  
  
Minako frowned over in Mamoru's direction. "Well I don't care what you guys do. All I know is that I'm going to have total blast."  
  
"You do that." Mamoru mockingly stated as he boarded the bus.  
  
Minako shook her head in disgust. "That boy has some serious problems that he needs to sort out."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Before the busses had left to pick up the kids, who would be attending the camp, Usagi, her friends, and Mr. Satan devised a plan to keep the Rat Pack separated at all times, except when they would be sleeping. They didn't want them to be a constant bad influence on themselves. They would each be paired up, one of the Rat Pack with one of the girls.  
  
Reluctantly, Usagi had elected to work with Mamoru since he seemed to have the most hate built towards her. She wanted to personally make sure that he didn't try anything. Hotaru took on Haruka by the influence of Usagi basically telling her to. The real reason why Usagi wanted Hotaru to have Haruka was because the two would be working together with leading nature hikes and camp field trips, supervised by Mr. Satan. Usagi wanted to be able to keep a close eye on the two that she thought would cause the most trouble. The Saiyan duo was also in charge of helping out with the kids in cabin one, there were five altogether.  
  
Ami was the only other to have two of the Pack, with her patience and kindness it was a given. Also, the fact that one of her teammates wasn't on the side of evil anymore gave the decision a boost. With her, Zodiac and Michiru would handle swimming, arts and crafts. They were to look after cabin two.  
  
Rei and Justin were to help out in cabin three. They would be working with the evening campfires, and helping with physical therapy during the day. Minako wanted that part, but Ami remembered the time she TRIED to put a band aide on her and had suggested otherwise.   
  
Minako and Kenneth had horseback riding for the kids. They'd ride with them and make sure they didn't fall and hurt themselves. Minako gladly accepted this, as she had always loved riding horses when she visited her grandparents in the country. They had cabin four.  
  
That left Makoto and Nathaniel in cabin five. They had cooking in the kitchen duty. They also had the grilling at the barbecues as well.  
  
~*~*~  
  
During the bus ride to the camp, after all the kids were picked up, things got pretty rowdy with the kids screaming and yelling to each other about how excited they were to finally get to meet others like themselves. All the buses were crowed and specially made for the accommodations that these kids would need, since almost all of them were in wheelchairs.  
  
An annoyed Mamoru, who was forced to sit by Usagi glared around the bus at the 'brats'. "Isn't there a way to shut them up?"   
  
Usagi didn't respond in any way. Actually, she hadn't really heard him for she was busy conversing with several of the campers already. That only caused Mamoru to become even more irritated. "Odango!" He yelled as he reached out and grabbed her hair.  
  
"OWE!" Usagi turned around and slapped Mamoru in the face when he roughly pulled her hair. "What was that for?" The kids she had previously been talking to cowered away from the duo, not wanting to fall victim if Mamoru lashed out for any reason.  
  
Mamoru smirked. It gave him pleasure to know that there were still ways to cause her pain. "Don't encourage these brats to be loud. It's rather annoying."  
  
Usagi frowned. "Come on Mamoru. Don't be mean. They're just having fun. Maybe you should get to know some of them. They're actually really nice, and really fun to talk to."  
  
Mamoru rolled his eyes. "I think I'll pass."  
  
Little did Mamoru know, he was being observed by the only quiet child on the bus. A single child who felt as if she had no friends in the world, not even her parents. She had been to many camps like this throughout her entire life, being tossed from one to the other like she was just a rag doll with no feelings or emotions to be spared. And now, seeing his attitude towards kids like her made her feel no better inside, only worse.  
  
It's been proved. Mamoru seems to have hit rock bottom. He is now capable of hurting others without saying a single word to them.  
  
Near the front of the bus, Michiru sat by a teenage counselor, about her age, while Ami sat two seats in front of her with Zodiac. Haruka sat with Hotaru just one seat behind. She tried to sit as far away from the boy next to her as she could, but no matter how far she would move, he always seemed to want to move closer. For some reason, every time the boy moved closer to Michiru, Haruka felt herself become more and more angry. She felt as if a part of her was being violated.   
  
The boy just looked down at Michiru with a perverse smile. "So, what's your name?" He asked, basically in her face.  
  
Michiru pulled her face away, only showing him a frown just before pulling away. "Why do you need to know?"  
  
The boy grinned. He could tell that hooking her would be hard to do, but decided that it was much more than worthwhile. "Because I want to know who you are. If we're going to be working together for the next two weeks, I want to get to know you."  
  
Michiru knew that there were other reasons, but didn't want to get into any type of fight since there were children on the bus. "Michiru..." She mumbled under her breath.  
  
The boy smiled. "Michiru...what a beautiful name for such a beautiful girl."  
  
Haruka's eyes widened to there fullest at that point. Never in her life had she heard such rubbish come from such and insolent boy. "Hey, you leave her alone."   
  
The teen turned around to Haruka with a frown, trying to stare the other *Boy* down.   
  
"Don't be jealous. It's all good."  
  
"Haruka, stop." As much as she didn't want to put up with the boy, Michiru didn't want to make anything big out of the situation, though she knew exactly where Haruka was coming from.   
  
The teen smirked as he turned back around in his seat, only to cause Haruka to become even angrier. "I'm going to like getting to know you, Michiru."  
  
On the left sat Minako with a big grin planted on her face, which baffled Haruka. She also noticed that she and Usagi were exchanging knowing glances. 'What the hell is wrong with them? Their going to get it good if they don't stop grinning at me.' "Stop it brats!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Once at the camp, everyone was told to stay in their seats while the counselors unpacked all the baggage from the bus. It would have been done in mere seconds if the Pack had been told to do it, but the girls still had business to go over with the them. They still had to go over the partner situation and what not.  
  
"Ok," Makoto stated with a clipboard in her hands as she jumped out of the bus. "I know you all have a few question you need answered. It's important that you listen to everything that we have to say so that you understand." There were more than a few snorts of annoyance at this. "Hey, if you don't like it, take it up with Piccolo and Yamcha, unless you want to make something out of it with me!"   
  
Seeing that the Pack was about to take Makoto up on her 'offer' Minako stepped in. "Uh, why don't we try NOT to fight while we're here. The purpose of being here is to learn to get along. Plus we can't upset the kids."  
  
Makoto sighed. "She's right. We need to stop this. Let's just continue and try to forget that this happened, ok?"  
  
"Right." Rei stated as she grabbed the clipboard from Makoto. She didn't want to leave her in charge for the one fact that she had a tendency to get angry easily. "You will all be assigned a partner for the entire trip. You and your partner will run specific activities and help with individual cabins and their inhabitants."  
  
As Rei continued to speak, the Pack moved to stand next to whom they wanted to be partnered with, totally missing the point. This time, it was Rei's turn to become on the side of being annoyed. "The purpose for this is training, to become compassionate and respectful of others. That means your partner will be one of us."  
  
"WHAT?!" Mamoru was obviously more than just a little upset by that fact. "Look, it was bad enough that you decided that you had to butt into our business and MAKE us come here, but we are not, I repeat, ARE NOT going to hang out with you guys during the first two weeks of our summer vacation."  
  
Usagi frowned. "Stop it. We're only doing what we think is right. And you are the ones that have forced this to begin with, with your attitude. We're not the only ones who think that this is the right thing to do."  
  
Mamoru scowled down at Usagi. He was almost more than certain that he would have bad enough luck to be paired with Usagi. "Let me guess, your brain-dead father liked the idea. Why not? It makes sense, my own father agreed with it and they're friends."  
  
Ami herself was even becoming upset with Mamoru. She was beginning to believe that there was no hope for him at all. "Come on. Just stop it already. No one likes your attitude. Your father obviously doesn't like your attitude otherwise he wouldn't have sent you here." For once in the history of Mamoru, he didn't have any type of witty retort to shoot back at her. He only stood silent. "While we're here, there is to be no fighting at all. That won't be too hard since you've been stripped of all your fighting anyway. Don't start petty arguments with the attendants of this camp either. We will be watching your actions closely and will report any bad behavior from you to your Sensei's."   
  
Seeing them about to explode, Usagi knew that she had to add something to that. "Or are you not strong enough to control yourselves that you must hurt the physically challenged kids? So weak that you can't even pretend to be nice for two short weeks. Odd, I had thought you had a bit more will power then this."  
  
Haruka grinned. She knew it wouldn't be THAT much of a challenge. All she would really have to do is ignore the little brats and be done with it. "Fine, who will we be with?"  
  
Usagi backed away from the Pack so she wouldn't be in any direct paths of attacks from its angry members. "I'm with Mamoru. Haruka's with Hotaru. Ami's with Zodiac and Michiru. Minako is with Kenneth. Rei is with Justin, and Makoto is with Nathaniel."  
  
Mamoru snorted with disgust. "I knew I was going to get the odango'd twerp."  
  
"I want to switch to Ami's group with Zodiac. Do it now, Monkey."  
  
Usagi frowned. "These are the assignments and there won't be any changes. Deal with it." Usagi noted that the other counselors were finished with pulling the bags out of each bus for the kids and turned around to the bus, totally ignoring any other rants that came arose from the Pack. "We're done Mr. Satan!"   
  
"Ok kids!" Mr. Satan said as he turned to the kids in his bus. "Time to pile out and let the fun begin!"   
  
At the end of that statement, to the best of their ability, the kids did just that. They piled out of the bus, by the lifts made for their wheelchairs, carried by a staff member, or struggling on their own to enjoy the next two weeks. Before they had even left for the camp, each child had been given their cabin assignments and were grouping together according to those assignments as directed by Mr. Satan, who had hurried to the top of a bus with a megaphone so he could speak to everyone.   
  
The girls were an instant smash with their groups, with the members of the pack lagging behind in their social skills. None of them really wanted to get to know the kids at all. They just wanted to keep their sanity throughout the two weeks and then get right back home.   
  
Mamoru took notice that all of the kids from his group were piled around Usagi, all but one, that is. There was one single girl, who looked to be about Usagi's age, sitting by herself, looking gloomier than he had ever seen Usagi, which was pretty bad. She didn't seem to want to have anything to do with Usagi or the other kids.   
  
Knowing that Usagi was much too occupied with the other campers to even realize that there was a loner among the group, Mamoru walked over to her to try and help her with her belongings. The little girl said nothing as he began to pick up her bags. She just sat there, barely even noticing him.  
  
Frowning at not being recognized, he kneeled in front of her and looked into her droopy blue eyes. "What's your name kid?" When the child failed to answer, he started to get mad and was about to reproach her when she finally looked up.  
  
"What do you care? I'm just a brat that you won't see ever again."   
  
Mamoru gasped at her harsh words. 'DAMN, she heard me on the bus?'  
  
"This stupid trip is just a way for you to feel good about yourselves. It doesn't stop the pain. It doesn't help me walk or move my arms or even bath myself. It gives mom some time to herself, instead of ALWAYS taking care of me. My dad didn't want to and left because of me. Don't try to tell my you're any different."  
  
Stunned at her response, for the first time in his life, Mamoru felt ashamed of himself. He was there for himself only. He was there only because he didn't want to get his training revoked for two years. He had to be there. He didn't go there of his own free will at all. This child didn't have a father, where he did. Even though there were many problems between the two, that didn't mean that he didn't love him. And he knew he wasn't alone because of it. He had a strong body and mind, and wasn't poor by any means. But this child, accusing him, had so little, and he was complaining of his life for what he saw as now stupid reasons.  
  
"You're right, I am here for myself. I...I was forced to come because I was a bit of a jerk, though others would say more then a bit. A young girl I know forced me. Telling me that here I would meet the greatest heroes on Earth. Stronger then I'll ever be. I'm beginning to realize maybe she had a reason for letting me meet you. I can't promise anything, but I will promise to be your friend during this time, and even if we never meet again, that I'll remember you. What do you say, friends?"  
  
The girl was a bit on the skeptical side. She had heard him on the bus and knew that he didn't think too highly of her kind. "What about what you said on the bus?"  
  
Mamoru groaned. At that moment, he wished that he could have taken back everything that he had said on the bus. "I can't take back what I said on the bus, but I can say that I no longer mean it. You aren't brats, noisy maybe, but not brats. I probably should have listened to the girl beside me when she told me to get to know you guys, but stupid me, I didn't listen. But now I know one and I can honestly say I like her. So?" He extended a hand to hers.  
  
That was all that needed to be said to warm the heart of the young girl. She had never been spoken to with kinder words and she didn't think that she ever would. "Ok." Using all her strength, she managed to shake his hand. "My name is Monoko."  
  
Feeling proud as well as happy with himself, Mamoru grinned at her. It wasn't a mean grin, but for the first time in his memory, a gentle and loving grin. "The name's Mamoru. Nice to meet you Monoko."   
  
Across the room, a stunned Usagi ponders. With her Saiyan hearing she had heard all he had said.  
  
Grinning she thinks. 'It's a start.'  
  
~*~*~   
  
Over the next three days, many friendships were forged. Though, not only friendships between campers and counselors, there were also friendships between partners forming too, to a certain degree. None of the Pack would admit it, but they were starting to come to understand the girls a bit better after having to spend long days with long hours working side by side with them. The groups were actually getting along great.  
  
The best group would have to be Ami, Zodiac, and Michiru. All loved the water and the arts and always had something interesting to add to conversations. Even when they weren't working, they always seemed to be able to go to each other and strike up a conversation, though Zodiac would never let his friends know that. Plus all were intelligent, though Ami and Zodiac were slightly higher then Michiru, she could keep pace with them.  
  
Rei and Justin on the other hand were a handful. Satan was always pulling them apart, but the arguments were as much Rei's fault as Justin's so he wasn't blamed. Surprisingly though they made a great team. She with her cool and calm kindness. And he with his wicked sense of humor, that could make a hurt patient grin despite the pain.  
  
Mamoru and Haruka basically just ignored the other two as much as possible. But they weren't obnoxious either, so they worked well together. It wasn't just the fact that they didn't want to ruin their chances of surviving, but it was also the fact that they actually didn't really WANT to be rude that much anymore, though there were times when they let out a crack out Usagi every now and then much to her dismay.   
  
Minako and Kenneth hit it off well, both having a love for horses. Minako would never admit it, but he was her first crush.  
  
Makoto and Nathaniel had arguments on how to prepare the meals, and the chefs were amused by the cooking contests. In fact they kept many of the recipes that they created with their little wars.   
  
Yes, all seemed to be going perfectly well until the third night when two separate groups had some very strange occurrences with Usagi.   
  
The campers had just been put into bed and Mamoru had just tucked in Monoko, something that he had secretly been doing since the first day. It made him feel like a parent when he did it. It also gave him a good feeling to know that he was actually doing something nice to someone for a change; someone who could use a helping hand. He had taken quite a liking to Monoko as she had with him as well.  
  
As he was emerging from cabin one, he noticed Usagi standing in the middle of an open field where the horses stood during the day. She didn't seem to have anything on her mind but the stars as she looked up. 'What's she doing now? Being an idiot again, I suppose.' He looked up into the sky at the thousands of stars that sat in the sky as he approached his partner.  
  
When he was little, he had always thought of the stars as earth's protectors; like they were there to watch of its inhabitants and make sure nothing from space got through. But as he got older, he started to think otherwise. He started to see stars as his jail; like they were keeping him from knowing some far away truth; something he knew that he needed to know about, but he could never quite put his finger on why.   
  
"It really is rather beautiful up here, isn't it?" He asked Usagi.  
  
Usagi brought her gaze down to the ground. 'Since when was he here?' She looked up to him, mocking herself for letting her guard down. "No, it's empty up there. Something's missing. It's always been empty."  
  
"Why do you say that? Everyone likes looking at the stars. They're relaxing...except for me that is."  
  
"I like the stars, but the sky is empty. It's weird, I don't know how to explain it."  
  
Mamoru got up to leave, stopping with his back to Usagi. "I know that empty feeling."  
  
With those last cryptic words, Usagi is more confused than ever. Not only was he being nice to her, but he also said that he knew what she was feeling, that he could empathize with her. Shaking it off, she decides to take a walk.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Shortly~~  
  
Michiru and Haruka walked around the trails of the camp while they each watched the stars above. Each enjoyed their free time together, which they hadn't really had since the whole camp thing started, but they weren't too worried about it. It gave them time to sort their feelings.  
  
Little did they know that the same teenage boy was following them on the bus from only three days before. "Hey! Michiru!" He called out to her. "Why don't you leave that loser and come with me. I'll show you a good time. We'll have dinner under the stars. You and me." Michiru said nothing  
  
Haruka was sick and tired of this kid. He had been hitting on Michiru for three days and it was utterly sickening. Not only was she tired of the boy, but also she was tired of Michiru never saying anything about it. "Go ahead, Michiru. Go with you BOYFREIND! See if I give a damn!"   
  
"What are you talking about Haruka, I'm not going out with him."  
  
The boy smirked as he walked to Michiru and pulled her away from Haruka. "So nice of you to give her up." He hugged Michiru, who tried to struggle away from him. "Come now, I have a table already set up for us. Let's enjoy the evening and make something out of it."   
  
Haruka growled as she ran off to the lake to get as far away from the duo as possible. 'Stupid Michiru! Who needs her anyway!'  
  
"HARUKA!" Michiru screamed out for her over and over but she never came back.  
  
"Come on baby. Let's go." The boy put his arm around Michiru's waist and proceeded to lead her out of the woods. Michiru did nothing but respond with tears as she allowed herself to be taken away to shocked to protest.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The snapping of a twig alerted to Usagi that she was not the only one at the lake anymore. "Who's there?" She annoyed asked. She hoped that it was not someone who would try to cause trouble. She was trying to make sense of her earlier conversation.  
  
Totally ignoring her, Haruka walked to a log that is on the edge of the lake and sat down. She tried to collect her thoughts about what had just happened. She herself didn't even fully understand where that sudden rage had come from. The last thing that she had ever wanted to do was treat Michiru the way that she just had.   
  
Usagi knew exactly what was going on. It was obvious. She had witnessed the beginnings of it on the bus. She and Minako were plotting their first matchmaking scheme ever. After long talks together, they had finally figured out what was wrong with the two.  
  
"You love her." She said softly as she sat next to her.  
  
"It's NONE of your business. Now run along and play."  
  
"It is my business. We're supposed to watch you while we're on this trip, remember?"  
  
"Just shut up, you know nothing." Turning her back to the girl, Haruka heard the next sentence as clear as day.  
  
Usagi smiled softly to go along with her voice. "You're in love with her."  
  
Fury erupted in her as she threw a series of punches at her. She didn't even care that it would mean her punishment. Usagi deflected the blows with ease as they rained down on her. "You love her and she loves you."  
  
That just made her angrier, upset at the lies. "Liar, we're girls."  
  
"And that's the problem, you haven't come to terms with that. You're very masculine and that makes you shunned by most, even you family I think. That's why you force Michiru to follow this path and stay on it yourself. It's the easy path, one where you're together and every thing is straightforward. But now it's different. Your feelings are growing and you're getting jealous and scared."  
  
Haruka decided to stop the attacks. It obviously wasn't doing any good anyway. "Afraid of what? I fear nothing."  
  
"Your afraid of losing her. You knew about her love for music and art, but you were afraid to loss her to that. So you pushed her away from it. Now there is someone interested in her and you are terrified that you'll lose her forever. Don't think I didn't notice what happened on the bus ride here. Don't think that I haven't noticed what's been going on while we've been here."  
  
"You're wrong."  
  
"No, I'm not. The girls and I have a gift, all of us. Rei can see the soul. Ami is the master of the mind. While Makoto is the master of the body. Hotaru is the innocence. Minako is the seer of the heart and it's working in romance. And I, I can touch them all and see their inner workings and how the go together. It's gifts we all have and are able to use. I can see you Haruka, I've finally figured you out. You are afraid of being weak, so you give into the anger and think you're strong because of it. Michiru also gave into her fears. She's afraid of being left out, that's why she does as you tell her, despite when you hit her. Or if she disagrees with it. She wants to be with you."  
  
"You don't know what you're talking about. She doesn't love me, and I don't love her."  
  
"Oh really. Then what if I told you that I saw the two of them kissing behind the shed earlier, wouldn't care would you?" Pain lashed through Haruka and that is all the answer Usagi needed. "By your face I can tell that you do care. Fortunately you haven't driven her away that far. After all, I only said 'what if'."  
  
"It doesn't matter, she couldn't ever love me as I love her. I love the very things I've tried to make her give up. Her music, her art, her gentleness, her beauty. Why would she ever love me as I do her after the pain I've caused her?"  
  
Smiling, Usagi stepped away; dropping the Ki aura she was radiating to block Haruka's senses. "What the..." She looked up to see a crying Michiru, staring back at her in wonder.   
  
Shortly after she had arrived with the other counselor at the dinner table he had set up for the two of them, Michiru had come to her senses and realized that she had to stand up for herself that time. She picked him up by one hand and growled for him to NEVER touch her again.  
  
The she chased after Haruka. She had to do it for herself, as well as Haruka. She was amazed at what she had heard when she came upon her and Usagi.  
  
In tears she speaks from her heart to her for perhaps the first time. "I love YOU because," Shocking her into immobility, "of your strength. Roguish humor. The daredevil that refuses to be bound by conventional rules. The caring side you try so hard to hide. Your ability to make me laugh. And YOUR beauty."  
  
Looking into her eyes, tears appeared in her own at the sincerity of her words. She held her gaze, as time seemed to be coming to a halt. In her mind, she felt as if she could hear a far away song playing that was meant only for her and Michiru to hear.  
  
"There you see her, standing just a bit away. She don't got a lot to say, but there's something about her. And you don't know why, but your dying to try, you want to kiss the girl.  
  
Yes you want her, floating above a blue lagoon. Perhaps she wants you too, there's only one way to ask her. Oh yes you don't know why, but your dying to try, go on and kiss the girl.  
  
Sha la la la la la la la la, now don't be scared, we got the mood prepared, go on and kiss the girl.  
  
Sha la la la la la la la la now don't be shy, go on and try, go on and kiss the girl.  
  
Now's the moment, this is what you want to do. Take this time here and bring her to you.  
  
Com'on and don't be scared, this is the moment to share, go on and kiss the girl.  
  
Go on and Kiss the girl.  
  
Kiss the girl"  
  
Feeling she was floating in the stars, Haruka pulled Michiru forward and leaned down to place a soft lingering kiss on her velvet lips. Both closed their eyes in bliss at the joy of this moment.  
  
Opening their eyes, they smiled at each other. Then they looked down, way down. They were floating in a Ki aura. Looking around the ground, they could see a transfixed Usagi and then looked back up into each other's eyes. "Did you hear a soft song when we were looking into each other's eyes?"  
  
Blushing, Michiru nodded, burying her head into her chest as a crying Usagi tenderly lowered them to the ground. As they glared at her, they were about to respond to her like they normally would when she interrupted.   
  
"That was beautiful. Truly amazing."  
  
Haruka turned more serious as Usagi giggled.. "Look, Koneko..."  
  
"What, did you just call me kitten?"  
  
Sighing, she continued, "Sorry about that, but..."  
  
"Hey I don't mind it, it's cute. A LOT better then MONKEY."  
  
"Fine but we need to talk."  
  
"K, Shoot."  
  
"You can't tell anyone about this. It's just between us. If the guys find out, they'll never speak to us again."  
  
Usagi frowned. "First, I can't keep big secrets like this from my friends, the bond won't let us. Second, I think you're wrong, they may be jerks, but they're not bigots. And third, you're too late."  
  
Haruka frowned at the child before her. She was about to respond harshly when she felt Mamoru's Ki behind her. "Uh...oh." Both Michiru and Haruka turned around and looked on in horror as he swaggered over with a smirk on his face.   
  
"Well that was interesting. There I was, right? I was looking up into the sky watching the stars when what did I see? Two of my most dearest friends KISSING. What a breathtaking sight it was at that. Would you like to know what I have to say about it? First I'm not a jerk. Second, it's not as if it were a surprise to the others or me. Third, truth is we had a bet on how long it would take you two. And thanks to 'Koneko' here I won it. Though truth is I thought I'd be another six months before you got up the courage to kiss her."  
  
Shocked, they looked at his smiling face. They were also more than shocked at the smile. It's changed since they came there. But then so have they. "Well I'm off to collect my bets. You two have a good time tonight."  
  
Haruka and Michiru turned back to Usagi with loving smiles on both of their faces. "Thank you." They both said at the same time.  
  
"You're welcome, but leave ADULT TIME for later. You're not ready."  
  
They both face fault at that one.  
  
Usagi wonders exactly what shade of red that was.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The next morning, the new couple found themselves surrounded by the curious eyes of their friends. Not by just the pack and girl, some of who were annoyed at the loss of the bet, but the rest of the campers and staff. It was as if overnight they had become closer than ever, and they were much nicer and understanding of others.   
  
Really, the only staff member who did not approve of the pair was the boy who had been trying to get Michiru to go out with him. He just scowled at Haruka, every so often looking down to Haruka with pure disgust. 'I can't believe I wanted to go out with THAT! I thought she was a girl, and they like each other. SICK.' He turned around and walked away when he saw a smirk come from Haruka.  
  
Michiru look around the group huddled around. "What?"  
  
Minako, who seemed to be the most willing to go where others were not, bounced to the couple. "So...?"  
  
Haruka grinned. "What?"  
  
"Aren't you going to tell us all about it? What true love first kiss like? Com'on we're dying here."  
  
Michiru giggled as she wrapped her arm around Haruka's waste. She couldn't remember time when she had ever felt happier to be with her. "What's there to tell?"  
  
Seeing only frustration on the child's face Haruka chuckled. "Maybe when you're older, kid." With that, she led Michiru away from the group.  
  
Mamoru said nothing, though he wanted to congratulate the couple, it just wasn't his style. He knew that the couple would take his silence as a compliment so there really wasn't anything for him to really say. "I guess we should get back to business." He said as he looked down to the little girl at his side.   
  
Usagi turned to Mamoru with a frown. She didn't know how he could be their best friend and not have anything to say. "Oh come on Mamoru. You can at least say that you're happy for them."  
  
Mamoru grinned. He decided that it was a time to give her a run for her money. "Fine. I'm happy for them. I'm happy that they've finally realized the obvious, that they love each other. It's nice that they can have each other for all time. I just wish I could find someone I cared about." With that, he picked up Monoko and walked away, leaving Usagi behind, immobile with shock.   
  
Monoko giggled as she watched Usagi fall to the ground over Mamoru's shoulder. "Is that the girl who forced you here, Mamoru?"  
  
Mamoru nodded. "Yeah. She's a bit of an idiot, but pretty powerful. You don't want to cross her or else she'll torture you, like she is me, right now."  
  
"She just fainted."  
  
Mamoru grinned. 'Sounds like the little twit.' "I know. She doesn't expect me to be nice at all. She thinks I'm merciless."   
  
"Well, are you?"   
  
Mamoru sighed as he stopped and set Monoko down on the ground. He wanted to lie and tell her 'no', he wasn't in the least bit merciless. He didn't want to look bad in front of Monoko, but after staring into her bright blue eyes as they sparkled in the sunlight, he just couldn't bring himself to lie. She didn't deserve to be lied to. "I guess you could say that I am. I've done some pretty horrible things in the past. Especially to Usagi, that girl with the tail back there."   
  
He had expected her to not like him after telling her that, as so many others before her had, but to his surprise, she didn't even flinch. Her smile only grew greater. "Well I don't think you are, big brother. Maybe you just needed time."   
  
Mamoru didn't quite react the way that he had expected to at that. "What?" For some odd reason that was unknown to him, he quite liked the thought of being the close to the child.   
  
Monoko nodded. "That's what you are now. You're the only person who has ever treated me so nice before. Sure my mom does, but I know she hates every dirty minute of taking care of me. When she's really annoyed with me, she likes to rub in the fact that my problems drove away my dad. I know she loves me, but my problems are just to hard for her to deal with by herself all the time. School is worse, I'm picked on every minute of the day. The teachers are always treating me like I'm a two year old. But you, no, you're different. You treat me like I'm a human, like I have feelings, like a sister."  
  
Mamoru softly smiled down to the Monoko as he picked her up and put her on his back. "Well then, I guess I have me a new little sister." 'If the others saw me, they'd kill me. Or die of shock.'   
  
Totally ignoring the itinerary for that day, Mamoru decided to take Monoko for a hike in the woods just for the fun of it. He didn't care how much trouble he would get in, he just wanted to do something nice for Monoko. After the hike, he planned to picnic with her. He wanted her to enjoy every minute at the camp since she would return to a broken home. "So tell me, Monoko, if you could do one thing while you were here, what would it be?"  
  
Without a doubt of what her answer would be, Monoko promptly answered. "What I've always wanted to do is hang-glide, it'd be so much fun. I would give anything to do that, but I can't with my disabilities."  
  
Thinking about that, he continued walking with the child who had mysteriously worked her way into his heart, something he didn't even think he had until he had met her. "Well...there is a way." 'I know I'm going to lose my privileges for another year, but what the heck. I only got one chance to do this and I'm not going to give it up.'  
  
"Have you ever heard of Ki-Jitsu?"  
  
Monoko shook her head. "No."  
  
"Well, Ki-Jitsu is using your soul aura to fight and train. I'm a master of it, like all my friends and Usagi and hers as well. As to why that's important, look down."  
  
Monoko did as she was told and looked down. "OH WOW!" She gasped as she leaned into him in fright.   
  
Mamoru chuckled. It felt strange to have someone looking to him for protection and strangely enough, it felt good. "Don't worry I've got you. This is one of the uses of Ki power. Nothing will happen to you."  
  
"I didn't know people could fly." Monoko moved forward on him, quickly overcoming her fear. She had faith that her 'older brother' wouldn't let her fall. "This is great. MORE!" She excitedly yelled out.   
  
"You got it." Mamoru smiled as he began to up his power to go faster. With the extra speed, he started to do some spins and loop-de-loops for her, only causing her to laugh in excitement. "Having fun yet?"  
  
"YES!"  
  
Sensing an irate Usagi approaching, he hovered over the lake, and waited for her arrival. He knew what that was about. It was time for him to take his punishment.  
  
Usagi was with Hotaru and Haruka when they had felt Mamoru's power level skyrocket far beyond normal. He had used his power, most likely to hurt one of the campers as he had so often threatened throughout their entire stay. "Can you guys stay with the other campers while I go?" The duo nodded. They didn't trust the air-headed counselor that was officially in charge of watching the kids.  
  
Usagi flew out to the lake at her top speed. 'Boy is Piccolo going to be angry when he hears about this. He's probably already felt it and is getting ready to come here. Mamoru just doesn't learn! If I ever disobeyed my dad this bad, he'd kill me.'  
  
She stopped in the middle of the lake, directly in front of Mamoru. She was surprised to see that he was holding Monoko on his back. 'Since when are they such close friends?' "Mam..."  
  
"I know what you're going to say, Odango. I'll do it without complaint, just not here."  
  
Monoko was too thrilled by flying to see the tension between Usagi and Mamoru. She joyfully looked to Usagi. "Isn't this great? I told him that I've always wanted to hang-glide and he took me flying. I didn't know you guys could fly. Are you all super heroes like my big brother?"   
  
Usagi gasped. 'Big brother? Is he really THAT nice to her? I knew he could change.' "We aren't heroes yet, Monoko. More like heroes in training."   
  
"Can you take the rest of us for flights? The kids would have a blast. You could make it a new activity."  
  
Taking the initiative and definitely not caring about what Usagi had to say about the matter, Mamoru answered her question. "I don't see why we can't, but we'll have to ask Mr. Satan first to make sure it's all right with him that we take you guys flying without seatbelts." Monoko giggled.  
  
"We have to ask Piccolo, too, Mamoru. Remember, no Ki for a year." With that being said and done, Usagi flew back down to the ground, where she would ask Mr. Satan. She planned on leaving the calling of Piccolo up to Mamoru himself.   
  
Monoko blinked with curiosity. "She doesn't seem like that much of an idiot to me."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Believe me, she is, you just have to know her for a while before you realize it. But she has her moments."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The first thing that Mamoru did after unloading his very ecstatic passenger into her cabin for rest, he went to the main office to use the phone to call his father. He knew his father's temper as well as annoying stubbornness so his chances of getting a temporary release of his punishment was as good as getting his father to hug Vejita of his own freewill.   
  
"What is it brat?"  
  
Mamoru smirked even though his father couldn't see it. "Father, what would you have done if this wasn't me?"  
  
"I don't have to worry about that. The only ones who have this number are you, your stupid friends, and the Sons all of which I answer with brat. So tell me, what's with the sudden use of Ki power after if told you not to? Do I need to revoke the use of power for another year?"  
  
Mamoru cringed at the thought. "No. I was flying around one of the campers. You know, doing a favor. She wanted to hang-glide so I took her flying and was wondering if we could make a habit of it?" The only response he earned from his father was deep breathing. "Please. The others think it's a fabulous idea. The campers are nuts about flying. Would it be possible to let up on our punishments until we get out of camp?"  
  
Piccolo sighed. Not of anger, but of relief. Relief that his son was finally learning. "hump. He took longer then even I did. "Fine."  
  
"Great, Odango didn't think you'd let me but HA! I guess I proved her wrong."  
  
'I guess not much has changed between the two.' "Do try to learn faster." Piccolo hung up the phone without another word.  
  
Mamoru, too, hung up the phone. He wasn't at all upset that his father had hung up the way he had. It was a normal occurrence. "The other kids are going to be so excited. I can't wait to see their faces." As he turned around, he noticed Makoto walk into the room with a handful of mail. "Hey." He waved to he as he passed by. 'Why am I being so nice? I don't like it. Do I?'  
  
Makoto just turned around and watched him walk out of the room. "Now that was strange. He actually acknowledged my presence."  
  
~*~*~  
  
That evening at the nightly campfire, conversation was far more freely given between the two groups. There were fewer hostilities towards each other. Though, Mamoru tended to keep his distance and instead, sat with Monoko and told her to story of the past.   
  
"So when that Cell guy came back to earth two years ago Usagi's dad beat him?"  
  
Mamoru nodded as he popped a roasted marshmallow into his mouth. "Yep. Well, it was more like his offspring but never the less, he was beaten by the hands of a great fighter."  
  
"What was it like in the past?"  
  
Mamoru tried to think back to his experiences in the past. They weren't exactly the best, but he had learned quite a bit. "Well, things were a lot different, as well as a lot more primitive. I mean, we're talking about nearly sixty years difference. Technology was sure lagging. I learned quite a bit about myself. Even learned that some queen's after Usagi."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Yeah. She sent Cell after her; no one knows who she is or why she tried to get Usagi's power. We never found her, nor have we heard from her since the Cell incident."  
  
Monoko giggled. "Maybe her dad scared her away."  
  
"We can only hope."  
  
Monoko sighed as she leaned against a rock. "I sure wish that I could be like you, Mamoru."  
  
"What? No you don't."  
  
"Yes I do. I want to save lives, and fly by myself, and fight strong people. I want to live life to the fullest, live on the extreme. I want to be able to move easily. I'm tired of always having to be helped out. I want this stupid disability to go away."  
  
Mamoru looked down to the child beside him. For the first time, he had to force himself not to want to cry. Her words spoke of her hardship, something that he had been stupid enough to think that he had, but in reality, he was living the good life. He was grateful to her in regards to the fact that she showed him how much he had and how stupid he had been in the past. She taught him how to care for others, how to let his emotions out, and all he had done for her was take her on a single flight. He knew that there had to be a way to repay her, and that one thing had been playing on his mind since day one. "I'll be right back, Monoko. I have to talk to my friends for a minute."  
  
Monoko looked up to Mamoru as he stood up. "Ok."   
  
Mamoru approached Hotaru with an open mind. He knew that he was subject to rejection after all that he had done to her, but knew that she was the only hope for Monoko.   
  
"Hotaru, you're the big expert with Ki healing. Do you think we might be able to manipulate it somehow to our advantages? You know, so we can heal these kids."  
  
The entire group went silent as some turned to Hotaru, and the others turned to Mamoru, but all had one common thought. 'Since when did he care so much?' The entire group goes silent at this question. Mr. Satan and Videl cursing themselves for not thinking of it themselves.  
  
Hotaru's eyes went wide as she began to stammer her answer. "I... I don't know. I don't know how the disease works. Mommy never taught me anything more than healing physical wounds."  
  
"I've been reading up on it. It attacks the muscles in the body, destroying them." Ami quickly added.  
  
Hotaru sighed. That still wouldn't help. "The disease would still be there. We couldn't destroy it because we don't know how too. It's beyond us."  
  
"But what if we train them to use their own Ki to strengthen and support their body systems? This would deaden the pain and strengthen their muscles, allowing them movement of their body." Ami beamed with pride at the idea.  
  
Usagi thought for a moment. "Maybe me, Hotaru, and Ami can work out a program, but we don't have much time. We only have ten days left."  
  
Mamoru smiled. 'YES! Now Monoko will get her wish.' "You three just work on this, we'll all take over your duties and behave. No fighting, or anything else to distract you."  
  
Usagi smiled up at Mamoru. She couldn't believe how much he had changed since they had arrived. 'I knew this would work.' "Great. Mr. Satan?" She turned to the only one who could possibly stand in their way.   
  
Mr. Satan happily nodded. "If anyone can do this its you three. Hotaru knows how to control this mysterious power, Ami will contribute with her knowledge of medicine as well as this disease, and Usagi will...uh...well Usagi is Usagi. What can I say? She has a habit of thinking of ways to help in ways no one else even considers. We'll cover everything, even if I have to do it myself."  
  
Mamoru smiled as he walked back to Monoko and sat down. "Did you miss me?"  
  
Monoko smiled. "No. I could never miss a fool like you."  
  
"I'm hurt."  
  
Monoko giggled. "I didn't mean to. You know I love you." If she could have, she would have thrown her arms around him in an instant and given him a giant hug.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Later that night, the new couple snuck out from their bunk to watch the stars, completely alone. They like being able to spend quiet time together without he gawking eyes and questions from their friends as well as curious campers.   
  
"It's lovely, isn't it Haruka?"  
  
Haruka, who was paying more attention to Michiru than the stars, nodded. "You said it." She put her arms around her when a cold breeze camp whirling by.   
  
"How do you think our parents will react?"  
  
Haruka shrugged. "I don't know and I don't really care."  
  
"But don't you think they will be angry with us?"  
  
"Do you love me?"  
  
Michiru turned to Haruka in confusion. "What?"  
  
"Do you love me?"  
  
Michiru didn't even have to think about that. "Of course I love you but..."  
  
"Shh..." Haruka put her finger over Michiru's mouth. "I love you too. We love each other and that's all that matters. What anyone else says doesn't. They don't know what we share nor will they ever." She put her hand around Michiru's cheek and moved in for a kiss, which was gladly accepted by the receiving party.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Two nights later, Ami, Usagi, and Hotaru approached Mamoru's gang with their research, which they had spent day and night working on. They didn't want to let down the other campers, who had been told that they were getting a surprise.   
  
"Well?" Mamoru asked with worry. He wanted them to be successful more than anything. He wanted them to be successful for Monoko's sake.   
  
Usagi frowned. "Well after all of our hard work, I'm sorry to say..." Usagi trailed off as Mamoru's face sunk.   
  
"You didn't succeed?"  
  
Usagi grinned, "We've come up with an idea that we think should work."  
  
Too happy to be angry, Mamoru picked her up above his head and spun around, causing her to laugh. "THAT'S GREAT!"   
  
Ami giggled. She had never seen the two get along so well. "Ok you two, enough with the flirting. Let's get down to business."   
  
Mamoru blushed as he stopped and dropped Usagi as if she were a hot coal. "I could never flirt with Odango."  
  
Usagi blushed just as much as he did. "He's too much of a freak for me to flirt with."  
  
Minako giggled as she jabbed Usagi in the ribs. "I think you should go for him. He's just your type."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened at the thought. "MINAKO!"   
  
Ami laughed as he watched her two friends run off. "Ok, here's what we've come up with. Basically they'll be using their Ki to strengthen their muscles as we do, but at a constant low level, so they don't wear out, with Rei's meditation techniques to deaden the pain. Usagi and Hotaru will use their healing to strengthen their limbs now, and the training will finish the job.   
  
Mamoru didn't even wait before he walked to Satan and tapped his shoulder to gain his attention. "The girls have found a way to heal them. We start tomorrow."   
  
~*~*~  
  
The next afternoon, the entire bunch of campers were called to the campfire sight where they would learn of their new surprise devised entirely for them.   
  
Mamoru walked to the middle of the ring with a smile on his face. He couldn't wait to deliver the good news, which the girls had given him the honor of doing. "As you know, me and my friends have the ability to fly," Giggles and laughter arose from that. "This is with Ki power. Usagi, Ami, and Hotaru have been working on a technique to help you fight your disease with this. It won't take it away, but we feel it will give you a fighting chance and maybe even use of you limbs."  
  
The campers looked on with excitement. They couldn't believe their ears. "Yes, it's true. And we would like to demonstrate how we will be doing this. So we're gonna need a volunteer."   
  
Monoko squealed with joy. "ME. ME. I'LL DO IT MAMORU!"  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Great." He walked to her and kneeled down. "Odango."  
  
Usagi joined Mamoru at his side and smiled down at Monoko. "Ok, Monoko, let's get this started."  
  
Monoko looked up at Usagi, and then up at Mamoru. "Can my big brother do it?" She innocently asked.  
  
"Uh...I don't know if I can."  
  
Monoko looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "Please?"  
  
Seeing his dilemma, Usagi got an idea. "Mamoru, I can send the information to you through the link."  
  
Mamoru looked confused. "Huh?"   
  
"Just hold my hand and concentrate your power to me, during the transition, I'll send the information back to you of what I'm doing."  
  
Monoko was the one now looking confused. "Is he going to do it?"  
  
"We both are. We're going to use his special power." Joining hands over her, Usagi began to concentrate her healing power to Monoko with the help of Mamoru. His power was mysteriously warm and caring, not at all like his coldhearted attitude.   
  
She raised her power level to try to open a link with him since they were connected and oddly enough, it seemed to work with more ease than she had expected, like it was always meant to be, though it was only temporary. Together, they began to glow gold as they sent their energy through Monoko's fragile body. She was shocked that he also possessed the healing power in him. Using the link she sent the information on using it to her stunned companion.   
  
After Usagi finished up with successfully sending the information to Mamoru, the duo telepathically sent the information into Monoko's mind on how to use her Ki energy to work her muscles. Here Mamoru was the master having learned techniques from his father and past them on to her.   
  
That being done, their auras faded away, leaving curious eyes staring at Monoko. It was so slow at first, that they wouldn't have notice it if they weren't looking so closely, but there it was, her hand moved. Slowly, in awe, she moved her hands then her legs. "I can move..."  
  
Mamoru could have cried for her right there and then if it hadn't been for the large crowd around. "Congratulations Monoko."  
  
"I DID IT! YOU DID IT!" Monoko burst up from the ground and threw herself upon Mamoru.   
  
Mamoru was more than willing to hug back. For the first time, he didn't have to worry about hurting her. "This is only the beginning for you."  
  
Michiru actually WAS crying at the spectacle. She hadn't seen anything more beautiful than that display of affection between the two. "I'm so happy we came."  
  
Haruka put her arm around Michiru's shoulders. "So am I." She wasn't only talking about her own fortunes either. She was genuinely happy for Mamoru as well as little Monoko.   
  
~*~*~   
  
For the remainder of the camp, all with the knowledge of healing went on and continued to heal the rest of the campers. They healed and healed far into the lonely nights. They would have healed all day and all night if it had not been for Mr. Satan forcing them to stop for rest.  
  
The other Ki-Jitsu masters also lent their strength and energy to the trio. Even so at the end of the day, they could barely move from the energy they had expended.  
  
The first day was the worse, and they even collapsed when they were finally told to stop, or else. Haruka, near Usagi at the time, caught her and picked her up gently. Looking embarrassed, she sees Makoto and Rei with Mamoru supported between them and Hotaru in Justin's arms. With out a word they put them to bed. Just a grin shared.  
  
~*~*~  
  
On the last day of camp, the families arrived to pick up their children. They found themselves blocked from going to the cabins, where there were to pick up their children. They wanted to greet their kids and humor the excited youngsters. They had missed them.  
  
"What's the meaning of this!?"  
  
"We're here to pick up our children, yet you stop us!?"  
  
"HEY! Do we need to get the authorities out here!?"   
  
Mamoru, who had been sent to the front office by Mr. Satan to calm the crowd, stood atop the building away from the angry mob of parents. "Calm down folks. I know you want to see your loved ones..." 'Yeah right. These guys consider the kids to be a burden.' "But they have a surprise in store for you." He looked up just enough to see his own father, as well as Yamcha and the Son's. 'This should be interesting.' "Ok! They're ready, Odango!"   
  
He looked behind the roof to Usagi, who picked up Monoko and brought her out in front of the main office. She carefully set her down so as not to hurt her. "Just stay calm and focus."  
  
Her mother, Yuiki San, was more than outraged that they would treat her daughter so shabbily. "Somebody pick her up! She doesn't need to just be dropped there."  
  
"Yuiki San, Monoko has the pleasure of being the first. Watch carefully." Mamoru nodded down to the anxious Monoko.   
  
Staring at the joy of her life, though not only showing it, Monoko's mother wished yet again that her daughter could be cured of her disease. She smiled a smile filled with all her love. Monoko grinned back at her mother, shocking her into tears, for the embittered child she had dropped off here would have never done that.  
  
Still smiling, with a look of concentration, she slowly focused her Ki as she was taught. She got to the point where she began to lift her hands to hand rests that had been placed there for her aide. After a short rest, she pushed herself all the way up too her feet, not ignoring the gasps around.   
  
Yuiki San fell to her knees; sure that this had to be a dream, as her daughter slowly, and bit clumsily walked towards her and into her arms. "Monoko...you're..." She held onto her daughter and cried even harder as her only wish had finally been granted.   
  
The rest of the parents stood in shock, and then looked to their own children, who had taken Monoko's success as their signal to move. All slowly went to their families, tears were in everyone's eyes. Even the Pack showed no shame that time.   
  
Yuiki San looked into her daughter's eyes, which for the first time were full of life. "I'm sorry."  
  
Monoko hugged her mother tightly, for the first time. "It's ok mom. I'm glad you sent me here. If you hadn't, I wouldn't have met Mamoru and I wouldn't be able to hug you." That statement only brought more tears to her mother's eyes.   
  
Usagi took the liberty to go to her own parents, who were looking more proud than ever. "HI!" She didn't waste anytime running to them and giving them each a giant hug. "Did ya miss me?!"   
  
"Of course, but it looks like you didn't spend too much time thinking about us while you were here. What did you guys do?" Goku asked with much curiosity.   
  
Usagi giggled. "Well, Mamoru became attached to that kid, Monoko and wanted to find a way to make her get over her disease, so me, Hotaru, and Ami came up with a way for them to combat their disease and healed their muscles as much as we could."  
  
Chi-Chi looked around the group of children and parents with tears in her eyes. "You mean Mamoru wanted this?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yep. He's changed, a lot. Like all the other kids. Especially Haruka and Michiru." She smirked as she walked away from her parents to let them try to figure out what she meant by that. Chi-Chi looked at them and suddenly smiled. Goku looked and scratched his head, and shrugged.  
  
Tears in Yuiki San's eyes, she went up to Mamoru and hugged him tightly, like totally embarrassing him. Monoko looked at him and simply says, "Thank you bro. I love you." Blushing, he heard the laughter of his friends, but for perhaps the first time doesn't respond in kind.   
  
"I love you too, kid. I'll be sure to come over to hang out." Monoko smiled wider at the thought of that.   
  
Well that was just about all Piccolo could take. He didn't know what the big idea was, but he knew that something was up. It just had to be. The Mamoru who had been forced to go to this camp would never have said something like that. He had to be putting on a show just to get off the hook. "Mamoru..."  
  
Mamoru looked up from the excited child and gulped when he saw the angry face of his father. 'Oh great. What's he mad at me for now?' "Yes?" He gently pulled away from Monoko and her mother and approached his father, waiting for a verbal beating.   
  
Piccolo only glared accusingly down at his son. "What's the deal?"  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"You're being...nice. You don't do nice, remember?"  
  
Mamoru looked a little hurt, and for the first time in years it showed on his face. "Father, you sent me here to change and learn how to care for other people. Well, Monoko pretty much taught me that, and now when I show change, you knock me down for it."  
  
"You mean, you actually meant what you said to that child? You weren't just humoring her?" 'Oh shit. Have I been the problem? Yes, at least a good deal of it. There's still a lot I can learn from Goku.'  
  
Mamoru nodded with more confidence than ever. "Of course I meant it. We're friends, I wanna keep in touch. You got a problem with that?"  
  
Piccolo believed him, and for the first time since he had met Usagi, he looked down at him with pride. "Well, I guess the girls did some good after all. You have them to thank, you know. All of you do. Them and your own willingness and strength to grow." He said as he looked around the group.   
  
Monoko could tell that the tension between father and son was gone and walked to Piccolo. "Mamoru is the best." She threw herself onto him, shocking him senseless.   
  
Piccolo looked over to his blushing son and realized that it was for real. He had actually changed. 'Bravo, girls.' He looked around the area and let his eyes rest upon Haruka and Michiru, who looked at each other as if they would never let themselves part. 'What's gotten into them?...Wait a minute, it happened. About time too.'   
  
Usagi walked back to the group and looked up at Piccolo with a smile. "They have passed the final class in the Brat pack training school. I really don't think we can teach them anything that you can't now that they found their center."  
  
Looking down at Usagi with sudden understanding, Piccolo knew why she was so stuck on bringing them to the camp. It was so they could learn what was really important. "You guys did a wonderful job." 'After all I did to her when she was younger, I can't believe she's actually trying to help my...family...'  
  
Mamoru still had one last thing that he wanted to do. He walked to Monoko and kneeled down in front of her. "A wise girl told me that here, I would meet he greatest heroes on earth. I laughed at her, but now I know that what she told me was no lie. But the truth in it's truest form. Thank you, Monoko, for teaching me its true meaning." The rest of his friends readily agreed with his words.  
  
"Thank you for helping me too, Mamoru."  
  
~*~*~  
  
At the end of the day, everyone was exhausted and more than ready to go home. They had all pretty much said their good-byes and most of the campers had already gone home.   
  
As Mamoru and the rest of the Pack said their last good-byes, Usagi made her way back to her parents, who couldn't have been more proud of her. "So...? Now we have to plan for the trip to Disney World!"  
  
Chi-Chi lovingly put her hands on her daughter's shoulders while she giggled. "You just can't wait for that, can you?"  
  
Usagi impishly smiled. "Nope. I want to see Piccolo in mouse ears."   
  
"So do I." Goku added with excitement.   
  
"Well...," Chi-Chi looked around the camp to see that almost everyone had already left. The other girls had left long ago since their parents had wanted them home early that day. Michiru and Haruka had taken off to enjoy some quiet time together. "I think we should be heading home. It's been a long day and Goku is going to go nuts if we don't get him some food soon."   
  
"Aww...but mom. Can't we stay just a little longer?"  
  
"Odango," For once, that term was not used by Mamoru to insult the recipient  
  
Usagi looked up to her parents, who nodded their consent down to her. "I'll be back." She curiously walked over to Mamoru definitely not fearing him anymore. "Yes?"  
  
"We may not see eye to eye on every thing, but I think you're right. It's pass time to put the past behind us."  
  
Grinning, Usagi held out her hand. "Ok Zit." At his frown she answers, "Hey you make fun of my hair, I make fun of yours. Black hair, black Head, Zit." (AN: This idea was borrowed from and with the permission of Draegyn. Author of Angel Prophecies. A great fic.)  
  
Annoyed, but seeing it as fair he gave a crooked grin. "We probably won't be friends for a long time, but we'll always be best of rivals."   
  
Usagi impishly added, "And maybe once a month we can all spar"  
  
Grinning, Mamoru nodded. "Of course. But you know, I'll always win.  
  
Usagi giggled. "You keep dreaming that." The two shook on it. They may not have been the best of friends yet, buy at least they were no longer enemies. Usagi looked up into the sky and into the stars.   
  
Mamoru also looked up. "Still feel that emptiness up there?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yes, buy my family and friends make it bearable."   
  
Turning around, he began to walk back, but again stopped. He turned around, fully, to address her. "Usagi, I'm sorry about those two fights."   
  
Looking back at him, she just nodded, and he turned to walk off to go home with Piccolo. A slow smile appeared on her lips.  
  
(Ok, that song was from the Little Mermaid...I think. Comet Moon thought it would be a good idea and I agreed. ^.^ It went. The kissing stuff was his idea too, me, being the anti-romance person here, never would have thought about it ^.^ Anyway...What did you think? Was it ok? See ya later. Ja )  



	97. Piccolo, the Mouseketer Part 1

( This is going to be a Two-parter and I'm sure, buy the title, you've already guessed what it's going to be about. ^_^ This is also going to go somewhat fast because of how close to 100 it is...You'll understand why soon enough. BTW...these chapters are going to be somewhat smaller than most...I have my reasons.)  
  
*~*Two weeks Later*~*  
  
After Usagi had gotten back from the camp, where things started to make a change for the better, not much contact between the two groups went on. Usagi and her friends continued to train Hotaru, with the help of Goku and Chi-Chi every so often. Usagi had celebrated her eleventh birthday, which the Pack had willingly attended.   
  
Michiru and Haruka began to discover more and more about themselves after taking a short leave of absence from the Pack for time to be alone, as a couple, while Mamoru frequently visited Monoko and her mother.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi furiously glared at what she currently held in her hands. She had just received the mail for the day, and in it lay something very important, something inexcusable. She walked into the house and threw all the mail, except for the important letter, on a small table near the door. Not even giving it a second thought, Chi-Chi stalked to he husband, who was resting comfortably in a recliner. She stiffened her hand and slapped him on the back of the head.   
  
Shocked wide awake, Goku jumped out of the chair, ready to be attacked. He looked around for any possible threat and calmed down when there was none. A soft tapping could be heard from behind, so he turned around to see the fuming face of his wife. "Chi-Chi, why'd you do that"  
  
"This is ALL your fault, Son Goku!"  
  
Goku groaned at his wife's harsh tone. He hated it when she used his last name, it always meant more trouble than normal, though, this time he had not known of anything that he could have done wrong to annoy her. He just rubbed his head and frowned up at her. "What did I do now?"  
  
She waved the letter in front of her husband's face much too fast for him to see what it could have possibly been. "Do you know what came in the mail today? DO YOU?" By the looks of the envelope that she held right along with the document, Goku had a pretty good idea of what could have come. "Usagi's report card came, that's what." Backing away from her husband, she began pacing the room as she continued on with her rants. "Never in my life did I think I'd raise such a stupid child."  
  
Annoyed at that statement, Goku stopped her in the middle of a step and took the paper from her hand. "What's the problem? She passed all her classes."  
  
Chi-Chi's face reddened with anger at her husbands ignorance. "Passed, she got a C minus in everything!!! She BARELY passed. There's a note here from her teacher that the only reason she didn't get a D in English and math is because there was a curved grading scale used. He even commented that she was lucky to even advance to the next grade, and wants her to retake the re-tests to confirm that she shouldn't take summer school. "  
  
Goku scanned over the grades written on the paper in his hands and grinned. "Now that's not all true. She got an A in two classes."  
  
"AN A IN GYM DOESN'T COUNT, GOKU! And the only reason she got it in computer programming is because of all the time she spent with those stupid video games. Those aren't real academic classes anyway. You don't need this to excel in the world. You need math, and proper reading skills. I mean look at this. She barely understands reading at her class' level, yet she reads HER COMICS all the time."  
  
Goku sighed. "Yes, but doesn't she read them with her music. Didn't we figure out that music allows her to block everything out so she can concentrate on her work?"  
  
Remembering Ami's explanation, she frowned. "Yes, she does OK with listening to music, so she can concentrate. But she's using it as a crutch. She needs to get focused on her studies, and stop blaming music on every thing." Chi-Chi's expression took a firm look, which had Goku cowering in fear. "That's it! It's time she learns a lesson that these horrible grades are simply unacceptable. She's NOT going to Disney World with everyone."  
  
Goku was utterly shocked at what he had just heard come from the mouth of his wife her own daughter whom she claimed to love. Not only was Chi-Chi angry, but Goku, too, was approaching her a level of anger, though for a different reason. "Chi-Chi, she's earned that trip and you know it. She went through a lot to get it, including losing her arm. Don't take it away from her. It's not fair."   
  
Chi-Chi didn't wait more than a few seconds before she barked her response. "FAIR?! Is it fair to expect these grades? No Goku, I will not allow her to waste her life away like this. She has to be punished for these horrible marks. The retest is in about three days and Summer School starts the Monday after this weekend, that's when the trip is planned. If she fails it, then she grounded for sure. She will be spending her entire vacation in summer school. For that matter, she's grounded for these unacceptable marks as well."  
  
Goku groaned. He didn't want to see the face of his daughter when the harsh news hit. She was sure to be disappointed, but what could he do? Once Chi-Chi has her mind made up, that's it. There really was no way of changing it without years and years of hard begging on his part. "Fine, but you're telling her. It's your choice, you disappoint her."  
  
If she could have, Chi-Chi would have frowned harder at her husband. "Don't try to make me feel guilty. You know it's the only way to make her learn."  
  
Goku snorted to show his disagreement, but he didn't dare say it. "I still don't see what the big deal about school is. It's just a bunch of useless facts that you forget as soon as you graduate."  
  
Glaring at her husband, she began to really chew him out. "And that's one of the biggest problems I've had with all our children because of this. YOU! You give them the ideas that this means nothing. That school is stupid, just because you didn't go. Well you forget mister that I had to teach you how to read and how to do math or you wouldn't even be able to read a paper. And the kids don't respect my decisions on this because of you. They think its ok to just blow me off. Sneak out when my back is turned, and YOU just laugh it off. Well guess what buddy, Since you are as much at fault at this as Usagi is, You're not going either."  
  
Goku's face shattered into thousands of pieces and dropped to the floor at that one. "NOOOOO, Chi-Chi! I have to see Piccolo in Mickey Mouse ears! PLEASE?!"  
  
Chi-Chi struggled to keep a firm in her decision at the thought. "NO! If you have any respect at all for me, and my beliefs in schooling being important, you STAY!"  
  
Looking ready to cry himself, Goku slumped his shoulders in defeat. "OK." He quietly answered.  
  
Chi-Chi smiled to try to hide the guilt that she was feeling. She hated to upset him like that, but they BOTH had to learn sooner or later. "Good, she's over at the Tree house with her friends right now. Call her up on the intercom and get her back here. NOW!"  
  
"Why can't you do it?"  
  
"JUST DO IT!" Chi-Chi yelled, causing Goku to jump.  
  
"Ok, ok. I'll do it if it'll make you happy. I just talked to them a minute ago anyway." Goku walked slowly into the living room, where the intercom sat by the sofa. 'She's gonna kill us.' He could hear the footsteps of his wife following him, as well as the faint sound of children talking. "Shh." He said as he stopped cold in his spot.  
  
Chi-Chi, not expecting him to stop there, ran right into him. "GOKU DON'T JUST STOP! HOW MA..." She stopped her ranting and looked at the intercom machine, where the voices were coming from. "Goku you idiot! You left it on AGAIN!"   
  
Sighing at his forgetfulness, Goku reached for the call button, when Chi-Chi, frowning, grabbed his hand and put her other hand on his mouth to shush him. "Be quiet." The girls on the other end of the Com seemed to be talking about Usagi's grades, which had come a week late.  
  
Goku pulled his wife's hand away from his mouth. "Chi-Chi, we can't just eavesdrop."  
  
Chi-Chi grinned. He had kept his voice down so the kids weren't able to hear what he had said. "Oh right. Like you've never used your Saiyan hearing to eavesdrop on her and the kids before." Hand behind his head, Goku just laughed on nervously, unable to deny.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The girls had made a habit of gathering at Sanctuary at least once a day during the summer days. They went there to get away from their daily lives of sparring as well as dealing with their parents, but now, they were having, what Usagi thought to be, a crisis. Her report card was already a week late. Not that she was complaining because she had actually had a peaceful birthday. But she knew that the closer to her trip to America came, the more unlikely she would be able to convince her mother to let her go if she had bad marks, which she was sure she would. She needed time to beg and convince, which she was certain she wouldn't get.  
  
"Usagi, you do great in your studies. I'm sure you did fine on the test."  
  
Usagi looked up to Ami, nearly in tears at the thought of giving up her trip. "You don't understand Ami, I can't do tests. It's bad enough that I can't study without music, but I get so nervous when tests come up."  
  
Rei; "That's not true. You can do tests just fine. Remember? On our practice tests that Ami had us do, you were the only other one to score an A minus with a range of 89 to 95 on most, and even better with a 99 on a few of the Math tests."  
  
Usagi sighed. "Well that was easy. That was with my music. But I can't use it in school. I tried to use a Walkman with a single earphone once and got yelled at. Even mom and dad were annoyed, even though they know I do better with music. I got a lecture and no ice cream for a WEEK...A WHOLE ENTIRE WEEK. I mean it's not like I was cheating and had the answers on it. It was just instrumental music."  
  
Minako tried to give a cheery smile as well as words of hope, but that soon fell through. "Well I'm sure your mom will under...Ok, maybe not."  
  
Usagi buried her face in her knees. "I'm doomed. If I know mom, she'll make me miss Disney World."   
  
~*~*~  
  
On the Son's side of the COM, the sound of Usagi crying was heard. Goku accusingly glared down at his wife, who, in return, just smacked him, halfheartedly, in the chest. It was more of an anger created because he was right.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto; "Com'on Usagi, your mom is not that mean. She knows all you went though for this. I mean, you had your arm chopped off. That has to at least count for something."  
  
Usagi lifted her head with tears still trailing down her cheek. "Not with mom it doesn't. She wouldn't care if it were chopped off, just what my grades are. I mean, its not that she doesn't CARE. She just has a thing about grades and freaks out when I bring home bad marks."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi had latched onto her husband's arm and dug straight into his skin. She was annoyed that her daughter would be so rude as to talk about her behind her back, even if it WAS somewhat true. She was about to interrupt when she heard the voice of her daughter again.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi grabbed her tail and squeezed it almost as tightly as she could. "But she's right. I AM stupid."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi let go of her husband, who seemed to be in shock, a state in which she too found herself falling into. Her previous statement to Goku, about raising a stupid child, was coming back to haunt her. She slowly put he hand to her mouth. 'Is that what I'm telling her? I'm sending her the message that I think she's stupid? What have I done to my little girl?'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Ami had had all the lies that she was prepared to take. She jumped up with anger in her eyes. "THAT'S NOT TRUE! I told you, the tests I gave all of us were harder than the ones we took and you PASSED them with flying colors!"   
  
Usagi, once again, found herself sighing in exasperation. There was still one very important element that they were forgetting that enabled her to pass them. "But it's the music that allows me to shut everything else out. I really can't think with out it."  
  
The room went silent. No one really had anything that could successfully rebut that, except for Makoto who had remembered one tiny little fact, which could help in a big way. "Well maybe those music classes you and Ami are considering will help. Maybe after you understand music a little better, you'll be able to put your musical knowledge to good use."  
  
Usagi slumped over again. "Maybe, but it's too late to do any good for this year's tests. But, I really want to learn the guitar and piano."  
  
Rei found herself nodding in agreement. "Yeah, I'd like to learn Piano myself."  
  
Minako's face brightened at the chance to change the subject to music. "No, give me the guitar, too. And singing any day."  
  
Usagi giggled. "You're always singing, I guess we shouldn't expect anything different from you."  
  
Minako joined in with Usagi's giggling. "What's wrong with singing? It's fun."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Yeah I like to sing, too."  
  
"You two have great voices." Makoto got a smirk on her face. " Me, though., I'd love to learn the drums. Now THAT would be great."  
  
Minako grinned. "Hey we could make a band if we did that. That way I would have experience when I become a superstar."  
  
"Always wanting fame and glory, Minako?"  
  
Minako blushed as she nodded. "Of course, Makoto."  
  
Rei thought about the idea for a moment. "That sounds like fun. My uncle has a studio that we could play around with for a few days a month. We could have one of those garage bands. Me on piano. Ami on harp. Makoto on drums. Minako on guitar and singing. Usagi on guitar and also singing. And the rest of us as back up."  
  
Minako slightly nodded her head. "But we need a lead. We can't have two leads, can we? Oh wait...I know, why don't we all switch back and fourth?"  
  
Ami, who had pretty much stayed silent while her friends thought up their wild dreams, looked down to the ground. "I don't know."  
  
Makoto grinned. "Don't worry, Ami, we'll talk you into it." The five of them burst out with laughter.   
  
Rei was the first to stop laughing, as a question had popped into her head. "Hey Usagi, you always remember an entire song right away, why's that?"  
  
Usagi stopped her laughter and turned to Rei. "Music, it's easy to remember." She stopped long enough to sigh as the fun had stopped all too soon for her. "And here we are back at my stupidity."  
  
Ami sighed with much frustration, again. "Usagi you're not stupid. You just can't concentrate in school."  
  
"It's not that mom isn't right about school. Maybe not to the extreme that she takes it, but she's defiantly right in her arguments with Daddy."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Back at the Son house, two very shocked parents fell to the ground.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"WHAT?" All the girls yelled out at once to let their surprise be known.   
  
Usagi was confused. "Huh? Oh yeah. I know, I should hate school, and I do. It's not nice to go somewhere where you feel your stupid, but that doesn't mean I don't respect it. I mean Dad's wrong in thinking that it's not really important. Where would the doctors come from? Computers and all the other jobs that need schools?"  
  
Stunned, Makoto was the first to respond to Usagi's feelings. "Where did this come from?"  
  
Usagi smirked. "Common sense..."  
  
Rei sighed in relief. "Good." She had almost expected her to reply with...  
  
"And comics too!" Usagi giggled as all of her friends tumbled over.  
  
Makoto; "Even math helps with cooking. I also need to know how to read and write to save my recipes."  
  
Ami: "True, Plus history is kept better this way, instead of word of mouth."  
  
Minako smiled, thinking only of one thing. "Yeah and music history, and songs, and CD's came from it as well."  
  
Rei nodded to agree with a crooked grin. "Schooling is a big part of religions and keeping the works documented."  
  
Usagi dipped her head down. "Like I said, she's right. And I am an idiot."  
  
Ami sighed. "Usagi, we just need to help you study in class. The music should help, and seeing that your grandfather, the Ox King made the hall at the music school, we shouldn't have too much trouble getting you in. And maybe we can even find a way for you to have music to listen to in class."  
  
Rei: "Yeah, Usagi. You had a good idea with the Walkman, we just need to ok it with the teachers and people at the office. Maybe if we can explain to them that you do much better with listening to music that they will let you."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Back at home, Chi-Chi had heard all that she had wanted to. She didn't want them to get any ideas. Without even okaying it with Goku, she pressed the 'call' button on her side of the intercom, startling the girls. "Usagi, can you please come home, dear? It's important."  
  
Fear that the dreaded results are in, Usagi hesitantly pressed the button on her side of the intercom to receive the message. "Ok mom, we were about to all go home anyway." She quickly let up on the button and slowly, but numbly rose to her feet. "I have to go." She looked up to her friends.  
  
Minako gave Usagi what she thought would cheer her up. "Well look at it this way, Usagi. If it IS your report card, at least you don't have to worry about when it's coming anymore."  
  
Usagi, knowing that her friend was only trying to help, hunched her shoulders over. "I know, but then I'll have to worry about what punishment they're going to give me."  
  
Ami looked on, as there wasn't much else she could do. "Don't worry. Everything always turns out for the best."  
  
Usagi sighed as she walked, accompanied by her friends, to the door. "I hope you're right, Ami, I hope you're right." She leapt into the air and took off in the direction of her home. It wouldn't take her too long to get there, meaning, it wouldn't be too long before her punishment would be given to her.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Landing just outside her house, Usagi took a deep breath and opened to door to walk in. She knew exactly where they were once she sensed the house for their Ki. They were in the living room, waiting for her, both with a most serious look on their faces. Her mother for one reason while her father for another. An uncomfortable silence took over the room as both parties stared at each other.  
  
"Uhhmm, Yes mom?"  
  
With eyes of guilt, Chi-Chi looked down upon her less than curious daughter. "Your report card came in the mail today. You barely passed your subjects."  
  
Usagi looked down to the ground, knowing full well was would be coming next. She felt like crying. She had worked so hard to earn a trip to America and now she would have to give it away because she was, as she thought, stupid.   
  
Chi-Chi held the paper out for all to see. "They want you to retake all your tests, and if you do as poorly again, they want you to attend summer school."  
  
Looking up in horror at that dreaded curse to humanity, she gulped. She had known that she was going to do poorly, but there was no way that she ever thought that she would have to take summer school because of it. If she had to go to summer school, it wouldn't matter if her mother had planned on taking the trip away or not. That would determine everything, though, she refused to say anything.  
  
"For myself, I was going to forbid you from going to Disney World if you passed or not." Tears finally started to fall down Usagi's face at that. "But I'm not going to. I think instead of summer school and lost trips, I'll talk to your guidance councilor and see about finding away for you to use your Walkman in class. Just melodies, no voice."  
  
Looking up in shock, Usagi looked into the tearful eyes of her mother. "Huh?" She wasn't sure where that had come from, causing he to drop into confusion, until she thought about it for a second. "The COM was on again, wasn't it? That's why you know so much."  
  
Goku chuckled at her intellect, which was nowhere near as dumb as many like to believe. She was smart in subjects other than school, which would help her progress beyond what school had to offer. Though now he understood that to be successful, you need the information given to you in school as well as things you learn outside. "Smart guess there. Yes it was, and it made us both realize that we were both wrong."  
  
Usagi perked up with excitement. "Does this mean no summer school and I can go to Disney World?"  
  
Goku and Chi-Chi turned to each other with one thought in mind as the sadly forced themselves to shake their head. "I afraid that's something we can't promise, Usagi. Though your father and I understand, we have to obey the laws, and you have to pass this make up test to go." Seeing Usagi's head fall again, Chi-Chi continued. "But we are, like I said, going to see your counselor and try to have you take it with music. And we'll help you study for it. It's in three days."  
  
Hope flared up in Usagi's eyes. She knew that, if given the proper time, she could take the tests no problem with her music as her aid. "Then when I pass, can I go?"  
  
Chuckling at Usagi's sudden confidence, Chi-Chi grinned. "Then we can ALL go."  
  
Usagi ran to both her parents and gave them each a giant hug. This time, it had been her mother who had gotten her out of the bind, instead of her father, something she would never forget. "YAY."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The day before the exam, Chi-Chi had talk to the school's guidance counselor in hopes to help her daughter succeed in the test. The conversation was long and tedious, in Chi-Chi's eyes. She was presenting her point very well, while the guidance counselor seemed to want to think of it as cheating, which it was not. It was a tool to help her study and retain the information, as Chi-Chi tried to prove.  
  
In conclusion to the long hour and a half conversation, it was more like yelling and defending her daughter on Chi-Chi's part, a deal was made. Usagi would be able to listen to music as long as it was the counselor's choice of music as well as her player, to avoid cheating. And also, the Superintendent, the Principle and her father, who was the former principal, were going to attend the oral exam.   
  
The counselor had also made quite a few suggestions on her teaching methods, causing Chi-Chi to be embarrassed at how many mistakes she had made. She should have made herself available to help her kids with their questions, instead of just giving them books and expecting them to learn from that alone. Knowledge may be written within the pages of the book, but what to do with that knowledge comes from those who are willing to teach it.   
  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The day of the Exam~~  
  
Usagi was so fearful that she hardly ate any of her food. Her stomach was too upset to hold anything down anyway. Her friends had been over before they left to wish her luck, but had to leave short after as they were not allowed in the testing area unless they wanted to take it, which none of them did.   
  
When they had arrived at the school, Usagi was much more nervous than before. She found herself barely able to hold her sanity for much longer. What she needed was music to help her calm down.   
  
Usagi and her parents were taken into a small room with her teacher, counselor, principal, and some mean looking old guy, who glared at her.   
  
Chi-Chi sat down in one of the two chairs that sat against he wall next to her husband. "Just do your best Usagi." Goku just gave Usagi a goofy grin as well as a thumbs up.   
  
Chi-Chi could feel a great uneasiness in the room and oddly enough, it wasn't coming from her daughter. 'What the...?' She let her eyes travel across the room to an old man, who seemed to be afraid of her for some reason. 'Do I know him?' She tried to think back, WAY back to when and where she could have possibly known him. Obviously, it wasn't recently since everyone she knew was young. It had to be from when she was much, MUCH younger. Maybe when Gohan was still a child...and then it hit her.  
  
Not even caring about what sort of spectacle she was making, she threw herself out of her chair towards the old man. "NOW I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!" She yelled out with rage in her eyes. "You're that jerk who beat my Gohan! You're that tutor who said my husband was no good! Just a punk!"   
  
Fear suddenly claimed his eyes as he stood up from his chair and backed away from the furious mother. "Tha...that's not possible. You're too young to be her."  
  
Grinning, she stalked towards him. "My family ages well, Mr. Shuu, was it? Well, well, well. Looks like someone was a bit wrong on my Gohan, doesn't it. You said he was stupid and would become a criminal. Instead he's a great scholar, greater then you, and known as the savior of the Earth. HA, in your face." She let her emotions get the best of her and she stuck her tongue out at him.  
  
Scowling, Goku stood up. He remembered all too well what Gohan and Chi-Chi had told him about this man. "You hit my son? How could you just beat a child just because he was different than you?"  
  
Usagi watched her two parents with a grin. She hoped that they were going to chew him out. She remembered what had happened in the past when she was there. Mr. Shuu had been there and yelling at Gohan the first time she had been at the house, before her identity was spilled. 'Go mom!'  
  
Mr. Shuu cowered away from the two angry parents. It was bad enough that the mother could throw him out a window. He didn't want to see what the father could do. He felt a sudden relief when his daughter stepped up. "Enough. Leave my father alone. We're here to test Usagi, not hear lectures from you over my father's said actions. He's a great man and teacher and I won't stand for this. Now behave or leave."  
  
Glaring, Chi-Chi was able to control herself, and for one of the first times Goku's temper rose at the thought of one of his kids being hit by this jerk. "Doesn't matter. My Gohan has proved him wrong, and my Usagi will prove you wrong as well."  
  
Frowning, the principal let that drop. She didn't want to create a controversial environment that would upset the test taker. "Now I did not want to have music in this test for want of not distracting the student, however Mrs. Wright, her councilor, convinced me that it was the right thing to do, and she has brought the music."  
  
Mr. Shuu was put out by this whole situation. "Humph. Music when studying. Never in my day. A good rod is what she needs."  
  
Chi-Chi and Goku glared at him. One of their children had already been wrongfully beaten and this was definitely not a cause for Usagi to be disciplined. However, before either could say anything, the principal interceded. "I know your thoughts on this. I ask you to behave. I agreed to let you come after you mentioned the possibility of this being related to that person you always talked about. Now that we know that they're the same one, we can get on with it."  
  
"Now, Usagi. Your teacher will give you a hundred question oral test in each subject, except for the two you passed."  
  
Before she could go on, Mr. Shuu interjected with his thoughts again. "The brat only passed them because you don't need brains for them." A quick wave of an angry mother's fist in his face shut him up from saying anymore.  
  
The principal tired to ignore her father's words. "You need to pass all this with at least a C to stay out of summer school."  
  
"Yes ma'am. I get to listen to music though, right?"   
  
"YES YOU GET TO LISTEN TO MUSIC. Though I think it's the wrong thing, I was out voted on it." Usagi looked to her parents and noticed that they were both smiling back with their encouragement. She nodded to let her teacher know that she was ready and took her seat at one of the desks.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Over the next three hours, the tests were given Listening to both the teachers and the music flowing over her like a gentle wave of warm water, she easily responded to the questions given. She was somewhat shocked that they weren't nearly as hard as the tests that Ami and her mother had given to her over the last three days.   
  
The teachers, the Superintendent, the principal and her father were all very shocked at the results. The only two adults there, who were not, were her parents. Out of five hundred questions, for spelling, mathematics, science, geography, and history, she had only missed a total of about twenty questions. They appeared to be sporadic due to the music. In all her tests, she got A's and A minuses, a great achievement. The extra three days of non-stop studying with her mother had really helped a lot.   
  
Mr. Shuu wasn't the least bit fooled though. "This child is obviously a cheater. I mean how else could she change her grades so easily. MUSIC? HA! She should be expelled for insulting this school and the educational system as a whole."  
  
Tears came down Usagi's face. She knew that she wasn't a cheater, but she couldn't fight against an adult She had learned long ago not to contradict an adult. This time, things were up to her parents.   
  
Before anyone else could respond, however, two very enraged aura's were felt in the room, and seen by all those who did not have the ability to feel Ki signatures. Her parents were furious. Goku was more than upset by the man's rants, but Chi-Chi was livid. And who wouldn't be. She had been through this before and was NOT about to see it again. "You rotten, no-good jerk! How dare you call my daughter a cheater! She doesn't cheat. It's us that didn't understand her problem and just brushed it off. But given her grades, everyone knows she didn't try to cheat back then when she wasn't under a microscope."  
  
"Humph. As if you two barbarians such as you and your husband could possibly understand how devious a corrupt child can be."  
  
Goku unconsciously powered up and was ready to blow at any second. He had never heard such nonsense. Though, he controlled himself when he saw that Chi-Chi was nearing Mr. Shuu. He grinned. Chi-Chi would show him who's boss.   
  
Stalking even closer, Chi-Chi grabbed Mr. Shuu by the collar and lifted his now quaking form off the ground with one hand. She narrowed her eyes to glare harder, putting more fright into his heart. "Listen you jerk, you have insulted my children for the last time. No more. You are just a peacock, who is frightened by anything that doesn't meet your ideas of normal. Leave my children out of your pathetic ways. And count yourself lucky that you're so old and shriveled away or I'd give you a reminder of what I did when you hit My Gohan." She tossed him down into his chair. In return for her kindness, she received a glare from the old man.  
  
Before he could respond, his daughter interceded. "That's enough, father. You're out of line." Ignoring her sputtering father, she turned to Usagi, who had made it over to her parents as they tried to calm themselves for her sake. "I apologize for his actions now, and in the past. He was always a ruthless teacher. That's why he was asked to hand in his resignation instead of waiting for mandatory retirement as he intended."  
  
Chi-Chi looked down to her daughter with a warm smile and giggled to her satisfaction be known. She then looked back up to the principal.   
  
"Well this has been enlightening. I'm not sure why, but it seems that Usagi was right on music helping her. She has passed all her tests and the new grades will be put on her record."  
  
Usagi's fears evaporated at that moment, leaving her with the feeling of jumping for joy. Mrs. Wright spoke up at that time. "Since we all agree with this, I think that authorizing the Walkman would not be a wrong move. She will only be able to listen to instrumental music, however, and must keep it low enough to not be heard by anyone else. We don't want her disturbing the other students."  
  
Goku chuckled. "That won't be a problem with her Saiyan hearing."   
  
The Principal rose back to her feet and walked to the excited family. "Congratulations, Usagi, and enjoy your summer."  
  
~*~*~  
  
When the trio arrived home, they found all of Usagi's friends waiting. Impishly, Usagi signaled for her parents to play along. Grinning at each other, they gladly agreed. Before the trio landed, Usagi wiped the smile off of her face and brought out some forced tears.  
  
Usagi let her eyes fall as she dropped to the ground and picked up lucky, who licked her face to cheer her up. The other five girls took one look at her parents, who also looked upset, and immediately knew what was bothering her.   
  
Hotaru took the liberty of trying to cheer her up first. "Usagi, well, if you can't go then I don't want to go either." A smile cracked on Usagi's face, though not because she was being cheered up, she didn't need that, but because she could hardly hold in her laughter that was taking place inside her head.   
  
The other girls agreed that they wouldn't go unless Usagi was able to, which warmed her heart to the max. She was about to tell them the truth when her mother spoke up. "Come, Usagi. You have things that you must do before the night is up."  
  
Usagi nodded with a grin. "Right, mom. I have to pack for...Disney World since I aced all my exams!" She laughed as she looked around to her flabbergasted friends. "Gottcha!"  
  
"USAGI!" Rei playfully yelled out. "GET HER!" The five darted out for Usagi, who jumped into the air and soon, a game of chase ensued in the air.   
  
Chi-Chi and Goku just shook their heads as they walked into the house.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The coming Monday, the kids were up before dawn and more than ready for their new adventure. Hardly believing that they had a full week at Disney World in America, they were too excited to sleep, waking up their parents in the process of trying to make sure they had everything that they needed.   
  
It was agreed to meet at the Son's first, and the first to arrive were the Mizuno's, the Briefs, and the Tomoe's. Usagi was the first to greet the group since her parents were a bit sluggish due to the fact that she had been annoyingly loud earlier on in the morning.   
  
She took one look at Vejita and freaked out. "WHAT?! Why's HE coming?!"   
  
Vejita frowned. "Don't sound so surprised BRAT."  
  
"But..."  
  
Vejita actually lightened up his frown to a grin. "If you think, brat, that I'm going to miss the jolly green giant in Mickey Mouse ears, you're sadly mistaken." More then a few giggles were heard from this comment. All are waiting for the grand show.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Yamcha and his students came next, soon followed by Rei and her grandpa, And Minako and her protesting parents. They came so not to look bad for her friends' families. Makoto came over alone. She was lucky to even be going. Her father wanted her to stay back and train with Mr. Satan, whom he still believed to be earth's savior, but her mother convinced him otherwise. Goten, Gohan, and Videl were the next group.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Ten Minutes after Goten, Gohan, and Videl arrived, an unexpected member was added to the group. Makoto was stunned at the sight of the member. "MOM? Are you here to take me back?" She asked, fighting back tears.  
  
  
Smiling, Mrs. Kino realized that she had not been standing up for her daughter as much as she should have. Not only that, but she also realized that she had not been spending nearly enough time with her. She just shook her head. "Nope, since your dad's gone on business for the month, I thought I'd join you. If you'll have me?!" The last said with a bit of fear of her own. Wide-eyed, Makoto threw herself into a hug with her, grinning madly as were all her friends.  
  
Vejita looked into the sky with annoyance. "Where's the Namek? We can't wait all day."  
  
Goku grinned when he felt the Ki energy of Piccolo and his pack. "Look's like they're on their way."  
  
Chi-Chi looked up into the sky to see the protesting Namek overhead being pulled by Mamoru, Haruka, and Michiru. "There's the man of the hour. We thought you weren't going to be able to make it."  
  
Piccolo struggled to break free of his students' grasps, but the three of them combined was just too much for him to handle. "I'VE CHANGED MY MIND. I WON'T DO THIS."  
  
"Now father. You were the one who was talking about honor. Surly you won't break your word."  
  
Haruka smirked. "Surely you wouldn't want to disappoint the children, would you?"  
  
Usagi grinned. "Yeah, Piccolo. You wouldn't want to disappoint us children, would you?" The entire crowd burst out laughing at the less than willing Namek.  
  
Piccolo glared down to the whole lot. "You'll pay for this."  
  
Laughing, Goku walked up to him. "Be a good sport, Piccolo. You have no one to blame but yourself for this."  
  
Vejita had one thing to add to that. "Yes, and you see you at your best. HAHAHAHA."  
  
Piccolo growled. "Fine, let's get this over with."  
  
( Ok, that's the first part to this chapter for ya. Oh wait, I still have one important thing to say. I have to give about 99% of the credit of this entire two part chapter to Comet Moon. ^_^ Seeing as you guys expressed a want for this and I didn't have the slightest idea of what I would or should write, I asked him if he could help, and well, he was a big help, as you can see. ^_^ K, on with the next part. )   



	98. Part 2

Here it is.  
  
Much funnier i think then original  
  
Ja ne  
  
  
Jim Kun  
  
  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
After they group teleported to their resort, the Animal Kingdom resort, the finest one there, the group soon realized that it was much too hot to wear the cloths that they had come in. Even Goku had commented that he was actually going to wear something other than his GI because of the heat.   
  
So, after twenty minutes of checking in and getting themselves ready for their first day of fun, Goku emerged from his room with his wife and daughter in touristy looking clothing, a BRIGHT red Hawaiian looking shirt with khaki shorts, making him look like a total geek. Goku and his family joined the more tastefully dressed crowd.   
  
Usagi and Chi-Chi shook their heads at Goku's stupidity, but noticed that Goten and Gohan were not all too far off from his taste. Usagi looked up to her mother, who returned the look.   
  
  
  
"Mom...is it hereditary?"   
  
Chi-Chi giggled. "I think so." Fright took over her daughter's face at the thought of one day dressing like them. "Don't worry dear, I think it's only males."   
  
That brought about a sigh of relief from her worried daughter. "Thank goodness."   
  
Piccolo smirked at Goku. "Nice outfit there. Nice to know the strongest fighter in the universe has such good taste in cloths."  
  
Goku smiled as he looked up to his Namek friend. "Thanks."  
  
Piccolo rolled his eyes as he turned around. 'Doesn't even know sarcasm when he hears it.'   
  
  
  
"Alright. There's a few parks in the area, so we have splurged for everyone to have unlimited passes for them all during their stay. Plus there are divot cards for all of you to spend on food, games, and souvenirs. Since there's so much to do, we can all split up and meet at the resort for dinner each day."  
  
Chi-Chi had more to add. "Hang on Piccolo. Usagi and the girls are to young too be by themselves."  
  
"Oh, com'on mom, I'm eleven now and so are some of the others, except Hotaru and we'll all look after her. It's not as if we can't defend ourselves. And the girls and me have the link. And you and Daddy can feel our Ki's. If we have a problem we can pulse our Ki's and you can teleport to us in a second."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned, but seeing the sense in what her daughter had to say, she looked up to Goku to see if he was ok with it, and knowing him, he was. "What do you think?"  
  
Goku shrugged. "Makes sense to me."  
  
"All right, fine. But you have all got to promise to behave yourselves, OR ELSE."  
  
Vejita smirked. "So green man, where's the hat?"  
  
Frowning at the attention he was getting, he snarled back. "I'm NOT wearing it." Before multiple protests came, he added one very important element to the deal. "Only one day will I wear that stupid thing."   
  
Ami grinned. "Ok, we can do it on the last day. It'll be sort of a grand finally."  
  
He scowled harder at the grinning group. "FINE!"   
  
Usagi walked over to Piccolo and put her hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Piccolo. You don't have to be a spoil sport about it."  
  
"You're pushing your luck kid."  
  
"So what are we going to do first?!" Hotaru was much too excited to just sit around and talk about things that were going to happen days from then.  
  
Ami spoke up first. "Well, I want to start off with the Epcot Center and then go the water park.  
  
"I'm with you on that." Michiru added.   
  
"Same here." Zodiac as he walked up to the duo.   
  
"But we want to hit the main park before it gets too crowded you two." Mamoru grabbed the two water lovers by the back of the neck. "Don't you want to have some real fun?"  
  
Michiru angrily pulled away from her friend. "This IS fun for us."  
  
"I want to hit the beach." Makoto said in the direction of Ami.   
  
Rei; "So do we." She pointed over to Justin, who was torn between the beach and the main park, but the beach got the best of him in the end.  
  
Usagi and Minako took one look out the window in the hallway and laid their eyes on a go-cart racetrack.   
  
  
  
"Ok, Usagi, now I'm really going to show you my driving skills. Not only will I be the champ at video game racing, but this too!"  
  
Usagi glared playfully at her friend. "Not on your life. I'm the champ and that's all there's to it."  
  
Minako grinned. "Really? Then why do I hold the record at the arcade?"  
  
Before Usagi could say anything in response, Haruka interceded. Despite the thought of seeing Michiru in a bikini, she felt the desire to join them at the racetrack. "Mind if I join you two?"  
  
Minako and Usagi stopped their senseless squabbling and turned to the requester. "What?" They both looked at each other in shock, but knew they couldn't turn her down. "Uh, sure."  
  
Haruka smiled. "Great."  
  
Hotaru looked around the crowd of her friends. 'Hmm...what do I want to do?' "I WANT TO GO ON THE GO-CARTS TOO!"  
  
Rei sighed as she sat against the wall. "Ok, so we all want to go in different directions. Why don't we all split up and meet later for something to drink or ice-cream."  
  
Ami nodded. "Great idea. Let's meet at the castle at one and then decide where to go."  
  
~*~*~  
  
At the racetrack, Haruka sat behind the wheel for the very first time. She had thought that with flying, she would care less about it, but as soon as she hit the gas pedal, her life was changed. Having control over such a massive machine was more thrilling than flying.   
  
  
  
"HEY LOSERS!" She happily yelled out as she tailed Usagi and Minako closely.  
  
Minako looked over her shoulder to see Haruka hot on her tail. "No you don't." She pressed down on the pedal even harder to gain more speed, but, took her eyes off the road just long enough to miss the next curve. She ended up going on the outside, allowing Haruka to take her spot in second place. "Hey!"   
  
Easily passing up Usagi, she felt the pavement beneath and laughed with joy. Here, the wish to be the best race car/ motorcycle driver in the world was born.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Over the next week, all of the members of this very diverse group of tourist enjoyed the freedom of their well-earned vacation. The laughter and joy abounding invigorated them all. The groups hit every attraction there was. The beach, OF COURSE. Disney world's magic kingdom, MGM, Epcot, and the water park, many times. As well as Sea world. Universal studios, and other outside attractions.  
  
Though everyone had their own idea of what they wanted to do, they all agreed to go to the Magic Kingdom Sunday, with Piccolo and the rest and watch the parade and laser show that night at the Epcot center on the last day. And of course for the grand entertainment itself. PICCOLO in MOUSE EARS.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sunday morning came too soon for most of the crew, though a few, like Piccolo, it wasn't enough time. He hid in his room and refused to come out, even when he was called for by his son. "Go away."  
  
"Father! Do I need to get Goku to drag you out of there?"  
  
There was an eerie silence from the other side of the door for a few seconds, the door finally opened. "You wouldn't dare."   
  
Mamoru smirked. "I would."  
  
~*~*~  
  
All of the kids, including the teens, made a beeline for the first souvenir shop that they could find, leaving the adults outside.  
  
Piccolo glared at the group that was supposed to be composed of his friends. "Remind me never to make a deal with those kids again. I knew that those kids were bad news ever since I first met them. And now they've corrupted Mamoru and his friends."  
  
Yamcha laughed his hardest as he pictured Piccolo in mouse ears. "You have the perfect head for those silly hats you know that? I mean, it's perfectly round, and it has no hair on it. It's as smooth as a baby's butt."  
  
"SHUT UP!"  
  
"My, my father. Aren't we a bit temperamental?" Mamoru walked out of the shop with his friends as well as Usagi and hers. Each were holding a package of their own, but Mamoru held the best of all. "Here father, I bought you something, why don't you open it?"   
  
Piccolo reached out and snatched the package from his son. He knew exactly what it was.   
  
  
  
"You're going to get it for this. Somehow I will find a way to pay all of you back...very dearly at that."  
  
Mamoru smirked. "Yes, yes. We know that. Now why don't you speed up the process. I bought this here disposable camera in there and I plan on totally filling it up with pictures of you in those ears."  
  
Piccolo glared at his son, then at Ami, and finally the rest of the brats all sporting cameras. It was Ami's idea in the first place for him to have to go through this horrid, degrading experience, so the glare he gave her was especially fierce. Deciding not to give them any more of a show than was needed, he ripped the package open and plopped the heinous item on his head.   
  
Two seconds later, the entire group was on the ground laughing, attracting eyes from other visitors, though they didn't care. Piccolo FINALLY in mouse ears was just too much for any of them to handle. He had actually gone through with his word and he would have to keep wearing it throughout the entire day.   
  
Goku was the worst of them all, too. He had known Piccolo the longest and had never in his life expected him to do something outrageous. "He...He..." He couldn't even get out his words he was laughing so hard. "This is just unbearable. He looks like a want ad for rodent control! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"   
  
Vejita, too, found himself on the ground laughing to the point of tears. If it was one thing he loved more than killing others, it was the humiliation of others. "Green man, it suits you too well. You should make it an everyday thing."  
  
Mamoru grabbed his stomach and bent over to stop the pain. "OH FATHER! YOU...YOU...YOU LOOK SO DAMN REDICULOUS!" Every so often he would gain control of himself in order to take a picture of his father. Other flashes accompanied his.   
  
Laughing hysterically, Yamcha walked to his fellow trainer. "I told you. You do have the perfect head for this." Piccolo gave them all a scowl hard enough to kill, but he said nothing. He didn't want them to have any more of a reason to laugh at him.   
  
Getting up from the ground, a laughing Usagi walked to her father with a twinkle in her eye. "Daddy, I bought this JUST for you with my own money that I made by watching Hotaru." Grinning, she held out a package of her own to her now weary father.   
  
Goku gulped. "Sweetie, you shouldn't have."  
  
Chi-Chi grinned. "Now dear, she did it just for love." More laughter flew out of her mouth until she noticed her daughter handing her a package. "For me?" she croaked.  
  
Usagi impishly nodded. "Of course mom. I couldn't give one to daddy and not you. I love you just the same."   
  
Goku grinned. "Now dear, she did it just for love." He said, mockingly.   
  
Chi-Chi glared at her husband. "Can it, Mister." The rest of the girls handed their respective packages to the other adults, all except Vejita.   
  
Piccolo grinned. 'Yes!'  
  
When they opened their packages, Goku found a Donald Duck hat for him, and Chi-Chi found a Daisy Duck hat. Looking into their daughter's eyes, they sighed and put them on.   
  
  
They then turned a glare at their son's, daughter-in-law who then all decided to put on their respective gifts. An assortment of Pluto, Dumbo, Roger Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger hats had come in their, their friends, and their families' packages. The rest of the Z team, under the promise of death glares from the others, sigh and put on their own Disney character hats. And the looks the children gave their Family had them following suit.  
  
  
  
Bulma and Bra actually enjoyed it though, which only brought more joy to the girls.  
  
Vejita smirked. "Huh, good one brat. At least you knew enough to not even try me."  
  
Grinning at him, Usagi responded. "Nope, wouldn't think of it."  
  
Fearful at the grin, he began to sweat as his wife and daughter surrounded him. "Daddy, remember my last birthday when you gave me a card that let me make one request from you and you'd do it, no arguing?"  
  
Vejita's eyes widened. "NO! I DON'T!" Sweat ran down his face as he realized the set up. He could have kicked himself for making such a promise.  
  
Latching onto his arm before he could flee, Bra looked up at him in fake tears, though they looked real to him. "You mean you lied to me?" Sniff.  
  
Crumbling, he started to shake. 'I can't stand it when she or Bulma cries. Damn it.' "Bra.." Suddenly, before he had a chance to finish, he found his head covered. He quickly turned to the window of the souvenir ship and cried out in rage. She had put a Goofy hat on his head. "Bra..."  
  
Bra cheekily smiled. "You promised Daddy and the request is you be NICE all day, and spend it with our friends. While wearing the Goofy hat."  
  
Vejita angrily glared at his daughter, though, he knew that he couldn't back out for fear of truly upsetting her. He just grumbled and lowered his head. "That's the last time I make an absurd promise to a female." Glaring, he sees her truly upset at the thought that he'd lie to her, grumbles and lowers his head.  
  
Bra clapped her hands together and squealed with joy. "Yay. Group photo shot."  
  
Revulsion entered all of their eyes at the thought of having a picture to remember this by, but they were all dragged to the center of the park for a group photo by the main castle. They all gave goofy smiles for the event and allowed themselves to have a picture taken of themselves by the professional photographer there.   
  
After the picture was taken, Piccolo just glared at Usagi. "You're lucky, kid. But some day your luck will run out. You'll make a bet you can't win."  
  
Grinning, Usagi just shrugged. "I only bet on sure things."   
  
"Well this time you won, and I don't regret it to much. With the change in my son's attitude, it's ALMOST worth it."  
  
Vejita, annoyed at the humiliation he'd been forced to live puts his two cents in. "Ha, I know a bet you couldn't win. You and Mamoru working TOGETHER and making ME laugh. An impossibility, the two of you acting as such a team."  
  
Piccolo smirked at that. "That's one thing I agree on."  
  
Bulma glared at them both. "Oh no you don't Vejita, last time you lost such a bet you moped for months. Forget it."  
  
Annoyed that she thought she could control him, he smirked. "Tell you what brat. I'll go another one million to one odds that you can't win that bet by the end of the day. Same as last time."  
  
Usagi chuckled at her parents fear. "Don't worry mom, daddy. I wouldn't make such a bet. The odds probably are two million to one on winning, and I wouldn't make such a bet and be their servant like last time. Like I said, I only bet on sure things, or at least what I'm willing to lose."  
  
Mamoru looked confused. "What bet?"  
  
Piccolo snarled. "None of your business boy."  
  
But Usagi had other ideas. "You mean he didn't tell you?"  
  
Mamoru frowned as his father tried to force him not to listen. "No. Tell me what?"  
  
The girls all giggled. Minako smirked. "Well they lost a little bet between us girls, and Piccolo and Vejita."  
  
Rei: "Yeah, we bet that Chi-Chi could beat Goku in a fair fight."  
  
Haruka fell down laughing, "AS if that'd ever happen."  
  
  
  
The rest of the Rat Pack had also cracked up at this.  
  
  
  
Groaning and looking at the blushing Goku and proud Chi-Chi Mamoru asked. "How much did they lose?"  
  
  
  
His friends looked at him in shock, while Piccolo glared harder.  
  
  
Grinning herself, Ami answered. "Well we had 20 dollars between us, and the odds were two million to one."  
  
Gaping, Mamoru, the Rat pack, Mrs. Kino, the Aino's, And Grandpa Hino were left speechless.  
  
Makoto: "Yep we won forty million dollars."  
  
  
  
Ami: "Chi-Chi put five million in a trust fund for each of us for collage and after. We get control of it at eighteen. And the interest on it should come out to a fairly high sum."  
  
  
Usagi: "Yeah, but that's a one time thing. This bet is too unlikely. I mean Vejita never laughs. Besides I won't be their servant."  
  
Piccolo sensed his chance for revenge on the brat that keeps beating him. 'Now's my revenge.'  
  
"Well then how about two million to one. I'll go in on it."  
  
"Nope, still lose. Won't do it."  
  
The two conferred with each other, they really wanted to get a win on her.  
  
  
  
"Two million to one straight up. No other loss. You win, you and Mamoru get half each, we win we get the satisfaction of beating you."  
  
She thought of the fifteen dollars she had left from her baby-sitting and ponder the challenge.   
  
  
  
"I don't know. This is my last fifteen till payday. I think I'll pass. I mean what would I do with thirty Mill...."   
  
  
  
Mamoru just stared at her. This is a chance for the to make a neat profit and the possible loss is minimum. 'Is she nuts?'  
  
  
  
"Ok, deal. Mamoru and I will bet fifteen each at two million to one odds."  
  
"Thank goodness Odango. I thought you'd gone nuts to let this opportunity go by."  
  
"Nope, I got a plan. See, Motoki had told me that the crown was going to be sold by the owners and his family out of their jobs. But I plan on buying it, if mom and dad will let me and let them be partners and half owners to it." She looked up at her parents, who, at the moment had nothing to say.  
  
Mamoru smirked. "Why don't you build a super arcade then, Odango? You'll have enough money."  
  
Usagi smiled with twinkling eyes. "With an ice-cream parlor. Big restaurant. State of the art virtual games. Every video game available. Plus, unlimited food and games for me, my friends, and family. That way I can eat enough. It's tough going and only having enough to partially stop the hunger."  
  
"Always about the stomach huh, odango?"  
  
"Hey you try being hungry ALL THE TIME. It's not fun."  
  
"Hmm, I guess not, but if we're in this together why not go all the way?"  
  
"HUH?"  
  
"We go in half's for the arcade. And sell a third to Motoki and his family one-sixth share each for a Quarter. That will give us all a third. I like the idea and he's my friend. Even started to teach him a bit of Ki-Jitsu."  
  
Usagi looked a bit shocked that they were that close. Motoki was so sweet. She then pondered his suggestion. It would be another step in mending the fences.  
  
  
  
"Ok. But this will be neutral ground. No fighting there or name calling."  
  
"Agreed."  
  
"And the rest I'll give ten million to mom and daddy, and the other fifteen million I'll put in the bank and just use the interest. Ami said that that would be a good penny a week I'd make."  
  
  
  
Ami: "Yes Usagi, you'd have 5769.23076923076923076923076923077 minus taxes a week. So roughly 5000."  
  
  
  
"Wow, then the six of us could have about Eight hundred each a week allowance."  
  
  
  
Chi-Chi frowned at this thought. But it was her own money and she actually was going to use it responsibly and share with her friends, so she really couldn't complain. 'She's starting to learn.' She thought with a smile.   
  
  
Vejita smirked again. "Heh, you'll never win brats. This time I will win."  
  
The others went their own way after that leaving our heroes to decide how to go about this.  
  
  
  
Idea after idea is purposed and rejected. Finally, fed up Mamoru glared at her. "Damn it. I wanted to win once on father. But the only time I've ever seen Vejita laugh is about the ears."  
  
Usagi looked down at that and then an idea came into head. Going to him, she plotted out her idea, horrifying him.   
  
  
  
"ARE YOU NUTS??"  
  
"Do you want to beat your father?"  
  
Thinking on this he got a look in his eyes that said there was no way he was going to lose again to him.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Over the next several hours they worked out their plot. It's an ingenious plot at that.  
  
  
  
That night at the castle, they hatch their scheme. Usagi had put her computer talent to work, while Mamoru added his own flare to it. Plus those divot cards were a big help.  
  
Finally, after having contacted everyone, they set their plan in motion.  
  
  
  
Vejita and a big crowd gathered around the castle. Several partitions were set there and a stage show was announced.  
  
Mamoru and Usagi came out from behind the curtain, shocking their friends and families. Mamoru was dressed in an unusual GREEN jacket, black turtle neck and purple pants, while Usagi, cringing all the while at her apparel, in a BRIGHT red Hawaiian looking shirt with khaki shorts, just like her Father's.  
  
  
  
Stepping up with a mike on his breast just like Usagi had, Mamoru addressed the crowd.  
  
  
  
"Ok folks, we're glad you could be here for our show. To start off, my partner Usagi and I will perform a sketch for you."  
  
The music for the Mickey Mouse club was heard. The two went out to the middle of the stage and sang, surprisingly their voices went perfectly together.  
  
  
  
"Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?"  
  
  
  
"P I C."  
  
  
  
"C E Y."  
  
  
  
"M O U S E."  
  
Mamoru stood while Usagi crouched down.  
  
  
  
Mamoru: "PICCEY MOUSE."  
  
  
  
The two traded positions.  
  
  
Usagi: "GOKY DUCK."  
  
  
  
Traded again.  
  
  
Mamoru: "PICCEY MOUSE."  
  
  
  
ONE MORE TIME. Usagi stood and Mamoru crouched.  
  
  
Usagi: "GOKY DUCK."  
  
Both stood and pulled out flags with their father on it WITH THE HATS. Usagi's computer talent had come out.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Forever shall we hold our banners, HIGH, HIGH, HIGH."  
  
With each HIGH, they held and waved their flags up higher. And on the last one, they deftly placed them in the flagpoles on either side of the scenes, while they linked arms at the same time, and started to dance step in a circle, arms still linked.  
  
  
  
"Hey there, ho there, hi there we're as happy as can be."  
  
  
  
"P I C."  
  
  
  
"C E Y."  
  
  
  
"M O U S E."  
  
  
  
As they finished the last of the verse, they both pulled out an object from behind the screen.  
  
  
  
Mamoru had a Fireman's trampoline held out, while Usagi had thrown up a green object into the air.  
  
  
  
As the object landed, the group saw it for what it was. A large Mickey Mouse doll, sprayed green, and on its head was a computer-generated facemask of Piccolo with of course the hat on.  
  
  
  
When it landed, the two, both now holding the Trampoline, threw it back into the air, and hollered each time.  
  
  
  
"YAY, PICCEY!"  
  
  
  
"YAY, PICCEY!"  
  
  
  
"YAY PICCEY!"  
  
  
  
On the last shout, Usagi placed the trampoline behind the curtain, while Mamoru, caught the doll and placed the Mask on his head, and stored the doll in back.  
  
  
  
As this went on, the entire audience, especially the Z team, their friends, and families were cracking up, including Goku. By now all are on the ground in fits.  
  
  
  
All that is save Piccolo who was more then annoyed.  
  
  
And Vejita. His face was set in stone. He was a prince of the Saiyan's and wouldn't be budged. Though his face was starting to turn a bit red.  
  
Mamoru stepped in center stage, while Usagi stood to the left. Looking towards the crowd, he addressed them in a HIGH SQUEAKY voice.  
  
  
  
"Hi kids. It's time for the Piccey Mouse show.  
  
  
  
Usagi held up a sign that read YAY on it, and she and those of the crowd capable followed suit.  
  
  
  
"YAAAAAY."  
  
  
"Hey kids, do you know what time it is?"  
  
Usagi, with a goofish grin on her face shouts, "What time is it PICCEY."  
  
The Z team may need an ambulance soon, Yamcha and Krillin sat leaning against each other so they could remain upright and watch the show. Tien propped himself against the streetlight next to Yajirobe, tears ran down there faces. Master Roshi and Oolong were holding each other, and watched the entire show cackling. Puar and Chiaotzu has been could barely able to breath from the laughter.  
  
  
  
And Vejita's face is turning redder and redder. Hissing and whining sounds came from him. His family, on the ground, BARELY notice that he had held out this long, but weren't anywhere as sure of the outcome by then.  
  
Mamoru, in an even higher pitch, squeaked, "It's cartoon time."  
  
  
  
The Rat pack and the Brat pack we're holding each other, trying to survive the torment that their bodies were in as they convulsed with laughter.  
  
  
  
Another cue card another, "YAY."  
  
Mamoru smirked at what was to come.  
  
  
  
"Its time for Goky's bad hair day."  
  
Goku looks a bit stunned at this, and backs up as Usagi came down.  
  
Usagi walked out into the audience right towards her Dad and grinned up at him and latched onto his arm, placing another wireless mike on his shirt.  
  
  
  
"We need a volunteer for Goky, and this fine fellow will do nicely."  
  
Despite his objections, Chi-Chi pushed him up, but finds that she also was pulled along and a mike was placed on her.  
  
Mamoru gave a surprisingly charming grin and said, "And this beautiful lady will be good for the part of his wife. All you need do is follow the cue cards made out for you.  
  
Mamoru Held them up, and they reluctantly played their parts.  
  
Chi-Chi: "Now Goky."  
  
Vejita hissing becomes coughing and barely held chuckles and snorts. His face turning all colors of the spectrum now, but primarily Red and an oxygen needed Blue.  
  
Chi-Chi: "You have to go to the food store and get us some Nutritional food."  
  
Goky: "Ok Dechy."  
  
He skipped to town, but had a hard time finding a food store, so he asked an old man that was passing him the way.  
  
  
Going to Mamoru who was now sporting an elderly man mask and hunched over, he asked, "Can you tell me where the nutritional store is?  
  
"What was that sonny?" Mamoru said in a cracking ancient voice and held an old tin hearing horn to his ear.  
  
"Can you tell me where the Nutritional store is?"  
  
"EHHH?"  
  
Yelling in the horn, much to his pleasure he shouted, "NUTRITION!"  
  
Wincing behind the mask, Mamoru gritted his teeth, but then smirked at what was yet to come.  
  
  
  
"Oh why didn't you say so? Third store on the left. And you don't have to shout."  
  
Happy again he went in the store. About to ask the store clerk for help, since he saw no food, he found himself being pulled by Usagi, the store CLERK dressed with an apron on that read, Professional, written on front in bright pink letters.  
  
In a Valley Girl voice, thanking Piccolo for the psychic language tutoring he had given the ones who couldn't speak the language well, she criticized him.  
  
  
  
"OH MY GAWD, your just in time. I know just what you need. You got here not a moment to soon. OH MY GAWD, how did you survive this long like this?"  
  
He smiled down at her as the card said to and addressed her.  
  
  
  
"My wife wanted me to get.."   
  
  
  
Suddenly he was tossed into a chair and had a towel thrown on his face. "Don't worry, I have it under control I'll see to everything. I'm a trained emergency professional."  
  
Mamoru held up a card saying, (Goky relaxes at this and lets her do her work; after all she knows her job. She's a professional.).  
  
  
  
Usagi crouches in front of the screen, and mutters loudly.  
  
  
  
"Lets see. Pink maybe, and a perm. Yes definitely a perm. Makeup of course, and we must get rid those ugly worry lines. Much make up. Yes that's it trick."  
  
There was scene with her getting out scissors and hot iron "Ouch, dang only suppose to burn the client" Hair spray and towels and make up were added to the pile.  
  
Suddenly Mamoru pulled up a patrician in front of them with the message, (Unsuited for the weak) on the front of it. Behind the curtain, things were thrown into the air and lots of noise was heard. Lots of white powder was seen coming above the curtain, and fake black hair, scissors, his shirt and pants, and finally the hot iron accompanied with an ouch from Goky.  
  
  
  
Piccolo lost it. He couldn't help himself and joins the other fighters in laughter.   
  
  
  
Vejita looked a little put out, but his face couldn't form a frown, it was to hard just trying to keep it straight.  
  
Suddenly Dechy Duck came in and asks for Goky.  
  
"Goky, are you here? I've looked everywhere for you."  
  
Usagi shouted from the totally enclosed area.  
  
  
  
"He's just about done. And I must say you got him to a beautician just in time."  
  
  
  
Mamoru held up yet another cue card saying, (Goky's eyes became huge. 'What I thought this was nutrition not beautician?').  
  
The barrier was then dropped and all left standing dropped to the street, Piccolo included, tears running now down his face.  
  
  
  
For there was Goku wearing a pink and red flowered kimono, with a long pink curled wig on, under which was his Donald duck hat, and a Japanese facemask over his face, covered entirely with red blush, peace signs, blue eye brows, orange lipstick, and long fake eyelashes attached.  
  
Vejita, the mighty prince of the Saiyan's, fell to his knees before his foes.  
  
  
  
"I CAN'T TAKE IT. IT'S WORTH THE THIRTY MILLION. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAAHHAHHHAHAHA  
  
HAHAHAHAHA."   
  
  
  
Falling to the ground holding his side, he gives into the obviously superior opponents that he had fought.  
  
Usagi and Mamoru grinned at each other. 'Victory is ours.'  
  
  
  
Ushering Goky into the crowd, much to his horror, the two walked back onto the stage. Usagi's apron gone, and Mamoru in his now favorite clothes. They had too much meaning to him now.  
  
  
  
Mamoru smiled a very happy smile (Wouldn't you? Having won thirty million dollars and beating your father at his own game.), and addressed the audience one last time.  
  
  
  
"And here's the grand finally of the show, boys and girls."  
  
Usagi and Mamoru stood near each other, and started to sing. Minako, the girls, including Michiru, Bra, and Bulma thought they looked perfect together. The same, yet totally opposite in their natures, but for some reason, it seems so right.  
  
  
  
"And here we are to say goodbye to all our families."  
  
  
"P I C."  
  
  
Mamoru gave a two-fingered salute. "C you real soon."  
  
"C E Y."  
  
Usagi her hands clasped together as if in prayer, smiled. "Y, because we like you."  
  
  
  
They joined hands and sang the last verse.  
  
  
  
"M O U S E."  
  
  
  
The audience went wild and gave them a standing ovation.  
  
  
  
The two shared another grin, and still holding hands, bowed low to the audience.  
  
  
  
Piccolo and Vejita knew they had lost, but were still laughing to hard to care.  
  
He walked up to his father and smirked a superior smirk to him  
  
  
"This time dad, I finally won."  
  
Despite himself, he grinned back.  
  
Vejita meanwhile, having slightly gained control, found himself beset by Bulma, Trunks and Bra, and basically told that he'd never again be in control of the account.  
  
Grinning, Usagi and Mamoru got in one more parting shot, and talked to each other in a loud voice.  
  
Mamoru grinned to Usagi, "I can't wait for the video's for this that we had film come out."  
  
  
  
Usagi, giggled and added, "Yeah, we can show them to all our friends and future families. Plus, it might be aired on the Disney channel."  
  
  
  
Goku and Piccolo face fault. 'NO WAY.'  
  
  
  
  
(Ok, I know that last part is definitely different than normal, but Comet Moon, DUH, wrote that. I thought it was hilarious and I didn't want to ruin it by trying to convert into past tense format. Now there you have it, what happened at Disney World. Next stop... chapter 100...Cackles at the top of her lungs: See you soon! ^_^ )  
  



	99. A Legacy of Sorrow Part 1

*~*~*Seven Months Later*~*~*   
  
It was a beautiful summer morning. Birds of all sorts were singing, the animals were out of hibernation; the plants were in full bloom to create a mix of magnificent colors around the mountains. The weather was perfect, warm, but not too hot. The day was almost as perfect as one could wish for. If that was true, then why was Usagi so downhearted?  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku stared at his daughter from the hallway as she gazed out the window in the family room. Every so often she would let out a quiet sigh as if she were waiting for something. Lately, Goku had worried that something may be bothering her, but she insisted that nothing was wrong. But he could tell. He could tell that there was something, major, bothering her. He knew her better than to just accept her rejection of the fact that something may be wrong. If it wasn't the fact that he could tell by looking into her eyes that was something was bothering her, it was the fact that she just lazed around all day and stared out the window. She had even lost some interest in hanging out with her friends. He had also noticed a decrease in her performance during her training. He just didn't quite understand what could have been making her hurt inside so badly, but he wished he knew. She wasn't one to normally keep secrets from him.  
  
He, himself, let out a sigh as he turned around and walked to his room, where his wife was. She looked to be paying the bills, something that always made her extra easy to set off. He wondered if she had noticed the recent change in their daughter. He didn't know about Gohan, but he knew that Goten had never acted like this when he was her age.   
  
He sat down on the edge of his bed and kept his eyes on his wife's back. He needed to talk to somebody about Usagi. He couldn't stand to see her upset any longer. She had been moping around the house for far too long.   
"Chi-Chi..." He hoped that him interrupting her wouldn't upset her too terribly much.  
  
Chi-Chi tried desperately to keep from lashing out at her husband. She knew that he knew she hated to be disturbed when she was trying to balance her books. That was her only motivation to keep from becoming angry. She knew that it had to be something important if he interrupted her. "Yes, Goku?"  
  
Goku was a bit on the stunned side. He hadn't expected Chi-Chi to be calm in her reply. "Have you noticed that Usagi has been acting a little...strange lately?"  
  
Chi-Chi turned around to face her husband. She could tell by the tone of his voice that he was concerned about their daughter. "Not strange, no."  
  
Goku didn't know how to take that reply. He'd thought that at least the child's own mother would have recognized her odd behavior. "Chi-Chi, she's not acting like her normal self. She's acting FAR from it, actually."  
  
"Goku, are you turning into a paranoid father on us? Just because your daughter is growing up a little bit doesn't mean she's acting strange. Don't overreact."  
  
'Growing up? What the hell is THAT supposed to mean.' "Chi-Chi, hardly think that I am overreacting here. Haven't you noticed how quiet she's gotten in the past couple of weeks? Two weeks ago she was her old, loud, fun loving self. And now, she's like a...a....an old person. She doesn't do anything anymore. She never asks us if she can go somewhere with her friends anymore. When we're training, even one on one training, she doesn't put her whole heart into anymore. She let's me get hits in on her that I KNOW she can block. And then I end up hurting her. That's not normal. It's not because she's growing up."  
  
"You don't know much about girls then, do you?"  
  
"I don't need to know anything about girls. I know about Usagi, that's all I need. I know that she isn't acting normal. This wasn't a gradual change; this was just too sudden to be normal. All she does is sit at that damned window and sigh all the time."  
  
Chi-Chi perked her head in interest. "Sigh?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes, sigh. That's all she does, she's starting to scare me. She wont even tell me what's wrong with her."  
  
Chi-Chi didn't even listen to her husband's last sentence. She didn't care. She was still stuck back at the sighing that her daughter was doing. "And she only sits at the window and doesn't do anything?"  
  
"That's right. Why, do you know what could be wrong with her?"  
  
Chi-Chi's face was taken over by a huge motherly smile, as her eyes got teary. "Nothing's wrong with her, Goku. Our baby girl is just growing up."  
  
"What?!" Goku found that be utterly outrageous. She seemed to be stuck on the growing up bit, though. "What are you talking about? How can you say that there is nothing wrong with her?"  
  
Chi-Chi happily stood up from the desk and grabbed her husband's hands as she looked into his eyes. "I'll show you what I'm talking about, Goku. Our little Usagi is just changing, that's all." With that said, she pulled him up and led him out of the room, down the hallway, and into the family room, where their daughter was still gazing out into the field outside their home. Chi-Chi could hardly hold in her joy as she looked upon Usagi. She leaned over to her husband to whisper to him. "Watch and learn." She let go of his hands and proceeded to approach her daughter. "Usagi...honey."   
  
Usagi didn't turn her head at all. She hadn't even really heard her mother speaking to her. She had pretty much tuned everyone and everything out so she could be lost in a bundle of her own thoughts.  
  
Chi-Chi's thoughts were only strengthened by her daughter's failure to reply. "Usagi, I know what's bothering you."  
  
Usagi slowly turned to her mother and blankly stared at her with emotionless eyes. "You do?"   
  
Chi-Chi nodded. 'Oh listen to that tone of voice she's using. I just KNOW I'm right. It's time for you to take a backseat, Goku, and learn the mothers' touch.' "Yes, and I just want you to know that I'm here for you all the way."  
  
Usagi wasn't sure that her mother knew what was bothering her, but she was open to finding out what her mother was talking about. "You are?" She pleadingly looked up to her father for help. She was lucky that her mother was in a pure state of bliss and didn't notice that or else she could have really been hurt by it. "Mom..."  
  
Chi-Chi clasped her hands together and looked up to the ceiling. "Oh how fun this will be, Usagi. I'm so happy that this day has finally come. I've been waiting for it for so long."  
  
Usagi jerked away from her mother with fear that she may have been going crazy. She hadn't the slightest idea what she was raving on about. "Mom..."   
  
"Oh Usagi, my little girl is growing into a fine young woman."  
  
Goku was beginning to get a little grossed out by Chi-Chi's talk. He was starting to see where she was taking this whole thing. He hoped and prayed that it wasn't that. He didn't want that day to come, EVER. He didn't want to imagine it either. He refused to think that his little girl was growing up THAT much. "She's only eleven years old, Chi-Chi."  
  
"You stay out of this, Goku. You've had your time with her. Let her be a girl for god's sake." Her eyes became tearier as she looked down to her daughter. She was too much blinded by her own delight that she didn't see the fear that she was creating in her daughter.   
  
"Mom...what are you talking about? You're scaring me." She turned to her father for help. It was official, her mother had finally snapped. "Daddy..."  
  
Chi-Chi calmed down so she could hear what her daughter had to say about the whole situation. "What do you mean? You know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about...him."  
  
Usagi backed away from her mother even more. "Him? Who's 'him'?"  
  
Chi-Chi's smile began to fade. "You know, the boy you're smitten over."  
  
Usagi stuck out her tongue is disgust. "Eeewww, Mom! I don't like a BOY! YUCK! As if I'd ever like a boy...Well, maybe in a few years..."  
  
Chi-Chi's smile fully disappeared as she could feel her face crumbling into thousands of tiny pieces. Goku was not far off with her last statement either. Right about then she would have loved to crawl into a hole and never be found. She felt so stupid. She turned her head and glared at her husband, who, despite the mixed emotions of her statement, was cracking up at her mistake. "You...SHUT UP NOW!"  
  
Goku could hardly breath he was laughing so hard. "I can't help it, Chi-Chi! You should have seen your face when Usagi told you that she didn't like a boy!! It was priceless! Ahahaha!" He laughed so hard that his stomach ached. "This is just too good. You actually had me believing that she liked a boy, too! Oh man! I'm sorry! I wish I had a camera right about now!" He wiped some tears away from his eyes that had been laughed out.  
  
Chi-Chi clenched her fists as well as her teeth as she growled with anger. "Oh go on ahead and laugh at my expense, Goku." She shot a piercing glare over at her daughter, who was laughing right along with her father. The glare was frightening enough to scare even Vejita. She raised her fist in front of her daughter's face as a form of intimidation, though she would never dream of punching her child out of anger. Just a 'love' slap. "You had better have a GOOD reason for misleading us then."  
  
Goku was now wheezing from laughter. "Who said that she was misleading 'US'? You were the one who was so certain that it was a boy." He stopped laughing just long enough to say one thing to his daughter in the most serious tone of voice he could. "And just so you know, Usagi, you can't date until you've moved out of the house, when I can't control what you're doing. If you do happen to date behind my back, I'll kill the guy." He laughed even harder at his daughter's fear stricken face. "Man. You two are just too easy to mess with."  
  
Usagi coward into the corner, far, FAR away from both of her parents. "Uh...yeah...ha...ha...ha. Very funny, daddy." She slowly turned her head over to her mother, who looked to be ready to punch her father. "Is he serious, mom? Is he laughing at me, or was that supposed to be a joke?"  
  
Goku had finally contained his laughter and calmed down a bit. "Don't worry, Usagi. That's a ways away. I don't think you have to worry about it for a while."  
  
"You shut your mouth, Goku. You've caused enough trouble for one day. You don't need to be going and scaring Usagi now. She's already upset about something."  
  
"I'm not the one who started it. You're the one who came down here and made a fool of yourself in front of her and insisted that it was a boy that she was love-struck over. I knew there was something else but do you EVER listen to me? No, you and your motherly instinct have gotten yourself embarrassed here today." He shut up once he saw and felt the anger radiating around his wife. That's when he knew it was time to just drop it and get onto more serious matters. "Ok. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have laughed." He turned his attention to his daughter, who seemed to be somewhat enjoying herself again. That day had been the first in two weeks that he had seen her THAT happy and full of life. "Why don't you tell us what's bothering you? We only want to help you."  
  
Usagi sighed as she turned to look back out the window, which only worried her father even more. She wished that she could have told them what was bothering her, but feared that they just wouldn't understand what she was going through. She wished that the moment that she had just shared with her parents would cover up her hurting, but it couldn't. Bad always seemed to outweigh the good with her. "Nothing's wrong." She shamefully replied. She knew that her parents didn't buy that for a second. She also knew that she wasn't the only one being hurt by this whole situation. She was also hurting them because she wouldn't tell them what was bothering her. "I..."  
  
Chi-Chi scooted herself closer to her daughter while she tried to put aside her embarrassment. "Yes? You know we're always here for you. You can always tell us anything, you know."   
  
Usagi couldn't bring herself to say what was wrong with her. It was too embarrassing, now that she thought about it more. Her parents, as well as anyone else she told, would probably end up laughing in her face for it. "Nothing." She turned her face away from her parents to hide her true feelings. Had she let them see her face, they would have known the truth. That she did in fact feel sorrow for something.  
  
Goku slightly frowned as he sat by Usagi, opposite of his wife. Though, he wasn't frowning because he was angry with Usagi. He frowned at the fact that she was afraid to tell them something, which she had never done before. She had always been open with them. "Usagi, it wont help any if you don't tell us what's wrong." No response arose from his child. "Look, Usagi. We don't want to force it out of you but I think I speak for both your mother and I when I say that neither of us are leaving you alone until we know what's bothering you."  
  
Usagi lowered her head to look at her hands, which were clasped tightly around her tail as tightly as they could be. Right about then she was happy that Hotaru helped get rid of the pain that used to come with the squeezing of her tail. She would have been in more than just mental pain at that moment if she were still able to feel pain in her tail. "I can't..."  
  
Goku ran his hand across her cheek and stopped at her chin, bringing her face up so he could look into her blue eyes full of tears. "Don't cry. We won't laugh at you. We would never do that."  
  
Usagi pulled out of her father's grasp to look at her mother for reassurance, who softly nodded to agree with her husband. Even that wasn't enough to cure her fear. "It's just stupid, forget about it." She let herself stand up, but, before she could walk away, she felt two hands grab a hold of her arms and pull her back.  
  
Goku pulled his daughter into his lap and kept a rather tight grip around her. "Come on, it can't be too stupid. We're willing to listen. It's gotta be something bad. Not much can make you stop being your rambunctious self. For the past couple of weeks you've been sitting around doing nothing and for the first time in your life you've been quiet. Your behavior hasn't gone unnoticed."  
  
Usagi sighed for she was defeated. Her parents would only get tougher on her to tell them if she continued to resist. Though, it wasn't fair to make them worry about her like she had. "Well..." She let her head drop again. "I feel, empty all of a sudden, like something really major and important is missing." She looked up to her mother to see no sign as to what she was thinking. She then lifted her view to look directly up at her father, who was looking at her mother. She took their silence as a want for her to go on. "I also feel that something is going to..." 'Why is this happening to me?'  
  
Chi-Chi placed her hand on her daughter's knee. It was obvious that she was having great difficulty with this task, though it was understandable. Chi-Chi could sense her daughter's anxiety. "Go on..."  
  
Usagi vaguely smiled at her mother's warm touch. "Something is going to happen and I don't know what. I can feel IT in the atmosphere around us. Pure evil. It's scary. It only adds to my empty feeling. I don't know what's going on anymore. Things are just too mixed up. I feel that I should know this evil, but I don't. At least, I don't think I do. Maybe I do, I just don't remember. But why would I know it? I don't think I've ever felt it before. But then again, that doesn't fully explain what I'm feeling inside either, does it?" Before her parents could reply to her question she went on. "No, it doesn't. It only explains one thing. And that would be that I'm going crazy because I feel this way." She quieted down for a short moment as she let her head collapse into her father's chest. "This is nuts. I don't even know what I'm doing anymore."  
  
Goku placed his hand over his daughter's head in hopes to calm her down. She was working herself up almost into a cry. "Shhh...it's alright." He looked up to his wife with more concern about their child than he ever had. This had to be worse than the time she was being picked on at school, though, this time she hadn't gotten herself into a fight. "Usagi, we're both curious, what is it that you're feeling? You said empty, how so?"  
  
"Well, for starters, I sort of didn't tell you everything. Not only do I feel like something is missing, but also it's feeling like there is something foreign in my body. Well, not foreign, but something that seems different. Like a forgotten piece of my soul. I didn't really feel like this until two weeks ago, when I first started feeling an uproar of the evil all around. I didn't tell you guys because I was too scared to. I was hoping that it would go away, but it didn't. It only got worse and worse with everyday that went by. I just feel like there is a spot inside me that isn't filled with anything, that's what I mean by empty, too."  
  
"Usagi, I'm sorry but no one else has felt this evil that you're speaking of." Goku could sense the tears of his daughter coming on.  
  
"I know, otherwise you would be as scared as I am. I don't know what to do. As far as I know I'm the only person in the whole entire world who feels it." She closed her eyes, causing a single tear, almost like a crystal, to fall to the ground and splash on contact with the floor. "Mommy, daddy, I'm scared." She whispered as she bowed her head and closed her eyes. 'So much pain and suffering shall not go unpunished. In the name of what's right...'  
  
~*~*~  
  
'The tear...of fear for a planet's life, of fear for its loved ones' lives. The same tear shed from...'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku looked up to his wife in fear of what was going on. With her head, she motioned for him to follow her into the other room. Goku lifted Usagi off of his lap and let her lay by the window. She didn't seem to even realize the change in positions, as she seemed to be lost in her little world again. Seeing that, Goku became even more worried for his daughter. He quietly walked to the kitchen, where his wife was waiting for him, and sat down at the table, letting his head hang down with fear.   
  
Chi-Chi sat next to her husband and leaned into him to comfort the both of them. "Goku, I think we have a problem on our hands here."  
  
Goku stared blankly at a single loner cup that sat in the middle of the table. "You've got that right. We certainly do. Though, I don't think that we should ignore what Usagi says about an evil coming. I don't think she would get all depressed just to lie. She's not one to do that. No, I think we should take this very seriously."  
  
"I know, Goku. But let's worry about that when it gets here. I just don't want to see Usagi like this. I don't know why I didn't notice it any earlier. What kind of mother am I? I can't even see when my own child is hurting inside."  
  
"Don't beat yourself up. Your claims were very plausible. What we need to do is try to find a way to get Usagi's mind off of this."  
  
"How are we going to do that? She's like a zombie. You saw how she was lifeless when you moved her. She didn't even realize that you were doing it otherwise she would have begged for us to stay with her. She's not going to pull away from her shell. She's not going to want to even pull away from the protective walls of her home."  
  
Goku gently pushed his wife away from him and stood up. "Well, that's what we need to do. We need to get her out of this house, for starters. She's been here for far too long. The only times that she has really left is when we go out to train. She needs to do something fun. So come on Chi-Chi, we're taking a little trip to the city for the day." Without any further conversation, Goku walked out of the room to once again see his daughter just limply lying by the window. "Usagi."   
  
"What?! She won't want to go." Chi-Chi got up and ran out of the room to stop her husband. "She doesn't want to go anywhere. Leave her be."  
  
"She needs to get out." He bent down and patted Usagi on the back of the head. "Come on, we're leaving for a while."  
  
"Have fun..." Usagi said without any emotion except that of distress.   
  
"No, you don't seem to understand. You're coming with us. So come on." He wrapped his hands around his daughter's ribs and picked her up. "Get ready to leave." He set her down on her feet, to his surprise, she actually stood by herself. "Let's go." He turned to his wife, who was glaring at him. "Don't do this to me, Chi-Chi. This is for the best." 'I am NOT letting her fall into this.'   
  
Usagi slowly made her way to the front door, where her shoes were sitting, and sat down. "I'm ready to go now." She said as she began to put he shoes on.  
  
Goku sighed as he walked to his daughter. 'I guess that's the best that I'm going to get from her.' "Don't be so glum. Cheer up. We're going to the city for a while." He was relieved to see a slight smile appear on her face. 'Good, at least THAT made her the slightest bit happy.' "Let's get out of here shall we, ladies?" He opened the front door and walked out just behind his wife and daughter.   
  
Usagi tried to put on a smile for her parents. She knew what they were trying to do and appreciated it with all of her heart. 'Why? Why? WHY? Why do I have to feel this way? Why do I have to feel the evil? Why don't I know what it is? I know I've felt it before, I just KNOW I have. But from where?' She tried to forget about her troubles as she skipped to the car. "So where are we going!? Can you buy me something!?"  
  
Goku smiled as he opened his car door and got in. 'Almost back to normal already.' "We'll see. It's up to your mom." He looked over to Chi-Chi, who was just getting into the car.  
  
"Don't put this on my shoulders, Goku. This was YOUR idea."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Else Where~~  
  
Off in a remote part of the city, two tiny pods were floating in from a distant place. In the pods slept two beings. Two beings of hope.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The City~~  
*It had been about an hour since the Son family had arrived in Satan City.*   
  
Satan whistled as he walked through a giant crowd of people in the city. He was on his way to teach his martial arts class when he could have sworn that he saw Goku walking on the other side of the road. 'What is he doing here? Don't those people normally...fly?' Letting his curiosity get the best of him, he decided to ditch his martial arts class for more entertainment. He would let his assistant trainer teach the class.  
  
He quickly emerged from the screaming crowd of people that blocked his way to the other side of the road. Sure enough, just as he had thought, Goku was walking down the street, but with two more people than he had expected to be walking with him. He coward away when he saw Usagi with him. He still remembered what had happened at the tournament not even a year ago. He began to back away from the trio, hoping that none of the three would turn around and see him. He hadn't seen Usagi but for two weeks since the tournament. He had a feeling that she was still angry with him. Yes, she had been exceptionally nice to him during the time at camp with the kids, but Usagi also had her mood swings every now and then. He figured that she still hadn't completely gotten over his whole lying bit, but little did he know of what she had been unconsciously preparing herself for. 'Wait a minute, why should I be afraid of her? Goku won't let her do anything to me.' He turned back around and proceeded to strut over to the family with great confidence.   
  
"Yo! Goku!" He yelled as he ran across the road, barely dodging being run over by a car that came zooming by. 'Whew, that was close.'  
  
Goku grinned as he turned around to the voice that was calling out to him. He knew that voice all too well.   
"Mr. Satan...What can I do for you?"  
  
"Well, I was just hoping that there were no hard feelings between Usagi and I. I mean, I haven't really talked to her about it since the incident." He looked down to Usagi, who appeared to not have a single thought going through her head. "Hey, what's wrong with her? She looks like a corpse."  
  
"She's just a little upset right now. She'll be fine. I just wouldn't exactly mess with her right now. And as for the tournament as well as everything after, I don't think there are any hard feelings left, are there Usagi?" Goku grabbed Usagi by the shoulder and looked down at her. He wondered why she was acting dead again. She had been fine up until Mr. Satan arrived.  
  
She only responded with half of a smile. "Yeah, sure, whatever you say dad."  
  
"Hey, come on. That doesn't sound like you're sure of your answer, now does it?" Mr. Satan extended his hand to Usagi and smiled down at her as he noticed a huddle of people around him. Even though the incident had happened months ago, people around the country were still talking about it as if it happened just the day before. "Let's make it an official truce."  
  
Usagi looked up to her parents, who gave her the ok to go ahead and do it, and looked up to Mr. Satan with a slight smile. She was disgusted with the 'awws' that were arising from the spectators around. She reached out and met Mr. Satan's hand with a firm, FIRM handshake. A little too firm for his liking.   
  
Mr. Satan could feel the bones in his hand crushing as he tried desperately to pull away. "What are you doing?! I'm not THAT strong!"   
  
"Usagi, let go. You're hurting him." Chi-Chi reached for her daughter. She wasn't sure what Usagi thought she was doing, but she sure wasn't going to stand by and allow her to do it. They had gone through it before, when she had a valid reason to hate him. But now, she was just being plain ridiculous.  
  
Usagi pulled her hand away from him, immediately making him gasp with relief. "Oops. Maybe you should work out more. You're getting a little flabby anyways." She looked up to her mother with an innocent smile. She REALLY hadn't meant to do that, but she was so distracted that she fell into old habits.  
  
Chi-Chi dropped her worries. 'I guess it was silly to think she would try something again.'  
  
Mr. Satan chuckled as he rubbed his hands. "I'm not getting flabby. I'm getting in shape." He looked around to the people who stood around them. 'Damn this kid. Even though we're cool with each other she's still gotta make me look like an idiot.' "Why don't you see how strong I am? Give me your strongest punch. I've been training with Gohan and Videl a lot lately. I'm pretty sure I can hold up to it." He smirked as he glanced over to the spectators. 'I want to show everyone that I can finally hold up to her.'  
  
Usagi smiled as she pulled her hand back. This would be a great distraction from what was really bothering her. "So, my hardest punch huh? I think I can handle that. But I have to warn you, this may hurt a little bit." Just as she was going in for the hit, she found that her arm was being held from going any further. "What?" She looked back to see that it was her father who was holding her back.  
  
"I don't think he would be able to stand up to your punch, Usagi." Goku looked up to Mr. Satan. "Just give it a rest. In a few years, you can try to spar with her. But right now..." Goku couldn't help but laugh. "She's too strong for you."  
  
Mr. Satan grumbled under his breath as he looked down at the ground. "Yeah, yeah."   
  
Goku tugged on his daughter's shoulder so she would turn around and leave with him. "Come on, let's get out of here. We don't want to waste his time."  
  
Usagi smiled as she gladly complied with her father's wishes. "Ok." Before she left, however, she turned back to Mr. Satan with a smile. "I look forward to the day that we can spar."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Later that Day~~  
  
Mr. Satan grumbled quietly to himself as he walked the back alleys of the city. He didn't want to risk any more run-ins with the Sons. He hated that even though his secret was out, Usagi still had ways of being able to humiliate him, even if it was unintentional.   
  
Mr. Satan stopped walking in front of two buildings when he heard the faint talking of two people, or so he thought. When he walked to the look in the alley that the two buildings created, he was rather surprised when he didn't see any people to go along with the voices. He just saw a pile of cardboard boxes, two odd metal egg-like looking containers big enough to hold a small baby, and a couple of cats. "I must be hearing things. I need to stop being paranoid. Usagi has gotten me all messed up now, that brat." Just as he was about walk forward once again, he heard the voices again, which only puzzled him further since no one was around at all.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"It's time." Proclaimed a female voice.   
  
"Yes, we must find them before it's too late." Stated a male voice.  
  
"It has started sooner than we had hoped, but time will only tell if they will be able to hold up this time around." The female voice added.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mr. Satan looked down to the cats and noticed that their mouths were moving. "Hmm, how strange. Two talking cats." Satisfied that he finally found out who, or what, was talking, he turned around to leave, but suddenly turned back around in a flash and stared at them in utter shock. "TWO TALKING CATS?!?!?!" At that moment, the champion of earth, protector of the weak, the fearless, Mr. Satan did the only thing that he could think of doing...he fainted right there and then.  
  
The two cats glanced over at the unconscious figure and stared at him for a moment before they let their eyes meet again. They gave a quick kitty shrug and proceeded to calmly walk over him to start their mission. Before they even really got on their way, they stopped and looked up to the sky at a new formation. "It's starting." Stated the female cat. "The POWER is there, the FEAR is there, the WANT is there, the cry for HELP is there, and the KNOWLEDGE is there. It is time to stop this game from going any further."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~That Night~~  
  
During the car ride home from the city, Usagi had gone back into her shell. It wasn't the 'the happy times were over now it's time to go back to being depressed' type of thing. No, Usagi sensed a great change in the atmosphere. Something that had somehow gone unnoticed by everyone, but her. She wondered why no one else had felt it.   
  
But there she was, curled up into a ball and leaning against the car door, more scared than she had ever been in her life. The fear she was feeling now was greater than the fear that she had felt when she was first approached the evil of Cell. She let her tired eyes wander up to the rear view mirror where she saw the worried eyes of her father looking back on her from time to time. 'I'm sorry I'm putting you guys through this. It's my fear that's making this whole mess.'   
  
~*~*~  
  
Once the trio arrived home it was already ten at night and the sky was oddly bright. Chi-Chi looked around the area in which the house was built in for anything that could have been producing such a magnificent light, but sadly, she did not succeed.   
  
Goku would know that intensity of light anywhere. 'Uh-oh.' He turned to his wife with a pale face. "Chi-Chi..." Without finishing his sentence, as he didn't want Usagi to do what he would tell his wife, he pointed for her to look up into the sky.  
  
Chi-Chi did as her husband motioned her to do and nearly cried out in fear at what she saw. In the sky sat a beautiful sparkling pearl, known as the moon. The first thing that ran through Chi-Chi's head was her daughter and her tail. 'Oh god no. No, no, no. Not now. Don't do this.' "Usagi, honey, baby, now stay calm when I tell you this."  
  
Usagi emerged from the car and turned around to her mother, who was already half way to the house along with her father, who WAS at the house. "What is it, mom?" She didn't like the tone of voice that her mother was using. It only added to her uneasiness.  
  
"Well, just listen to your mother and walk slowly to the house with your face held down. What ever you do, DON'T look up into the sky."  
  
"Huh? Why?" Letting curiosity get the best of her, Usagi disobeyed her mother and looked up into the sky, letting her eyes freeze right on the sight of the full moon.   
  
"Usagi!" Goku, already at the door of the house, dropped the keys to his home and began running to his daughter. "Close your eyes right NOW!" He was too scared to REALLY run to her. He found himself stumbling over his own feet. Chi-Chi, on the other hand, wasn't able to do anything. She just let the tears come on in fear of what was going to happen next.   
  
Goku stopped trying to run after her when nothing happened after about thirty seconds or so of her looking into the moon. "Maybe she won't do anything because she's a Super Saiyan. USAGI LOOK AWAY NOW! DO AS YOU'RE TOLD!" But nothing seemed to be happening to his daughter, to his relief.   
  
Usagi didn't close her eyes as she was told nor did she look away. She heard her father's words, but she didn't want to look away. The sight of the moon was just too breathtaking. But then something began to happen to her. Her body began to glow silver. Not just any silver, however. She was glowing at the same intensity as the moon. Her tail began to twitch, slightly, as well.  
  
~*~*~  
  
From a distance, a black cat watched and was completely astonished at what was taking place not too far from her position. 'Could this be her?'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku once again began to panic as he stumbled forward to get a hold of her. Chi-Chi just continued to stand, completely helpless as well as clueless of what to do. Her daughter was going to turn into a giant ape and there was nothing that they could do to stop it. Obviously, her being born a Super Saiyan only slowed down the process. "What if she turns into...well...you know." She couldn't even bring herself to say it, it was too horrible.  
  
"Then we'll cut her tail off."   
  
Not only was Usagi glowing at the same intensity as the moon, but it was a glow fit for a princess. One with little sparkles fluttering around her body. A small light of yellow began to shine from her forehead, as the intensity of her glow grew right along with that of the moon.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Another Dimension~~  
  
"The moon has returned. Blasted KID and her MOTHER! Always there to foil my plans! But that's ok, I still have a chance to get that power within my hands. I will have it at once! Before it is fully awakened!" The dark queen sat on her thrown as she opened up a tiny portal just in front of herself. The portal was only small enough to fit a hand through, but left for stretching if need, which it would need to stretch with what she planned to do with it.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back on Earth~~  
  
Usagi continued to look at the moon. It was as if she couldn't control the want, the need to look at it. It made her feel complete. She wouldn't have been able to pull herself away even if she wanted to as she was completely mesmerized by the site of the moon. She was completely at peace with her feelings. Virtually nothing was going through her head at that point. Only one thing at could have possibly torn her away from it at that point, and that would be the two arms emerging from a portal that appeared just above her head. The two arms came from behind and grabbed her tightly around her chest.  
  
Usagi's trance was broken at once. "HELP!!" Usagi raised her arms up over her attacker's and dug her nails into it. But the portal acted as a shield to protect whatever was holding her so it didn't do much good for her to try and attack it.  
  
Seeing this, a million thoughts came running through Goku's head, but one stuck out the most. He must save her. That was his only objective then and nothing could have kept him from accomplishing it. "USAGI NO!" In a flash of golden light, which was no match for the light of the moon, Goku was powered to Super Saiyan. He wasn't about to take ANY chances what so ever. He wouldn't let his daughter be taken away by ANYTHING.  
  
He quickly got his act together and concentrated on what he was doing. It wasn't just a matter of saving Usagi from herself anymore, now it was about saving her life. He kicked the car away from the scene of the action so he would have more room to work. He ran in front of her and grabbed a hold of her arms. "They aren't taking you ANYWHERE!"   
  
Usagi began to feel powerless as the arms squeezed around her tighter. She opened her eyes and looked down to the face of her angry father. "DADDY! Don't let me go! Please!" Her eyes were full of tears, which made her vision of her father blurred, but she could see the anger and fear in his face. She grabbed a hold of her father's arms with her hands as he continued to pull her towards him, but nothing was happening.  
  
The being on the other side of the portal was much too strong for Goku to go up against with the power of level one. He had to power up, and quick. So, without letting go of his daughter's arms, he quickly boosted his power up to level two. "I'm not going to let you go! I won't loose you to what ever this THING is!" Goku could hear his wife screaming out for him to save her in the background.   
  
Usagi would have been powering up right along with her father to resist, but whatever had a hold of her seemed to be sucking her dry of fighting energy. "Daddy I'm scared!"  
  
"Come on Usagi! Don't give up! Hold on! I'm going to get you out of here, just...hold...ON!" He tugged back on her as hard as he could, but nothing seemed to be happening. At least nothing for him. The person on the other side of the portal was having luck. He looked down to his feet, which looked to be slipping. "No! I wont loose this battle!" He concentrated all of his power to go into his last level of power, if it didn't work this time, he didn't know what he was going to do.   
  
Even the power of level three Goku wasn't enough to pull her away from her attacker. But he wasn't about to give up. He was going to give it all that he had. With all his strength, he pulled to save his daughter, but the only result was both of them slowly being pulled into the portal. "Fight Usagi! Try to fight against it! Don't let them win!"  
  
"Daddy I can't! Something's stopping me! Help me!"  
  
Goku saw the fear in his daughter's eyes, which powered his anger, which only made him stronger. He couldn't understand why the power of level three wasn't working. It had never failed him before, why now? Why at one of the most important times of his family's life?   
  
Eventually, Usagi's whole upper body was pulled into the portal, but her pleas, her agony was still heard loud and clear. Goku's forearms were also being pulled in right along with his daughter.   
  
"Goku! Don't let my little girl be pulled away!" Chi-Chi was on her knees. Right around the time he had powered to level two Super Saiyan her legs had given up on her.   
  
"Don't worry, Chi-Chi. I won't EVER let her go, even if it means that I'm pulled in too."  
  
That's when Chi-Chi got her act together as well. She couldn't just sit by and expect Goku to do everything. She needed to help too. Her daughter needed both of her parents and she wasn't going to sit around and let her down. "Don't worry Usagi! Mommy's coming!" She jumped to her feet and ran behind her husband. She grabbed a hold of his waist and powered up as she pulled.   
  
Even her added power did nothing. At that moment, Usagi was pulled completely into the portal, leaving her parents with her last pleas for help. "MOMMY! DADDY!" Just as the portal was closing, a black figure jumped through.  
  
"USAGI! NO!" Usagi's absence left Goku's hands empty and without anything to pull, causing both distressed parents to fall back to the ground. Goku slammed his fist into to the ground as he was now, truly pissed. "DAMN IT!" Chi-Chi took one look at her husband with tears flowing down her cheeks and fainted from her loss.  
  
(Hehehehe...wow, it's been a long, LONG time since I've left a cliffhanger of THAT magnitude, ne. What will happen to Usagi? Or should you more be thinking, what's going to happen on earth now? Well I'll leave you to think for a while. Until later... JA NE ^_^ )  



	100. Part 2

~~The other Dimension~~  
  
Usagi lay, unconscious, in the middle the queen's lair with three figures, not including the queen, standing around her and sneering down at her. The queen, however, was not sneering. She was overjoyed, and laughing hysterically, that she had FINALLY caught Usagi. After so many years, the annoying rabbit had been caught. "Finally, I get the senshi of the moon! The holder of the greatest power! She is mine! After so many years of planning I finally have it!" She raised her hand and snapped her finger. "Boys, do your work. Extract her moon energy and then dispose of her. She beat my minion when I sent him after her, I don't want that to happen again. Send someone down to earth to find the other senshi on earth. I don't want them to be running free."  
  
The same woman from when Cell was running free kneeled before her queen. "It shall be done, your majesty. Though, I don't believe we should proceed with extracting this girl's energy quite yet."  
  
The queen looked down at the woman with a slight frown. "And why not? We need to do it while we have the chance."  
  
"Your majesty, we have just put the child through a lot of activity. We had to drain her of her power to bring her here. But the way we were forced to do it prevented it from being energy we could use. It would be pointless to do it while she is still drained, as we wouldn't get a sufficient amount of power from her. Might I suggest that we wait until she has regained her energy so we may extract it while she is at her best."  
  
The queen thought about it for a while. "What are a few days? Go ahead. I can wait until she is fully recovered. Just make sure she is fully guarded. I don't want her getting out. Take her down to the dungeon."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Little did any of the people in this lair of hate know, the same black figure that had jumped through the portal with the anguished Usagi, had run out of the room before the portal had disappeared on this side. Now, that same black figure sat at the doorway that led out of the room as it poked it's head around the corner and kept its eye on everyone, Usagi most of all. She knew her secret, as well as the dark queen.  
  
~*~*~  
  
A male with long bristly hair down to his ankles nodded as he bowed before his queen. "As you wish your majesty. I will personally take her down to the dungeon and make sure she does not escape." He stood back to his feet and walked to Usagi, sneering at his sister as he went by her. He bent down and grabbed Usagi by her tail. "Damn these Saiyans of earth! They've caused more trouble than we ever did."   
  
By her tail, the man dragged Usagi out of the room, not caring if she lost any power from it or not. Though, she didn't because of Hotaru's nifty healing trick that she taught her. He grumbled more about Saiyans as he dragged her down a long corridor, with the black figure close behind.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Once the man arrived with Usagi at the dungeon, he kicked a cell door in and violently threw her in. He laughed as her head was bashed into the wall. "Serves the brat right!" He slammed the door shut behind him as he backed away from the cell. He continued to laugh at the top of his lungs as he peered down at Usagi, who was still very unconscious. She had a deep gash across her forehead from where she hit the wall just now. "I don't think I'll have to worry about her waking up any time soon. I don't even have to worry about the brat when she does wake up. She wont be able to break free. Even if she is a super Saiyan." He let out a sigh of victory as he walked out of the dungeon all together. "I'll come back to toy with her mind when she does wake up." He smirked as he continued to walk away. He couldn't wait to see the face on Goku's face when he told him that his precious daughter was disposed of.  
  
The black figure found a dark corner near Usagi's cell and curled up in it. 'I hope she wakes up soon. We need to get out of here before he comes back.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back on Earth~~  
  
Goku grabbed his wife as he scrambled to his feet. Even the force of him violently thrashing her around as he ran back to the house, still in Super Saiyan three mode, didn't wake her up. She was just too out of it. He didn't even bother looking for his dropped keys. He just kicked the door in and gently placed his fainted wife in the reclining chair by the hallway. "Shit!" He pressed his fingers to his forehead and first concentrated on his Gohan's room to teleport to him.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Gohan's House~~  
  
Goku, still powered up and very pissed, appeared in his son's bedroom, where someone was sleeping in the bed. Without thinking that someone other than his son could be sleeping in it, he angrily walked to the bed and shook the person, who was asleep, awake. "WAKE UP!"   
  
"Huh?" Came a groggy woman's voice. The voice happened to be coming from Videl. She rubbed her eyes and noticed that the room was very brightly lit. "Gohan...?" She sat up, letting the covers fall to her waist to reveal her pretty much see through nightgown. Once she realized that it wasn't Gohan, but his father, her father-in-law, she screamed at the top of her lungs. "GOHAN!!"  
  
Seeing his son's wife almost half naked, Goku immediately covered his eyes with his hands as he turned away, blushing. "For god's sake Videl! Put some cloths on!"   
  
Videl lay back down, holding the covers over herself very firmly, and covered her embarrassed face with a pillow. "Well maybe you wouldn't have this problem if you wouldn't just TELEPORT to our house in the middle of the night!"   
  
At that point, Gohan came rushing into his room at his wife's cries for help. He frowned when he saw his father standing in the same room as his wife, who was still too afraid to show her face. "FATHER! What the HELL are you doing in my house with MY wife in the middle of the night!?" He didn't over look the fact that his father was still powered to his fullest, but at that moment, he wanted answers and he wanted them then. "Don't you try anyth.."  
  
Goku uncovered his eyes and frowned at his son for even thinking such a thing. "Don't you EVER think I would try anything with her! I didn't teleport here to look at her! Maybe she should learn to wear some cloths!"  
  
Gohan was a little on the shocked side to hear his father talking to him that way. He had never in his life been yelled at for such a trivial thing. Normally, he would have just laughed in both of their faces. "What is it dad? What's the matter? Why are you all powered up? I didn't feel anything?" He moved his head to look at his hidden wife. "Did you feel anything Videl?"  
  
"ONLY EMBARRASMENT! NOW GET OUT! BOTH OF YOU! And Goku, we will talk about who the HELL you think you are with telling me what to wear in the privacy of MY OWN HOUSE. YOU JERK WAD." Videl could feel her face redden with anger.  
  
"Come on." Goku, still with his back turned to Videl, grabbed his son by his arm and led him out of the room. He didn't want to risk making her even angrier than she already was, knowing he was wrong to have said what he had. "Gohan, you didn't feel it, I know. Neither did I. But I think there's something you should know about. It's about your sister."  
  
Gohan frowned. "Yeah. Mr. Satan told me about what happened today. About how she humiliated him by trying to prove how much stronger than him she is. I'm going to have to give her a little talk again about not humiliating him in fro..." He stopped when he saw the frightened look in his father's eyes. "What's the matter? Is she all right? Did she run away from home or anything?"   
  
"No, she didn't run away. I wouldn't be powered up to find her, now would I!?" He could see the fear that he was creating within his son. "I'm sorry. I'm just upset right now. You see, she's been acting kind of depressed for the past two weeks. Your mother and I asked her what was wrong earlier today and she said that she felt an evil coming but she didn't know what it was. She also said that she felt empty or something along those lines. So your mom and I took her to the city for the day. Just to have fun. She seemed fine up until we started our drive home. That's when she started going back into her shell. That's not even the worst part." Goku dropped his head in misery as he tensed his fists. "You're not going to believe this, but when we got home tonight, the moon was back."  
  
Gohan widened his eyes with more fear. "WHAT?! HOW!?"  
  
Goku calmly shook his head. "I'm not sure. She started to look at it and..."  
  
"Did she turn into a giant ape? Is that's what's wrong? Did you have to cut her tail off?"  
  
"Would I be here if THAT'S all it was? No, nothing like that happened. She started to glow silver. I think she was about to turn into one. But then something came and grabbed her from behind. I tried to save her, but I wasn't strong enough. She cried out for us to help, but we let her down." Goku let his fist fly into Gohan's hallway wall, creating a huge hole in it and making most of the sheet-wall inside crumble. "DAMN IT! We could have tried harder! We should have tried harder! She was counting on us for help! But we couldn't produce the help needed! And now she's GONE!"  
  
"WHAT'S GOING ON OUT THERE!?"  
  
"Nothing!" Gohan, seeing his father's pain, put his arm around his shoulders. He too was upset. He couldn't imagine the fear that must have been flowing within his parents, let alone his poor baby sister. "Father, we will get her back. We have to. We can't go down without a fight."  
  
Goku turned to his son with a smile. "That's right! We won't loose her! That's why I came here. I want you to help me get everyone so we can find out what we're going to do. So far, our best bet is the Dragon Balls. But, before that, we can try to talk to Dende as well and see if he knows where she could have been taken to."  
  
"Where's mom?"  
  
"She's at home. She couldn't really hold her shock and fainted right after Usagi left. I should probably go there and make sure she isn't freaking out because I'm not there. Let's meet at Dende's. Gather everyone while I get your mom. I can't believe it, she knew about this all along, yet, she didn't tell us until today after we made her."  
  
Gohan nodded. "Right." He hoped that his little sister was all right, wherever she was.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Five hours later~~ (In another dimension that is)  
  
Usagi softly groaned in pain as she began to regain consciousness. "Wh..." She grabbed her chest, which was throbbing with pain, as she carefully sat up against the cell wall. "Mommy...daddy? Uhhh..." She bent over as a rush of severe pain shot through her entire body. "Where am I?" Her whole body shook with horror. She had no idea where she was and worse yet, she didn't know why she was there.   
  
"How long was I asleep?" The only thing that she remembered was looking at the moon and then being grabbed from behind. After that it was a blur, she vaguely remembered looking down at her father with immense fear. The one thing she DID remember about looking down at him was his fear and anger combined, which scared her more, especially since he was not able to help her. He had powered up all the way and still, not been able to anything.   
  
She looked around her environment and immediately became more frightened. She had just realized that her captors were holding her prisoner. "I knew that something was going to happen...I just knew it." She laid her head into her knees, which were pressed up against her body. "I want to go home."  
  
"Do you, little girl?" The same man who had thrown her in her cell came walking back into the dungeon. "I thought I smelled fear coming from here."  
  
Usagi cowered herself into the corner of her cell as she stared up at the man in fear. He looked oddly familiar. Not only in appearance, but his power felt familiar, as well. She wanted badly to question him, but was too frightened to do a thing. She wished badly that one of her family members were there to protect her, but now, she was helpless in a world that no one ever knew anything of. A world that only Usagi saw coming. Her reasons for being scared were now being justified.   
  
The man smirked as he threw an apple at Usagi. "Here, you need your strength back for your queen."  
  
"MY queen? I don't have a queen."  
  
The man quirked his eyebrow in interest. "You do now and that power of yours belongs to us." He grinned when nothing came from her. "Well, your father will be happy to hear of how you died, well at least how you're soul as of now died. You're lucky. The dark queen has decided to use your body for her plans, since it would be a waste to throw out such a powerful one. We will begin procedures after we extract your other energy."  
  
Usagi lifted her head just enough to look at her guard. "You won't get away with it! My daddy will save me!" The man got a good laugh at that. "Don't laugh! He's stronger than you'll ever be!"  
  
"Well little kid, is that why he couldn't save you when the queen pulled you in? You're father is a weakling, a low class fighter just like you are. You all may think that you're Super Saiyans, but the power of the Super Saiyan, even level three, is no match for our dark power."  
  
Usagi looked around the room. For the first time, she sensed the energy that was arising from the area. "You're the people who sent Cell, aren't you? You revived him and everything!"  
  
"Such a smart little thing, aren't you? Yes, you've figured us out, we're the ones who revived and sent Cell out after you. We got some of your hidden energy, but that wasn't enough. He failed us so we took the dark energy from his son, Cell Jr. I guess that made it easier for Goku to beat him. But don't worry; it won't be that easy for him to beat the things we send out again. This time we will have your energy. And once we have control of your body, you're going to be the first one we send out to destroy your good for nothing family." He laughed, almost to the point of cackling, as he turned around and walked out of the room. "Eat up little Saiyan! Your queen needs your energy."  
  
Usagi jumped to her feet and grabbed a hold of the bars after running to them. "I wont ever let you take me or my..." She stopped for a moment as she thought about what he said. "Hidden energy? What's he talking about? Do I have more power that daddy isn't telling me about that needs to be brought out?" She shook off her thoughts as she jumped back to the wall. "I'm not staying here!" She quickly powered up to HER level of Super Saiyan. "I won't kill my family!" With that, she fired a series of silver Ki attacks at the bars in front of her until she was nearly drained, which produced a large cloud of dust in front of them.   
  
She stopped and waited for the smoke to clear with a grin. "I'm outta here! Home free! I just have to find a way home..." Her jaw dropped when the smoke did finally clear. "WHAT'S GOING ON!?" She ran to the bars, which were still very much in tact without a single scratch on them. "What the..." She rubbed her fingers on them to see if it would crumble, but unfortunately, the bars seemed to be untouched. "Maybe the Kamehameha will work. It never failed anyone before."   
  
Usagi jumped back to the wall again and powered up for the Kamehameha wave in which she was about to produce. "KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!!" She pushed her hands in front of her and fired her massive blast at the bars. The blast was so gigantic that it backfired on her and injured her more than she already was, causing her greater pain and the gash in her head to become larger. "Owe!"   
  
She didn't even bother to take the time out to heal herself. She was more interested in seeing if her attack had done anything at all. She, once again, dashed to the bars to see if anything had happened. "NO!" She pulled back in more fear than before when she saw that nothing had happened. "NO! NO! NO!"   
  
"There's only one thing left to try!" Without further thought, and absolutely no hesitation, she pressed her fingers to her forehead and concentrated on her father's energy. He had been able to teleport in and out of dimensions, why couldn't she? "Come on! Come on! WORK!" Her body disappeared from the cell it was being held in, only to reappear back in the same spot. "WHAT?! THAT CAN'T BE!" She tried it again, only to get the same results. "NO! I WON'T BELIEVE IT!" She tried it again and still, again, got the same results.   
  
Usagi dropped to her knees, feeling utterly defeated, as her hair and tail went back to their normal colors from loss of power. "I'm...stuck...here...FOREVER! MOMMY! DADDY!" She tried to hold in her tears in fear that if she cried that someone would come down and kill her for it, but she couldn't help it. She had lost. There was no way to get out. She had tried everything within her power to get herself out. Even the combined efforts of her mother and father at their strongest had done nothing. She was out of ideas as well as energy. "This is worse than being stuck in the past. At least then I was with family! MOMMY! DADDY! GOHAN! GOTEN! CAN YOU HEAR ME WHERE EVER YOU ARE!?" She dropped her head to the ground and cried harder than she had ever cried before. She cried to the point of making her chest ache. "I don't want to kill my parents and brothers. I DON'T WANT TO DO IT!" She slammed her fist, hard, against the ground as she let her agony be heard throughout the whole castle.  
  
The black figure walked out from behind the shadows, to reveal itself as a cat, and watched as Usagi cried. It couldn't help but feel sympathy for the child. It had just witnessed the girl try everything that she had, yet, it all failed. Things did look pretty grim at that point, but there was still hope. The cat raised its paw and began cleaning itself off. "This is the dirtiest place I've ever been in. How is a girl supposed to keep clean in a place like this?"  
  
Usagi slowly lifted her head from the ground, still very much in tears of lost hope. She was startled by the black cat just outside her cell, who was cleaning itself. Usagi stood up and ran to the bars that were keeping her prisoner and gasped. "Now I'm hearing things. I could have sworn that that cat just TALKED!" The small cat turned her head to Usagi and kitty smiled. Usagi backed away from the bars in shock just after she looked down to the cat's forehead, which had a small golden crescent moon on it. "YOU'RE THE CAT FROM MY DREAMS! I MUST BE DREAMING! I'M ASLEEP!" She screamed when she pinched herself as hard as she could. "Wait a minute! I'm NOT sleeping! What's going on!? Why is that cat here? I thought she was just a fictional character I made up!"  
  
The cat calmly stood to its feet and walked into the Cell with Usagi. "Yes, I guess I would be in your dreams considering the long history you and I have. But that isn't quite important yet. Getting you out of here is."  
  
Usagi once again dropped to her knees, as she knew there was no way to do it. She wondered what the cat met by 'long history' though. She would have asked her, but she knew how important it was to break free of her prison. "I've tried, believe me. I'm totally drained of any power that I had left because of it. It's no use to even try anymore."   
  
Usagi perked up with excitement. "WAIT!" She slowly raised her power level and concentrated all of her energy. 'Girls! Girls! Can you hear me!? This is Usagi! I've been kidnapped by that queen who wanted me dead! That queen who sent Cell after me.' She smiled as she waited for them to answer. 'Hello? Girls? Are you there?' No answer came in response. "Hey cat! Why aren't they answering?"  
  
"There is a dimension of dark energy. Regular power doesn't work against dark energy. That's why you couldn't teleport. That's also why that man said that the power of the Super Saiyan wouldn't work."  
  
Usagi disappointedly looked down to the cat beside her. She didn't exactly find it too strange that she had met a talking cat. For one reason, it was the same cat from her dreams, and for the second, she kept in mind what her father had told her to not be surprised when strange things happened. This had to be one of the strangest things ever. "You were there when that bad man was here? Then you were here when I drained myself of my energy."  
  
"I know, but you had to learn on your own that it wouldn't work. You wouldn't have believed me otherwise."  
  
Usagi calmly nodded. "I guess you're right. But what do you mean by 'regular power'? And what did that man mean by my 'hidden power'? Is my dad not telling me of a power that I have like he didn't before?"  
  
The cat shook her head. "No, your father does not know of this energy, this sacred power, that you hold."  
  
Usagi let her mouth fall in awe. "Sacred power?"  
  
The cat nodded. "Yes. The only power in the universe strong enough to fight off the dark energy."  
  
Usagi wasn't sure if she understood anything that the cat was trying to tell her. "Dark energy? You mean that stuff that Cell had?"  
  
"Yes. Dark Energy, the energy in which you have been fighting for thousands of years."  
  
Usagi couldn't help but let out a small laugh. That was absolutely outrageous. "What are you taking about? I'm only eleven years old. My parents aren't even a thousand years old."  
  
The cat shook her head in annoyance. "Same old inquisitive girl as always. We mustn't worry about such tedious things now. First we must get you out of here. Here, take this." A small pink light, about the size of the cat's head, appeared before the cat. "This is a gift." The light disappeared and left a small pink item.   
  
Usagi stood up. "I'm not taking anything from you! You may be...one of them." She exclaimed with paranoia.  
  
The cat rolled her eyes. "I am not. I am on your side. Now if you pick this up and yell out moon crystal power Make-Up, it should work."  
  
Usagi snickered. "Moon Crystal power Make-Up? What kind of corny saying is that?"  
  
"A very good one. Now we don't have much time. You are strong enough to go to the second level of Sailor Moon." Distant footsteps could be heard. "They're coming back."  
  
Usagi giggled. "Sailor Moon?"  
  
"Yes. You ARE Sailor Moon. You have the power of the moon. That means that YOU ARE Sailor Moon. Now pick it up and attack this Cell and who ever is coming down here before they get here!" The cat nervously looked over her shoulder to see what was happening down the hall.  
  
Usagi crossed her arms. "And why should I do this?"  
  
"BECAUSE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT! The only way one can fight dark energy successfully is with planetary power. You have the strongest planetary power of them all. The power of the Moon."  
  
"I have the power of earth and the planet Vejita, where the Saiyans come from. I am Son Usagi, Super Saiyan! Not Sailor Moon!"  
  
"JUST DO IT! DO IT FOR YOUR PARENTS! I SAW HOW FULL OF FEAR THEY WERE! You love you mother and father DON'T YOU?! You love your brothers DON'T YOU?!"  
  
Usagi backed up from the cat's outburst. It was true, she did love her family with all of her heart. She didn't want to become a puppet for the dark side and kill her family for them. Usagi nodded, knowing what she had to do, and bent down to pick up the transformation brooch. She held it high above her head with pride. If she was going to do this, she was going to do it right. "Fine. But only because I love my family." She braced herself for whatever may happen next. She knew it was time to get down to business and get out of there. "MOON CRYSTAL POWER...MAKE-UP!" The room was overtaken with light as bright as the moon as Usagi's cloths disappeared and her body became wrapped with ribbons, which soon turned into a dazzling new Sailor Fuku. Her energy was also regenerated to its fullest, to her liking.  
  
Usagi examined her new outfit from. She could hardly keep her laughter in. "This is it? It looks ridiculous! How am I supposed to fight in THIS? It's too frilly. Not that frilly is bad, but frilly is not good for fighting. I can't fight in this, CAT!" She went to move her arms to build up for an attack, but found that she had terrible restraints holding her back. "This wont do at all. Is there something else we can work with? I mean really, look at this bow in the back. What if an enemy grabs it? I mean, yeah, my tail got in the way a lot, but that couldn't be helped. This bow has got to go, too." She looked down to the cat, who didn't seem to be listening to a word she was saying. "Cat! Hey CAT!"  
  
  
A man, other than the one before, soon took her attention as he stood in front of the cell with a gun. She backed away for she knew that if it shot anything, it would be pure black energy. "Uh-Oh."  
  
"SHE'S TRANSFORMED! QUICKLY GET HER!"  
  
The cat turned around with a frown. "DO SOMETHING SAILOR MOON!"  
  
"SURE THING CAT!" Sailor Moon pulled herself together and extended her arms out in front of her body towards the bars of the cell as well as the man in front of her. "Hey freak!" The man turned to Sailor Moon in fear as she built up for another massive Ki attack. He was too stunned to say anything. Sailor Moon smirked a Vejita smirk. "Yeah you! I'm talking to you. Wanna see a fire work show?" Without letting him say a single word, she fired her ball of silver moon energy at her enemy. To her surprise, it ate right through the bars and immediately eliminated her enemy. The power even ricocheted off of the wall bounced directly to the enemies down the hall that were quickly approaching. "Wow, cat. This moon stuff really works great." Sailor Moon brought her hand up to face in amazement. 'Wow, I did that?'  
  
"I told you, now we must make haste and get out of here as soon as possible." The cat ran out of the cell. She turned around when Sailor Moon didn't follow. "What's the matter now?"  
  
"Wait, I want to thank you for bringing me this power and saving me. I guess I was a little rude to you before too. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."  
  
The cat smiled. 'She's different here.' "You did all the work."  
  
"Don't be modest...Sorry, I didn't get your name."  
  
"The names Luna."  
  
Sailor Moon smiled as she emerged from her Cell, which she had been wanting to do all along. "Well Luna, nice to meet you. I guess that's a good name for you considering the fact that you're a moon cat, right? I mean, that is the deal with the moon on your forehead." 'Wait a minute, a crescent moon on her forehead, I'm Sailor Moon, the crescent moon earrings from mom. These are ALL connected. I understand the cat and Sailor Moon, but the earrings, how did mom get them?'   
  
Luna nodded. "Yes. I am a moon cat. We can talk later though, Sailor Moon. Right now we need to get you out of here before Beryl catches you."  
  
Sailor Moon curiously looked down at her kitty companion as she followed her down the hallway that led out of the dungeon. "Beryl? Is that the lady that has been chasing me for all this time?" Luna nodded. "Well, why don't I just blast her with a Kamehameha wave using this moon power while I'm powered up to Super Saiyan?"  
  
Luna looked over to Usagi. "You can't just do that. Only the Moon Princess can do such a thing."  
  
"Moon Princess?" Usagi turned a corner after Luna.  
  
"Yes, the Moon Princess. The one that you are sworn to protect. You are the Senshi of the moon. Leader of the Sailor Senshi and guardian of the Moon Princess. Listen, I'll explain all of this in more depth later. Right now we REALLY need to get out. You need to stay alive."  
  
"Don't worry about me, Luna. I can protect myself."  
  
"Don't be so confident. Not even your father could keep you out of trouble this time. Don't think that your Moon power will always be able to help."  
  
Usagi sheepishly looked down to the floor as she thought of her parents. She hoped that they weren't freaking out TOO much. Though, knowing her mother she was probably already gathering the Dragon Balls to wish her back home. 'I just want to get home to be with mommy and daddy...'  
  
Luna turned around in worry once she had not heard any response from the Senshi of the Moon. "Look, Sailor Moon, Usagi, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."  
  
Usagi tried to put on a smile. "It's all right, Luna. I know you didn't mean to make me think about them. I'm just wondering what they're doing back on earth. We've all been given such a scare today. I guess I haven't really been thinking about their feelings just sitting around and doing nothing. I've been worrying them so much lately. All because I felt this coming."  
  
Luna stopped in her spot. "You felt that this was going to happen?"  
  
Usagi looked down. "Yes. For the past two weeks. It has been scaring me senseless. I haven't known what to do at all. I've been so confused."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The dark queen, Beryl, jumped off of her thrown with severe anger. "Usagi has awakened as Sailor Moon. I TOLD YOU NOT TO LET HER ESCAPE!" She hissed as she glared over to her female guard, who approached her with less fear than of her than the rest. "How did this happen!?"  
  
The female guard kneeled before her queen and bowed her head. "You have summoned us, our liege?"  
  
Queen Beryl looked at her minions in the same contempt she had for all. "Sailor Moon has shown herself in MY castle. She is running around and killing off everyone I send at her. I want you to ALL to go fetch her and bring her to me at once! You there!" She pointed at the man who had taken Usagi down to the cellar. "Tell that damned scientist to send his least creation down to earth to find the other Senshi. No sense of wasting the most powerful ones on such weaklings. They must not be allowed to wake, though. They must not be allowed to protect the princess of the moon. While you're at it, program the thing to steal their planetary power, as well."  
  
All of her minions looked upon their queen with hatred and fear, but they still responded to her will. They all bowed to show their respect, having learned the hard way what it meant to disobey her. Together, they turned around and walked out of their queen's lair.   
  
Beryl walked away from her thrown with her anger rising every moment that Sailor Moon was left to run free in HER castle of dark energy. "I don't trust those fools to do anything. I'll have to make sure that she is stopped." With that, she hurried out of her lair in search of the one person who could stop her. Just before she left, though, she stopped with an evil smirk on her face. "Wait a minute. Why bother getting HER power? Little Senshi of the Moon, there is more than one way to get your power."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back on Earth~~  
  
It was the middle of the night, yes, but that didn't mean that things were as peaceful as they should have been. Two different parties gathered in two different areas with one objective, each unknowing of the other.   
  
Five girls gathered in 'Sanctuary', all with fear of what was going on. They had all been wakened up by the power that they felt coming from Usagi's house. It was much too intense to sleep through, or even ignore when they had wakened. They all knew exactly what kind of power it was too. It was too evil to not remember. Well, all but one remembered for little Hotaru had never felt the power before. But her link with her friends had let her understand exactly what she was up against.   
  
So there they sat, on the top floor of their meeting place, all wondering what they were going to do. They knew that they were the only ones who could feel the dark energy that was being emitted at the time of Usagi's kidnapping, aside from Mamoru and his gang of friends.  
  
"You guys, what are we supposed to do? Usagi is GONE. We can't talk to her, even through the link." Minako had tried numerous times to talk to Usagi, but the same thing happened over and over again, nothing. From the moment that she first felt the dark energy, she tried, as well as the other girls.   
  
Rei walked to one of the windows that overlooked the waterfall and sighed as she gazed up to the newly formed moon. "I don't know. I wonder why the moon is back." She widened her eyes with fear as she looked back to Hotaru. "Hotaru...I just remembered what happens when Saiyans look at the moon. Umm...why don't we, uh, cover this window with a curtain or something so Hotaru doesn't feel tempted to look at it."  
  
Hotaru smiled as she bounced over to Rei. "Don't worry about it. I already looked at it and nothing happened."  
  
Rei cautiously backed away from Hotaru, who was starring at the moon, herself. "Uh...if you say so." She relaxed her muscles when nothing happened to the younger child, only to re-tense herself. "You guys...I'm sensing an evil nearing this location!"  
  
Makoto, startled, turned her head to the west with fear written all over her face. "It's them! That's the same power that we felt earlier!" Without needing to be convinced any further that she would have to fight, she powered up to her fullest power.  
  
Hotaru pulled herself away from the sparkling moon and powered up as well. "Man that's a really hate filled power!"   
  
Ami stepped in front of the youngster and powered up, along with Minako and Rei. "Tell me about it. It's JUST like Cell's power from the past. This MUST be them trying to strike back on us for beating him. But why are they coming here?"  
  
Minako ran to the west window and frowned. "We didn't kill Cell Jr. Goku did, but it was our combined attack that kill off the REAL Cell. They're probably just mad at us for it. They must hold really big grudges."  
  
Rei jumped to Minako's side and saw the monster that was fast approaching them. She smirked. "Well, I guess we'll just have to do it again, wont we?"  
  
Ami grabbed Hotaru by the arm as the others flew out the window. "Well Hotaru, let's put all your hard training to the test. Did you bring you weapon with you?"  
  
Hotaru nodded as she ran to pick up her staff. "You bet your marbles I did!"   
  
Ami smiled. "Great! Let's go show that thing whose boss!'  
  
"RIGHT!" Hotaru wrapped her tail around her waist, not wanting it to get in the way, and jumped out the window with Ami. "HERE WE COME!" Hotaru could hardly wait to tear into her enemy and put her skills to the test. For once, she could go all out and not worry about hurting anyone.  
  
( ::grin:: SAILOR MOON IS HERE SAILOR MOON IS HERE SAILOR MOON IS HERE!!! ^_^ Did I not tell you that Chapter 100 was going to be big?! Well, I know it took a while for me to post this, but FF.Net was still being a pain. So, what did you think? I'd love to hear. Thanks. Ja Ne! )  
  



	101. Part 3

  
~~Kami's Lookout~~  
  
Everyone was gathered up at Kami's lookout, wondering what they were going to do about the Usagi situation. There was only but one person who knew of the second crisis that was taking place down on earth. He knew not why he was the only one out of the group atop Kami's lookout who could feel what was going on. He had even felt Usagi's struggle, which almost made him feel sorry for her...almost. Oh all right, he was sorry for her, but wouldn't admit it. But at the time of the attack, his mind was attacked as well. Like something trying to take over. Fortunately his father's training in mental discipline was sufficient to over come the impulsive demand that was overtaking him.   
  
Goku, still powered up to his maximum power, paced back and fourth with more anger now than he had arrived with, while his family and friends spoke of ways to retrieve the kidnapped child.   
  
Mamoru snickered as he listened to everyone talk of ways to save her. He knew that none of them would work. "You guys are just wasting all of your time. She can't be saved. Give it up. If she's meant to come back, then she'll come back. This power is WAY past any of yours, even all yours put together." Disregarding the fact that it was rude, it was true. He knew of the power that they were up against. He knew that there would be no return of Usagi unless the queen herself became dumb enough to release her.  
  
Goku stopped short of his next step and very slowly, and very intimidating, turned around to scowl at Mamoru, who was now rethinking his last statement. "Piccolo...I suggest you take that kid outta here before something bad happens to him. I may just decided to loose my temper and beat the CRAP outta him for telling me I shouldn't try to rescue my daughter!"   
  
Piccolo gulped as he neared his son. He knew that he shouldn't take Goku's threat lightly since the man wasn't normally one to make them. "Mamoru, uh...maybe you should get out of here."  
  
Mamoru slowly backed away from Goku, who was still scowling at him. "I...uh...whoa...I think..." Mamoru jerked back when Goku took a step forward. "Well I think I'll be going now."  
  
Goku continued to grimace at the sixteen-year old as he flew away from the lookout. "He's pissed me off one too many times."   
  
Chi-Chi cautiously walked to her angry husband and hugged him from behind. "Don't switch personalities on us, dear. I'm not supposed to be the one telling YOU this, but calm down. You're supposed to be the one telling ME to calm down."  
  
"Yeah dad," Goten interrupted. "Chill out. You have to expect that from Mamoru. He's just an ass to everyone."  
  
Piccolo frowned as he punched Goten in his ribs. "Shut the hell up kid."  
  
Goku's expression lightened up as he soon forgot about Mamoru and went back to business. He calmly turned to Dende with hope. "Have you been able to find out where they took her?"  
  
Dende shook his head with much disappointment. "Sadly, I haven't. There's no doubt that she's been taken to another dimension though. I hadn't even known that there was any disruption until you all came here. Except the moon, which only puzzles me greater."  
  
Goten cocked his head to the side when he felt the power levels of his sister's friends. "Uh-oh. We have a problem. I think the girls are fighting something."  
  
Gohan walked to the edge of the lookout, and sure enough, he saw the glows of the girls' auras. "I don't feel what they're fighting...even if they ARE fighting something. Do you think that they're just sparring?"  
  
Goku groaned as he joined his son. He already had too much on his mind, he didn't want to have to deal with his students, as well. "At this time of night? I don't think so. I think that someone should go and check it out while we stay here and try to locate Usagi."  
  
"I'll do it, Goku." Chi-Chi slowly joined her husband. "I don't think that you're in any kind of condition to deal with something like this right now."  
  
"I'll go with you." Videl jumped into the air. "I doubt that they're fighting something that will give off a threat, but we should still check it out."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded as she leapt to the air. "You're right. Goku, try not to kill anyone while we're gone."  
  
Goku nodded with a slight smile. "I wont. You two be careful out there. Bring the girls up here, too. I don't want you or them in any danger."  
  
"Ok, Goku."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, back at the lake, the girls were engaged in a fight with the monster made completely of dark energy sent out by Beryl's scientist. "Senshi..."  
  
Rei jumped back from the monster as it took a swift swipe at her when she came close to it for an attack. "This thing means business, girls!"  
  
Hotaru stayed away from the monster and watched her friends try and attack it as she let some of her power be put into her staff of sorts. Doing that, it became almost as powerful as she was with her Ki around the bladed area. "Hey monster!" She crouched into a fighting position and held her staff horizontally in her hands. "Why don't I show you what a true fighter can do to you?!"   
  
Makoto sat up from the ground, where she had been thrown to during the battle. "No Hotaru! That thing is stronger than that!"  
  
Hotaru ignored Makoto, letting her Saiyan instinct get the better of her. "This thing can't be all THAT hard. I'm a Saiyan, am I not?" She jumped into the air and changed the position of her powered up weapon. "This thing will be a piece of cake." She now held it vertically as she brought it up above her head. Once she was close enough to the monster, she quickly switched positions with her staff, meaning, she was now above the staff as she dove down towards the monster's head with her weapon going blade first.   
  
Minako turned towards Hotaru, who didn't seem to notice that the monster was powering up. "HOTARU!" She jumped into the air towards Hotaru.  
  
Hotaru smirked as she watched the blade of her weapon pierce the skull of her enemy's head. She closed her eyes when she saw the black blood gush out. "Gross." She quickly yanked her spear out of the monster's head, though it got stuck inside because of the extra blade that curved towards her. She overcame that obstacle quickly and jumped back into the air, firing a massive Ki attack at it as she went.   
  
Regardless of the new wound in its head, the monster looked up at Hotaru with a glare. "You're going to have to do better than that to hurt me. Though I must compliment you on your effort."  
  
Hotaru screamed as the monster punched her in the stomach and grabbed her spear. "You won't be needing this anymore." He lifted it up and brought it back down over his head, immediately causing it to shatter into thousands of tiny pieces.   
  
"What are you?"  
  
"No one special." He grabbed Hotaru by the face and squeezed down on it as hard as he could. "You flesh and blood types are too simple."  
  
"HOTARU!" Minako's foot found its way into the chest of Hotaru's attacker. "GET AWAY FROM HER!" She glared at the monster with hate filled eyes as he dropped Hotaru to the ground and turned to her. A loud crack could be heard as Hotaru's leg smashed against a jagged rock. "Your fight is with us! She had nothing to do with the death of Cell."  
  
"Yeah!" Makoto, Rei, and Ami slowly rose to be face to face with the flying monster with wounds of all sorts all over their tired bodies.   
  
The monster laughed as he looked down to the fallen Saiyan. "So you know who I am with, do you? She is a threat. She pierced my body, which can only mean one thing. But I won't bother you with that. I'm not going to give it away...well...anyways...there is no way that I will be defeated. We have beaten the odds and found you before it was too late. I will now proceed to extract your powers and then kill you. Feel free to continue attacking me, it won't do any good."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru whimpered in pain as she let her head drop to the side, where she saw a white cat walking to her. "Run away little kitty. This guy isn't one to be messed with." She felt down her leg and widened her eyes when she felt something out of place. 'Uh-oh. Dad is going to freak.'  
  
The white cat sat down by Hotaru's limp body as he examined her. 'This is a Senshi, she has to be. She penetrated that guy's body with her power.' The cat turned around and walked away from the girl in purple and proceeded to look up as he walked forward. 'Those girls must be the others. Their energy feels of their respective planets. It too is holding up against this thing. I know who the other girls are, but this one is shielded from me for some reason.'   
  
The cat took a deep breath as he decided that it was time. There was only one way to do this. "GIRLS!"  
  
Hotaru gasped with shock as she stared at the cat. "That cat just talked!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
The girls diverted their attention down to the little white cat, who called up to them. They all brought their pale faces back to look at each other with nothing to say. Rei sensed the good energy that was coming from the cat. "Girls, did that cat just TALK to us?"  
  
The monster took one look at the cat and immediately knew what he stood for. "You've come to late CAT! I've got them all now! HAHAHA!"  
  
The girls shot their attention at the cackling monster and slowly backed away from him. Ami looked down to the cat once more and then at the monster. "One of us should go down there and see what the cat wants. The other three should try to do the combined attack."  
  
Minako nodded with agreement. "Right, but someone else should go down there and check on Hotaru, too."  
  
Ami nodded. "Ok. You and I can go down there. Rei, Makoto, you take care of this once and for all. The power of two should do nicely." Makoto and Rei complied as they opened a link between the two of them.  
  
Minako lowered herself down to Hotaru's side as Ami lowered herself to the cat. The cat quickly jumped to his feet and began his story, not wanting anything else to happen to the others. "Ami, listen, I have not much time to explain."  
  
Ami curiously looked to the cat with wide eyes as she bent down to her knees. "How did you know my name?"  
  
The cat shook his head. "Never mind that. What that thing says is true. You will not be able to beat it with your current power. You need the help of your planetary power. The power that each one of you possesses deep within you. It seems as though it's already started to awaken within you all as I can feel it just by using my senses. Please take these and give them to your friends." Four hand size sticks of different colors appeared before him on the ground. "I don't have time to explain, but you will all understand as soon as you do this."  
  
Ami cautiously picked up the colored sticks from the ground. Each one had a different symbol on the top in gold, as if they were united somehow. "I think I know who gets which one. They are color coded to our favorite colors, I see. What do we do with them?" She looked down to the cat.  
  
"You will yell at Mercury Star Power Make-Up. Minako will call out Venus Star Power Make-Up. Rei will say Mars Star Power Make-Up. While Makoto will say Jupiter Star Power Make-Up. When you do this, your current power will be enhanced and you will become the Sailor Senshi."  
  
Ami stood to her feet with a sense of knowledge of what she was meant to do. "We will try this. There are reasons that I believe you in which I shall explain after we take this thing out." She held up her blue transformation rod. "Mercury Star Power...Make-Up!" The sky all of a sudden became filled with a magnificent blue light as Ami's blue fighting GI was replaced with her Sailor Fuku.   
  
Hotaru lifted her head as her eyes became wide with puzzlement at what she saw. "Ami? What happened to Ami?"  
  
The cat glanced over at the Saiyan fighter. 'How does she know that it's Ami? The power of her planet should be able to cover up her identity. She must be one, but who? And why do I feel I must not awaken her?'  
  
Minako turned her head, wondering what the child was complaining about. "Wha...wha...wha? AMI!? Your cloths changed! HOW CUTE!! I WANT ONE!"  
  
"Here catch this and yell out Venus Star Power Make-Up while I help the others out!" Sailor Mercury quickly threw the orange transformation stick to Minako, who in return, caught it without any trouble.   
  
Minako looked down at Hotaru, who had found enough power to sit up. "Hey, I wonder if I'll get one of those outfits if I yell it out."  
  
Hotaru's eyes dazzled with jealousy. She wanted to be able to transform. "Try it, Minako!"   
  
Minako nodded. "Right! Venus Star Power...Make-Up!"   
  
The monster looked down to the ground where yet another Senshi was being born. "WHAT THE HELL!? Where did they come from!?"   
  
Minako, now Sailor Venus, glared up at the monster in the air with renewed energy. "Stay here, Hotaru. We'll take care of this. For some reason, I feel that I can do this now."  
  
Sailor Mercury threw Rei and Makoto their transformation rods. "Makoto, call out Jupiter Star Power Make-Up. Rei, call out Mars Star Power Make-Up. You'll transform just like Minako and I did."  
  
The monster threw a deadly dark energy attack at Rei. "No one more is transforming!"  
  
Sailor Venus fired one of her own newly enhanced Ki attacks up at the monster's to divert it away from her friends. She could have yelled out for joy when she saw what had happened to the dark energy attack. Instead of being diverted away from her friend, it was totally destroyed. "Wow! This stuff works!"  
  
"Of course it does, Minako!" The white cat jumped in front of Minako, who stood before Hotaru. "It's your planetary power that's the driving force behind your attacks now.  
  
Makoto and Rei threw their hands up in the air with their transformation wands. "JUPITER..."  
  
"MARS..."  
  
"...STAR POWER...MAKE-UP!"   
  
The monster backed away in fear as he stood before four newly born Sailor Scouts. "Hey! You weren't supposed to be able to transform!"  
  
Sailor Jupiter approached the monster with a sizzling ball of lightning as her Ki attack sitting in her hand. "Well too bad!" With that, she threw her green lightning energy at the monster. It carved a hole right through its stomach, causing it to fall to the ground. "Dang this stuff is powerful! Not a single attack worked on it before and now with this new power he's falling to the ground with no trouble at all." She looked down to the ground, where the monster seemed to be dragging itself towards Hotaru. "Your turn, Minako!"  
  
Venus nodded. "Right, Makoto." She backed away from her enemy and built up a massive ball of orange energy. "Here monster! It's time to say lights out!"   
  
The monster turned to Sailor Venus, but couldn't see in anything due to the fact of a giant energy ball coming right at it. He put his arms over his face for cover, but that didn't do anything.  
  
"WHAAAAA!" He screamed as the ball of energy ripped him right in half.   
  
"Ha! Take that you retard!" She turned to Hotaru and smiled. "I'm a hero! I saved a little kid!" She held up her fingers to create a 'V'.   
  
Hotaru let her mouth drop as she watched all of her friends gather in front of her. "You guys, that special power that you guys have is HUGE now. I can't even feel your other fighting power anymore."  
  
The white cat jumped up on a rock that sat on Hotaru's left. "How can you feel that they are REALLY who they are?"  
  
Hotaru stiffly turned her head to look at the cat. "Well, that's easy. I've been training with these guys for a few months now and I would know their power anywhere. It's just that, they seemed to have two powers before. Each with a different feeling. There was this secret power that only we could feel, and there was also this fighting power that everyone else, plus us, could feel."  
  
The cat looked down to the ground in wonder. 'Hmm...she has to be a Sailor Senshi. Only the Senshi can feel each other's secret power like that. BUT WHICH? I have to talk to Luna about her.'  
  
Mercury dropped to the cat's side. "Hey, cat, do you have a name? You seem to know all of ours, but we don't know yours."  
  
The cat looked up with a slight blush. "Well my name is Artimas."  
  
Venus kneeled down to get a better look at the cat. "Hey, look, Makoto. Artimas has the same crescent moon on his forehead that the cat from Usagi's dream did. Remember that picture that she drew when she was younger? I think her parents still have that on the fridge. I see it like, every time I walk in the kitchen."  
  
Jupiter bent down and rested her hands on her knees to get a better look. "Hey yeah. He's got the crescent moon all right. But he's white, Usagi's cat is black."  
  
"That's because Luna, the black cat you speak of, is with Usagi at this moment, revealing her as Sailor Moon."  
  
Rei dropped next to Hotaru. "Sailor Moon?"  
  
Artimas nodded. "Yes. You are all legendary Sailor Senshi. You, Rei, are Sailor Mars. Senshi of fire and passion. Makoto here is Sailor Jupiter, Senshi of lightning, nature and protection. Minako is Sailor Venus, the Senshi of Love and beauty of the heart. And last but certainly not least, Ami, you are Sailor Mercury, Senshi of Ice, but also the Senshi of intelligence."  
  
Hotaru sadly looked down to the ground. "This isn't fair. You guys all have these cool new names and powers while I'm stuck here with nothing."  
  
Rei rubbed her hand on Hotaru's head. "But you're a Saiyan. That's a pretty cool thing. We're just puny humans."  
  
Hotaru giggled as she smiled up at Rei. "Yeah. I guess we're even now." She turned to her shattered bladed weapon. "I guess I can kiss that goodbye. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Maybe dad will buy me a new one."  
  
"Girls, we don't have much time to talk. I have to inform you of everything before Luna gets back with Sailor Moon. Now, I don't have a right to tell you everything, I'll have to leave that up to someone else, someone very special. Truth is, there are a few gaps in my memory, but I'll run you on the basics. First off, don't tell ANYONE of your identity." Artimas turned to glare at Hotaru. "Can I trust you with this?" 'Since she's a senshi, I think I can trust her, even though her energy feels awfully dark for one.'  
  
Hotaru nodded. "You have my word Mr. Pussy Cat."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"GIRLS!" Videl scanned the forest below for any sign of Usagi's friends.  
  
"GIRLS WHERE ARE YOU!?" Chi-Chi stopped her energy flow as she looked down to the ground. "That's funny. I only feel Hotaru's power level."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The girls turned their heads to the voices that were coming less than a mile away. Venus was the first to take any action as she stood to her feet. "Uh-oh. That's Chi-Chi and Videl. They're going to see us like this. We can't let them see us."  
  
Artimas chuckled as he jumped down off of the rock. "Don't worry, unless they are Sailor Senshi, they wont be able to know who you are as your fighting power has been hidden by your planetary power. Just act casual and you'll be fine."  
  
Mercury looked back to Hotaru. "Can you move any more than just sitting up?"  
  
Hotaru tried to move her leg, but couldn't. It hurt whenever she would make the slightest movement what so ever. "I think my leg is broken. It hurts REALLY bad."   
  
"Ok, don't move it. Chi-Chi and Videl will be here soon." She turned her attention to the two women who now hovered directly over the area. "They're here already? Wow."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Videl and Chi-Chi glared down at the Sailor Senshi, unable to read them at all, which made them think that they were the enemy since they couldn't read them either. "Hey you! Get away from that child!" Chi-Chi raised her power level to maximum as she dropped to the ground in front of the Senshi, taking no chances. Videl did the same.  
  
Artimas inched his way over to Venus, who stood closest to them. "When Sailor Moon isn't here, you're acting leader."  
  
"Huh? Me?" She got a soft nod from Artimas and knew what she was going to have to do. "Uh, hello ladies. Nice night isn't it? I mean, the moon is full, the stars are out." She stopped when she saw the frowns on their face. "Allow me to introduce me and my clan. I'm Sailor Venus and these are Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Jupiter." She held out her hand for a shake from people she already knew very well.  
  
Chi-Chi and Videl only continued to glare at the girl in orange. They weren't about to take their eye off what they thought to be the enemy for a minute. Chi-Chi took a bold step forward and slapped the girl's hand away. "You killed those poor girls didn't you!? And you hid their bodies! Now you're going to try to kill little Hotaru, weren't you? Stand away from her!"  
  
Not wanting to cause any trouble with either of the women for they didn't want to make enemies with their own friends, the Sailor Senshi backed away from Hotaru, holding their hands up in a gesture of compliance. Venus moved aside. "Please. We are here to help. We were just about to take this child to a hospital."  
  
Videl walked forward as Chi-Chi kept watching the new fighters before her. She bent down and picked up Hotaru, careful not to hurt her leg any further than it already was. "Come on. We'll get you fixed up and then you can tell us what happened."  
  
Without any further word from either party, Videl and Chi-Chi took off to Kami's tower with Hotaru, planning on telling the others the situation and coming back with reinforcements. If they beat the girls, they would need help.  
  
The Sailor Senshi turned to each other in confusion and then to Artimas, though, Mercury knew why the women acted the way they did. "They're already shaken up about not knowing who took Usagi. They obviously can't feel our power, as they haven't been able to for some time now. They think they we're the enemy. But we can fix that." Mercury allowed herself to de-transform. She now stood back in her blue GI. "Well just go to Kami's tower, where everyone seems to be gathering. We'll explain to them that we were nearly killed but the Sailor Senshi helped us. There, Artimas can tell us everything we need to know."  
  
"You always were the smart one of the group, Ami." Artimas jumped on the Minako's shoulder, who had also de-transformed, as well as the other girls. "You know, Minako, you're going to have to take me home now."  
  
Minako widened her eyes as she glanced over at the Artimas. "What?!"  
  
"That's right. I'm your guardian. As second in command, you have to take me home."  
  
Minako sighed as she walked forward with her friends. "Well, I guess my parents will just have to understand. I mean, this is Sailor business. Man, this is all too much to take in, in one night."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Even though the other Senshi had found momentary peace, Sailor Moon and Luna were still in the middle of their own crisis. They had been running around for hours with nowhere to go. They knew nothing of their where a bouts. All they knew was that they had to get out, and fast.   
  
Everywhere they ran it seemed as though there was another enemy to be faced. But using the power of the Moon as well as the power of the Saiyans and Humans, Sailor Moon triumphed over every single enemy that came to her. "These guys are too easy."  
  
Luna turned a corner with Sailor Moon close behind. "For now they are. They will only get stronger as time passes by when Beryl gets more energy to feed them." The duo passed a door, which let a terrible pure hatred feeling out into the hallway. "Sailor Moon!"   
  
Sailor Moon stopped in her place and turned around to Luna, whom had her eyes fixed on one particular room. "What is it Luna? Did you find a way out?" 'Oh I hope she did. I just want to get home to see mommy and daddy.' Sailor Moon ran to be by Luna's side and peered into the hate filled room. She had looked in not even a second when she had her own eyes stuck on a giant portal that showed a city of people. Sailor Moon couldn't recognize the area of the city, but she knew that it led to her home. "Luna?" She looked down to her advisor for just that, advice.   
  
Luna cautiously stepped into the room and motioned for Sailor Moon to follow her. "This is strange. We seem to be in the Beryl's realm of hatred yet I don't see her anywhere."  
  
Sailor Moon reached her senses out in search of the Dark Queen, but the massive amounts of dark energy clouded any chances of her senses working. "I don't see her either, but we should be careful." She approached the portal of sorts with great caution. "What should we do about this, Luna? It seems to be directed over some city. Do you think it's a way home?"  
  
Luna walked close to the portal, but not too close. It seemed like the further they went to it; the more they were pulled to it. "I'm not sure. It sure looks like an Earth city to me. Maybe we should try it."  
  
"Maybe we should think about this first. My dad always says to be careful and think out your decisions carefully as well."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back at Kami's Lookout~~  
  
Chi-Chi and Videl arrived back at the lookout with Hotaru, whose leg was swelling. "Goku!" Chi-Chi held Hotaru in her arms as she ran to her husband, who was still powered up and as angry as ever. "Goku they were attacked by people who looked like humans, like children. Hotaru was hurt really badly. She looks like she had a broken leg."  
  
Goku pulled away from his conversation with Dende and looked down at the agonizing Hotaru. He felt sympathy for her, but at that moment his rage was all that he let out. "What were you girls thinking?! You could have been killed! We're in the middle of a real problem here and all you people do is go out there and fight ALONE!" He narrowed his eyes in anger at the child in tears. "Where are the others?!"   
  
"Right here, Goku." To his right, the other four girls appeared with cuts and bruises all over their bodies. Minako, still acting as the leader, was the one who spoke for four of them.  
  
Goku turned from Hotaru and proceeded to go off on the other girls. "Did you think that you were able to fight that thing?! If I couldn't save Usagi with my power then what makes you think that you can fight those things?! You should have come and told us instead of going out there on your own!" He calmed himself down once he took the time out to notice that he was scaring the poor kids out of their wits. "Look I'm sorry. I just don't want any more of you to be in danger. Please stay up here while we try to figure out what's happening, ok? This is probably the safest place that you can be at the moment." Calmer, Goku turned to his wife and carefully pulled Hotaru from her. "Don't cry Hotaru. I didn't mean to yell."  
  
Hotaru wiped away the tears from her face as she was carried over to Dende, where she would be healed. She would have done it herself, but she was too low on energy. "I'm scared Goku." She nuzzled her face into his chest to try and block out the fear, but it just kept building up.  
  
Goku comfortingly rubbed his hand on her back as he walked to Dende. He knew that this was more than she could take in. It was more than anyone could take in. "I know. We're going to try to find a way to fix things. We'll start with your leg first."  
  
Once Dende was safely treating Hotaru, Chi-Chi and Videl turned to the other children in awe. Chi-Chi was the only one brave enough to take action. "Where were you four?! We thought that you had died!"  
  
Videl interjected over her mother-in-law protests when another important question arose in her mind. "What happened down there?! How did that happen to Hotaru?!"  
  
Minako grinned as she looked back at her friends. They nodded to let her speak. She turned back to her questioners. "We were attacked by this hideous monster. We tried and tried our best to defeat it, but nothing we did seemed to work on it. Hotaru got it pretty good when she speared it from above, but it wasn't affected by it. It shot her down. At that time, we were all out of it. We thought we were going to die. And then, four magical warriors appeared before us. They told us that we had done our job and took us to a safer place and hid us with some of their magic. Then they beat the monster with ease and you showed up and took Hotaru. We were pretty much unconscious. It took a while for us to get ourselves back together enough to teleport here." She looked back to her friends, who gave her a thumbs up for a job well done on their cover.  
  
Chi-Chi could have beaten herself up right there and then. "They helped you? We thought that they were the enemy. We were so rude to them."  
  
Minako tried to give a comforting smile. "It's ok. I think they understand. After all, they were the only ones around when you got there. It was only natural to think that they had done it."  
  
When Hotaru was healed, she stood to her feet and looked up at Goku, who she had never seen in such a form. It was quite intimidating, but she knew that she had nothing to fear for they were on the same side. "I'm sorry we went without you, Goku. We didn't think that we were going to have such a hard time beating it."  
  
Goku actually let out a genuine smile. "I know you didn't, Hotaru. No one knew that these things were so strong, but now we have to fight it off. Maybe these new warriors can help. And most importantly, find Usagi..." He let himself fall into a deep forest of thoughts as he unknowingly wandered away from the group.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Dark Dimension~~  
  
Sailor Moon sat uncomfortably against a wall on the far right of the room with Luna. She was still debating on whether she wanted to go through the portal or not. She wasn't sure if it was a trap or what, but it was looking pretty good to her now. Over and over in her head, she tried to think of what her father would do in a situation like this, but he had never prepped her for something like this nor had he ever experienced something like this so she really couldn't think very well. "Luna?"  
  
Luna sighed. "I don't know what to do Sailor Moon. I've never been put in a situation such as this."   
  
Finally coming to her decision, Sailor Moon stood to her feet and began walking towards the Portal. "Well then, there's only one choice here. We have to leave through this portal or not at all. It's our only option. If we stay here we're lunch meat."  
  
Luna nodded as she joined the legendary Senshi at her feet. "Agreed. All we have to do is jump through the portal and we're home free. But you should detransform. Its not time for the Senshi of the Moon to be seen."  
  
'I hope you're right, Luna.' "Ok, let's go." Sailor Moon pulled off her brooch from her front bow and immediately de-transformed into her civilian cloths to be Usagi again. She took a deep breath as she bent down, grabbed Luna and jumped into the portal, not knowing anything that could have possibly awaited her or the adventure she was about to live.  
  
( This looks like a nice place to stop... don't you think so? ^_^ Anyway, so ends yet another part of the story. See ya next chapter! )  



	102. Part 4

For Usagi and Luna, passing through the portal was as quick and easy as teleporting. In an instant flash of a bright light, the duo found themselves falling from the sky, down the busy streets of the city below.   
  
Through the resistance, Usagi reached out and wrapped her arms around Luna so when they landed on the ground, she wouldn't hurt herself. Usagi had planned on letting herself fall until she was about to hit the ground, when she would raise her power level and do a power land. It had been awhile since she had landed from a fall of this height and would be good practice. Of course Luna didn't know this and was freaking. "Look out below!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Down below the falling child and terrified feline, the streets were busy with a crowd of bustling people. The unsuspecting group of citizens was composed had not exactly heard Usagi's words as she had been much too far up in the air for her voice to reach. Though, one person did happen to hear. It a tall man with pure black hair; a man who was always on the look out for trouble no matter how small or big.   
  
"Huh?" He looked up just in time to see Usagi, holding Luna close, and falling right towards him. He groaned with annoyance. He was pretty sure who it was, though he couldn't exactly see the girls' face. 'Not again. I thought she finally went home.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Look out!" Usagi yelled as she got closer and closer to the tall figure below. She frowned when he didn't do anything except just stand there. 'How annoying. Why does he just stand there?' She looked down and angled her body so that she would have missed him, but that idiotic man kept moving right under her. She raised her power level in annoyance to slow enough so she wouldn't hurt the moron who still wouldn't move. Unfortunately he moved just so at the last second that she fell right on top of his head.  
  
"HEY!" He cried out. Usagi had landed with her legs around his neck and stomach over his face. "I thought you knew how to fall by now." He noticed something jump out of the girl's hand and run away for safer ground. He was pretty sure of who it was.  
  
Usagi frowned as she looked down at the struggling citizen, who was now acting as her chair. "Well maybe you should get out of the way when someone tells you to."   
  
The man below stopped struggling as he became stunned at the child's voice. "You're not her."  
  
Usagi frowned harder when the man put his hands around her waist, and then she realized exactly HOW she was sitting. "You PERVERT!" She raised her hand and started slapping him upside the head. "Just wait until my dad hears about this!"   
  
"What are you talking about?!" The now angry man ripped Usagi off of his face and threw her down onto the ground.   
  
Usagi didn't waste any time jumping up to her feet. "You know what I'm talking about. You were trying to look up my dress. That's why you grabbed my waist and moved under me! You meant for me to land like this. That's why you kept moving!" She lunged herself at him, violently shoving him away from her so he wouldn't try anything. "My mom warned me about people like you!" He didn't respond to her. He was both shocked at her accusations as well as her appearance. "Don't come any closer unless you want me to call for my..." Usagi stopped to take a better look at her supposed attacker. He looked rather familiar, though; too old to be who she thought he was. He appeared to be an adult of at least twenty years old, if not older. "Mamoru?"   
  
"Now look here little girl...wait a minute..." He looked harder at the girl, though he didn't quite recognize her form, she seemed eerily familiar. "Yes, I am Mamoru. How did you know my name?"  
  
Usagi frowned as she shook her head in pure disgust. "Look at yourself, Mamoru. You're all grown. Did you think that while I was gone that you could steal my Dragon Ball and the others to make yourself older? HOW DARE YOU!"   
  
Mamoru backed away from the angry child, who appeared to want to attack him for she was crouching into her fighting stance. "Look, kid, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what these Drag..."  
  
"Mamoru, you know that my Dragon Ball is special to me. My dad gave it to me and you USED it. It's the only possible reason why you could have grown so fast. I thought we fixed things up between us, but I guess I was wrong. You're just as mean and nasty as ever! What would Monoko think if she saw you now?"  
  
Mamoru frowned. "Kid, I think you have the wrong Mamoru. I don't know who you or this Monoko is. I don't know of these Dragon Balls. Go run along and play your game with your friends." He examined her more. 'Those Odangos...'  
  
Usagi narrowed her eyes. "I am Usagi."  
  
Mamoru stepped back with a gasp. "What?! USAKO?! Is that really YOU?!"   
  
That was about all that Usagi could handle at that point. Just the thought of having a pet name was sickening in itself, but to have HIM call her one was just outrageous. She wouldn't stand for it. "That's it. Get ready Mamoru, we're going to spar, right here, right now. Unless you apologize for being a pervert, who stole my Dragon Ball just to make yourself older!"   
  
Mamoru, himself, was beginning to become frustrated with Usagi. He had never heard such an insubordinate child. But, he couldn't blame her. If she was in fact his Usagi, then she must have been more than just a bit stressed out about being turned into a kid. "I'm not fighting you, Usako. I don't want to hurt you. Now why don't you just tell me what happened?"   
  
Usagi glared harder at her rival. "Why don't you apologize?"  
  
"FINE! I'm sorry that I acted like a pervert. Happy?" Usagi didn't answer; instead, she just crossed her arms and scowled at him. "What now?"  
  
"You didn't apologize for stealing my Dragon Ball. You know you're going to have to find it again, right? I don't even know how dad let you get it anyway." And then it hit her. Her parents. They must have been worried sick about her, wondering if she would ever be able to return.  
  
"I told you I don't know what this Dragon Ball stuff is. I've apologized for all that needs to be apologized for. I naturally grew to this age so deal with it. Now why don't you apologize for being so rude to me? I did nothing."  
  
Usagi frowned. "Lying is a bit much. I thought Piccolo taught you better than to lie. And after all we went through last summer to make you better." Usagi was tired of hearing his lies and, therefore, resulted in throwing a swift punch at his stomach, which he failed to defend.   
  
Mamoru went flying down to the ground, unable to breathe. "Usako? What....what's wrong with...you?"   
  
Stunned, Usagi stared down at her rival. "Mamoru? Why didn't you try to block? And what's with the acting? That little love tap couldn't of hurt you." Mamoru didn't answer. Instead, he just tried to catch his breath. "Uh, ok, Mamoru, I'm going to leave now. When I return, you're going to act normal again. You're just weirding me out right now and I can't handle it. I've been through too much today." She slowly turned around and walked over to the building alley that Luna was waiting for her in.   
  
Luna looked out to the street at the man who lay there, unable to move. "Do you know him?"   
  
Usagi looked over her shoulder. "I have no idea. He's acting strange. But I know one thing; he had to have used the Dragon Balls to make himself older. How else could he have aged so..." She paused as she came to realize the reality of her situation. "Luna?"   
  
"Yes?"  
  
"What if we were in the Dark Kingdom for long time?"  
  
"We were only there for a few hours, Usagi."  
  
"But what if a few hours there means years here?" Usagi's face grew pale at the thought. That would mean that all of her friends were about fifteen or older. She would be the same age as Hotaru now, but her parents, not much would have changed there except that they would have given up hope on her and probably thought that she was dead. "Luna I'm scared."  
  
"Don't be, Usagi."  
  
Usagi slumped over as she leaned against a brick building. "But why didn't mom and dad use the Dragon Balls to get me back? Maybe they couldn't because of the Dark Energy. Maybe it wouldn't let the Dragon do his work..."  
  
Luna jumped into Usagi's lap with a frown. "Usagi, as much as I would like to sympathize with you, we have more important things to work with. I have to brief you on your mission as a Sailor Senshi. Beryl and her minions could attack at any time. They could show up in any form so be careful."  
  
Usagi's eyes were filled once again with lost hope. She didn't want to think about living in a world where everything she ever knew was changed, different from the norm. "What's the use? What's to fight for if not those you love?"  
  
Luna sighed. "Usagi, I'm sure that everything is fine, but you really do need to listen to me."  
  
Usagi nodded with tears in her eyes and bleakly replies. "Ok."  
  
"Usagi, you are a legendary warrior from long, long ago. You are one of those who protected the Moon Princess, Serenity, of the Sliver Millennium of the Moon.   
  
Usagi couldn't help but laugh at that. "So what are you saying? That this is my second life? That Daddy and Mom aren't my real parents?"  
  
Luna shook her head. "No, well, sort of. You were reborn to them, so they too are also your parents. You were just born with Moon power as well as your Saiyan and Human power. But I'm not the one who can explain this part. You will have to listen to someone else, someone with more power."  
  
"Oh, you mean I'm reincarnated, like a lot of anime characters and have two sets of parents, like people have two sets of grandparents. Why didn't you just say so?"  
  
Usagi's head dropped again when a sudden silence filled the area. She tried to stop herself from thinking of her friends and family going for years and years thinking that she was dead when she really wasn't. "Why were you in my dreams? I've been dreaming about you as far back as I can remember."  
  
"Because, I am your guardian, of sorts. I am to guide you and make sure you choose the right decisions."  
  
"Ok, I'll go with that. You seem to know a lot of that DARK ENERGY. What is it? Who was that queen lady? She's been haunting me for years."  
  
"That was queen beryl. She and her queen Metallia have been fighting you for years. She wants your energy since you, as Senshi of the moon, have the greatest power."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened. "There's more Senshi than just me?"  
  
"Yes. There is the Senshi of fire, Mars, The Senshi of Ice, Mercury, the Senshi of love, Venus, and the Senshi of lightning, Jupiter. There are others but those are the main."  
  
"Wow. That's amazing, who are the others?"  
  
"I'm not sure. My partner is searching for them. The others are the Senshi of time, Pluto, the Senshi of wind, Uranus, and Senshi of water, Neptune, and the Senshi of destruction, Saturn, who should never be awakened."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"If she is, the world will be destroyed. Her power is too great for even her to use for, whenever she does, she dies and gets reborn shortly after."  
  
"Oh no prob. All we have to do is train her in the art of Ki-Jitsu and help her get strong." Little does she know that she's already had a year of training. "Me and my friends and family can take care of anything that comes along. Wait until mom and dad hears about this."  
  
"You must NEVER tell anyone of yourself! EVER! Not even your friends or FAMILY! GOT THAT!"  
  
Usagi was stunned by Luna's reaction. "Now hang on. I don't lie to my parents...much. And not about something like this. Why shouldn't I?"  
  
"It's not safe. You never know whom you can trust. Your friends or family may be possessed with the enemy, it's just safe not to."  
  
"Ok, Luna. I promise not to tell, ANYONE. But how will I keep my identity a secret? My family knows my energy like the back of their hands. Dad always keeps close attention to me cause he doesn't want me to get into any trouble again. He hasn't really trusted me again since Cell."  
  
Luna grinned. "Leave that up to your planetary power. It masks your regular power. I'm sure Mercury and Mars can come up with a way to send off a signal of your regular energy to make it appear like you are in a certain place while you are fighting in your Senshi form. I just don't know how Beryl got out so much earlier than you."  
  
"Huh? What do you mean?"  
  
"She has been out in the world for almost thirty years now. The guardian of time told me."  
  
"The guardian of time is Pluto, right? She's a Senshi too?! WHY DID SHE MAKE ME STAY THERE IN THE PAST!? She knew I was Sailor Moon all along, she had to have!"  
  
"Usagi calm down. She had her reasons. But Beryl and Metallia shouldn't have gotten out so much earlier than you. They must have somehow escaped."  
  
"We have to get to the bottom of this." She thought of her father. "Wait, dad won't feel beryl, will he? I know no one felt Cell's dark energy except for me and my friends."  
  
'Her friends felt it? That means that they must be Senshi too.' "That is correct, Usagi. Only those with Celestial power can feel and fight against dark energy. The others are all nullified by it. Celestial power has the same effect. This will be something you and the other Senshi will have to do on your own."  
  
Usagi stretched as she stood to her feet. "Well I don't like this situation one bit, but I guess I have to deal with it because I'm already in the middle of it."  
  
Luna nodded. "You should go check on your friend to make sure that he's ok. I'll stay here and watch your progress."  
  
"Ok." Usagi emerged from the alley, leaving Luna behind like she had been told to do. 'I really hope that Mamoru DID only use the Dragon Balls to get older otherwise my life as I know it is over.' "Mamoru!" She looked around the street, which was now pretty much empty whereas only a few moments ago, it was filled with people.  
  
"Mamoru? Where are you?" Usagi walked further out into the street, only to find herself being attacked from behind. "HEY!" She jumped over the lunging figure, and turned to be standing face to face with Tuxedo Kamen. "Mamoru? Is that you?" A few giggles bubbled their way out of her mouth. "What's with the getup? I thought you liked to wear your black GI when you fought."  
  
Tuxedo Kamen said nothing. Instead, he threw a single rose at Usagi, who easily dodged. "What the heck, Mamoru? What's wrong with you?"  
  
Tuxedo Kamen dashed for Usagi and swung at her face. Usagi, thinking that he was almost as strong as Piccolo since she had not yet read his power level, dodged and brought her elbow down into his back, causing him to fall flat on his face into the ground. "Mamoru? Does your dad know that you're fighting like this? This is almost better then him in Mickey Mouse ears."  
  
Tuxedo Kamen growled as he tried to push himself up, but it was no use. The hit from Usagi had knocked the wind out of him. "I have no father."   
  
That only caused Usagi to gasp. 'Oh no. Piccolo is dead. Poor Mamoru.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
All the while this was happening, high on the rooftop of a near-by building stood five Sailor Senshi. One Eternal, and four Super.   
  
Moon turned to her comrade in blue. "Is that her, Mercury?"  
  
Mercury nodded. "Yes. She's emitting strong Dark energy." She punched in a few buttons on her computer to examine her closer. "But she also seems to have some strange DNA. Something besides the Dark energy. Both powers are effecting my scans."  
  
Venus smirked as she walked to the edge of the building. "So, the Dark Kingdom has decided to come back to us, huh? I guess we'll just have to show them who's boss again, right Sailor Moon?"  
  
Moon nodded with a smirk. "This time we won't have to rely on the Crystal for help. We're so much stronger then back then. Let's go defeat that monster." 'I wonder why they tried to make it look like me.' The five Senshi jumped down off the roof of the building onto some crates and then down to the street, where Mamoru and Usagi were still arguing.   
  
~*~*~  
  
"MAMO-CHAN!"   
  
Mamoru's eyes widened at the sound of Sailor Moon's voice. "Wait a minute." He saw the five of them approaching his location. He looked up to Usagi, who glared down at him. "You're not Usagi."  
  
Usagi, who was no longer looking down at her fallen rival, froze at the sound of her own voice, which sounded older. "Whoa...wait a minute." She slowly turned around with caution, only to be standing face to face with the Sailor Senshi, who appeared to be sixteen years of age. "Who are you!?"  
  
Jupiter stepped forward with her anger written in her eyes as Moon ran to Tuxedo Kamen. "I might ask you the same question, kid."  
  
'She looks like Makoto.' "I'm Usagi! WHO are you?" She paid close attention to the outfits in which the girls in front of her were wearing. They closely resembled her own sailor outfit.   
  
"We are the Sailor Senshi! And you, are with the Dark Kingdom, we already know that because you are emitting their energy." Mars began building up for an attack. "We don't know how you got here again, but we aren't letting you destroy our home."  
  
'It must be because I was in their castle and they kept hitting me with that stuff that I'm covered with their energy. I've felt the need for a bath since I got there. No matter. These guys can't fool me for one second.' Usagi gasped as she looked over her shoulder to the couple behind her. 'These guys are nuts. They're trying to make me lose concentration. It's obvious. They must have followed me here. That means that guy back there isn't Mamoru at all. No matter though. I can easily take them out. I mean, their power level is horrible.' "Ok. Fight me then." 'I hope daddy feels me power up so he knows that I'm here.'   
  
Jupiter smirked. "Ok. But, just know, we've never once lost and we don't plan on losing now either."  
  
Usagi grinned. "Neither have I. You guys don't know what you're in for." Usagi firmly planted her feet on the ground as hard as she could as she began to summon her power out in hopes to defeat the enemy. She hoped that she wouldn't have to transform to beat them. She didn't want to do it in front of the entire city.   
  
"Wait!" Moon cried out, causing the entire group, as well as Usagi to halt what they were doing and look back at her. "We have to get Mamoru to a safe place."  
  
Usagi smirked. "Don't try to act like you've got hearts. I've been warned about your kind."  
  
Jupiter frowned. "Enough talk. Sailor Moon, take Mamoru to a nearby building. This shouldn't take long."  
  
Moon nodded as she lifted Tuxedo Kamen up off the ground. "Right. I'll be back in a flash."   
  
"You're not escaping." Usagi turned around and grabbed Mamoru away from the supposed Sailor Moon and threw him to the side. 'I'm not making the same mistake that I did when I fought Cell. No more underestimating these guys. Even though, they are doing a great job of masking their dark energy.' "Your fight is with me." She turned to Moon with a grin. "Let's get this going, shall we. Since you're trying hard to look like me, I'll start with you."   
  
Moon nodded. "Alright. You won't win though." She pulled out her moon rod.   
  
"See, if you were really me, you wouldn't need that thing at all."  
  
"Attack all at once, girls. This one is going to be tough."  
  
Mercury pulled out her computer. "Yes. You're right. As if her amount of Dark energy isn't bad enough, she seems to have almost the same kind of DNA as our partner. But something else that I can't read as well. She could be a clone of some sort." She put her computer away and readied herself for an attack.  
  
Usagi did nothing but cross her arms as she stood inside a circle, which was created by the Senshi. "Throw everything you've got at me." The Senshi didn't hesitate one tiny bit. They had been through the Dark Kingdom before and they didn't exactly feel like going through it again. They wanted to end the threat once and for all.   
  
Usagi grinned as she saw the five attacks from the girls fast approaching her. "Let's see how much fun I can make this." She lifted her tail and began batting the individual attacks away with it as fast as she could. Each time her tail and an attack made contact, it ricocheted off her tail and onto one of her attackers, causing them to fall back. "It's like a baseball bat. Neato!!"  
  
Tuxedo Kamen struggled against the pain in his stomach to sit up and watch the girls fall. "That kid has a tail...? Wouldn't that make her a...?"  
  
Usagi continued to bat the attacks away with her tail. Though she had wonderful aim and hit her targets every time, they always seemed to be able to recuperate easily. "Don't you guys ever give up?" She looked up into the sky. 'I wonder where everyone is? Why aren't they coming?'  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The dark Castle~~  
  
Queen Beryl walked back into her lair with a menacing rage. She had expected for her portal to still be where she had left it, but it had in fact, been gone and she was certain who had used it. "That Moon brat has done it again. The power I had to use to open it was extreme now I have no energy left to open it again! I don't have the benefit of getting HER energy anymore. Now I have to catch her all over again. GUARDS!"   
  
Her most trusted minion ran into the room and bowed to her knees. "Yes your majesty?"   
  
Beryl glared down at the woman. "Prepare to use the energy that we gained from Usagi all those years ago."  
  
Confused, the woman looked up to her queen. "You're majesty, I don't quite understand. I thought that was supposed to be used to strengthen us."  
  
"Silence! It is too much of a crucial time to be waiting around for my energy to be replenished. It seems as though the Moon brat has jumped through my portal so any hope of getting the other Sailor Moon's power is over. Not that it matters though, she was much too powerful to try and conquer."  
  
The woman nodded. "Your bidding will be done at once."  
  
Beryl smirked with evil intentions. "She will not get away again. She will be mine."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back in the City~~  
  
Usagi had had enough of playing baseball with her tail and the Senshi's attacks. She wasn't getting anywhere at all and she knew, that if there was any hope of actually defeating them that she would have to launch some of her own attacks. "You guys are boring." She hurled herself into the air, high above the Senshi. "You Dark Kingdom people are tough against your own power, but let's see how well you can defend against the power of the Kamehameha!"   
  
The Senshi immediately stopped their attacks when it was obvious that their enemy was not in their line of fire anymore. Mars looked up. She seemed to be the only one who was able to sense the power that was building up inside the child's hands. "Uh, guys? She's getting a major build up...oh cripes, Mercury, what does your computer say?"  
  
Mercury once again pulled her computer out. "I don't know. It's going crazy. The power seems to be too much for the computer to read."  
  
Moon, who was back with Mamoru, looked up to her fellow fighters. "Why is she so resistant to our power?"  
  
Mercury shook her head with frustration. "I have no idea." The computer in her hands began to smoke and shoot our sparks. "Great. Just great, now it's malfunctioning."   
  
"KA-MA-HA..."  
  
"USAGI!" A small voice from a close-by alley yelled out just loud enough for Usagi's Saiyan hearing to pick up. Luna didn't want any of the enemies to hear her. Usagi paused her attack and looked down to her cat friend. "You won't be able to beat them with just your Saiyan and human powers, remember? They're part of the Dark Kingdom."  
  
Usagi looked back down to the group, and especially to the one who was meant to be her. 'That's not me or Mamoru. We would never act like that with each other.' She shuddered at the thought of giving each other pet names. 'That's right though. I guess I'm going to have to transform. Should I do it in front of them, though? I mean, they already know that I'm Sailor Moon and all...' She stopped her energy flow to her Kamehameha wave, causing the power to just disappear. She pulled out her Moon Locket that Luna had given her and held it high above her head. "Moon Crystal Power...Make-Up!"   
  
Eternal Sailor Moon widened her eyes at the sight before her. The little girl, who was thought to be part of the Dark Kingdom, had just transformed right before her very eyes. "WHAAAAAA?! WHAT'S HAPPENING!? THA...THAT'S....ME?! AND THAT ENERGY, I'D KNOW IT ANYWHERE!!"  
  
Mamoru looked up to the girl with fear. 'Flying? I only know one other person who can fly like that as well as produce energy attacks without any special device.'  
  
Usagi, now Sailor Moon, smirked down at the flabbergasted crowd. "How do you like that?" She let her eyes wander over to Eternal Sailor Moon with a frown. 'She could never be me.' She pulled back her hands to be by her side again and built up another Kamehameha blast. "I don't know what you've done with my family and friends because they aren't coming to help me, but let me assure you, you aren't getting away with it. KAMEHAME..."  
  
At that moment, a pink cloud appeared overhead and an object from on her head from above. "Now what?" Instead of concentrating on what she was doing, she concentrated more on the annoying interruption, causing her to fall to the ground, flat on her face with a body sitting directly atop. "Get off." Sailor Moon jumped up, throwing her new enemy backwards. Grumbling to herself, she looked over to see her attacker, only to see a girl her age in a Pink Sailor Uniform.   
  
The new girl stood up and brushed herself off, not even paying attention to her friends, who were dumbfounded by her appearance. "You dare attack the Champions of Justice, I, Sailor Chibi-Moon, will not tolerate that! For daring to impersonate the Senshi of the Moon, I shall punish you!"   
  
Sailor Moon looked directly into the serious eyes of the girl in Pink. She reached out her senses to get a good reading on her Power signature, which was nearly nothing. At that point, she didn't the only thing that she could think of. She fell down laughing at the top of her lungs. "HAHAHAHA!! That was a good one! You had me going for a while when you fell down on me! You Dark Kingdom people won't stop at anything, will you? HAHAHA! You're the ones impersonating me! Oh god, they must take lessons from the Ginyu force."   
  
At that moment, in came Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn to help. "Chibi-Moon!" Saturn cried out, with her Glaive at hand. The laughing child on the ground didn't even realize that she had shown up.  
  
Chibi-Moon looked back towards Saturn with a smile. "Uranus! Neptune! Saturn!"   
  
Uranus smirked down at the laughing child. "Who's that supposed to be?"  
  
Venus shrugged. "We don't know. She seems to be from the Dark Kingdom, but is a little bit too strong for that group."  
  
Chibi-Moon looked back down at Sailor Moon. The laughing definitely didn't sit well with Chibi-Moon. "You're not doing a very good job at keeping yourself focused." She growled as she prepared to attack. No longer having the Bell, she pulled out her Heart Moon Rod. "Pink Sugar Heart Attack!"   
  
Eternal Sailor Moon jumped to he feet and stepped forward to her future daughter. "Chibi-Moon, that won't help! It's too weak get away!"   
  
Chibi-Moon glared at the fraud from the Dark Kingdom as her Heart Moon Rod began pouring out its energy. 'How dare she say that we, of all people, are from the Dark Kingdom?'   
  
Sailor Moon snickered at the power level of the attack. 'What can that possibly do to me? I get worse from Vejita. It can't effect me.' How wrong she was. Within seconds, the blast made contact with her body and forced her to the ground to writhe from the effects.   
  
Elder Sailor Moon rushed to Chibi-Moon, seeing that she had continued the attack much longer than it had needed. "Chibi-Moon, stop. You might really hurt her." She grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to make her stop, but Chibi-Moon refused. She had been warned by her mother in the future to not take any chances.   
  
"She has to be stopped. Mommy said that she's strong enough to actually destroy us and not to let her attack. Then the future would be ruined."  
  
Elder Sailor Moon looked down at the squirming foe. "But don't make her suffer. Here, I'll finish her off." She pulled out her own Eternal Moon Rod and held it out. "Silver Moon..." She paused when she heard an unwelcome sound coming from their opponent.   
  
Down on the ground was Younger Sailor Moon full of giggles. "Stop...stop..." She could barely speak she was laughing so hard. "You're tickling me. I can't...stand it!" Her giggles became louder as she squirmed on the ground.   
  
The outer Senshi looked on the matter and decided to take things into their own hands. Together they added their attacks to Chibi Moon, but the effect was not what they planned.  
  
"STOP. STOP. THIS TICKLES TO MUCH."  
  
Elder Sailor Moon pulled down her Moon Rod and looked down at the imposter. "Tickling?" She looked back to Ami for answers. "What's GOING ON!?"  
  
Mercury, who was still unable to get a full read on her turned a severe frown at Sailor Moon. "She's too powerful, you have to destroy her."  
  
The others added their encouragement to her, and she powered up her attack. 'Why does this feel wrong?'  
  
Chibi-Moon frowned at the girl on the ground as she halted her attack. She had always at least injured an enemy, but the girl was obviously being tickled. Why?  
  
As Eternal Sailor Moon's attack raced towards her laughing foe, the others discontinued their useless attacks, knowing that this power would surly destroy it. The blast created a huge explosion at ground zero and smoke and dust covered the scene. But as it faded, they were shocked that their foe actually grinned up at them, looking like she felt wonderful.  
  
Chibi-Moon glared at her and interrogates her. "Alright, who are you?"  
  
Still laughing as hard as she could, younger Sailor Moon tired to stand to her feet. "Man, you guys, this is great. I've never met such a fun enemy." She smiled around to the faces of everyone who looked like her friends, but she knew that it had to be a disguise.   
  
Jupiter jumped to the imposter. "We are NOT the enemy. You are. You came here after all these years and attacked Mamoru."  
  
Young Sailor Moon frowned at that reminder. "He looked up my dress! The pervert!"   
  
Elder Sailor Moon turned to Tuxedo Kamen with a glare. "MAMORU!"  
  
"It was an accident!"   
  
She didn't take that as a valid answer. Instead, she just walked to him and slapped him across the face. "How could you do that to me?"  
  
Young Sailor Moon snorted. "You? Think about the emotional stress it put on me. I was the one violated." She grinned. "Think about what my dad's going to do what he hears about that. You're going down big time. Of course that's after I finish with you."  
  
"I was trying to save you. You were falling from the sky. I thought you were Chibi-Moon." But Tuxedo Kamen wasn't exactly concerned about that topic. He was more concerned about what had just happened. He looked at the two females who both claimed to be Sailor Moon. "What's going on? We aren't the enemy, and this kid claims that she's not the enemy."  
  
Elder Moon forgot about the previous situation and looked over to the girl, who appeared to be a valid Sailor Moon. "Who are you for real, kid? You're pretty strong, too strong to be with the Dark Kingdom. We should have been able to beat you easily."  
  
Mercury had already pulled out her computer and began analyzing young Sailor Moon by that time. "The dark energy, it's gone. Believe it or not, she has Moon energy in her body. She is, in fact, part Lunarian. One-third Lunarian. One third Human, and one third..................Saiyan."  
  
"WHAT?!" Elder Moon ran to the smaller version of what appeared to be herself. "But how is that possible?" She lifted up her hair and placed her hand on one of her Odangos. "She looks almost exactly like me."  
  
Young Sailor Moon looked up at Elder Sailor Moon with curiosity. "In answer to your question, I am Son Usagi. Who might you be?" She detransformed back into her civilian self and put her brooch away. These peoples' energy was too pure to be evil.   
  
Elder Sailor Moon did the same, which was a signal for the rest. "Tsukino Usagi."  
  
Son Usagi looked away from her older self and over to the girls who were grouping behind. "What's going on? You guys look like my friends, only older." 'Wait just a second. How can there be an older me AND them?' She looked back up to her older self. "You're me then, aren't you?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi nodded. "That's what it looks like."  
  
Son Usagi looked down to the ground and thought about her current situation. She thought back to the events that had led to this. How she was running away from the enemy with Luna. How they stumbled across the portal and jumped through. And then it hit her. "I must be in another dimension. That's gotta be it. That stupid portal wasn't to my world." 'Why does this always happen to me?' "This means that my friends are Senshi, too."   
  
Mamoru walked up from behind, with the other girls, and looked down at Son Usagi. "Another dimension, huh? Well, that would explain a lot." He put his hands around his Usagi's shoulders just as Luna merged into the group next to Son Usagi.   
  
Tsukino Usagi smiled. "That's the only possible answer. That's why you have Moon power in you. And why Ami's computer says you're me. And why the crystal reacts to you as it does, shining in your presence, yet not hurting you at all with its power when I attacked. Ha! And you said reading comics was a waste of time, Luna." She said to her own Luna, who had come to stand by her side.   
  
Son Usagi giggled. "As if. You can learn a lot of time, space, and different dimensions from it."   
  
Ami was still quite curious about one thing. She needed to know the answer before anything else went on. "Why did you feel like the Dark Kingdom? The Dark energy level that was around you was mind boggling. You are the keeper of the Moon power, yet you felt so evil."  
  
Son Usagi looked down to her Luna. "Uh..." She looked up again, not getting any help from Luna. "I think it was because right before I came here, I was attacked and taken away from my home and brought to the Dark Kingdom itself by this lady named Beryl. They kept a lot of energy around me to keep me there. But that blast from the other me washed it away. You know, I bet it was because of that energy that my parents couldn't feel me. If they're even in THIS dimension."  
  
The girls from the other dimension exchanged quick glances back and forth to each other. Rei looked back down to Son Usagi. "You're up against a tough foe."  
  
Son Usagi smirked. "I'm pretty tough myself. I already fought this guy named Cell who was sent by her. Me and my friends barely beat him, but we managed." The entire crowd froze at the name of Cell. "What's the matter?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi shook her head. "N...nothing."  
  
Ami curiously gazed down at the child. There was no doubt that this girl and their Usagi were the same people. The were identical in appearance as well as their state of mind. "What I want to know is why the Moon Princess has been revealed at such an early age."  
  
Son Usagi's eyes widened at the statement as well as thought of being the Moon Princess, who Luna had spoke of before they had jumped into the portal. "What? I'M the Moon Princess?" She glared down at her Luna. "You said I was the warrior of the Moon and had to protect the Moon Princess."  
  
Embarrassed, Son Luna stammered her answer. "Well yes, of course you are. You just weren't quite ready to know of your true self yet."  
  
Tsukino Usagi burst out with laughter at that one. "Kid, lesson one. All Luna's think with their pride. They tend to make stuff up as they go along. And when they are found wrong, they try to make it seem as if they knew all along. Watch her with that. Make sure she starts to use the terms, 'this is what I think it is,' when she isn't sure, otherwise it gets too confusing. She had no clue that you were the Moon Princess."  
  
Tsukino Luna glared up at her Usagi. "And just what is that supposed to mean?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi grinned. "Well let's see. Tuxedo Kamen may be the enemy, be wary around him. Careful around Ami, she may be the enemy. That priestess may be the enemy, be careful around her. I could go on for a long while if you want."  
  
Tsukino Luna blushed as she grumbled. "What do whinny airheads know anyway?"  
  
'I'm the Moon Princess? Me? A Princess? But then, why was I born to mommy and daddy? They aren't royalty. This doesn't make any sense.' Son Usagi was still more than a little curious about this world. Everything seemed to be backwards. Mamoru was nice, Usagi seemed to be a bit of a klutz as well as too soft hearted when it came to fighting. "But, who's the pink-haired girl? I've never met her, ever."  
  
Before anyone could respond, Chibi-Usa walked behind Son Usagi and reached out for the wagging tail. "If she's my mommy, why does she have a tail?" With the tail comfortably resting in her hands, she tugged on it, getting virtually no response from Son Usagi.   
  
"What?!" Son Usagi looked up to her older self. "You're her mom?! Who's the father then?"   
  
Minako answered, not thinking of the possible consequences. "Why, Mamoru of course. Who else?" That earned her a look from both Mamoru as well as Tsukino Usagi. They did not at all appreciate her telling of their secret. The other Usagi had obviously not learned that bit of information yet, and who knows, her life has been different this far, maybe she wasn't even meant to know or even have Chibi-Usa.   
  
Mamoru glared at her the hardest though. "You shouldn't have told her that. It could cause troubles for her to know too early." Blushing, Minako nodded.   
  
Son Usagi couldn't hold her tongue any longer. "WAIT A SECOND!!! I have a kid with that JERK Mamoru? Ok, maybe he's getting better, but still. And just when did you have her? Man, mom and dad must have had a fit. You're so young to have her." She didn't even want to think about how her parents would react if she came home pregnant before she was married, let alone before she was out of school.   
  
Blushing a beet red, the two found themselves at a loss for words. Son Luna glared at the couple, who were now hand in hand. "Usagi, she is much too young to have a child at that age. It's impossible."  
  
Smirking at her ability to show off, Tsukino Luna addressed her. "True, except for one thing. She's from the future."  
  
Tsukino Usagi glared down at her Luna. "Aren't you now giving away further information to her, fur ball?"   
  
Son Usagi looked at Chibi-Usa in awe. 'That would make her my kid? Wow. So now I went into the past, and so did my kid. COOL!'  
  
"And yes, we do have child. We love each other." Mamoru put his arm around Tsukino Usagi. "One thing is still on my mind though, why did you call me a jerk?"  
  
Son Usagi frowned. "Because where I come from, we are rivals."  
  
Tsukino Usagi obviously didn't understand. "We were rivals here for a while."  
  
"Did he attack you when you were six years old and then leave you for dead so you could be picked up by your dad? Did he ever blow off your arm with Haruka?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi's eyes went wide as she became almost speechless. "Oooooooh..."  
  
Haruka paled at the thought of hurting her princess.  
  
A pale Mamoru actually managed to respond though. "Wow, things are interesting where you come from. Usagi, I can honestly say that I'm not mean here. I would never hurt anyone on purpose."  
  
Son Usagi stuck out her tongue in disgust. "No offense, but the thought of marrying you and having a kid with you is just gross."  
  
Mamoru chuckled. "Thanks. I needed that self-esteem booster."  
  
Usagi let her eyes wander over to Hotaru, who stood behind the still dazed Tsukino Usagi. "Wow, you're actually older than me here. Cool."  
  
Grinning at her, Hotaru smiled. "Well if it weren't for you saving me from Pharaoh Ninety and my own power, I wouldn't even be here today."  
  
Son Usagi was having a bit of her own confusion now. "Your power?"  
  
"Yes, young Princess, her power."  
  
Knowing that voice all too well, Son Usagi turned to a tall woman with long black hair. She wore a Sailor Outfit with the color of black and held a long staff in her hands. She was emerging from a black portal. "Oh. My. Gosh."  
  
Tsukino Usagi; "PLUTO."  
  
Chibi-Usa smiled with Excitement. "Puu."  
  
Son Usagi was still trying to grasp that she was in another dimension let alone the fact that she had a million questions for Sailor Pluto. "You're the Guardian of Time from the cell battle." Stalking over to her, she picked her up, one handed. "OK, WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA MESSING WITH MY LIFE?" Pluto looked into the younger princess' eyes, which blazed with fire and gulped.  
  
(Keepin this part short today. I know, I know, I put one mess on top of the other... ^_^ but that's me for ya. Gotta run! Ja Ne!)  



	103. Part 5

~*~*~*~  
  
Son Usagi had obviously been wrong about her family and friends. She had, in fact, jumped through a portal the led her to a different dimension. Her family and friends had not aged anything but a few hours.   
  
Though she was in a different dimension, things were beginning to look up for Son Usagi now that Pluto, the Guardian of Time, had revealed herself, finally.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Meanwhile~~  
  
Back in Usagi's home dimension, there was still the matter of the crisis that had caused such an uproar late in the night. Now, almost every one of earth's fighters were gathered at Kami's tower trying to decipher just what was going on. They knew not what they were meant to do, for something like this had never happened in their history as a team. Too many variables were added to the problem, making it escalate into more. Arguments, which were popping up every now and then, were not making it any better either.  
  
Goku, who was not in the least bit calmed down yet, looked up to his wife and daughter-in-law, who stood directly across from him in the circle that was created by the Z-Team. "Tell us about these girls you saw. What did they look like?"  
  
"Well, Goku, we don't know much about them. We were quite rude to them and jumped the gun with thinking that they were the enemy. They looked to be children around the pre-teen age. They all wore some strange looking outfits with bows and skirts. Each had a different color. They called themselves the Sailor Senshi and apparently defeated a foe that even you couldn't feel, and if their Queen is any indication, beat"  
  
Goku dropped his head as he listened to his wife's words. "I wonder where they could have come from. This is the first I've heard of them. They have to be here because of the entity that took Usagi, they just have to be. But how can they be so powerful and us not know about them?"  
  
"Tch... Kakorotto, why don't you do something about this instead of just standing around?"  
  
Goku glared over in Vejita's direction. "We can't just rush into this. As much as I want her back, we can't. This isn't just about Usagi getting kidnapped anymore. This is much more. This is about a new enemy, which has hopefully brought us allies."   
  
"Yeah, whatever. I'll fight whoever is out there with my bare hands. I'll defeat it without any trouble at all. You guys just sit here and watch the master at his best." Vejita saw hope appear in Goku's eyes at the thought of him helping. "Don't get the wrong idea here, Kakorotto. I'm not doing it to help you get that brat back. I'm only doing it because whoever this is may prove to be a worthy opponent."   
  
"YOU PIG!" Bulma slapped her husband right smack in the dead center of his face.  
  
"I second that!" Chi-Chi added her own slap to Vejita's face, right on top of Bulma's. "We don't need your help getting my daughter back!"   
  
Gohan, who was rather put out with Vejita from earlier events, found himself becoming enraged. He knew of better ways to get at the man than just yelling at him, though. "Vejita, if you can't beat my father in a simple spar, what makes you think you can beat this new enemy?"   
  
Vejita growled as he stalked towards Gohan, maybe he couldn't beat these females without everyone getting on his case, but Gohan wasn't female or weak. 'Beside I'd end up regretting killing Bulma.' "You dare speak to me that way, boy?"  
  
Gohan grinned. "Yes, I do. What are you going to do about it?"  
  
"What I should have done a long time ago...KILL YOU!"   
  
"STOP IT!" Pan, who had stayed quiet mostly the entire time, had had quite enough. She couldn't believe that these two grown men were acting in such a childish way. "Daddy," She turned to look at her father. She had nothing to say to Vejita, "Stop this. I know everyone's anger is high. I realize that Vejita is crude and annoying, but you have to stop it. Auntie Usagi, your sister, is in need of help right now, and here you are, starting fights with Vejita." Gohan lowered his head in embarrassment.   
  
"She's right." Videl glared at her husband. "You are acting no better than him."  
  
Vejita contributed a loud growl to the conversation to let his rage be known. "You had better watch what you're saying about me, missy."  
  
"DON'T YOU MISSY ME!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
From the other side of the lookout sat five curious girls and one cat. They had ventured away from the group of adults so they could tend to their own business. The business of hopefully finding out what in the world was going on. So far, they were in the dark on almost everything.  
  
Minako; "So, Artimas, would you like to explain to us what's going on? Who is that queen person who was chasing after Usagi? Who was that guy who attacked us? Most of all, why do we have this strange new power?"  
  
Rei grinned at Minako. "And why is she second in command?"  
  
Artimas sat down in Minako's lap and looked up at the curious girls. "Those are all good questions. First I will address..."  
  
Hotaru, who was looking up at the moon, still had one thing in mind. "Why is the moon back?"   
  
"Huh?" Artimas looked up at Hotaru, who was looking quite curious.  
  
"The moon. It's back. It wasn't here before, and now it is. Does this have to do with the Senshi? Does it have to do with that queen person that my friends talk about? Is it why Usagi was taken away?"  
  
Artimas looked back down at the ground with frustration. He wanted to answer all of those questions, but the truth was that he hadn't the foggiest idea how to. His memory wasn't fully back to normal. He only knew of two people who would be able to answer those questions. While one ceased to exist a thousand years ago, the other one was still quite alive, but there was still the fact that she did not have the authority to tell until the queen gave her permission. "I am not permitted to say. You will have to somehow hear it from someone else."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Krillin, who had long ago let his mind wander from the arguments that were arising from his friends, looked over to Hotaru and gulped with fright. "G...Go...G...Go...!" He stammered as he pointed in the young Saiyan's direction.  
  
Goku pulled himself from the current argument and looked down to his best friend, who seemed to be at a loss for words. "What is it, Krillin?"  
  
"H...O...Look...it..." He was too scared to even go on.   
  
Goku ignored the fact that his wife was trying to get his attention and kneeled down. "Calm down. It will be much easier for you to talk."  
  
"DAD!" Goten had taken one look at Krillin and noted the fact that he seemed to be pointing at something. So what did he do? He did the only thing that his curiosity told him to. He looked in the direction that he seemed to be pointing in and saw something that was strong enough to put fright into his own eyes. "You may want to look at...Hotaru..."  
  
"What?" Goku looked up from Krillin and on to Hotaru, who was looking up at the moon. "Oh crap! Not good!" He quickly pressed his fingers to his forehead and teleported to be standing directly in front of her, startling her out of her wits.  
  
"Goku?! What's wrong?!" She only received a glaring frown from him, causing her to cower away. "What did I do?"  
  
"Don't look at the moon! Do you want to turn into a giant ape and destroy this place?"   
  
Hotaru gulped with a hint of a smile. "But, Goku, I don't get aff..."  
  
"Don't argue with me. I know what I'm talking about. I've had it happen to me. That's how my grandfather was killed. Now if you don't want to hurt any of your friends you will NOT look at the moon." Hotaru received his words more with harshness than he had meant them to be. He had been thinking too much that night as it was. He didn't want to have a rampaging Saiyan on his hands as well. "Understand?"   
  
Hotaru slowly nodded. "Yes, sir."   
  
Goku's face was over taken with guilt at the tone that the child used to answer him. "Make sure it doesn't happen again." With that, he turned around to walk back to his group, leaving the group of children behind. He had the belief that would keep any kind of uproar like that from happening ever again.  
  
Artimas just glared at Goku with a harsh frown. "Is that really Usagi's father?"  
  
Minako nodded. "Yep."  
  
"But he's so rude to you kids as well as everyone else. He's much too intimidating to be a likeable father."  
  
Hotaru looked back to her friends with saddened eyes. "He's not normally like this. He's usually so kindhearted. He's just under a lot of stress right now." Even though she knew that her words were very true, she couldn't help but feel somewhat bad about being yelled at unjustly without even been heard.   
  
Artimas still wasn't sure about that. So far, he had only seen Goku yelling at the kids. "I'll have Luna keep an eye on him."  
  
Rei; "So, Artimas, tell us about Sailor Moon and Luna, and how all this ties in with Usagi."  
  
"Well, let's start with that queen you guys spoke of. Her name is Queen Beryl and she works under another, Queen Metallia. They are after Usagi because she is the holder of the ultimate power; the power of the moon."  
  
Hotaru, still upset, sat next to Minako. "What's so great about the moon?" She made sure that her back was turned to the moon so she wouldn't be tempted to look at it. 'Not fair.'  
  
"I'll tell you everything that I can remember. Long ago, there was a kingdom on the moon, called the Silver Millennium. In this kingdom, lived a lovely queen with her daughter, Princess Serenity, whom we are to protect in this world. The only other thing that I know is that one day Queen Beryl attacked the kingdom, which caused its downfall."  
  
Makoto; "So where do we come into play with this?"   
  
"You were all Princess Serenity's court, sworn to protect her at all costs. And you did just that. You, as well as the princess, were all reincarnated here, one thousand years in the future, along with Beryl. Your duty now, is to fight off the Dark Kingdom and protect the Moon Princess."  
  
Ami; "Who is the Moon Princess, Artimas?"  
  
Aritmas' head dropped as he shrugged. "We don't know. We have to search for her. I'm hoping that Luna will get back with Usagi soon. They may have some information that could help us."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku had felt guilty at the tone he'd used to Hotaru and would apologize later, but just then it was time to act. Goku looked at his friends and came to a decision. "Ok people, its time to act."  
  
Vejita smirked. "Ha. Past time Kakorotto."  
  
He ignored him and split the team up into separate missions "Chi-Chi, Pan, Bra, Videl, Goten and Bulma, you go retrieve the Dragonballs so we can get Usagi back home." 'I hate to use her Dragon Ball, but so far it's the only way.' When they nodded to show that they agreed as well as understood, he turned to Piccolo, Gohan, and Vejita. "The four of us will go to the moon and destroy it. It's to dangerous with the two kids having their tails."  
  
With a frown, Vejita turned toward him. "And why would I do that Kakorotto? You don't order me. Why don't you just cut the brats' tails off anyway? It would save all this hassle."  
  
A wolfish grin appeared on his face and he replied. "For one, I WILL not cut something off of my daughter if we can just simply blow up the moon. Second, I thought the chance to blow up something would appeal to you."  
  
He said nothing to that, knowing that he was right. Dendee stepped forward at that. "If that is your wish, then I must go with you."  
  
Piccolo frowned. "Why would you leave your keep at a time like this."  
  
"You have forgotten Piccolo that when you destroyed the Moon last time, you nearly destroyed the Earth. The resulting gravitational forces unleashed would have ripped the planet apart if Kami hadn't intervened and stabilized Earth. You still have not fully integrated your two sides and there is conflict or you would know this."  
  
Giving a growl, he had ignored that comment. Goku stared at him for a minute and then turned to the remaining team members. "You guy's stay here and act as back up and protect the girls. If anyone needs help, do as the girls suggested at Disney world and pulse you Ki." Several grinned at that memory and they then separated to carry out their missions.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Back in Tsukino Usagi's dimension, things were getting pretty interesting. Son Usagi had just grabbed Sailor Pluto and pulled her down so they could look into each other's eyes. Pluto could see the anger, as well as the plea for help in the young princess' eyes. "Hello, young Princess."  
  
Son Usagi was still stunned that she, of all people, was a Princess. Though, she didn't have time to stress over it. There was no telling how long the Guardian of Time would show herself and there were so many questions that she wanted to ask. "So? What's with messing with my life?" She didn't dare let go in fear that if she did, Pluto would leave.  
  
Pluto giggled. She could feel Usagi's anxiety. "You need not worry, Usagi. I won't stray away. As for tinkering with your life, that is not for me to say."  
  
Son Usagi slowly let up on her grip and set Pluto down as she frowned a bit harder. "Why isn't it for you to say? You ARE the Guardian of Time, right? You WERE the one who made me and my friends stay in the past to fight Cell, right?"  
  
Smiling down at the younger version of her Princess, Pluto chuckled. "Yes, and no. The Guardian of Time in which you are referring to will be there when you find your way back to your own dimension and time. She is the Sailor Pluto of your time and you will need to ask her these questions yourself."  
  
Everyone was brought into a state of confusion at that, though Tsukino Usagi was the only one brave, or dumb, enough to let it show. "Wha...?"  
  
Chibi-Usa frowned as she crossed her arms. "Just listen to what she has to say you dufus."  
  
Pluto found herself frowning at the two's unwillingness to get along. "Yes, well, you see, there is a Pluto in each and every dimension. We all work together, as a group, to protect the timelines. We are linked with our power to let each other know what is going on in their timeline. The existence of the universes relies on us."  
  
Tsukino Usagi; "Pluto, what's going on here? Why is this other Usagi here?"  
  
Son Usagi nodded with her agreement to the questions. "Yeah. Doesn't this kind of mess up the dimensional workings or whatever?"  
  
Turning to her own Princess, Pluto's face became more serious than ever. "Something has happened. Something that was not meant to, and it has to do with..." She paused and looked around to the curious faces of her fellow Senshi. "I'm sorry, but I can not say." The crowd groaned at her unwillingness to tell. "I must not reveal anything that is beyond my bounds. All I can tell you is that, because of this unexpected turn of events, the fate of all existence now rests on these two princesses shoulders."  
  
That got a 'hmph' out of Chibi-Usa. "I guess the Multiverse is dead if it has to rely on Usagi, Miss airhead of the universe."  
  
Tsukino Usagi glared at her future daughter. "Watch it, brat."  
  
Son Usagi was most interested in this 'Multiverse' that the Guardian of Time, as she most well knew her as, spoke of. Though, she was a little put out with Chibi-Usa already. She, herself, was getting ready to rant on about how she should treat her mother with more respect. "Multiverse? You mean all the timelines?"  
  
Everyone there, including Pluto, was stunned at Son Usagi's leap in knowledge. Their Usagi would have never been able to figure something like that out. Chibi-Usa was most impressed.  
  
Tsukino Usagi, herself, was a bit stunned. Though, not to the degree that everyone else was. It was more because she beat her to the answer she was about to give. "Right, she must be. After all, the Multiverse is made up from the combined timelines." She looked down to Son Usagi with a smile as she looked around to the faces of the other Senshi. The two of them just giggled at the stunned faces all around. "I told you reading comics help heroes, no one believed me."  
  
Son Usagi; "Too true."  
  
Amused, Pluto decided to continue. "Yes, the Multiverse is as you imagined it to be. But this Universe and the Universe of Son Usagi are the two Prime Universes that all spring from. And they all take their path from them. That is why this meeting is so important. The two of you will decide the fate of all with your actions today. The only thing else I can say about this, is that you will have to work together, and follow your hearts. I will do exactly as you command, with the aid of Sailor Pluto of Son Usagi's timeline when you make your decision."  
  
Tsukino Luna looked up at Pluto in puzzlement. "What decision?"  
  
Pluto smiled, softly. "That is what they must decide. Tsukino Usagi, you may not tell her about the enemies, but you may tell her about yourself and this world."  
  
Chibi-Usa frowned. "Great. The Multiverse is in the hands of the airheads. We're doomed."  
  
Everyone around chuckled at that, even Mamoru was. But, looking into Tsukino Usagi's eyes, Son Usagi could see the hurt that they were creating within her. She knew what it felt like to feel that virtually everyone you ever cared about were against you. Angered at the thought of having a child who would mistreat her, Son Usagi stalked over to the laughing Chibi-Usa. "Hey BRAT! That's NO way to talk to your elders, especially your own mother! I don't know about you, but if I were to EVER talk to my mother that way, I would get a few slaps across the face! That may not be the right way to go about it, but a timeout wouldn't be uncalled for you little monster."   
  
Tsukino Usagi looked more than just stunned. That was probably the first time that anyone had ever taken the time out to defend her from Chibi-Usa's hurtful comments, let along the fact that they might hurt her. She just stared down at her younger self with more respect than she even had for herself at that moment.   
  
Chibi-Usa glared at Son Usagi the same way that she would glare at Tsukino Usagi, but without the same effect as she glared back. "She's not my mother yet, and boy do I wish she weren't."  
  
Mamoru frowned down at the two children. "Chibi-Usa, calm down." He gently placed his hand on her back to help calm her anger. He looked over at Son Usagi; his frown and tone would turn colder from then on. "And you, Son Usagi, stay out of this. This is normal for them. They like to spar a bit."  
  
Seething at his words, knowing without a doubt that her other self had been made to go through that before with everyone there, she lost her cool. "No YOU listen you idiot! You may say you are, but in my eyes, you are NO different that the Mamoru from my timeline. This is obviously making her hurt when Chibi-Usa here..."  
  
"Usagi, don't." Tsukino Usagi really was in no mood to get into this at the moment.  
  
Son Usagi frowned. "No. I will go on. One, this BRAT DID hurt her. No mother wants to ever hear that her kid wishes that she wasn't her mother. Two, she shouldn't go around insulting people for no reason, especially her own mom. Three, why aren't you trying to control her attitude problem? This has obviously happened before. Don't you care about your so-called beloved's feelings? Or are you the type that only likes being the good guy? Buying presents, playing, not punishing her at all. No wonder she acts that way. Man, she's almost as bad as your idiotic self from my time. And I actually I wondered who she reminded me of."  
  
Infuriated, Mamoru glared at the child, who obviously didn't know a thing about what was happening. "Look here, you know nothing."  
  
Son Usagi growled her answer. "I know nothing? That's really funny, Mamoru. HA! I know nothing. I know a lot more about being hurt than you. Why don..."  
  
Seeing that a mere child had the guts to stand up for her, Tsukino Usagi began to feel brave herself. "That's pretty much the gist of it Son Usagi. She never respects me. He and my friends never even try to stop her. And when I do, they tell me to ease up on her. Let her alone."  
  
Mamoru and all the rest were most stunned by that. "That's not true."   
  
Looking up with REAL justifiable tears in her eyes, which had shut him up in fear of what he would hear next, Tsukino Usagi just shook her head. "Tell me, Mamoru, do the numbers 75 and 35 mean anything to you? 75 might not, but 35 should."   
  
The area went silent as Mamoru went deep into thought. No one had any idea what those numbers could have possibly meant, though they were all quite curious. Even Chibi-Usa found herself wondering what the numbers were for.  
  
"I didn't think you would know. 75 is the number of times that she has wished for another mother other than me."   
  
The number stunned Chibi-Usa. Though the amount of the number was a great contributor to her being stunned, what really caused her to be shocked was the fact that she had actually taken the time to keep count.   
  
"And 35," Her voice quivering, making Mamoru cringe in fear of what he would hear next, "Is the number of time she has said it in front of you and not once did you say anything. Not once did you correct her. I have sometimes wondered if you haven't had the same thoughts. ALL of you. I mean, you're always cracking down on me. You're always calling me a klutz and an airhead. You're always telling me how irresponsible I am. Maybe someone else would make a better Princess, Sailor Moon, and girlfriend. You all seem to think so. You sure seem to like to point out my flaws. Especially you, Luna, and Rei. But the others get their share. I'm sorry I don't live up to your expectations of friend, lover, Princess, Senshi, AND MOTHER." Sobbing by the end, she turned around and ran off. The feelings that she felt at that moment were too overwhelming to endure. The pain of all the put downs over the years, the hiding of her shame was entirely too much.   
  
The rest were also brought to tears, wondering how she could have possibly thought something like that. Mamoru began to run after her, only to find his path being blocked by Son Usagi. "MOVE, kid!"   
  
Usagi frowned up at him. He was acting exactly like the Mamoru from her own dimension, which didn't set well with her one bit. "No, you've done enough. I'll go after her. You try and actually see it from her point of view. I can tell now that you don't."  
  
'She's just like Usako...' "Look. I don't care if you ARE her, this is none..." He could go no further as he received a quick foot in the gut.  
  
"Shut up already." With that, she focused her energy onto her older self's and teleported away, causing the group to gasp in awe.  
  
Son Luna stared at them all in shock. "Is what she said true?"  
  
Tsukino Luna growled her response. "Of course not. She just has a tendency to overreact."  
  
Son Luna thought about what Tsukino Usagi had said and then applied it to what had just now happened. "But Chibi-Usa was acting that way just now, like she had said. And no one corrected her. That's not the way a child should talk to her Mother."  
  
Mamoru looked to the ground to think about what had just happened. He was honestly thinking of his actions, or lack of, with Chibi-Usa and towards Usagi. 'Maybe I have been a little lenient on her. And I never did try to stop her. And when Usagi tried I always defended her. And maybe I have not told her all the good things about her that I love, instead trying to correct the bad, but some of those bad are the best part of her. Her innocence. Her joy for life. Oh god, what have I done? What have we done?'  
  
Chibi-Usa, feeling guilty, but refusing to admit it, growled in annoyance. "That airhead. Why would we care if she's overreacting?"   
  
Frowning at the fact that no one responded to her, proving Tsukino Usagi's point yet again, Mamoru turned to his future daughter with a stern look.. "That is enough from you, young lady."  
  
Chibi-Usa cringed at his harsh tone of voice that went along with his words. "But, Mamo-Chan."  
  
"Enough of that as well. Usagi has mentioned a few times that that was her special name for me. It's not right for you to use it."  
  
Looking up at his stern face, she realized how much he looked like her father, and perhaps for the first time, she realized that he IS her father. Not Mamo-Chan, but her father's younger self. And if that's true, then Usagi's her mother's younger self as well. And all the mean things that she had ever said to her, she said to her mother. And she would remember them in the future, and she and her father would hate her for it. 'What have I done!?' Tears formed in her eyes as she turned around to run off as well.   
  
"Chibi-Usa!" Mamoru called out to her, but she didn't respond. "Great." He looked back to his friends, who felt like crying themselves.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chibi-Usa continued to run as fast as she could in no specific direction. She didn't care where she went nor did she care where she would end up. Her business in this time was over. She had only come back to fight off the new enemy, who seemed to be her own mother. Even now that her duty was over, she didn't want to go back. She didn't want to face her parents, who would now have a memory of this day and would hate her from then on out. 'What a mess I've made. I'm more like my mom's younger self than I realized.'  
  
She continued aimlessly running around until she hit into a soft, warm object that wrapped itself around her. She knew who it was, which was why she had to get away. Looking up to see who she already knew was there, she saw Tsukino Usagi, lovingly looking back down at her. For the first time, she looked up at her with fear as well as shame while struggling to get out of her embrace. "Let go. Let go. I know you hate me for what I've said and done. You'll always hate me. And when I get to the future, you'll remember and hate me even more."  
  
Shocked at such a thought, Tsukino Usagi held her daughter even tighter and even managed to let out a slight giggle to ease the tension. "How can I hate you when I LOVE you so much?"  
  
That just about did it for the now wide-eyed Chibi-Usa. She couldn't exactly believe what she had just heard come from the one person that she had verbally bashed for years. "But...?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi kneeled down to Chibi-Usa's level. After a few words with Son Usagi, she had calmed down and was ready to talk now. She forced Chibi-Usa to look at her. "I've always loved you, no matter what."  
  
"Bu..."  
  
"Shh...let me finish. When you first came here, and tired those, umm...interesting stunts, I could have stopped you, turned you out. I know you think you had your way with Luna P hypnotizing everyone, but I could have stopped you with the Crystal. Plus, the moment you were first attacked, the only thing that was going through my mind was protecting you. And I knew you were lonely here, so I tired to stay out of the way. Well, as much as I could at any rate. I knew you didn't want me for a mother, but I never regretted the idea of you being my daughter. I know you don't really love me here, but my future, past, and present self will always love you."  
  
Crying even harder, Chibi-Usa threw her arms around her future mother with out any hesitation. "That's not true," She sobs. "I do love you. It's just that Mam..., daddy is easier because he's not so much like me. I was angry that you wouldn't give me the Crystal, and when I found out about you, I thought you must hate me and not want me, so I pushed you away."  
  
"Chibi-Usa..." Tsukino Usagi leaned in to hug her with a warm and loving smile. "Thank you. And no, you could never make me hate you. Angry, maybe, but never hate." At that moment, a great deal of fear, anger, and pain left both of their hearts.  
  
Watching from afar, the duo's friends, who had, shortly after Chibi-Usa had run off, gone chasing after her. They were ready to send their apologies to their Usagi when Mamoru had walked to the mother, daughter duo and hugged them both. "I'm sorry, Usako. I have not been the best partner in this. I should have supported you more, took a firmer stand with Chibi-Usa. I should have told you why I love you so much, your all-encircling heart, your caring for all, even an enemy. Your strength courage. But I'm not used to sharing. Maybe you can help me more with this. I promise to listen."  
  
Son Usagi, who had teleported back to the older versions of her friends, was absolutely and utterly shocked stiff by the showcase of emotions that were coming from Mamoru. She wasn't sure if it was real or a hologram. 'I never knew it was possible for ANY Mamoru to be so...loving...'   
  
The other girls, as well as Tsukino Luna, murmured their regrets and promise to at least try to change and understand.   
  
Son Usagi stared directly at Chibi-Usa. 'I guess she isn't all that bad. All it took was a few words to get the emotions out and everything comes out smoothly.' She looked over to Hotaru, who stood on her right. She was still most amazed by the fact that she was older than her. There was still something on her mind about something in their earlier conversation. "Hotaru, what did you mean by 'saved from your own power'?"  
  
Pluto took the liberty of answering for the youngest Senshi. "The Senshi of Saturn was not supposed to awaken. She is the Senshi of death and rebirth."  
  
Son Usagi grinned. "So, Hotaru's a Sailor Senshi too? She's the one who can destroy the world with her power, right?" She asked, looking down to Son Luna, who nodded her reply.  
  
"Yes," Pluto interjected. "It is for this reason that Saturn must always remain asleep. Her power is much too strong and can't be controlled."   
  
Son Usagi was confused. "She's awake now, isn't she?"   
  
Tsukino Usagi looked up from her family moment. "That's because I used the Crystal to tame her power. It's much more stable now. Unfortunately, it's not 100% stable."  
  
"How?" 'Maybe I can do this for my dimension's Hotaru, too...'   
  
"I used the Ginzuishou to seal it, but the power was too great. If I'd use the Crystal to the extent need to be used, it would have killed us both." Looking down, she whispers. "I did the best I could."   
  
Going over to her Princess and friend, Hotaru hugged Tsukino Usagi. "You did more for me than any of the other Moon royalty ever did for my line. We always slept, until needed. You gave me life. One worth living." Tsukino responded with a watery smile.   
  
Ami looked over to Son Usagi, who seemed to be thinking of other things at the moment. She was pretty sure that it had to be about her family, whom she was sure missed her by now. "Tell me, SON Usagi, who are you parents? I'm sure that you're a descendent of Trunks. You can't directly be his daughter since you don't carry the name 'Briefs', so he must have had a daughter and you were born to her."  
  
Son Usagi was completely and utterly confused at that point. "Why do you say that? Why would I have to be a relative of Trunks?"   
  
Ami herself became somewhat confused at the response she received. "Well, Trunks is the only Saiyan on earth."   
  
Pondering over what she could have possibly been talking about, Son Usagi frowned. "Ami, I don't know what..." Suddenly, she fully understood what was going on. "Oh man, how could I have been so stupid? Of course! Where else could I be the bond between my dimension and yours? This is Trunks' dimension!"   
  
(Ok, a little announcement from me, the reason why the chapters have been coming out as an every other day thing is because of school. With football/marching season coming up, I need an extra day to get everything written out. Hope you understand...CYA! ^_^)  



	104. Part 6

~*~*~*~  
  
Back in Son Usagi's home dimension, Goku had come up with a plan to rescue his daughter from who or whatever had the nerve to kidnap her. He and the rest of the adults seemed to have everything under control. They would be splitting into three groups. One would retrieve the Dragon Balls in hopes to rescue Usagi, another would attempt to blow up the moon so nothing would happen to the two Saiyans who happened to have their tails while the last would look after the kids to make sure nothing happened.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Back in Tsukino Usagi's, Son Usagi had just come to realize something more important than she could ever imagine. From what the people in this dimension were saying, Trunks was the only living Saiyan left. None of the others were around. Not her father, not her brothers, not Pan, Bra, or Vejita were around. The only way that would happen is if it was the future Trunks' dimension.  
  
The group from the Tsukino dimension stared down at the child before them. There was one question pulsing through the minds of each and every one of them. 'What could she be talking about?' It seemed like a valid question as well for they knew nothing of Trunks' time travels. They did not know that he went back in time to save the past from destruction so they wouldn't have to live like his timeline. They knew nothing about him saving all of the Saiyans except for Goku, who he still believed to be dead.   
  
Mamoru, who seemed to be most confused, addressed the child first. "Usagi, what do you mean by that? 'This is Trunks' dimension?'?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi's eyes went wide. "You mean the Savior that destroyed the androids is a relative of yours?"   
  
Son Usagi looked up to the puzzled faces of the older versions of her friends, as well as the other Usagi, who seemed to be lost as to why everyone else was confused. "I knew it. This IS Trunks' timeline, isn't it, Pluto?" She turned to Pluto, who was watching her with pride.   
  
Pluto nodded. "Yes. I allowed Trunks to go to your Universe. I should not have, since it tampered with time as well as the dimensional workings, but I did it anyway, to save your father; so you could be born to him. The other Pluto, the one from your own home dimension, let you travel into the past to save your father in that timeline. And yes, this is Trunks' timeline."  
  
Son Usagi was now the one who was confused. "But why? Why did you go through all that trouble to go against time?"  
  
Pluto smiled softly. "This, young one, you will learn as time goes on."  
  
Son Usagi wasn't the least bit satisfied with the answer that she received from the Guardian of Time, but she couldn't argue with it. There were still so many questions that needed to be answered. "What about Hotaru? You must have done the same thing for her, too. Who's her mom?"  
  
Pluto frowned at the young princess for wanting to know such a thing. "That is none of mine, nor is it any of your concern. I had nothing to do with that. Your Pluto did, and I suggest you do not ask her. It will put you and your friend, Hotaru in danger."  
  
Usagi gasped at the woman's sudden harsh tone. "O...ok, Pluto. I'm sorry." 'Yeesh, I only asked a question. There was no need to go off on me.'  
  
Ami, wanting more knowledge, had some questions of her own that she wanted answered. "Pluto, are you two saying that there is another timeline out there that had beaten the androids with the aid of our Trunks."  
  
Pluto nodded. "That is exactly what I'm saying. It is a branch off of this timeline, which should have been exactly like this one, but was altered by Trunks' presence there as well as his knowledge that he gave to his friends. It is like our alternate dimension. All but one of the Saiyans survived during the fight with the androids and Cell. The problem was caught early on, meaning that the world did not live in nearly as much heartache as they did in this world."  
  
The group jealously looked at Son Usagi, who was thinking about what she was meant to be doing next. What started out as a simple kidnapping, had escalated into something more, much, much more. She could only imagine what was going on back at home and all the problems that could have been rising there.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Back in Son Usagi's dimension, things were going quite smoothly. The group that was in charge of finding the Dragon Balls already knew of three before they even set out. There were three at the Son house, two that Goku kept just in case someone wanted them, and the other...was Usagi's. They hated to have to use it, but so far, it seemed like the only way. They would use the Dragon Radar as an aide to find the four balls.  
  
Meanwhile, back at Kami's lookout, the group who would destroy the moon was just getting ready to take off. Goku was trying to figure out the best way to go about blowing it up. He didn't want to give Dende a hard time trying to control the effects, but he wanted to just go all out at it too. He didn't want to waste another moment for every minute that went by was another possible minute that Hotaru would disobey him and look up to the moon.   
  
"Dende, how much can you handle.  
  
"Don't worry about me, Goku. I'll be fine. You just do what you have to do to get rid of the moon. I'll be able to handle anything that happens."  
  
Goku nodded. He didn't have a single word to add in protest. "Good. Are the rest of you ready?" He looked around to his group, who nodded back at him. "Ok then. Let's shove off and destroy that thing before things really get out of hand."  
  
"Right. Father, we have to make sure we hit directly in the center or else it will be harder to blow." Gohan jumped into the air, with the rest of the group close to follow, leaving the girls and the other fighters behind.  
  
Hotaru looked up into the air to watch them fly away, only to find her view being blocked by Tienshin-han. "But..."  
  
"Goku said not to look up. Now look away."  
  
Hotaru frowned as she looked back to her friends, who were also frowning. "Adults don't listen." She pouted.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Tsukino Dimension~~  
  
Tsukino Usagi pondered to herself about what to do. Sestuna had said that this new problem involved all dimensions, the Multiverse. They were meant to be saving them all...but how? "Girls, we need to figure out how we are supposed to save everything. If all universes depend on us, we have to think of something good to fix this."  
  
Son Usagi smiled. "That means we have to save my dad in all the other dimensions. That way, all Usagi's will be powerful enough to use our powers without dying."  
  
Tsukino Usagi's face went almost completely pale with the feeling of being betrayed. "What's wrong with being a Tsukino?"  
  
Son Usagi groaned. She now felt horrible. In no way had she meant that to be an insult. "No offence, but my extra strength comes from my Saiyan side. That's what's needed or else Pluto wouldn't have sent Trunks to my dimension to save my dad."  
  
Tsukino Usagi still wasn't sure if she liked that idea. "Not to be a Tsukino..."  
  
Son Usagi heard the sadness in her voice and thought about what it would mean and feel like to not be a Son. To not be born to her parents. Doing that made her realize just how crummy her counterpart felt, so she walked to her and gave her a hug.  
  
Haruka, being somewhat put out by the recent shows of affection, turned to Pluto. "But what is the enemy that we must fight. Surely she is here to help with some new foe."  
  
Pluto Grinned. "No, some of the most important matters in time aren't because of an enemy, but by a simple decision of the heart."  
  
Son Luna; "Even still, it'd take a miracle to do what has to be done with Saturn. We have to find a way to tame her powers"  
  
Son Usagi lit up with happiness as she pulled away from her counterpart and turned to Luna. On her face was the biggest grin of all time. "That's it!" The other group members were shocked by her sudden outburst. "We need the Dragon Balls!"   
  
Chibi-Usa was most interested in the Dragon Balls that Son Usagi spoke of. Son Usagi seemed to have confidence that they will work. "What are Dragon Balls?"  
  
Son Usagi could hardly hold in her giggles as she turned to Chibi-Usa. "You mean you don't know what Dragon Balls are?" Chibi-Usa shook her head, as did the rest of her friends. "How can you NOT know about...oh..." Her face became that of a child with no hope as she looked down to the ground with tears forming in her eyes.   
  
Tsukino Usagi was the first to rush to her younger self's side. "What is it, Usagi? What's wrong? Will these Dragon Balls not help at all?"  
  
Son Usagi raised her head just enough to turn and look into the eyes of Tsukino Usagi. "No. They'll work alright. If you get all seven of them together, they'll grant you any two wishes, or in your case...o..."  
  
Tsukino Usagi jumped up with laughter. "Then what are we waiting for!? Let's go get all seven of them and wish that the Multiverse be saved!"   
  
Minako could see the hurt look in Son Usagi's eyes and glared at her Usagi. "Settle down. For some reason, I don't think it's all that easy."  
  
Son Usagi looked up to address the crowd of curious people. "That's right. I forgot that Kami, the creator of the Dragon Balls, is dead."  
  
Makoto; "So why is that bad?"  
  
Son Usagi wanted to cry out at that point. "If he's dead, the Dragon Balls disappear. When Kami and Piccolo were destroyed in this time, so were the Dragon Balls. And Dende isn't here so he can't make any...WAIT A MINUTE!" Usagi all of a sudden became overwhelmed with joy as she remembered what her father had told her about the time he had beaten Frieza. "My dad once told me about this planet called Namek, where he fought this really strong guy. He said that there are Dragon Balls on Namek, which is where they come from. Those Dragon Balls give you three wishes instead of just two."  
  
Rei frowned. "But how are we supposed to get to this Namek place? It would take months if we flew in a Capsule Corp. Ship."  
  
Son Usagi grinned. "Not if you can teleport. I can teleport directly to Dende's power."   
  
Tsukino Luna juggled the odds of this actually working in her head and came to the conclusion that the kid has to know what she was talking about. So far, she proved to be telling the truth and if Setsuna trusted her, than she would too. "The Senshi can do the Sailor Teleport and follow you one you're there."  
  
Son Luna's eyes sparkled with wonder. "Imagine that. Three wishes. We can wish ourselves home."   
  
Frowning, Rei asks. "Hang on. Pluto said the fate of all Dimensions hang on this."  
  
Makoto; "Maybe we're suppose to help all of them"  
  
Son Usagi; "My brother told me that when Dende recreated my world's Dragon balls, he sacrificed one of the wishes to add strength of the other two to make them more powerful. Maybe if we use the first two of the Namek Dragon Balls to strengthen the last one, we can create a Super wish."   
  
Pluto smiled at that. 'They're heading in the right direction.' "I am afraid, Princess, that even that won't have enough power to do all that is needed."   
  
Tears came to Son Usagi's eyes once again. She had thought it was a wonderful idea.   
  
Tsukino Usagi looked at her younger, and in many ways, more mature self with sympathy. 'She's still just a kid, but strong as well.' Putting her arm around the child for comfort, she turned to Pluto. "What if Chibi-Usa and I add the power of the Crystals to the wish, as well as the power of the other Senshi?"  
  
Son Usagi brightened up as she looked at Pluto. "Yeah. And you can add your time powers with it. Maybe I can even try to add my Super Saiyan power."  
  
Smiling a large smile, Pluto looked down into Son Usagi's bright blue eyes. "Yes. I can add my power. I can also try to add the strength of all dimension's Plutos' to aid in this endeavor. Yours, son Usagi, will be there to help as well."  
  
Looking up, Son Usagi only responded with a quiet whisper. "Will that be enough?"  
  
Pluto smirked. "If the two of you have strong enough hearts, it may just be. Now, you need to think of this 'super' wish." The two Usagi's looked at each other in fear. Even Son Luna had the look of worry planted on her face. Everyone else just laughed in relief.   
  
Confused as always, Tsukino Usagi turned to look at her laughing friends. "WHAT'S GOING ON?"  
  
Son Usagi frowned. "Yeah. This is NOT a time to be laughing!"   
  
Tsukino Luna grinned. "My other self doesn't know you two, but the rest of us do. If what is needed is a heart, then the Multiverse is safe."  
  
Rei; "Yeah, you two have the biggest hearts around. We're completely safe."  
  
Minako nodded. "I have no worries"  
  
Makoto; "Same here."  
  
Ami; "We are in no danger. You two will get the job done. You won't rest until it's over."  
  
Even the Outers nodded their agreement.  
  
Tsukino Usagi smirked. "And you all think you know us so well, don't you?" The group nodded, giving neither of the blushing Usagi's room to complain.  
  
Son Luna, not having anything to add, skipped right to business. "But what do we wish for?"  
  
Pluto became more serious as she was reminded of the Multiverse. There was nothing that would stop them now. "This is a wish that may only come from the two. The Prime Princesses. They must decide on the Multiverse's fate."  
  
Tsukino Usagi looked down to her younger self, and then up to Pluto again. "B...Bu..."  
  
Son Usagi was a bit more understanding, though fear was on the top of her mind. "Can't we just have some sug..."  
  
Pluto shook her head. "It's the only way. Come, we will give you all the privacy you need. I have asked Motoki at the Crown arcade to close down for the day. Motoki will be there to see to your needs as far as food." She grinned. "Don't worry, it's well stocked and paid for."   
  
Two growling stomachs responded to that, causing all to laugh. Son Usagi giggled the loudest. "I guess I'm hungry again."  
  
Makoto grinned. "What's new? You guys are always hungry." The two blushed as they began walking in the direction of the arcade center.  
  
Pluto turned to Makoto and Ami. "You two go and find Trunks. Go as Senshi so he does not know of your real form. He will be more willing to work with you if you come to him as fighters in need of aide."  
  
Son Usagi stopped walking at that. "What? You mean to tell me that you guys don't know him?"  
  
Ami looked up. "No. He doesn't live around here."  
  
Makoto sighed. "He doesn't get out much either. He's always stuck in his office working away, but he always has time to fight away an enemy that he can feel."  
  
Son Usagi found that to be odd. She never knew Trunks for the office type. As far as she knew, he used to be president of Capsule Corp but got that title stripped away since he flew out of his window office everyday. "Why don't I teleport to him and get him then?"  
  
Pluto was quick and harsh with her response. "NO! No, don't do that. You have to go to the arcade and figure things out. Leave getting him up to these guys."  
  
Son Usagi gulped. That was twice in one day that she had been snapped at. "Ok..." She paused then, starting getting mad at Pluto. That had been twice she yelled at her for no good reason.  
  
"Hey, wait a second. That's twice you've yelled at me for nothing. First about Hotaru, then about Trunks. What did I do to deserve it? I thought that teleporting to Trunks would have been a good idea. We could have been back in minutes."  
  
Pluto looked at her princess, and a small, embarrassed smile appeared on her lips. 'She's starting to take command, not just in battle.' The truth of the matter was that she hadn't been trying to be rude, but she was startled at the thought that this Usagi would have taken time out to do something other than business when the others were more than capable of doing it. Pluto's expressions lightened up. "I'm sorry. You are correct, the stress is great, please forgive me. It will just be easier for some of the others to go while you two work on what is needed. It is no telling when Trunks will be able to come out of whatever he is doing so there was a very good chance that you would not have been able to be back right away." At th princesses' nodded, she continued. "This should only take a few hours at the maximum. While you are discussing, these two will work on getting Trunks out here as well as any other fighter we know of. If anything should happen while we're doing this, we should be prepared."  
  
The two Usagi's nodded. "Right."  
  
Ami and Makoto turned around and began to walk towards their new destination. "Ami, don't you think Trunks looks like my old boyfriend?"   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Crown Arcade~~  
  
  
The two Usagi's were ushered into the building, while the rest of the group was shut out, much to their dismay. Nosy as they were, they wanted to know exactly what was going on and were more than put out when Pluto had told them that the two princesses would have to do this alone, without any outside influence.   
  
Motoki led the duo over to a booth in the back of the arcade so they wouldn't be tempted to look out the covered window. "So, you two are cousins, eh?"  
  
Puzzled, Son Usagi looked to Tsukino Usagi. Tsukino Usagi giggled as she bent down to whisper. "We don't let him know who we are. Pluto must have told him that we were cousins."  
  
Son Usagi nodded. "Oooooh."   
  
Motoki watched as the two sat down on opposite sides of their table and stared into each other's eyes. He just looked at them in amazement. "You two sure do look a lot a like for being cousins."  
  
Tsukino Usagi giggled when Son Usagi almost lost it at that. "Uh, yes. Our parents were twins."  
  
"Ah, I see. Well, I'll be back with some soda's and then you can tell me what you want to eat."  
  
Son Usagi giggled as he turned around and walked away. "Our parents are twins?"  
  
"Hey, it was all I could think of."  
  
The area went silent as the leaned back into their chairs and stared at each other. Neither of them knew where to begin nor did they know what they should be wishing for. They had an idea of what they wanted, more rather, Son Usagi knew what she wanted, but she didn't want to hurt Tsukino Usagi's feelings by telling her that all Usagi's should be born to Goku and Chi-Chi. She had already done that once and she didn't feel like doing it again.   
  
Tsukino Usagi; "Well, no pressure anyway."  
  
"Right." Son Usagi sighed.  
  
~*~*~  
  
By the time that Motoki returned, after he had taken their orders for food, neither of them had really spoken a word to each other. They mostly just sighed with frustration and looked on as if nothing really big was happening.   
  
Motoki set the food down on the table in front of the two hungry girls, only to find that they were more interested in poking at it with their utensils rather than stuffing their faces. He was shocked, on Tsukino Usagi's part, anyway. After all, this was the girl who had been keeping the arcade alive on her diet alone. "Hey, what's wrong?'  
  
Looking up at him, Tsukino Usagi frowned. "If you had one wish, and the fate of all existence rested on it, what would you wish for?"  
  
Son Usagi nearly had a cow at that. 'What is she doing?! She's going to give us away!'  
  
Motoki was about to laugh at the thought when he noted the pair's serious eyes. Deciding that he had better humor them before he got himself in trouble, he shrugged. "Well, I'd make a list of what I think needs done, and weigh the pro's and con's of each."  
  
Tsukino Usagi smirked. "Thanks, Motoki."  
  
"Uh..." He wasn't exactly sure what he had done, but he was glad to be of help. "You're welcome." He turned around and began walking away from the two cousins, as he thought they were. "If you two need anything, just holler. I'll be in the back room watching TV."   
  
"Ok!" Tsukino Usagi pulled over the laptop that Pluto had give them and opened Word, with a blank document ready to go. Smiling, she looked down to the bright face of her younger self. "I've always loved computers and it's the only thing I really understand in school."   
  
Son Usagi smiled. "You too? I had that problem, but Ami found out that music helps me study. But it sure took a lot to convince my parents that." She was glad to know that she wasn't the only one with the problem of studying in school. Granted, it was only another version of herself that had the trouble, but she didn't care one bit.   
  
Tsukino Usagi thought of all the times that she had studied and out of all the times that she could recall, the times she had music playing in the background, she had done better as well. "I study better with music as well." That put a smile on Son Usagi's face. "Motoki!"   
  
Motoki stumbled out of the back room with a bowl of ice cream. "Yes?"  
  
"Can you turn on the radio please?"  
  
"Sure." He did as he was asked and turned on the radio for the girls. Smiling, both girls began to relax as they ate their food.   
  
Tsukino Usagi; "Our main problem is going to be only having just one wish to be able to make."  
  
"Yeah, too bad we can'..." Son Usagi paused as she saw the face of Tsukino Usagi's face lighting up, making her jump to the edge of her seat with anticipation. "YES?"   
  
Tsukino Usagi grinned at the idea, which was brewing inside her head. "That's it. Instead of just wishing for one thing, let's wish for the list. The Usagi's rules for safety of the Multiverse. That way, we get all we need done, done. I mean, with all that power we're going to be putting in it should make it happen, right?"  
  
"That's GREAT!"  
  
Grinning at her younger self, Tsukino Usagi chuckled. "I'm a genius!" That had been the block that was holding both of them in check. Now that the idea about the list had been decided, they ideas began pouring out more easily, though Son Usagi kept the idea about being born to the Sons quiet. She didn't want to be the one to bring it up if she didn't have to. She wanted the other Usagi to bring up, though she would if she had to.   
  
"First!" Son Usagi yelled. "A lifetime of chocolate!"  
  
Tsukino Usagi grinned. "Right." She typed the wish out onto the list.  
  
"You're not actually putting that, are you?"  
  
"Of course I am."  
  
"But, aren't we supposed to be wishing for things that will help the Multiverse?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi turned her grin to a smirk. "Well it is. You see, as long as we're happy, the Multiverse is happy." Both girls couldn't help but laugh at that. "We can even put the chocolate in our sub-space pockets."  
  
Son Usagi became confused. "Sub-space pockets?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi nodded. "Yes, every Sailor Senshi has one to keep our weapons as well as any other accessory we have. Didn't Luna tell you?"  
  
Son Usagi shook her head. "No. We barely escaped from Beryl's dungeon before we met up with Mamoru. And then you guys to follow."  
  
Tsukino Grinned. "Oh. Ok, now that we've made ourselves and all Usagi's happy, lets get down to the real business at hand." Son Usagi was smiling then. The fears pushed aside for now, and they were ready to get to work.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Outside~~  
  
Haruka; "What's taking so long? They've been in there for five hours already."  
  
Pluto frowned at her comrade. "Patience. Things like this take time. Five hours isn't nearly enough time for them to decide what to do. Remember, this is the fate of EVERYTHING, we mustn't rush things. This is why they must do it in peace."  
  
"That is right." Hotaru added. "We must have faith in the Princesses. They know what they're doing."   
  
Haruka gripped her hands into a fist. "That doesn't mean I have to like waiting."  
  
Not only was Haruka put out with the waiting, but Rei was as well. In order to help calm her nerves, as well as find out what the girls inside were saying, she decided to meditate, but wasn't getting very far. She was having a hard time concentrating on what she was doing.  
  
The two Luna's were comparing in note, even though Pluto had instructed them not to. Artimas was napping in Minako's lap, who had her ear pressed to the door in hopes to hear what was going on inside the arcade. She hadn't had any luck at all since she started four hours before.   
  
"Mamoru..." Chibi-Usa pulled on Mamoru's arm to get his attention.   
  
Mamoru smiled down to the little pink-haired girl. "Yes?"  
  
"I'm bored."  
  
Minako pulled her ear away from the door and looked at Chibi-Usa. 'It must be hard to be a kid and have to wait like this.' "Chibi-Usa, why did you come back?"  
  
Chibi-Usa looked away from her future father and turned to Minako. "Mommy felt a disturbance and told me that something was going to happen. She said that I needed to be here, but she didn't tell me why. Just that hidden parts of the past will be revealed."  
  
Pluto grinned. "You were meant to come back." That earned her the attention of the rest of the group, even though she wouldn't dare say another word beyond that, so the area became quiet again. To throw their minds off her, she got up and had headed to have a *Chat* with the two naughty felines that disregarded her *Request*.  
  
Chibi-Usa tugged on Mamoru's arm again to regain his attention. "Mamoru, I'm hungry." She got an impish, but innocent grin on her face. "Will you buy me something to eat?" 'As well as a few other things...'  
  
Mamoru, not really having his head on the question, nodded. "Sure."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son Dimension~~  
  
Back in Son Usagi's home dimension, things were flowing better than ever. So far, all but two of the Dragon Balls were located and the Dragon Ball team was hot on track of another. They hoped to have the last two located in no time.   
  
The team that was meant to be destroying the moon had just arrived at their destination in the air and were now ready to take action. They were ready to attack at full force with no mercy. There was no way that they would let the moon survive. That would mean trouble for earth and its people.  
  
Goku frowned as he powered up what little energy was left in his reserves so he would be at full power. "This is one problem we aren't going to let get out of hand."  
  
Gohan nodded as he powered up to his Mystic level of power. "We must be careful though, father. We don't know why the moon has returned."  
  
Goku nodded. "I understand, Gohan. This thing could be the spawning ground of our new enemy."  
  
Piccolo frowned. "Meaning that us attacking it could make them angry."  
  
Gohan gulped. "What if Usagi is up there, dad?" He turned to his father with a pale face.  
  
Goku smirked without any concern at all. "She isn't there. We would be able to feel her, but this could start off a new attack if that is our enemy's base."  
  
Piccolo got into position as he powered up. "Then that's just a risk we're going to take."  
  
Annoyed, Vejita chuckled. "Listen to you yourselves. You sound like idiots! Who cares if the enemy is up there? We'll just be destroying them as well as that damn moon." He powered up to Super Saiyan two.  
  
Goku frowned at his comrade. "That enemy is more powerful than me, Vejita. That's why. But, we have no choice. Hotaru is in danger and knowing the curiosity of a child, she will want to look at it, and one of these times, we won't be able to stop her. So let's just deal with one thing at a time and destroy the moon."  
  
Gohan and Piccolo nodded. "Right." Vejita just sighed with frustration.  
  
(What to do what to do, ne? Hehe, hoped you liked it. Cya later!)  



	105. Part 7

~*~*~*~  
  
All was set in both the Son and Tsukino dimensions. Things were well on their way for the duo of Princesses with the list that they were creating. They were certain that they had an idiot-proof list in the making, which was why they weren't stressing too hard.  
  
Goku, on the other hand, was going nuts. Too many problems had come up in too short of time. First his daughter seemed to have slipped into a bit of depression and now this, the moon, which could only cause more havoc than good at this point. He didn't want to take any more chances with it creating more problems, it had caused him too much pain in the past to ever trust it.  
  
So there he stood, with his four comrades, Dende, Gohan, Piccolo, and the forever resisting Vejita. "Spread out. We're going to hit this thing in the center from four different angles."  
  
"Don't boss me around, Kakorotto. While you may be doing this for the cause of good, I'm only doing it for the pure entertainment of the sport." Just to spite Goku, Vejita didn't move. Instead, he stood by Piccolo, the only one who wasn't, in his book, insane, though he was creeping pretty close to the status.   
  
Piccolo growled as he glared at Vejita. "You just don't get it, do you?"  
  
Vejita smirked. "Get what? That you all are soft fools?" He chuckled when he felt the power levels of the three other fighters rise.   
  
Gohan, who had already had it with Vejita for the night, was ready to lose his cool. One more remark from the Saiyan Prince would have set him on a rampage of rage and Vejita would have been his first victim. "SHUT UP! You really DON'T get it, do you?! We have to take this as seriously as POSSIBLE! If we don't hit it EXACTLY right and there IS an enemy up there, we could JEPRADIZE the ENTIRE mission!"  
  
Vejita turned his grin into a smirk. He just loved to get under Gohan's skin. "So now it's a mission, is it?"   
  
Seeing that his son was powering up himself to launch an attack on the shorter more arrogant Saiyan, Goku decided it was time to intervene. "Enough! We don't have time for this. Let's just get it done and over with so we can get back to the other group and wish Usagi back. We're just going to take this one step at a time, GOT IT?!" He glared back and fourth to the insubordinate Vejita and his fuming son.  
  
Knowing that his father was completely correct, Gohan backed off. They should be fighting as a group, instead of each other. "Sorry, father."   
  
Piccolo, seeing that Vejita wasn't going to budge, hovered to the left of him so the four of them were evenly spread out and facing the moon. They made sure they were lined up exactly so their attacks would hit in the same spot, from two different angles. "Let's hope we can do this by ourselves without the help of another."  
  
Dende, confused, looked to Piccolo, who was building up an attack. "Who else could we as...oh." Satisfied that he had figured out his own answer to his question, Dende moved away from the group of fighters so he could have plenty of room to work when it would blow. He had to make sure that earth and its entire people were safe. His title would be stripped away if he let harm come to anyone. "Ready."  
  
Goku, acting as leader, nodded back at Dende and started off, letting the others know to speed up their progress. "KA-ME-..."  
  
Gohan built up for his biggest attack right along with his father. "HA-ME-..."  
  
Vejita prepared for his "Big-Bang-Attack". He couldn't wait to see the moon be blown to bits. Beside him, stood Piccolo, who was testing out his new skill of the Kamehameha wave that Gohan had taught him. "-HA!"  
  
At the same exact minute, second for second, the four angered fighters threw their attacks up at the moon with no mercy. They didn't care who or what was up there. As long as the moon was destroyed, it was all for the best. They didn't want to have to go through the transformation of a Saiyan as well as a new enemy, who undoubtedly wanted Usagi for some evil plan.  
  
Goku watched with much hope as the four attacks spiraled in and out of each other as they made their way to the white pearl in the sky. 'Please work! Please work! Please work!'   
  
Vejita was just as intent to watch as Goku, though for complete different reasons. He just wanted to see mass destruction while he had the chance. He wanted to be a part of it. 'I'm just sorry I had to do it with these low class warriors.'  
  
For some reason, Gohan seemed to be having second thoughts about blowing up the moon all of a sudden. Once he set his attack soaring, a sudden uneasiness that he couldn't explain began to take over him. It was like it would be doing bad in the long run. It would save the two Saiyans in danger, yes, but it still felt wrong. Beside that fact, he was more than happy to rid the world of the moon. It would resolve a major problem. Meanwhile, Piccolo and Dende were just nervously anticipating the outcome of the actions taken.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Tsukino Dimension~~  
  
While the two Princesses were contemplating on things that would help the Multiverse, something strange seemed to be taking place...  
  
Son Usagi's eyes went wide as a sudden pain shot through her body, as well as heart. "UH" She threw herself on the table that sat before her as her head began to feel woozy.  
  
Tsukino Usagi jumped up from the booth and ran to the child's side. "Hey! What's wrong?!" More than just a bit worried, she dropped to her knees to try and see Son Usagi's face, but was horrified by what she saw. She had the look of the same pain on her face that Mars had had in the Sailor Wars against Chaos, right before she disappeared. "Oh my god! Are you alright?!"  
  
Son Usagi nodded to the best of her ability as she tried to catch her breath. "Yeah. I'll be alright." She coughed as she tried to lift her head a bit. "I don't know what happened..."  
  
Tsukino Usagi was a bit wary of the child's words. She didn't seem all right to her, but she couldn't really argue against it and get anywhere. "Are you sure you're alright? You look horrible."  
  
Son Usagi playfully frowned. Her strength was beginning to come back. "Thanks, you don't look that great yourself."   
  
Tsukino Usagi giggled. "You know what I mean. You look a little better now, but that was really weird. I've never seen anyone just 'freak' out like that before."  
  
Son Usagi rested her head in her knees, which were now tightly pressed against her chest. "Me either. It felt like I had a sudden energy decrease or something. It felt like I was just beaten up by someone really strong."  
  
Tsukino Usagi shook her head in wonder. "Well, we'll keep an eye on you while you're here."  
  
"Do you think this has to do with Beryl?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi grinned. "That old fart? She's not sneaky enough to be able to do something like that without having one of her minions present."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son Dimension~~  
  
The group of five, who were meant to be blowing up the moon, were all standing together, huddled in a group, with their jaws dropped. No one could comprehend what had just happened. As far as they knew, they sent their blasts flying up at the moon, but nothing had happened. Five minutes had passed. They had allowed plenty of time for them to travel into space and to the moon. Why hadn't anything happened? The only indication that the blasts had made it to their target was when the sky lit up in a bright sliver, resulting in intensifying the shine of the moon.  
  
Goku was ready to go at it again, though, he wasn't too clear on his thinking. "Come on. That thing won't stand up to another blast!" He jumped back and built up for another attack, disregarding the fact that his friends weren't doing a thing. "What are you waiting for!? We have to do this again! We have to stop this!"   
  
Gohan was a bit more in his bounds of thinking than his father was, obviously. If his father had been in his right mind at the time, he would have known to think of another strategy since the first one didn't work. "Father..."  
  
Goku shot a piercing glare in the direction of his son. "Don't argue with me. We're just going to do this and get it done!"  
  
Vejita intentionally chuckled for the entire group to hear. "Look at you! You've gone MAD! I never thought I'd see the day. Of course, all you low class fighters start losing it around this age."  
  
Goku, angrier than ever, rushed to Vejita with his fist, but was stopped by a firm hand of his friend Piccolo. He took no notice to Piccolo and just fixed his view on Vejita. "Now you listen here, almighty Prince Vejita!" He said the last with a sort of sarcasm never heard come from his mouth once before. "Now I'm sorry that I want to keep my child from turning into an Ape. I'm sorry if I want to protect her from hurting others she loves if she turns into an Ape. Excuse me for ACTUALLY loving my daughter enough to go through this WHEN I WANT TO BE WISHING HER BACK HOME!"   
  
At that, Vejita had nothing to say in protest, at all. He couldn't argue with an angry father, especially if he knew, in his heart, that he would royally get his ass kicked. He knew that if he and Goku were reversed positions, if Bra were the one having this problem that he would be doing the same thing for her. But he would never tell anyone that. "Fine!"  
  
Satisfied that he had Vejita's attention, he settled down a bit. "Good. Now, the rest of you prepare for another attack." No one said or did anything. They weren't sure if they should. Nothing had happened before so they were sure that nothing would happen again. "Well?" He glared around the bunch. "Fine, if you don't want to help, I'll do it."  
  
"Father, I know you're concerned. I know you want to get this done fast so you can get back to the lookout, but we have to do this strategically. We can't just go rushing into this. We should think of a new way to do this."  
  
Goku could respect that, but he wasn't at the point of trying to think of new ways to destroy the moon. "We'll try the direct approach one more time. If it doesn't work, then we'll try something else."  
  
Piccolo and Gohan nodded. "Right." Vejita had nothing to say.  
  
"Go for continuous beams. All of our strength this time. No holding back." He particularly glared over to his son, who had a tendency to hold back when power was needed.   
  
The four got into position once again. Gohan decided to take charge this time. His father was in no condition to be the leader anymore. He was too flustered with other things to manage other people. "On three. Our biggest Ki waves for as long as we can hold them or until the moon blows. Got it?" The others nodded. He was more than happy to see that his father was somewhat relived that he didn't have to worry about controlling the attack this time.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Kami's Lookout~~  
  
The girls sat inside Kami's palace by order of the adults who were watching them. There had been two reasons for it. They didn't want Hotaru to be tempted to look up into the moon, plus, if another enemy were to attack, the didn't want to the girls in harms way. The girls had no complaints though. In fact, it had worked out for the better. They were unsupervised, meaning they could leave if they had to...  
  
Artimas walked out the door to see what was happening with the moon. He knew that it wouldn't be affected at all. Since Sailor Moon had awakened, her power would keep the moon out of harm. But he was quite amazed at what he saw out here. The adults were all standing on the edge of the lookout gawking over the spectacle that was surly attracting attention down on earth. Four different beams of energy were staying at a constant as they were reaching high up to the moon, which was covered with moon energy to protect it. 'They sure are persistent, but we mustn't have them wear down their energy like this. We may need them in case of another attack.' With that, Artimas turned around and walked back into Kami's palace, where the girls were impatiently waiting for his update of what was happening.   
  
Minako; "SO?! What's going on out there? Have they been able to destroy the moon yet, Artimas?"  
  
Artimas proudly shook his head. "No. They won't be able to since there is a layer of energy surrounding it. It won't be able to be destroyed with normal power. Sailor Pluto, or the Guardian of Time as you know her, must have known that they would try to blow up the moon. She must have encased it with a planetary shield of some sort."  
  
A smile cracked upon Makoto's face. "So that means the moon will stay safe. The moon Princess' home will stay alive."  
  
Artimas nodded. "Yes, but they are wasting their energy. If the enemy attacks you will all be helpless. They won't have any energy to fight and will most likely try to protect you instead of go all out in a fight. From what I've seen from these guys, they won't let you out of their sight, am I right?"  
  
Ami nodded. "Yes, they are very protective of their friends."  
  
"That means you won't be able to sneak away and transform into the Sailor Senshi to beat the monster. There will be many casualties."  
  
Rei; "So what are we supposed to do about it?"  
  
Artimas smirked. "You're going on your first mission as the Sailor Senshi. Two of you will transform and go to them. This is the perfect time for you to reveal yourselves. You should tell them that their efforts are of a good cause, so as of not to shoot them down, but that the moon will not be blown up by such power. That it's survival is essential to the existence of the Universe. It is the source of Sailor Moon's power."  
  
The girls looked around to each other in wonder. They had never thought of doing that. Artimas was right, they would be able to introduce themselves to Goku and get on his good side. They could become allies.   
  
Minako, who had seemed most satisfied with the plan, took the liberty to speak up first. "If we meet him and show him that we mean no harm, that we're on the side of good, maybe it will calm him down some."  
  
"Right. Minako, as acting leader, you should go."  
  
Minako nodded. "Ok, Artimas. Ami, why don't you come with me?"  
  
"Sure." Ami turned to her two remaining friends. "You two should make a diversion though. One of you stays with Hotaru to make sure none of the adults try to come in."  
  
Artimas smiled. 'She's on the right track.' "Yes, and the other should distract as many of the others as you can." The girls gave each other one last nod to show that they fully understood.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Tsukino Dimension~~  
  
Tsukino Usagi grabbed a slice of the Pizza that sat in front of her and shoved most of it in her mouth. "So, what do you think of that for a wish?" Son Usagi said nothing. She just sat there, with absolutely nothing to say. Her mind was much on other things.   
  
Son Usagi's silence worried Tsukino Usagi, though. With the sudden outburst of pain that had just taken place not ten minutes ago, Tsukino Usagi didn't want to take any chances. "Hey, kid. Did you hear me?" No answer. The only sign of life was the warm grin on her younger self's pain. "Why are you grinning?"  
  
Son Usagi smiled bright. "I feel all tingly inside."  
  
"Tingly?"   
  
Son Usagi nodded. "A really warm, caring tingly feeling." 'A warm love...'   
  
She widened her eyes, alarming Tsukino Usagi. "What?! What's wrong? Does it hurt again?"  
  
Son Usagi sighed as she looked down at the table. "No. It went away." She twirled her finger on the top of the table as she sipped on her soda. 'Wonder what it was...'  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son Dimension~~  
  
Tired and exhausted, Goku was the first to give into the pain that was created by pushing himself beyond his limits. As much as he hated to admit, he was going to have to call upon the power of another. One who was hopefully stronger than him and would get the job done.   
  
As he was discontinuing his attack, Goku motioned for his son to do the same. "This isn't going to work."  
  
Having known that it wasn't going to work from the beginning, Gohan gladly stopped. "I'm glad you've finally figured things out."  
  
Goku grinned, sending his son into a new level of fear. "Have I now?"  
  
Piccolo and Vejita, too, stopped their attack on the moon. Piccolo was probably the most surprised out of the entire group that the moon wasn't blowing. He had been able to do it so easily when Gohan was just a little boy, but now, it seemed almost impossible. "What do you have in mind?"  
  
Goku continued to grin as he dropped to the ground, leaving his comrades in a state of wonder and curiosity. 'This has got to work. It's just GOT TO!'  
  
Piccolo, Vejita, and Gohan were left to just stare at each other. They weren't sure if they wanted to know what was going through Goku's head at that point. Gohan was the most willing know learn of what was going to happen, though. "This is just like when we fought Cell, he's got to have an idea that is sure to work."  
  
"I have to give him that much, Gohan." Piccolo decreased his altitude a bit. "Let's check it out, guys."  
  
Vejita snickered as he, too, lowered himself. "I just want to get this over with so I can get to bed and start training to kick some enemy ass."  
  
Gohan rolled his eye as his feet landed on to the ground. He didn't waste anytime getting right to the point. "Father, what are you thinking?"  
  
Goku continued to grin as he approached Vejita, very slowly. "Vejita, will you dance with me?"   
  
That earned him a few shocked gasps from all around. But no one was more offended than Vejita, who was ready to slug Goku in the face. "What the HELL are you talking about?! Here you are, bitching about wanting to save your brat and YOU want to DANCE with ME!"  
  
Goku chuckled as he grabbed Vejita's arms and pulled him aside, making him somewhat uncomfortable. "Well, will you?"  
  
Vejita scowled at Goku's request. "I am NOT dancing with another man! ESPECIALLY YO...wait a minute! You mean THAT DANCING?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
From afar watched a dumbfounded Dende, Gohan, and Piccolo. Never in their life had they seen such displays of stupidity by the man who claimed to be the strongest man in the Universe.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku smirked. "Yes. THAT dancing."  
  
Vejita ripped himself away from Goku. "I told you in hell that I would NEVER perform that stupid dance with you EVER again!"   
  
Goku frowned. "But it's the only way."  
  
Vejita crossed his arms like a child and threw his head in the opposite direction of Goku. "Never. Find another way. You made us a fat idiot before. I won't do it again."  
  
"That was you. You were the one who did it wrong. You didn't extend your index finger while your other ones were pulled back. You made us the fat idiot."   
  
Vejita clenched his fists and growled at the thought of what the 'dancing' had turned him into. "Find another way."  
  
"I can't. This is the only way I know of. I would do the Dragon Fist, but I can't since the moon is in space."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Gohan looked up to Piccolo, who seemed to be as puzzled and lost as he was. "Piccolo, is this a bad time to be asking what in the hell they're talking about?"  
  
Dende interjected before his Namek friend had a chance to respond. "I remember this. They're talking about the Fusion Dance. Remember, Piccolo? You taught Goten and Trunks how to do it when Goku had to go back to the Afterlife. He didn't have a chance to teach them."  
  
Piccolo 'awed' in realization. "It's been so long. I totally forgot about that."  
  
Gohan smirked. "So did I. Remember Gotenks? That guy was so arrogant. I hope this guy isn't."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Vejita let out a loud growl as he stalked towards Goku. He reached out and grabbed him by the front of his GI. "I'll do it, but if you EVER dare to tell anyone that we did this, I'll be forced to show you what a real fighters is."  
  
Goku grinned. "That's all I ask." He quickly powered down to the same level as Vejita, Super Saiyan two. He didn't want to have anything unbalanced between them or else there might be a mishap with the fusion like there was the first time they had tried it against their enemy in hell.   
  
Vejita turned to the three spectators. "Turn around! All three of you! I'm not putting on a show here!" He looked over his shoulder to Goku, who was barely able to hold in his laughter. "Shut up Kakorotto! The thought of merging with you sickens me. You're lucky that I'm being so generous today."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Vejita and Goku quickly got into place. They stood, side by side with about two and a half feet between them. Their legs were slightly bent with the back of their heals together. Their arms were both extended to each of their lefts, towards each other. Goku nodded to begin.  
  
"FU..." The duo walked closer to each other, throwing their arms to their left and putting their right knees across their left, making sure that they were exactly lined up with each other. "SION..." At that point, they pulled their leg back down, extending their right legs/feet as far out to the right as they would go, while they threw their arms back towards each other and retracted every one of their fingers except for their index. "HA!"  
  
A glimmering shield caught the attention of Gohan. "Oh my GOD! There's an energy shield or something around the moon..."  
  
That was enough to distract Goku, so, instead of thinking of what he was meant to be doing, he got lazy with his form and pulled his leg in while he touched all fingers with both hand to Vejita's index... A bright golden light bubbled out from the newly formed Saiyan into the night, causing the area to become brightly lit. For those who could shelter their eyes, a short, plump shadow could be made out.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Not too far from there, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Venus were now flying towards their destination where they had felt the power levels of the adults. Little did they know what had been going on, that is, until they felt a large Ki arrive from out of no where, accompanied by the disappearance of Goku and Vejita's power levels.  
  
Sailor Venus was the first to stop in her tracks. She could still feel Gohan, Piccolo, and Dende's power level. "Do you think the enemy came and too them too?"  
  
Mercury stopped and turned back to her fellow Senshi. "That very well could be, Venus. The same thing that happened to Usagi may have happened to Vejita and Goku minus the hate energy."  
  
Venus frowned. "That's right. So it couldn't have been that. But, why does that new energy feel like all the other Saiyans around? It doesn't make sense. What's worse is that it feels a lot stronger than Goku's power level."  
  
Mercury began flying forward again with wonder. "That's true, it does feel a TON stronger than Goku. This could be bad. I wonder what it could be." She paused to see if her friend had anything to suggest as to what it might be. "Well there's really only one way to find out now isn't there?"  
  
Venus grinned. "That's the spirit!" The duo pulled up to their maximum power and took off in the direction in which the new power level had been formed.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, back at the site with the group that was meant to be blowing up the moon, Gohan, Piccolo, and Dende all found themselves open jawed at the new sight before them. Never in their life had they seen something so ridiculous, well, actually, there had been the time that Goten and Trunks had done the fusion wrong and turned into an old geezer, but that wasn't nearly as bad as compared to this.   
  
Before the trio stood one very powerful, very short, and very Plump Super Saiyan at level three. One minute had passed and nothing had really been said at all. They were trying to take in the moment and think about what they were going to say, or ask, or do. But after that minute passed, the trio did the only thing that they could think of doing, they dropped to the ground and laughed as hard and as loud as they could.  
  
The newly formed Super Saiyan glared down at the group. Said in the double voice of Goku and Vejita; "You dare to mock me?" That only responded in more laughter from the group.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury landed behind the group of their laughing friends. They had failed to take notice of the newcomer since they were trying to be inconspicuous about noise when they landed. They arrived in a pack of trees that surrounded the clearing where the others were.  
  
Venus frowned at the fighters. "What is this, a laughing-fest? Look at them? I thought they were serious about blowing up the moon."  
  
Mercury walked a bit closer to the group and nearly fell down laughing herself when she laid eyes on the plump Saiyan. "Venus LOOK! HAHAHAHAHAHA! That's the power we felt!"  
  
Venus looked at what her comrade was pointing at and nearly lost her footing. "NO WAY!"  
  
"HAHAHA...YES!"  
  
"AHH HAHAHAHAHAHA! That thing!?" The two grabbed their stomachs and fell down laughing.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The figure glared down the laughing group. "I am neither Vejita nor Goku anymore. I am Gojiita!"  



	106. Part 8

~*~*~*~  
  
So far, all hopes to destroy the moon had failed without exception. The group of fighters that were sent to destroy it had failed on all accounts except one, which was their last hope. Gojiita, as he called himself, was ready to do his job, as soon as his supposed allies stopped laughing at him.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The powerful, plump Super Saiyan, Gojiita, stood with his arms crossed, in front of the three fighters on the ground as they laughed at the top of their lungs. "Are you quite finished yet?" Before receiving an answer, his acute Saiyan hearing picked up the soft laughter of what sounded like two children not too far from where he was. "The enemy is here."  
  
At the sound of that, Gohan brought his laughter down to a slight chuckle as he looked upon the new fighter. "Wha...what?" He cursed himself for not being more alert, for letting himself get distracted over such a tedious thing.   
  
Gojiita ignored the younger Saiyan and began taking small steps towards the new arrival. "I can't feel them, why?"  
  
Piccolo stopped his laughter shortly after Gohan and Dende and stood back to his feet. "Do you think the enemy really was on the moon?"  
  
Dende concentrated his powers to where the laughter was coming from. He tried desperately to decipher where the power was as well as what it was meant to feel like. But to his dismay, he was unsuccessful. "That WOULD explain why the you weren't able to destroy it."  
  
Gojiita smirked. "I'll be able to destroy it as soon as I get rid of these enemies." He stopped at a bush and looked down to see the giggling Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Venus, feeling the new power level directly above her, stopped laughing and gulped. "Mercury...!" She whispered, though, she knew that this guy had to have heard it. He appeared to be a Saiyan.   
  
Mercury gulped after Venus and nervously turned her head to look up into the angry eyes of Gojiita. "Uhmmm...hi?"  
  
Minako, knowing all to well the rage of an angry Saiyan, stood up and brushed herself off. "We weren't...laughing at you...were we Mercury?"  
  
Mercury shook her head. "No! We would never laugh at a fine Saiyan like yourself." 'Oh gosh we're dead. This guy is serious.'  
  
Gojiita smirked. "Look what I found. A couple of little girls."  
  
Gohan rushed to his comrade's side and looked down at the girls. "Wait a minute, Gojiita, look at what they're wearing."  
  
Gojiita frowned. "A tutu and a few bows, so what."  
  
Piccolo joined the two Saiyans. "Are you the Sailor Senshi that saved five girls earlier?"  
  
Venus knew that was her cue to introduce themselves. She hoped that this guy was on the side of good so they wouldn't have to fight him. 'Ok, Minako. Don't call them by their names. Remember, you aren't supposed to know them.' With that little reminder to herself, she put on a smile and held her hand out. "That would be us, sir. I am Sailor Venus and this is one of my partners here, Sailor Mercury."   
  
Piccolo eyed the two girls with caution. He wanted to make sure that they could be trusted, though, they HAD saved the girls earlier so they couldn't be all that bad. He extended his hand and met with Venus'. "What side are you on?"  
  
Gojiita frowned at the question. "Just get right to the point, don't you?"  
  
Piccolo growled. "Go do your job before your half hour is up."  
  
Gojiita grumbled to himself as he turned around and waddled to his position. He didn't dare try to fly as he remembered what happened the last time he had tried it against the monster in hell. 'Always using me for the dirty work.'  
  
Gohan couldn't help but let out more laughter as the smaller fighter passed by him. 'Vejita is going to have a fit when they split again.'   
  
Piccolo continued to look down at the two new fighters. He was rather annoyed that he couldn't feel them. "SO?" He let his frustration show in this single word.  
  
Venus jumped back a bit. She knew better than to argue back. She didn't want to get off to a bad start with them or else it could start a war between the two groups. "Yes, sir. We are in fact on your side. We were sent here to destroy a terrible Queen, who goes by the name of Beryl. We are here, now, to urge you NOT to destroy the moon."  
  
Gohan quirked an eyebrow in interest. "And why shouldn't we destroy the moon? It will cause more trouble than that queen, we guarantee it. We have two Saiyans on this planet who will turn into giant apes at the sight of the full moon."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The lone Saiyan, Gojiita, pulled his hands as far to his side as possible. "KAMEHAMEHA!" With a Greater power than the combined power of Vejita, Goku, Piccolo, and Gohan combined, Gojiita shot a powerful Kamehameha wave up at the moon.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mercury jumped out towards the Saiyan fighter to try and stop him, but soon found herself being blocked by Dende. "Hey! That guy is going to blow up the moon!"  
  
Piccolo gently grabbed the girl's shoulder and pulled her back. He knew better than to be rough with someone he knew nothing about, as well as not knowing what kind of power level the person held. "It's for the best."  
  
Venus remembered what Artimas had told her to tell them about the moon. "Please. Don't blow up the moon. It is the source of our Princess' power. She is the only one who will be able to destroy Beryl. If you blow up the moon, you kill any chance of beating her."  
  
Mercury pulled away from Piccolo with a frown. "Yes. It is essential to keep the moon in place. If our Princess is unable to beat Beryl, she will take over the entire Universe with her hate power. As well, it may injure or even kill our Princess."  
  
Gohan was about as skeptical about these girls as Piccolo and Dende were. "So there is NO enemy on the moon, right?"  
  
Venus shook her head. "No."  
  
Dende; "Then why is there a shield of power around it?"  
  
Mercury and Venus looked at each other in question. They didn't exactly know, but they had a pretty good hunch of what it could have been. Mercury took the first opportunity to answer. "It is working as one with the Princess to protect itself."  
  
Gohan began to put two and two together after hearing that. 'Working as one...?' "Are you saying that this moon is alive?"  
  
Again, the two girls looked to each other for answers. Venus was lost at that point. She had no idea where her friend was going with things, nor did she know where she herself would be able to take it. "Well..."  
  
"Sort of. All existence is life in some form, but the Moon is special. Like we said, it is the source of our Princess AND leader's power, she is eternally bonded to it, and it to her." Mercury frowned as this knowledge suddenly emerged from her mind, wondering where it had come from.  
  
Piccolo groaned. He hated so much to be put into these kinds of positions. It was either chose between saving a supposed Princess, or the two girls who could destroy the world in one night and not even know it. Of course, there was always the option of cutting off their tails. "Gohan, do you think your dad would cut off your sister's tail?"  
  
Gohan nearly face vaulted at that question. "What are you talking about, Piccolo? We're trying to destroy the moon so we don't have to do that. Dad doesn't want to cut off her tail nor does he want to cut off Hotaru's tail. Do you know how devastating that would be for them?"  
  
Piccolo continued to look into the Senshis' eyes, seeing that they were serious. "These girls say that their Princess will lose all her power and maybe her life if we destroy the moon. It sounds like their Princess could be a great help to us. What would be worse, losing your power or cutting off a couple of tails?" Piccolo looked over his shoulder to his best friend.  
  
Gohan groaned in exasperation. He didn't know what to do. It wasn't his choice to call, it was the choice of one, his father. After all, it had been made clear to him that any big decision regarding his sister was in the hands of their parents, and their parents only. "I can't say, Piccolo. We're going to have to wait until dad and Vejita defuse before we can make any final words."   
  
Piccolo nodded. That seemed reasonable. After all, it would only be about twenty more minutes before Gojiita would become two people again. "Ok, we wait until they come apart."  
  
Venus and Mercury were somewhat confused at that point. Mercury; "Come apart?"  
  
Gohan chuckled. "Yes. My father and 'friend', Vejita, decided to perform the fusion dance to become a stronger Saiyan in hopes to destroy the moon."  
  
Venus and Mercury turned to look at each other in awe. They had never seen the outcome of a fusion before, though they had heard a lot about it from Trunks and Goten.   
  
Venus; "Why is he so fat?"  
  
Piccolo laughed. "One of them must have screwed up the fusion." The five who were there began laughing at the sight of their friend again.   
  
Venus hopped to and figured that she had better stop Gojiita before he actually got through to the moon. "Hey! Gojiita person! Stop your attack at once!" She put her hands on her waste when he turned his head and frowned at her. "Come on! Don't be difficult!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Kami's Lookout~~  
  
Rei stood with the adults, who were gazing upon Gojiita's blast to the moon. She crossed her fingers and hoped that her friends were able to stop it in time. It would be a catastrophe if they hadn't. 'Come on girls. Hurry up.'  
  
Beside her, stood Artimas, who had the same thoughts as her. 'If the moon blows all hope is gone. The queen won't have enough power to regenerate everything. She used all her energy as it is. It's all in the hands of the Senshi.'  
  
Yamcha took notice of Rei and frowned. "Shouldn't you be with your friends?"  
  
"I'm not the one who isn't allowed to look at the moon."  
  
Tienshin-han frowned down at the mouthy child. "Speaking of, shouldn't we be checking on the others to see if they need anything? I mean, it's getting late, maybe they're hungry or something."  
  
Rei's eyes went wide at the thought. 'This could blow our cover. They didn't feel the other girls leaving or anything. Uh-oh, quick, Rei. Think of something. You're supposed to be the diverter here now think of a diversion.' "Uh, erm... what if the enemy attacks again?"  
  
Yamcha, who was already making his way back to the Palace, turned back and looked at Rei, who seemed concerned all of a sudden. "Don't worry, we'll protect you."  
  
'Crud! Now what? I can't raise my power level to link with the girls!' "What if they attack earth? Our families are there! While we're here, they could be hurt! We don't even know if the enemy is down there." She began trembling at the thought of losing her grandfather to the enemy. She knew that she couldn't just go and teleport down to help. The adults wouldn't have it.   
  
The adults exchanged a few worried glances and nodded. Krillin looked down at Rei. "We'll go get your families as long as you promise to keep Hotaru from looking at the moon and stay in the Palace."  
  
Rei nodded with a smile. "Sure."  
  
All of a sudden at that moment, the beam of light that had been traveling up to the moon had vanished. The power level that had been creating it had lowered as well.   
  
18; "Looks like they're going to try another way again. I wish they'd just hurry up and find a way to kill it off."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Tsukino Dimension~~  
  
Capsule Corp...  
  
Sailor Mercury and Sailor Jupiter had arrived at Capsule Corp. not three hours after they set out, but they had been force to wait for Trunks to come out from a meeting, which he had about five hours later. He had been in conference with some the owners of some of the largest companies in the world. But that was not of any importance to him. He had in fact felt Usagi's power when she fought Tuxedo Kamen and the other Senshi, though he couldn't feel the Senshi. He would have been right there with them fighting the enemy except he had promised his mother to stay on task and stay in the meeting.  
  
Now, he emerged from his meeting room to be greeted by the two Sailor Senshi who had come to retrieve him. He had heard rumors of them, and seen the aftermath of some of the battles, but had never encountered either them or the enemies that they had fought. But what little he did find out, had clearly shown them to be allies to the forces of good.   
  
"Hello, ladies. What's the problem?"  
  
Jupiter got right down to business. "No problem, really. More of an interesting situation that you are sort of involved in."  
  
Trunks soon became confused by her answer. "Me? Involved in? I haven't fought an enemy in so many years, how can I be involved in something?"  
  
Jupiter grinned. "Why don't we go back to Tokyo with us and we'll let someone else explain."  
  
Trunks smirked. He was overly curious as to what he could possibly be involved with. "Ok. Let me just go get a couple of people and we can be on our way. Do you guys want a ride?"  
  
Jupiter blushed. "Of course we do..."   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Crown Arcade~~  
  
Three hours after Son Usagi had felt the attacks on her dimension's moon, an exhausted Princess duo finally emerged from the arcade with a large packet of paper. The looked around to their fellow Senshi, their friends. They couldn't wait to let them know what they had wished, though, part of them wanted to keep it a secret until it was finally time to make the wish.  
  
Minako; "So? What did you come up with?" She clasped her hands together in front of her mouth and awaited an answer.  
  
Rei's eyes traveled down to the papers that Tsukino Usagi held in her hands and frowned. "Please tell me you didn't make a stupid wish."  
  
Chibi-Usa walked to the two Usagi's and tried to take a peek at what was on the papers, though found Tsukino Usagi holding them too close to see anything of use. "Did you figure out what you wanted? Did you figure out a way to save the Multiverse?"   
  
All made their fears known to the tired pair, until Pluto had had enough. "Enough. Let them be. They have decided the path and when the time is right, they will let you know what they have come up with. Let them be, we still have much to do before we can even think about going to Namek."  
  
Son Usagi grinned. "Yeah, we still have to talk to Trunks." 'I can't wait to see the look on his face when he finds out who I am. This is going to be great. I'm going to finally be able to thank him for saving dad.'  
  
Haruka, the most impatient, frowned. "Ami and Makoto haven't been back yet. I wonder what's taking so long. I know that Tokyo isn't that far from Capsule Corp. It shouldn't have taken this long."  
  
Son Usagi continued to grin. "They'll be here soon. I felt them leave Capsule Corp. about ten minutes ago."   
  
Pluto gasped. "Then you all had better transform fast. We can't let him know who we really are. Hurry girls."  
  
Son Usagi; "I don't have to, do I?"  
  
The Senshi, now transformed, looked around to each other in question. If she didn't transform, then Sailor Moon's identity would be revealed. There would be no point to conceal anything anymore. Pluto weighed the odds in her head, coming up with her decision. "No, you don't. But we had still better. He knows us as the Sailor Senshi and will see you as a friend if you're with us."  
  
Son Usagi looked up and down at the girls' uniforms as they stood before her, once again, as the Sailor Senshi. Before, she hadn't really taken the time to examine them since she was too busy fighting, but now she realized how ridiculous they really did look, but she would never say that to them. The looked much too proud of them to knock them down like that. 'I wonder if they ever question their uniforms.' "Hey, um, don't those heals make fighting hard? And don't those arm sleeves make it kind of hard to move in? And don't you lose those sticks and brooches at all? And that bow in the back, couldn't someone just grab it?"  
  
Mars took the first opportunity to reply for she had often thought about that. "Yes. On several occasions the transformation devices have been taken. Usagi most of all, with it just resting on her chest like that. The enemy has grabbed it and ripped it away, causing her to detransform."  
  
Frowning, Eternal Moon stuck out her tongue at he friend and fellow Senshi. "Hey, I didn't make it into a brooch you know. And if I remember right, a few of you, as in all of you, had the same problem."   
  
A few embarrassed coughs followed that, but no one actually said anything. They hated it when Usagi pointed that out. Rei continued though. "Plus, there have been a few injuries because of the lack of protection of the Uniform. It's not thick enough and rips very easily. And the bow HAS been used against us in the past."  
  
Venus lifted her ankle and rubbed it. "And don't get us started on these heels. God, if I could get my hands on the jerk that made these, you Moon's have it easy with your boots. You have short heals."  
  
Son Usagi was happy that she wasn't the ONLY one who didn't approve of the uniform. She wondered how her friends back home were reacting to them as well. "Well, can't you just change them somehow?"  
  
Tsukino Luna shook her head back and forth. "This is the traditional uniform of the Sailor Senshi. It can't be altered."  
  
An uncomfortable silence fell upon the group as they waited for Trunks, Jupiter, and Mercury to come back. It was taking forever and Son Usagi wasn't even sure what was taking them. He felt him flying to two different places, though she couldn't figure out where they were. But, whatever happened, happened.   
  
Then she thought of something else that she had found humorous about these Sailor Senshi people. "When Chibi-Moon arrived, what was with all that hand thingys and speeches? That just gives an enemy time to prepare."   
  
All but one of the Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen buried their faces in embarrassment, the only one grinning was Sailor Moon. "Kiddo, you have a lot to learn about fighting monsters sent by Beryl. Now, not all enemies you fight will have this true, but in fights with Beryl, those sill hand movements and speeches are an essential part of all battles."   
  
Tsukino Luna growled at that and attempted to correct her as fast as possible. She didn't want this new Sailor Moon to be misled. "NO, it's not. It's just a silly hand thing that they all insist on doing, despite my training."  
  
Moon was angered by her adviser's obvious lie, since that had never been mentioned to her. She turned to correct her and caught sight of all her fellow Senshi, including Pluto and Tuxedo Kamen looking quite embarrassed. It was at that moment that she realized that they DID think it was all pointless. And if they thought it was, it must have been since she always seemed to be clueless with things like this, to them anyway. "What? You mean to tell me that we do all those silly entrances without a reason?"  
  
Mars was quick to become annoyed. "Well com'on, Usagi, there isn't a good reason to."  
  
Tsukino Luna nodded. "True, you just don't understand the value of stealth."  
  
Moon became angrier at the thought of doing something that silly for no reason. After all, she had started her first attack with a speech, her instincts had kicked in and she felt it was the best option. It didn't make sense. There had to be a reason to do it otherwise she would have found herself losing a lot more battles than she had. They hadn't steered her wrong yet. Then it hit her, the reason why they should do it. It was obvious if you thought about it hard enough. She turned to her younger self with a smirk. "Kid, lesson two. When fighting a monster from Beryl, always make a dramatic entrance, with hand motion's and corny speeches."  
  
Mars was very nearly ready to protest that when Moon cut her off, on purpose. "First off, these guys are idiots. But they are powerful idiots. They drain energy from humans. The REASON why you make and entrance instead of just attacking straight out is to confuse them. If you attack while they're draining a human, the backlash from the energy could kill them. But, like I said, they're idiots and you can all agree with me on that one." That earned her nods all around. "Confuse them with your entrance, and you do two important things. First, they can't concentrate on two things at once, and automatically drop the energy link because for some odd reason they are more fascinated with what you're doing than their job. Second, while they're focusing on you, someone else can lead them away from the victims."  
  
Son Usagi now respected the corny entrances and hand movements. She now understood what they were there for, but still didn't understand the uniforms. "I'll remember to tell the girls back home that."  
  
Mars had almost nothing to say, and what she did have to say wasn't a protest. "Usagi, are you feeling alright? You seem unusually smart today."  
  
Moon laughed. "I told you. It's all in the comics, as well as thinking back to when we fought Beryl and her people."  
  
Chibi-Moon giggled. "I always wondered why mommy told me to follow your example, instead of Luna's for ideas of entrances."  
  
Tsukino Luna ducked her head at that.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Ten minutes later, Son Usagi felt not three, but five power level fast approaching their destination. She knew exactly who the first three were, but the other two were what baffled her. They felt pretty familiar, but there was something about them that were much, MUCH different. The power levels of these two seemed too strong to be who she thought it was. Though, the Trunks of this time seemed to have a stronger power level than the Trunks of her own time line. She figured that it was just the fact that this Trunks had been through so much more than her Trunks. "They're here." She stated as turned around to see five figures standing across the street. She didn't get a very good look at the two guests as a long semi-truck came barreling through threw the area and when it was gone, she found herself being pulled aside by Sailor Uranus and Neptune while Pluto walked to Trunks. "Hey."  
  
Uranus looked down and shushed the child with a chuckle. "Quiet down for a sec. Pluto is going to introduce you first." Usagi shut her mouth with nothing to say in protest. It was a reasonable request.  
  
Pluto greeted the trio with a smile. "Hello, Trunks. It was smart of you to bring these two with you." She said as she looked upon the two women at his side. They were the three remaining survivors of the Z-team of the androids' attack. Staring at him, she had found herself thinking, 'Damn, he's cute. Nice butt too.' This shocked her to no end, she never looked at anyone's rear before, even if his was cute.  
  
Trunks smiled back.."We are happy to help in any way. My friends and I have heard and seen much on how you and the rest of the Senshi have aided Earth against foes we couldn't even sense. But what is this we hear of that I may be involved with our new disturbance?" He moved his head to the side in hopes to see past the Guardian of Time back to a struggling child in the hands of Neptune and Uranus. 'How odd. She feels familiar in more than just one way...'  
  
Pluto put her hand around Trunks' chin and guided his vision back on to her. "We have someone here that wants to talk to you. She also asks of your help."  
  
Trunks' face change to that of a confused being. "She wants to talk to me? This isn't one of those 'look it's Trunks. He save the world now I want to meet him,' is it?"  
  
Pluto chuckled. "No."  
  
Trunks' eye caught sight of a long slender golden item wagging behind the child's legs. "What the..." He grabbed his mother, who he had brought with him, and pointed at the child. "Look. She's got a tail I think."  
  
Bulma squinted to see at a longer distance and squealed. "It IS a tail! It's just like Goku's, except gold!"  
  
Trunks widened his eyes at the thought of his old friend. "What's going on, Pluto? How can there be another Saiyan? I'm the only one with Saiyan blood left in this Universe."  
  
Pluto grinned. "In this Universe...is correct."  
  
Trunks scratched his head. "Huh?"  
  
Son Usagi looked over to the trio that had arrived with Jupiter and Mercury. This time, she actually got a good look at the two women he had brought. It appeared to be Bulma and Chi-Chi. That did it. Seeing her mother brought back the memories of being taken from home. She remembered all too well the fear she saw in her mother's eyes. She remembered her own fear. She let her memories and emotions take over her senses as she unconsciously raised her power level just enough to rip free from Neptune and Uranus' hold.   
  
"MOMMY!" She cried out as she launched herself into Chi-Chi's arms.   
  
Trunks and Bulma jumped away from the supposed Saiyan child as she refused to let go of her strangle hold on the flabbergasted Chi-Chi. They paid special attention to the tail that was happily waving back and forth behind her legs.  
  
"Mommy?" Thinking the only thing that she could, Bulma glared at her Chi-Chi, and then her son. There was only one way that Chi-Chi could have another Saiyan child. "Chi-Chi, is there anything that you would like to tell me?" She crossed her arms. "Or maybe you, Trunks." Trunks gulped at the glare that he received from his mother.  
  
Son Usagi wasn't paying any attention to the gasps that were taking place around her. She didn't care. The only thing that she cared about was that she was once again in her mother's arms.  
  
Chi-Chi growled as she powered up to her highest form. "Get off!" She wrapped her hands around the child's arms and ruthlessly ripped her off and pushed her away. "My only son and husband are dead. I have no kids!"  
  
Bulma's jaw dropped. "What?"   
  
That was enough to bring tears into Son Usagi's eyes. "What? But Mommy...?" Her body began to tremble with fear.  
  
Chi-Chi snarled louder. "I'm NOT your mother! Stop calling me that!" Normally, Chi-Chi wouldn't have been so heartless, but this child was a Saiyan, like her husband and son. And now, this child was claiming to be her daughter, it was insane. There was no way that she could have been her mother.  
  
Son Usagi burst out with tears and loud wailing at the rejection that she was receiving, convincing all the Senshi that she was indeed Usagi's counter part. After missing her so much, she had dropped her senses and let herself act like an idiot. She knew very well that she wasn't her mother, but she couldn't help it. Her family was the only thing that could make her go weak, and when they even refused to accept her, even if it was in another dimension, that's when she lost it. She couldn't handle it. "But...But..." She saw the sincerity of the anger in Chi-Chi's eyes and couldn't handle it anymore. She couldn't just stand there and receive such harsh treatment, even if this Chi-Chi didn't understand. She powered up and flew away in no particular direction.   
  
Chi-Chi frowned at the tears that she saw in the child's eyes. Seeing them made her rethink her decision. She hadn't meant to make her so upset, but she herself was upset as well. "What's going on?"   
  
  
(I am SO sorry that it has taken this long to get this chapter out, but With stupid homework every single night since the first day, and I'm not talking tedious work here, I'm talking five to six hours a week, and then you know what that results in... less chapters. I'm trying to write as much as possible in the little spare time that I am given, so please be patient, I am trying to get the chapters done mainly on the weekends now, though I am hoping that things will slow down.... Till next time CYA! )   
  



	107. Part 9

~*~*~*~  
  
Things were going great in the Tsukino Dimension. The two Usagi's had finally finished with their wish list and were ready to leave for Namek. The only thing stopping them was waiting for Trunks to arrive back with Sailors Jupiter and Mercury. But the smooth way things were going soon changed when Trunks arrived with two unexpected guests.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son Dimension~~  
  
Though things had pretty much gone according to plan in the Tsukino dimension, nothing had really happened in the Son dimension. All attempts to blow up the moon had failed. Even Gojiita wasn't able to blow it up. The Senshi seemed to have a complaint about even trying to blow it up in the fist place, as well.  
Sighing, Pluto frowned to herself. So far, the only thing that was going right was the search for the Dragon Balls.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Down at the site where the blowing of the moon was meant to take place, Gojiita's half hour was pretty much up. He had ten seconds left on the clock before he would cease to exist and once again become Goku and Vejita. The entire group knew that they were in for a giant yelling-fest on Vejita's part.   
  
Gohan, Piccolo, Dende, and the two Sailor Senshi present at the site watched their plump ally as he waved good-bye. The process was fast and painless. As soon as Gojiita dropped his hand back down to his side, a white light appeared down the middle and two figures jumped to the side. In a split second, the body of Gojiita was gone, leaving Goku and an angry Vejita.   
  
"Damn you, Kakorotto!"  
  
Goku scratched his head. "I wonder what could have gone wrong that time."  
  
Vejita threw a bright blue Ki blast at Goku, who easily jumped over it. "How dare you make me run around like that idiot again! I did that stupid dance exactly how you told me to and we STILL got that fat form!"   
  
Goku sighed as he tried to think of what could have gone wrong. He replayed the occurrences right before he and Vejita had merged. Things were going great until Gohan said something about the moon and distracted him. He got a big goofy grin on his face and turned to Vejita. "It must have been me who messed it up this time, Vejita."  
  
Vejita grew angrier with every word spoken by his comrade. "Ka-ko-ro-TTO!"  
  
Seeing Vejita's anger and knowing very well what could become of it, Gohan ran to his father and pulled him aside. "Remember, dad? We're not supposed to be making him mad."  
  
Goku grinned. "Everything makes him mad."  
  
Piccolo growled at Vejita when he advanced towards Goku and Gohan. "Let's get down to business."  
  
Goku perked his head towards Vejita at the sound of that. Getting down to business mean getting back to Kami's lookout so he could use the Dragon Balls to get his daughter back home, where she belonged. Though, the sky seemed too brightly lit still, so he looked up and what did he see still in the sky? The moon, shining just as bright as ever. "Gojiita failed us?"  
  
Venus took that opportunity to start speaking. "No, sir. We stopped him from making a big mistake."  
  
"Big mis..." Goku paused mid-sentence when he realized that what sounded like a little girl was speaking to him. He knew that there was only one explanation for that. He quickly turned around to be face to face with two of the four Sailor Senshi of earth. "You're the Sailor Senshi, correct?"  
  
Venus nodded with a smile. "Yes. Allow us to introduce ourselves. I am Sailor Venus, and my partner here is Sailor Mercury."  
  
Mercury slightly bowed with a smile. "Pleased to meet you."  
  
Goku found himself smiling, but for a totally different reason than being polite. Inside, he was laughing at the getups that these girls were wearing. How anyone could fight in them, he had no idea. "Thank you for saving the girls tonight."  
  
Vejita frowned. "Kakorotto, if you believe that these scrawny little twits could have done any type of fighting, you're even more of an idiot than I thought." That earned him a glare from Gohan, but he didn't care.  
  
Goku ignored Vejita. "Tell me, why would we be making a mistake by destroying the moon?"  
  
Before either of the girls had a chance to tell him, Piccolo intervened. "Let me tell him, I want to make sure I fully understand this before we make our decision."  
  
Goku became quite curious. "Decision?"  
  
Piccolo ignored that and went on to explaining their situation. "These Senshi have a Princess who is pretty much one with the moon. As far as we know, she is the only one who will be able to beat this new threat, meaning, we destroy the moon, we destroy the Princess. We destroy the Princess, we destroy our chances of living here on earth." He looked over to the Senshi with a sly smirk. "Did I get it right?"  
  
Mercury blankly stared at Piccolo and slowly nodded. "As bluntly as you could."  
  
Smiling, Piccolo turned his smirk into a grin. "Good." He turned back to Goku, who seemed to be lost in his thoughts again. "So...?"  
  
Gohan gulped when he saw the worried look on his father's face. "Father, that means..."  
  
Goku interrupted his son. He knew more than well what that meant, but he refused to admit it. "We have no choice, we must destroy the moon."   
  
Vejita crossed his arms with his usual smirk on his face. "Kakorotto, you? Not being fair to all parties of this situation? I can't believe it."  
  
"Father, there is another choice and you know it. We're not trying to make this harder on you, but it's the truth. We're talking about someone's power here, someone's life."  
  
Goku frowned at his son. "I know what we're talking about, Gohan. I know the consequences. Do you honestly think that I want to make a Princess lose her power? But do you think that Usagi wants to lose her tail, because that's what this is going to come down to if we can't destroy the moon." He turned to look down at the two Senshi before him with a pale face. This night was wearing him down entirely too much.  
  
Dende had listened to enough. He had weighed the outcomes of both situations in his mind and only one seemed stick out as a good decision to make. "With all due respect, Goku, I think that we should leave the moon alone and just cut off Usagi's tail. What's worse? Killing someone to save a tail, or cutting off the tail to save someone?"  
  
Goku couldn't argue with that one. It was true. Cutting off a tail to save someone was, in fact, more humane than killing someone. "I...I'm not..."  
  
Piccolo could hear the hesitation in Goku's voice. That hesitation could only mean one thing. He was still debating on whether or not he wanted to cut the tail or destroy the moon. He needed something to boost his confidence in their plan, and he knew exactly how to do it. "Let's face it, Goku! Without the moon we're dead! We need the Princess' help and you know it! The moon is just going to have to stay!"  
  
Goku glared up at Piccolo's frowning face. He couldn't believe that it had come to this. He couldn't believe that Piccolo was doing this, either. "I WILL NOT CUT MY DAUGHTER'S TAIL OFF!"  
  
Piccolo narrowed his eyes at the stubborn Goku. "Then she will do exactly what you did, kill loved ones!"   
  
Goku dropped his glare and widened his eyes at Piccolo's lack of respect. He hadn't meant to kill his grandfather. It was an accident. He knew nothing of what he was doing while. But here Piccolo was, holding it against him. It was bad enough that he beat himself up about it almost every day, but to have one of his supposed friends use it against him was just intolerable.   
  
Goku couldn't handle it anymore. Staying with these people just made his blood boil. Not because they were against his decision, but because what they said was true. He quickly powered himself up and took off into the night, not telling anyone where he was headed off to.  
  
Gohan took a step towards his father as he too powered up. "Fath..."  
  
Piccolo placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Leave him be. He's going to have to come up with his decision by himself. Have faith in him. He's never steered us wrong before."  
  
Vejita snickered as he crossed his arms. "That went well."  
  
Gohan gently ripped himself away from Piccolo and turned around to scowl at Vejita. In one quick second, he raised his power to his Mystic level and Punch Vejita in the nose, causing him to fall backwards with both pain and a loss of energy.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Tsukino Dimension~~  
  
A group of worried patrons watched as Chi-Chi stormed back and forth in the middle of the street. She was waiting for a response from any one from the group to explain what in the world was going on. She wanted to know why that child acted the way she had. "I want answers and I want them now." She held her head in a way that would allow her to look down upon the Senshi. "Well?"  
  
Pluto backed away from the enraged women. She was nervous about being close, as she didn't want to risk being lashed out at, but she also knew that this problem needed to be fixed as soon as possible. If it were not, then it this one problem alone could affect Usagi's behavior towards the Multiverse. "You just made one of the worse mistakes that you could have."  
Tsukino Usagi had tears of her own in her eyes. She knew what it was like to be rejected by those she loved. She knew that it wasn't the best feeling in the world. "Pluto, we have to get her back."  
  
Pluto gently nodded. "I know, but it will have to be Chi-Chi to bring her back. I highly doubt that she will respond correctly if anyone else tries."  
  
Chi-Chi stopped her pacing and frowned at the woman before her. "Why should I? I don't have a daughter."  
  
Trunks was more calm and understanding about the situation, after the initial shock had worn in, that is. He had sensed something strange about her, something that was eerily familiar. "Chi-Chi, I think you should go like she says. You were a bit on the harsh side. You should at least apologize to her."  
  
Chi-Chi was shocked at his response. "And just what are you talking about? She hurt me. She should be the one apologizing to me. After all these years of not having anyone to share my love with, of not having a child, she comes here and acts like she's mine. She brought back all the pain, the horrible memories back."  
  
Trunks sympathetically looked up to Pluto. He had a pretty good hunch as to who this child could have been. "What happened?"  
  
Pluto sighed. "Before I explain that, Chi-Chi, you really do need to go and talk to the child."  
  
Chi-Chi refused to say anything. She had nothing that she wanted to say to the girl. She knew that she would probably just end up going off again anyway.   
  
Sailor Moon made her way to the upset women and placed her hand on her arm. "She's a young child away from her family with more pressure on her than any of us. Do you really want to hurt her?"  
  
Chi-Chi quietly gasped. She hadn't wanted to hurt the poor girl, but she was positive that she would be accused of being her mother, when she clearly was not. Saying nothing, she powered up and took off into the air. 'I'll try my best, but the first time she calls me her mother... I'm outta there. I don't know how much I of this I can handle.' She flew in the direction that the power of the girl was coming from. Surprisingly, it was coming from a lake near her home.  
  
Trunks and Bulma were left to wonder about the young girl, who she was, where she came from, who she belonged to, why she claimed Chi-Chi as her mother. They were all valid questions, and very answerable.   
  
Pluto turned to Trunks and spoke up before he had any kind of question was able to come from him. "Trunks, do you remember when you went into the past?"  
  
The questions that were racing through Trunks' mind at that moment came to a complete halt at the mentioning of the past. "Y...yes."  
  
Pluto smiled. "Good. Do you know how many lives you changed because of your visit?" Trunks nodded, unable to say anything. Pluto giggled. "As you have probably guessed, she is not from this time. She is from the past. The same very past that you went to. The alternate dimension that you helped create."  
  
Bulma's eyes widened to their fullest. "What are you saying, that she's the daughter of one of the Saiyans there? The only Saiyan there that would make Chi-Chi her mother would be..." She was too shocked to even go on.  
  
Trunks grew pale. "Goku." His eyes slowly and nervously made their way up to the face of Pluto. "But Goku died saving Gohan from Cell. He died while transporting him elsewhere."  
  
"I know that, Trunks. But someone gave their life to him during an attack on earth, seven years later. You are correct, he is the father of this child, and Chi-Chi is her mother. She is part Saiyan, which explains her tail."  
  
Trunks lowered his head as he thought about their situation. 'Goku's alive in the other dimension? This is amazing.' "I knew I had felt her power somewhere before. I just couldn't put my finger on it."  
  
Bulma was still trying to get over the shock that the girl was from the other dimension, let alone the fact that Goku and Chi-Chi were her parents. "Why is she here then?"  
  
"Now, you need her to help you guys. With her help, and our Princess' help we will be able to ensure that the Multiverse is not destroyed."  
  
Trunks shot a look up at Pluto. "Wait, why would the Multiverse or whatever be in trouble?"  
  
Pluto gulped at his sudden urge to ask that question. She knew she couldn't hide it from him. He did have a right to know, being the savior of earth and all. ' Why does he have to be so cute too? Dang,. "Trunks, that girl, Usagi, was not supposed to be born to your friends Goku and Chi-Chi. She was supposed to be born to the Tsukino's. But since she was born to the Son's, and not the Tsukino's, there was controversy in the Multiverse, that is all I can explain for now. That is all that I am allowed to explain." Trunks and his mother shared a look of confusion.  
  
Bulma; "Why was she born to Goku and Chi-Chi in that dimension?"  
  
Pluto grinned. "That I can answer. I guess it's safe to tell you that she is the Sailor Moon of her dimension. The Sailor Moon of this dimension isn't as strong as she should be, and needs to be, to use her powers. With Saiyan DNA, she was made to be stronger. But we couldn't have just any Saiyan DNA for her. We had to have Goku's since it was so pure. The Pluto of that Dimension knew that he would train her well in the art of fighting if given a reason, as well as be a great father to her. Chi-Chi would make sure she was taken care of and make sure she got the education she needed as well as show her love and compassion."  
  
Bulma frowned. "So you guys just used them to birth your Sailor Moon? They aren't really her parents?"  
  
Pluto frowned at such an outrageous accusation. "No. They are very much her parents in every way. She was reborn unto them, and their DNA was merged with hers to form her souls new form with the power of Moon, Human, and Saiyan. But thye still raised her, loved her, taught her..She is built with their DNA, she just also has the power of the Moon in her as well. But this is all I can tell you. The reasons are obvious, but everything else must be kept a tight secret. I am sorry."  
  
Trunks; 'That still doesn't explain everything. What is she hiding?' "How did she get here? By time machine?"   
  
Pluto shook her head. "No. She was kidnapped by Beryl, her first enemy as Sailor Moon. She readily escaped her lair and was brought here, though not by mistake."  
  
Bulma wanted to cry after hearing that. 'No wonder why she was so happy to see Chi-Chi.' "If she's their kid, why does she have blonde hair?"  
  
Moon interrupted before anything else was said. "She's me, that's why. I have blonde hair, she has blonde hair. It's as simple as that."  
  
Trunks frowned. "All Saiyans have black hair unless their parents have a different gene color for hair. And the only way you could get that is if they breed with another species. Even though Goku did that, Chi-Chi too has black hair."  
  
Pluto smirked. "Trunks, you've heard of a Super Saiyan, right?"   
  
Trunks nodded, not knowing where that fit in, and then it hit him. "Oh, ok, I think I understand."  
  
Sailor Moon was a bit more blunt. "You mean he had sex with his wife when he was a Super Saiyan?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
When Chi-Chi finally caught up to Usagi, she saw her crying on a rock by herself. 'Poor kid. She must really miss her family. But what am I supposed to do about it? I miss my family too, but you learn to get over it.' She walked a little closer, ready to tell her just that, but stopped again. 'How can I tell that to such a young child? She doesn't know the workings of life.' She started walking forward again and noticed the tail that wrapped around the girl's ankles. 'A Saiyan... who could her parents be. She has to be Trunks' daughter, that's the only possible answer, but he doesn't have a wife...as far as I know...'  
  
Usagi glanced over her shoulder at the woman who was slowly approaching her. She could tell that she was trying to be inconspicuous about her presence, but when dealing with a Saiyan, or even a Demi-Saiyan, there is no way to hide any type of sound. "I know you're there. You don't have to try to be sneaky."  
  
Chi-Chi froze in her place and gasped. It had been so long since she lived with a Saiyan that she had forgotten about their acute hearing senses. "I'm not meaning to be sneaky, little girl."  
  
Usagi disregarded everything that Chi-Chi had just told her, except being called 'little girl'. Those were the words that no kid ever wanted to hear their parents call them. It sounded so impersonal, like they didn't even care, though, this Chi-Chi really had no reason to care. 'I want to go home to mom and dad. I'm tired of being here.' She wiped some tears away from her face as she tried to ignore Chi-Chi.  
  
Chi-Chi stopped walking forward when she reached the rock that Usagi was crying on. She didn't dare sit down for she didn't want to anger the child any further than she already was, though, she knew what she had to do would in fact anger her. 'I wish there was another way. How do I say this without hurting her feelings? She obviously thinks I'm her mother, but I'm not. I know I'm not. I never gave birth to her.'  
  
Chi-Chi took a deep breath and crossed her fingers, hoping that she would get out of this alive. "Look, kid. I'm really sorry about the way I first reacted. But, I'm not your mother. My husband is dead, my only son is dead. When you jumped at me like that, you reminded me of my son when he was just a little boy, it brought back the pain and memories of past times."   
  
More tears came down Usagi's cheeks as she slowly looked up to meet with her mother's eyes. "You ARE my mom. You and Goku are my parents. I'm your daughter from the timeline that Trunks went to and helped save from the androids and Cell." She so hoped that she wouldn't get even more rejection than before.  
  
Chi-Chi went into a state of utter shock. She hadn't thought of that. She hadn't come to let her mind think that a child, who claimed to be hers, could come to the future. And now, here was one right before her, an obvious Saiyan who knew of the past events. She knew of Goku, she knew of Cell and the androids. She knew of Trunks jumping to the past. Then she thought further of a timeline where Goku was alive and well. A timeline where another Chi-Chi like herself enjoyed life with her husband and kids, a life which she was so rudely deprived of. It wasn't fair, but it was true.   
  
Tears began to form in her own eyes as she stared into the deep blue eyes of the girl before her. The Saiyan who claimed to be hers. Shaking her head, she backed away from the girl. This was more than she had bargained for. "That's not possible."  
  
Usagi saw the pain of realizing just what was going on in her mother's eyes. She hadn't meant to hurt her like that, but it could hardly be helped. "Please don't cry." Seeing her own mother cry only caused her to cry harder. "I hate to see you cry."  
  
Chi-Chi broke a small smile on her lips. "I'm ok. It's just..."  
  
Usagi scooted over on her rock and smiled. "Yes?"  
  
Chi-Chi's smile grew as she went to sit next to the girl, which she now believed to be hers. "It's just hard to believe, that's all. I mean, look at you. What would you do if this were happening to you? Your family dies and a little girl comes and tells you that she's your daughter."  
  
Usagi didn't even have to think about that before an answer flew out of her mouth. "I'd probably do the same thing as you."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled down at Usagi. "I'm sorry, if I would have known I wouldn't have rejected you like I had."  
  
Usagi; "It's ok. I shouldn't have been so stupid as to jump out at you like I had. I mean, I knew I was in a different dimension and all. I knew that my real mom and dad weren't here. I should have known better."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she grabbed Usagi's chin and directed her face up. "Don't ever say that. It wasn't stupid for you to jump out at me like that. It just shows that you love your parents. It shows that your emotions are pure and full of compassion. We'd be worried if there was ever a time when you didn't lose it like that."  
  
Usagi smiled. "You always know just what to say, mom."  
  
Chi-Chi could feel her heart warming at that statement. She hadn't heard those words since Gohan had died, she was beginning to forget what it felt like. "Tell me, Usagi, what's your father like where you are? Does he still fight non-stop? Does he always act like a child? Is he there for you when you need him?"  
  
Usagi thought for a moment. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to answer those questions. She had never really thought about that before, but she had to answer to the best of her ability. "Well, when I was younger he used to fight all the time during the day with Gohan and Goten. Then when I wanted to start fighting, he fought all the time, even though mom didn't like it. During the day with Goten and Gohan, and at night after school with me. When I was about nine we decided to just train during the weekends and sometimes during the week depending on what I was doing in school the next day. During the week, he fights at least twice with Gohan and Goten, and spends the rest of the time with mom. We've been keeping to that ever since then. You finally got him to agree that school is important."  
  
Chi-Chi went ecstatic at hearing that. "WHAT?! I finally got my Goku to figure out that studying is important!? This is wonderful! And, Usagi, who is Goten?"  
  
Usagi giggled. She was indeed her mother. There was no doubt about it. "He's my second older brother. He's seven years younger than Gohan."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled at that. She wished that she could have been blessed with another son before Goku's departure from the world. "How nice."  
  
Usagi could see the hurt in her mother's eyes and decided to move on to the next question. "Mom says that dad's a lot more mature than he used to be. No one really knows why though. Gohan says it's because he's getting older. He does act a lot different than he did when Cell attacked though. He's WAY more protective of me and actually gets mad at me from time to time when I do things to get in trouble. I don't think the other Goku ever got mad at me before."  
  
"Other Goku?" Chi-Chi put her arm around Usagi when a soft breeze swept through the area.  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yeah. went into the past when Bulma made a time jumping thing. We got stuck there and had to fight Cell. The other Goku there never got mad at me, except when he forced me to go Super Saiyan, and even then he didn't really get mad. It was all just an act. Pluto let daddy go into the past to come and help me, and boy did he have a fit. Mamoru says that daddy threatened his younger self."  
  
Chi-Chi giggled. She would have paid to see that. She couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to live with a Goku like that. 'Sounds like he has gotten a lot more mature, but he always has looked out for Gohan. I hope they're alright up in the afterlife.' "Usagi, is he always there when you need him?"  
  
Usagi nodded without any hesitation at all. "Yes. He's never once left for a fight, but mom is sure that one of these days something is going to come up and make him leave. She says she's counting the days away, whatever that means."  
  
"Thank you, Usagi. It's nice to know things like this. It's nice know how my life would have turned out if Goku and Gohan hadn't died. I would have had two sons and a daughter of my own."   
  
Usagi could tell that anything that was said about her life would only result in the further hurting of her mother, something she didn't particularly want to do. "Mom, try not to think about it, ok? We'll fix things. Me and the other Usagi from this time. We have a plan."  
  
Chi-Chi perked her head. "What?"  
  
Usagi smiled. "Let's go back to the others so we can go to New Namek, ok?" She stood up and pulled her mother up with her.   
  
Chi-Chi nervously looked down at the grinning child, who was urging her to jump into the air with her. 'What could possibly be on Ne... Wait a minute, there are Dragon Balls on New Namek, Dragon Balls that can bring my Goku and my Gohan back to me.' She raised her power level to the highest, leapt into the sky, and shot out in front of Usagi towards the group of her friends.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Trunks covered his eyes with his hand from the sun as he looked into the sky. "They're here." He pointed to the two flying figures right above his position.  
  
Sailor Moon looked up. "Looks like they made up."  
  
Tsukino Luna grinned. "Of course they made up. This is you we're talking about. You're the most forgivable and forgiving person in the world."  
  
Not ten seconds after landing with her mother, Usagi darted right for Trunks and gave him her patented Bone Crushing Hug. "Trunks!"  
  
Trunks chuckled as he hugged back, though not as hard as she did. He wasn't sure how strong she was and he didn't want to hurt her, even though she was born as a Super Saiyan, and oddly enough, with blue eyes instead of green. "Hello, Usagi."  
  
Usagi knew that Pluto must have told him who she was. How else could he have known her name? "From the mouth of Son Usagi, thanks for saving my dad in my timeline!"   
  
Chi-Chi grinned. 'Son Usagi, it has such a nice ring to it.'  
  
Trunks gently pulled himself out of the child's grasp and kneeled down to look her in the eyes. "So you're Chi-Chi and Goku's kid, huh? Well, it's nice to meet yet another of Goku's kids, and, you're welcome. I was happy to go back and help in any way I could."  
  
"If you hadn't come back to save earth and everyone who fights for it, I wouldn't be here today. You have no idea how much everyone back home is grateful to you, except Vejita, but I WILL marry him one of these days, and then he'll be really thankful to you cause he gets such a good wife." She found herself grinning at the thought.  
  
Bulma chuckled at the thought of Vejita standing at the altar in a suit with this short kid standing by his side. "Someone's got a crush on Vejita."  
  
Usagi blushed. "I do NOT! He's a big meany. Besides, it's just a joke between me and my dad And he looks so funny with his face scrunched up when I tell him that." She added with a giggle.  
  
Bulma giggled. "Don't worry, I'm just teasing. I don't think anyone is truly capable of caring for that big lug."  
  
Chi-Chi smirked. "Except maybe you." Saying that caused Bulma to blush.  
  
Jupiter; "Shouldn't we bet getting out of here before it turns to night? We still have to teleport to this Namek place."  
  
Trunks looked over to the group of Senshi, who were getting into teleportation position. "What? New Namek you mean? Why are we going there?"  
  
Chi-Chi happily smiled as she trotted over to Trunks. "There's some wishing to be done."  
  
Sailor Moon nodded. "Yep. This little munchkin here wanted to repay you guys for helping so much to save her world. So as a favor to you, we've included in our wish list, to wish everyone who was killed by the androids, as well as the Z-team, to come back to life. We've even found a way to save Goku, though we'll save that explanation until after everyone is back."  
  
Bulma frowned at what she was thinking. "But didn't Goku die of a natural cause? The Dragon won't revive people who died of viruses."  
  
Usagi; "Ah, but of course. We've figured it all out, Bulma. Chill. I won't let you guys down, I promise." She smiled a smile of her father, a smile that told of her sincerity in her claims, which flared hope in her mother's eyes. "Now, I'll teleport to New Namek and you guys can follow."  
  
The group nodded as Chi-Chi, Bulma, and Trunks got in the center of a circle created by the Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen. They weren't sure of what was going on, but they knew of the Senshi's legend and knew better than to question the group's judgment.   
  
Usagi searched the galaxy for New Namek. Though she had never been there before, she knew that it felt like. Dende had once simulated the feel of the planet for her when she asked what it was like. For a reason unknown to even herself, Usagi had kept that feeling in the back of her head as if she was meant to have it and use it some time later in her life. "Found it." She put her fingers on her head and teleported away from earth.  
  
Saturn; "Amazing. Truly amazing."  
  
Trunks smirked. 'Boy you can sure tell who's daughter she is. She acts exactly like Goku when it comes to being in serious situations like this.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi Found herself in the middle of an open field on New Namek. It may have been open, but it surely wasn't deserted. From behind, she could feel a familiar Ki energy. 'It's him.' The Sailor Senshi, along with Trunks, Chi-Chi, and Bulma, landed in front of Usagi shortly after.   
  
A tall figure approached the group with open arms and a warm smile. "Greetings travelers, you've been expected."  
  
(wow a whole entire week. I'm SO sorry that it took this long. I'll try not to make a habit of it. But anyway, what did you think?)   



	108. Part 10

~*~*~*~  
  
While things seemed to be back on track for the group in Trunks' world, things seemed to be coming down to a crashing halt for those in the Son dimension. Goku had left the entire group behind when the suggestion of cutting off Usagi's tail was brought up. It was clear that it was going to have to come to that, but whether or not he wanted to accept it wasn't pre-destined. There was still the fact that he could just keep her eyes sheltered from the light of the full moon, but how fair was that to her? He would have to keep her in the house for the entire time the moon was full and make sure she didn't look out the window. That was much too harsh for him to think about. He would feel like he was keeping her captive as if she were a criminal that needed to be kept under lock and key. There weren't too many options for Goku and time was running out faster than he could think.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Tsukino Dimension: New Namek~~  
  
Usagi squinted her eyes as she stared at the young Namek before her. She would know that voice anywhere. "Dende!"  
  
Trunks chuckled. "Of course, I should have known that it was him."  
  
Dende smiled with care. "So you're the two children of destiny that I have dreamt of for so long. Welcome to New Namek, Son Usagi, Tsukino Usagi, or shall I say Eternal Sailor Moon."  
  
Tired from teleporting such a long distance, she still had enough energy to smile wide. "Have you been expecting us!?"  
  
Sailor Moon just about had a fit at that. "There is a green man talking to us..."  
  
Mars frowned. "Have some respect, Sailor Moon. Obviously this guy is of some importance or else he wouldn't have been expecting you guys..." She dropped her attitude and turned to Dende. "Right?"  
  
Dende nodded. "Yes. I have in fact been expecting you, all of you. The tides of time have been changed, as a result the Multiverse is in question. I expect that the main two in question have come up with a way to solve this problem adequately?"  
  
Son Usagi became confused quite fast after hearing that. "Wait, the Multiverse is in question? What do you mean? What happens if we can't solve this adequately? And what do you mean the tides of time have been changed?"  
  
Dende sighed. He knew that this was going to come up sooner or later. Whenever someone was entrusted with any kind of information, especially from Pluto, questions were asked. "Whenever a time jump has taken place, it creates a snag in time. From this snag starts a whole new dimension. Everything before this snag is the same, but anything after it depends on the activities that took place during the time that the person from the future or past was not in his or her own time."  
  
Pluto cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "That is correct. Trunks, you were the first to make one of these so-called time snags. What you did lead to things happening much differently in the past. As a result, the Usagi of that time was born to the strongest family in the Universe. She was born a Son. You, young Usagi, made two time snags. One when the time jumper malfunctioned and sent you into the wrong time, as a result your father will not have gained so much strength from that fight. The other was when you went and fought Cell, in the past."  
  
Trunks; "What? She fought Cell? I thought we killed him in the past so he couldn't grow up and cause anymore trouble."  
  
Pluto; "You did, but some how he came back to life. He was the same Cell you fought, but had enhanced power."  
  
At least a thousand more questions ran through the mind of Son Usagi as she stood there and watched her friends ponder over their position, but she knew that she was running low on time, there was only one time for one more question. "So, Pluto, what will happen if these wishes don't work?"  
  
Pluto's face became grim at thought of what WOULD happen. "Either the Multiverse will become to overwhelmed with the questioning of what it is meant to do and destroy itself, or it will be returned to its normal state."  
  
Son Usagi hated answers like that. They always caused her to want to question more, which is exactly what she did. "But why are WE so important?"  
  
Pluto grinned. "I'll leave that up to someone else to explain to you. Right now we should get a move on things. We don't have much time and Son Usagi has to get back home. Are you two ready?"  
  
Mamoru; "Make sure you have every wish on there that you need, alright?"  
  
Sailor Moon and Usagi turned to look at each other, both with a grave fear in their eyes. It all rested upon them and what they had wished for. If they failed, then they failed not only themselves, but the entire existence of the Multiverse. Everyone's lives rested within the list that they had worked so hard to create. Neither of them knew if they were ready, but they had done all they could think of.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~FlashBack~~  
  
The room was quiet, it had been for some time. Both girls stared into the eyes of one another, wondering what they should add into the list. The ideas were flowing out of their heads and down into the computer, but they had found faults with all of them. Either it didn't have any relevancy to their cause, or it didn't apply to all dimensions. Though they had found a good way to get everything done, the task was still tough.  
  
Tsukino Usagi sighed. She so wished that they could get done with things so she could get back to her life. So she could send this child home. She obviously missed her family, and after what she had been through, who could blame her? "So, what else could we think of to put on our wish list?"  
  
Son Usagi shook her head in total frustration. "I don't know. The only thing I know for sure is that it has to be fair to all dimensions."  
  
Tsukino Usagi nodded. "I couldn't agree any less. But that's why we're where we are right now. We've thought of so much, but our brains are just not clicking."  
  
Son Usagi sighed right along with her older counterpart. She hated being in situations like this. It made her feel so helpless. "Why don't we start off with something simple?"  
  
"Good idea. Here's an idea. Why don't we start off with your need to get home? I mean, we can't have you staying here forever."  
  
Son Usagi's face turned grim as she lowered her head. She hated to think of what was going on back home. Everyone must have been so worried, especially her parents. She so hated to see them scared like that. She wanted to get home, let them know that she was alright. "What if we tried increasing my teleporting power for one time so I can safely teleport home? I know for sure that my power, even as a Super Saiyan, isn't strong enough to teleport me home."  
  
Tsukino nodded as she happily typed the wish into the computer. "Will do. But just for one time. It's not wise to travel back and fourth between dimensions."  
  
"Right. Like Pluto says, every time you do it creates a snag in time and a new dimension is created. I don't want to have to come back and do this again because we made a stupid mistake like that." She paused for a moment as she let another idea flow into her head. "We need to work on your powers too. I mean, they're pretty bad, your strength and skills."  
  
Tsukino Usagi playfully frowned. "Hey, watch it, kid."  
  
Son Usagi giggled. "It's the truth. You need outside help to use your power. Your body can't stand to use the full amount of Moon energy, so you have to focus it into your weapons. If we could get Trunks or someone else to teach you to fight our style, you could rid yourself of the weapons."  
  
Sighing, Tsukino Usagi looked down to her soda that sat in front of her. "I know. It drains me every time I fight and hurts whenever I use full power attacks. And whenever I use the Crystal, my life energy is drained away. That's what the Crystal is though, my life energy, but it's the only thing strong enough to destroy most of our enemies. Not with you, though. You're lucky. When Ami scanned you, she found out that your DNA is in three equal thirds. Lunarian, Human, and Saiyan. She claimed that it was the perfect blend. A Saiyan's strength, Density, and potential to increase their power and strength. A Human's mental strength and flexibility. And a Lunairian's power and purity. You control the only remaining power of the moon."  
  
Son Usagi giggled. She still couldn't get over the fact that she, of all people, was a Princess. She had a power that no one else in her entire dimension had. "Yeah..."  
  
Tsukino Usagi dropped her head lower as her eyes became deep with sadness. "Well, I guess we should see to it that the Moon Princess of all other dimensions should be born to the Son family..."  
  
Son Usagi's jaw fell halfway open. She knew that this was going to come up, but at least she wasn't the one to have to bring it up. Tsukino Usagi had come to realize it all on her own. She thought of how she would feel if she had been told that her family wasn't good enough, and it felt truly horrible. She hated to see her older counterpart in such a state. "It's not about love, it's about... power and strength. The Moon Princesses need to be stronger so they can use their power."  
  
"I know, it's just that I feel I'm betraying my family name by agreeing."  
  
Son Usagi wished that there was a way that the rest of the Usagi's could be born to the Tsukino's like they were supposed to, but it just wasn't possible. "Why don't we wish that all Usagi's from here on out have the middle name of Tsukino? That way, the two families would be connected."  
  
Tsukino Usagi lifted her head with a slight smile. "Thanks, Usagi."  
  
Son Usagi giggled. "Don't mention it. But, now we just have to figure out how to get all Usagi's born to my mom and dad and increase your power."  
  
Tsukino Usagi tried not to think about being born to another family. She knew she didn't have enough time to feel sorry for herself. Instead, she had to get back to work. "That's a toughie. How do we make me as strong as you?"  
  
Son Usagi: "What did Ami say about me being so strong? Because I had a third of each. Human, Lunarian, and Saiyan?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi: "Yeah, while I am Half Human and Half Lunarian."  
  
A feral grin cracked across the child's face. "Maybe the dragon can add Saiyan to you."  
  
Tsukino got excited at the thought of that. "That could actually work! We could add Saiyan DNA to me so I could have a third just like you. That way I wouldn't be at risk of dying every time I got into a fight that I couldn't win without the power of the Crystal. This way, Chibi-Usa will also have Saiyan DNA added to her since she is my daughter."  
  
Son Usagi: "Yeah and we'll use Daddy's DAN for it. That way we're alike. We'll have him use me as a model."  
  
Tsukino Usagi chuckled. "That's DNA, and you're right. That'd be perfect. Plus we have to do the same for Hotaru so she can use her power too."  
  
Son Usagi giggled with embarrassment. "Yep, sounds like a plan to me. But we also have to wish Hotaru born to whoever her mother is in my timeline. We don't know who she is, but we know she's a Saiyan healer and that can be helpful in controlling her powers." She wondered if Hotaru, Michiru, and Haruka were being awakened back home.  
  
Tsukino Usagi nodded; "We have to ask them first, though. It wouldn't be fair to do this without their permission." She got up from her seat when Son Usagi nodded. "I'll be right back." She casually walked to the front door of the arcade, taking notice that there were some heavy shadows coming from the other side. 'Heh, they want to hear what we're saying. I love having this sort of power over them for a change.'   
  
Tsukino Usagi slowly opened the door, feeling some resistance from the other side as the rest of the girls were sitting against it. That soon changed when she pushed back. The group of girls stared at the girl from behind the door several falling on their hind ends. All of them were ready to question what they had chosen, but a soft shaking of the head from Pluto kept them from saying a single word. "Hotaru, Chibi-Usa, could you please come in here for a minute. We need to ask you something." Chibi-Usa and Hotaru exchanged a quick glance with each other and shrugged.  
  
Chibi-Usa; "Sure." She pushed herself up from the ground and helped Hotaru up as well. Both of them proceeded to walk into the arcade, leaving the curious group of their friends outside to wonder what was going on inside.  
  
Tsukino Usagi quietly led the two friends back to the table that she and Son Usagi were sitting at. It was filled with empty plates, empty glasses, and a laptop, but no Son Usagi. "Where did she go?"  
  
Hotaru's ears picked up the sound of laughter from the gaming area. When she turned her head to look there, she saw Son Usagi plastered to the screen of the Sailor V game. "She's playing a game."  
  
Tsukino Usagi looked in the direction that Hotaru was now pointing. "Hey, no fair!" She rushed over to the young child's side and took note that she was almost matching her score.   
  
Son Usagi grinned as she turned and looked up to the faces of her three new friends. "Don't stress. I was getting bored. Just let me play a couple more games, k?" She reached into her pocket, only to feel nothing but cloth. "Hey..." She moved her hand around, but still, there was nothing. "I'm out of money? How can this be?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi grinned as she pulled out a small bag of Tokens from her pocket. "I'll share these with you if you play me."  
  
Son Usagi smiled. "You've got yourself a deal." She reached out and snatched the bag as Tsukino Usagi sat down at the game next to her. "But I'll let you know that I never lose."  
  
Hotaru just looked down at the two girls in amazement. She was positive at that moment that this child was in fact Usagi. She acted just like her when it came to this. 'I thought they were trying to save all existence, but they seem to just be eating and playing. No wonder why it's taking so long..."  
  
Chibi-Usa frowned as she grabbed a Sunday from Motoki. He was going to hand it to one of the two girls, but she didn't think that they needed anymore snacks. She cleared her throat with a slight growl, capturing their attention. "You aren't here to play, you two. The fate of all existence relies on this. What did you want to see us about?"  
  
The two Usagi's lowered their heads in embarrassment. The pink haired girl acted too serious, in their eyes. Son Usagi said nothing as she didn't want to anger the girl anymore than she already was. It wasn't her place to make her mad. She left it up to Tsukino Usagi. "We need to talk to you about your DNA."  
  
Hotaru became confused quite fast. "Our DNA?" She and Chibi-Usa exchanged a glance of confusion.  
  
Son Usagi nodded. "You see, the Hotaru in my dimension is also part Saiyan, like me. I'll bet she's an equal three parts of each as well. Neither of you have any Saiyan DNA here."  
  
Chibi-Usa frowned as she crossed her arms. She failed to see where any of this was going. "What does that have to do with us?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi giggled. "We've figured that the reason why Usagi and Hotaru were born to Saiyans in the other dimension is because Saiyans have more power than both humans and Lunarians put together. You see, somehow, Pluto had this all figured out. Why or how, we don't know. We have decided to ask the Dragon to give me Saiyan DNA so I won't be so weak with using my power. You two also have the problem of being weak when you use too much of your power at once. And it's not like we can avoid using our power, either. Sometimes it is very necessary to use our power. So we were thinking about asking the Dragon to add Saiyan DNA to you two as well so you can become stronger. We just wanted your permission first."  
  
Stunned, the thought of no longer fearing her own power actually flabbergasted the silent Senshi. These two deserved more credit than she had originally given them. There was absolutely no hesitation on her part. "Yes. Do anything you need to... control this power."  
  
Chibi-Usa smirked. "Sure. I like the idea of having extra power..." 'Won't mommy and daddy be surprised when I get home. I'll be so much stronger. They won't even recognize me. I'll be the strongest Sailor Senshi in the future.' The four girls giggled as they stared into the eyes of one another. "Is there anything else?"  
  
Son Usagi and Tsukino Usagi turned to each other with question in their eyes. They hadn't thought of anything else. Tsukino Usagi shook her head to tell them no. "Nope, you can both go back now. But don't tell anyone anything about what we talked about. We'll get to that when we need to."  
  
Hotaru frowned at the thought of having to go back out into the wild mob of Senshi. "They're going to make us tell. They'll torture us with tickles if we don't."  
  
Tsukino Usagi giggled. "Then, you can tell them that I commanded you not to tell."  
  
Chibi-Usa and Hotaru slightly smiled as they turned around and began to head for the door. They wished that they could stay and listen, but that would be an intrusion of someone else's privacy.   
  
Chibi-Usa; "Call us if you need anything again."  
  
Son Usagi grinned. She knew exactly what she was trying to do. "Don't worry, we will."  
  
~*~*~  
  
One step taken out the door by each girl and a herd of questions were thrown at them.   
  
"WHAT DID SHE WANT?"  
  
"HOW'S IT GOING IN THERE?"  
  
"HAVE THEY MADE ANY PROGRESS?"  
  
"ARE THEY GOOFING OFF!?"  
  
The girls were dazed at that point. The questions were coming so fast, and kept coming fast. They were unable to keep up with them, let alone correctly make out every word to every question.  
  
"SHUT UP!" Chibi-Usa growled with annoyance.   
  
Hotaru was a bit more calm in her simple answer. "The Princess has ordered us not to reveal anything. When it's time to be revealed, it will be. As to what they are doing right now," She paused to smirk. She couldn't wait to see the look on their faces when she told them. "They've probably gone back to enjoying a good video game."  
  
The entire group's mouths flew open. "WHAT?!" The sound of all their voices shrieking at one time caused many citizens who were passing by to stare at them as if they were idiotic, crazy fools.  
  
Rei frowned as she angrily headed to the door. "That Odango Atama has done it for the last and final time. She's screwing with our entire existence."  
  
Pluto raced to the door and blocked it with her staff. "They are under a lot of pressure. They need to relax. You know that if you were under the same circumstances that you would want to take a break every now and then." Rei shamefully nodded. "That is why this location was chosen. It was expected to happen. Have faith in them, if even their friends don't, then they will want to lose faith as well."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Thirty minutes Later: Inside the Arcade~~  
  
The two Princesses made their way back to their booth to get cracking on their wish list once again after a long game of Sailor V. They didn't want to waste all their time playing video games for the still had to leave for New Namek.   
  
Tsukino Usagi still had to touch base with an earlier wish, though. "We have to find a way to help your dad and the rest of your friends in this dimension."  
  
Son Usagi nodded. "Yeah, I know how we can do that, with the New Namek Dragon Balls. They can bring anyone back as many times as we want. But we still have to find a way to get the other Universes' Moon Princess to have my parents as their parents. We have to same him from the heart disease that killed him, and prepare him for the androids and even Cell. I know who the Queen is now. She will appear in all other dimensions and so will Cell. But, there is no future for Cell to come from since we killed him." Pondering, she paused for a few seconds. "But it took all the girls and I to stop him with our combined attack, with daddy's help. We barely even did that."  
  
Tsukino Usagi: "Well then we can do a domino effect. Each timeline can have their sister timeline Usagi go into the past to save that Goku. She'll have heard it from her Father that you had come into the past, and she'll feel compelled to go as well, when her time comes. That way they all go into a parallel dimension and not effect their timeline, but their counterpart will have saved their Father. And so on. And so on."  
  
"Wow, where'd you get so smart?"  
  
"Heh, actually, I've learned it from comics."  
  
"Yeah, comics are the best, they teach a lot about timelines and different dimensions."  
  
"So true, so true."  
  
"The Cell that came to my dimension in the first place said that he killed a Trunks in order to come back there."  
  
Tsukino Usagi sighed. "Great, another timeline to deal with."  
  
Son Usagi; "Hey, what if it were only one cell, and Trunks for that timeline?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi: "HUH?"  
  
"Well, we could have the Trunks of this time fight a fake copy of cell. That way he would only think he defeated him. And the cell we fought could have come from here. He'd have just fought a fake copy of Trunks, thinking that he killed him, but he really didn't. And that way we can send a bogus copy of Bulma's time machine for him to use. And it was set for one year earlier then Trunks would have set it."  
  
Tsukino nodded with a slight frown. "That's a great idea, but they would have to be non-living copies. We wouldn't want to create something just to kill it."  
  
Looking at her, Son Usagi could see this girl's compassion for all. It was at that moment when she realized that she could learn something from her after all. "Right, and have Bulma feel like she has to create a time machine with Ami, and us Usagi's feel we have to use it to save our past Father. That makes sense now."  
  
Tsukino Usagi: "I just thought of something."  
  
"What?"  
  
"If the Dragon Balls can't be used to bring back beings that died of natural causes, then how about we do a variation of this with Goku of this timeline. Send a non-living duplicate of him to the past, just before he would have died, and bring him here healed from it?"  
  
Son Usagi jumped over the table to her older counter part and hugged her with joy. "That's perfect, now he'll be here to help. And I know he'll train the rest of you in Ki-Jitsu. It's perfect."  
  
Tsukino was more than slightly upset at the thought of more training. She thought those days were over, but it seemed the hard part was just beginning now. 'Oh well, at least I'll be able to help my friends and protect them for a change instead of the other way around.'   
  
Tsukino added the new data into the document. A screen with a picture of Endymon as well as his guardians popped up from nowhere. "Great. I must have hit something on accident."  
  
Before Tsukino Usagi had a chance to exit out of the program, Son Usagi popped her head over the screen so she could take a look at what was on it. "Oh, isn't that just great. Mamoru's friends. It figures that they're a part of this."  
  
Tsukino Usagi: "You know the four Kings of the Dark Kingdom?"  
  
Son Usagi: "HUH? Those are just Mamoru's buddies from America."  
  
Tsukino Usagi sighed, AGAIN. "These are Endymon's guards from the Silver Millennium. They were the girls' soul mates, but were captured in both times and brainwashed to serve Beryl."  
  
Son Usagi gulped. 'Their soul mates? They're NOT going to like that. Better not tell them unless I have to' "That's horrible."  
  
Tsukino Usagi nodded. "Yes, it is. We were forced to fight them and in the end, they were destroyed."  
  
Son Usagi; "They haven't been capture yet. Maybe since Beryl seems to already have her sick minions she'll be leaving these guys alone. But who knows."  
  
Tsukino Usagi: "What? But that can't be. They were captured years before she showed herself."  
  
Son Usagi shrugged. "She got Cell. Cell was supposed to be stronger than us. She probably didn't even care about these guys anymore. She's got some other pretty powerful people on her side now, but I don't know who any of them are."  
  
"I wish they had been saved here. We had to fight and kill them here. Beryl really did a number on their minds. She knew the love they had for their Prince and Soul mates, so she rearranged their thoughts. Making Jadeite a crazed killer, just lashing out in anger. Nephrite became a lost soul, searching everywhere for his love, except where it was. He even tried to use Naru, one of my best friends, for a substitute, because of her feeling for him reminded him of Jupiter. And what that witch did to Zoisite and Kunzite." Shivering at the memory, she continues. "She actually made their love for them change into a love for each other. Even still, they fought every step of the way. Why else would they come up with such terrible plans, run after a battle instead of finishing us off when we were exhausted And they had so much in-fighting between themselves. They were subconsciously helping us the entire time." She blankly stared at the empty seat before her. "I wish we could have saved them."  
  
'This dimension is filled with so many nice people, I wish the guys were nice like this where I live, but I know I can't mess with their personalities. That would be wrong. I just wish that we could save everyone, but this has nothing to do with the other dimensions. This is how it was meant to be, we can't save everyone.' She looked up to Tsukino Usagi in curiosity. She had been wondering one thing since she arrived, and she wouldn't be able to concentrate anymore until she knew. "Usagi, what was the Silver Millennium like?"  
  
A far off look entered the teenager's eyes as she remembered the grandeur of that magical time. Her memories of her home from a thousand years ago became stronger as she grew older. "Just after the Sailor Wars, my mother, Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom, appeared before me. She told me to tell this story to the next one to question. It was probably meant for Chibi-Usa to hear first, but I think you have a right to know as well." Seeing that she had her undivided attention, she began.  
  
"Back when the very Universe was born, the first thing to appear was a flawless crystal. As the Universe grew, this crystal was joined by another crystal whose power reacted not in favor to it, and tended to cause destruction wherever it went. The two crystals were almost identical in strength, but the silver shining gem was slightly stronger. It, in the end, settled onto the Moon, orbiting the third planet from a yellow sun. A life had just been born there, filled with joy and sadness. For there was no other life anywhere to be found. The crystal formed a bond with this young maiden and kept her company with its love energy. It wasn't sentient; it was more a force of love and life from the very creation of existence. A hundred years later, the maiden sensed a new being born from the planet that hung in the sky."  
  
"Using the crystal, she came to this being that walked the blue paradise that she had grown to love. Their eyes meeting, they knew that their time alone was at an end. Over the Millennium, they moved to live on the Moon that orbited the male's birth world and had many children. Their first-born they named Serenity, and she grew with her Mother's beauty and wisdom, and her Father's strength and intellect. But they knew that all other worlds were barren of life, and that the male's home world was the same. Their life nearing an end, they, together decided to make their last act a meaningful one."  
  
"First they sent a golden crystal, created by the energy of the original crystal to the blue world, to wait a being worthy to lead this vibrant world. For they knew that this world would take some time to mature. Informing their children this, they placed Serenity in charge of guiding her siblings and world, and to always guard her Father's world. With tears in her eyes, she agrees to this, bidding them farewell and all her love."  
  
"Using the crystal to their maximum power, their entire life forces, they together sent their power throughout the Universe. Onto worlds over the entire existence, their energy merged with the worlds, Moons, and suns, infusing their energy with the Celestial bodies."  
  
"This energy would be the catalyst for life though out the Universe. No matter what the life was originated from, plant, animal, fish, reptile, even rocks, the dominant form would always have a biped's structure due to their influence."  
  
"That is why the human form is so well know through out the Universe. And cross marriages can create children."  
  
"Serenity's first eight children, decided to move to the other worlds surrounding the sun. Taking those who wanted to follow, these girls would become the ruling forces of their world. The energy from their grandparents, seeped into their own bodies, and each became an off branch of the Moon. But all kept in contact with their Mother, agreeing that she was the Monarch of the entire system."  
  
"Over the Millenniums, they kept in close contact. As a new Princess Serenity was born, she would be raised to take the crown on her Mother's death. All planets at one time or another had one of their Sons marry one of the Moon Queens for love. Till all of the planets had given a bit of themselves to the Moon royalty. Creating a bond with her for all the planets. Even earth since the Father of all was born there."  
  
"But disaster struck when the Dark crystal landed on the blue shining world that they now called Earth, the Father planet."  
  
"The crystal traumatized the entire planet, stunting its growth. Only the power of the Crystal of Life aided by the Queen of Saturn, a powerful healer equal to none could seal it. Using a Metal know only to Saturn, the Queen made the ultimate sacrifice, with the tearful aide of her Queen. Sealing the Crystal inside herself, using the Metal to help control it and the very power of Saturn, renown for its great healers, she forced herself into an eternal sleep, using her power to seal its destructive nature. It was not evil per say, but just a force that can only destroy. No other method could be found for this to be used for. So she slept, until her death, where the first born of the Queen would be its new bearer. All Saturn Queens had two children, at least from that day forth, until the reign of my Mother. In that time, only one Princess was born, leaving the Queen without an heir on her death and the death of the sleeping one. The matter had not been decided on what to do, when the destruction again came."  
  
"Three other occurrences had transpired then due to the dark crystal's power. First, a rip into the Space-time continuum was created, and had to be mended. The only way was to form a seal till it could heal itself. But this would take just under a Million years, so the Queen of Pluto offered to stand guard until the seal was completely healed. The two created a staff in which she could control ramped time energy leaks, and as well see the course that time took. Her first-born would as well take her place, and the second would rule. But twenty years before the end, the latest Queen died with only one heir, who immediately took her place at the age of ten when the guardian as well died. This matter also was not resolved in the time that they had left."  
  
"The second occurrence, Queen Serenity herself created. Feeling guilt at her friends' sacrifices, the Queen realized that forces of chaos would yet again be unleashed unto the Universe. Preparing her Daughter to take the throne over from her, she used all her life force to cast a gift of protection across the Universe. Using the crystal and her life force, as her ancestors had, she gave each Celestial body the ability to chose a line of defenders, like white cells and anti-bodies in a body, to fight for and protect it. Because the magic for this was female, the defender would usually be female as well. But it was not unheard of for a male to become the Celestial avatar. Sometimes both. These avatars would posses and are able to channel the power of their Celestial body. Be it a star, world or even asteroid. All gave birth to one that day. Pluto and Saturn's Avatar was the Time Guardian and the Sleeping Guardian, chosen to add to their power for times of need. All save Earth and the Moon. The Earth was too traumatized to choose, and the Moon had used to much energy to create the rest of the Universes Guardians to form one itself at that time."  
  
"The last occurrence the new Queen created. Using the crystal she formed three talismans to safeguard Saturn. A mirror. A sword. And a garnet orb. These three used together could either seal Saturn, or awaken her. They also could form a chalice from their energies that would enhance one with the purest of hearts. They were divvied between her most trusted and strongest Warriors."  
  
"That is the creation of the Silver Millennium, but its destruction will fall to another to tell."  
  
Wide eyed and slack jawed, Son Usagi just stammered. "Wow."  
  
Tsukino Usagi laughed only but a few seconds. "Yeah that's what I said when I heard it. But at least all the comics I read let me understand it."  
  
"Yeah, me too. But still it blows my mind. "What about the Silver Millennium. Can we save that?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi; "No, when my mother came to me, she told me that what's done is done. We must not tamper with such things. It would take much too much energy to recreate the Silver Millennium anyway."  
  
Son Usagi nodded. "I understand." She stopped to frown when she thought of Chibi-Usa.   
  
"What's wrong?" Tsukino Usagi curiously asked.  
  
"I don't like the idea that I have to marry Mamoru. He's such a jerk where I come from. Always making fun of how short I am. Can I help it if Saiyan's take longer to grow tall? Then he's always making fun of my supposed stupidity. And don't even get me started on my hair and tail!!"  
  
Tsukino Usagi was shocked that this child would say such a thing. "But he's your soul mate. And Chibi-Usa's father. You have to marry him. You love them both."  
  
Son Usagi crossed her arms. "I don't love Mamoru. I never have and I never will. Why should I have to marry someone I don't like?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi smirked. "Trust me, you'll grow to love him."  
  
"If that's true, then I shouldn't have to be forced to."  
  
"No one is forcing you, after all, your dimension is already much different than ours. Who knows, maybe you'll end up with someone else."  
  
Son Usagi sighed. "I hope so. But that's a long ways away. I don't want to think about it right now. Let's go over what we have so far, ok?"  
  
Tsukino Usagi nodded. "Ok. We have,   
  
1: Save Goku, Trunks, the Z team, all those killed by the androids and cell, and Heaven help us Cell from this dimension.  
  
2: Added power to you so you can teleport home.  
  
3: Have all Usagi's travel back to save their sister Universe's Goku.  
  
4: Added Saiyan DNA to myself, Chibi-Usa and Hotaru in this dimension.  
  
5: Have Hotaru be born to whoever her healer Saiyan mother is in Son Usagi's timeline.  
  
"Anything else?"  
  
Son Usagi shook her head. "Nope. That about covers it. Six wishes for the price of three. What a great deal."  
  
"Let's just hope this works."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~End Flashback~~  
  
Sailor Moon and Usagi looked at each other and gulped. They so hoped that they were doing the right thing, but they had done all they could think of.  
  
Usagi; "Ready?"  
  
Sailor Moon nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be."  
  
(I know I know, it was a week again, but I'm starting to get a handle on things. Be happy, I have about seven pages of the next chapter finished already and it should be done by Monday. Till then... Bye!)  



	109. Part 11

~*~*~*~  
  
A group of Sailor Senshi and Z Senshi stood in the middle of an open field on New Namek. With them stood a group of Natives to the planet; their leader, Dende; the only one with a previous contact of Son Goku and Gohan. All knew what was to become of the coming minutes. None had any quarrels of any type regarding that this was the time to make the wishes. This is what they had been told was to happen, and therefore, it would, they would see to it that nothing would get in the way of these two Princesses; the two who held the single dimensional rip with their two separate roads to the same destiny.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Seven tall, muscular Namekians joined the group, each with a Dragon Ball at hand, ready to do their part to ensure the safety of the Multiverse. "We have secured the premises." The one whom seemed to be the leader set the Dragon Ball that he held down to the ground, motioning for his companions to do the same. "Please proceed when ready."  
  
Pluto graciously nodded. "We thank you." She slowly turned back to the two balls of nerves; the two Princesses of destiny. "You may start. Senshi, when the Dragon is summoned, concentrate your power unto him so he might use it to fulfill the wishes. I shall do the same by adding in the power of time. Although I risk being condemned, it is the only way."  
  
The Senshi nodded and prepared themselves, not taking their eyes off Usagi and Eternal Sailor Moon. Trunks, Chi-Chi, and Bulma did the same for they wanted to help in any way.  
  
Sailor Moon slowly extended her hand down to that of young Usagi and gently intertwined her hand with the child's. "It's time..." She softly whispered in a warm melody.  
  
Usagi nodded with a gulp. "I know." She answered in the same melody.   
  
Sailor Moon could see the doubt in this child's eyes. "Are you scared?"  
  
Usagi's small body began to shake as she nodded; tightening her grip on the teenager's hand. "A little." That was a lie and she knew it. The fact of the matter was that she was terrified. The fate of the entire Multiverse relied on this, on her decisions. Were they enough? Had they given their all? Was there more that she could have done to ensure that the Multiverse wouldn't come crashing down? More thoughts of insecurity raced through her head as she and Sailor Moon started walking forward to Dende, who was ready to summon the Dragon at their command.   
  
Sailor Moon's face, for once, without a smile. She knew that there could be no screw ups. In one hand, was the paper that had their wishes, and in the other was the hand of the apprehensive child at her side. 'Hang in there, kid.' "So am I. But we can do this. We've been through worse."  
  
A tiny smile split across young Usagi's face. "Yeah, you're right. This is nothing." 'What am I saying? This is big!' She leaned into Sailor Moon as the two of them stopped. "Dende," She paused to take a breath. "We're ready."  
  
Dende smiled at the two girls. "I know you can do it. Goku would be proud if he could see you two now. There is nothing to fear. The Dragon will have mercy, I'm sure of it. Just tell him what you need and he will do it to the best of his ability."  
  
Sailor Moon nodded with a slight smile. "We're sure of it."  
  
Dende took one look at his guests behind the two Princesses to get an ok. When he got it through a gentle nod of all, he turned around and called out to the Dragon in the Namekian language. "Dragon! We summon you. Hear our calls for help!"  
  
Immediately, the sky grew dark, almost as if a storm was rolling in over the coast. The clouds tinted orange and the water roaring with anger, the Dragon Balls lit up with an intensive orange light.  
  
Chi-Chi and Bulma were hand in hand behind the group of Sailor Senshi. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. It had been so many years since they had been through this ritual; so long since they had seen their friends and family ... would they be able to do it all over again?  
  
Sailor Uranus and Neptune, too, were hand in hand. Never in their lives had they seen anything so spectacular, nor had they felt such an emission of energy from one place. Although they couldn't feel Ki power, they could feel the mysterious power of the Dragon. The rest of the Senshi, beside Pluto, all had the same thoughts of fear, honor, and pride.  
  
In the utter darkness of the sky arose Parunga, the mighty Dragon of Namek. Around him was an aura of grace, one that only Usagi and the Z Senshi were able to feel, though the rest could see. It radiated around his massive body, lighting up the sky to leave a slight black border around the entire area.   
  
With his intimidating eyes, Parunga glared down to the group of beings who stood so low before him. "Who is it that dared to waken me from my slumber? I will grant thee three wishes."  
  
Dende looked back to the two girls, who were now huddled together in obvious fear of failure. "Please hand me the paper so that I may relay the tasks to Parunga."  
  
Sailor Moon looked down to her side; at the paper in which she held so carefully in her hand. She hesitated to give it up. She quickly turned down to the little girl at her side when she felt a slight squeeze on her other hand.  
  
"We have to do this now."  
  
Sailor Moon nodded. "I guess..." She reluctantly handed the paper to Dende, who would ask the Dragon their wishes.  
  
Dende wasted no time in turning back to Parunga to tell the wishes to him. "Parunga, we wish to use the power of all three wishes to grant every one of these tasks on this document."  
  
Parunga frowned. He did not like that at all. They had taken advantage of him. He had to grant the tasks on the document for it was only one wish and they had sacrificed two more to make it happen. "Very well, please place the document on the ground."   
  
Dende did as he was told, backing away to give the Dragon all the room that would need. He crossed his fingers in hopes of giving it just that more of a chance to work. He wanted nothing to do with any failure. 'Please work. Pluto said that all will end if it does not. Everything as we know it will end.'  
  
Parunga's eyes grew wide and red as he began to look over the wishes on the list. He would grant them to the best of his ability, though he was uncertain as to whether everything on the list would be fulfilled or not. This had been the first time that he had been approached with something like this.  
  
After letting his aura flare for at the most two minutes, making everyone worried about the outcome, he stopped processing. "I can not grant this document. It is beyond my ability of power. Please pick only one and it shall be done."  
  
Usagi's face dropped right there and then. "What?!"  
  
Pluto grinned. "Just a moment, little one. We didn't add our power this time, remember? You can help us by adding you super Saiyan power in with our celestial power."  
  
Usagi became contented again as she was reminded of the truths. "Oh yeah. I forgot. Ok Mr. Dragon. Try it again."  
  
Dende smirked and proceeded to ask again. "Mighty Dragon, we will be adding our powers in with yours. Please try again."  
  
"Very well." Again, Parunga began glowing quite intensely.  
  
All at the same precise time, the Senshi from earth began to glow with an intensity much too bright to look at from afar. The sky seemed to be perfectly lit as this power traveled from the body of warriors to that of the Dragon. Even Luna and Artimas were doing their best to give up any power that they had.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Earth: Son Dimension  
  
Goku roamed the earth like a running mad man. He had no idea of where he was headed, or when he would return back to his supposed family and friends, the people whom he thought he could trust through thick and thin. Obviously, he couldn't. They had betrayed Usagi, his daughter. It was ludicrous, what they expected him to do. How could they expect him to do something like that? And knowing his position, they would expect him to do it. Well they would just have to find themselves someone else to cut the tail. It wasn't his job and he refused to do it. He refused to hurt his own child.  
  
Though, they did drive a good point. She would end up hurting not only others, but herself if the tail were to be left attached. He knew that first hand for he had hurt himself in the same manner. That was a pain that would never go away; something that he had been living with for his entire life. He killed his own grandfather because of the Saiyan tail and he wouldn't let that happen to Usagi.  
  
But, that meant either keeping her in the house during the full moons, or cutting her tail off. Now it was a matter of weighing what had less cruelty than the other. He couldn't exactly expect her to stay in the house for the two nights that the moon was full, that wouldn't be fair to a growing child. But it wasn't only the fact that she had to stay in the house, she would have to be forced not to look outside either. With cutting her tail off, it would be a one time thing and nothing would ever happen again. They wouldn't have to take anymore safety precautions.  
  
He stopped running when he reached the Black Forest where his house resided. He could hardly see straight he was so upset. This was just too great of a dilemma to deal with at one time. Usagi's strange behavior from earlier in the day had been hard enough on his nerves. Then the moon came, which had made him even more full of fear for his daughter. And as if that wasn't bad enough, she was kidnapped by some new and strange enemy that seemed to have no Ki power, who also attacked the girls. And who were those Sailor Senshi? They seemed to pose no threat, but who could tell? He had met them for no more than ten minutes before he ran off. And now this, this was too great. A father could only deal with so many problems at once, even if he was one of the strongest beings in the world. He was only mortal with problems of his own. He couldn't deal with everyone else's. He couldn't deal with the new enemy right now. His main objective was getting his baby back from the hands of the devil. The thoughts of fear for another life were compiling in his head all at once, all too overwhelming for one man to deal with at once.  
  
"DAMMIT!" He screamed as he punched his fist through a tree. "WHY ME?! WHY US?! Every DAMN time! I knew this was going to happen! I just KNEW it! It always does! None of my kids live normal lives and it's all MY FAULT!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku's cries of exasperation echoed throughout the woods. The sound waves traveled through the air stream unto the ears of his beloved wife, who had frozen in complete shock by what she was picking up. 'My Goku...' She immediately picked up her pace and began flying in the direction of Goku, she knew what he was going through, though, this was the first time that he had displayed his distress. Before he would always just shoved it off as nothing. Even before, when Usagi had gone to the past, he was upset, yes, but he hadn't shown it with such a passion. It made her heart melt to hear him like that.   
  
~*~*~  
  
New Namek: Tsukino Dimension  
  
Parunga of New Namek had tried with all his might to get the wishes going. He tried not to give up, but it was hopeless. Completely and utterly hopeless. Therefore, he stopped trying altogether. "I can not grant these wishes on this paper."  
  
Bulma frowned as she got ready to lay into the Dragon. "Even with the extra power?" She rolled up her sleeve with her teeth clenching.  
  
"There is still not enough power. You are asking me to make it so that the Moon Princess of the earth is born to a certain family in every timeline, every dimension when clearly that is not possible."  
  
Uranus frowned. "And why not? You are supposed to be an 'almighty' Dragon who can grant us any three wishes we want. We have sacrificed two to make the third more powerful."  
  
Dende glared at the outspoken Senshi of Uranus. "Silence. Do not anger the Dragon or else he will not grant a single wish from you." He lightened his expression as he turned back to Parunga. "Please tell us why you can not fulfill our wishes."  
  
Usagi pulled away from Sailor Moon with tears in her eyes. "You mean we did all that for nothing? You mean we failed? Everything is going to be train-wrecked?"  
  
Chibi-Moon ran to Usagi's side and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. "Don't give up. The Dragon still hasn't told us why he can't grant the wish."  
  
"As I said, you want me to make one of the strongest warriors in the universe to be born to one specific family. That would require me to reproduce that very same power, which I can not do. I am only allotted a certain amount of power which is the power of my creator. With all of your added power we can do that, but there is still not enough power to fulfill the rest of the wishes."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Crap!"  
  
Usagi's eyes shot wide open as she wiped around to stare at her mother. "Mom? You just swore!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Earth: Son Dimension  
  
Goku had almost given up on trying to wear himself down to the point of exhaustion and therefore sat himself down in the woods by the fallen tree, which he had swatted down himself. "Will this never end?"  
  
"That depends." Came a faint voice from behind.  
  
Goku perked up when he heard the soft voice of his wife. "Chi-Chi? How long were you standing there? I didn't even feel you coming."  
  
Chi-Chi gently looked upon him with a caring smile as she approached him. "I've only just arrived." She went to him and sat next to him, leaning into his muscular form.   
  
Goku frowned, not at his wife, but at the fact that he dropped his senses completely, causing him not to be able to detect her. "What are you doing here?" He asked sternly.  
  
"The wind tells a tale of a thousand words."  
  
Goku grunted. He was in no mood for games. "What are you talking about?"  
  
Chi-Chi giggled. "I heard you, Goku. I heard it all. You think that this is somehow your fault."  
  
Goku sighed. "That's because it is. It's my fault. I could have prevented this."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "There was no way that you could have foretold this, nor was there a way that you could prevent it."  
  
"Yes there was. I was scared when Usagi was grabbed. I should have given more power, but I didn't. And now she's gone."  
  
"Goku, you know that it wasn't your fault."  
  
"The moon," He exclaimed as he looked up at the white pearl which happily floated in the air. "It won't blow."  
  
Chi-Chi gasped. "What?"  
  
"We tried everything, it just won't work. Even the power of Gojiita won't do it. Now, they want me to cut off Usagi's tail." He dropped his view down to his wife's eyes, who worriedly looked back into his. "You can already guess that I'm not doing it."  
  
Chi-Chi had expected that from him, but she had felt differently about it. "If it will keep her safe..."  
  
Goku glared down at his wife as he began to pull away. "What are you saying!? You WANT me to cut off her tail?"  
  
Chi-Chi scornfully frowned at her husband. "Of course NOT! But you know of all the trouble you had. You don't want that to happen to her do you?"  
  
"I will NOT be responsible for cutting anything off of her!"  
  
Chi-Chi pulled completely away from her husband as she jumped up to her feet. "Goku DON'T be selfish! This isn't about YOU!"  
  
Goku too jumped to his feet. "I'm NOT thinking about me!"  
  
"YES YOU ARE!"   
  
Goku didn't know how to react to that. How dare she accuse HIM of being selfish at a time like THIS. "And tell me HOW I'm being so DAMN SELFISH!"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned with a slight smirk. "Gladly. I've been watching you over the years, Goku. You strive to be a good father, but you're going at it all wrong. You are a good, father, yes, but you are not the same person who raised our boys, and though I'm grateful for that, you are caging our daughter."  
  
"What?! How am I caging her?"  
  
Chi-Chi quirked an eyebrow. "Do you really want to know?" Goku nodded. "Alright. You don't trust her. You may have thought that we don't know, but we feel you keeping close tabs on her all the time. You want her to have a normal life as a normal child? Don't Ki locate her all the time. She knows about it, but she doesn't say anything because it's not her place to do so. She feels like you haven't totally trusted her since she left to the past, which is why you do it."  
  
Goku frowned at that bit of information. "Well she's got it all wrong. I do it for... myself..." He paused as he had just justified his wife's rants. "I guess I want to know that she's alright. I want to know for myself that she's not in any danger, you know her past."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded. "Yes, I do. But I also know that you have to learn to let her learn things on her own. We are here to guide and love her, not RUN her ENTIRE life. She won't grow up to do things for herself."  
  
Goku frowned. "So what. What does this do with me not wanting to cut off her tail?"  
  
"Everything. It's for yourself. YOU don't want to see it come off. YOU don't want to be the one to have to cut it off."  
  
"You know nothing about this!"  
  
"We're going to have to cut it off unless there is another way."  
  
Goku glared into his wife's eyes. "NO we aren't."  
  
"Fine! Then we'll let her run amuck when she's an ape. We'll let her kill those that she loves and see what happens!"  
  
Goku clenched his fist, ready to start punching, but he controlled himself. He knew that he would regret it in the end, since he wasn't truly angry with her. "Do what you want, just don't expect me to be a part of it."  
  
"Are you going back to kami's lookout?"  
  
Goku shrugged. "We'll see what happens." With that, he jumped into the air, with great uncertainty. 'All those years that she's lied to me. She told me that I was a good father, well she just let her true colors come forth.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
New Namek: Tsukino Dimension  
  
The group of Warriors were completely stumped as to how they were supposed to pull this wish stuff off. They were some how supposed to reproduce the power of the moon princess, plus the power of everything else. They were short of the power needed.  
  
Usagi dropped herself as she rested her head in her hands. "This is hopeless. How are we ever going to get this done?"  
  
Chibi-Moon sat next to her with Tsukino Luna in her lap. "Maybe we can put all the power of these Nameks too."  
  
Dende shook his head. "Not enough of them are fighters."  
  
Venus; "So."  
  
"They wouldn't create enough power to do something like this. Too bad Guru isn't alive anymore. Then we would be able to get his power."  
  
Trunks threw a rock into a lake that was nearby. "This sucks. To have come this far only to have it blow up in our face."  
  
Sailor Moon got a grin across her face big enough to scare then entire crew up into the heavens. "I have an idea."  
  
Tsukino Luna gulped. "Do I dare ask?"  
  
Sailor Moon giggled. "I can reproduce the power of the moon princess."  
  
Tuxedo Kamen almost had a complete conniption at that. "What?! No! You don't have enough power for that!"  
  
Uranus ran to her leader and pulled her aside. "He's right. You would have to reproduce every last ounce of power in your body in order to do that, and you can't without dying."  
  
Usagi; "That's what you told me. It takes up your life energy. We would have to wait a year to wish you back with the Dragon Balls. What if something attacked here while you were gone?"  
  
Pluto smirked almost as fretfully as her leader. "But little one, you have the power to heal, do you not?"  
  
Usagi grinned. "That's right, and I only use the power when someone is near death. Just like the Senzu bean. Right when you're about to tap out, I'll use the healing technique to give you some of my power, since I don't know how to directly give you soul energy. It should keep you going."  
  
Sailor Moon smiled lightly. "See, all we have to do is pick at our brains for a while."  
  
Mercury; "Nice way of putting it." She said with sarcasm.  
  
Dende; "So is that our final decision."  
  
Tuxedo Kamen nodded before anyone else had a chance. "Yes, it is. We are completely ready for this. Young Usagi, please be prepared for this task."  
  
Usagi nodded with a grin. "Don't worry. I won't let you down." She paused with a giggled. "I'd be like killing myself if I didn't do it right."  
  
Dende cautiously approached the impatient Dragon once again with their final attempt. "Parunga, we will ask of you the same wish. We will have more power this time. Please allow us to try once again."  
  
Parunga's eyes slowly grew wide with fury as he began to try to grant the wishes again. "It shall be so. This is your last chance or I will send this child home."  
  
Dende nodded. "Understood." He turned to the warriors behind him. "Please begin. I will monitor what is happening. If I feel that Usagi can't refill your energy fast enough, I will jump in and help. Just don't lose concentration and this should work."  
  
Pluto; "Usagi, heal her as Super Saiyan, you will refill her with stronger power than her own, which is how you will transmit your power into the Dragon."  
  
Usagi nodded. "I'll be happy to." So that's what she did. She gently placed her hand upon the shoulder of her counterpart in order to be ready to replace energy. 'Let's hope this works or else we lose our chances to even make anymore wishes at all.' She closed her eyes and nodded for everything to begin.   
  
Again, the Senshi of earth concentrated their power into the Dragon, who would grant them their wish once and for all. Sailor Moon, too, began to concentrate her most inner power into the Dragon. Her body glowed a magnificent pearl white as the air around picked up into a slight gust. 'Please let this work, it must.'   
  
The sky around lit up into a rainbow of colors mixed together, all flowing into the body of the Dragon, who was beginning to feel the added power of Sailor Moon's Silver Crystal. The power was great; just enough for him to work his magic and grant the tasks that were stated on the paper. The warriors of justice had done it, they had properly deciphered the problem and fixed it.  
  
Usagi could feel the power draining out of her counter part. She couldn't help but tremble at the strength for it was an even stronger power than that of her father, though it couldn't completely be compared. The power of a Super Saiyan and this crystal of the moon, which she too held inside her own body, were on two different levels. One was made of pure love for all, and the other was a power dirtied by the will only to defeat. 'I... I have this in me?'  
  
Tuxedo Kamen, now in his Prince form, watched his beloved princess carefully for any signs of exhaustion. It was apparent that this time, using the crystal to the fullest strength, was taking more of a toll on her than ever before. "Usagi, start now."  
  
Usagi hesitated as she looked up to Prince Endyimon, a form of Mamoru that she had never seen. How wise he looked in his armor from so long ago; he looked nothing of a bully but that of a great ruler who would do anything to protect the innocent from danger. "Wow..." She whispered, not fully able to comprehend that this was what her Mamoru would one day turn to be.  
  
The Prince frowned at the child. "Usagi! She is losing power fast! You must heal her!" He wrapped his arms around Sailor Moon as she began to lose her footing.  
  
Usagi shook her head to wash out the curiosity that was building inside. "I'm on it." Seeing that Sailor Moon was going to pass out soon, Usagi braced herself and began using her special healing power on the tired princess. 'Don't worry, I won't let you down. I promise.'  
  
Transmitting her own Super Saiyan power into Sailor Moon, the duo's power almost became one, greater than even the power of the Crystal itself, which only gave the Dragon even more power.   
  
Parunga, feeling a power of accomplishment, let his eyes glow brighter than before right before they went back to their normal color; letting the warriors know that their job was finished. Sailor Moon, stopping her power, let her knees give way from beneath and fell to the ground. Her Prince was soon to follow to make sure she was safe.  
  
Panting from her work, Usagi turned around with a slight smile to look back at her mother, who was smiling brightly back at her. "Did it work?" She whispered as she slowly turned her head up to Pluto.  
  
Pluto nodded. "Yes little one, I believe it did. The Multiverse is at peace once again." Chibi-Moon ran to the younger versions of her mother and father and hugged them with all her might.  
  
Sailor Moon hugged her daughter back just as hard. "You were all right, we did it. It worked." She rubbed her hand down Chibi-Moon's back, only to be stopped by something fuzzy. "Chibi-Usa, what's this?" She leaned over and looked down her daughter's back, only to see a happily wagging tail. "A TAIL!"   
  
Usagi darted a glare in Sailor Moon's direction with a giggle. "Oh yeah, now that you're Saiyans, you have a tail!" She hopped over to the duo and continued her bubbling giggles.   
  
Sailor Moon reached out and grabbed the tail as hard as she could, causing Chibi-Moon to wail in pain. "WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?!"  
  
Sailor Moon immediately let go of the child's tail and laughed. "Don't be such a wimp. It's only a tail."  
  
Chibi-Moon grinned as she reached behind Sailor Moon and grabbed the tail that was sitting behind. "Oh yeah?" She squeezed it as hard as she could to repay the favor.  
  
"OWWWAAHH!" Sailor Moon fell over in pain as she balled up.  
  
"'Don't be such a wimp. It's only a tail.'" Chibi-Moon giggled as she let go to relive the pain on Sailor Moon.  
  
Sailor Moon frowned as she once again reached over her future daughter and grabbed the tail, which was trying to hide from being grabbed again. "How do you like it?"  
  
"HEY!" Mustering up all the strength she could, Chibi-Moon reached out for Sailor Moon's tail and grabbed it. Now, both girls were tangled around each other, each with a tail at hand and both crying out in pain.   
  
"LET GO YOU LITLE TWERP!"   
  
"YOU FIRST!"  
  
Tsukino Luna dropped her head in embarrassment. "These tails are going to cause a lot of problems."  
  
Sailor Saturn, remembering that she too was supposed to be part Saiyan now, turned around and looked behind her only to spot a brown tail. "I have a tail too."  
  
Usagi, who was on the ground laughing at the spectacle being created by the two moons, turned her head to see her friend gazing at her newly acquired tail. "Yeah, don't let anyone grab it cause it really hurts. These two are just now figuring that out."  
  
Sailor Saturn looked to her fellow Senshi with fright written in her eyes. "I..." She slowly turned back to the laughing child. "I want it off."  
  
Usagi immediately stopped laughing and glared up at Saturn. "What? But you just got it."  
  
Saturn gulped, not wanting to hurt the child's feelings. "I know, but I can't have it. My father will be suspicious."  
  
Sailor Moon pulled away from Chibi-Moon's grip. "Yeah, kid, no offence, but this tail has got to go. I needed the extra power, not a tail. I'm human at heart, not Saiyan like you. I want to be normal, not that a tail isn't normal for some people, it's just not normal for me."  
  
Chibi Moon nodded. "Yeah, that's true. I mean, some things are nice, just not new limbs. Sorry."  
  
Usagi slightly frowned. She had lived with a tail her entire life, it was part of her, but on the other hand, these three hadn't. She couldn't really blame them for wanting to live life as the had since they were born. "Ok. It's not up to me. It's your body."  
  
Saturn smiled. "Who will take them off?"  
  
Bulma; "We'll have Dende do it. He's from the same race as Kami, who permanently removed Goku's tail so it would never grow back."  
  
Chi-Chi; "An excellent idea." She was still smiling brightly down to Usagi. She still couldn't get over the face that she was her daughter in another dimension, and that she would now always be her daughter in every time.  
  
Trunks walked to Usagi and patted her on the head with a giant smile. "Well, it looks like you've just repaid the favor, Usagi."  
  
Usagi looked up to Trunks in slight confusion, though she had an idea of what he was talking about. "You saved my dad, I helped save the Multiverse."  
  
Trunks grinned. "You've saved your father too, you know."  
  
Usagi's grin smile faded away as she felt the familiar power of her father in the distance. "Daddy..." She turned to her mother, who had tears in her eyes.  
  
Chi-Chi; "My Goku's back? Where is he?" She looked all around in hopes to see her husband and her son. "I don't see them."  
  
Usagi looked around the area, she could feel them alright, she just couldn't pinpoint their location. "They aren't moving, I just feel them." 'Oh I can't wait until he gets here! This is going to be good. I just love family reunions like this!'  
  
Chi-Chi slumped with disappointment. "I wish he were here right now." All of a sudden, a group of shadows appeared before the group. Chi-Chi knew immediately who the group consisted of. It wasn't hard to figure out when there was THAT much orange.   
  
Before Chi-Chi had a chance to react, however, Usagi did it again. She forgot all about the fact that it was not her real father, and raced out for him, latching onto his waist. "DADDY!" The familiarity of his sent made Usagi completely oblivious to what was going on around her. At that point, she didn't care about anything that was going on, just that she was once again in the arms of her father. Her world was complete. She had been reunited with her mother AND father... sort of.  
  
Goku, nearly being thrown backwards by the child's enthusiasm, scratched his head as he looked down at her. "Huh? I don't have a daughter..." He looked up and around to the group. "Do I?"  
  
Gohan, who was just as confused as the rest of the group was, took time out of his thinking to look over at his father, who was trying to get away from the girl. "More to the point father, you died years ago. We all did. Why are we here?"  
  
Growling at the girl, Vejita walked to the crying child and tried to pry her away from Goku. "Let go you BRAT! Kakarotto has no daughter! You are just an annoyance!" He took no notice of the tail that was attached to her body.  
  
Feeling Vejita's arms around her body, Usagi tightened her grip on her father, not wanting to be pulled away. "NO! Leave me alone!"  
  
Goku, still dazed and confused, looked straight into Vejita's eyes. "Hold on a minute, Vejita. Something's not right. I remember dying of the heart disease." Still confused, he turned to his son, who he didn't exactly recognize for the last time he had seen him, he was only nine years old. "Why did you say that everyone else died, though?"  
  
Gohan hadn't caught his father's last question. Instead, he had his eyes focused on Trunks, who was an adult now. He couldn't believe it. He had to be at least in his thirty's now by the looks of it. Had he been dead that long?   
  
Goku turned back down to the child, who was still tightly latched around him. "Would you like to explain to us what's going on?" He looked up to his crying wife. "Chi-Chi?"  
  
Chi-Chi walked to her husband, and gently pulled Usagi away. "Goku, I missed you so much." She cried harder as she threw her arms around her husband, who was with her once again.   
  
Goku, who was still utterly confused and becoming angry quite fast, wrapped his arms around his wife. "Chi-Chi..." His eyes traveled down to the child, who was still at his side.   
  
Usagi, finally getting a handle on herself, smiled up at him. "Daddy I'm so happy to see you again."  
  
Goku gulped. He hoped that she wasn't really his daughter. "Chi-Chi, who is this girl?"  
  
Chi-Chi grinned. "This is Usagi, our daughter."  
  
Gohan and Goku both freaked out at that. "What?!"  
  
Gohan; "That would make her my sister. Mom, how did you get another child from dad? He was dead."  
  
Bulma giggled. "She's from another dimension, silly."  
  
Goku blinked as he laid his eyes upon the child's tail. 'We'll she IS a Saiyan.' "My daughter? Another dimension? Little one, would you mind explaining to us what's going on?"  
  
Vejita crossed his arms with frustration. "Great, another brat to deal with." He eyed his son, whom he had not seen since he was an infant.  
  
Usagi: "Well you see it's like this; after you died from that heart disease, these androids came and attacked the earth."  
  
Goku, of course, wanted to know more about these androids. "What androids?"  
  
Gohan frowned. "A gift from Dr. Gero. They just about destroyed the entire world."  
  
Goku, who still couldn't get over how much his son had grown and changed, frowned. "The leader of the Red Ribbon army? I thought I destroyed him."  
  
"You did, but he wanted revenge." Gohan turned to Trunks. "By the way, how did that turn out?"  
  
Trunks smirked. "Why don't you ask your kid sis?"  
  
Usagi grinned. "Anyway, when the androids came, everyone died trying to fight them. Then it was only Trunks and Gohan left. After Gohan was killed, Trunks, Vejita's son, used a time machine that Bulma had made and went into the past to save Daddy in hopes of destroying the androids before Dr. Gero woke them up. He gave Daddy a potion to stop the bad heart thingy, and to warn of the androids. Anyway they won against them, even turned one good, and beat cell, the most powerful android of all, but you don't know him. After that Trunks realized that it was a different dimension that he was in, and went back to this one. In the other dimension, mom and dad had two more kids. Goten and ME." She shouted happily.  
  
"I was born with the power of a Super Saiyan, but Daddy never would tell why, But Minako told me ALL about Adult time, and I know that the reason is because he had adult time with Mom as a Super Saiyan. And that was really gross Daddy." She said this, giggling at her blushing father.  
  
"Anyway, after LOTS of training, I reached my own level of Super Saiyan, which daddy says is just below his Super Saiyan two. And then I was kidnapped by these evil people and mom and dad couldn't save me. There, I was revealed as Sailor Moon and given this really dorky outfit. But escaping from the bad guys I came into this dimension. Here Tsukino Usagi is me in this dimension. But, she wasn't as strong as me. Turns out we're reincarnated from the Moon Princess and since Daddy wasn't alive here I was born to a human. But we needed Saiyan strength, and the dimensions needed to have a right path. So we used the Dragonballs of new Nemak and ALL the Senshis', Trunks', mom's, Bulma's, Plus the power of the Moon's Silver Crystal to bring you all back."  
  
Goku, still with his wife at hand, blinked twice in confusion as he stared down at the child. "I guess everyone's been busy while I was dead, huh?"  
  
Gohan, just a little grossed out at finding out how Usagi was born, looked around to his group of friends and family. "You're lucky that you missed it. The world is in ruin. I'm just glad to be back to kick some android butt!"   
  
Trunks smirked. "She didn't add in the part that I've already destroyed the androids in this dimension."  
  
At that, everyone who was dead, who also knew and fought the androids, widened their eyes. Gohan the most. "Trunks, are you SERIOUS?! That's amazing! You must have gained a ton of power after I died."  
  
"I did, I've ascended past that of a Super Saiyan."  
  
Vejita glared at his son. 'Even my own brat is a Super Saiyan. I'm the only one who isn't a Super Saiyan now, but I WILL beat them all in time.'  
  
Sailor Pluto frowned at the grinning Usagi. "Don't you think that you should be getting home now, Usagi? You have an equally large problem of your own at home. I just got word from the Sailor Pluto of your own time that there are a lot of problem arising there."  
  
Usagi groaned at the thought of anything else bad happening. "I guess I should."  
  
Son Luna jumped into Usagi's arms. "Remember, not a single word about your new power or destiny to anyone who is NOT a scout. Not a word of this to ANYONE who is not awakened yet either, understood?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Not a problem." She looked up to her parents, who were enjoying each other's company now. 'How cute.' "Daddy, can you train these other Senshi? They really need it." She grinned at the frowning Senshi. "What? It's true. You guys couldn't even touch me in that fight. You really need to work on your skills."  
  
Goku looked over to the Senshi, chuckled, and then looked back down to Usagi. "I'll try."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Thanks. I guess this is goodbye then. I have to go home now." She turned around to get into a more open space.   
  
Chi-Chi smiled down at the small child in tears as she walked away. She had brought so many memories back to life. She had made it possible for them to make more memories. "Thank you, Usagi. Both Usagis. You have brought my family back to me."  
  
Usagi stopped in her place, and without turning around, answered back. "My friends and family always deserve the best."  
  
(I finished early so I thought I'd give you guys a break and post it. ^_^ What did you think? I'm on top of getting another one started today. Cya Next Time!)   
  



	110. Part 12

~*~*~*~  
  
Things seemed to be going well for the young Saiyan, Usagi, who was ready to head home. Things couldn't have gone smoother in the Tsukino dimension and she was more than ready to be reunited with her friends and family once again. But what she didn't know, is that things wouldn't be all peachy when she returned. Her parents were in the middle of an argument that had been building up between the two for some time, although the reasons were so hidden, even to them, that they could only have been brought about by a crisis such as this.   
  
After the falling out between husband and wife, Chi-Chi had returned to her quest for locating the Dragon Balls, while Goku flew into the night skies with no particular destination.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Earth: Son Dimension  
  
The night was becoming colder and time rolled on. The group of adults who were meant to be staying with the girls and Kami's lookout had yet to return with the parents, although, seven unexpected guests had uninvitedly shown up.   
  
Yes, Mamoru and his gang -- known only as the emotionless Rat Pack - had conveniently taken it upon themselves to come to the heart of the action. Though, for an entirely different reason than to try and get Usagi back from the hands of evil. They wanted to know why they could feel this knew entity, why none of the adults could.   
  
Mamoru knew that feeling all too well. He remembered the power of Cell, whom they had fought in the past. This knew power had the same exact feeling as him and there was only one explanation for such a comparison. The power had to be from that queen that he had spoken of, the one who wanted Usagi's power.  
  
Mamoru took the initiative over his entire gang of friends and came to stand about five feet in front of Rei, who was glaring into his devious eyes.   
  
Rei frowned up at him for the perverse smirk that the leader lay upon her. "What do you want?"  
  
Mamoru only continued to grin. He could tell that they were hiding something, just by the way this girl held herself, as if she were more confident than anyone of the adults, whom he had seen down on earth in the city gathering parents up. "You know why we're here."  
  
Makoto, who was still inside Dende's palace, grabbed Hotaru by the wrist and dragged her outside to meet with the unexpected group.   
  
Hotaru resisted slightly. "Why are we going out there?" She whispered.   
  
Makoto put her finger to her mouth to shush her younger friend. "Don't worry about it. I don't think they're here to do any harm."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Very good, Makoto. You learn fast." He winked back at the brown-haired girl with a devious smile.  
  
Rei crossed her arms. She wasn't at all amused by this. "Just get on with it."  
  
Haruka frowned as she pushed Mamoru to the side. "Fine. Kid, we want to know what's up. You have obviously dealt with this already, from what Mamoru tells us. We saw and felt the power that the adults were trying to throw at the moon, which obviously has SOMETHING to do with this new enemy of ours otherwise it wouldn't have just popped up there from out of no where."  
  
Makoto grinned. 'Looks like she's going to get to the part about how she needs us soon.' "What's your point?" Makoto giggled with anticipation. She would have given anything to hear them say that they needed someone else to do a task.  
  
Haruka clenched her fist as well as her teeth. She wouldn't bring herself down to the level of begging for help. Seeing her obvious distress, Michiru gently rubbed Haruka's arm and gave her a warm, caring smile. "The adults can't sense the new enemy we are up against. Mamoru has told us everything about Cell and how the adults from the past couldn't fell it either. We may need your help, seeing as how the five of you destroyed Cell with your combined attack in the past." Rei and Makoto exchanged glances of anxiety with a pair of groans.   
  
That only caused Mamoru to frown. "What the hell is wrong with you guys? I know you can do it."  
  
Rei grinned. "Not that we aren't flattered by you asking us to help you, but we can't beat this enemy on our own."  
  
Justin quirked an eyebrow in fascination. He could detect a secret when he saw one. "Oh really, and why is that? Do you know someone who can help you, I mean, you did say by yourselves and all."  
  
Rei jumped back with a slight giggle. She needed to steer them away from the thinking that she was hiding something. She couldn't be the one responsible for giving up their identity on the first night on the job. "Well... no ... you see ... we may need the Sailor Senshis' help, yeah that's it. The Sailor Senshi."  
  
'That sounds quite suspicious. I better watch these kids, they know something.' Mamoru chuckled. "The Sailor Senshi, huh? You mean those people who feel quit a bit like you? They have a stronger energy than you, but they and you feel almost completely alike."  
  
Artimas, who was sitting at Hotaru's feet stared up at this strange group of people in curiosity. 'Why were they able to feel the Senshi? Wait, they must have some kind of connection with the Moon Kingdom as well. That's gotta be it. It's the only way that anyone could feel the power of the Dark Kingdom and Moon Kingdom.'  
  
Artimas perked his ears back when he heard the landing of feet on the surface of Kami's lookout. 'Venus and Mercury must be back.'   
  
In fact it had been Venus and Mercury returning from their encounter with Gojiita, Piccolo, Dende, and Gohan. They were more than ready to turn back to their civilian forms when they spotted a tiny white blob running right for them.   
  
"DON'T!" Was all that was shouted from the little white creature.  
  
Mamoru and his entire gang turned around in place. "Did that cat just say something?"  
  
Rei and Makoto jumped from their spots and grabbed Mamoru by the head and arms. "NO!" They both shouted.   
  
Makoto pulled Mamoru away from the group. "A cat can't talk, silly. What's wrong with you?"  
  
More interested in what the cat was doing, Mamoru wasn't paying much attention to the girls who hung all over him. Had he known what exactly they were doing, he would have decked them both right there and then. "I could have sworn that cat just said 'Don't'"  
  
Michiru nodded. "As did I."  
  
Hotaru, wanting to do her part, tried to giggle to get the attention taken off of Artimas. "Nope. You were hearing things."  
  
Mamoru glared back at the child. 'Now I know they're hiding something. I don't hear things, ever.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Venus looked around the area only to see commotion in the form of her friends and the Rat Pack. "Great, now what are we supposed to do? We can't detransform here, they'll see us."  
  
Mercury sighed in exasperation. "Will nothing go right tonight?"  
  
Artimas jumped up onto Venus' shoulder and proceeded to whisper into her ear. "Transform later. Don't worry about it until they summon the Dragon."  
  
No sooner did these words come into existence did the two groups, who had met up on the way, of the Dragon Ball collectors and Moon destroyers return to the lookout. Though, there was still one person missing, Goku. Rei grabbed Hotaru by the arm and dragged her back into the palace so as to not cause anymore trouble with the adults, who were certain that trouble would come to be if Hotaru were to look into the full moon. Venus and Mercury, on the other hand, just stood on the edge of the platform, waiting for the adults to stress over them, but surprisingly, nothing happened. They were too interested in summoning Shenlong, the Eternal Dragon.   
  
Goten, who had the entire set of eight Dragon Balls in a bag, dropped them onto the surface. Everyone gathered around to watch the show, all except for Chi-Chi, who tried desperately to locate her husband, but had no luck. She wished that he had at least shown up for this. It didn't matter if they were mad at each other, the point was that their daughter was going to be returning home. He should at least be there for it, but instead, he chose to be a baby about the entire situation.   
  
All of a sudden, a large, cold hand was placed upon her shoulder, causing her to jump out in surprise. "Goku?!" A twinkle of hope appeared in her eyes as she turned around to see who it was, only to be once again dropped into disappointment. "Gohan, it's you."  
  
Gohan gave his mother a half smile for he knew something was eating away at his mother's emotions, he could always tell. Though he was not sure of exactly what was going on, he knew enough to know that it was his father that was the trouble. "Cheer up mom, Usagi is going to be home very soon."  
  
Chi-Chi sighed as she hugged her son. "It's not that anymore. I know she will be home, safe and sound soon. This time it's your father. He won't be here when she gets back and I know how much it will mean to her to have both of us here when she gets back."  
  
Goten, seeing what was going on, tried to offer his mother a word of advice. "Just put yourself in his shoes."  
  
Gohan frowned at his younger brother. "Shut up and go back to what you were doing."  
  
Goten frowned. "Fine. Sheesh." Grumbling, he turned around and prepared for the Dragon Balls to be put into place.   
  
Gohan looked down to his mother, who had tears in her eyes. "I know what you're going through, mom. But you do have to understand where dad is coming from. He was really upset when he left us. He just needs time alone."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Well he sure picked a fine time to ..."  
  
Before she could even finish her sentence, a bright, golden light filled the entire area. A shadow, inside the light, became larger and larger as the light brightened. "Look out below!"  
  
At that sound, the sound of a child yelling from the sky, Chi-Chi's eyes widened to their fullest. That voice, in which she knew so well, came from the body of her youngest. "U...sa..gi?!"  
  
Videl covered sheltered her eyes from the intensity of the light with her hand. "Hey! It is Usagi! She's back!"  
  
Tears streamed down the face of the child's mother as she jumped into the air. "My baby! She's home! Safe and sound!" 'Goku where are you?!'  
  
Usagi continued to fall with a smile as she listened to the commotion that was taking place; the joyful words of her mother, her brothers, and friends. But, for some reason, she couldn't hear a single thing of her father. 'Where's daddy at?'  
  
Falling faster as she neared the tower, Usagi braced herself for an impact, which she was sure would be one of her family member's arms. But to her deep surprise, they were not of her mother, father, nor were they of her brothers, but a VERY shocked and angry Vejita.   
  
Vejita growled at Usagi as her weight hitting against his arms all of a sudden caused him to nearly topple forward. "Brat!"  
  
Usagi giggled as she reached up and cupped her hands on his cheeks. "Why Vejita, my Prince!" She squealed aloud. "I always knew you loved me!" She leaned forward and gave him a giant, wet kiss on his forehead.   
  
In a faster action than anyone's eyes could truly follow, Vejita ripped his arms out from underneath the small body of the younger Saiyan and glared down to her with fire as she slammed into the concrete. "Don't you EVER TOUCH me again!"   
  
Bulma giggled as she threw her own arms around her husband. "Vejita, how long have you two been seeing each other?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Artimas trotted behind the two Senshi, who everyone had failed to notice. "You two, go detransform now that everyone is busy with this. They won't see you."  
  
Mercury nodded down to the white feline. "Good idea. Come on Minako. Let's teleport to the palace where no one will see us."  
  
"Good idea." Venus nodded as she pressed her fingers to her forehead and concentrated her energy to the palace upon the tower, teleporting in an instant with her comrade close behind.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi sat on the ground for a moment as she looked up. The first face that she lay her bright, blue eyes upon was that of her smiling mother. There were no words in her vocabulary that could explain what kind of true bliss she was in fact feeling. "Mommy..." She remembered what the Chi-Chi in the other dimension had said to her about letting her emotions go in times of need and decided to just let loose.   
  
Usagi jumped up to her feet and within a flash of one second, she was in her mothers arms, on the ground again from the force of her own strength. "MOMMY!" She squeezed almost as hard as she could, trying desperately to not suffocate her own mother, but it was too hard to restrain herself. It felt like an entire eternity had gone by since the last time she had actually seen her own mother, not like the time she had spent in the past. "Is it really you?" She asked as she pulled back to look into her mother's ebony eyes.   
  
Chi-Chi laughed of joy as she kissed her daughter upon the cheek. "Yes, dear, it's really me."  
  
Usagi smiled with relief as she pressed her head against her mother's bosom. 'I'm in the right dimension, and hopefully for the last time.'  
  
Videl and Pan couldn't help but want to cry at the spectacle that they were witnessing. Mother and daughter, once again reunited. It was just a shame that the father could not enjoy such a reunion as well. Instead, he had to be off in his own world, sulking about having to perform something that would hurt his daughter, though, little did he know that he was going to end up hurting her worse this way.  
  
Goten walked to his mother and kneeled down, putting his hand on the back of his little sister. "You ok?"  
  
Usagi nodded as she pulled away, ever so slightly. "Yes. But I missed you guys so much."  
  
Gohan, who stood behind his brother, warmly smiled down at the three with loving eyes. "You gave us all quite a scare. We were about to summon the Dragon to wish for you to come back home."  
  
Usagi smiled as she wiped a stream of tears away from her face. 'I wonder if the Dragon would have let me return home...' Feeling a bit incomplete, she looked around the area. She saw her friends, the Rat Pack, the adults whom she had known her entire life, but not her father. "Mommy, where's daddy?" She asked curiously. Though, had she known the response that she would get, she wouldn't have asked it in the first place.  
  
Chi-Chi gulped as she looked into Goten's eyes, which told her to just go ahead and say. But, she knew that Usagi was too sensitive to just be told without somehow making it less of a blow. Chi-Chi didn't want to crush her daughter with the truth, but what else could she say? She herself was still quite angry with him, but she surely didn't want their own daughter to be angry with him. "Daddy... well, he's contemplating something at the moment."   
  
Not a single word bubbled out of the mouth of the curious child as the two of them sat there on the ground with watchful eyes all around.   
  
Gohan kneeled down next to his sister and grabbed her by the arms, turning her towards him. "Dad's real upset about something right now. We just need to give him some time alone to think about it, ok?"  
  
Usagi very calmly nodded with a slight idea in mind of what he was talking about. "Like when mom is mad and we need to give her her space?" Gohan nodded, and, out of the corner of her eye, she could see her mother nodding as well. "But I'm back, doesn't he care?"  
  
Bulma, having heard the entire story from Chi-Chi, bent over and rested her hands on her knees. "Of course he cares. He loves you, Usagi. He just needs some time to think some things through to give you the best opportunity."  
  
Usagi squinted with confusion. 'He's thinking about me? This can't be good.' "Oh...'  
  
Chi-Chi put her hand around her daughter's chin and directed her to look back at her. "Usagi, you have to promise us that you will not look at the moon, alright?"  
  
Usagi's mouth awed in the shape of an 'O'. "The moon.... I completely forgot." Not really paying attention to what her mother just said to her, Usagi looked up. The sky, it was finally complete. The moon and its blissful shine would no longer be suppressed as long as she was Moon Princess. It would be her destiny to protect its good name. No harm would be allowed to come to it as long as she was around, which would be quite a long while.   
  
She calmly pulled away from her mother's protective grasp and began walking towards the moon, as if it were calling to her to come, though this time her body refused to shine its imposing silver aura. She felt not at all like she had earlier in the day. No, now she felt complete. The emptiness in her heart was completely gone, replaced with goodness and purity.   
  
Chi-Chi jumped to her feet and reached out for her daughter, only to meet with thin air for her daughter had walked away. "USAGI!!! NO!!!"  
  
Goten rushed out for her, but tripped over his brother, who was also trying to catch her. "LOOK AWAY!" Though he hadn't exactly seen what happened to a Saiyan when they transformed, he knew, from many stories, exactly what kind of destruction they could cause.   
  
Gohan, after being tripped over, was slowed down to almost a complete halt. "USAGI!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, in the Palace where the girls were sitting with Hotaru, they were getting a good laugh at the adults' antics. Never in their lives had they seen someone stressing out over something so insignificant. Had the only known that the moon could never hurt Usagi, they would feel like complete idiots.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Only about a span of ten seconds had passed since Usagi had first looked at the moon; the adults more fearful than ever.   
  
Chi-Chi, who was just about to reach her daughter, yelled out once more in hopes to make her daughter obey. "USAGI DO AS YOU'RE TOLD!" No luck, Usagi refused. However, one unexpected incident did cause her to look away. Though it wasn't by choice, Usagi was basically punched down to the ground by that of a greater force. Chi-Chi hastily came to a halt when she saw a tall, muscular figure standing angrily over her daughter. 'I don't believe it...'   
  
Usagi's body hit the concrete with a loud thud, causing all those who loved her to cringe in pain for their friend and family member. Before she even thought about turning around to see who had assaulted her, she decided that she had better sense out who it was. The power level that she received scared her to death.   
  
Gulping, Usagi turned around to stare into two, stark black eyes, that flashed with a hint of green every so often. Those eyes; eyes filled with fear, and above all, anger. She could truly say that she was scared of what was come next from this troubled man who stood before her. "Daddy...?" There we was, face to face with the only person who had never once laid a single hand on her before in her entire life, and now, one could no longer say that. Tears began to form in the base of her already moist eyes.   
  
Goku glared down at his daughter with a fury unknown to him. His blue aura raged around him with an even greater wrath. "You mother told you NOT to look up at the moon! What is your PROBLEM?!" His aura spun around at a fast speed as he emphasized the last word in that sentence, putting an even greater fear into his daughter.  
  
Usagi made certain not to look in the direction of the moon as she slowly rose to her feet to confront her father. "But daddy..."  
  
Goku narrowed his glare as he rose his hand. "Don't 'But daddy' me young lady! Do you WANT to become a giant, ugly, killing ape?!"  
  
Usagi gulped when she noticed her father's hand hovering over her cheek. "N... no... But you don't understand... I ... I..."  
  
Goku once again felt it his duty to cut her off mid sentence. "I understand completely. You completely disregard anything your mother or I say. You need to learn your place, when to do as you're told."  
  
Usagi frowned. This was unfair treatment. She had just gotten back home and she gets this from her father. She had done nothing. Granted she had not done what she was told, but she knew that was not a call for a lecture of this caliber at a time like this. "Daddy stop it. I didn't do anything. I don't under..."  
  
Goku said nothing, but instead, responded with a swift slap to her face. Chi-Chi had seen quite enough at that point. It was unnecessary treatment. Usagi was right, there was no reason to be acting like this, especially since the girl had just come home.   
  
Stalking to her husband, Chi-Chi lay a big one on the back of his head. "Goku! Don't act like this. I realize you're angry with me, but that is no reason what so ever to take it out on your daughter at a time like this! Do I make myself clear?!"   
  
Usagi slowly lifted her hand to her red, tender cheek in a full cry. "Daddy, I'm sorry. I won't do it again."  
  
Goku frowned, utterly ignoring his wife. He had come to the hardest decision in his life, which was why he was being so anal all of a sudden. "You can look at the moon, Usagi... Just as soon as that tail of yours comes off."  
  
Usagi's mouth nearly dropped to the ground at the sound of that. "Cut off my tail? What are you talking about. No!" She whined as she turned to her mother for protection. "Mommy what's he talking about? You can't cut off my tail... it's mine."  
  
Chi-Chi gravely gulped as she looked into the fearful eyes of her daughter. Never in her life did she want to do something so harsh, but truth be told, it was obvious that it had to be done. Goku had finally come to terms with the fact and there was no better time to do it. "I'm afraid we're going to have to, Usagi. For some reason, the Moon can't be destroyed. So it's your tail and Hotaru's tail. I'm sorry."  
  
Usagi got a pouty lower lip as she backed away from her mother and father. "No. This isn't fair. I don't wanna lose my tail."  
  
Goku's expression softened as he neared his daughter. "Usagi, I've thought long and hard about this and it's for the best. Your safety, and everyone else's safety depends on this."  
  
Usagi backed away yet again. "But I don't change into an ape. See?" She looked up to the moon once again, only to find her father teleporting to the area behind her position. "Nothing will happen."  
  
Goku wasn't about to let anything bad happen to his daughter or anyone else for that matter. He quickly wrapped his arms around her body and pulled her away, with her facing forward and his back to the moon. He made sure to keep a tight grip around his struggling child so she wouldn't break free. "Usagi, stop it."  
  
Usagi refused. She wouldn't let anything happen to her precious tail no matter what. "Please listen to me. I'm telling the truth. If you would just watch I could show you. Please daddy. PLEASE!"   
  
Goku cringed at the sound of his daughter begging him to not perform the deed which would change her. "I'm sorry..." He whispered, wanting to cry himself at what he was about to have ordered done. 'Forgive me...' He reached down Usagi's leg and felt around for her tail. It, obviously, wasn't there as a result to her wrapping it around her leg. "Usagi, please don't make this harder on us all than it has to be." He reached under the skirt of her GI and clasped his hand around her tail, pulling it out as fast as he could.   
  
"NO!" Usagi squealed at the top of her lungs. "Daddy PLEASE! NO!"   
  
Chi-Chi forced herself to watch as the duo struggled. One wanted free while the other fought with their own emotions to keep a firm hold. It was just too much for her to watch; tears of her own streaming down her face.  
  
With one arm firmly placed around his daughter's chest and the other with a tail at hand, Goku was ready. "Piccolo! Permanently remove just as Kami removed mine so it will never grow back!" He kept his eye on his struggling child at hand, ready for any kind of break away she may be planning. "Usagi stop. You're making this harder on yourself than it has to be. I'm sorry, but it's just the way it has to be. I know you don't understand."  
  
Piccolo hastily approached the duo of Saiyans, father and daughter together. One fighting the other with a cause of their own at mind. "Are you sure about this, Goku?"   
  
Goku gulped with watery eyes ready to cry right along with his daughter. "No. But it's the only way to fix things otherwise her life will be suppressed." He tightened his grip around Usagi as she struggled harder.   
  
Piccolo fully understood what his comrade was talking about. He had done many things in his life because he knew he had to, although he didn't really want to. "Alright. Here we go." He stretched his arms and reached out for the tail that the father of the young Saiyan held. 'I'm sorry, kid. Your dad's right with this one...' He gripped Usagi's tail in his hand and began to tug, though using some of his own power to stop the pain from escalating too high.  
  
Usagi let her emotional distress be known though. "NO! DADDY PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME!" With that, she raised her power level and ripped away from her father and Piccolo in a flash.   
  
( OOOOOOOH! Lookie there! She got another chapter out, eh!? Hehe, NO HOMEWORK!! YAYAYA! You had better be happy that my teachers decided to not give me any homework tonight otherwise you'd be waiting until this weekend to get another chapter. ^_^ Anyway, I thought this was the perfect spot to end this chapter, what do you think? ::grins deviously:: Hehe, so what did you think? Love to hear. Ja ne!! )   



	111. Part 13

The night grew colder as an unwanted aura of corrupt emotions arose atop Kami's Tower.   
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Confusion, anger, fear; all emotions of the sort; lead into young Usagi's painful distress as she apprehensively stared into the eyes of her father, whom she had just ultimately defied. Tears poured out of her eyes and down past her chin with an uncontrollable rush of sorrow as if filled her entire soul; she would soon regret what she had just done. She saw nothing but fury in his black eyes, which only sent her heart beating ten times as fast its normal rate.  
  
From Goku's point of view, he was sure, at this point, that this was going to have to be done by force. If he was going to be able to do that, he knew not. But he wasn't about to back down from his position. This had to be done for her own good. The more she would resist, the sterner he would become. There was absolutely no reason what so ever for her to be acting this way. He could understand her distress, but to disobey him in the manner that she had was a much different deal. "Usagi!" He shouted with a rage not known to be heard by him at any previous time.   
  
Usagi frowned as she stood her ground. Yes, she was scared to death of what her father could do to her, but she wouldn't stand down. To her, this was the most right thing that she could do. Had this been anything different, like being reprimanded for something that she had done, she wouldn't have minded. But this, no, this was too much. They were talking about cutting part of her off. Of course, had she been affected by the moon, she would have been all for it, but that wasn't the case here, the moon did nothing to her. "It's MY tail. You CAN'T cut it off!"   
  
Goku loosened up a bit as he approached his daughter, who seemed to be powering up every time one of his feet hit the ground. "Stop this, Now!" He let go of the fists that he held, to show that he would not lower himself to fighting his own flesh and blood, even if she wanted to.   
  
Usagi let her protective, Saiyan instinct kick in as she growled at her father, coordinating her steps back with his. "You can't cut MY tail off! Nothing happens when I look into the moon." She stopped raising her power when it reached the halfway point of an average Saiyan, which was still considerably higher than that of her father's.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi nearly lunged herself for her daughter when Goku stomped his last step towards Usagi down on the ground, causing the entire platform to shake. "Usagi don..."  
  
Vejita stopped the woman with a rough punch to the stomach. "Foolish female! Don't interfere when an offspring challenges the parent!"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she pushed forward against Vejita's grip. "Don't you EVER tell me how to manage my family you mon..."  
  
Gohan, seeing very well that his mother wouldn't hesitate engaging in a fight at this point, pulled her away. "Mother, I think Vejita's right with this one. Dad could go ballistic at any point."  
  
Chi-Chi sighed as she dropped her stance. "Fine. But if it gets out of hand, I'm not going to hesitate pulling them away."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku stood face to face with Usagi; both of them glaring into the eyes of one another with no thoughts of backing down. Though, Usagi was in the mode of fighting for her tail, Goku stood, calm as ever; although still with a twinkle of anger in his eyes. "Usagi, do not resort to fighting. I have taught you otherwise, now use the knowledge." 'Don't show me that you've been disobeying me in the rules of fighting...'   
  
Usagi glared up at her father harder as she pulled back a bit, though not lowing her power level. "Are you going to stop trying to cut off my tail?"  
  
Goku shook his head with a sigh. "NO."  
  
Usagi crouched into a fighting position. "Then I'm not going to lower my power level."  
  
Goku frowned down at the little figure. "If that's the way you want it." Slightly raising his own power level, he teleported himself behind his daughter.   
  
Usagi was ready for that. The moment she felt his power level go up, she raised her sense. And in doing so, she followed his every movement, anticipating that he would try something like that. "I don't think so!" She yelled as she lifted her foot and jammed her heal into the thigh of her father.   
  
Goku had only just arrived in his place when he felt the swift kick of his daughter, when he found himself flying backwards. Had this been anyone else, he would have rose to their challenge, but there was no way that he would fight his daughter in a real battle; nor was there any want in his heart to. 'Stay calm Goku. Stay calm. She doesn't understand. Just don't lose your cool.'   
  
Usagi didn't even wait for her father to hit the ground before she advanced toward him again, punching him in the side this time. "Daddy, I don't want to do this."  
  
Goku used his own power to stop himself, mid-flight. "Then stop. No one's forcing you."  
  
Usagi got back into her fighting stance and stayed there, ready for anything else that would cause her to have to fight again. "Leave my tail alone, and I'll stop." Tears still ran down her cheeks, though with more of a force. She truly did not want to do this, but it seemed as though it was the only way. If she wanted to keep her tail, she would have to continue to fight everyone off until they left her alone.  
  
Goku grabbed his side, now in pain, and slowly rose back to his feet. "Usagi, you know we can't do this. We aren't doing this to hurt you. Just cooperate and everything will be a lot easier. We won't even be mad at you...'  
  
~*~*~  
  
From Kami's palace sat all of Usagi's friends; all completely in awe at what they were seeing. Never in their lives had they expected Usagi to go against her family. But sure enough, there she was, trying to start a fight with one of her family members.  
  
Hotaru was the most wide-eyed out of all of them. A bit in fear for her own tail, she wanted to know the exact process of her friend. "Do you think she'll make them see that nothing happens to us?"  
  
Minako shook her head in awe. "I have no idea, but I do know Chi-Chi is going to have a cow when this is over... What is she thinking?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku stared at Usagi, who was still in a crouched fighting position. "I'm not fighting you." He stepped forward with his hand extended.   
  
Usagi took a step back; tail wrapped around her waist. She let out a near silent growl; one that went unnoticed to everyone but the few Saiyans there.   
  
Goku frowned, his patience were wearing thin. "Don't give me that. Now come here. I'm not going to keep playing this game."  
  
"Who said it was a game, daddy? My tail is a very serious thing." Usagi powered up a bit further, just to show how entirely serious she really was.  
  
'Fine. If it's the only way to do this, then I guess I'll have to Play a bit.' Without a single word, Goku raised his power level to the point just below a Super Saiyan and advanced for his daughter at an unimaginable speed; one that Chi-Chi herself could hardly detect.  
  
Usagi held her ground, not about to be backed down by her father. In her heart, she knew that she was completely right. He had no right to take her tail away from her for it was in no way any sort of endangerment to her life or anyone else's life. However, she was somewhat stunned that he would actually try and attack her at near Super Saiyan power, a power in which she herself had not even thought of ascending to, but it seemed as though in this time of need, she would have to just to keep what was rightfully hers. "You're going to have to try harder than that, daddy."   
  
Goku grinned just as his fist reached her, dropping his power level just below hers. Although, before Usagi had felt the decrease in power, she dodged out of the way, realizing that he was completely serious about his attack on her. Her dodge was just a moment too late and although Goku had decreased his power level by a large amount, it was still enough to break the skin on her cheek.   
  
~*~*~  
  
"GOKU YOU ANIMAL!" Chi-Chi lunged out for her husband, fingernails ready.   
  
Pan reached out for her grandmother, fearing the worst. She knew that, though it was harsh for the child, it was probably for the better. She remembered back to when she was growing up; back to when she had severely defied her parents. Her mother, Videl, had always wanted to rush to her side, but she hadn't. And there was a reason for that. "Grandma, we have to let them do this. Don't worry, grandpa won't hurt Usagi."  
  
Chi-Chi crossed her arms and pouted. "I'm warning you all, if anything happens to my Usagi..."  
  
Piccolo glared back at the insubordinate mother. "It's not the kid we have to worry about, it's Goku."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto watched intently with both fear and anticipation. 'I wonder what would happen if I ever challenged my dad like that.'  
  
  
Luna watched, bewildered, at the spectacle. Father and daughter, fighting. It made absolutely no sense. Was this really the sort of relationship that a Moon Princess should be in?  
  
~*~*~  
  
The Saiyan pair glared into each other's eyes as they circled around; both in crouching fighting positions. Usagi lifted her hand to her cheek, where a nice steady flow of blood from her father's attack resided. She was a little shock stricken by the turn of events. Never in her life had she imagined that something like this would happen, truthfully, it scared her to death. She slowly and cautiously began to stalk towards the figure of her father, who held his ground. "How about a spar, dad?" Goku frowned as he got out of fighting position and stood tall. Usagi grinned. "You win, we cut my tail off. I win, it stays."  
  
"No. This is not a betting matter. You will do as your mother and I say and that's final."  
  
Usagi impishly smirked. "Well then I guess I'm going to have to go down kicking and screaming."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Literally."  
  
Michiru slapped him in the face for that rude comment. "Shut up and learn some respect! This is serious!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Without further comments from either party, Usagi raced out for her father; powered up to the point of his Super Saiyan. Goku, seeing that she was completely serious, anticipated her moves and dodged to the side, causing Usagi to go further than her designated mark. 'This is ridiculous. Where does she get off thinking that she can fight like this?' He powered up a small Ki attack and fired at the child, who had already stopped herself and was heading back towards him. Usagi jumped up to dodge the blast and fired one of her own at her father.  
  
Goku sighed as he watched the golden Ki attack fly to him. 'This is going to go on forever, but what can I do to stop it? It isn't all that powerful, at least, nothing I've never dealt with before...' Instead of dodging, he decided to stand in its path and let it assault him as it was meant to. He fully knew the consequences of his choices, but that was the entire point of the concept. In fact, he completely lowered his power level with no intention of trying to block the attack.   
  
Usagi stared on in horror as her Super Saiyan Ki attack pressed into the body of her father, throwing him down to the ground in a rage of pain. 'Daddy...' She let her eyes travel across his body as it lay there on the ground; laying her eyes upon the blood that was collecting beneath his form. 'Oh no... What have I done? Daddy!' She quickly lowered her power level and dropped to the ground.  
  
Goku lay on the ground, his eyes closed and breathing very solemn. "Nnnn..."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The entire group of spectators, dumbfounded by the show, gasped in horror as their hero of so many battles fell.  
  
Gohan gulped as he looked down to the ground at his father; holding his mother back from conniption. "What was going through his head? That was way stronger than he could handle. She was at the power of a Super Saiyan and he was at a normal civilian power level."  
  
Goten gulped as he stepped forward, noticing his sister slowly approaching their position. "Usagi." A rustling caught attention, causing him to look in the direction of his father. "Dad!" The sound of his mother struggling with his brother could be heard from behind.  
  
Goku slowly and painfully sat up with his hand at his aching head. 'Did it work?' He gently turned his head in the direction of Usagi, who was within an arms reach from him. "Yes?"  
  
Usagi gulped as she kneeled down next to him. "Are you ok?" She didn't get too close for fear that he was still angry with her for what she had done.  
  
Goku nodded with a big, goofy grin. "I'm fine. Just had the wind knocked out of me."   
  
Chi-Chi lost it at that point. There was no way that she was going to sit by and watch this happen any more. Either they were going to stop, or she was going to get very angry, and we all know no one wants that. "GOKU! USAGI! ENOUGH OF YOUR CRAP!" She yelled as she marched forward to them. "NOW YOU STOP THIS NOW OR SOME ONE IS LIABAL TO REALLY GET HURT!"   
  
Usagi dropped her head in shame as she sat completely down. "I'm sorry." She murmured. "I'll let you cut my tail off..." Her words were said so somber that made her parents cringe.   
  
Goku's expression softened as he gently placed his hand upon her cheek. "It's for your own benefit. We won't have to keep you cooped up in doors the entire time the moon is out this way." 'It worked. I knew it would. I knew that if she thought that she really hurt me that she would calm down. I'm just sorry I had to do it this way. I hope she can forgive me...'  
  
Usagi sighed as she pulled away from her father's warm touch. 'Maybe if you would listen to me we wouldn't have to do this. This isn't fair, this sucks.' "Let's just get it done and over with."  
  
Chi-Chi crossed her arms as she too stood to her feet. "Good, now that you two have made up. I don't ever want to see you fighting like that again. It's not healthy."  
  
Goku pushed himself off the ground and looked around to his friends who stood close by. "Just let us finish this up and we can try to figure out how we're going to deal with this new enemy."  
  
Usagi looked up to her father with surprise. 'Oh yeah, that Beryl person. I almost forgot about her.' Usagi went to her mother and wrapped her arms around her waist. "I'm sorry, mom." She slowly unwrapped her tail from her own waist so Piccolo would have clear access to it so he could do whatever he needed to do.  
  
Chi-Chi smiled as she followed with a hug of her own. "It's ok." 'Poor kid.' She looked up and gestured to Piccolo to proceed.  
  
Goku motioned for Hotaru to come out of the Palace. "Don't look at the moon."  
  
Hotaru looked around to all of her friends in question. "I have to get mine cut off too? This isn't fair. Don't I get a say?"  
  
Rei frowned at Goku, undauntedly. "If Usagi doesn't, you sure don't."  
  
Hotaru sighed as she began to walk away from the palace. "No fair. Why don't gown ups ever listen?"  
  
Makoto leaned her head against the window as she watched her friends slowly merge into the group of adults. 'That's what I've been asking all along.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Piccolo slowly and carefully placed his hand upon Usagi's golden-brown tail to grip it. He didn't want to go to fast for fear that she would strike out again. "Now don't try anything funny this time, Usagi."  
  
Usagi gulped as more tears formed in her eyes. She didn't even have the courage to dignify that with an answer.  
  
Hotaru, with tears of her own, stopped next to Goku and looked up into his ever watchful eyes as if she were pleading with him to reconsider. But he wouldn't change his mind. He had made it clear that this was going to happen and that was the end of things. Did he not know of the great injustice that he was placing upon the girls?   
  
She let her eyes pull away from his and down at her own tail. That tail, with it's woven purple strands, was the one and only thing that had been left to her by her mother; the only thing that she could look at and remember her mother. And to have it taken away was probably the most horrible circumstance in the world.  
  
Piccolo began emitting a strange, yellowish-green energy unto Usagi's tail, which twitched slightly at the feeling of the energy being placed upon it. It was a strange, tingly feeling that raced through her entire body, which made it feel heavy, as if it were in a gravity room. The more she felt, the tighter her hold on Chi-Chi' became, and the more tears were shed.  
  
Goku could see, almost feel her deep distress and even shed a tear of his own. Never in his life had he wanted to hurt his own flesh and blood in such a manner. Nor did he want to hurt any other child for that matter, which is what he would be having to do with Hotaru. Could it have been true that Usagi and Hotaru were not affected by the moon? Had it been a last dodge attempt to get out of having their tails removed, or were they telling to truth? At that moment, Goku rethought his decision. Had he done the right thing by listening to Chi-Chi? After all, he was actually trying to prove that he could do something that wasn't selfish on his part, but did that mean that he had made a huge mistake by not listening to his own daughter? Besides, she had never been known to lie to him when it was something this important.  
  
But there was also the fact that, had something truly bad happened when they looked into the light of the moon, they would most likely end up hurting the ones they loved most, like he had so many years ago. He couldn't let them live through something so tragic. Truly, there was only one way to know fore sure if he was doing the right thing or not. And now that he had had time to calm himself down a bit, he did the only thing he could think of.  
  
Goku grabbed Hotaru by the arm with one hand. With the other, he grabbed Usagi, who was carefully clasped around her mother still.  
  
Chi-Chi turned to her husband. "Goku, what's the meaning of this? Let go. You're making things worse." Goku said nothing in return. Instead, he powered up to that of a Super Saiyan.  
  
Usagi gulped, thinking it was something that she had done. "Daddy?" She winced as a serge of pain from her tail being pulled rushed through her body.  
  
Goku only grinned, and in less than a split second, the four of them were gone and out of reach. Piccolo was left distributing energy to thin air.  
  
Bulma sighed as she walked to the edge of the tower. "Whatever he's got in mind had better be good or else Chi-Chi is going to freak."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Far off, in another field away from any type of village of mountain home, a bright light grew to fill the surrounding. In the center of this magnificent light were four figures; Goku, Chi-Chi, and the two Saiyan children with their tails still fully intact.   
  
No trees or any other obstacle in sight, Goku had specifically picked this field for one soul purpose. He wanted to be fully sure that what he was forcing them to do was for their own good. "Usagi." He sternly said as he stood between her and the moon.  
  
Usagi backed up into her mother for fear that he was going to punish her. "Y...yes?"  
  
Goku frowned, not at his trembling daughter, but at himself for making her think that he would try to hurt her. But that was not how it came to be with Usagi, who was sure he was going to lash out at him. Had he not already proved that he would not harm her by taking her assault as a Super Saiyan while at the level of power of a Human? "Look at the moon."  
  
Usagi had definitely not expected those words to just flow out of her father's mouth as she just had. In fact, those were the last words she had expected to hear. Moments ago he was angry with her for looking, and now he actually WANTED her to? It made no sense, and therefore, Usagi did not comply. "What? Why?"  
  
Hotaru cocked her head in a curious manner as she stared up at Goku, whose face was all of a sudden in its usual carefree form. "But you kept yelling at us to not look up."  
  
Goku sighed, he knew that this was going to happen. It truly was entirely his fault. He had been so caught up with getting Usagi back, trying to destroy the moon, and figure out who the new enemy and Sailor Senshi were that he didn't really have time to think things completely through until just a few moments ago when everything seemed to be settling.   
  
Usagi frowned up at her father. Now that she could see that he was calming down, she became a little bolder. "Yeah. You just yelled at me big time and acted like I was a moron for looking at the moon. You made me so mad that I wanted to fight to keep my tail and NOW you want us to look at the moon? I don't get it dad."  
  
Chi-Chi put her hands on her hips as she tapped her foot on the ground. "Goku, you had better have a good reason for doing this. These girls are going to turn into giant..."  
  
Goku lifted his hand to shush his wife, and surprisingly, she did. "I know, I know. We can talk about this in a minute." Before anyone had anything to say, though Chi-Chi was obviously full of anger over this, Goku moved forward, wrapped his hands around Usagi's chest, and lifted her up to look at the moon. So much time had been wasted already, anymore time wasted was time that the enemy had to plan their next attack. "You show signs of turning into an ape, we cut the tail. It's as simple as that."  
  
Usagi cheerfully smiled as she stared up into the compelling light of the Pearl Moon. 'Looks like I'm keeping my tail then.' A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she relaxed her muscles.   
  
Chi-Chi, not in any way trusting he lunatic husband, grabbed Hotaru's hand and pulled her from behind Goku. "Ok Hotaru. Look into the moon."  
  
Hotaru smiled as she nodded at Chi-Chi. "Ok." She quickly turned her head in the direction of the moon glared into the shimmering, white light. 'It's so pretty.'  
  
Chi-Chi glanced over to her husband, who had the look of fear written all over his face. 'This is the dumbest thing he's ever done. The girls only made up that story about not being affected by the moon so they could keep their tails. Every Saiyan turns into an ape at the light of the moon. He's knows that as well as I do.'  
  
Usagi grinned as she began to dangle her feet. "See daddy? Nothing happens. I don't get all ugly and fuzzy like you did." She giggled when she remembered back to when she was in the past, when Vejita had turned into an ape when he first visited earth.   
  
Seeing that Usagi was taking this lightly, Hotaru, too, relaxed. "Yeah. But you guys weren't listening to me earlier when I told you. No one was."  
  
Goku sighed as he pulled Usagi closer to him. It appeared that the girls had been right, but why? No Saiyan that still had their tail had ever escaped the light of the moon before. Of course, these were no ordinary Saiyan children. Hotaru was part healer, while Usagi was pretty much born a Super Saiyan. "I'm sorry..."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Back on Kami's Tower, the team of adults who had gone to get the girls' parents had finally returned, only five minutes short of seeing Usagi have her fit. However, they all felt the power levels shoot up and down.  
  
Tienshin-han, who was carrying Ami's mother, landed first, with Yamcha and Professor Tomoe behind him. "What happened up here?" The group that had been left behind turned around to the new arrivals. None of them said a single word.  
  
Krillin looked around the tower, and from what he could see, some of their group was missing. "Where are Goku and Usagi? We felt their power levels go up. Did the enemy attack while we were gone?"  
  
Bulma shook her head as she took a step forward. "No. They were fighting each other." Tienshin-han and Yamcha each exchanged looked of confusion.  
  
Professor Tomoe frowned as he looked passed the adults to the children who stood behind them. He looked all around, but there was no trace of his own daughter. "Where's Hotaru?" He asked as he pushed through Gohan and Videl back to the group of children. 'Where is she? I don't see her here at all.'  
  
Krillin rubbed his head as he joined his wife. "Gee. What were they fighting about?"  
  
Vejita smirked. "Kakarotto tried to cut the brat's tail off but she wouldn't have it."  
  
Krillin gasped in surprise. "What? What are you talking about? Usagi? Fighting with Goku?"  
  
Vejita's smirk turned more perverse as he glared down at Krillin. "No, baldy. Usagi beat the crap out of Kakarotto." Even though he wasn't able to be the one to cause Goku to fall, he was happy to at least see it be done. It just made his day that much better.  
  
~*~*~  
  
As the adults spoke on, the group of girls; Rei, Makoto, Minako, Ami, and Hotaru made pulled away. They still had so much to cover before the next attack. But, each and every one of them, including Artimas, were dying to know what had happened to her and Usagi while they were away.   
  
Artimas made his way to his partner, who he had not seen since earlier that day. He wanted to compare notes on what had happened here while they were parted, and most of all, he wanted to tell her of the new scouts, as well as the strange traits of some of Usagi's friends. "Luna, I have succeeded in finding the other Sailor Senshi while you were away."  
  
Luna grinned as she looked around to the faces of the four girls who stood in front of her. They were all so young yet, they looked so much like their future selves. "Yes. I know."  
  
Artimas blink in surprise. "You do?"  
  
Luna nodded. "Of course. These girls here, Makoto, Minako, Rei, and Ami are the Sailor Senshi we have been sent to waken."  
  
Artimas again, was in shock. "How did you know that?"  
  
Luna giggled. "Usagi and I had a rather interesting adventure while we were away. Remind us to tell you of it when she returns."  
  
Minako happily kneeled down to the black cat and smiled. "Do you know who the Moon Princess is?"  
  
Luna nodded. "Indeed I do."  
  
Artimas once again found himself in awe over Luna's knowledge. "What?! You KNOW who the Moon Princess is?! HOW COME I DON'T?!"  
  
Luna giggled at her companion as she got up and stretched. "You'd be shocked at the things you learn while you're away, Artimas. It would do you some good to go on a few daring adventures every now and then instead of taking the security jobs and leaving the risky stuff for me."  
  
Artimas frowned as he jumped in front of Luna. "We nearly got killed tonight! I call that risky enough!"   
  
Luna stopped her giggles and looked directly into Artimas' eyes with all seriousness. "Artimas, what happened tonight while we were away?"  
  
Artimas smiled as he sat down. "Glad you asked, Luna. When I found the girls, they were engaged in a pretty heavy fight with a monster from the Dark Kingdom. They were holding up pretty well, but they wouldn't have been able to beat them had it not been for their planetary power."  
  
Luna nodded. "Understandable."  
  
"After they killed the monster, they left and came here and healed everyone while they tried to come up with a way to make everything right again. They eventually decided to split into three groups, one to stay back here with the girls, one to get these strange things called Dragon Balls to bring back Usagi, and another to destroy the moon."  
  
Luna gasped. "What? Destroy the moon?"  
  
Artimas nodded. "Needless to say, however, they failed. I sent the two of the girls out as Senshi to go and tell them not to try to destroy it any further. I have no doubt that they would have found some way to rid it. Eventually, everyone came back, and that's when you two popped in."  
  
Rei joined Minako and the ground as she watched the adults argue and strategize a way to conquer their new enemy. "Things sure have been strange tonight. I mean, I never would have guessed Usagi to do something like that. Normally she's so sweet."  
  
Artimas frowned as he remembered the barbaric man who was supposed to be her father. "That man, Goku, isn't much of a father figure, is he? He didn't even listen to that other child, Hotaru, whenever she tried to tell him that she wasn't affected by the moon. And then the first thing he does when his own child gets home is hit her down."  
  
Minako frowned at the white cat. "Hey! Goku isn't normally like this at all, Artimas. He's got a lot on his mind right now."  
  
Ami sighed. "Yes. That's very true, Makoto. From what Usagi has told us, everyone expects him to know what to do in situations like this. They expect him to know all the answers, and in this case, he truly doesn't. I think that scares him; not knowing exactly what's going on. He isn't perfect, obviously. He only wants what's best for people, but he's too flustered to make any sort of good judgement right now. Just give him time, Artimas."  
  
Makoto thought back to the first day she had met Usagi. That hot, summer day in the park when Usagi had challenged her to a fight. She thought of when the subject of her stolen Dragon Ball was brought up, how he was there to comfort her, her own father would never have done that for her. He would have told her to quit being a baby. "Goku isn't a bad person."  
  
Artimas; "Luna, keep an eye on him."  
  
Luna was a bit skeptical still. "I don't think there's anything wrong. Usagi loves her family dearly. Each and every family member; equally."  
  
Artimas frowned. "I don't care. She's got the power of the strongest Senshi inside her body, we don't want anything to happen to her."  
  
Luna grinned. 'She's got more power in that little body of hers than you think.'  
  
(YAY! Another one down the hole! Hmmm.... I don't classify this as a cliffhanger... sorry about that last one. ^_^ It was just too good to resist. So what did you think? Gotta run! Ja! )  
  



	112. Part 14

~*~*~*~  
  
~~Dark Realm Dimension~~  
  
The Dark Queen of all things evil sat aloft in her throne. There really were no words at that point to describe her fury of anger that she felt towards Usagi, not to mention her guards. That entire day had been hectic from the time of morning until that very moment when she had come to realize that Sailor Moon had escaped into the portal that she had opened. And now, she didn't even have that. When she jumped through, the portal had become very unstable and collapsed in on itself.   
  
That portal was to serve as her last hope of beating Sailor Moon and the other Senshi. Her plan had been to steal the power from the weaker Sailor Moon of the other dimension, but even then her power proved to be far too much for her minions to handle. She had ascended too far. "DAMN!" She slammed her fist against the arm of her throne. "I used almost all of the power we collected from the brat when she fought with Cell!" She quieted down when she heard the small tapping of footsteps and looked up.  
  
There stood a tall, slender woman who looked to be in her late twenties. Her black hair was cut short, almost like a boy, but it was quite rigid at the ends, causing it to stand slightly away from her head. On her upper body she wore pure silver armor and arms in long, tight, black sleeves. Her legs were covered in black leggings and silver boots that made their way up to her shins. "Madam Beryl."  
  
Beryl's mood lightened up as she lay her eyes upon her most trusted assistant. She wasn't in the least bit surprised to see her trembling. "Come fourth, dear. Do not be afraid." Her eyes grew wickedly narrow as she motioned for the woman to come closer.   
  
The woman complied with her Queen's wishes and walked forward to the throne. She dared not look up into Beryl's sinfully red eyes. She did not want to risk consequence of angering her further in anyway since she was already treading on thin ice as it was. "Your Majesty, we have failed you." She put her crossed her right arm over her chest as she placed her hand on her left shoulder. She slowly bowed her head and kneeled down to one knee.   
  
Beryl looked up with rage as she looked up from the woman and on to the door, where she heard whispering. "Out with you all or you shall pay dearly!"   
  
That got them out. Two men emerged from the doorway to join their companion who was still at the floor. One man, the one who had kept Usagi captive, had long, course, black hair down to his calves. This woman, on the floor, was his only and most hated sister. The other, shorter man had a darker skin tone than that his male companion. Also, his hair was in a Mohawk atop his head. These were the three remaining Generals of Queen Beryl left after Cell. Both dropped to their knees as their female comrade had previously done before them just moments ago.  
  
Beryl glared down at the two male fighters who had just graced her with their presence and sneered. "You two insolent moronic excuses for fighters were supposed be guarding that brat! Where the hell were you!?"  
  
The taller man kept his eye on the ground as he spoke. "Your Majesty, we beg of mercy from you. We did not think that the girl would ha..."  
  
Beryl narrowed her eyes as she threw a golden cup down at the man's head, hitting him right on target. "That's the problem! You did not think! Did I not save you from death?! Did I not give you more power?! This is how you repay me!" She stood from her throne and walked to the woman. "You!"  
  
She looked up into her queen's eyes as a result of being directly addressed. "Yes, Madam Beryl?"  
  
"I have but little power left to spare. I used almost all of that brat's power opening the portal because I had expected to gain more power from the Moon brat there. Work on getting more energy. Be it from anyone, I don't care. We can not go after Usagi or any of the other Senshi again until we have more energy."  
  
The girl responded with a quick nod as she slowly stood to her feet. "I shall get on it right away, your Majesty."  
  
Beryl smiled with a certain wickedness that was enough to send chills through the entire bunch's spines. "Very good. I will await your results. Do not fail me again." She turned down to the two males who were still placed firmly on the floor. "As for you two, I suggest you aid in any way if you want to keep your lives."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~*Earth*~  
  
The dark sky was begging to lift to reveal a spec of light from where the sun was trying desperately to peak through the clouds. The night had come and gone, leaving only memories and unanswered questions. The bright moon was still very much intact but the sky was lit to be almost orange.   
  
The events from the night before had worn on the emotions of many, but, luckily, the most important part of the problem was resolved. Usagi had been returned home. But by whom, no one knew.   
  
The large group of Kami's Tower seemed to be at a stand still on what to do while they waited for Goku and Chi-Chi to return with the girls. Truthfully, even if they weren't waiting, there wasn't much that they could do. They couldn't feel their new enemy at all so they couldn't come up with a plan of attack.   
  
Out in the open field where Goku had teleported himself, his wife, daughter, and Hotaru; it was like walking on glass around Goku and Usagi. Usagi was acting more cold than Goku was though, and she had every reason to. But that still didn't put ease into her parents hearts. No, that only made it worse, much worse. However, Usagi wasn't very angry with her mother and they all knew it. They could all tell who she was angry with as she stood with a frown on her face and arms crossed.  
  
Hotaru felt somewhat left out of the array of emotions between these three and it was perfectly alright with her. For one, it was none of her business, and second, she didn't want to get betwixt it. "Uhmm..." The area had been silent ever since Goku had apologized to his daughter, which was well over five minutes before. Hotaru didn't want to impose on this obvious family moment, but it was late, or rather, early. She wanted to see her father, to let him know that she was safe and with people who could protect her, especially since Usagi was the Senshi of the Moon. No one would dare mess with her now.   
  
Chi-Chi turned away from her husband and looked down at the little six year old who was swaying back and fourth with exhaustion. 'Poor thing...' She looked up into the sky, which had an orange tint to it. 'Morning already?' Putting aside her anger for her husband, she turned back to him with a warm and caring smile. "It's been a long night. Maybe we should head back to Kami's Lookout to tell everyone what happened and then head home. We are all very tired. We can talk about this later in the day when we've had a chance to rest."  
  
Without moving his head from facing Usagi, Goku glanced to his side and, out of the corner of his eye, caught a glimpse of Hotaru yawning. "Chi-Chi, please take Hotaru back with you."  
  
Chi-Chi wrapped her hand around Hotaru's and continued looking on to her husband. "You're not coming?" She asked with a yawn, showing her own tiredness.  
  
"We'll be there in a minute."   
  
The last thing Chi-Chi wanted that early in the morning was an argument. So much had gone on already that she decided not to really raise a fuss about it. "Don't be too long. I don't want Usagi staying up much later."  
  
Usagi, realizing that her mother was about to leave her alone with her father, ran to her side and wrapped her arms around her waist. "Mama!" She said, muffled, as she dug her nose into her mother's side. "He's going to yell at me, don't leave me alone with him. We're going to fight again."  
  
Chi-Chi giggled. "Don't be silly." 'Don't tell me you still want to fight him, Usagi. No. This isn't good.'  
  
Goku was a little hurt that Usagi would be afraid to be left alone with him. She had never been before. But of course, this time, the circumstances were a little different than before too. This time, he had actually given her reason to be afraid, unlike the time he had gone into the past as a request from the Guardian of Time. That time, she was only ashamed of herself, and not in fear.   
  
He slowly reached out his hand and gently placed it upon her shoulder. "Come." He carefully pulled her away from Chi-Chi. "Tell the others we'll be there soon if you get there and we haven't caught up to you yet."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded. "Alright." She tightened her grip on Hotaru's hand and smiled graciously down at her. "Come on. Let's go, Hotaru."  
  
Hotaru smiled as she perkily giggled. "Ok!" She raised her power level with Chi-Chi and to two of them took off into the air towards Kami's Lookout.  
  
Now, that left the two Saiyans who had been going at it with each other ever since Usagi had returned home. It was tearing away at both of their hearts in the worst way and Goku would have been damned if he allowed the hard feelings to leave that field. "Usagi, we have to talk about a few things."  
  
Usagi frowned as she pulled away from her father and walked to an old, moldy log that looked to have been there for at least a decade. She crossed her arms, as well as one leg over the other.   
  
Goku sighed. 'More and more like her mother every day. I can't get away with this stuff as easily as I used to.' "Usagi, don't take that attitude with me. I'm not one of your friends, I'm still your father."  
  
Usagi impossibly frowned harder, almost like a scowl that was so well known by Vejita. "And why shouldn't I? You tried to cut my tail off without even trying to find out if I was right or not. Don't you trust me?"  
  
Goku cringed. She just had to hit him where it would hurt most, didn't she? "It's not that I don't trust you, because I do."  
  
Usagi wasn't impressed with that answer in the least bit. "Then why didn't you listen to me?"  
  
"Because I was scared..."  
  
Usagi's frown lightened up slightly at hearing that. "You scared? I don't believe it. You're never scared."  
  
Goku sighed as he went to join his daughter on the old, moldy log. Although he was flattered by what his daughter had just spoken, they were not true in anyway. "Usagi, tell me, do you know what it feels like to have to live with knowing that you were responsible for killing someone you loved very dearly?"  
  
Usagi shook her head as she pulled her legs against her chest. "No." She didn't see any relevance for this obvious upcoming story, but she figured that she may as well get comfortable since adults had a bad habit of telling stories no matter what.  
  
Goku looked away from Usagi and into the vastness of the sky. "I do." He murmured.   
  
Usagi immediately dropped her frown after hearing that and leaned closer to her father for the story. "WHAT?!" She could never imagine her father being responsible for killing someone who was on the side of good, especially if it was someone close to his heart.   
  
Goku frowned at his daughter's sudden peppy attitude. This wasn't exactly something to get happy over. "You heard me."  
  
At that point, Usagi didn't even give a rip about relevancy anymore. She wanted to hear more. "When?!"  
  
"When I was still just a little boy. Usagi, do you remember me talking about my grandfather, Gohan?" Usagi grimly nodded. "Remember how I've told you that he died when I was very little?" Usagi once again found herself wordless, but nodding. "I wasn't going to tell you until you were older, but I was actually the one responsible for his death."  
  
Everything that was going through her mind at that point stopped; dropped dead. "What...?" 'My dad's a killer?'  
  
Goku nodded. At that point, he wasn't very proud of himself. "I'm afraid I did. But it wasn't entirely my fault. I didn't know what I was doing, and do you know why?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No, but I bet you're going to tell me, right?"  
  
Goku nodded. "You guessed right. You see, your when your dear ol' dad still had his tail, he looked at the light of the full moon one night."  
  
Usagi's face grew pale in anticipation of what was to come next. "Oh no..."  
  
Goku nodded. "Yep, you guessed it. I grew wild and went on a rampage. My grandfather tried to calm me, but I wouldn't have it. I ended up injuring him. He was already so old and his body couldn't handle the injuries and finally gave way. I, myself, didn't even find out until years later. I could never remember what I did while I was an ape, but I know I caused a lot of destruction." He paused to look at his pale, speechless daughter. "That's why I went crazy tonight. When you were gone, a lot happened. Your friends were attacked by some unknown enemy with no Ki. They were nearly killed until these warriors known as the Sailor Senshi appeared. Then, the moon wouldn't blow up when we tried to destroy it."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened at those words. 'Blow up the MOON?! Not good!'  
  
"When that happened, Gohan suggested that we cut your tail off, but I didn't want that. I knew you wouldn't want that and you know how I hate forcing you to do something that you don't want." Usagi gave a big nod as she stared down at the ground. "But, the more I thought about it, and the more I remembered what happened to me and my grandfather, I came to the decision that we should just get the tail off and be done with it. Usagi..."  
  
"Hm?" She snapped out of her trance and looked up at her father.  
  
"I'm sorry. I was just so upset from what happened earlier and you getting kidnapped. Then the thought of you living with the thought of killing someone you loved because of your tail... I guess I just got a little crazy, is all I really wanted to say. I don't want to yell at you..."  
  
Usagi smiled a true smile for the first time since her first encounter with her father. "It's ok, daddy. I think I understand now. You just didn't want anything bad to happen to me, right?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Right."  
  
Usagi totally forgot her anger and jumped into the arms of her father with tears in her eyes. For the first time since she had returned, she felt complete. "You're forgiven."  
  
Goku smiled. 'Thank god she doesn't hate me.' "Usagi, what happened to you when you were taken away?"  
  
Usagi sighed as she looked down to the ground. That wasn't something that she wanted to be reminded of, but she knew it was bound to happen some time. Better now than never, but what would she tell him? She couldn't tell him the entire truth or else her sworn secrecy to Luna would have been broken. She also couldn't tell him about going into that other dimension and what she had done there. The answer to that was not telling the entire truth, but could she do that? Goku had always been able to see through her lies, he also knew exactly when she wasn't telling the entire story. "Well, I'm not sure exactly what happened while I was there because I was knocked out for a long time. But when I did wake up, there was this big, ugly guy with this really long, scraggly hair. He had this really mean look to him. He looked like he wanted to kill me or something."  
  
Goku frowned. Anyone who tired or even wanted to kill his daughter would have to pay dearly. Already who ever kidnapped her would pay for what they had done.  
  
"He said that his Queen was going to steal my energy and then use my body to kill all of you guys and take over the world."  
  
"What?!"   
  
"I know, that's what I said."  
  
Goku clenched his fist at the thought of having to fight his own daughter in serious combat. 'They're going way too far.' "Do you know where you were?"  
  
Usagi looked away from her father as she opened her mouth. She couldn't look him in the eye and continue on for what she would say would have to be a lie to some extent. 'Why me?' "Not exactly. I think I was in another dimension or something. It was really dark and I could hardly see at all. But I could feel everything around me and it was so evil it was scary. There was nothing good about this energy. And you know what's worse, daddy?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"It was the same energy as Cell."  
  
Goku gasped. "You mean the same people who sent Cell back to earth are the same people who kidnapped you?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "That's right. Our very own Cell. Remember how I told you that his Queen sent him to get my power for her?" Goku nodded. "Say hello to her. I didn't get to see what she looked like but I'll be she's got lotsa warts and is really ugly!"  
  
Goku laughed as he gently wrapped Usagi in his arms as he stood up. "I'm Just glad you're home, safe and sound."  
  
Usagi smiled as she made herself comfortable in his arms. She was lucky that she didn't have to use anymore of her energy to fly back on her own. Using her strength to revive Eternal Sailor Moon's power in the other dimension had pretty much wiped her out power wise. She was even luckier that her father hadn't really given her much of a reason to lie to great extents. "I'm probably more glad than you are, daddy."  
  
"We should get going or else everyone is going to get worried." Before he could receive any kind of protest at all, he raised his power and took to the air. Usagi was out cold from exhaustion before long.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, back at Kami's lookout, Chi-Chi and Hotaru were just returning from their flight over. Hotaru was ready to crash in a nice, warm bed with big, fluffy pillows. She landed on the far end of Kami's Tower with Chi-Chi; furiously looking around for any sign of her father, whom she for sure felt. "Daddy?!"   
  
Chi-Chi reached down for Hotaru's hand and guided her towards the rather large crowd of her friends. "Don't worry, Hotaru. You'll be home soon and asleep very soon."  
  
Hotaru tried to smile through a yawn as she rubbed her eyes with her free hand. "So... sleepy..."  
  
Chi-Chi only replied with a soft smile as she made her way forth. "Professor. Professor, I think I may have something of yours."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Luna and Artimas, who had been conversing to each other about their new threat and how they would go about creating great fighters of their new Senshi, both perked their ears back at the sound of Chi-Chi calling for the father of the youngest Saiyan.   
  
Artimas wasn't in the least bit surprised about the child, but Luna was. And it wasn't because she felt any strange sort of power being emitted by her being, it was because she knew exactly who Hotaru was and exactly what kind of power she would one day grow to have. "Hotaru..." She whispered.  
  
Artimas, not having heard Luna's quiet statement, walked to Luna with curiosity. "She knows about us, yet she is not a Sailor Senshi."  
  
Luna gasped as she turned back to her partner. "What? Did you slip up, Artimas?"  
  
"No. Of course not. She was there when I had to awaken the Senshi; fighting right along with them. She held up to the intense power, but was quite lacking in her fighting skills; much lower than the girls. The strange thing is that she can feel the Senshis' power."  
  
Luna decided to play along with Artimas and not let him know what she in fact knew. It would have been pointless to tell him anyway since she was going to erase her memory of that little fact along with Usagi's. It wasn't safe to know, especially with a little girl. Luna knew how kids couldn't keep very good secrets. Had Hotaru been left to know what kind of power she would be soon to hold, it could cause the flow of time to come to a stand still or run off its tracks, making Usagi have to go back and fix it so the Multiverse would not collapse. "She can?"  
  
Artimas nodded. "Yes. I don't know why though. I think she may somehow be affiliated with the Moon Kingdom. That girl has already promised us that she won't tell anyone of us."  
  
Luna sighed. 'She IS part of the Moon Kingdom. I wonder if we should erase her memory as well, after all, she is the strongest and deadliest Senshi around. But she doesn't seem evil at heart.' "We'll watch her."  
  
Artimas nodded. "Right. But she isn't the only people who can feel the Senshi. A group of older kids can also."  
  
Luna looked around to the group of adults, spotting Mamoru and his gang having a good time with loud laughter. 'Mamoru... Serenity's destined Prince...' "What do you think it means? That they too are affiliated with the Moon Kingdom some how?" 'Guess we'll have to erase our memories of those ones too. It will all be revealed in time. It's not safe to know ahead of time.'   
  
"What else could it mean? Only people who have something to do with the Moon Kingdom can feel our Senshi. I just don't know who they would be. As far as I know, there are only our Senshi and the Prince of earth, who we still have to find."  
  
Luna grinned. 'I know who he is.' "Make sure they don't find out about our Senshi. That would be a catastrophe. No one must know. Not even those we suspect to be part of the Silver Millennium. They could turn out to be the enemy if we aren't careful."  
  
"The girls already know not to tell anyone."  
  
Luna looked away from her partner back to the girls who were in their own little group talking with each other about the night's happening. 'They will grow to serve our Princess well.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Across the way, Mamoru stood, arms crossed, with his gang. "Look at those kids." He sneered.  
  
Haruka turned her attention from the four Americans onto the four girls who sat near the Palace. "What about em'?"  
  
Mamoru frowned. "They're hiding something."  
  
Haruka rolled her eyes. "So what? It's probably nothing important. You know, kids' stuff."  
  
"I don't know about that. I swear I heard that cat say something tonight."  
  
Michiru leaned her head upon Haruka's shoulder and closed her eyes. "Then why don't you try to find out what it is? They're just kids, they can't hold a secret that long."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "That's exactly what I plan to do." He stopped himself from going on any further when he felt Goku and Usagi arriving from behind. "Looks like the two fighters finally decided to show up." His grin turned into an impish smirk as he spun around to stand face to face with Goku, who was just setting down a groggy Usagi. "Well look who decided to show up. It's the two duelers."  
  
Goku gave Mamoru and unexpected grin as he passed him walking towards the main masses. "Nice to see you too, Mamoru."  
  
Mamoru was at a loss for words as Goku passed by. 'Wow. The first time he didn't have something to yell at me about. He must be in a good mood.'   
  
Goku chuckled to himself. "Hey everyone! We're back!"  
  
Everyone dropped what they were doing, what they were saying, and looked in the direction of Goku. Chi-Chi nearly dropped to her knees with tears in her eyes with excessive joy when she saw her husband and daughter standing there together. It was obvious that they had made up already for Usagi was not resisting the touch of Goku any longer.   
  
Bulma looked down at the grief stricken Usagi who was nearly falling over from exhaustion. "That didn't take very long."  
  
Vejita snickered. "Good to see you finally got that brat under control there, Kakarotto. You finally laid down the law. Now if you can only control that wild mate of yours..."  
  
Chi-Chi's face grew bright read as her emotions boiled with anger. "WHAT DID YOU SAY!?"  
  
Goku chuckled as he grabbed his wife away from Vejita. "Calm down. We don't want any injuries this late." He wasn't at all worried about his wife. In fact, he was actually worried about Vejita. Had he taken the opportunity to hit Chi-Chi in any way, Chi-Chi would completely blow her top, not to mention Bulma.  
  
Vejita grinned. "And you call yourself a man? You sicken me."  
  
Bulma smacked her husband in the back of the head with her fist. "Can it!" She smiled as she looked up to Goku. "So what's the word? Chi-Chi explained to us what happened while you were away. Now that we know that the tail thing isn't a problem, which is strange in itself, what are we supposed to do?"  
  
Goku shrugged. "I have no idea and, honestly, I don't want to think about it right now. As Chi-Chi pointed out before, we're all really tired right now so I suggest we take this time to get some rest while the enemy is not here. We can figure everything out tomorrow."  
  
Gohan nodded to show his compliance. "Sounds good to me."  
  
Videl nodded, but frowned at Goku. "No more late night house hopping anymore either. I don't want to wake up to see my husbands FATHER staring at me while I'm asleep in MY bed!"  
  
Chi-Chi turned to Goku with fury in her eyes that sent his heart racing faster and faster with each second she looked at him. "YOU WHAT?!"  
  
Goku gulped as he backed up. "It's not what it sounds like..." He continued to back up until his foot his something rather hard. "Huh?" He took one moment to forget about his wife and turned around to see his daughter sitting, cross-legged on the ground staring up at him with her big, blue eyes as if she were pleading for them to stop fighting so they could just go home. "Uh..."  
  
Chi-Chi glared at her husband. "Look, I'm willing to forget about this if you are." Goku's eyes widened as he turned around to his wife. Never in his time that he had known her to just drop something like this. But in fact, it was not because she wanted to drop it, it was because she was much too tired to hold up any kind of argument.  
  
Usagi looked past her father's legs to see her faithful kitty companion, Luna, running right for her. "Luna!"  
  
Chi-Chi and Goku stopped their conversation and curiously looked down to their daughter. "Who's Luna?"   
  
Usagi smiled brightly as she looked up to her parents. "She's a cat a met in the place that I was taken to. Her name is Luna." She reached out for the black cat and pulled her into her lap. "See?" She pointed to the crescent moon on Luna's forehead. "This is a Crescent Moon which is why... uh... I named her Luna." 'Whoa, how am I going to get them to say that I can keep her? I already almost didn't get to keep Lucky.'   
  
Chi-Chi carefully looked down to the tiny creature in her daughter's arms. "Is she evil? I mean, if she was there she had to be evil."  
  
Usagi shook her head. "Nope. She helped me escape."  
  
Goku cocked his head to the side as he scratched it. "Usagi, how does a cat help you escape?"  
  
Usagi froze at that. She could lie to her father. It wasn't that she didn't want to, but she had just never been able to successfully lie to him before. He had always seen right through her. "Uhm... she helped me out of my little cell and attacked a lot of the bad people who came to attack me."  
  
Chi-Chi totally disregarded anything that her daughter had just spat out and kept repeating, in her head, 'cell'. "WHAT?!" She folded her legs inward and plopped herself on the ground with her arms around her daughter. "They put you in a CELL!? MY BABY?! ARE YOU OK?! YOU'RE NOT TRAUMATIZED OR ANYTHING ARE YOU?!"  
  
Usagi giggled as she pulled away from her mother. "I'm fine, mom. Luna helped me, remember?"  
  
Chi-Chi looked down to the cat and quirked an eyebrow. She looked like an ordinary cat except for the crescent moon on her forehead. 'Strange. I wonder what that symbol means.' "I don't care as long as you're safe."  
  
"I am, mom. I am. So can I keep her? I'll take care of her real good, just like Lucky!" All the while, Usagi had other plans in the back of her head for this cat. 'Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please. I have to keep Luna. She's more than just a pet, she's an advisor.'  
  
Before Chi-Chi could answer, Goku placed his hand on her back. "We can talk about it later. I don't think your mom would say yes when's she this tired."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "What makes you think I'm going to say yes at all? She already has a dog."  
  
"Oh, but mom!" Usagi whined.   
  
Chi-Chi grinned as she pushed herself up from the ground. "Tomorrow, tomorrow."  
  
Usagi was the one sporting the frown now. "No fair." She looked up to Makoto, who was waving for her. "What?" She asked as she got up from the ground and dusted herself off.  
  
"Tomorrow, tree house, three in the afternoon, be there."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Ok."  
  
(Wow, what was that, a two day span of nothing? I'm getting better, ne? No week long wait this time. So what did you think? Good or bad? Well, off to do homework. Can you believe it? I put this before homework for once!)  



	113. Part 15

(Hehe, can you believe that the past fourteen chapters depicted only ONE day!?)  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Finally, the night from Hell was officially over. All had been resolved in respect to family matters. Now, all that was left was to find out just what they were up against and who these new allies were. So far, from what they could tell, these mystical Sailor Senshi only showed up in essence of trouble. But who were they, really? What was their connection to the enemy that had been so obsessed with Usagi? And most of all, what of this Moon Princess whom they spoke so highly of? Why did she show up now, after the Moon had long since been destroyed? It made absolutely not sense. But to this very diverse group of friends and family, it was of no matter. The fact was that this hellish night was over. After a night's rest they would be able to talk more civilly about the situation without getting into petty arguments with one another. So that's exactly what they did. The group shared their good-bye's and set off for home.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~That Night~  
  
Usagi; fast asleep in the comforts of her own bed; slept peacefully knowing that she was safe and sound at home with her family where she belonged. She tired desperately to not think about the night, and even the past few weeks, but it was just not happening. So much had happened. With her own kidnapping, having to think of a way to save the Multiverse itself, even her fight with her father. It was just too overwhelming to just brush aside and forget about. The one aspect of this entire problem was that she, of all chosen people, was the Moon Princess of the Silver Millennium from thousands of years ago. She just couldn't get over that.  
  
So there she lay, wide awake, with millions of thoughts compiling into her child-like mind just as fast as they were zooming away. 'Cell…' She turned over to her side, making sure that the blankets stay atop her for extra security. 'That's why he was sent after me. He was one of Beryl's people. Beryl wanted my Moon power, not my Saiyan power.'   
  
Her face took on more of a bewildered expression as she looked out the window to see the soft downpour that was just starting to come down outside. The droplets twinkled in the pink sky, as the sun had already began to rise. 'Why did the Guardian of Time want me to stay in the past then? She obviously knew I was the Princess, why didn't she think I would be in danger? I was almost killed, all of us were.'  
  
Usagi turned to lay on her back again as she yawned, letting her eyelids droop over her eyes. 'So… tired…' Before she even knew that she was drifting away, Usagi fell into a deep slumber that not even the loudest of explosions could have jolted her out of.  
  
~*~Dream World~*~  
  
A hand; small and frail, reaching out at a door knob, turning it and pushing in to reveal a room behind it. A rather small room; looking to be the room of a child. Whose was it? Inside stood two figures. One a grown man, and the other a small child. These two, familiar and friendly, who were they? The one with a bowl full of ice-cream, only eight years of age, looked forward with curious eyes and then it finally came to her. Of course. They were of her father and eldest brother, Gohan. This must be Gohan's room.  
  
Usagi giggled. "What's all the noise about? I wanna know what daddy has to say!" She looked to her father who stared at her with sympathetic eyes, as if something had just gone wrong. "What? What is it?" She shoved an entire spoon full of ice-cream in her mouth with no remorse.  
  
The figure of her father slowly turned around with a frown on his face. "What are you doing in here?"  
  
Usagi gasped as she jumped back. "I just wanted to see what was going on."  
  
A grin; on the face of Goku. "Who do you think you are? You can't just barge into a room like you own the place. Get out. Now!"  
  
*~*  
  
"What are we doing today?" Usagi asked cheerfully as she plopped down next to her father.  
  
Goku frowned. "We? We aren't doing anything."   
  
"What do you mean? Aren't we going to train? You know, to get my hidden power out?"  
  
"What's the use? You haven't gotten it out now, and you won't ever get it out. Let's face it. You're a lost cause; a disgrace to all fighters everywhere." Goku stood up and looked to her friends. "Why don't you guys tag along? You seem to have potential. Unlike Usagi here. She can't fight worth anything. Even if her life depended on it."  
  
~*~Real World~*~  
  
Beads of sweat ran down the small face of Usagi as tears began to form in the bases of her closed eyes.  
  
~*~Dream World~*~  
  
Goku landed with Gohan from above. "Hey, that double attack wasn't very powerful if I was able to shoot it down. It was too weak to do any damage. You two need to re-think your strategies, and fast."  
  
Usagi stood in a field with her friends as she looked upon her own father with scared eyes. "Why?"  
  
"Because I want to see how much you've learned. I want to see if you're worthy enough to be called my daughter. So far, you are not. So, let's fight, right here, right now. You against me."  
  
*~*  
  
"Just shut up and prepare yourself." Goku planted his feet into the dirt as he stiffened his body to begin a power up.  
  
*~*  
  
Goku snorted. "Is that the best you can power up to? I know I've probably taught you better."  
  
"I'm sorry. I don't have anymore power."  
  
"Well fine then. We'll just have to fight as you are." Without further conversation, Goku jumped into the air and fired multiple Ki blasts at his daughter over and over. Usagi wasn't nearly fast enough to dodge even half of the energy balls and took a large beating from them.  
  
*~*  
  
There was nothing she could do. It was impossible for her to make a hit on him at this point. He was much stronger and faster. 'Why, why, why, why?' She looked up as she could feel him approaching her at an unthinkably rapid speed. 'How am I supposed to fight that?' She got onto her knees and tried to crawl away.  
  
Goku reached out and grabbed Usagi's tail, causing her to wail out in utter pain. "OWOWAAA! Let go!" She could once again feel her energy leaving her muscles, leaving her much too weak to even hold herself up with her arms and knees. She collapsed hard and loud, face first.   
  
Goku evilly laughed with a nasty grin. "Quit being a baby about this." His grin soon turned into a frown accompanied by a growl. "You're pitiful." He began to swing her around by her beloved tail.  
  
*~*  
  
'Now for a little help from your old man and we have a powerful little kid on our hands.' "Now to fix you!" Without wasting anytime, he built up his most powerful energy attack. "KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!" He released his great power at his daughter.  
  
"You've changed. You hate me. YOU'RE NOT MY DADDY ANYMORE!" Usagi grabbed her head with pain as she began to feel a great sensation in her entire body. It was something that she had never experienced before. More pain then she had ever felt, even when taking the pain from her tail into account.  
  
"Come on Usagi! Over come your fears! Make the transition!"  
  
Most of Usagi's anger had been flushed out of her body. It had all turned to fear. Her father was trying to kill her now. "NO! NO! WHY?! WHHHHHHYYYY!!!???" Usagi could no longer control herself or her emotions. The pain was building up and she didn't know why. Her emotions mixed together. It was too much to take in at once. The blast, her father, her friend, the future, her pain. Everything. It was just too overwhelming for someone her age. "I WANT TO GO HOME!"   
  
With that, her anger exploded all the way. She lost all control over her entire body. Ami and Gohan shielded their eyes. The only thing that they knew was that Usagi was getting a massive build up. It was so enormous that it was almost frightening.   
  
Goku's Kamehameha was all of a sudden shot back to him. He quickly felt his daughter's ki, which was now larger than his own. "She did it!"  
  
The picture of her father began to fade out as a smile appeared across his face.  
  
~*~Real World~*~  
  
Not only was Usagi's face filled completely with sweat, but it was also flowing with tears of pain and agony.  
  
~*~Dream World~*~  
  
"Take this CELL!"   
  
Before Usagi had a chance to make a good attack on Cell, a golden ki attack came spiraling out of the tree tops and hit Usagi square in the hip. Her body flew back, with her head landing into a pile of sharp rocks. She looked down to the ground in time to see her own blood spilling out onto the cold ground.  
  
The Newly arrived android 17 walked to Usagi with a smirk. "Naughty, naughty little Saiyan…"  
  
~*~  
  
"Don't worry Usagi. Soon I'll have your power and you'll be able to go to hell where you belong." Cell cackled aloud as he raised his hand and shoved his tubed finger nails into the neck of Usagi.   
  
Usagi's eyes bolted wide open as she felt the long slender tube-like nails of Cell slither their way into her neck. 'Daddy…I'm sorry.' Tears of pain streamed down her cheeks as she looked into Cell's hate filled eyes.   
  
Cell's eyes told of his morbid happiness. "Yes girl. Just hold still." He watched as the tubes were filled with energy. Usagi's life energy was being sucked out of her body and there was nothing she could do about it. "Finally. My queen will be able to rid the world of those who destroyed her." The energy in which he was extracting was filling his body with power. More power than he could have ever imagined. "It's hard to believe that such a runt could have held such a magnificent power. But it's mine now. All mine!"  
  
"LEAVE MY SISTER ALONE!" A Super Saiyan Gohan jumped from the surrounding trees and rammed his foot right into Cell's unprotected face.  
  
~*~Real World~*~  
  
Usagi's face filled with a very small smile of happiness.  
  
~*~Dream World~*~  
  
"Hey, make a diversion." Usagi tapped Mamoru on the back of the shoulder to get his attention.  
  
"Huh?" Mamoru frowned.  
  
"Just do it. Trust me."  
  
Mamoru shrugged. "All right. But if I die, I'm coming back to haunt you in your sleep." He jumped into the air. He positioned himself right behind Cell's head and held his hands out so they would fire directly at the neck of his target. He was soon joined by Gohan, Piccolo, and Goku. "GO!" From the four fighters came four massive beams of Ki, all directed in the same spot. The neck of Cell.  
  
Usagi turned to her friends with a bright smile, a smile that not only told how happy she was, but also told that she had something planned. "You know how we couldn't ever do our combined attack because we would have to shout out? Well guess what? We don't have to do that anymore. We have our bond to do that for us."  
  
Ami; "But we've never used it while we were apart."   
  
"Who says we have to be separated?" Usagi glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Cell was still being distracted.   
  
Ami; "Cell will feel the power accumulating when we start making it. He will most likely turn around and try to attack us. We will be all in the same place. That's the same as when we first made it. That's why your dad didn't want us to use it. But if we are separated and concentrate on one spot, he'll have a hard time locating us."  
  
Rei; "Yeah, we already figured that out when your mom was training with us, Usagi. If we're going to do this we better do it quick. And I say that we DO, do this. It's our only option at this point. He seems to be too strong for your dad and yourself."   
  
Usagi nodded. "You're right, Rei. Let's do this now, while we can, while he's distracted." She jumped backwards into the air and took her position just above the room of spirit and time.  
  
Makoto stayed on the ground while Minako hovered just above Usagi only on the opposite side of the lookout. Ami flew up to the highest point just across from Makoto. They all looked to Usagi as she would once again lead the attack, since she had already done it twice before.  
  
Usagi took a deep breath in before she too nodded to let them know that she was ready. 'Right about Cell's head is the place. That way if he detects it before we get a chance to finish he'll try to attack it. But then it will explode right on his head. He, he, he. Too bad for him.'  
  
Minako couldn't help but giggle at that. 'I would pay to see something like that.'  
  
Makoto grinned. 'Looks like we're about to anyway.'  
  
Ami frowned. 'We should get this started. Ready?'  
  
All; 'Ready.'  
  
Rei nodded. 'Alright then. Start building up now.'   
  
The girls all concentrated the majority of their energy directly above Cell's head as directed by Usagi. This time they had the link to let them know the exact point above his head.   
  
Slowly but surely a white ball of energy began to form above Cell's head. It proved to be even stronger than his power was at the moment. Even to the girls, who had the benefit of feeling his real power. They knew that this was actually going to do some damage. They would finally see Cell suffer from what he had done.  
  
Cell stopped worrying about Mamoru and the others' attacks and concentrated more on the energy pile up that was happening just above his head. "What the…?" He looked up only to be blinded by the magnificent bright Ki attack of the girls. "WHAT IS THAT!?" He could feel its energy, which was in fact larger than his own. There was no way that he would be able to attack against it.  
  
'IT'S READY!' "NOW GIRLS! HAND IT OVER TO ME!" The others gladly complied with Usagi's wishes for none of them knew how to control such a massive energy. Usagi herself was even having trouble holding onto the attack once they let go. She found that she had to pull against the attack just to keep from flying into its pull. "It doesn't look like you're going to be killing anyone else today, Cell. Your terror stops here."  
  
Cell decided to play it cool. He didn't want them to know that the truth was that he was feeling sort of scared by this attack. "Go ahead. It won't do anything."  
  
Everyone else backed away from the two fighter. They felt the potential of the attack and didn't want to be anywhere near it when it hit. "It's lights out for you. You've tried to kill me and my family and friends. No more. I know daddy probably would have given you mercy, but not me. Not after what you've done. It's unforgivable." She became silent as she bowed her head once more. It became easier for her to hold onto the attack as well. "All the suffering your people have cause is unjustifiable. You will not go unpunished. In the name of all who stand for love and justice, you shall parish from this plane." With that, she raised her head and smiled. "Say buh-bye now." She released her hold on the combined attack that she and her friends created and watched as it felt onto Cell and crushed him into the ground and creating a shallow crater.  
  
Usagi looked up at her father, who was giving her a thumb's up, and once again, her entire vision went fuzzy.  
  
~*~Real World~*~  
  
Usagi shot up out of bed in a heavy roar of pants; not knowing what the heck could have just happened. "Wha…?" She grabbed her forehead with her hand and looked up at her digital alarm clock, which read to be six in the morning. The sun was completely up now, but she was still tired for she had only drifted off to sleep two hours before.   
  
She slowly wiped away the sweat from her face as her panting grew deeper. "What was that?" She looked out the window; ready to let her weighted eyelids flap back down over her eyes.  
  
Usagi jerked her hand up towards her chest when she felt a warm, moist object make contact. "Huh?" She curiously looked down to see the wagging tail of Lucky, who was now a full grown dog. She giggled as she reached out to pat her on the head. "You'd never turn against me, would you, lucky?"   
  
She gently turned her head to her window with great concern. 'I hope Luna's doing ok out there. I wish mom would have let her stay in the house tonight.'  
  
Usagi yawned as she resisted the want, her calling to go back to sleep and got out of bed. 'That all happened when we were in the past. Why am I dreaming about it now?' She opened her door and proceeded to walk out into the living room. 'That was awful. I forgot how horrible it felt to have daddy treating me like I meant nothing.' Her heart ached with pain as she compared it to the morning's earlier events. The fight with her father, they were almost the same pains. 'Dad…' She walked to her parents' room and opened the door to reveal to sleeping figures comfortably resting in the bed.   
  
'What a nightmare!' She quietly closed the door behind herself and proceeded to climb into the bed, betwixt her mother and father. 'I never want to go through that again… not even in a dream!' Careful not to wake her exhausted parents, Usagi snuggled under the covers and curled up; more than ready to fall fast asleep once again, only this time with the comforts of family around.  
  
Goku, who was already half awake, opened his eyes and smiled to himself. He took her willingness to freely and openly come to him as a sure way of knowing that she was not in any way angry with him. He knew her ways. She was too forgivable to really hold a grudge anyway. He quietly chuckled to himself and strung his arm over his wife and daughter, falling fast asleep himself shortly after. Soon after, Lucky found her way into the room; snuggled comfortably in a build up of blankets at the foot of the bed.  
  
~*~*~  
  
After a night full of agony; leading to exhaustion; the trio did not wake until nearly two in the afternoon; only half an hour before Usagi was to meet her friends in order to speak of their new situation. But this meeting posed as a dilemma for all. They were to meet with the rest of earth's fighters as well. They were supposed to meet to speak of how they would handle such a situation which no one, apparently, knew about.  
  
When Usagi woke, both of her parents had already left the room.   
  
"What a night…" Usagi sat up with a stretch as she looked around the room. The room let off a sense of familiarity and security, which she would need a lot of if she had any hope of surviving through the road of destiny that she was born into.   
  
She sighed as she looked up to the white ceiling. 'I wonder why I dreamt all that stuff earlier, I mean, wow. That was horrible. That was everything that happened in the past, wasn't it?'  
  
She forced herself to emerge from the warm bed and onto the cold, breezy floor. She began heading for the door, but caught sight of her reflection in the mirror and stopped. She looked upon her reflection in that mirror with curious eyes. "Why me?" She whispered; her eyes fixed only on her face, nothing else. "Why can't I just be normal? Ever since I was really little I've been different, almost like an outcast. Just because I'm a Saiyan… Haruka, Michiru, and Mamoru have picked on me." She let her eyes turn from her petite face down to the rest of her body. "Mamoru's right." She frowned as she let her eyes travel to her long, golden hair, which now reached down to thighs without being put into Odangos. "I am scrawny. Who would ever want me to be a Princess? Why do I have to be a Princess anyway? What if I don't want to be the Princess? I just want to be normal. Is that too much to ask?" She looked down at her tail with eyes of sadness.  
  
Lucky, sensing that Usagi was upset, jumped down from the bed and walked to Usagi. She gently nipped at Usagi's hand to get her attention.  
  
Usagi quietly gasped as she looked back at Lucky. "What's wrong? Are you sad too?" She wrapped her arm around the dog's neck with a smile. "I bet you're hungry, aren't ya girl?" She quickly forgot of her troubles as she turned away from the mirror and walked away from the room. She didn't get very far before she was met with the worried faces of her parents, who were sitting on the sofa in front of the television.   
  
Lucky barked happily and ran away from Usagi; allowing her to be free to walk to her mother, who was sitting closest to her. "Mom, what's the matter?"  
  
Chi-Chi, near tears, reached out to her daughter and pulled her down to sit with her. "Goku just told me what happened to you. I'm so sorry! Mommy won't ever let that happen to you again! Those evil people will pay for what they did to my baby!"   
  
Usagi gulped as she only sat there and let her mother fuss over her. Normally, she would have been sickened by this act of over protectiveness, but on this day, for some reason even she did not know, it was comforting. It made her feel loved.   
  
Chi-Chi tightened her grip on her daughter when she realized that, for once, she wouldn't pull away from her. "You're not going to be out of my sight EVER again."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened with fear as she, now, began struggling to pull away. "M…mom…let's not go overboard. I mean…"  
  
Goku chuckled as he leaned back into his seat; fully entertained by the two women of his life.   
  
Usagi frowned. Had she been able to share that frown with her father, she wouldn't have hesitated in the least bit. But she was still trying to figure out how she was going to break free without hurting her mother. "Mom, I love you and all, but…"  
  
"Your mom's right about not going far from me, her, or your brother's for a while."  
  
Usagi stopped trying to accomplish the impossible to try and decipher just what in fact was going on. Before her father spoke, she had expected that it was just her mother overreacting as usual, but when both of them said the same thing, it was something to worry about. "What do you mean? I'm not a baby. I'm not weak, I can take care of myself."  
  
Chi-Chi let go of her daughter and slapped her, lightly, in the back of the head. "What are you talking about, young lady?! You know exactly what happened last night! No one was able to save you from those evil people and you got taken out of this world, even dimension because of it!"  
  
Goku nodded with the sternest of looks, though still compassionate at the same time. "This isn't because we think you're weak, because you're not. We just want to play it low for a while, until we have more information on this new enemy of ours. Obviously, from what you told me, these people want you, which means that they weren't too happy that you escaped. They may come back for you, and if they do, we want to be able to try to protect you."  
  
"But dad! I can fight too ya know!"  
  
"I know that. But last night you were caught unaware, no one was able to detect it. They sucked you dry of all energy so you couldn't fight back. We're not necessarily saying that you have to be with us all the time, we just want to be near so in case something DOES happen, we'll be able to know. We'd even be satisfied with your friends being around. At least some could help fight while another comes back to tell us so we can help."  
  
Usagi debated that idea in her head for a few moments. She didn't exactly have any objections to that idea, actually. It seemed fair since it was true, she didn't at all feel her attacker the night before, and even though she could sense them other times. "You sure it won't be trouble for you guys?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "No, it won't. We just won't leave you all by yourself for a while. You're usually with your friends or at home with us anyway. Basically, just don't fly anywhere alone or go out to play in the forest alone for a while and we're happy. Gotta keep you safe so we don't have to summon you back with the Dragon Balls."  
Chi-Chi frowned as she glared at her husband. "Goku! We didn't talk about us not being around!"  
  
Goku grinned. "Relax. They'll be fine. Besides, we can't be selfish, can we?" He asked with an impish glare in his eyes.  
  
Chi-Chi growled as she clenched her fists. "SHUT UP!"  
  
Usagi gained a dumbfounded questioning expression as she turned her head from mother to father. She had no idea what in the world they could have been talking about, but it seemed to be one of those parent moments. But it didn't seem as important as what was coming to mind. "What about Luna? Can I keep her? Please?"   
  
Chi-Chi quickly forgot of her fight with Goku and frowned at her daughter's question. The truth of the matter was that she did not particularly wish to have another animal in the house. Yes, from what Usagi had told them earlier in the morning, this cat did help save her, but there was already a dog at that house. That was more than either of her brothers had. Heck, when Gohan had asked her if he could keep Hire Dragon she had said no. Why should it be any different with this child? "About that…"  
  
Usagi's gut flipped at that bit of uncertainty. "But mom!"  
  
Chi-Chi quickly shushed her daughter. "Let me finish!"  
  
Usagi gulped as she cowered away. "Sorry…"  
  
Chi-Chi's expression lightened a bit, as did her mood. "I don't really want another animal in this house…" She cringed when she saw her daughter's face drop into a pile of bricks. "Your dad has NEARLY convinced me to let you keep her."  
  
Usagi turned around, wide eyed, to her father, who was grinning down at her. "YOU!? You're afraid of animals you don't know! They have sharp teeth."  
  
Goku chuckled. "I think I've lived with that dog long enough to overcome my fear of any animal you bring home."  
  
Usagi shared a giggle with her mother as the two of them remembered back to the day she had first brought Lucky home; how he had run into his room and thrown the covers of his head in utter fear. She shot her head back to her mother and pleadingly begged her mother with the most pitiful child look one could ever dream of mustering up. "But she helped save me… your baby!"  
  
Chi-Chi tried desperately to keep an unbiased opinion of that cat, but with what her daughter just presented her with was true. That cat was partly responsible for saving her daughter. Although she didn't know how that was possible, she wasn't going to argue it. "If I say yes will this be the last animal you make me bring into this house?"  
  
Usagi cried for joy as a bright smile grew upon her face. "Thanks mom!" She jumped forward; throwing herself on her mother. "You're the best mom in the whole world!"   
  
Goku's lower lip turned outward as he began to pout. "So now all of a sudden I'm second rate?"  
  
Chi-Chi grinned. "Are you a mother?"   
  
Usagi giggled as she turned around to look at her father; but in doing so, she noticed the clock that sat upon the television, which was turned to cartoons. Obviously, by choice of Goku. The clock read to be ten minutes to three. "WHOA!"  
  
Goku instinctively jumped from the sofa and scanned the room for any kind of disturbance that his daughter could have been seeing. "What?! What is it?! I'll kill it whatever it is! No one messes around here anymore!"  
  
Usagi herself, after having been frightened by her own father's outburst, jumped up. "Uh…" She backed away ever so slowly for, when she told him that it was nothing he was sure to be upset. "Nothings the matter, daddy."  
  
Goku narrowed his eyes as he turned back to Usagi, who was continually backing away. "What?"  
  
Usagi gulped. "I was just surprised that it was so late cause I have to meet the girls in like, ten minutes. I didn't mean to startle you…"  
  
Goku began to calm after hearing that, though he still wasn't exactly the most happy camper. "Let's try NOT to have little outbursts like that for the time being, k?"  
  
Usagi nodded, still somewhat frightened. "I'm going to, uh… go get ready to leave now." She didn't waste any time scampering off to her room to get out of the tension filled room.  
  
Chi-Chi stood and stretched. "Don't be gone too long, sweetie. We still have to meet with everyone else later to try to come up with a plan of strategy!" There came no answer but the slamming of her daughter's door.   
  
Goku, thinking that he was in the clear to go and have a snack, began doing just that. He proceeded to the hallway, that would take him into the kitchen. Chi-Chi, on the other hand, was now sporting yet another frown. "Goku! We still have to talk about last night! Don't think everything is all goody goody between us now that Usagi is back."  
  
Goku gulped with a sweat drop as he froze in place. "Chi-Chi!" He whined. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again. I promise."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~*~Fifteen Minutes Later~*~  
  
Rei, Minako, Makoto, Ami, and Artimas were all piled high atop the forest floor in the massive treehouse, Sanctuary. They had been gathered there for nearly ten minutes awaiting the arrival of Usagi, the only one who they had yet to hear from about this entire ordeal.   
  
They knew that Usagi was an important member of this elite group of celestial warriors, however, they knew not of how much importance she really was.   
  
Rei, being the most impatient of the group, was chomping at the bit waiting for Usagi. "Where is she? She should have been here by now. Here we are making special notice to be here on time and she's late."  
  
Meanwhile, Minako was sitting in her giant cushioned bean bag, pigging out on a plate full of cupcakes. "It's only been ten minutes, give about five more before you get mad." She stuffed an entire cupcake into her mouth.  
  
Makoto sighed as she looked out the window. "You're only giving her that extra time so you can keep eating your sweets without an interruption."  
  
Minako blushed as she pulled the plate in closer to her chest, as if she were protecting it. "And they're all mine too."  
  
While the three girls went back and fourth, bickering, Ami sat at an isolated table with Artimas. The two of them were working on figuring out her brand new Mercury Computer that came along with her job. She wasn't quite sure how to work it just yet, but she knew with a little time and determination it would come. "Calm down you guys. You know Usagi, she isn't exactly the most time worthy person."  
  
Rei frowned as she sat down in her own bean bag next to Minako. "It still annoys me. We need to find out what happened to her last night. We need to compare notes, you know?" She traveled her eyes over to Minako, who was glaring at her with an almost disturbing amount of paranoia. "What's wrong with you?"  
  
"Don't even think about eating a single one of my cupcakes."  
  
"Oh for goodness sake I don't want your stinkin cupcakes!" Rei quickly left her obvious distress aside when she felt a sudden surge of power enter the room. The power was that of the most pure heart she knew.  
  
Forgetting all common sense, she jumped up to her feet to glare at her friend, who was now standing in front of the table that Ami was studying at. She seemed to be holding Luna in her arms. "YOU!"   
  
Usagi jerked back. "I know I'm late. I'm SO sorry, I got to talking with my mom and she started freaking out and all…"  
  
Rei lashed out once again. "YOU'RE DARN RIGHT YOU'RE LATE! BY NEARLY FIFTEEN MRPMPHMHPH……!"   
  
Makoto quieted Rei down by covering the girl's mouth with her own hands. "Calm down, man! It's not that big of a deal!"  
  
Usagi let Luna jump onto the table as she grinned. "Makoto's right, you don't want to do anything harsh." She let her eyes travel down to Minako, who had her last two cupcakes of seven in her hand. "FOOD!" She dashed for Minako.  
  
"NO! THEY'RE MINE!" Minako jumped up from her bean bag, making certain that she didn't squish the 'beloved' cupcakes at hand.  
  
From what Usagi did next, Minako didn't even have a real need to get up. Usagi fell short of even reaching the bean bag when her foot caught onto a bag of weights, causing her to fall flat on her face.   
  
The entire room burst out laughing, except for Luna and Usagi herself. Though, both of them for different reasons. Usagi for the obvious reason of being embarrassed, and Luna of disappointment. "Is that any way for you to be acting, I ask you?"  
  
Ami stood from her seat to look down over the table at Usagi, who seemed to be pouting. "Are you ok?"  
  
Usagi frowned and completely ignored Ami's question, though not purposely. "Luna, I can act whatever way I want!"  
  
Makoto looked up to the black cat with curiosity as she let her laughter die down to a bubbling giggle. "What's she talking about, Usagi?"  
  
Usagi kicked away the weights and proceeded to push herself up off the ground. "Nothing."  
  
Artimas walked to the edge of table where Luna was cleaning herself. He could sense that she knew something that he didn't. Now that the action from the night before had died down, he could concentrate more on things other than making sure the others didn't find out who he was. "Luna?"  
  
Luna looked back over her shoulder at Artimas, who was slightly glaring at her. "Yes, Artimas?"  
  
"Don't you think we should begin?" He hoped that she would bring her secret about on her own accord so he wouldn't have to pry it out of her.  
  
Luna nodded. "Of course. Usagi, why don't you tell your friends what we were up to last night?"  
  
Usagi sighed as she gloomily sat down into a lawn chair that sat at the table. "I guess." It wasn't as if she didn't want to tell them, because she really did, it was the fact that she didn't want to travel back in her memories of the night before. "As you've all probably guessed, I'm Sailor Moon." She paused to allow her friends to all gather around to listen to her story.  
  
"Cell's queen kidnapped me and put me in a jail cell in her dungeon." She stopped once again when she saw the hand of Minako go up into the air. "Yes?"  
  
"It was that Queen Beryl lady that Artimas was telling us about last night, wasn't it?"  
  
Luna nodded as she began to answer for Usagi. "Precisely, Minako. She is after Usagi's Moon power, and probably yours as well."  
  
Usagi continued when she got the ok from Luna go to on. "While I was there, all I could feel was pure dark energy. When I tried to escape, none of my attacks would work until I started using the Moon Power when I was Sailor Moon. It was really weird, and really scary. Then, when I did escape, me and Luna saw this portal. We didn't know exactly where it would take us, but we jumped in it anyway."  
  
Luna; "Turns out it was a portal to another dimension."  
  
Usagi; "And guess where that dimension was…"  
  
Rei thought about that one for a moment. "Let's see, the past? Did you get to go meet everyone again?"  
  
Usagi shook her head as she was reminded of her dream from the night before. "No. In fact, the opposite. It took us to the future, Trunks' dimension."  
  
Minako gasped. "No way!"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yes way! I met us there, all of us. Even me! They were all like, sixteen years old and really weak. I wasn't born to my mom and dad there because in that dimension, everyone died except for Trunks, mom, and Bulma."  
  
Minako giggled as she became more fascinated with this story. "So what were we like there?"  
  
"Well, things were a lot different. Mamoru, for one, was nice. You know the grossest part?" Her friends all shook their heads, though literally on the edge of their seats begging for more. Usagi grinned, however, she was ready to puke at the information she was about to relay. "He was MY boyfriend!"   
  
That did it. The entire group of girls fell out of their seats either making sounds of hurling, or laughing. None of them could ever picture those two going out. Ever since they had met they had been at each other's throats. It was just insane to picture them as going out, together, nice and lovey dovy.  
  
Usagi found herself more laughing aloud than anything, now that the initial shock was over. "I know! I know! I was just as shocked as you were. He even called me 'Usako' before he knew that I wasn't really the Usagi from that dimension."  
  
Makoto literally fell out of her chair with severe side aches after hearing that. "Usagi! Please! This is too much! It's too funny! Could you ever imagine HIM being gentle and loving?!"  
  
Rei laughed so hard that her eyes watered. "Him being loving is a sign of the ending of the world."  
  
Usagi grinned. "So true!"   
  
Luna and Artimas, not knowing the true Mamoru of this dimension, found nothing funny about this situation and therefore, were not laughing. "GIRLS!"  
  
Usagi cringed at the reprimand and tried not to laugh anymore, but it was just NOT possible. Being with her friends and sharing this information only heightened the severe strangeness of the thought of her going out with Mamoru.   
  
"USAGI GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!" Luna shouted.  
  
Usagi froze right there. "Sorry, Luna…" She whispered with a raspy voice.   
  
Luna frowned. "Continue!"  
  
Usagi nodded with a gulp. "I guess there actually was a reason for me going to the other dimension…" That got her friends to shut their mouths and want to listen. "You see, there's this thing called a Multiverse which, I guess, is kind of like all the dimensions put into one big glob, right? Ok. Since I was born in this dimension, it went against all other dimensions and created some sort of time dimensional rip in the Multiverse. Me and the other Usagi, Tsukino Usagi, had to use the New Namek Dragon Balls to fix this so called time dimensional rip."  
  
Rei; "What? Why were you born to Goku and Chi-Chi in this dimension and no others?"  
  
Luna answered that. "Glad you asked, Rei. You see, in all the other dimensions, the Usagi's and Sailor Moon's there have been weak. We needed someone that was strong, and loving, someone who would teach Usagi how to fight and hone her skills so she could use her Moon power without draining her of all her energy."  
  
Ami; "Wait a minute. Why would the Moon power drain her of her energy? I mean, we don't get drained of our power and we were born to normal humans."  
  
Luna grinned. "That's because Usagi's special."  
  
Artimas frowned. 'I knew she was hiding something. Usagi must be more than just a normal Senshi. A normal Senshi wouldn't get drained of her power that easily.' "What's so special about her?"  
  
Luna turned up to Usagi. "Why don't you share your destiny with your protectors?"  
  
Makoto and Minako simultaneously turned to their friend, who wasn't looking all too happy at the moment. "Your destiny? Your protectors?"  
  
Usagi nodded with a sigh as she looked down to the ground with solemn eyes. "Yeah, destiny. I learned more than I wanted to in the other dimension. I'm the Moon Princess, you guys."  
  
Rei: "YOU'RE the Moon Princess?!"  
  
Minako; "NO FAIR!"  
  
Ami smiled; "Usagi! What an honorable position you have!"  
  
Makoto nodded. "That's great! We have found the Moon Princess! And to think, we've known each other almost our entire lives!"  
  
Luna; "What's the matter Usagi? Yesterday you thought it was great."  
  
Usagi looked up with a frown. "At first I thought it was cool, but then I got to thinking. I'm not cut out to be a Princess or queen or anything."  
  
Minako, of course, was jealous right off. "Y…Y… Yo…You're NUTS!"  
  
Rei gave Minako a much earned slap across the face. "IS THAT ANYWAY TO SPEAK TO A PRINCESS!?"  
  
Makoto looked into Usagi's saddened eyes, and saw the sincerity of her statement. "Rei, she's the same person…"  
  
Usagi looked up to Makoto with expressionless eyes. "No I'm not. Do you know what this means? All that responsibility!" She groaned at the thought. School and family already took up too many slots on the responsibility list, she surely didn't need this. "I can't be a Princess. I can't even keep up with what I've got right now."  
  
Minako jumped up with a smile on her face. "I'll be the Princess!"  
  
Rei glared at Minako, ready to slap again. "Shut up!"  
  
Ami looked upon her friend with sympathetic eyes. Never in her life could she remember another time that Usagi was so sincerely upset about something. Especially of such a high honor. "Usagi, don't be upset. You'll make a great Princess. You're smart, caring, compassionate, you always take others into consideration."  
  
Minako forgot her own greediness and went to her friend's aid. "Not to mention you're pretty. Princess' always have to be pretty. You fit the entire job description."  
  
Luna jumped down off the table and into Usagi's lap. "Usagi, your life isn't going to change drastically, you know that right? The only duty you have is to protect others, until you're queen that is. But that isn't until much later."  
  
Usagi's face brightened ever so slightly. "Really? I protect people all the time."  
  
Luna nodded. "Of course you do. Being Princess just means that you are of royal blood. Believe me, your life won't change that much, and think of it this way, if that other Usagi can handle it, you definitely can."  
  
Usagi giggled. "I can, can't I?"  
  
Artimas, who had stayed quiet the entire time, for he was still trying to grasp this entire ordeal, finally frowned. "LUNA! YOU DIDN'T TELL ME LAST NIGHT!?"  
  
"Be quiet Artimas. We can talk about this later. We still have business to tend to."  
  
Usagi's face turned dark and glum as she looked back down at the ground. "Girls, this is a problem, our enemy. Remember Cell? How we had to use our combined attack?"  
  
Makoto nodded with a frown. "How could anyone remember an ugly face like that?"  
  
Ami nodded. "His own hatred, his black heart was his ugliest feature of all. We're up against a lot."  
  
Usagi looked up to give a piercing glare out the window. "I dreamt about our time in the past last night."  
  
Makoto stopped thinking up reasons why she hated Cell and turned to Usagi. "Huh?"  
  
"I dreamt about when my dad was being mean to me, about how he made me go Super Saiyan, about how we fought with Cell. It reminded me of everything we went through. He was strong, and I fear that Beryl is stronger from what I felt last night in her castle."  
  
Minako walked to the table and picked up a can of soda. "Remember when we were in that room with all those Chibi Cells?"  
  
Rei shuddered. "Please, don't remind me. That was real scary, being in that room with all those little things."  
  
Makoto; "Yeah, but we got a lot of power while we were in there. We all reached our version of Super power."  
  
Ami gasped as an idea hit her straight on. "Wait a minute you guys. I don't think that was really any sort of Super power at all."  
  
Minako took a sip of her soda. "What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
Ami; "Think about it. We're the only ones who can feel this Dark energy stuff right?" All nodded at that. "We are also the only ones who can feel our so called 'Super powers' too."  
  
Minako looked down to Artimas, who had a look of shock on his face. "What's the matter, Artimas?"  
  
Artimas; "I think I know what you're talking about. It is said that if a Senshi's life is in danger before they are awakened, their sleeping power will try to wake. It's kind of like it's trying to protect you until it can be fully awakened. What you guys exprieienced was a slight power up into Senshi hood."  
  
Ami; "Is that why we were able to kill Cell with our combined attack? Was it because we had enough of this half awakened power to break through his Dark energy shell?"  
  
Luna nodded. "It had to have been. The only way that Dark Energy can be destroyed is if it's done with the planetary power of the Sailor Senshi."  
  
Rei had taken herself almost completely out of the conversation when the idea of their Super Powers only being a pre-birth of their Senshi powers. It had struck a memory that she thought she had forgotten. "U…Usagi?"  
  
Usagi, as well as the entire group, turned to the shaking Rei. "Yes?"  
  
Rei gulped. "Remember when Kiro tried to kill you because you were a Saiyan by taking over your body?"  
  
Luna frowned. "What?!"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yes, I remember. Not that I want to, but I do."  
  
"Your entire body shined Silver. It was so bright, almost like the shine of the moon from last night. He said that you had a pure heart and all."  
  
Usagi gasped. "You think he was talking about my Moon power?"  
  
Rei nodded. "Maybe your Moon power was activated because you were in danger, just like Artimas said."  
  
Usagi's mouth hung wide open with realization. Her entire life seemed to be based on the workings of her previous life. Everything she had known seemed to be happening for a reason, like it was pre-setup. "That's scary, Rei."  
  
Artimas; "And of course, you can never tell anyone about your findings, either."  
  
Makoto nodded. "We know. No one can ever know who we really are."  
  
~*~*~  
  
At that precise moment, a very unwanted guest arrived in the heart of Satan City, ready to destroy all and take any energy it could find.  
  
This new being did not go unnoticed by the girls at all.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto jumped up into a fighting stance. "Looks like we need to take out the trash!"  
  
Rei nodded. "I think you're right."  
  
Luna jumped out of Usagi's lap and to the window. "Get ready to fight, Senshi."  
  
Artimas; "This is your first fight as a true team!"  
  
(There we go! Happy! It's fifteen pages long! That should hold ya for a while, ne? lol, anyway, ok, lotsa info there but I think you can decipher it all cause it's quite plain. Wha'd you think? Gotta run! Till next time! )  
  



	114. Part 16

~*~*~*~   
  
~~The Forest~~   
  
Mamoru, Michiru, and Haruka were out, practically in the middle of no where, training for their new enemy at hand when they had felt the dark disturbance in the City. It was still puzzling as to why they, as kids; students; could feel these strange occurrences, but it didn't quite matter. They had always been taught to fight for the safety of the earth, and that's exactly what they would do, too. They wouldn't sit by and let the earth fall to the hands of their dark enemies. And if it meant that they would be the only ones who could feel them and fight them, then so be it.   
  
For some reason unknown to him, Mamoru felt especially passionate about protecting the blue earth; as if he was somehow connected to it; spiritually. His entire life had been one giant preparation to save earth, and he was not about to do it wrong. "Let's move out people! We've got some ass kicking to do!"   
  
Haruka grinned as she raised her power level to her fullest, though it was not nearly as high as Mamoru's for she had not been training in the same art of fighting as he had. "I'll second that."   
  
Michiru giggled at Haruka's will to take charge. "Try NOT to hurt any civilians while we're taking care of these guys though, ok?"   
  
Haruka nodded with a grin. "Take all the fun out of, why don't you?"   
  
Mamoru, for the first time glared back at Haruka for thinking of harming a citizen of earth. "We're trying to protect the people, not KILL them." He frowned at himself. 'Did I just say that?' "We have no time to get the Americans, not that they'll do much help anyway. They aren't as advanced as we are."   
  
~*~*~   
  
~~Son House~~   
  
The obnoxious ringing of the telephone let itself be heard throughout the entire house only moments after the attack at the heart of Satan City. Goku had already left the house to do his almost daily routine of fishing leaving Chi-Chi the only to hear the incessant scream. Being the only occupant of the small house, she promptly put aside what she was doing and put walked to the phone.   
  
Somewhat annoyed with the disturbance, she picked up the receiver. "Hello?" Silence was the only response in which she received from the other side of the phone, only agitating her further. "Who is this?!" Fearful thoughts pressed against her mind as she thought of Usagi being the other person on the line; calling for help.   
  
Little did Chi-Chi know that it was in fact one of her children on the line, just not who she had expected. From the other side came a man's voice; the voice of Gohan. "Mom?"   
  
Chi-Chi sighed with a slight relief. Knowing that Usagi was still safe took a lot off of her worried mind. "Gohan?"   
  
"Yes, mom. Videl just received a rather disturbing phone call from Mr. Satan."   
  
Chi-Chi frowned. She had been disturbed from her housework to be told about a strange phone call from a man who was just naturally strange. "What's new? The man is strange. Gohan, I'm busy right now, can't this wait until later when we get together in Person?"   
  
Gohan sighed. "No, this is kind of urgent." He glanced over to his wife, who was starring back at him with fearful eyes. He took the liberty of continuing when he figured that his mother was not going to say anything more until he did. "Do you remember that cat that Usagi wanted to keep?"   
  
Chi-Chi gulped at that. Why would he bring that mysterious cat up before he said what Mr. Satan had said? Was there more to that cat than they knew? Only time would tell, and questions. "Y...Yes..."   
  
"Have you said whether she could keep it or not?"   
  
Chi-Chi's face turned paler than before as she thought back to earlier that day, when she had in fact told her daughter that she could keep the stray cat. "I ... I did. Why!? Is there anything wrong with letting her keep that cat?! Gohan! What's going on!? How does this tie into Mr. Satan?!"   
  
Gohan himself found himself uneasy after hearing his mother tell him 'yes'; that she had in fact let his little sister keep that demon cat! He slowly turned back to Videl, who was on edge, waiting for him to tell her of the news. "I'm not sure you should have LET her keep that cat..."   
  
In a fast reaction, Videl took a deep breath in and held it. She refused to breathe out again until she heard more news about her sister-in-law.   
  
Chi-Chi, becoming more agitated than before, nearly had a conniption. "GOHAN JUST TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE BLASTED CAT ALREADY!"   
  
Gohan gulped. "Yesterday, before Usagi was... kidnapped, Videl's father had a very strange encounter with two cats. A white one, and a black one."   
  
Chi-Chi, not hearing the entire story yet, made he assumptions and calmed down. "Oh, Gohan! Don't scare me like that. There was only one cat yesterday. Whatever this was couldn't have been with this cat. This cat was not even here in the city yesterday."   
  
Gohan began to sweat as he slightly pulled the phone away from his ear so as to not have his ear drum blown when he relayed the next news. "Mother, Videl and I specifically saw a white cat hanging around the girls yesterday."   
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "And just WHAT was so strange about these two cats anyway?" 'I refuse to believe that this has anything to do with MY baby! That would just be the icing on the top of the cake if the enemy sent demon cats here.'   
  
Gohan hesitated to answer her question, but found himself doing it when a stern growl came from the other line. "Well... it seems as though they were talking with each other."   
  
"Talking?"   
  
"That's what he said. They were talking about now being the time to do something. That's all he heard, but they sounded pretty sure of themselves in their conversation. And mom?"   
  
Chi-Chi, ready to faint, was almost afraid to reply. "Wh...what...?"   
  
"They both had crescent moons on their foreheads like that black cat did this morning, and I'm pretty sure that white cat did too. I think they have something to do with the enemy. I mean, they seem to be after Usagi, why not every other fighter on earth as well? You need to get that cat out of here until we know more about it. " Gohan quickly pulled the phone further away from his ear and awaited the yelling that was sure to follow his answer. But oddly enough, nothing happened. Not a single sound came from the other line, except one giant clang, as if the phone had hit against something. Other than that, it was utter silence. Gohan sighed as he calmly hung up the phone and turned to his wife.   
  
Videl, wide eyed and more than curious, jumped out at he husband. "Well?! What's the news!? Wha'd she say!?"   
  
Gohan soon found his arms being clamped down by his wife's hand. "I'm not sure."   
  
Videl glared into his eyes as she pulled away ever so slightly. "What?! How can you Not be sure?!"   
  
Gohan grinned, finding the situation a bit on the humorous side. "Well, I think she fainted. She didn't answer me but there was a clanking sound. No one was on the other line anymore."   
  
~*~*~   
  
Indeed Gohan was right. There wasn't anyone actually on the other line of the phone, but, he was wrong about the fact that his mother had fainted from the news. She had dropped the phone and dashed out of the house for the lake, where she was sure to find her husband. Operation 'Get the Kitty out of the house' was officially underway. There was no way that she was going to let the enemy tramp into her house so it could suck her family dry of its energy.   
  
~*~*~   
  
~~Satan City~~   
  
High above the tallest tower of Satan city stood five mystical figures of Justice; glowing with rage. Seven pair of eyes were fixed upon a giant, black beast which stood to be nearly as tall as an average one-story building. Everything about this creature, from its eyes of pure blackness; teeth all ajar and claws with the thickness of an adult finger, even its creepy hairy and crooked back sent chills down each and everyone of their spines; not to mention the minds of the civilians.   
  
There it was, this ugly creature of hatred, terrorizing an entire town; devouring the innocent for a meal and absorbing their energy while at it. This had to stop, and there were only five warriors who could accomplish that. Five warriors who had grown together, had learned together, experienced virtually everything together. And now, here they were, together as always, only this time, a new sense of hope and justice for all.   
  
How strange it seemed to them that after all they had been through together, it had all been one giant preparation for this time of need; this one enemy. Who knew what kind of enemy would follow this one, if any at all, but it was one thing for sure, they wouldn't let any of them succeed, and that included this one as well. They couldn't afford to let this stubborn group of scoundrels succeed in this lifetime as they had before. Together, as a righteous team, they would prevail over the evil that threatened them all.   
  
Luna trembled as she looked over the edge and down unto the monster from the dark kingdom. "Be careful with this one, Sailor Moon. He's a lot stronger than the ones we fought last night at the castle."   
  
Sailor Moon, only at half mind, calmly nodded. She tried desperately not to let her fear be shown, but it was obvious in her short answer and tone of her voice. "I ... know."   
  
Jupiter narrowed her glare down at the monster with a fear of her own. "That thing is almost as strong as..."   
  
Mars gulped. "Cell."   
  
Mercury whipped out her computer and immediately began analyzing the traits of their enemy. "He seems to be stronger than the one we fought down here on earth last night."   
  
Artimas nodded. "Of course he is. That witch, Beryl, wouldn't have just sent down someone so you can kill it. She's in this for sure." 'That's funny, they seem to be different in this dimension... more beast-like.'   
  
Luna; "Senshi! Don't drop your guard, whatever you do. Sailor Moon, remember your little speech."   
  
Sailor Moon rolled her eyes as she grinned back to her kitty guard. "Yes Luna. I'll confuse the heck outta that thing!"   
  
The other senshi looked to each other in confusion, not knowing any conversations that had gone on in the other dimension.   
  
~*~*~   
  
Meanwhile, down on the ground where the monster was still eagerly devouring the innocent, three figures landed before him, ready to show what humans were made of. In all of their minds they were certain that they could overcome this monster. Where the girls had failed the night before, they would succeed.   
  
The monster arched its hairy back with amusement as it forked one last, screaming victim on its huge claws. It gave its best grinned as he raised the victim to his mouth, clamped his teeth down, and slid his claws out of his mouth; leaving the body inside to be swallowed.   
  
Mamoru's face took up a rather disgusted look. "Disgusting!" He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned as he began walking toward the monster. "Be a good boy and spit it up, eh?"   
  
Haruka took her own initiative to hover above ground so she could be at face level with the monster. "Didn't anyone tell you? It's OUR job to terrorize the people of this town. Now we have to teach you a lesson!"   
  
The monster didn't react to either of the fighters. Instead, it just walked to the nearest business tower and looked in an eye level window. Needless to say a few screams arose from that action, which seemed to entertain this sick, sadistic killer.   
  
Mamoru smirked. "Seems like it's got a sick sense of humor." He paused; getting an evil grin upon his face. "But I'm worse!" At that, he let the blood fest begin.   
  
~*~*~   
  
Up atop the building roof where the Sailor Senshi and their advisors stood, they were just getting ready to go down and take out the monster when they had noticed three idiots trying to stand up to the ruthless beast.   
  
Venus; "Oh my gosh! Look! That isn't just ANY freak! That's OUR freak!" She pulled Jupiter aside and pointed down to the three fighters, whom they all knew very well.   
  
Jupiter gasped. "It IS! Look you guys! It's Michiru, Mamoru, and Haruka!"   
  
Sailor Moon dropped to her knees to get a better look at who was down there. "They're gonna get hurt!"   
  
Luna jumped to her side with a frown. "Then what are you waiting for! Get down there and do your job!"   
  
Mars grabbed her leader by the tail and pulled her backward. Moon growled aloud as she glared back at her supposed friend. "HEY! What's the deal!?"   
  
Mars gave back a glare of her own with a giggle to keep any hard feelings from coming between the two of them. "Best to hide that thing while we're Senshi."   
  
Moon giggled as she quickly wrapped her tail around her waist. "Oops... guess you're right." Hastily, she pushed herself up from the ground, not even taking time to dust herself off. Keeping in mind that her tail would be a dead give away to the rat pack down on the streets below, Sailor Moon hid her Saiyan heritage with her tail under skirt and around her waist. "Let's kick some monster butt, shall we?"   
  
Venus nodded as she took to the air. "Let's!"   
  
~*~*~   
  
Mamoru breathed heavily with a glare as he stood face to face with the enemy, though, there was something strange about him, something different. On his upper, left arm was a tiny slit extending from left to right. A fine trail of blood seemed to be making its way down with a slight tingle.   
  
Mamoru paid very little attention to the wound he had just earned himself. He was more interested in what had just taken place; figuring out this monster's style of fighting. Mamoru had 'heroically' charged for the abominable, human-eating monster with Ki enhanced fists, but to his own surprise it proved to be faster and less detectable than any one whom he had fought in the past. Before he knew what had even begun to take place, he found himself alone and facing the opposite direction of his target with a stinging sensation in his left arm.   
  
Perhaps for the first time in his short life, he quivered in fear. That speed, that power, it reminded him too much of his past with Cell. If these monsters really were sent by the same organization who had sent Cell, the earth of this time was in a heap of trouble that would take a miracle to survive. But he was willing to rise to the challenge.   
  
A single, small movement of Haruka advancing forward caught his eye, causing him to frown in her direction. "Stay back. You don't know what kind of power these people have. I didn't think that it would be as strong as Cell, but for some reason it is. I've advanced a lot in power so I should be able to handle them."   
  
Haruka gave a glare of her own to Mamoru. "Are you saying that I can't kick the crap outta that ugly heap of crap?"   
  
Michiru, having more sense than her partner, pulled her back. "Haruka, please. Don't start this now. I think we should listen to him. He has had experience with this sort of thing before, and he has been training longer than us."   
  
Mamoru grinned. "Exactly."   
  
Haruka rolled her eyes with a growl of frustration. How dare they say that she is not capable of fighting at the same level as Mamoru. She had been fighting ever since an early age, granted it was not in the art of Ki-Jistu, but it was still fighting. "Oh please, don't give him a reason to enlarge his ego."   
  
At that moment, a blinding white light, carrying four of the five planetary warriors, filled the vicinity of the fighting platform causing the bickering between earth's young fighters to cease and the monster in which they were fighting to back down a ways.   
  
Accompanying this magnificent light, suited for even the highest of royalty, came a new power, not completely unknown to those of the rat pack. This new power felt strangely familiar to the three, but somehow, different at the same time. How this was possible, they could not tell.   
  
Mamoru, enraged that his fight had been interrupted by first, Haruka, and now the four mysterious warriors, planted his feet into the soil and glared around into the eyes of Sailor Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter. "Who the hell are you?!" He solemnly asked, not letting his anger go unknown to those around.   
  
No answer came but from the monster itself. "Senshi...!"   
  
Mamoru gasped with the widening of his eyes. "You're the Sailor Senshi?" He let his eyes follow up and down the body of Sailor Mercury, who stood directly before him. "You're nothing more than a little kid! Move aside and let a man show you how it's done."   
  
"It's true that we're just be little kids..." Yet another Sailor Senshi dropped from the sky to stand in the center of the circle that her fellow Senshi had created around Mamoru and his two female friends. "...but we're strong kids!"   
  
Mamoru grinned as he pushed Sailor Moon to the side. He tried desperately not to join in with Michiru and Haruka, who were 'graciously' laughing. "Yes well, just because you can jump from high places and land on your feet does not mean that you can fight things like this. You should get running along now because I hear your mommy calling. I wouldn't want to deliver a corpse to her and have to tell her how her daughter died, now would I?"   
  
Sailor Moon supported a grin of her own as she lightly punched the unsuspecting Mamoru in the gut, causing him to fall into her arms. "I might ask you the same question." She gently threw his limp body to Michiru, who was now in the air.   
  
'How did she know Mamoru's name?'   
  
Mercury pulled out her small computer and began examining the monster, who was just coming around from the light in which they had created. "This guy is definitely stronger than the guy we fought last night."   
  
Venus; "And a lot grosser looking too!"   
  
~*~*~   
  
Michiru pulled Haruka away from the group of fighters to a nearby building that had actually been able to survive the attack that it had been through. Most of the top had crumbled to the city below, but the first five stories seemed to be sound enough for them to seek shelter in; not to mention watch the fight that was sure to come in the following moments.   
  
~*~*~   
  
The large, growling creature extended its claws and sniffed around the Senshi of the Moon. It turned its nose up with a grumble.   
  
Sailor Moon turned her own nose up at the beast with a bit of fear. "Uh...! Mercury, what's going on?"   
  
"I...I'm not exactly sure of that." She fiddled with her computer for any possible answers.   
  
The creature pulled its lips back a bit and lifted its hand above Sailor Moon's face. Mars especially found this odd. The vibes from this monster that she was receiving were not of the best, either. "Is it blind?"   
  
Venus giggled. "I think it's broken!" She chirped.   
  
~*~*~   
  
Luna and Artimas lowered their heads in embarrassment. What they would have given to have more time to prep these girls on the ethics of fighting the dark kingdom. In the past, the seemed to be quite devious, and were proving to be here as well.   
  
~*~*~   
  
The monster let out its own chuckle of a growl and relentlessly clamped its entire hand over the face of Sailor Moon. "Power!" Thinking only to please its queen, as he had been so carefully programmed to do, it slowly moved its claws downward and inserted them deep into the flesh of our dear Sailor Moon's shoulders, causing her to wail aloud.   
  
Sailor Moon immediately began struggling to break free of the massive hand that was planted in the center of her face. Her cries were muffled, but still heard by all who could help, which was the signal for the others to help.   
  
Mercury stayed back to find any information about this particular enemy in the database of her computer while her fellow Senshi began their attacks. Any faults she could find would be useful, but it would be a time consuming act as she hadn't fully grasped the system of search.   
  
Jupiter, quite the opposite of her friend of Mercury, charged for the monster with a bright, green K attack sitting in her palms just waiting to be thrown through the unsuspecting body of an enemy. "You're mine!"   
  
Venus jumped into the air to be face level with the monster as it had Sailor Moon lifted into the air, ready to throw into his mouth. She wasted no time with petty words, as she had learned from fighting Cell would only get them into a deeper trouble. Instead, she built up her energy into one, power ball of her own. Jupiter timed the release of her precious attack so carefully so it would match up to the exact time as Venus' and hit directly in the center of the body.   
  
Mars, on the other hand, built up her energy into her fist so she would be able to perform a power punch to the head of this mysterious creature. There was no way that she would let Sailor Moon be killed on the first day of their mission. Especially since it was one of her closest friends.   
  
Venus and Jupiter's attacks were released, allowing them to go spiraling to their target, which still firmly held Moon in his grip. But that was all to change very soon. The beast laid its eyes upon the two attacks flying in its direction and only chuckled with a slight hint of a growl. It quickly ripped its grip off of Sailor Moon, claws out of flesh and all, and threw her in front of the balls of energy.   
  
Sailor Moon, being too wounded to dodge, only looked forward to energy balls with nearly emotionless eyes. But there was hope for her yet. Just before the energy balls and the Senshi of the Moon were to intersect, a bright, blue light carried her out of harms way.   
  
The monster was too shocked that Sailor Moon had been able to dodge that it hadn't even realized that it was still in danger of being hit. And therefore, before it had a chance to even see that the two attacks of Sailor Jupiter and Venus were still coming forward, they hit, along with Sailor Mars' Ki driven power punch to the back of what looked to be a neck.   
  
Mercury landed to the ground just in time to set her companion down and look back at what was taking place, and what she saw amazed her more than she had been the night before. Jupiter's attack had actually made contact a split second before that of Venus', creating a hole for Venus' attack to fit right into. From there, it was all over, no more hope lie anywhere in the land for the demon. Venus' love power, being complete opposite of Dark energy, acted as an acid to the demon, eating it from the inside out. Needless to say that Mars' power punch took a giant chunk out of the neck area, but alone, it only weakened the monster. Alone, it would have failed to defeat.   
  
Sailor Moon, near unconsciousness, was still very well aware of the large decrease in power that was taking place in the near vicinity, but she could do nothing at that point. She was completely helpless in her current state. How stupid she had been for just standing there and allowing the enemy to grab her like that. Why hadn't she detected the movements? After all the mental reprimanding she had given herself after Cell, she had STILL failed to take things to a serious extent. She had still chosen 'play' around; why? Was it that she was unable to handle her job, or was it that she was just being a normal, curious child? Never the less, the job was done. Her friends had come to her aid, and, in the process, defeated their first threat.   
  
~*~*~   
  
Still from the rooftop, Artimas and Luna watched in total amazement as the massive body of the demon fell to the ground. They hadn't expected the Senshi to defeat their enemy so fast.   
  
Artimas; "They did better than we had hoped."   
  
Luna nodded. "They already know how to work as a team. That's something that we don't have to teach them."   
  
Artimas frowned as he looked down at the fallen Senshi of the Moon. "We're going to have to teach Her how to fight as a true Senshi if she wants to survive as the Moon Princess."   
  
Luna grimly nodded as she walked to the stairs that led down to the city streets. "I know."   
  
~*~*~   
  
Mamoru, Michiru, and Haruka were equally astonished at what had just taken place. Especially Mamoru. That enemy was nearly as strong as Cell had been in the past. The girls had barely been able to take him out then and now, here these Senshi from another world were taking this thing out as if it meant nothing. How could that be? Were they really that much stronger than him?   
  
"Those girls..."   
  
Michiru turned around to Mamoru with a twinkle of though in her eye. "Are awfully familiar."   
  
~*~*~   
  
Jupiter grabbed her wrist as she walked to what remained of the body. Although, she couldn't get all that close for there was a black goo surrounding the entire thing, which seemed to be boiling at an unimaginable temperature. "What is this?"   
  
Venus grabbed her nose so she wouldn't have to smell the intense stench that arose from the demon. "Eeww! That stuff looks like that gooey stuff that came from Cell's egg." Her eyes traveled upward to the giant hole that had been created in the gut of the demon and what she saw put fright in her eyes. Nothing, she saw absolutely nothing. That attack had literally eaten everything that had previously been inside. All that remained was the body and the goo that had been squeezed out from the two attacks.   
  
"I hope so. It's from the same group of people." She gently placed her hands under Sailor Moon's back, careful not to touch the shoulder wounds. "Come and help me, girls."   
  
~*~*~   
  
~Dark Dimension: Beryl's Lair   
  
Queen Beryl dug her nails into the palms of her hands as she glared down at the female servant before her, who had just brought her the news of their recent defeat. "I thought you assured me that this would do the trick!" She snapped, sending chills of fear down her servant's spine.   
  
"We...We thought it would. We were monitoring the progress while we the fight was going..."   
  
Beryl threw a wine glass at the woman before her. "You call THAT a fight?! It lasted no more than five minutes! That was weak! Pathetic!"   
  
The woman on the floor pulled back. She could honestly say that she feared for her life at that point. "I'm sorry your majesty. Our scientists didn't have enough energy left over to make a sufficient enemy, but we have enough. We will go to the body and retrieve the energy that we received from this demon." She paused when she got a glare of happiness come from her queen.   
  
"And how is that?"   
  
The woman gulped. "Well, your Excellency, the body was not fully destroyed."   
  
"And that helps us because!?" It was obvious that Beryl's patience were wearing quite thin by the harshness of her tone.   
  
"It should still hold in the energy that it collected from the citizens of the city. As long as Sailor Moon doesn't totally fry our demons with her Moon power, and it's the other Senshi who kill them, then we have a steady amount of power coming in."   
  
Beryl smirked with pure evilness. "Then make sure those damn scientists program the next one to knock that Moon brat out right away."   
  
A smile arose on her loyal Servant's face. "We're one step ahead of you, my liege."   
  
~*~*~   
  
~Earth: Satan City   
  
Sailor Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter had gathered themselves around their leader, who had wounds that had actually gone through from one side to the other; actual holes in her body. Luna and Artimas were close by as well.   
  
Mercury, having studied medicine almost then entire summer before with her mother, knew a little of what to do, but not much. She had never been prepped on what to do with a wound such as this. All she knew was to try to stop the bleeding as much as possible, but how could she? Both shoulders had been completely broken through with four holes on each side. "Usagi, hold on! We'll get you to a hospital soon!"   
  
~*~*~   
  
Little did the group know that Mamoru was creeping close by. He had found himself actually wanting to make sure that the girl was ok, and not in near death condition. 'Usagi?'   
  
~*~*~   
  
Moon opened her eyes with a warm smile. "I'll be find, Ami. I just need to get enough energy up to heal myself."   
  
Mars frowned. "What are you talking about? We can just teleport you home and get some Senzu beans from your parents."   
  
Artimas jumped onto Mars' head for that one. "We can't do that! Then your secret will be out!"   
  
Moon panted as she slowly and painfully sat up. "Can you guys lend some energy?"   
  
Venus; "Of course."   
  
The entire group nodded and placed their hands upon their leader and began concentrating their power into her body. Slowly, but surely, Sailor Moon could feel the warm energy, known only by friendship. She would have to thank them yet again for coming to her aid in times of need. Using this new energy to her advantage, her body began to glow an ignited silver filled with energy from all planets of the inner solar system.   
  
~*~*~   
  
From afar, atop a building stood one lone figure of orange. His eyes narrowed into a nice glare down upon those who were aiding the fallen Senshi in her quest to heal herself. This figure was not of Goku, nor was it of Goten, it was of Gohan, who had been disturbed by fleeing citizens running down the ragged streets in his neighborhood. 'That healing power...'   
  
(Maybe if FF.Net would actually let me download earlier, this may have come out a lot sooner cause I've had it written for about two weeks now. I just kept getting these stupid errors. All better now. Getting right on the next chapter so you don't have to wait so long, and maybe we'll all get lucky and FF.Net won't be a pain and shut itself down again. ^_^ Anyway, how was it? Love ta hear! Ja! ) 


	115. Part 17

~*~*~*~   
  
Things hadn't seemed to go too well for the Senshi on their first fight as such, but as they had expected, it was a triumph over the demon. But how long would the easy fights last? Beryl's minions seem to have a plan to recover energy even from their defeated monsters to make later ones two times as powerful. The Senshi had better learn quickly how to fight this new enemy, or there isn't much hope for Earth.   
  
~*~*~   
  
Chi-Chi stumbled through the woods in hopes to find her husband. Why he had to go on with his daily routines and leave her home alone at in the middle of a crisis, she didn't know. But if he insisted on staying out, she would just have to go to him. Her family and friends were in danger and she'd be damned if she just sat around and waited to do something to fix it.   
  
She jumped down a small cliff with her Ki power to guide her. At the bottom was a large river where Goku often went for fishing when Gohan was only and infant. "Goku!" She wasted no time in dashing to the river's bank in desperate search for her husband. "Goku!"   
  
Underwater, Goku could be seen with a group of fish and ready to attack.   
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she lifted her skirt and walked forward until she was knee-deep in the water. She slowly bent over. "GOKU!"   
  
The fish that had been around Goku scurried away in fear. All Goku had heard was a muffled scream that sounded somewhat like his name, although he couldn't tell from the voice who it was. He quickly jumped out of the water, creating a giant wave that completely drenched the angered Chi-Chi.   
  
He gulped in fear as he backed away, not wanting to feel her wrath, which he had just been responsible for. "Yes?" He barely peeped out.   
  
Chi-Chi, now soaking wet, clenched her fists as she let out a quiet growl. She had to control herself from lashing out at him... this time. Starting a fight now would not be a good idea, especially since they were already upset with each other from the episode from the night before. "We... have... to... talk..."   
  
Goku blinked with curiosity. Why hadn't she screamed and yelled at him for making her wet? Wasn't that the reason why she was mad at him? He didn't know the answers to these questions, but he didn't necessarily want to know either. If she was willing to let him off the hook this time, it was fine with him. "About what?"   
  
"About that Cat! I don't care what you say, it's leaving my house!"   
  
Goku, not knowing how to take that, just stood there and scratched his head. "Huh?"   
  
~*~*~   
  
~~Satan City~~   
  
Meanwhile, back at the scene of the Senshi fight, the five young warriors were preparing to depart and return home before anyone could figure out that they weren't where they said they would be. The longer they were Senshi, the longer their normal Ki's were undetectable.   
  
But now that Sailor Moon was back to normal, Mars had a few words she wanted to share before they departed. "What was that?" She half angrily, half worriedly walked to her leader and long time friend. "I can NOT believe that you just did that!"   
  
Moon pulled her head back and covered her face with her hands as she groaned. "I know, I know."   
  
Venus, knowing that Mars could and would get into a deep reprimand of their leader's actions, intervened. "Chill, both of you, before this turns into a big fight." She stood in-between the two girls with her hands out to the sides, hoping that they wouldn't jump down each other's throats, or worse yet, hers.   
  
Mars frowned as she crossed her arms. "If only your dad knew how much you goofed off. You should always be aware of what you're doing and what the other guy is doing. You know this, girl."   
  
Moon pouted as she stood up, keeping her face to the ground. "I know. It won't happen again. I just got distracted." She smiled as she looked up. "But thanks for coming to my rescue."   
  
Mars found herself smiling at that as she threw her arm around Moon's shoulders. "No prob! What are friends for if you can't count on em' when you're in a pinch?"   
  
Jupiter looked over her shoulder at the fallen enemy. "He won't be bothering anyone anymore."   
  
Venus giggled. "I guess we really did a number on him with that inside attack."   
  
Moon cocked her head to the side to see past Mars and curled her nose. "What should we do with him?"   
  
At that moment, Mamoru, Michiru, and Haruka made their way to the Senshi. All of them had high suspicions of who they were, but they weren't ready to act upon them until they had more information, even though Mamoru could have sworn he heard the one in blue call one of the others 'Usagi'.   
  
"Hey you!" Shouted Mamoru. The girls turned their heads and, with their eyes, questioned him. "Yeah. You guys over there!"   
  
~*~*~   
  
Gohan, still watching what was taking place, crouched down so as to not be so noticeable now that the action was done and over with. 'What are those three doing here?' He crawled forward to the edge of the building he was on in order to get a better view as well as a better hearing distance. 'Who are those girls? And that healing power. It's just like the Nameks' and Saiyans' healing power. Where are they from?'   
  
~*~*~   
  
Sailor Venus backed away from Mamoru as he pushed his way into the small group of Senshi. She had to stop herself from lashing out at the group for being there. Had she done that it would have one, give them a bad rep. And two, it would have sounded like she knew them, something that couldn't let on about. "You shouldn't try to fight these things. They're way outta your league."   
  
Jupiter nodded with a grin. "Yeah."   
  
Mamoru smirked as he glared at the smallest Senshi, Sailor Moon. "Are you all the same age?"   
  
Mercury found herself frowning at the question. Did he already know who they were? Why was he looking especially back at the leader of the group. "What's age got to do with this?"   
  
Mamoru's smirked turned down into a firm frown. "Just answer the damn question will ya?"   
  
Mercury gritted her teeth. She was in the same predicament as Venus. She wanted badly to yell and scream at Mamoru for being so rude, but couldn't. "Yes!"   
  
Mamoru slowly grinned once again as he pushed forward towards Sailor Moon. Before even saying a word he grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her against Mars. "That's funny." He pulled himself back to get a good look at both of them. Needless to say that the Saiyan in the pair was a bit shorter. "If you're all the same age, why is that blonde shorter?" 'I'll tell ya why! She's a pipsqueak Saiyan, that's why! Saiyans always grow slower than normal kids! But I can't be sure yet if they really are who I think they are so I better not say anything.' He smirked. 'And besides, I want to see them squirm as I get closer to uncovering them. Ha ha ha ha!'   
  
Haruka giggled as she caught onto Mamoru's game. "It's just like with that Usagi brat. She's shorter than all her friends and classmates!"   
  
Sailor Moon widened her eyes. 'EEE! Do they know?' "Well who cares if I'm a little shorter."   
  
Mamoru chuckled. "Just wonderin, that's all." He glanced over his shoulder at his two female companions and gave a quick nod. "Let's get outta here. I'm bored." He and his two friends raised their Ki power just enough to get into the air. But, before they took off, Mamoru turned around and stared down at Sailor Moon. "You look like you could use some help with your fighting skills, if you want I could recommend a few people for you to learn from." He chuckled with an evil grin.   
  
Jupiter threw a rock at the blithering idiot. "Leave!"   
  
~*~*~   
  
Gohan ducked further as the trio flew over head. 'Now's my chance to talk with those girls and find out where they're from.'   
  
~*~*~   
  
Sailor Moon looked around the city. Buildings were utterly destroyed, and what was left was on fire. 'How could they do this? All those innocent people...' She let her eyes travel further until they reached two small figures who had dove for cover in the rubble of an office building when Mamoru and his friends came fourth. "Guess we get going. My mom's probably wanting me to come home."   
  
Venus ran to Artimas and picked him up. "So, what'd you think? Did we do good?"   
  
Artimas nodded. "You did very well. We didn't expect for you to be able to fight as a group as well as you did. And how you came to your fellow Senshi's aid, that was even better."   
  
Sailor Moon picked up her own kitty companion. "I promise I'll do better next time, Luna. I kind of got distracted."   
  
Luna; "I know what you can do, kid. I saw you last night. But, there's still one thing we need to talk about?"   
  
"Hmm?" Moon curiously looked down into Luna's deep blue eyes.   
  
Luna looked away from Sailor Moon and to the staring eyes of the others. What she needed to say was to stay between herself, and the Princess. It regarded something that only she and Usagi knew. "Let's go home first. We can talk there."   
  
Moon nodded. "Ok." She chirped. All of a sudden, a giant burst of energy was detected by the five warriors. They knew the energy all too well, Moon most of all. "Gohan's coming." She whispered as her face turned completely pale. 'That means he probably saw the fight... NOT GOOD!' "I gotta go! I can't talk to him like this!"   
  
Artimas jumped down out of Venus' arms. "You should all leave. Avoid talking to your friends as much as possible when you're in this form."   
  
Jupiter pressed her fingers against her forehead. "Let's teleport to the tree house and detransform there. Then, we can fly home without our parents knowing a thing."   
  
~*~*~   
  
Just as Gohan thought he was arriving upon the Sailor Senshi, they disappeared out of his sight. "What the...?!" He carefully landed on the unstable rubble of the fallen building where the girls previously stood. "Where'd they go now? Damnit! I hate not being able to sense them!" He looked up into the sky with a glare. "Better see if mom is handling the Luna situation with a straight head." His entire body was quickly engulfed in a light of blue as he took off into the sky as fast as he could.   
  
~*~*~   
  
~~The Forest~~   
  
Just as the Sailor Senshi were arriving back at their unofficial hideout, Chi-Chi was concluding her justification as to why she wanted Luna out of her house. Needless to say it left Goku even more dumbfounded and confused about the entire situation.   
  
Chi-Chi panted heavily with exasperation. "So that's why we need that thing out! I will not have my baby in anymore danger than she needs to be. It's bad enough that we have to worry about enemies attacking, but we shouldn't have to live with one!"   
  
Goku crossed his arms as he looked down with a twinkle of thought in his eyes. "But we don't know if she's with the enemy. Usagi said it helped her escape."   
  
Chi-Chi frowned at her husband's unwillingness to see eye to eye on her position. "Goku!" She yelled as she latched onto his face and pulled it up so she could look into his eyes. "This could be their way of getting into our home to attack us all. Befriend the enemy and that's when you've got a real problem on your hands. And besides, Mr. Satan saw the black cat talking about something happening with another."   
  
Goku gave more thought to what Chi-Chi was asking, but every time he came up with the same conclusion. There was no reason for them to believe that Luna was with the enemy. Especially if Mr. Satan had something to do with it. He was just a crazy old man. "Something tells me that you've already decided for both me and you what we're going to do with the cat. I might as well not even share with you my feelings... right?"   
  
Chi-Chi grinned. "It's my house and I refuse to let any evil come in and that's final!"   
  
Goku sighed as he scratched his head. 'How did I know?' "I think you're overreacting a little, Chi-Chi, but you've already made up your mind."   
  
"I'm NOT overreacting!"   
  
~*~*~   
  
~~Son Household~~   
  
Sailor Moon, now detransformed, arrived at her home shortly after leaving the forest treehouse. She hadn't at all expected her father to be home since he had a routine of being gone for almost the entire day until her mother expected him home. This particular day, he was expected home unusually early since they were to meet with the others to come up with a plan of attack. Her mother, she had expected to be home no matter what. She would never have left the house unattended without letting her know before hand.   
  
But little did Usagi know that neither of her parents were home at this time. Furthermore, she had no idea that the very feline who had become her advisor was being discussed. If she only knew that Luna was going to be kicked out...   
  
Usagi landed before the front door, which was wide open. She found that utterly strange. Her mother always had a fit if either she or her father left the door open. She would always complain that a draft was being let in.   
  
Letting her instinct kick in to a full, she dashed inside to investigate. "Mom?!" She proceeded with the utmost caution. Something was wrong, it had to be. It was too unlike her mother to let the door stay wide open. "Mom? Are you here?" Her voice shook with fear. She didn't doubt at all the fact that something could have attacked while she was away. But, if that was so, why couldn't she have felt it.   
  
Luna followed behind closely. She carefully kept her eyes all around in hopes to find a sign or clue that someone was in fact occupying the house. 'Where could she be?'   
  
Usagi tip-toed further into the house, down the hallway and into the living room. "I don't feel my mom or dad's Ki here. Why isn't one of them here?"   
  
Luna gulped as she jumped onto the back of the sofa. She was careful to keep her eyes upon the dangling phone that sat on a small table by the hallway. "Usagi, something's going on here."   
  
"You think so?" Usagi turned to see what Luna's eyes were fixed upon and gasped. "Now I think so too!" She ran to the phone and picked up the receiver. "Hello? Hello? Anybody there?" At that moment, she picked up a giant surge of power that was closing in her position at an incredibly fast pace. "Gohan's coming..."   
  
Luna cleared her throat to acquire Usagi's attention. "Usagi! Listen up! Before anyone comes I must speak with you!" Usagi nodded in awe at the cat's ability to take charge. "We both know information that is meant to be kept hidden!"   
  
Usagi cocked her head to the side. "Huh?"   
  
Luna kept patient with the child. "We know who the other Senshi are. We are not supposed to know that kind of information until the time comes in OUR dimension." She cleared her throat once again when she saw that Usagi was going to try and speak. "Don't try to argue with me either. It's not right for us to know this ahead of time so I'm going to have to erase both of our memories of their identities."   
  
Usagi's eyes widened with a slight frown. That proposal was absolutely outrageous. How could she even come up with an idea like that? "No! You can't just erase a person's memory! I don't mind knowing. I'll just keep it a secret from everyone else. I promise!"   
  
Luna growled as she crouched down. "Don't be silly, Usagi. You're an eleven year old child."   
  
Usagi frowned as she crossed her arms, almost completely forgetting about the situation with her mother. "So! What does age have to do with it? Is it all of a sudden I'm not good enough to know secrets because I'm only eleven?"   
  
"No that's not..."   
  
Before the cat could finish her sentence, the room filled with a magnificent bright light. With that light came two energies. One low, one relatively high. To her own sanity and relief, Usagi knew immediately who the powers belonged to. That wasn't what surprised her about this meeting. It was the fact that her mother was powered up almost to a full.   
  
It was at the moment of feeling her mother powered up that Usagi knew something was going on. Whether it was of her own mistake, or an enemy, there had to be something wrong. "Mom?"   
  
With a frown planted firmly upon her face, Chi-Chi glared unto the tiny cat who was still sitting on the back of the sofa. "YOU!" She growled aloud.   
  
Luna cowered away from the angered Chi-Chi in utter fear. What could have happened to make this women, who had appeared to be loving, angry? No time was left to try and figure things out. She knew she had better jump away before anything bad happened to herself. So that's exactly what she did. She leapt towards Usagi for shelter.   
  
Chi-Chi had expected that from the enemy. "Get away from her!" Not letting the frantic creature clasp herself around Usagi, Chi-Chi wrapped her hand around the cat's body and ripped her away from her daughter. She made special care not to release the cat from her grasp.   
  
Usagi gasped and before she could have any kind of control over her body, she jumped for her mother and latched herself upon her arm. "Mom no!" She was much too scared for the safety of her advisor and new friend to really do any damage to her mother. But she did manage to keep a firm hold.   
  
Chi-Chi ignored her daughter to a full. At that moment, the cat was the only thing on her mind. "You thought you could get away with this didn't you?" She narrowed her eyes into a deathly glare as she pulled the feline to her face. "We're onto you!"   
  
Usagi's grip on her mother was lost when she pulled away. "What are you doing?! Stop! You're scaring her!" Her heart nearly broke into two when she heard a long scream of pain escape Luna's mouth. "Please!"   
  
For the first time, Chi-Chi acknowledged her daughter's cries of frustration. "Usagi, this cat is with the enemy. She's fooled you. And now it's time for her to go!"   
  
Usagi gasped as she looked back to her father, who was generally more sane than her mother at times like this. She hoped that he hadn't been corrupted by insane thoughts too. If he was, there was no way to reverse her mother's decision. "Da..."   
  
Goku shook his head with his own frustration. "She's already made up her mind."   
  
Usagi was ready to scream at that point. How could BOTH of them be doing this to her? Luna was good, she knew it. But there was no way to tell her parents without completely blowing her identity. "She's not with the enemy. I swear she's not."   
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she walked towards the window with the struggling cat held out as far away as possible. "We can't be sure. Mr. Satan heard this one talking with another yesterday. He said their conversation sounded suspicious."   
  
Usagi gulped as she ran for her mother once again. "What are you going to do with her?"   
  
Chi-Chi opened the window. " Put it out of the house and if it dares show its face around here again, there'll be grave consequences." She paused to look back into the frightened eyes of her youngest child. "And I had better not catch you with it ever again, you hear?"   
  
Usagi's eyes began to water up as she nodded slowly in defeat. "Yes mom." 'Now what am I supposed to do? I can't fight this or else I'll get in a lot of trouble. I know she's just trying to protect her family, but Luna really isn't bad. It's just NOT fair!'   
  
Chi-Chi lightened her frown. "That's a good girl." She turned back to the tiny cat which was fidgeting to get away. "You scat or else my Goku will let you have it!" She lowered the feline to the ground and watched it dash away.   
  
Usagi clenched her fists and gritted her teeth as she turned around and headed to her room. She didn't even want to look at her mother at that point. She was just too angering. She completely ignored her father's comforting eyes as well. She wasn't too happy with him at that point either. She hadn't even tried to back her up, but, in an annoying way, he was right. Her mother wouldn't have gone back on her decision once she thought she was protecting her family. She was always too blinded by 'motherly love'.   
  
Surprisingly, Chi-Chi wasn't the least bit angry when Usagi slammed the door to her room shut behind her as hard as she could. Had it been any other circumstances, Chi-Chi would have been on her case about throwing a temper tantrum, but she knew that Usagi was disappointed. She sighed when she caught notice of her husband approaching their daughter's door. "Just leave her, Goku."   
  
~*~*~   
  
Not long after Usagi locked herself in her room, Gohan arrived. He hadn't known completely what had just taken place, but he did know that his mother had completely gotten rid of the cat for he had seen her walking away from the house. Seeing the helpless creature he couldn't help but feel sorry for it, but, if she was in fact the enemy, it would have done no good for it to stay around those who would oppose it, especially since no power levels could be detected.   
  
As he got closer to the door, he could feel the uneasy and angry emotions that radiated from inside. Just before entering, he glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was following him. Things were much harder now that he couldn't sense any power levels.   
  
~*~*~   
  
Goku; "Gohan's here."   
  
Chi-Chi sat herself down on the sofa and buried her hands in her face with a sigh. She was still stuck in the thought of what she had just done. Now that there was a moment of calm, she rethought her decision. And while it may have been harsh, she still believed that it was the right thing to do. That cat had been seen by Mr. Satan earlier that day TALKING and then it somehow appeared in the enemy's lair. There was no other explanation. She HAD to be part of the enemy. In any way, it didn't quite matter anymore. The cat was gone; no way of undoing the past.   
  
Seconds after, Gohan emerged from the hall and into the living room where he found both his parents. His father was almost as carefree as ever and his mother looked deathly concerned. He had a hunch as to why. Every time she did something rash she always declined for a while after. "I'm guessing you did it already?"   
  
Not a word came from the two parents. But Gohan didn't need words to answer his question. He could tell. "Well..." He started in on the next reason why he came. He realized that his mother probably didn't want to talk of what just took place. He slowly made his way to sit next to his mother, but not before noticing that his sister wasn't present as she usually was. "Where's Usagi?"   
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Pouting."   
  
Goku quietly growled as he too sat down. "She's just upset about having to give up her cat. I still don't think we had anything to worry about."   
  
Chi-Chi frowned harder as she bolted up and away from her husband. "I don't care! I'm not taking any chances!"   
  
Gohan groaned as he threw his head back to lay against he back of his chair. 'Why did I have to ask?' "I watched the new fighters fight today."   
  
Goku immediately perked up after hearing that. "Really?"   
  
Gohan nodded. "Yeah. Some big, ugly demon attacked Satan city today. I didn't find out about it until after a lot of the citizens ran past my house."   
  
Goku curiously grinned. "So? How'd they do?"   
  
"Well, they fought ok, I guess. One of them really got beat bad. But the others came to her aid. Mamoru, Michiru, and Haruka were there."   
  
Goku blinked. "Oh?"   
  
"They had a few words with the girls after the fight, but I couldn't make any of them out. They didn't look like they were very friendly though. But, what's really weird is that the one who got hurt was able to heal herself."   
  
Chi-Chi, just generally disgusted, walked away from the two men to leave them with their talk of fighting. Goku took no notice to this. He was too interested in hearing more. "Healing power? You mean like Dende?"   
  
Gohan nodded. "Yeah. The others gave their power to the girl and she healed herself with it. I've never seen that kind of energy transfer and usage before."   
  
Goku looked down to the ground. "I have, once." He looked up, only this time, towards his daughter's room. 'Couldn't be her though, she was with the girls all day.' "Did you get a chance to talk to them?"   
  
Gohan frowned as he shook his head. "No. By the time I got there, they had already left. I didn't even see them leave."   
  
"Damn. We'll just have to wait until the next encounter."   
  
"That's the problem. We don't know when that'll be since we can't feel them. They could be out fighting right now and we just don't know it."   
  
Goku frowned as he stood to his feet and stretched. "I know. We just have to find a way to intercept one of their fights. That's the only chance we have of finding out who they are and where they're really from. Unless they come to us themselves, that is."   
  
"Father, are you going to the Kame house later today?" Gohan turned to his father, who was looking outside at the rain that was beginning to come down.   
  
"Of course. But I'm leaving Usagi here with your mom. She doesn't want her out much until we figure out what's going on."   
  
Gohan nodded. "I understand."   
  
(Ha! Not even a weeks time has gone by and I'm done! ^_^ Just a bit shorter than usual, but tis ok! Cya next time!) 


	116. Part 18

~*~*~*~  
  
~Satan City  
  
A small gray sphere, about the size of a basket ball, made its way from the sky down into the very heart of the city. The Dark Kingdom was well on its way to creating yet another enemy in hopes to defeat the Senshi. Although they had proven themselves more powerful in this time than the past, the Dark Kingdom was certain that by retrieving the unused energy from their fallen demons, they would be able to rise above the power of the Senshi. But that was only if the bodies of their demons were left solid, and not completely destroyed. Their near perfect plan was well under way and this sphere was the key to gaining more energy to proceed with their quest to finally defeat the Princess of the Moon once and for all; the Royal family would finally be out of power.  
  
The sphere circled the fallen demon in an orbicular motion as it gathered pictures of the body for its creators, as programmed. The demon lay, slain, on the ground with its limbs out in all directions. The body itself had a giant hole directly in the middle which went through from front to back showing how unmercifully it had been slaughtered.   
  
Ignoring the fact that the entire body was nearly destroyed, a small plate underneath the gray sphere opened up to reveal the inner machines hard at work. It slowly lowered and began vacuuming the leftover energy from the abandoned body. Slowly, the energy crystallized and began lifting into the sphere.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son House~~  
None of this activity was detected by any of Earth's Special Forces, not even the Senshi themselves. It was completely inconspicuous.   
  
While Goku and Gohan prepared to leave for Kame house, Usagi still resided in the comfort of her room. There she lay upon her bed in the dark, looking up to the ceiling as she sulked over her mother's harsh and obvious not completely thought out decision to kick Luna out of the house. What would they do now? Luna was, after all, her advisor. She was meant to be guiding her through this fight. She was almost completely clueless as to fight an enemy that could only be destroyed with a power that no one but the holders of it could feel.   
  
It just wasn't fair. Why did her mother always have to jump to conclusions all the time, and, who had even put the idea that Luna was with the enemy in her head in the first place? She couldn't have possibly acquired it on her own since she had already agreed to let the poor creature stay. That was the most mind boggling aspect of the entire situation.   
  
Usagi sighed as she sat up and flung her legs over the edge of her bed. She gazed out the window to the day which was fast being taken over by the dark sky of night. 'I hope Luna's ok out there.' Slowly, she pushed herself up and walked to the window. 'I wonder where she is.'  
  
She perked a bit after hearing the voices of her parents and eldest brother. Without question she knew exactly where they were heading off to. The only thought that passed through her mind was why they weren't taking her along. Wasn't she the one that had been violated the night before? She figured that she should at least be able to be there and in the discussion? But what could she do? Things had already been decided and it appeared that her parents were going to be putting their foot down more in regards to her safety until the threat of the enemy was over.  
  
Usagi quietly opened the window in order to eavesdrop on what was being said outside.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~Outside~  
  
Chi-Chi gave her husband a blazing glare as she joined him and Gohan outside. She couldn't believe that Goku was actually going to leave her and Usagi home Alone at night. Under normal circumstances, she would have been fine with it, but now, with the new threat, she was uneasy. Sure she had agreed to let him go alone, but now she was beginning to feel wrong about it, yet, she couldn't very easily go back on her word. Inside, she hoped that he would just decide on his own to take them along with him, but it was obvious after all those years that he would never do such a thing.   
  
"If something happens, be careful out there... both of you." She chanted with a slight smile.   
  
Goku came back with a grin. "We aren't going to war, Chi-Chi. Just the Kame House."  
  
"I realize that. But, I've also come to realize that, what may seem like an innocent meeting usually turns into a huge fight against some evil; AND, I also know that you have a tendency to get so rough that you sometimes get yourself killed."  
  
Goku cringed at the thought of that. His wife had just proved a frightening, but true point. But what was he to do? If something attacked, he would give his life to protect the people of earth, but, he had also made a vow to himself that he would stay alive and around forever for Usagi no matter what. Maybe, for the first time, he would take his wife's words into consideration. "Ok, Chi-Chi. I won't do anything too crazy."  
  
"Dad, we should get going so we aren't late."   
  
Goku nodded as he turned to face his son. "Let's go."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi poked her head out the window just as her father and brother took to the air without another word to her mother. 'This time, dad, if something happens, I'LL be the one to protect YOU...'   
  
She sat there, watching as the two figures grew smaller and smaller, wondering how this entire situation would turn out. Although, it didn't quite matter how it would turn out, for her life would never be the same. She was now a Legendary Senshi, the Princess of the Silver Millennium Moon Kingdom on top of being a kid of the twenty-first century. Her world couldn't possibly become any more turned around, but somehow, she would have to live with it. Her destiny was to become someone great; not even the greatest of enemies would stand in her way now.   
  
She let herself fall into her thoughts of the far off future as her eyes fell into the trees not too far from her window. Her senses picked up a small shadow that was slowly emerging from behind the nearest of trees. At first, Usagi figured it was just another enemy trying its luck to defeat her, but the figure came fourth even further to reveal itself as the very cat who had saved her the night before.  
  
Usagi perked up with a spark of joy as a smile crossed her lips. 'She's safe!' She quickly gathered her thoughts and looked to both sides of her window to make sure her mother had gone inside. Once she made sure no one was around nor watching, she motioned for the cat to come closer.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi closed the front door behind her and walked partway into the family room and glared down the hallway. 'If she thinks she can get away with pouting all night she's got another thing coming...' She gave off a quiet grunt of anger as she turned into the kitchen to prepare dinner for the two of them.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Once Luna reached the window, Usagi reached out and pulled her in. "Luna!" She whispered.   
  
Luna gave a carefree smile as she jumped up onto Usagi's bed and sat. "Usagi..."  
  
Usagi frowned as she stood up and put her back to Luna. "I'm sorry for my mom. She is ALWAYS overreacting like this. She doesn't even listen to me." She clenched her fists. Just thinking about it made her frustration rise.  
  
Luna shook her head with a sigh. "Usagi, don't be upset with your mom, ok? I'm actually ok with being kicked out, just not so roughly."  
  
Usagi dropped her frown and replaced it with questioning curiosity as she turned around to face the cat. "What? You wanted to be thrown out?"  
  
Luna frowned. "Of course not! But, it does show that she cares about you."  
  
Usagi crossed her arms and turned her head to the side. "She's overprotective. None of my friends' moms act like this."  
  
"No, I suppose they wouldn't. But, what I heard from Pluto in the other dimension, your mom has also been through a lot in the past. Her husband has died numerous times, her sons have fought to near death and WATCHED their father die. The fact that your mom is blinded by her love for you enough to throw out a CAT because she's been tipped off that it could be with the enemy should be something to be happy over, and not upset. So you didn't get your way for once, it happens to everyone and we deal with it." 'That must be one of the reasons why Pluto wanted her to be born to these two.'  
  
Usagi once again lightened her expression as she let her advisor's words sink in. It was true that her mother had been through too much pain when it came to the family. She had to stand by and watch her husband and children risk their lives for then entire world. "But it's so frustrating."  
  
Luna nodded. "I know." She rubbed her paw on her head to the best of her ability. "Believe me, I understand. But, the decision has been made and we aren't going to fight it. We don't want to blow our cover, and speaking of covers... today's fight went... well..."  
  
"Interesting?"  
  
"Exactly. Might I suggest doing the speeches at the beginning of the fights like that other Usagi said to?"  
  
Usagi nodded with a giggle. "I was going to get to that before I was attacked."  
  
"Good. Now, we never finished our conversation about erasing your memory, kid. I still say it's not safe for you to know information that hasn't been revealed in our dimension yet."  
  
"Why? My dad knew that he was going to get a heart disease before he got it. That's why he was able to fight Cell, because Trunks came back to warn him. This is no different."  
  
"It's very different. They haven't become Senshi yet. If they find out before it's their time, it could alter what is meant to happen in the Multiverse and don't tell you you'll keep it a secret. You're eleven years old, and worse, you're a girl."  
  
Usagi grinned. "What's that got to do with anything?"  
  
"Everyone knows girls your age can't keep secrets." Not a single word came from the young Saiyan. "Usagi, you may not like the idea of losing part of your memory but...."  
  
"SHHH!" The now wide-eyed cat shushed right up. "Here that?" Usagi whispered. The whisper was much to quiet for a human to hear, but since both beings had acute hearing due to their animal aspects, it was completely hearable to both.  
  
Luna shook her head. "No. What is it?"  
  
Usagi put her hand up to shush the cat once again as she pulled her head up a bit to hear better. "Footsteps..."   
  
Luna didn't need to hear the rest of the sentence in order to know what that meant. "I better get going."  
  
Usagi blankly nodded with fright. If her mother were to see that she was with Luna again, let alone letting her in the house, her head would be gruesomely detached from her body. "Fast! She's right outside the door." She didn't even wait for Luna to stand before she scooped her into her arms. "If she catches me with you we're both dead."  
  
Luna gulped. "Hurry." Her eyes flew directly to the door knob, which was beginning to turn ever so slowly. "U...sa...gi!"   
  
Usagi turned her head to the door, which was creaking open. "Yee...!" She quickly turned back just in time to trip over a toy that was left out of place. "No!" She used her Ki to push herself up and run to the window. 'Oh no, Oh No!' She didn't take any consideration as she dropped Luna right out the window.  
  
Chi-Chi, who was now in the room, looked upon her daughter with the most suspicious eyes. "Usagi?" She leaned to the side just in time to see a black item fall from her daughter's hands and down to the ground just outside the window. "What was that?"   
  
Usagi jumped in front of the window with fear. She tried desperately to give her mother an innocent face. "Nothing!"  
  
Chi-Chi smirked. "Nothing huh? I could have sworn it was small, black, had Four Legs and was FURY!" Usagi jumped at her mother's strict, irritable tone of voice. "You had that MONSTER in here again DIDN'T YOU?" She stepped closer and, with each step, Usagi became more and more skittish. "You deliberately disobeyed me, young lady."  
  
Usagi closed her eyes and turned her head to the side with an expectation of being slapped. "I'm sorry... But..." A long paused followed her cries for mercy, which only lead to her further confusion. Usagi knew exactly what was going on. This time, she had done it. Not had she only disobeyed her mother, but, in her eyes, she had put her own life in danger. That was something that was completely unforgivable to her mother. And there was only one reaction that would become of this... a physical punishment. Whether it be slap to the face or a spanking, it was sure to be quite painful if it was coming from an overprotective mother.   
  
After a long moment of silence, it was broken. "Usagi..." Chimed her mother with the most gentle ring. "I'm not going to do anything to you, don't be scared."  
  
'Huh?' Usagi's face turned beet red with embarrassment as she opened her eyes and turned to face her mother. "Mom?"   
  
Chi-Chi slowly made her way to sit on the bed and patted the area next to her. "Come have a seat, dear." Usagi didn't move a single step in any direction. Instead, she just stood in place and turned even lighter pale than before. Chi-Chi's heart nearly fell to the pit of her stomach when she saw that. How could she put that much fear into her daughter? She hadn't seen her that afraid since the meeting with her school Principal six years before. "Don't be afraid. Just come sit by me."  
  
Usagi reluctantly and stiffly did as her mother asked and sat next to her. Her entire body was frozen stiff with fear as she only faced forward. She wasn't sure if this was a trick or what, but she knew one thing, it wasn't normal. "Mom?"  
  
Chi-Chi took in a deep breath of her own as she looked down to her daughter. She would try to control herself to the best of her ability. Sure Usagi had disobeyed her, but, lately, she had been trying hard to keep her temper down when it came to her fragile daughter. "You had the cat here again, didn't you?"  
  
There it was, the grand opening to yet another falling out between mother and daughter and Usagi knew that better than anyone. What was she to answer back in response to that question. She couldn't lie to her mother, especially since she had in fact seen Luna. There was only one way to go through this, and that would be the dreaded truth.  
  
Usagi hung her head low to keep from making eye contact with her mother. One wicked look and she would have lost what little confidence she had. "...Y...Yes..."  
  
Chi-Chi breathed heavily as her anger pushed itself further and further to the brink of being popped. The one thing she didn't want was to have a huge argument with her daughter, but if she continued to persist in disobeying her it would soon become inevitable. In her own thoughts, her daughter was not one to follow directions; something she would have to learn soon if she wished to enter the world as a teen in the coming years. "Usagi..."  
  
Usagi cringed. Her mother had not even said two words to her and she could already feel the heat of what was next to come. She only wished that her father was there to mediate her mother's actions.   
  
"Why did you feel the need to disobey me? Didn't I make myself clear enough when I told you not to go near her again?"  
  
Usagi's heart raced a mile a minute inside her chest as the breathing became deeper and deeper. She wasn't exactly feeling bad that she had gone against her mother's wishes, that wasn't the worst of it. It was what her punishment would be that worried her. To her, she was completely in the right here. Luna wasn't the enemy and therefore, she did nothing wrong. But there was no way to make her mother see that. "Yes..." She muttered. "You did." She paused and turned her face up to her mother with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry mom, I really am."  
  
Chi-Chi sighed as she stood up and walked away from her daughter, causing her to be all the more nervous. "I don't know, Usagi..."  
  
Usagi gasped quietly to herself. "You don't believe me?" The tears began to come forward harder at hearing that. "Mom, you..."  
  
Chi-Chi turned back around and put her hand up to hush her daughter. "Shh... You disobey me a lot, Usagi, which is why only saying 'sorry' isn't going to work. You have to show me. I understand that it's in a child's nature to disobey their parents, but this time you've gone too far." Usagi, again, dropped her head. "You have put your life in danger even after we have expressed to you that we don't want you to. Your father may not have seemed too worried about Luna, but I know he was. He had to have been."  
  
Usagi sniffled as she lay her head down on the bed. This was way worse than getting a yelling reprimand about responsibility. This was the first time that her mother had actually talked civilly to her when she was scolding, which meant it was much more serious than other times. And to make things worse, she was acting as if she lost trust in her. "I don't know what else to say besides I'm sorry, mom. Please believe me. I won't do it again, but you have to believe me that Luna isn't with the enemy."  
  
Chi-Chi sighed. "You can't possibly know that."  
  
"But I do. She isn't bad."  
  
Chi-Chi rubbed her temples with frustration as she walked to the window and closed it. "You may think you know, but you don't. We have all been through this before and we know what to look for. Mr. Satan saw Luna and another cat speaking to each other early in the day yesterday." She turned back to Usagi, who was still lying down. "I know you don't understand this, Usagi. You're only eleven years old and naïve. You're going to want things to turn out your way, so you start believing the false is true. It's nothing new, we all go through it. But, wanting something really bad isn't going to make it happen."  
  
Usagi shook her head to show that she understood, but, inside, she didn't at all agree. She did know for sure that Luna wasn't on the side of evil, but there was no way to prove it without revealing her identity. She sat up and watched with glazed eyes as her mother walked to the door with eyes on the ground. "Mom, I really am sorry."  
  
Chi-Chi stopped and felt her gut fall. Every time she scolded her daughter she herself felt the pain as well. It was a mutual feeling between the two that haunted both of them every time a situation such as this came up. "I know." Without further conversation, she opened the door and proceeded through.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Kame House~~  
  
Nearly twenty minutes had passed since the father-son duo reached Kame house; they had been the first. But now, the gang had entirely gathered, once again, for the first time since Majin Buu. It felt strange gathering again after so many years of peace. But, they were definitely not ill prepared. Even in times of peace these special warriors trained hard for just such occasions. This new enemy may have been tricky enough to hide its energy, and, it may have been harder for this diverse group to overcome their obstacles, but they had never let anything stand in their way before and they weren't about to let anything now. So there they were, in the main room of the Kame House trying to figure out what they were going to do in order to overcome their newest obstacle to peace.   
  
Goku took the liberty of speaking first, since he knew most of the situation so far. "As we know, this thing is completely undetectable." He paused and looked around the entire room. "Usagi said that it was after energy, so there's no denying the fact that any of us could be attacked at any time."  
  
Gohan nodded as he stood next to his father. "They aren't to be taken lightly. I watched one of their monsters fight today. They were strong and the Sailor Senshi had problems fighting it." '...even though the one in pigtails looked like she was having trouble fighting...'   
  
Trunks slightly brought his eyes up from the floor far enough to look Gohan in the eyes. "Who the hell are the 'Sailor Senshi'?"  
  
Everyone turned to Gohan, who they figured knew most about them since he had watched their fight. But, he only replied with a quick shrug. "I don't know anything about them. All I know is that they're little kids and fight so-so. Oh yeah, and they have a strange sort of healing power like Piccolo and Dende."  
  
Goku intervened where his son left off. "So far, I think they're on our side."  
  
Piccolo, who stood furthest away with his arms crossed nodded. "You're right. I could sense their purity last night when they came to us."  
  
Krillin looked thoughtful as he turned his eyes to the floor. "I wonder where they came from."  
  
Goten shrugged at the half question, half statement. "Maybe they've always been here and we just couldn't feel it."  
  
Bulma perked at that. "You know, that makes sense. You said you can't feel them, right? Well, who knows, maybe they HAVE been here the entire time."  
  
Vejita grunted with a frown. "Listen to yourself woman, you're agreeing with Kakaratto's brat."  
  
Bulma rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Vejita. If you aren't going to contribute anything then just... shut... up."  
  
Goku, feeling the tension between the married couple, quickly intervened. "We aren't here to discuss the Senshi. We need to figure out a plan of attack on the enemy."  
  
Goten frowned as he remembered back to the night's events; how frazzled everyone was and most importantly, why. "That's almost completely impossible, dad. We can't feel them."  
  
Goku; "No kidding! But we can't let that stand in our way..."  
  
Videl joined Goten with a frown of her own. "Goku, did you hear what he just said? You can't feel these guys. We learned that last night. There's no way for you to plan an attack if you can't feel them in the first place. It's impossible."  
  
Goku narrowed his eyes into an almost evil glare in the direction of his daughter-in-law. "I refuse to believe that."  
  
~*~*~  
  
And so they spoke on for the remainder of the night, thought they did not get anywhere. It was almost impossible to get anywhere for the one soul fact that they didn't have the capabilities of sensing the enemies. They were in the dark with no way to overcome it. Therefore, they would have to find a new goal... but what?  
  
Not much happened in the subject of progress that night. Mostly, the same arguments were argued over time after time after time. It had gotten to the point where petty insults had come into it all, telling the fighters that it was well past time to quit before they engaged in a war of their own.   
  
~*~*~  
  
The next morning, the order of business kept with a constant as it did every other day. It was a Monday, meaning Usagi, against her mother's wishes and best judgement, had to leave to attend school. Because of the incident with Luna, Chi-Chi wasn't completely positive that she could trust her daughter to do the right thing and stay away from the cat. If she was brazen enough to actually bring it into the house again the same day that she had been told to stay away, there was no telling what she would do away from the house.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi gathered her books into her school bag near the front door, which was the only activity keeping her from leaving for school. So far that morning, she hadn't exchanged a single word with her mother, which only caused her to worry more about how much she had disappointed her mother the day before. In this case, she had come to the conclusion that she had been partially wrong. Her mother wouldn't have become upset had she just did as told, even if the truth didn't coincide with everyone's suspicions.   
  
She sighed as she zipped her bag up and lifted it to her shoulders. 'I hope we don't have a replay of yesterday with the enemy and all.' Slowly, Usagi made her way to the door, but was soon stopped by her mother stepping in front of her. She quietly brought her eyes to her mother's. "Yes?"  
  
Although she could very well sense the tension in the room, Chi-Chi gently smiled down to her daughter. "Be careful today, ok?"  
  
Usagi nodded with a grin of her own. "I Promise!"   
  
"Go on, get out of here, get to school before you're late." Chi-Chi's smile grew as she placed her hand upon Usagi's shoulder and shooed her out the door. She stood outside with the door wide open as she watched her daughter leave for school. She refused to turn away until Usagi was completely out of view, for, although it was necessary for Usagi to go to school, and, although she wanted her to attend, part of her also wanted to keep her home; safe from any danger.   
  
Usagi stopped her Ki flow to wave down to her still smiling mother. "Bye mom! See you later!" She yelled down with a happiness that had been unseen by either of her parents in nearly two weeks. After thinking for the entire night that her mother was angry with her, her greatest hopes had come true. Her mother was acting that morning as if nothing had happened the night before.   
  
As soon as Usagi was completely out of view, Chi-Chi placed her hand over her heart as if she were sickly and slowly turned back into the house. Her eyes soon drooped down with sorrow with each step that she took towards the kitchen. Possibly for the first time, Chi-Chi wasn't angry with her daughter for disobeying her, possibly, for the first time, she was more worried about her than anything. This was a situation unlike what had happened with Cell. By the time had come back from the past, she was completely out of danger, which only made Chi-Chi angry with her daughter for putting herself in obvious danger. But now, things were different. Usagi obviously didn't realize what kind of danger she was putting herself into, which was worse. She couldn't very well get angry with her if she didn't know she was doing anything bad in the first place, could she? Would that make her a bad mother? Most of all, would that push her daughter further away?   
  
She sighed as she looked around the filthy kitchen. How could she clean at a time like this when her daughter, her baby could be attacked at any time? No one would even know to go and help them. She unconsciously sat down at the table to think harder. How could she make Usagi see that there were just some things that she absolutely had to obey without yelling at her? Yelling would have only escalated the situation, which was something she MUST ovoid. Things were already bad between them, what with Usagi's training and all. Although it didn't force her to grow up nearly as fast as Gohan, she was still more independent than Chi-Chi wanted. For once, she wanted to have a child who wanted nothing to do with fighting, granted Goten didn't particularly make fighting his life for the first seven years; more like a playing activity with Trunks. But, as soon as Goku came back to life and beat Buu, he forced Goten to train harder, and worse, enter the Tenkai-Ichi-Budokai Tournament against his own will when he turned seventeen. She could easily handle that since she had been through it with Gohan, but, she was hoping that Usagi would just wish to be normal. And it was because of the fighting that she was so independent, so unwilling to obey her mother because she thought she could 'handle herself'; in her eyes at least.   
  
Just as she went deeper into thought, Chi-Chi heard the thumping of her husband's footsteps enter the room, causing her to look up. There stood Goku wearing only a pair of sweat pants and a towel around his neck indicating that he had just come out of the shower.  
  
Goku immediately took notice to his wife's distress and naturally, put a smile on his face to try and cheer her up. "What's wrong Chi-Chi?"   
  
Chi-Chi's solemn eyes turned slightly upward into a quaint frown. "You!" She scolded.   
  
Goku jumped back with mistrust. He was sure that she was going to lunge out of her seat and punch him. But, oddly, she only sat there, and, having not been told about what their daughter had been up to in her room after he and Gohan had left, he knew nothing of what could have angered his wife so terribly. "Wooo!" He put his hands up to act as a shield.  
  
Chi-Chi burst up with a red aura now emitting from her body, causing the chair to fly back to the wall. "It's all your fault Son Goku!" With saying that, she jumped over the table in a flash and dashed past her husband and out the room.   
  
Goku was left dumbfounded and standing in the kitchen. He did nothing but scratch his head in wonderment. "Must be a REALLY bad time of the month for her."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi arrived to school with only five minutes to spare, which was considerably early for her. It seemed as though in the past few months of the school year she being late was the norm for her. But she never let it get her down, she usually made up the time after school on Friday afternoon's. Her only motivation to get to school early that particular day was to tell her friends what had become of Luna.   
  
As soon as she landed in the Quad in front of the main office, she ran as fast as she could around the back of the building, which was hardly detectable by any of the younger classmen. Normally, she didn't like to use her power at school anymore, but for this day, since she had just little time, she made the exception.   
  
It took her no longer than thirty seconds to get all the way to the back of the school and into her classroom where she found Rei, Minako, Makoto, and Ami huddled in the back of the room. "Guys!" She yelled from the door, which earned her a stern glare from her teacher. Usagi lowered her head in embarrassment and slowly made her way to the back of the room, where all sorts of bean bags were placed by a rather large shelve of books.   
  
Her teacher, still not finished with her, stood from his desk with his attendance clipboard. "Son Usagi, It's nice to see that you're here so early, but let's use our inside voices next time."  
  
Usagi paused and blushed as she did her father's ever popular scratch of the head. "Sorry."   
  
Ami lifted her head from her book of advanced mathematics. "Usagi... I'm speechless."  
  
Rei grinned. "What brings you here at this early time of five minutes before class?" She took note that the clock now said it was four minutes before eight now instead of five.   
  
Usagi rolled her eyes and gave a sarcastic smirk. "Alright, alright, I know I always come in late, but there's a reason."  
  
Minako giggled. "Behold, Usagi has an excuse for being late. We bow to you." She mockingly bowed, causing the other girls to giggle and do the same.  
  
Usagi tried to hold back the giggling as she crossed her arms. "Come on you guys, be serious."  
  
Minako got out her last few giggles and tried to put on a straight face, but it just wasn't working. Makoto, on the other hand had no problem with it at all. "Well, if Usagi's here early it must be something important."  
  
Usagi didn't know whether to be thankful for that or what, but she wasn't going to stress over it. There were more important things to speak about and with such little time on the clock, there was only one way to say it. Just come right out with it. "Mom kicked Luna out of the house yesterday when I got home."  
  
The four listeners gasp in disbelief. They knew that Chi-Chi could be harsh, but not harsh enough to tell Usagi that she could keep a cat and then rip it out of her hands.   
  
Minako; "What are you talking about? Didn't your mom say you could keep it right before you came to meet us yesterday?"   
  
Usagi nodded with a frown. "Yes!"  
  
Rei tried to understand Chi-Chi's logic, but as far as she could tell, there Was No logical reason to kick Luna out. "Did she tell you why?" Usagi did nothing but nod. "Well?"  
  
"She said that everyone else thinks it was with the enemy."  
  
Frustrated, Ami covered her face with her hand. "Did you even think to tell her that Luna ISN'T with the enemy?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Of course I did. But she said that because I'm just a kid, I don't know what I'm talking about. She said that just because I want something doesn't meant that It's going to happen." She clenched her fist and stomped her foot on the ground. "Man I wish I could just tell her."  
  
Minako stared off into space with a slight sign of a forming frown. "This is going to raise Artimas' suspicions."  
  
Usagi dropped her anger and turned down to Minako with concern. "What?"  
  
Minako looked up to see the face of her friend, which was fast becoming angry. "He thinks that your parents aren't fit to be your parents."   
  
"WHAT?! WHY?!"  
  
"Because of the way he was acting when you got kidnapped. He was kind of snappy, but we told him that it was just because he had a lot on his mind that night."  
  
Rei; "Yeah, we told him that he wasn't normally like that. But now that your mom kicked Luna out, he may not believe us."  
  
Usagi looked down with more frustration than before. "Dang it!"   
  
At that moment, the bell rang and in rushed a bungling group of screaming eleven year olds. At the front of the room stood the teacher with his clipboard. "Ok students, please take your seats so we can begin class earlier than normal, especially since Ms. Son has decided to grace us with her presence earlier than usual. We won't have to worry about that interruption."  
  
The five girls in the back departed to opposite sides of the room to take their seats, one with extreme embarrassment. That one would be Usagi, who, was not at all angry about the fact that her teacher was calling her out on her mistakes. She knew that it had been her fault that she was late nearly every day. She knew that this was just his way of punishing her, although she wasn't fond of it.   
  
The students in the room didn't pay any attention to Usagi's form of reprimanding for they were much to busy with their own lives to care. They had gotten past the stage of making fun of here, especially since they had all been in class together since Kindergarten. None of them truly hated Usagi and her friends anymore, although they did still keep away from the group. It was a giant step up from the early years.   
  
"Students, before we get into class there are a few housekeeping items we need to go over."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Dark Kingdom: Queen Beryl's Lair  
  
The short-haired woman, Beryl's most trusted minion approached her queen. In her arm was a small black capsule. "Your Majesty."  
  
Beryl quirked her brow with interest. "Akii, why have you come here? I have not summoned for you."  
  
The woman backed up with a gasp. It would not be wise to anger her queen unless she was fully ready to suffer the consequences. "I have good news for you, my Queen. Our team of scientists has collected the energy needed to create a new creature." She lifted the capsule in her hand. "When this capsule is shattered a new monster will be released and ready to capture the energy we need to raise Metallia."  
  
Beryl grinned. An evil star of light twinkled in her black eyes. "You have done well, my Akii. I was not expecting the process to move so fast. Where is the target this time?"  
  
A smile crossed over the lips of the woman. "An elementary school in West Capital, near Capsule Corporation."  
  
Beryl found herself smirking harder than before. "Excellent. The energy collected from there shall do fine."  
  
"Do you wish for me to deliver it?"  
  
"No. That good for nothing brother of yours is more than capable of doing such an assignment. I'm saving you for a special occasion. He's the delivery boy."  
  
"He's not really my bother, your majesty."  
  
Beryl frowned. "What?"  
  
"He is not my true brother, my queen. We share the same mother. In our land, the mother means nothing. You are only considered siblings if you share the same father."  
  
Beryl glared on in confusion. "I'm sure. Just make sure he gets the job done, Akii. I'm counting on you."  
  
The woman gracefully nodded. "As you wish."  
  
(What's this? She finally has a name, eh? Lol, I should have said it earlier but I never got around to it. ^_^ Ok, There you have it, I finally got it done. So what did you think? Cya later!) 


	117. Part 19

~*~*~*~  
  
The situation with Luna seems to have taken a turn into a permanence for the time being, but Usagi won't let that be for long if she can help it.   
  
Now, the scene was set according to Queen Beryl. A brand new enemy was well on its way to the Elementary school in the Western Capital, which would prove to be a prime feeding ground since children always produced excess amounts of energy. What they didn't know, however, was that this particular school was the same school that the Sailor Senshi were attending.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~Earth~  
  
A long figure flew over the Earth at an unimaginable speed. His shadow filled entire towns, scaring the citizens below out of their wits. They were certain of another attack on Earth since they had become so frequent in the past twenty five years. The figure took every bit of pleasure in seeing them flee below him as possible. Oh how fulfilling it would be to finally repay Earth for his turn of misfortunes.   
  
'Yes, yes. Feel the fear of our power! Live peaceful now; die an agonizing death when we come for you...' An evil grin crossed his face as he sped up.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Western Capital~  
  
Back at school, class was just beginning. Morning announcements had just been made and the students had finally begun to settle down from their natural rambunctious mode. Although, there were still five lone students, all on opposite sides of the room, who were thinking of things other than preparing for a day of learning.   
  
Minako, Makoto, Usagi, Rei, and Ami all felt a strong disturbance of energy heading towards their direction, although they weren't exactly sure if whatever was coming was heading for them. But it definitely couldn't have been anything good, especially if it was going to be anything like the day before.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Down the hall away, in a classroom of children only one year younger than Usagi's age group sat the only other student in the entire school who could feel the approaching of evil; Hotaru. The day before, she had felt the flow of dark energy come into the world, but she could do nothing about it, nothing effective anyway. Her attacks had been powerless against the first monster that had come to earth, for some reason, even though her friends, even out of Senshi form had been able to some damage at least; but why? In any way, she would have only been in the way in yesterday's fight and she knew it. This was a job for the newly appointed Sailor Senshi, who were ironically her best and only friends.   
  
But now was different. The enemy was coming to her this time. She wouldn't have to leave to go find it, which meant it was open game for her to attack. She knew how much mayhem had been caused in yesterday's attack; she couldn't just sit around this time and let all those innocent people be killed, even if they did have the Dragon Balls to revive them when this was all done and over with. It was wrong and she would do anything she could to help the Sailor Senshi.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Back down the other side of the hallway were five fidgety girls. Here they were in midst of an entire class of innocent people who knew of nothing that was going to be taking place in just a matter of minutes. They couldn't just let it happen without warning, yet, they couldn't just holler out as if they knew what was coming. That would be much too suspicious on their part.   
  
The teacher at the front of the room, who was currently in the process of lecturing, turned his eye up to the only tailed child in the back of the room. She wasn't paying attention, as usual for she was never one to want to learn, but, she, strangely, seemed even more detached from class than normal; more apprehensive. "Ms. Son, you seem bored back there. Maybe I should move you to the front so you can have a better time paying attention."  
  
Usagi was so spaced that she barely picked up on his words. All she caught was her name, and that was about it. Slowly and rather blankly, she fixed her eyes upon her cross teacher. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" She asked. Her entire body began to shake with fear as the enemy came closer and closer.  
  
Without even allowing their teacher to express his obvious frustration, Minako raised her power level just enough to open up a link to Usagi. If they couldn't talk outward, they would have to do it secretively. 'Usagi, we don't have time to waste.'   
  
Usagi turned her head from her reprimanding teacher and stopped at Minako. She too raised her Ki just high enough to establish a link back. 'You think I don't know that?!'   
  
The teacher in the front of the room crossed his arms as he became even more perturbed. His frustration only led to the other students around turning their gazes upon their tailed classmate. "You're skating on thin ice, young lady. I don't think your mother would appreciate hearing that you're being rude and not paying attention in class." He dropped his arms and began walking to the back of the room. "You too Ms. Aino."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened not at her teacher, but at the evil energy that had been approaching the school. It had finally stopped and was literally right at the doorstep of the school. "Sorry!" She burst out from her seat, causing it to fly out from behind into the back wall. "I gotta go to the bathroom!"   
  
Usagi refused to wait any longer. If she did, the enemy would kill even more people than they had the day before. In the aspect of the killing of innocent, she had deeply taken after her father, which had made it all that worse. Letting her anger get the best of her, she raised her power level enough to create a small, white wind around her body as she darted out the room.  
  
"You're mother can be expecting a call from me today!"   
  
Minako frowned as she too stood tall. "When you gotta go, you gotta go!"   
  
The teacher frowned down at his second brazen student. "Sit down."  
  
Minako grinned. "I better help Usagi." With that, she dashed out the door to catch up to her friend.  
  
Makoto and Rei were the next. "We'll make sure nothing bad happens with those two." The two of them reached into their pockets and grasped their hands tightly around their transformation sticks as they too ran out of the room, leaving a room full of laughing children.  
  
The teacher stood tall and firm as he glared onto the last of the five friends, who was sitting with her arms out in front of her on the desk. He wondered why she wasn't just up and leaving as well since the five always did everything together.   
  
Ami innocently looked up to her educator with bright, blue eyes. "Yes?" 'I can't believe they did that. Won't it be sort of strange that the five of us left right before the attack and then five mysterious warriors show up? I can't contribute to the risk.'  
  
He growled as he approached her with a ruler at hand. "Don't you Want to Join your FRIENDS?"  
  
Ami giggled. "Do you want me to?" 'But then again, they could use some help with information... but they should be able to handle it until I'm able to catch up.' Ami found herself giggling all the more as her teacher clenched his fists and tensed up, although he couldn't yell at her for her answer. It wasn't in any way talking back nor was it disrespectful.   
  
"Just sit there then!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi ran down the hallway to Hotaru's fifth grade class and peeped in. Seconds later she noticed her friends joining behind her. "How much time do you think we have?" She waved her hand to catch the eye of the younger Saiyan, who sat almost directly in front of the window.   
  
Makoto; "No idea. That energy is coming from right outside the school." She pulled away from the group with a look of fright. "We can't let anyone get hurt. I'm gonna start evacuating people as Sailor Jupiter."  
  
Rei nodded as she too began pulling back. "I'm coming with you." The two girls trailed off away from the hallway to find a safe place to transform.  
  
Usagi gulped as she thought of all the people who would be killed if her friends didn't hurry. She wasn't sure what the hold up was, but she sure was glad that there was one. 'Why isn't Ami here?' Not saying a word more, she raised her Ki to establish a link to Hotaru.   
  
'Hotaru! You feel that, right?'  
  
From inside the classroom, Hotaru slowly turned her head to the window, which peered out into the hallway. Her face was completely pale with fear for her fellow students' lives, not to mention her own. But she knew that if she had to, she would be able to escape, but the unknowing victims who had no power to aid them would not. Fearfully, she slightly nodded.  
  
Minako grabbed Usagi by the arm and pulled her back with a fear of her own. "Usagi, we don't have time for this. Come on!"   
  
Usagi nodded as she kept her eye on Hotaru. "Just a sec!" 'Hotaru, Makoto and Rei are getting everyone out and Ami stayed back in class. You stick with Ami as soon as this thing makes its move.' Hotaru did nothing but nod.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, outside and circling the school of these youngsters was a tall, muscular man with long, bushy hair. In his hand, he held a small capsule which contained an essence of pure evil. Upon arrival, he circled the school, searching for one person in particular; Usagi. Not only was she the one his Queen after her Moon energy, but he himself had an unsettled score with her. But, it appeared that, after walking fully around the school once already, he would be forced to release the demon inside in order to find her.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mars ran throughout the school, bursting into rooms in utter frenzies, which only scared the younger children and infuriated their teachers. It was either that way, or let them die a most painful death.  
  
Jupiter had the wing of lower classmen and had only two rooms left to interrupt. To her dismay, however, none of the rooms that she had already visited had taken her warnings seriously which meant that she would have to circle around and tell them again.   
  
As she broke into the second to last room, she paused for a moment and stared down at the bunch. They were the kindergarten class, Miss Haruna's bunch to be exact. There they were, on the floor being read to. She hated to interrupt them, but this was a matter of life and death. Not much else mattered. "Miss Haruna! You have to get the kids out of here fast!"   
  
Miss Haruna frowned as she slowly put her book down to her lap. She had recognized the voice and knew almost exactly who it was. She looked up from her students, who were oohing and awing over the visitor with a glare half expecting to see one of old students. But to her own surprise, it was no one she knew. Only the figure of a brown-haired girl in a green and white Sailor uniform. "Can I help you?"  
  
Jupiter nodded as she ran further into the room. "Yes! There's no time to explain but you've GOT to get yourself and these kids out of here before it's too late!"   
  
Haruna stood from her seat and placed the book down on the desk close-by. "Young lady, if this is your idea of a joke it's not very funny." She took no time in approaching the strange girl. "Now you come here. We're going to get you out of that silly costume and down to the principle's office for disrupting my class, let alone the fact that you're out of class."  
  
Jupiter jumped back to the door with a frown of her own. "Just listen to me Miss Haruna! You have to leave NOW! They could attack at any..."  
  
Jupiter's words of distress were cut off by an instant rumbling of the earth and the sound of another portion of the building collapsing. Every young mind in that room ducked for cover under their desks as the ground continued to roar beneath their tiny bodies for they believed that they were experiencing an earthquake. But Jupiter knew exactly what was taking place just down the hall where the fourth grade classrooms were. She could feel the powerful evil being unleashed; it was much stronger than what it had been only one day before.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Outside the man who had let loose the being of pure evil destruction stood with a quirked brow of interest; his maniacal laughter being heard even through the screaming children who had become lunch for the demon.   
  
~*~*~  
  
When the massive shaking of the earth stopped, Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus quickly got to their feet and scampered down to the scene of destruction, but not before they were met with the screaming of their schoolmates who were being released from class into the field before an aftershock occurred. They were caught in the crowd of no return. It would be forever before they would be able to get through to the other side. And what would be waiting for them if they did? Dead bodies, they presumed.  
  
Amongst the group of children were Ami and Hotaru, who had searched out each other's power to guide themselves to one another without wasting time. They were no closer to reaching the outer edges of the crowd than their Senshi friends. But, they were close enough to the Senshi to devise a quick plan.   
  
Ami already had one in mind, in fact. "Venus! Moon! You go help those who are being attacked! We'll stay back and help everyone get away!"  
  
Venus turned her head after fully picking up her friend's words. "How are you gonna do that? I don't the others had any luck."  
  
Hotaru tugged on Ami's arm to gain her attention. "Yeah. Everyone else thinks it was just an earthquake."  
  
Ami frowned down at the younger child. She hadn't anticipated that. She thought that after all the times that earth had been attacked that the people would finally know when to listen to people who were trying to evacuate them. But, she knew exactly what to do. Looking up, she smiled at Venus and Moon, who were slowly but surely pushing their way forward. "Just get on with what you have to do. We'll cover it."  
  
No more than five seconds passed before the two Senshi were out of eye sight when Hotaru questioned Ami's reliable judgment. "How are we going to 'cover it'?"  
  
Ami grinned as she latched herself onto Hotaru's wrist. "First, we have to get outside so we can move freely. Then, we teleport people to a safe place, like the woods. One of us, preferably you, will stay with them and make sure they don't wander off."  
  
Hotaru pouted at that. "Me?! Why can't I help you guys?! I want to help!"  
  
Ami sighed. "Hotaru, I know you want to help, but we want to make sure you're safe. Only the power of a Senshi who has planetary power backing them can fight these things."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, back in the room full of kindergartners, Jupiter grabbed Miss Haruna by the arm and began guiding her to the door. "All of you, follow us." She paused to look back at the pale students. "Please don't be afraid, if you follow me, everything will be ok."  
  
Miss Haruna wasn't nearly as willing as the students were, who were just rising from beneath their tables. She violently pulled away from Jupiter's firm hold with a glare. "Get to class! I'll deal with you later when this is over!" She narrowed her eyes and slowly began to approach the frightened children with care. "I have a room full of children that I must tend to."  
  
Jupiter groaned. "Miss Haruna! If you don't get out you'll all die! The enemy is already attacking the rooms down the hall! Do you want your students to become lunch meat too!"  
  
Miss Haruna stopped cold in her steps as she heard the children wail out in fear. That voice; so full of concern. She knew she had heard it somewhere before. But from where? "Please leave. You're scaring them."  
  
The entire group turned their heads to the door that led out into the hallway when it came blasting through the room. They all suspected that it was a result of the Earthquake; that maybe it had been knocked out of its frame and was letting loose, but Jupiter knew otherwise. She could feel the massive buildup of dark energy coming from behind the newly gathered smoke. It was just as large as Cell's, though the man's normal fighting power was substantially lower than that of Cell's.   
  
From behind the dust came a the tall man, the same man who had set free the wild beast now rampaging through the hallways of what was once a peaceful learning environment. His power sent the fear in Jupiter skyrocketing. "What's this?!" His voice was deep and raspy. "Looks like I've struck Gold."  
  
Jupiter shook with fear as she backed away from her foe. In the corner of her eye she could see Miss Haruna huddling the small group of children in the far corner of the room. This time she would be all alone in defending them from evil. She couldn't fail for that would mean the ultimate end for the children, most of which had not even reached their sixth birthday.   
  
The tall man stepped forward with a giant, black ki attack building up in the palm of his right hand. "My my. What have we here? A Sailor Senshi I do presume." He chuckled as he noticed her body shake more and more. "Don't worry, Makoto!"   
  
Jupiter's eyes widened. 'How does he know my name?' "Monster!"   
  
He grinned. "Yes. I remember you very well from the fight with Cell. We watched you five vigorously. Although, we never expected Cell to lose. But a lose is a lose and we can't worry about it. All we have now is the future, and sadly, you five don't fit anywhere in it, which is why your days end here, KINO MAKOTO!" He instantly fired his black Ki attack of hate energy at the Senshi in green. But she knew what she was up against.   
  
Anticipating his moves, Jupiter instantaneously moved her body to be in front of Miss Haruna and her students. "Don't panic..." She whispered, trying to calm down the ones in tears.   
  
Miss Haruna examined Jupiter's face from the side very, very carefully. She knew she had recognized that voice from somewhere, only this one sounded different, more grown up. And now she knew why. It HAD been Kino Makoto from only six years before. "Makoto? Is that really you? I hardly recognized you."  
  
The man narrowed his eyes and fixed them upon the teacher instead of his primary kill. "Ahh... you know her..." His mouth turned upward into a quaint grin as he shuffled his body behind Miss Haruna's and grabbed her from behind.   
  
Jupiter was immediately pushed forward by the struggling woman. "MISS HARUNA! NO!" She jumped back at the man of evil, but, it was too late. He had brutally placed his hands upon her head and twisted around, immediately snapping her neck. The entire room went silent as he dropped the lifeless body of Miss Haruna to the ground, her body making one last thud as it slammed against he cold, unforgiving floor. "NOOO!" Without even thinking, she dropped to her knees in utter fear and hatred, her power building up at an unhealthy rate.   
  
"Yes! Yes!!" Behind him he heard the children broken out in tears of both fear and distress. Many of them were preparing themselves for their own death, only they imagined themselves going much more barbarous. "SHUT UP, BRATS!" His eyes shone black and in a heartbeat a wave a black energy emerged from his back into the group of children.   
  
~*~*~  
  
By the time Moon and Venus finally emerged from the crowd, half the school had been destroyed. But, most of the innocents had been safely taken from the danger filled classrooms by Sailor Mercury and Mars. Hotaru had already taken her first group of people to the forest and there she would stay and watch over everyone. Now, Mercury and Mars had a new plan. One would fight the monster while the other took the innocents to safer grounds, but neither of them knew how long that would work with only one fighting. They weren't built to fight separately as Senshi, but as a team.   
  
But now, Venus and Moon had just felt the powerful surge black energy rush out of their foe's body. There was only one association with that which they could put to it, another group of children had been mercifully murdered. They both turned to each other and nodded to show each other's approval of proceeding.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Jupiter stood to her feet with tears in her eyes. "You evil piece of...WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" She screamed out at the top of her lungs. Her swearing caught the enemy off guard, it even caught herself off guard. She hadn't meant to say it, but in times like this, they just seemed to blurt out. Not that it mattered. There was no one there to hear it besides herself and this man.   
  
The man of evil crossed his arms with a grin as he placed his foot atop Miss Haruna's head and pressed down almost as hard as he could. Within seconds, a small crackling sound was heard and echoed throughout the room.  
  
That was all Jupiter could take. Although she could feel her friends coming her way, she couldn't, no, she wouldn't let this go on anymore. It was bad enough that he had killed Miss Haruna and her students, but to destroy her body was taking it too far.   
  
Not even truly thinking of the outcomes, she powered up to her fullest with a quick shrill and darted out for her enemy, fists out and ready to make contact. Tears still in the base of her eyes, she didn't stop, even when she noticed that her target seemed the slightest bit worried.  
  
The man stood tall and firm with his hands down to his side. He kept his foot standing firm atop the teacher's head as the flaming ball of green flew towards him, and when she did finally make contact, a loud smack echoed throughout the room. But the target was not affected in the slightest bit.   
  
Jupiter backed away, inhaling faster and deeper than normal. "Monster!"   
  
He smirked. "Can I play now?"   
  
Before Jupiter had a chance to reply, Venus and Moon walked through the door. "You've don't enough!"  
  
Moon took one look at the fallen children behind the man and gasped. How could anyone have done that to them? It was awful. Her eyes slowly departed from the fallen and up to the face of their killer, which utterly frightened her. "It's you!" Never again did she want to stand so close to her captor, her mental torturer.   
  
The man grinned with an evil that sent chills down the three Senshis' backs. "We meet again, little Saiyan. But this time you're not getting away."  
  
Moon backed away. "W...wh...who are you?"  
  
The man only grinned further. "You, my dear, can call me Uncle."  
  
Moon frowned as she shook her head from side to side in frustration. "You know what! I don't care WHO you are! But anyone who did this to people who did nothing to you is a MONSTER and you KNOW what we do to monsters!"   
  
"Not today, ladies. As much of a pleasure it would be for me to kill you all off right here, I can't. I will leave that up to my pet. I, however, must return this energy to Metallia." He pulled out a small capsule which was nearly full. "You see, any energy I acquire through my black attacks gets swallowed into this Capsule for our use, my motivation for killing beside the fact that it's fun." He chuckled as his body began to disappear into the Dark Dimension of his Queen.  
  
Jupiter still had tears running down her cheeks as she stared down at the lifeless body of her favorite teacher. The one teacher who had always defended her from bullying; from Haruka and Michiru in the first years. Now, she was gone for good. "Miss Haruna..."  
  
Venus' widened her eyes as she let her eyes fall down to the body that her friend seemed to be concerned with and sure enough, it was a mangled Miss Haruna. Her neck was almost twisted all the way around in the most unnatural and sickening position enough to make anyone to upchuck their last meal. "He..."  
  
Moon looked down upon her former teacher with tears of her own. "She was the only one who ever understood us; who ever tried to defend us against the people who tried to make fun of us."  
  
Venus nodded. "Every other teacher has always had something to pick on us about."  
  
Jupiter looked up with a righteous glare in her eyes. "Let's make sure the Dark Kingdom knows our anger."  
  
Moon nodded. "Agreed. Let's gather up the others and kill that thing once and for all."  
  
  
( x_x oooh, shorter than usual, I know. Only by a couple pages though. I wasn't originally going to end it here, but then I thought about it and decided this would be an ok place to stop. But not for the night, hehe, just for the chapter. Getting right on the next part now so I'll leave now. Cya later! ) 


	118. Part 20

~*~*~*~  
  
The girls' ultimate anger has now been sparked, and in the worst way possible. The man who claimed to be 'Uncle' ruthlessly murdered one of the two classes of the youngest age group in the school along with their teacher, Miss Haruna. Jupiter was on the worst end of this destruction for she had to witness it with her own eyes; the first time she had ever seen anyone she loved killed. There was no forgiving the sudden act of cruelty. Revenge would be hers.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Outside, Sailor Mars had her hands full with the immediate threat, a four-legged, black furred, drooling wolf monster that had already devoured a third of the school's populace. Mercury, on the other hand, was busy evacuating the rest of the victims, who had immediately begun fleeing once they laid their eyes upon the ferocious beast.  
  
Although Human Nature is the flee when danger has ensued, the teachers kept level heads and helped their Senshi helper to gather the children and lead them as far away from the destruction as possible.   
  
Looking at what was once her sanctuary of learning, Mercury became pale-faced at what her own eyes relayed to her brain. It was the sight of her school, of course, but over half of it lay in ruins. Anyone who had stayed behind in the classrooms in order to search for anyone who would have been left behind would have been more than likely dead by now. And it was all a result of the brutal fighting that had taken place.   
  
Mercury knew, of course, that one of the Kindergarten classes had failed to exit the building. Any idiot could see that. But she didn't need her eyes to know of that tragedy. She had felt that massive blow of energy fall. That incident only pushed her to proceed and move faster. The more people she would evacuate from the premises, the better.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mars tried coaxing the demon away from the school, but every time she did, it spit a steady stream of dark energy into the crowd. And when that happened, another stream of white, Pure energy returned to it. Whoever these people were had really thought ahead on this one, which would only make the Senshis' jobs harder than they would have to be. But, they wouldn't give up. This was an unforgivable act of terror.   
  
'What's taking them? I'm almost out of energy here!' Mars jumped up into the air and fired a series of missile type Ki attacks down to the creature. Alone, she was useless. Her attacks only did good enough to slow the creature down, unlike the day before. This monster seemed stronger than the last one, but this time they wouldn't make the same mistake of leaving the body after the fight. There would be no way to retrieve the energy if there was no body.  
  
"Hey stink weed!" A familiar voice cried from the rubble of what was once the school.  
  
The ignorant beast knew nothing of their language. He only knew tone. He had been programmed to react only to his creators' voices in order to keep from being distracted by the dim-witted girls. But Mars knew that voice better than anything. She was overly relieved when she turned to see her fellow Senshi, looking angrier than anything, emerging from the rubble. Jupiter was in the middle with Venus and Moon on the sides. Jupiter looked horrible, worse than the other girls. Her face was pale; the color of death.   
  
Sailor Moon, knowing how unstable Jupiter was at the moment as a result of what she had to whiteness, stepped forward and remembered what Luna had told her; to come up with a stupid line to distract the enemy. "How dare you come here and destroy everything! I know I hated school but that didn't mean you have to come and destroy it for bookworms!"  
  
Mars' look of relief was soon replaced with embarrassment. 'What is she doing?'  
  
"Yeah! That's right you smelly ol' freak! In the name of..." Moon paused for a moment and looked around the area. 'Oh! Come on! What did the other Sailor Moon say? Argh!' "In the name of the Moon I shall punish you!"   
  
Jupiter nodded. "Yeah! What she said!" She quickly transgressed the demon's spacious bubble that had been created by the girls standing around him, but she knew not to take any chances. Although the previous enemy had been beaten nearly as soon as it showed up, this one had a chance of being stronger. In the years she had trained with Goku she had learned to Never underestimate your enemy, which is why she jumped up and over just before she rammed into the wolf-like creature's nose with a power punch.  
  
Mars studied her companion's movements quite closely and almost immediately noticed the change in her attitude. Her body was tense and her movements were stiff, showing her anger. Finding this behavior strange, she turned to Moon and Venus, who were preparing themselves for an attack. Their normal stance of being carefree was replaced only with the urge to destroy. 'What happened in there?'   
  
Venus soon joined her fellow Senshi in the air. The monster, sensing an attack coming on, quirked his ears back a bit at the sound of a child's cry in the rubble. His lips slowly turned upward as he turned completely around and began racing for the sound. His job had been to collect as much energy from the rambunctious children of this school and he planned to fulfill it at all costs.   
  
Sailor Mars turned up to her friends in utter fear for the faint life that was calling; pleading for help. "What are we waiting for?!"   
  
But, by the time the girls snapped out of their confused state of fear, the demon rammed himself into the rubble, immediately revealing a small boy about the age of seven years. His leg had been broken in three places due to the ceiling collapsing overhead when the first attack was made. But none of this mattered to the beast at hand for he was only concerned with retrieving energy for his masters.   
  
The child looked up into his attacker's ruthless, deadly eyes of hatred. He opened his mouth to scream but all that came out was a small yelp. Looking up and seeing the monster eye to eye had been too much to say anything. The monster flinched when the boy tried to struggle away before anything horrible happened to him. But things didn't quite work out the way he had hopped.   
  
The large wolf demon bent down its massive head and slowly placed its enormous jaws around the child's body, immediately crushing the ribcage in two and killing the young boy. Just as the Senshi were arriving at their target, a loud snapped echoed throughout the campus. The four Senshi knew exactly where snap came from and immediately stopped themselves and lowered their heads, all except for Sailor Moon, that is.  
  
The leader of this mysterious group of warriors found herself building up her anger more and more as she watched the demon devour his kill. How could they do this? How could anyone be so ruthless as to kill innocent people with such apathy. It just didn't make sense, any of it. And now this monster would pay the price for killing an innocent boy.  
  
Slowly, Sailor Moon built her energy to begin the fight. She wouldn't let this thing kill yet another victim. "You....!" She yelled down as she began to lift herself into the air. The creature didn't seem to notice her cry of anger for it only stood tall with its face away from the Senshi of the Moon. Sailor Moon growled at the top of her lungs as she gave herself an immense power surge. In a flash of light her hair, once golden, was now glimmering a magnificent silver.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Across the school yard, the last group of students and teachers were just being taken away by Sailor Mercury, but not before they stopped to look up at the silver fighter in the sky. The youngest ones at age seven were in the most awe for they hadn't seen such a display in power and ability.  
  
Mercury looked into the sky and covered her eyes from the blinding sun. 'Good. At least one of them is going to put an end to this masquerade.'   
  
~*~*~  
  
Back at the scene of the fight, Sailor Moon was building up for her father's Kamehameha attack. Her hands pulled back to her side, she narrowed her eyes with a type of hate never seen on her face; a hate driven by the want, the need to protect those who could not defend themselves against the forces of evil. Slowly but steadily she gathered all of her Super Saiyan energy into the palms of her hands.   
  
"Ka...Me..."  
  
Jupiter grabbed Mars and Venus and ran for cover for she knew, with the amount of power that would be used, an explosion was inevitable. And not just a tiny explosion at that. When you're dealing with the average power level of a Super Saiyan two at Usagi's Super Saiyan one, there's sure to be destruction and the foe would be in midst of it all.   
  
"Ha...Me... ... ..." Sailor Moon gave herself one last burst of power and pushed her palms fourth unto the newly appointed target. "HA!!" A huge ball of silver energy lashed away from Sailor Moon's hands down toward her school.   
  
Even at the enormous energy ball flying down, the Senshis' foe didn't budge from his place. He didn't care to either for he knew that he would not affected with non-planetary power. A small smirk appeared on his face as he lowered his nose to the rubble and sniffed around for any other bodies in which he could extract energy from.   
  
Once the energy was out of her hands, Sailor Moon covered her face with her arms and flew, back first, away from what was definitely going to be a major explosion. But one thing puzzled her. Why wasn't her foe running away, or even afraid of her attack? Was he bluffing or trying to coax her down there to take the attack with him? That had to be it. Moon smirked. If that thing thought he was going to get her down there with such a stupid trick he had another thing coming.  
  
The silver ball of energy ripped through the air as it screamed towards its target with only one objective; to kill. The spectators covered their eyes from the bright light that was created as the pearl ball of deadly Ki energy crashed into the mighty shoulder of their attacker. And as expected, an explosion soon ensued the commotion which accompanied by a large rumble and shake of the earth.   
  
Sailor Moon, who had been the closest to the explosion, for she hadn't much time to escape the blast, was hit by a sharp sheet of glass, which had previously been used for a reinforced window, that had been hurled into the air, and was thrown, spinning down to the ground. She hastily caught herself in midair, landing on her feet and soon kneeling down to catch her breath. Her heart widely beating, her lungs pumping faster than ever, and her mind racing; a slow, sly grin formed across her slightly burned face. 'Nothing could have survived that...'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Mercury looked up to the huge cloud of smoke that now hovered over the fallen school. In her peripheral vision, she could see her leader, Sailor Moon, sitting on the ground. She could hear her friends rejoicing in the background and the last of the students and teachers give their words of confusion. But Mercury knew different. Something was wrong. It was too calm, too quiet. Something was Definitely wrong with this picture. "The eye of the hurricane..."  
  
~*~*~  
  
With a gleeful smile wide across her face, Jupiter shot out for Sailor Moon to congratulate her. She couldn't have been happier at that point now that the Dark Kingdom's minion had been destroyed. He could no longer her peers and teachers. Miss Haruna's death had been unofficially avenged. Now all that was left was to kill the big guy who actually killed her. But that would have to wait for another day, another showdown. Now would be the time to destroy the body. "Sailor Moon!" She shouted with the soft sound of laughter in her voice.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Moon, who was still unconsciously Super Saiyan, quirked her head back, slightly, as she pushed herself up from the ground. A smile was on her face as well which was accompanied by a soft giggle of relief. That hadn't been as hard as she thought it would have been.   
  
Perhaps she thought too soon. Just as she was gaining her composure back, a flux of Dark energy surged throughout the area, causing Sailor Jupiter to freeze frame. Her smile, along with those of her friends', disappeared simultaneously and was replaced with the pale look of horror. How could that thing have survived their leader's Super Saiyan Kamehameha, especially since it was backed with Moon energy, the most powerful of all planetary powers?  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Mercury flipped out her computer to examine the demon from the Dark Kingdom. It beeped and screamed at her as a waving line showed up on the screen, which showed the amount of Evil energy found in one concentrated area. Sure enough, all of their senses were correct. The computer, too, showed that the monster was still alive, unaffected from Sailor Moon's attack.   
  
But how could it have survived? That was a question that needed to be answered before the fight would be able to go on. Letting curiosity drive her actions, Mercury began analyzing Sailor Moon, who was again joined by the other Scouts; all stared blanking into one another's eyes. 'What?!'   
  
The computer's screen grew wild with high levels of energy readings, none of which were that of the Moon. 'How can this be?' She slammed it against her leg, thinking it had somehow been affected by the explosion. It had to be a mistake. The Moon energy seemed to be overpowered by the power of a Super Saiyan, but why would that make Sailor Moon unable to make a successful attack? If her understandings from the night before had been correct, a person's normal fighting power was only to be enhanced by the Moon power, thus creating an already strong Super Saiyan into one who could fight the forces of the Dark Kingdom without a problem. But for some reason, Moon's Super Saiyan power wasn't 'mixing'.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Back at the scene of ultimate destruction, the rest of the Senshi stared, not at each other, but at the smoldering rubble, which was barely becoming visible again. All of them were confused, but not enough to drop their fight and run home for safety. It was their job to kill off this threat, this murderer, for they were the only ones who could and they wouldn't rest until it was done.  
  
Sailor Moon grabbed her shoulder, which had been sliced by the glass and was now bleeding. "You've gotta be kiddin me! How did it survive?"  
  
Jupiter kneeled down and scouted out the structure for their foe. "What IS that thing?"  
  
Venus ran forward, but not too close as she didn't want to begin yet another fight. There was a small hope inside her that the enemy had been knocked unconscious and would be easily defeated if there weren't any abrupt movements. "Gotta be something tough if it could live through a Kamehameha wave like that."  
  
Sailor Moon looked down to Jupiter. "See anything?" Jupiter shook her head, not saying a word.   
  
From the destruction jumped the large wolf-like creature straight towards the unsuspecting Super Saiyan. "ENAJII...!!!!" Its mouth was pushed open wide by a bubble of Black energy. No longer were there teeth inside there, nor was there a tongue. Now, the beast showed its true form, an energy sucking savage.   
  
Sailor Moon pulled her right leg behind the left and braced herself for impact, her friends not too far behind. Her eyes grew wide as the Black, smoking energy flew out of the beast's mouth and towards her. "Whaaaaaa!?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mercury, feeling the barbarous energy, felt her heart beat increase faster and faster as she stood there in awe. How could something really have been unaffected by the blast of a Super Saiyan's Kamehameha? It made absolutely no sense. But that didn't quite matter rat the time. What did was getting the last of the civilians out to safety. "We gotta get outta here!" She turned to look at the Principal, who had refused to leave until all of her employees and students had been taken back. Now, she would get a chance to leave.  
  
"Are you nuts!? I can't leave now! Look at what that girl did to my beautiful school!" She exclaimed as she pointed up to the demolished building which was nothing more than a giant heap of wreckage.   
  
Mercury slapped the palm of her hand to her forehead with great frustration. "We've no time to discuss this! If we don't leave now that school is not going to be the only thing that's been blown apart! Your body parts will be lying somewhere in that mess as well!"   
  
The Principal threw her arms together and frowned. "And what of the children who are still under the rubble? Are we just going to let them get eaten like that little boy?"  
  
Mercury, herself, frowned as she grabbed the arm of her stubborn Principal. Didn't she know that if she stayed that she would die? With a certain sorrow of her own, she turned her eyes downward. "They're already dead."  
  
"And you're ok with this?! What kind of fighter are you?!"   
  
Mercury growled as she pulled the blithering woman closer to the others. 'It's not that we don't care, we can bring them back with the Dragon Balls when this whole ordeal is over!' "Everybody grab on!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
The last group of innocents arrived in the forest where all the others had been taken. In midst of the large group stood a lone fighter, Hotaru. She alone tried to calm the frustrated teachers and frightened children, but it was no use. They were too unwilling to listen to anything she had to say. Her own teacher refused to let her out of sight for fear of another 'earthquake'.  
  
Once she lay her eyes upon Sailor Mercury, however, everything changed for the young Saiyan healer. Her courage to disobey her teacher grew. "Am... Mercury!" Pulling away from her teacher's firm grasp, Hotaru ran for Mercury to get an update on the fight. Only being able to feel the power levels and not seeing the fight was driving her absolutely nuts.   
  
Mercury immediately brought her attention down to the younger child with complete seriousness. She would have to get back to the fight soon. "Hotaru, please! Stay here! Make sure these people don't go anywhere!"  
  
Hotaru frowned. "They can take care of themselves! Let me go! I want to help!"  
  
Mercury shook her head. "Stay here! They need you! We'll be fine! We have the power of the planets to protect us!" Saying that, Mercury pressed her fingers to her forehead as she had been taught and teleported back to the fight.  
  
Hotaru crossed her arms and turned back to the rowdy group. 'No fair! I wanna be a Sailor Senshi too!' She slowly looked up and noticed her teacher running in her direction.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Mercury arrived back at the fight in a flash, though, not directly at the fight. She made sure she kept space between herself, her comrades, and her enemy. Before she got involved, she wanted to analyze the enemy. She was still in the dark about what their enemies were composed of, and, if she were able to find a weakness in them, fighting their Queen would not be all that hard of an objective. But, as much as she hated leaving her friends to do all the dirty work, the only way to do that was to analyze instead of fighting.  
  
She quickly pulled out her computer and searched the database for any information on this particular creature.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Not a single Senshi moved about as the Black, cloud-like energy swept around their figures. Not a single one of them felt the need to for this energy had no real mass to it, nor did it seem to be affecting them. But the Monster from behind the smoke seemed to be having a blast with his maniacal laughter.   
  
Jupiter crossed her arms with a smirk. "What's this supposed to do, confuse us?"  
  
Venus giggled. "Yeah, no kidding. Oh! I'm so scared, the big bad smoke is gonna come and get me."   
  
Jupiter joined in the laughter. "No! Say it ain't so! Now I can't fight because I'm blind!"   
  
Venus muffled her giggles with her hands to keep the enemy from realizing that nothing was happening, that he had failed once again. "Think we should surprise him with an attack from behind? That would really make him mad, wouldn't it?"  
  
Jupiter nodded with an evil grin. "That would be another enemy down the drain for Queen Beryl." She paused to let the thought sink in. "Let's do it."   
  
Venus grinned. "Ok." Almost with conceit, she began to power up for her attack.   
  
Although Mars had overheard her friends' conversation, she was too busy with a problem of her own to be attacking anything. Actually, it was more like Sailor Moon's problem. "Look!" She screamed as she pointed down to Sailor Moon, who was on the twitching on the ground.   
  
Jupiter dropped her fighting stance and growled. She hated it when she was interrupted from making her move. "What, Mars?!"   
  
Had it been any other situation, Mars would have torn into her friend for speaking with such a tongue at her, but now, things like that just were Not important. Something was terribly wrong with their leader. Oddly enough, she was the only one affected by the smoke. "It's Sailor Moon! Her energy level is rapidly dropping!"   
  
Sailor Moon, who was completely curled into a ball on the ground, clutched her broach, which sat proudly upon her chest. It was the only thing that she could do to suffice the pain, which pulsed over every inch of her body. "Uhhhhghh..." Her hair flickered Gold on and off. She slowly brought a hand up and tightly grabbed her bangs.  
  
Venus dropped her power and kneeled next to Moon. "What's wrong?! Usagi! Answer me!" Venus turned around to stare into the eyes of Jupiter, who stood just behind her.   
  
Mars closed her eyes and tried to establish a visual link with her friend, but it was impossible. Sailor Moon was losing too much power to do anything. But she could feel her agony. "Sailor Moon, tell us what's wrong! We want to help you!"   
  
Sailor Moon kicked her legs out as she struggled to keep her power level up to Super Saiyan. "My power...!! It feels like... it's being ripped away from my body!"  
  
Mars opened her eyes to stare back down at Sailor Moon. "He must be feeding off of your energy! Sailor Moon, drop your energy! You're making him stronger!"   
  
Sailor Moon closed her eyes as the pain increase throughout her body. Venus wrapped her arms around Sailor Moon. She quickly stood to her feet, pulling her leader along with her. "Drop it!" She yelled as she shook the struggling girl.   
  
Jupiter placed her eyes upon the wolf-like creature, which stood among the wreckage with a wide grin. "I don't know what you're doing, but it stops here!" She clenched her hands into tight fists as she shot out in a swift light of green toward the raging wolf. At this point, she cared not of what happened to herself. Her number one objective was to defeat the enemy and return the calm that had previously reigned, not to mention avenge Miss Haruna's death.   
  
The creature from the Dark Kingdom, seeing Jupiter rushing in its direction, opened its mouth, wide, and began sucking in the black smoke. It had gained enough energy to return to the Beryl's castle, especially with Sailor Moon's energy. "Kee hee!"   
  
Just as she was about to ram into her foe, Jupiter jumped into the air and prepared a small, green Ki blast at her side. 'This oughta take care of ya!'   
  
Mars turned up to the massive power build up in the sky with a single twinkle of hope glimmering in her eyes. "Go for it, Jupiter!"   
  
Jupiter nodded with a quaint smirk. She had fully planned on going for it. With great haste, she added as much energy as she could to the power ball at her side, causing it to grow larger and larger. But even with the large power growing, the wolf creature did not seem to care about its life, even though, if it did not block the attack, it would surely be destroyed.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Dark Kingdom:  
  
Beryl wore and evil grin as she sat atop her thrown, watching the fight. "Wonderful! Wonderful! We're gaining that brat's power! Finally! I will have the power of the Moon! No one will be able to stop me!"  
  
Akii stood beside her Queen's thrown and, she too, watched the 'fight'. "We have researched the ultimate fighter, my liege.'  
  
"Send someone for it as soon as it is finished taking all the energy. I do not want that sweet energy wasted."  
  
Akii nodded. "As you wish." She slowly turned from the thrown and began making her way for the door with a smirk. Soon, very soon, the Sailor Senshi would be done for, and then, no one would be able to stand in their way, no one.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Earth:   
  
Venus turned her head from side to side. The black cloud was beginning to fade, but Sailor Moon, who was still in her arms, continued to struggle, worse, it seemed like. 'What's going on?' "Do it now!"  
  
Jupiter shook her head as her smirk turned to a hateful frown. "NO! It MUST pay! They killed Miss Haruna! It WILL know our anger! It WILL suffer!"   
  
Mars glared up at Jupiter, the fiercest fighter of them all. "I know that must have been tough for you, but you've gotta finish this now! Don't make me come up there and do it for you!"   
  
Jupiter gave the ball of energy in her hands a boost in energy, causing its size to drastically increase. "No! I can do it!"  
  
Mars growled. "THEN DO IT ALREADY!"   
  
Sailor Moon's eyes widened as an ultimate pain was placed upon her body. "WAAAHAGGAAA!" She tried desperately to pull away from Venus' grip and pursue her struggle. She couldn't stand it anymore, her body ached with agonizing pain. She was so weak from trying to hold her power that she just couldn't do it anymore. It was as if her very power she was trying to keep was being sucked out of her with the cloud of black energy. So, she did the only thing she could.   
  
Venus looked down to her friend in fear. "Hold on! ...What?!" She gasped as Sailor Moon's hair dropped from Silver to Gold. "Your energy!"  
  
Jupiter stopped concentrating her energy to shoot a glare down to her suffering friend. "What's goin on down there!?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mercury scrunched her face in confusion. "Strange... she doesn't seem to have any normal energy left, only Moon energy. Why was only her normal energy taken?"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Moon opened her eyes with a strange feeling of relief. Her body felt completely at ease. "Huh?" She slowly pulled away from Venus' protective grasp to sit up. Utterly ignoring her companions, she lifted her hands to her face in confusion. One minute she felt as if her body was being ripped apart and the next, she felt completely normal.  
  
Jupiter eased up on her frown, but her Ki attack continued to roar with anger. "Sailor Moon!"   
  
Sailor Moon looked up to her friend in green with blank eyes. "What's going on?" She asked as she scratched her head in confusion.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Mercury put her computer away and slowly began to walk forward to join her fellow warriors of justice. 'What are they doing? They haven't beaten that thing yet!' "Don't get sidetracked!" She yelled.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Moon quirked her head to the side. "Mercury?" Five small heads bounced back towards their foe.   
  
An unwelcomed guest stood at the side of the wolf monster, the same man who had brought it there. On his face was planted a deep smirk of contentment. He began laughing at the top of his lungs as he placed an arm around the neck of his creature. "Little Senshi! We meet again!"   
  
Mercury froze in her place as she clenched her fists, ready for an attack. 'That must be the guy we felt before the attack.'   
  
Jupiter took one look at the man and almost immediately, her rage shot up, which fed only further fed her attack. "Bastard!"   
  
Utterly shocked, Venus nearly choked. "Makoto!"   
  
Jupiter paid no attention to her scolding friend as she pulled her attack from her side to sit in front of her chest. "Say your prayers! You aren't leaving!"   
  
The man smirked as he pulled out a small, black crystal keypad. "Oh, I'm not, am I?"  
  
Mercury ran closer, keeping her eyes locked upon the keypad. 'What's that?' She tried to study it, but it was almost completely hidden behind the man's giant hand.   
  
Without saying another word, he pressed one of the two buttons on the keypad. Immediately, a black portal was opened from behind. "I think you're mistaken, kid." He grinned as he began backing into the portal, taking his faithful creature with him.  
  
Jupiter growled as she released her massive attack. "I'm not finished with you yet!"   
  
Sailor Moon, Venus, and Mars dodged out of the attack's way as it spiraled for its target. "Watch it!"   
  
Jupiter once again found herself ignoring them. She was more concerned with the happenings of her attack. The only thing on her mind was Miss Haruna and avenging her wasted death. Over and over again, she replayed in her mind, her death. That was just not something one could forgive. "Die... devil!"   
  
Mercury had her own eyes locked on the portal, but for different reasons. Immense amounts of dark energy were coming from it. 'He pressed a button on that Keypad and that portal appeared. That means, the key to getting to their kingdom lies within that pad. I must have it!'   
  
The green Ki attack smashed into the man's back just as the portal was closing, but its effects were none what-so-ever. It diminished into his back as if he sucked it into himself. Jupiter frowned. 'I WILL get you!'  
  
Sailor Moon stood to her feet in more confusion than before. "Something tells me that this isn't good."  
  
Jupiter lowered herself to the ground. Her face was that of Vejita, a scowl. "Dang it! He got away! Now they can use that energy sucking monster again."  
  
Mercury joined her friends. "And he has Usagi's energy. There's not telling what they're going to do now that they have Moon energy."  
  
Venus greeted Mercury with a slight smile. Her face told of her concern, however. "Yeah, what was with that energy thing? It's like, one minute Usagi can't move, and the next, she's fine."  
  
Mercury shook her head. "I don't have a clue. My guess is that we're going to find out very soon when they try to use the energy against us, though."  
  
Sailor Moon rubbed the shoulder that had been punctured by glass. "I just wanna know one thing. Why didn't my Kamehameha work against him? I was a Super Saiyan as Sailor Moon, shouldn't my energy work against things like that?"  
  
Mercury shrugged. "That's what I was wondering. The Kamehameha should have worked. But, Usagi, you did notice that you were the only one in pain, right?" Moon nodded, not seeing where this was going. She just figured that the monster had been programmed only to take Moon energy. "As soon as you returned to normal and dropped all your normal fighting energy you were fine again."  
  
Sailor Moon frowned. "I didn't DROP it! It was sucked out of me!"   
  
Mercury sighed. "Sorry, when your energy was SUCKED out of you."  
  
Sailor Moon smiled. "Good. And, yes, I did notice that I felt better as soon as the energy was gone. It was like I was totally refreshed with energy."  
  
"I suggest we consult Luna and Artimas about this. Maybe they have answers."  
  
Jupiter growled as she sat down. "Usagi, we have to use the Dragon Balls to revive everyone. Too many innocent people died today, and... Miss Haruna...."  
  
Mercury shook her head in reply for Moon. "We can't do that. If we use the Dragon Balls tonight then we won't be able to bring any others back to life who may have died after today."  
  
Jupiter lowered her eyes down to the ground. She let out a frustrated sigh. "But Miss Haruna..."  
  
"It'll be ok. She'll be brought back after all this. Right now I say two of us go to the people taken from here and take them back to the city with Hotaru. The other three will stay here and think of something to say to the adults."  
  
Jupiter stood back to her feet with a smile. "I'll do that."  
  
Mars nodded. "I'll go too."  
  
Mercury; "Ok. I think it would be better if we all detransformed too. The less we stay like this, the better. Next time we meet, we'll think of some plans to defeat these things with more efficiency." The area filled with light as the warriors of justice detransformed back into their normal selves.   
  
Once back to normal, Usagi suddenly felt winded, like a chunk of her energy was missing. In fact it was. After all, her energy HAD been sucked dry from the monster, but it hadn't affected her before, why now?   
  
Minako glanced in the direction of Usagi and noticed she had trouble breathing. "You ok over there?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yeah. Just a little tired." She explained as she turned around to stare at what was left of her school.   
  
Minako sighed as she too looked back upon the wreckage. For the first time, she was able to take in the harsh reality of the destruction and she did not at all like what she was seeing. "I guess we've outgrown our school."  
  
Ami found herself in awe over the desolation. "One minute it's a quiet learning institution full of happy children and the next, it's a scene of ultimate destruction."  
  
Usagi lowered her head. She had been partly responsible for collapsing the building with her Kamehameha wave, and even that was a waste. "As much as I hate school, I think I'm gonna miss this building. I mean, yeah they'll rebuild a new one and all, but this one was so full of memories. This is where I met most of my friends, this is where I met Haruka and Michiru..."  
  
Minako snickered. "Why is that a good memory?"  
  
Usagi sighed. "Every memory is a good memory."  
  
Makoto; "I'm gonna miss it too..."  
  
Ami nodded. "We all are..."  
  
(.... ::comes out of hiding:: ... uhhmm... SORRY! Hehe... I know, it's been a couple of weeks, but I sort of got sidetracked last weekend when I started downloading some of the Final Fantasy Ten soundtrack. Some turned into a few, a few turned into a lot and a lot turned into the entire thing.... That's 91 songs ^_^ hehe... anyway, here it is. FINALLY!!! You'll be happy to hear that I'm going to be on winter break in exactly 1 week and three days, meaning, I will be able to hopefully get more than one chapter out a week, maybe three or four. Hehe! Anyway, wha'd ya think? Cya next time!) 


	119. Part 21

Goku sat on the sofa of his living as he stared, mindlessly, into the television. He had decided to take the day off from any training he may have planned the week before. The recent events had taken too much out of him, mentally. Having his daughter taken out of his dimension was much worse than having Gohan taken to another island of Japan. At least then he had some control over how he would retrieve him back. At least this time, however, he hadn't been killed. But, he felt like he was going to die the entire time Usagi was gone.  
  
But even now, as he stared carelessly into the television, he worried about his daughter. He knew that danger could lurk anywhere. Anyone and everyone were in danger. And the fact that he wouldn't know if she was being attacked, let alone not being able to protect her, scared him more than anything.   
  
Chi-Chi walked into the living room with a bundle of clean laundry, which she had just had just washed herself. Since her earlier outburst, the couple hadn't spoken much. Chi-Chi was on the side of being embarrassed over her actions. After she had snapped at him, and thought about it for a while, she came to realize that she had no reason to yell at him like she had. He hadn't known what he had done wrong, but, her stiff pride wouldn't allow her to apologize. Instead, she would just act as if it never happened as she usually did.  
  
She took one look at her husband and frowned. "Are you going to sit in front of that T.V. all day?!"   
  
Goku lifted the remote and began switching through the channels. "Maybe."  
  
Chi-Chi growled as she set down the laundry next to the wall. " 'Maybe'? And just what is that supposed to mean? What DO you plan on doing today?"  
  
Goku continued flipping through the channel in hopes of finding a good cartoon to watch. "I dunno. Haven't thought about it? Is there something you want me to do?"   
  
Chi-Chi's frown turned into a tight scowl as she approached her husband. "How about get off your lazy butt!?" She crossed her arms as she looked directly down into his black hair. "I never thought I'd say this, but, why don't you go train?" A picture, on the television, caught the eye of the Saiyan Warrior. He dropped the remote with fear. Chi-Chi took no notice of this. All she knew was that her husband wasn't listening to her, again. "GOKU!"   
  
Goku said nothing. Instead, he kept his eyes plastered on the screen. This only caused Chi-Chi's anger to rise. She slowly raised her hand to slap the back of his head in order to gain his attention. "Listen to me, Goku!"   
  
Goku raised his hand to shush his wife as he intently stared into the screen. "Shh... Chi-Chi." Chi-Chi looked up into at the television to see what could have captured her husband's attention so suddenly, and what she saw utterly frightened her.  
  
In Goku's eyes, a picture of a burning heap of remnants of collision reflected from the television screen. His sensitive ears picked up only the sound of the anchor from behind the camera.   
  
'Again, if you are just joining us for the first time we are standing at the ruins of what used to be Meadows Elementary School in the Western Capital. Behind me, Rescue crews have already begun going in after any survivors, but from the looks of things, chances of survival are slim. So far, we have only found three little girls, who were standing outside with minimal damage.  
  
'When police officials questioned them as to what happened, they answered that "A giant wolf attacked the school". Police officials also believe that this could have to do with yesterday's attacks in Satan City by a large predator of some sort. Investigators are checking in on the subject and are sure to have a breakthrough of information in a matter of twenty-four hours.  
  
'If you are a parent or guardian and are worried about your child, please don't come down here. Things are still pretty unstable and we don't want anymore injuries than necessary. However, parents of Mizuno Ami, Aino Minako, and Son Usagi... please come collect your children. They are quite shaken up and would like to come home. They will not be released until you come to pick them up. For information on the school, please stay tuned for the commercial break. We will be back shortly.'  
  
Both Goku and Chi-Chi were utterly speechless. Their worst nightmare had come true. Their daughter had been attacked again, and in a place that should have been safe for them. It should have been a place of comfort, of protection. But now, that was ruined. She had been one of the three that had made it out. But, what happened to Makoto, Rei, and Hotaru? They should have been able to escape as well. Maybe their classes were the first to be damaged. Maybe they had died...  
  
Unconsciously, Goku raised the remote to turn off the television. He was too sick to watch that anymore. So sick, in fact, that he felt like throwing up, but he would manage. Neither parents could move after hearing the news report. They could only think, think of how they had failed the girls again. They shouldn't have been so stupid as to allow them to go on with their average lives. In times of fights, they had always been able to go on with their lives because they had been able to feel their enemies, but this time was different. They couldn't feel their enemy. Now, they would have to take extra precautions. Why hadn't they thought of that before though? Their stupidity put the girls in grave danger, and three of them were unaccounted for.   
  
Chi-Chi, pale-faced and trembling, was the first to make a movement, and it was the only thing she could think of doing. She raised her hand once again and smacked her husband across the back of his head. "Well!? Go and get Usagi already!"   
  
Goku immediately shot up from the sofa and turned to his wife. "Going!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei, Makoto, and Hotaru stood just outside Mamoru's high school. They had just finished up their last rounds of returning the survivors of the attack and were ready to leave. There, the teachers would be able to take over after that with getting all the kids home safely.   
  
The girls were certain that the story had reached around the globe, which meant that it would be imperative that they report back to their own families as soon as they touched base back at the scene of the attack with Minako, Usagi, and Ami.   
  
Hotaru looked up to Rei and Makoto with much curiosity. "So, what all happened there while I was with the others?"  
  
Makoto turned away from the younger girl, leaving Rei to speak for the both of them. Hotaru quirked her brow in even more curiosity while Rei frowned. "We aren't exactly sure. A lot of strange things happened. For one, Usagi tried to attack while she was Super Saiyan and Sailor Moon at the same time but nothing happened."  
  
Makoto crossed her arms over her chest with a 'hmph'. "A lot of people died today, Hotaru. That's what happened." A picture of Miss Haruna being mercilessly killed flashed through her head again. "We won't let them get away with this."  
  
Hotaru frowned. "I want to help!"  
  
Rei placed her hand upon Hotaru's head. "Hotaru... you know you can't. You don't have any planetary power like us."  
  
Hotaru sighed as she looked downward. "I know, I know. I just hate having to sit by and watch you guys protect the world."  
  
Makoto grinned as she slowly spun around to face Hotaru. "Your day will come, Hotaru." She looked up into the sky in the direction of her friends. "We should be returning to the others."  
  
Hotaru nodded. "Ok."  
  
Mamoru, who had been released from school the moment the first batch of survivors came in, walked up from behind the younger students with his arms crossed over his chest. His face was covered with an unusual grin that told of his suspicions. "I'm coming with you."  
  
Makoto gasped as she turned around to face the teenager. 'How much of that did he hear?' She looked around for any of the others from the pack and to her own relief, they were no where in sight. "This doesn't concern you."  
  
Mamoru smirked. "The hell it does! Like protecting the world isn't any of my business? This fight isn't over yet!"  
  
Rei frowned. "The fight has just started."  
  
Mamoru snickered as he faced the black haired girl. "Oh really? From what Odango says, this is the same group who attacked us in the past. I seem to recall having to fight Cell, who was also part of this group. And besides, what does it have to do with you? Unless you're the Senshi..." He paused to grin with an impish sneer.   
  
Makoto nearly freaked out at that one. Could he have known? How? "No... well..."  
  
Mamoru, feeling quite satisfied, dropped his smirk and became most serious. "I guess I'll be tagging along after all, won't I? Unless there's something you wish to tell me..."  
  
Makoto frowned. "Nothing at all. Let's just go!" And so the four of them, though three of them reluctantly, departed into the air.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku arrived at his daughter's school not even five minutes after he had seen the television broadcast. Waiting any longer than he already had could have resulted in another attack.   
  
He teleported directly to the main quad, which was barely even visible anymore due to the amount of debris thrown about. Goku only looked around in awe. 'This place is a regular war zone.'   
  
His attention was immediately diverted to a pair of firefighters, who stood upon a tower of wooden beams. It seemed as though they had found a mangled body. Goku growled at the thought of the force that could have done such an evil deed. To kill young children was just overstepping their bounds. 'They will pay for what they've done!'   
  
He perked his head to the right as a small surge of Usagi's energy caught his senses. 'Right.' He thought as he began walking for the parking lot, where he had spotted a group of people gathering when he had first come in. The power he sensed came from that direction as well.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi sat with Minako and Ami with a blanket around her shoulders, which had been given to her by her 'rescuers'. Her eyes gave off a deathly glare as she stared into the vastness of the great blue sky. Her only thought was of her previous fight, if you could even call it that. What had gone wrong? Her Kamehameha should have been able to take the monster, but it didn't. It did absolutely nothing. Why?   
  
"Think I killed anyone today," She turned to face Minako and Ami at her right, "with that wasted attack?"  
  
Minako slowly turned her view to her Saiyan friend, unable to believe that she would ever believe something like that of herself. "Usagi...!"  
  
"No I'm serious. There may have been people in that building when I blew it up. They would have died in vain."   
  
Minako frowned. "They would have escaped by then if there were."  
  
Usagi looked back into the sky. "Maybe..." She momentarily closed her eyes, only to see the wolf monster devouring the little boy from the rubble. How could they be so merciless? "What I need is a really powerful attack that can actually work, since Super Saiyan doesn't seem to."  
  
Ami pulled her legs against her chest and leaned her head upon her knees. Her glimmering eyes told of her hope. "Wouldn't that be nice?" Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Goku approaching. "Usagi?"  
  
"Hm?" Usagi turned back to Ami, almost instantly noticing her father, although said nothing. She was too deep in her thoughts to really pay attention. "Oh..." Ignoring her father, she looked back up into the sky. 'We totally sucked today. I wonder if there IS an attack worth using. After all, before we were born in this lifetime we probably didn't know anything about martial arts. That would mean...' She paused in her thoughts to look into her father's eyes as he now stood before her, but said nothing.  
  
Goku knelt before Usagi with a small smile. "You ok?" Usagi acknowledged with a slight nod, causing Goku's smile to fade. Something was definitely wrong if Usagi wasn't her cheerful self, even if it was after a huge attack. Without saying a further word to her, he turned to her friends. "Are you guys going to be ok without us, or do you want us to stay until your parents get here?"  
  
Ami smiled. "We'll be fine, Goku. You two go on ahead home. We're still kind of waiting for Hotaru, Rei, and Makoto to return anyway."  
  
"Oh? They're ok?" He turned his head from side to side and reached out with his senses to locate them, but it was no use. They didn't seem to be around anywhere in sight, nor were they using any energy for him to feel.   
  
Minako nodded. "Yeah. They helped get the survivors out of the area while we helped the Sailor Senshi fight."  
  
Goku put his attention back down to the blonde with much surprise. "Sailor Senshi? They were here? You saw them?" He glanced over to his daughter, who was still submerged in her own thoughts.   
  
"We did. They were good fighters too."  
  
Usagi looked back down to her friends. "Not really."  
  
Goku back up to look at his daughter. "What?"  
  
Usagi nodded to confirm. "Their attacks were weak. They didn't even kill their enemy. He got away."  
  
Minako frowned as she glared at Usagi. What was she trying to do, cause Goku think that the Senshi were bad fighters? "You have to give them credit for trying... U...Sa...Gi."  
  
Goku became even more confused at that point. " 'He'? Who's 'he'?"  
  
Usagi frowned as she re-pictured the man in her mind. The tall man with long, bristly hair. The same man who had imprisoned her in the Dark Kingdom. He was truly an evil man, but he looked familiar to her. "Just some idiot guy who said he was my uncle or something."  
  
Goku gasped as a single thought passed through his mind. 'Uncle? She has no Uncle... right?' He shook his suspicions and thoughts away so as not alarm the girls. "You all did good today if you were able to stand up against someone you couldn't even really harm. I'm glad that you acted so wisely and took everyone to safety." He quickly stood to his feet and motioned for Usagi to do the same. "Let's go home. Chi-Chi's probably having a cow by now."  
  
Usagi nodded as she slowly pushed herself up to join her father. "Ok." She answered quietly.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Dark Kingdom:  
  
Earth's latest attacker ran through the corridors of his Queen's castle with a menacing cackle. His job had been completed without any trouble. The Sailor Senshi had failed to defeat his monster, which came as a surprise. He had been told that they would probably defeat it without much trouble, but they proved their idiocy perfectly. And now, because of their stupidity, he had acquired Moon power. His queen would surely reward him.  
  
"I've got it! I've got it!" He yelled as he held up a capsule full of silver energy. When he entered his Queen's thrown room, she was sitting in her usual spot. But now, there was something different about her. It was, of course, the smile that replaced her scowl. She had in fact been pleased with him.   
  
"Your Majesty, I have the precious Moon power."  
  
Beryl dropped her head to the side. "I have been watching, Raditz. Your creature has proven very useful. I wish to use him again in our next attack. Not only did it acquire Moon energy, but it acquire much normal energy, which will be used to make your creature stronger."  
  
Raditz bowed before his queen with a smirk. "Yes." He looked up with a frown. "But those impudent girls will not be so stupid next time."  
  
"Silly boy. It will not matter. With the energy collected from those blithering things called children the creature will become stronger than the Senshi can handle. As it is, their attacks are weak. They use things call 'Ki' attacks, which are not nearly as strong as what they used before they were killed one thousand years ago." She paused to examine the face of her lackey. "That Sailor Moon, is she not of your blood?"  
  
Raditz growled. "Sadly!"   
  
"Good...good." She cackled louder, sending a chill down the spin of Raditz. "Bring the Moon energy here! I wish to hold it in my grasp."  
  
Raditz grinned as he complied with the wishes of his queen. "As you wish." Slowly, he began to walk forward. "The capsule it lies in is very delicate so please be careful."  
  
Beryl growled as she snatched the item out of his grasp. "What do you take me for, an idiot?!" 'It's mine! All mine! The Moon energy I've been in search for is finally MINE! Now we can kill the moon brat and rule the Universe! Everyone will bow down to Queen Metallia!' She lifted the Capsule to her face to examine the greatness of what she held in her hand. Instantly, an evil glare appeared on her face. "Apparently you do!"   
  
Raditz jumped back as the capsule went flying toward him. "What? No!" The Capsule crashed against the wall and immediately shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. The silver energy flowed out and was directly absorbed into the floor.   
  
A gush of wind accompanied Beryl as she stood from her thrown. "Do you take me for a fool?"  
  
Raditz backed up further, tripping over his own feet and falling to the ground. "I kid you not, my queen! I would never think so lowly of you!"   
  
Beryl stepped down from her platform, ready to attack Raditz. "You call that Moon energy?" She glared down at the trembling figure of a once proud Saiyan fighter. "I'm not stupid! That was NOT Moon energy!"  
  
Raditz turned his head around to look at the shattered glass. The silver energy had been completely absorbed by the floor. "But that creature was programmed to suck out Moon energy from Sailor Moon. It did its job. It sucked her dry of her power."  
  
Beryl shot a black force of energy at Raditz, who easily dodged out of the way just as it was going to make contact. "It sucked her Super Saiyan power dry! It's defected!"  
  
Raditz growled at the words 'Super Saiyan'. He still loathed his brother and his children for their Super Saiyan ability. Imagine, a low class warrior acquiring that kind of power. He had no doubt that Vejita would, but his own brother, it just wasn't right. "We will fix it. I promise!"  
  
Beryl, again, shot another wave of energy at Raditz, this time making a crashing contact with his legs. "No! This is your last chance! This time YOU will attack! YOU will take care of those damn Sailor Senshi! Take care of the Moon brat first! We can not take care of the others without her energy! If you fail, it will be lights out for you and I will put someone I can trust in your position, Akii, my little demon!"   
  
Raditz again growled at his queen's words. If it wasn't bad enough that he had to deal with his brother, he had to deal with that brazen woman. "Understood." Without further words, he stood back to his feet and turned to walk away. He would have to prove to his queen that he could do the job right if he wanted to continue living.   
  
Beryl crossed her arms. "Get yourself infused with more Dark energy as well as those kids' energy. You're going to need a power up if you want to beat Sailor Moon."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Earth: Son House  
  
Goku and Usagi arrived back home nearly ten minutes after Goku had first arrived at the school. They had teleported directly from the school to the house instead of flying for, Goku knew that if he did not, he'd get it for being late, again.  
  
The two teleported directly to Chi-Chi, who sat in the living room in front of the television, which was turned to the news station. 'How horrible... those poor people... I'm glad Usagi wasn't in there.'  
  
"Chi-Chi." Goku reached over the sofa and tapped his wife on the shoulder, causing her to nearly jump through the roof with surprise.   
  
Chi-Chi turned around with a glare. "DON'T SURPRISE ME LIKE THAT!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. That was the one thing she hated most other than his fighting habits; His habit of sneaking up on her without a sound.   
  
Goku grinned. "Oops?"   
  
Chi-Chi stood up and stared down at her daughter with tears in her eyes, which immediately took notice to the huge cut in her shoulder. "Usagi! You're hurt!"   
  
Usagi looked over at her shoulder, which was almost completely numb now. "Yeah, I guess I am. But it doesn't hurt anymore." She lifted her hand above it and rubbed some of the dried blood away. "It's just tender when I touch it." She looked back up at her mother and blinked. 'Wow... she's not freaking out for once. Cool!'  
  
Chi-Chi sighed. "At least you're safe now." She slowly emerged from her current location behind the sofa and walked to her daughter for a hug. "You must be scared!"   
  
Usagi was filled with a warm feeling of comfort as she stared at the images on the television. At the moment, T.V. camera men filmed the rescue crews in their search through the piles of debris. "Someone should tell them that everyone escaped."  
  
"Huh?" Goku turned his attention to Usagi. "Didn't you guys tell them when they found you?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "No. They wouldn't really let us talk. Once we told them what happened they started getting all crazy."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she turned back to the television. "Honestly! Those policemen don't do a very good job of upholding the peace. They should let my Goku do all the policing."   
  
Usagi lowered her head. "But a lot of people still died today... like Miss Haruna."  
  
Chi-Chi; "You mean that nice teacher you had in kindergarten?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yeah. Her entire class was killed." She looked up to her father with a hope in her eyes. Maybe she could somehow convince him to use the Dragon Balls to bring everyone back. "Daddy? Do you think we could wish all those people who died today and yesterday back to life with the Dragon Balls?"  
  
Goku sighed as he shook his head. "I'm afraid not. If we used them then we couldn't bring back anyone el..."  
  
"I know," Usagi interrupted, "but what if we wish Shenlon to defeat whatever force is here? Wouldn't that be a lot easier than battling it?"  
  
Goku looked up to his wife, who looked back at him, just as confused. "Well," He replied as he turned back down to the questioning child, "that would be pretty easy, but..."  
  
"I know you always like to do things the hard way and fight it out, but just this once, can we please use the Dragon Balls to defeat it? It's not fair that they hide their power from everyone."  
  
Goku choked as he looked down into the watering eyes of his daughter. This time, she had witnessed the killings first hand, and now, they would stick with her forever; images of mass death. He hated the fact that he had to disappoint her further, but there really wasn't a way to fix things using the Dragon Balls. "It's not that, Usagi. Dende can't destroy whatever this monster is."  
  
Usagi scratched her head in confusion. "Ok...? So what does Dende have to do with this?"  
  
Goku chuckled. "Ok, I don't think I've ever explained the power of the Dragon Balls to you, have I?" Usagi shook her head from side to side. "Basically, the Dragon can not exceed the power it has been given by its creator, and its creator can not give it any more power than their own. Our enemies are usually stronger than Dende, or even the original Kami, which means that we can't use them to solve our greatest problems."  
  
Usagi sighed as she looked down at the floor in frustration. "Ok." She faked a smile as she looked back up to her father. "I'm going to bed then."  
  
Goku smiled. "Ok."  
  
Chi-Chi; "I'll wake you for dinner." Usagi said nothing as she continued on to her room. "Does she seem..."  
  
"Different?"  
  
Chi-Chi nodded as she watched her daughter's door shut. "Exactly. It's like something's troubling her."  
  
Goku face his wife. "She has been through a lot in the past few days. This is the first time she's seen mass death like this, too."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded. "It's not healthy for someone her age... But you know, there are Dragon Balls powerful enough to destroy our enemies."  
  
"You mean the ones that were made by Kami before he split?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Goku shook his head in disgust. "No. There's too much of a risk factor with those. They should be destroyed if anything."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi slowly walked to her bed with tears forming in her eyes. She thought that she had everything under control, but in fact, she did not. The fight from the day before had taken a better turn than the fight she had just fought. At least then they had been able to kill their opponent.   
  
Even now, Usagi felt as though her energy was being ripped completely out of her body. The pain from the thought, the vision of destroying the school with people still living inside. They had been at the center of impact, and now, she couldn't even bring them back until the Dark Kingdom had been fully destroyed.   
  
She crawled upon her bed to lay against her stomach to continue her thoughts, unable to stop the visions from coming. 'What can I do?' She pondered as she closed her eyes and lay her head down upon her pillow.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~Meanwhile~  
  
The four students who had departed from the High School in the Western Capital slowly made their way back to the demolished elementary school, where the two Senshi of the group had hoped to converse over the fight and maybe strategize, but, with Mamoru coming along there was no way that would be happening. He just had to ruing everything he could, but maybe, there was a genuine want to help the innocent this time. After all, he had stated that protecting the world was his business. And in the fight from the day before he did try to protect those around him. He wanted to protect the world then as well. Maybe he didn't purposely come along just to annoy the girls. After all, he didn't know that they were the Sailor Senshi, did he?   
  
Mamoru flew on his side with arms crossed and eyes closed. He let his senses drive him forth. "So, these Senshi chicks, did you talk to them?"  
  
Makoto, who flew in front of the teenager, grunted as she cocked her head back. "No, they didn't say a word to us."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Is that a fact?"  
  
Rei frowned. "Yes that is a fact! You gotta problem with that?"   
  
"No, I just find it strange..."  
  
Rei opened her eyes wider than usual. "Strange?"   
  
Mamoru opened his eyes and straightened out his flying patterns. He couldn't miss the looks on their faces when he told them what he knew. "Well, I overheard one of the Senshi calling Sailor Moon, 'Usagi'. I thought, well, she is a little runt like Odango, maybe it could be her. But then I thought to myself 'Naw. That couldn't be her. She doesn't possess that kind of power.' You know what I'm saying?"  
  
Makoto immediately stopped her energy flow throughout her body with a gasp as her eyes flew wide open. She nearly choked on her saliva. "Uh..." She coughed as she turned to Rei, who was trying to gather enough energy back up to even stay in the air. "I... uh ..."   
  
Rei turned to Makoto as well and then to Hotaru, who only shrugged. "We..."  
  
Makoto nodded. "Yeah..."  
  
Mamoru chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck. My how he loved seeing them choke like that. "Really? That's pretty interesting, even though I have no idea what you just agreed to."  
  
Makoto backed down from Mamoru and opened her mouth, yet nothing came out. She was speechless, utterly speechless, and the longer they took to answer, the more he would think they knew something. "... ...I..."  
  
Hotaru giggled. "We don't know what you're talking about, Mamoru."  
  
Mamoru smiled as he decreased his altitude. "And one of them finally speaks!"  
  
Makoto frowned as she grabbed her waist with her hands. "Mamoru! Stop it! We really don't know anything!"   
  
Mamoru quirked his brow. "That's ok, I didn't think a weak brat like her could ever hold a power like that."  
  
"That's not true! Usagi is the strongest Sen..." Hotaru stopped herself short after she realized what she said and covered her mouth. 'Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!' She cried to herself.  
  
'Eeee!' Rei threw her arm over Hotaru and cupped her hand over the child's mouth. "Now, now Hotaru we don't want to make Mamoru mad, do we?" She chimed with a smile.  
  
Mamoru grinned as he began flying forward again. "Thanks kid..." He laughed as he sped up and darted away from the group.  
  
Rei pulled Hotaru close as she looked up to Makoto in a devastating fear. "He knows."  
  
Hotaru violently pulled away from Rei, her violet eyes building up with tears that sparkled in the sunlight. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She cried as she looked up into Rei's eyes.   
  
Makoto groaned as she pulled her legs up to sit cross-legged in the air. "Great..."  
  
Hotaru sniffled as she backed away from her two friends, who she now feared more than anything. She was sure that she was going to get reprimanded for revealing their identity. "I didn't mean to... I'm sorry!" Her heart sped up as she watched Makoto turned to face her. 'Why am I always so stupid?' She lowered her head and allowed the tears to flow faster.  
  
Makoto took one look at Hotaru and felt her heart break in two. "No... Hotaru... it wasn't your fault..."  
  
Hotaru lifted her head just enough to see Makoto's chin. A small smile of hope formed. "Really?" She whispered.   
  
Makoto nodded as she looked over her shoulder in the direction in which she felt Mamoru's power. "I think he already knew. He was just hinting at it."  
  
Rei; "I think you're right."  
  
Hotaru completely lifted her head to look to Rei, her smile growing wider. "Really?! You mean I didn't give it away?"  
  
Rei shook her head. "No. You just confirmed it."  
  
Hotaru groaned as she dropped her head and hunched her shoulders. "As if that isn't bad enough." She muttered to herself.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru laughed at the top of his lungs as he made his way back to school, where his friends were waiting for him. His plan had gone perfectly. Now, his suspicions were finally proved. Not that it was hard to figure out who they were. He didn't even need the fact that he had heard Sailor Moon being called Usagi. He knew just by being able to feel the girls' power.   
  
"Wait until the guys hear about this!" He increased his speed. "I wonder if I should tell the adults..." He pondered over the subject for a few moments. What if they did know? How would it affect the girls? What would Goku say? He had already been upset over the fact that she was kidnapped the other night, and he wasn't even completely over that. This would come as a total shock, hearing that his daughter was a warrior of the Moon, and her friends were fighters of their own respectful planets. "Maybe they're better off not knowing, what they don't know can't hurt them. Besides, why is it my place to let them know? It's obviously a secret. They'll find out when it's time." He paused to think more. His friends, they would have a hard time keeping something like this a secret, especially those big mouth Americans. They always had a habit of sharing things that they were not meant to.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son House~~  
  
When Usagi opened her eyes again, the room was entirely dark, which only confused her. When had she fallen asleep? It couldn't have been that long after she closed her eyes, which was around eleven in the morning. That would mean that she had to have slept for almost six hours since it didn't get dark until five. But, she didn't feel like she had slept that long, it didn't even feel that late in the day.  
  
She slowly pushed herself to sit up only to realize that she was no longer lying on her bed. 'Huh?' She looked down, but was met only with black nothingness. 'What's going on? Where am I?' Unable to use her eyes, she felt around surface she was on. It wasn't soft, but hard. 'Great! Now what's going on!?'  
  
She quickly jumped to her feet, only to hear an echo all around. "Hello?" She called out. That too echoed throughout the realm.   
  
"Welcome." Rang a voice.  
  
Usagi could make no distinction as to where exactly the voice originated from for it echoed all around just as her own voice and movements had. "Who's there?"  
  
A light purple light filled the space in front of the young Saiyan. "Do not be frightened, young Princess."  
  
Usagi rubbed her eyes as a smile only of relief formed. This time, the voice came from only one place, the light before her. And she knew exactly who it belonged to. "Pluto?" She cried out. "Is that you?" She looked up and around as the room began to light up. Her eyes stopped once they reached the huge, double door that lie to her right. 'I know this place!'  
  
The purple glow slowly faded away to reveal a tall, slim woman in a Senshi uniform. "It is I, Princess."  
  
Usagi brightly smiled as she ran to the familiar figure. "Pluto! It really IS you!" She jumped for the Guardian of Time, wrapping her arms around her waist as she reached her.  
  
Pluto giggled as she looked down at the young Saiyan. This had been the first time that she had ever really seen the child outside a screen. "You have met my other self."  
  
Usagi nodded as she pulled away. "I sure did!" She continued to smile brighter and brighter as she looked around again. "So this is what your place looks like?"  
  
Pluto nodded. "Yes. But that is not why I've brought you here."  
  
Usagi giggled as she looked back up to the adult. "I'm curious. Why DID you bring me here? I remember being here before, but not being able to see you."  
  
"Yes. Those were safety precautions for you were not ready to become a Sailor Senshi yet. Seeing me may have altered the workings of your already shaky destiny."  
  
Usagi cocked her head in confusion. "Sailor Senshi? But didn't I already become one two days ago?"  
  
"Technically, yes, you did. But, you have yet to learn the full capacity of your powers, which you need."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Totally! My Kamehameha really didn't do the job today! I need a way stronger attack than that if I want to fight!"  
  
"It is not that you need a stronger attack. The Kamehameha is very sufficient... that is, for enemies who are hurt by that type of energy."  
  
Usagi sighed. She really hated not understanding what anyone was trying to explain to her. It seemed as though she was always in the dark. "But I thought that these stupid things were supposed to be fought with Moon energy. That's what Luna told me."  
  
Pluto chuckled. "You have much to learn about yourself, little one." Usagi crossed her arms for an explanation. "You see, you are a Saiyan, you have known that since you were very little. You understand the power and strength of a Saiyan, but, you have yet to discover things about the Super Saiyan that one should know."  
  
"Can you explain it to me?"  
  
Pluto nodded. "I would be happy to. You see, the power of a Super Saiyan is dirty. One can almost say that it is evil power. It is through anger that one acquires this power. No one can just gain this level out of no where."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Ok, I get that. So it's bad power, but what does that have to do with my Kamehameha not working?"  
  
Pluto grinned. "I'm getting there. Now, the power of the Moon is composed of love and purity. It is a pristine energy which can only be used by pure hearted beings, such as yourself. Now, using the knowledge that the power of a Super Saiyan is dirty energy, what do you think happened today when you used that power while you were trying to use Moon energy?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "Not a clue." Pluto chuckled. "What? I don't?"  
  
"Ok, ok. Then allow me to explain. Once you used that power, your heart was no longer pure. You were dirtying your pure heart. Therefore, your Moon energy would no longer work for you, thus, it became obsolete." Usagi widened her eyes with realization. "The same thing happened with your father once when he tried to collect enough power to defeat one of his foes with a Genki Dama. He tried to build it as a Super Saiyan, but in the end, it nearly destroyed his body because one can only build a Genki Dama with a pure heart."  
  
Usagi looked up. "Is that why I felt fine when all my Super Saiyan energy was sucked out of me?"  
  
Pluto nodded. "Indeed it is. That is also why, Usagi, you were hurt so badly when you first turned Super Saiyan in the past."  
  
"Daddy said it was because my body wasn't ready for that kind of power. That's why he took me into that room."  
  
"That was a lot of the problem. But it was mostly because your Moon energy was not reacting right with the dirtied power of the Super Saiyan. You were too angry, which is why I called your father in to help you calm down. I wasn't expecting your body to react so poorly, but you pulled through."  
  
Usagi grinned. "I thought you were the Guardian of Time, you're supposed to know everything."  
  
"With the situation you've been born into, not having a Usagi in the future to follow a destiny of, the future I see for you can change at any time."  
  
Usagi looked hopefully up into the Senshi's eyes. "So how am I supposed to beat these things? They're too strong for a normal Kamehameha attack. I can sense it."  
  
Pluto grinned with much pride over her Princess. "It is time for you to awaken as the true Senshi of the Moon."  
  
"True Senshi?"  
  
Pluto nodded. "Yes. True Senshi. Each of you has their own special power or ability. You," She paused as Usagi's first attack rod formed before her. "Have this. You can defeat your enemies with this. It is composed only of Moon energy, and it is what the Senshi of the Moon is meant to use when she is fighting her enemies."  
  
Usagi reached out and clasped her fingers around the Pink rod. "Cool! And the others have stuff like this too?"  
  
"No. They have special attack that do not require any special type of weapon. One could say it is a Ki attack, but it uses pure planetary energy such as your own. Luna should know how to activate these powers."  
  
Usagi frowned. "But Luna never said anything about these special attacks?"  
  
"She didn't know about them until just now." She grinned as Usagi sighed. "When you use this, you will become the true Senshi of the Moon."  
  
"What'll happen when I use it, Pluto?"   
  
"Do not worry, only good can come from that attack."  
  
(OOOOH! Now you can't yell at me for taking to long! Not even five days! Heck! Not even four days! Ha! ^_^ hehe! Anyway, done with this one and onto the next! Wha'd you think? Cya next time! ^_~ ) 


	120. Part 22

Mamoru overlooked the frenzied group of teachers and students, who resided in the football field of his school as they tried frantically to account for everyone. Many of the younger children bawled just as infants while the older ones only laughed off the day's event as if it were nothing. But Mamoru knew otherwise. One does experience an attack of that magnitude and come out of it with no feeling of fear, especially at that age.  
  
Mamoru watched the older age group with an odd fascination. They reminded him so much of himself, with their boastful ways and unwillingness to admit to having experienced sympathetic feelings and fear. They were much more interested in looking cool in front of others than acting like normal human beings.   
  
He grinned as he thought back to the first time that he had met Usagi that day at the park. She was already going through so much with her family becoming ill, not that he had known of the problem, but he only added to the problem. He had been a brash eleven year old, at the time with nothing better to do with his life than pick on anyone weaker than himself. Of course, Usagi being smaller than most kids her age and having a tail didn't make matters much easier on his ego. He had almost felt as if it were his duty to put the kid in her place during their first fight, which was why he had been so tough on her. He couldn't have her thinking that she was actually strong enough to challenge him.  
  
But, after that day, that one innocent fight, everything changed. His father, Piccolo, had given him the lecture of his life for mutilating an opponent much weaker than himself. Piccolo had lost trust, and respect for his son, which only heightened his anger toward the girl.   
  
Just weeks later, at the Tournament, Usagi dared to challenge him again. Obviously the girl hadn't learned her lesson before, which naturally led to him resorting to another beating, and if it hadn't been for her menacing father, she would have learned it. He had been completely ready to do what was needed to keep her out of commission for a while. But, before he was able to do anything, his face was introduced, for the first time, with the rock hard fist of an angry Saiyan father.   
  
After that day, he felt it as his duty to, one day, repay the man with another beating to his daughter. But it wasn't until a year later which he finally got his wish, although, things didn't turn out the way he had planned. Up until recently, he couldn't figure out for the life of himself how Usagi had beaten him in that fight. Yes, her power had increased quite a bit, but power means nothing if one doesn't know how to use it correctly. Usagi didn't seem to have gained that much skill in the one year gap between her challenges. But, it was because she fought for the fun of it, for the satisfactory of defeating a stronger foe that she won. He, on the other hand, had fought only to hurt and destroy Usagi. He had wanted to make her cry, make her realize what happened when you mess with Chiba Mamoru.   
  
But his defeat but a genuine anger, a pure, uncontrollable hate for the child in his heart. After that fight, he vowed to himself that he would make Usagi pay. It was bad enough that he had run into misfortunes with her father and his own because of her, but to embarrass him, to shame him in front of his friends and father was another matter. His misfortune would one day become hers.  
  
After that fight, his father had totally gone off on him. One for fighting Son Usagi after he had been specifically told not to, and another for fighting for reasons of hate, and not of righteousness. From then on, he would have to prove his father that he could be trusted, which he ultimately failed. As the years went on, his hate for the Saiyan grew deeper and deeper. He became more evil at heart than ever, and he pulled his friends along with him.   
  
He had really gone over the line during the tournament from the year before. He shouldn't have listened to Gohan about Usagi's weakness. It was unfair play. But, he had gotten his wish hadn't he? He had made the girl cry out in agony. He had made her weak, and nearly beaten her for it. But it was his own stupidity that had caused him to lose, but at the time, he blamed it on Usagi.   
  
Where had he gone wrong? He had never felt such a hate toward anyone until he met Usagi those five years ago. Maybe it was the thought of someone surpassing him, which blinded the truth. The truth that really, the problem was not with Usagi, it lie within himself. His own line of thinking.   
  
He had no business hating Usagi, for she had never done anything to him. He blamed his own misfortunes on the girl. It was because of what he did to her that he had such a rough time with his father. He had made Usagi suffer just that much more. But all that was changing. He was getting older, his vision unclouded by greed and power.   
  
It was at that point of thought that he felt so detached from the elementary line of thinking. He really didn't have that much of a desire to hurt Usagi anymore, in fact, he was beginning to see her as a friend, though his pride would never allow him to tell this to anyone. He would always keep it as a secret for no one, not even his father or Usagi herself, to know.   
  
He chuckled as his eye took notice of a boy shoving a smaller girl. 'So Usagi is really Sailor Moon...? Who would have thought, someone like her growing up to be one of the only warriors who can battle this new enemy. It must be pretty big and special for her... for all of them.' He paused to think back to the fight with Cell, how he and the girls were the only ones who could feel Cell's energy, as well as the energy that the girls gained while they were in the Room of Spirit and Time. That had always seemed weird to him.  
  
He gave one more thought about his relationship with Usagi, finally coming to his decision. He owed Usagi something special for all the hard times he had given her, for all the physical and mental pain he had put her through. Just this once, he would keep his mouth shut. He would not tell a single soul of her secret identity, not even his friends.   
  
Mamoru grinned as a rather interesting idea struck him. 'Two can play at this game.' Without taking into consideration his friends that he would be leaving behind, Mamoru gave himself a boost in energy and began flying toward the mountains for his home.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi stared into the graceful eyes of the Guardian of Time. It felt strange to finally be able to see the face of the person responsible for keeping her in the past for what seemed like an eternity. Yes, she had met her in the other dimension where she, herself, had been born to humans. But this was different, this Pluto had been the one to keep her behind, and for that, she respected her.   
  
Her time in the past had been well spent. Not only did she gain immense power in her time away from home, but she had gotten to know a truer side of her mother, a kind, caring side that she hadn't really ever known before. And with that information of her mother, she was able to patch things up between her own mother.   
  
Pluto stared equally into Usagi's bright, blue eyes. She smiled softly at her thoughts. This girl, even though an individual in herself, with a mind of her own, was still, exactly the same as the Moon Princess. She could still remember back one thousand years, before the Dark Kingdom had attacked the Silver Millennium. The Princess' eyes had always filled with hope and righteousness, the same look that this girl possessed. It only natural, however, that they would be the same. But Pluto hadn't expected the resemblance to be so high since this girl, after all, had been born to a completely different set of parents.   
  
Pluto; "There is one thing you must do in order to activate that wand, young Princess." Usagi perked a bit at the sudden break in silence. "That wand needs a tremendous amount of Moon power to be used, something which you do not yet possess as you are still young."  
  
Usagi sighed as she hunched her back. There was always a but, nothing could ever be easy. "But you said I was supposed to use it to become a real Senshi. How am I supposed to do that if I can't even use it?"  
  
Pluto dropped her head forward and starred down at the disappointed Saiyan. "Yes. I did say that, and it is true. You will become the True Senshi of the Moon when you activate that wand, for it is what the True Senshi of the Moon is to use when she is fighting the Dark Kingdom. But, in order to receive that power, you must awaken someone very special, someone who has been sleeping for a thousand years only to wake but once since you were sent away. This person possesses the energy you need."  
  
Usagi brightened up at the sound of that. She always loved meeting important people, for they were always strong and wise. But who could it be? She didn't know of anyone who was that old. She quickly bobbed her head up with a shine of hope gleaming from her eyes. "Really? How do I wake this guy up?"  
  
Pluto covered he mouth as she politely giggled at the young child. 'So ready to jump to conclusions, these children are.' "SHE can only be awakened by the usage of another attack. It is not nearly as powerful as the usage of that wand, but it will work enough to defeat your opponents. This attack, however, will not do any damage against the Dark Kingdom."  
  
Usagi blushed at her embarrassment of thinking that her only hope a male. She had always been used to male fighters instead of females that she just figured it had to be male. "Ok...What's this attack that can wake HER up?" She asked with a slight hint of a forming giggle.   
  
Pluto extended her hands, pushing her palms together. "This." She explained as a dark purple bubble formed before her hands.   
  
Usagi leaned forward and looked into the purple bubble. "What is it?" She asked as she squinted to see. Inside lay a golden tiara with a red jewel placed at what looked like the tip. "Isn't that the tiara from our uniforms?"   
  
Pluto nodded as she stopped her flow of energy, causing the bubble to collapse in on itself. "It is. This also uses pure Moon energy. Once you use this, I am certain that the Moon angle will awaken sooner than nature will allow her for, the Moon energy you use will reach all the way to her."  
  
"So THEN I can become the True Sailor Moon?"  
  
Pluto nodded. "Yes. The name of this attack is called 'Moon Tiara Action'. It will turn into a disc of pure Moon Energy. It is very powerful against weaker enemies of the Dark Kingdom."  
  
Usagi looked back up to Pluto with a smile and glimmering her eyes. The idea of waking as the True Senshi of the Moon pleased her more than anything. It would mean that she could finally fight her opponents with top notch efficiency, if she would ever just get up and do her job like she was meant to. But, with one hit of her new attack and the enemy would be dead. It seemed so easy, but there had to be a catch.   
  
But none of that mattered anymore. What did was meeting this special Moon energy holding person, attaining enough energy to activate her Moon wand and defeating Beryl and her minions. That way, she would be able to revive all the innocent people who were killed in the day's attack, most of which she felt responsible for.   
  
She didn't want to think of them anymore, but she couldn't help it. Thinking of the trapped people who could have been in that rubble at the time of impact was just too compelling. It's as if she felt responsible for grieving over them. 'How can dad live with himself after he watches so many people died? If what he said is true, the entire population of earth had been destroyed by Majin Buu. How could he let that happen without a guilty conscience? I feel horrible enough for letting as many people die today as they did. Even with Cell he sat around and watched a lot of people die. I know we have the Dragon Balls to bring them back, but we shouldn't let people die just because we can bring them back. They shouldn't die in the first place.'  
  
Pluto kneeled down as she watched her Princess become angry all of a sudden. She didn't have to ask to know what it was. She knew what had happened. But, seeing this anger had actually caused her happiness. She was beginning to form opinions that which were not of her father's. She wanted people to stay alive no matter what, whereas her father would always be furious that people had died by the hands of his foe, but he would quickly shake it off with the idea that they would come right back with the Dragon Balls. "Do not ever hold back your feelings, Usagi. They are always the key to success."  
  
Usagi looked down at the black flooring. "Pluto, can I ask you a question?"  
  
Pluto nodded. She had foreseen this day. "Of course. Never be afraid to ask a question, either."  
  
Usagi turned her vision upward at Pluto again with a smile. Something had railed on her mind for the past two years and now, it was finally time to get some answers. "Why exactly did you leave me in the Past when I wanted to come home?"   
  
Pluto smirked. "I knew you were going to end up asking this question."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Aino House~~  
  
Five girls and two cats; Rei, Makoto, Minako, Ami, Hotaru, Artimas, and Luna all sat in Minako's room, where they had decided to convene after they met back at the elementary school, now dubbed 'The War Zone' by news broadcasters all over the world. As if having their school blown up wasn't bad enough, now they would have to figure out what to do about Mamoru.   
  
All of them stared into each other's eyes, knowing full well what Mamoru's knowledge meant to their identities. If he knew, his friends knew. And if his friends knew, all the adults would soon know and their lives as Sailor Senshi would soon end. He would have to be stopped before it was too late, all of them would.  
  
But as the others stressed over their problems, Luna only sat with a smile, as if nothing were at risk. That struck Artimas a little wrong. Was she not worried? Why wasn't she taking an active turn in the conversation? Or maybe she knew what needed to happen already. "What are you thinking about, Luna?"  
  
Luna stood up and stretched. "Nothing important."  
  
Hotaru, who sat on Minako's bed, reached across Artimas and picked up the black cat. She slowly began stroking the cat's head with eyes full of hopelessness. She still felt horrible for being the one to confirm Mamoru's suspicions about who they were. Now, because of her, they wouldn't have enough time to discuss a plan to fix this problem. "What can we do?"  
  
Luna grinned as she curled up in Hotaru's lap. She knew how to keep Mamoru from spreading the word, but wouldn't bring herself down to that level. Memory erasure. But that wasn't needed. It was his destiny to know who they were and they would just have to put up with it. Yet, she did wonder when they would be allowed to find out who he was, really. "We can't do anything. We're just going to have to live with it."  
  
Artimas gasped as he frowned at his partner. "What are you thinking? We can't be satisfied with that! He'll tell everyone!"  
  
Luna closed her eyes and continued to wear her impish grin. "We're going to have to trust him to do the right thing this time."  
  
It was at that moment that Rei, Minako, Makoto, and Ami turned to each other, each bursting out with their own laughter. Never in their lives had they heard such malarkey. "Him?!" They cracked. "Do the right thing?!" All fell on their backs with increasing laughter.   
  
Ami especially found that funny. For as long as she knew Usagi, Minako, and Makoto, she had known Mamoru. Her first impression of him was not a very good one. In fact, she had hated him the first time she met him for what he did to Usagi. She had always been able to feel his hate radiating off his body, which only caused her to dislike him all that more. "I think that's a dream we can all forget."  
  
Luna shook her head with a sigh. 'Children...' She jumped out of Hotaru's lap and onto the nightstand next to the bed. She turned her eyes down to the laughing girls when a single thought ran through her head all of a sudden from no where. A thought that had been so far from her mind she had never thought to speak of it before. Her eyes stared forward like that of a zombie. "True Senshi..."   
  
Rei, who was closest to the nightstand, opened her eyes to stare directly up at Luna. She quieted her laughter down to a giggle. "Huh? 'True Senshi'?"   
  
Luna looked up into the whiteness of the ceiling. Strange images ran through her head; an image of various attacks done by the Sailor Senshi, though older. Could they have been from the past? Was her memory being revived?   
  
Artimas glared at his partner. He knew that she had been more informed than himself, it was the only reason why she could have been so calm about the girls' identity being revealed. And now, she spoke of a 'True Senshi'. What was it? "Luna... are you ok? You don't look so well."  
  
Luna warmly smiled as she lowered her head to look directly at her comrade. He was always one to cover up being upset by seeming worried. "I'm fine Artimas, I just remembered something."   
  
Minako, who was leaning back on her arms, paused her laughter to question the feline. "About the Sailor Senshi, I suppose." She grinned. "Am I right?"  
  
Luna nodded. "Yes." She jumped back down to the bed, where she was met with Artimas. "I just remembered that all of Serenity's court, the Sailor Senshi, possess an attack all their own. An attack made purely of their own planet's energy."  
  
Minako's eyes grew wide with childish curiosity. "Wow! Really?!" 'This is going to be fun! I wonder how we use them!'  
  
Artimas turned from Luna. 'Why does she get all the leads?' He whined as he sulked to himself.  
  
Ami pushed herself up from the floor and placed herself back down on the bed. "What are these attacks, Luna? Will they be stronger than using our Ki attacks?"  
  
Luna nodded, proud of the information in which she had just acquired. "They will." She panned her vision around the room to all the girls. "You all have your own unique power." She stopped once she faced Rei. "Sailor Mars holds the attack of Fire Soul. Mercury holds Shabon Spray. Jupiter; Supreme Thunder and Venus, Crescent Beam."  
  
Artimas frowned as he jumped from the bed and into Minako's lap. "I hope you didn't know about these attacks earlier today, otherwise..."  
  
Luna jumped from the bed as she glared at Artimas. Was he really that jealous as to try to make her look like an idiot? "Were you not listening to me? I already said I just remembered!" Artimas sighed, but Luna chose not to provoke the subject further. "I'm not sure how these attacks work."  
  
Rei nodded with a smile. "Don't worry, Luna. We can practice tomorrow, if everyone's parents let them..." She trailed off, staring especially at Makoto. She was sure everyone else's parents would let them train, but Makoto's parents, especially her father, were funny about these things. Sometimes he would want her to train in a gym with Mr. Satan, and others he wouldn't care what she did. It was if he didn't quite care.   
  
Luna tried to calm herself as she nodded. "Good."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi sat with her legs crossed, curiously perked, as she awaited the answer to her question. Why exactly WAS she to stay in the past? Her father could have easily defeated Cell in her own timeline. She wouldn't have nearly died trying to defend the earth either. The veterans would have been able to handle everything.  
  
Pluto, likewise, stared down at the youngster; her lips curled to form a soft smile. "I know what you are thinking... You are thinking that the entire mess could have been avoided had I allowed you, Ami, Rei, and Mamoru to return to the past."  
  
Usagi gently nodded, not in any surprise that Pluto knew what she was thinking. She was, after all, the Guardian of Time.   
  
"Everything happens for a reason. It was only because of my plan that you were allowed to go into the past. When that time pad was activated, it was I who opened the time gate for you. I knew that Cell would attack where ever you went under Beryl's control. If you were still in your own timeline, he would have gone there."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Ok. So he followed me into the past." She grinned with a glimmer of curiosity twinkling in her eyes. "But what was the plan?"  
  
"It was because of this attack that you were allowed into the past. I wanted you and your friends to learn how to fight a threat to the earth. Had you been able to return to the future, Vejita, Gohan, and your father would have easily been able to dispose of the danger. That would have left you kids with no experience in protecting the earth. I wanted you to know how to handle yourself in a real battle before Beryl made her move here."  
  
"So it was like a prep fight?"  
  
Pluto nodded. "Yes. Had I left you in the present, you never would have become Super Saiyan until much later in your life. Although, I didn't foresee the Goku of the past to use such a technique of transforming you. I had expected him to try it gradually as well as more peaceful, much like he did with Gohan."  
  
Usagi frowned at that little reminder. "But what if we hadn't beaten Cell? We would have died."  
  
Pluto grinned. "Have you no faith in your guardian? I would never put you in a situation that I knew you could never get out."  
  
Usagi smiled to herself as she pushed herself up to her feet. "Thanks, Pluto." She paused to take one more look around. "But what about Trunks? Were you also the one to let him come back in time?" She turned back to face Pluto, who was raising her staff to open the Gate of Time.  
  
"Yes, I was. But enough talk, it is late, and little ones need rest."   
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru grinned as he stared at himself in the mirror. His idea had worked perfectly. He had told no one of his findings, not even his friends. He would leave that up to them to figure out. For now, he would play along with Usagi's game. It was the only way that he could fight along side her, the only way to protect the earth.   
  
There he stood that night, dressed in an old Tuxedo that Michiru had forced him to buy a year before so he would look nice for one of her concerts. He had only worn it for one occasion and thrown it under his bed, hoping to never see it again. But that afternoon, he had reason to pull it out again.   
  
His grin soon turned to a smirk as he modeled for himself before the mirror. But, he wasn't completely happy with his appearance. "I guess this'll do. If I don't raise my power at all they shouldn't be able to know who I am, but something's missing..." He scratched his head as he glared into his reflection. "But what? Hmm... They'll be able to recognize me right off I don't cover my face with something."   
  
Mamoru quickly glanced over his shoulder as an idea flashed through his mind. He remembered an old costume that he had worn to a costume part one Halloween. That had come with a mask that he had never used, as well as a cape and top hat. 'Now there's an idea. If I dress up THAT corny they won't ever suspect who I am.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi opened her eyes to find herself in the midst of a brand new day. "Huh?" She mumbled as she groggily sat up. 'Back so soon?' She raised her hands to rub her eyes as she yawned and turned to face the window, where the sun's rays were poking through to light the room. 'Morning?'  
  
Usagi shrugged her shoulders. It couldn't have been morning already. She hadn't been with Pluto for more than an hour at most. She stretched her arms out wide as she stood up and began walking to the door, which led to the living room. Her stomach growled, causing her to giggle. "I'm hungry."  
  
'Wonder if mom has dinner ready.' She thought to herself as she opened the door, which revealed her parents cuddling together on the sofa as they watched T.V. Well, it was more like Chi-Chi trying to cuddle with Goku, who seemed to be more concerned with eating and watching the screen.   
  
"Man," She stared in as she rubbed her eyes as they started to feel heavy, gaining her parents' attention. "I feel like I've slept for days." Usagi proceeded further into the room as she rubbed her head to try and completely wake herself.  
  
Chi-Chi, who continued to insist on cuddling with her more than reluctant husband, smiled warmly up at her daughter. "That doesn't surprise me, you've been sleeping ever since you got home yesterday."  
  
Goku; "Yeah, we were beginning to wonder if you were ever going to wake up."  
  
Usagi jerked back in surprise. Had she really slept That long? It didn't seem like all that much time had passed since she first arrived back home. She had only just returned from Pluto's Realm of Time when she had wakened up. "Morning already?" She whined as she slumped down next to her mother.  
  
Chi-Chi giggled at her daughter. "No, sleepy head, it's already eleven, nearly Noon."  
  
Irritated, Usagi gritted her teeth. She HAD wanted to get to the girls early in hopes to discuss their current position with the Dark Kingdom, as well her encounter with Sailor Pluto. This definitely put a damper on her plans. "Why didn't anyone wake me up?" She frowned as she first scanned over the face of her mother, and then father, for an answer.  
  
Standing tall, Goku pulled away from Chi-Chi's grasp. "Chi-Chi didn't want to wake you up, well, both of us actually. You had a rough yesterday. You needed your rest."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded to show her agreement with her husband. "You looked so tired when you got home, I couldn't wake you... even if you do have schoolwork to do."  
  
Usagi froze in place with a pair of wide eyes full of fear. What could her mother possibly be thinking? Was it possible for her mother to care nothing of anything but schoolwork? Yes, her grades were important, but she had just suffered a 'traumatic' experience. That had to count for something, didn't it? After all, her school was just blown to tiny bits in a matter of minutes, a very good point indeed to use. "But the school is gone..." She groaned as she glanced up at her father for support.  
  
All Goku was able to do was shrug as his wife started in. "Yes, but that doesn't mean your studies are finished. From now on, it will be just as Gohan schooled, at Home. I think I can handle home-schooling again until your school is rebuilt, don't you Goku?" Chi-Chi looked up for reassurance from her husband, but found nothing but a cowering man, not wanting any part, for, any way he went ONE of the girls would be angry with him. It was at times like these that he learned to just keep his big mouth shut.  
  
Usagi groaned at the thought of being home-schooled. It was bad enough that her mother oversaw her grades from afar, but to take her on as a teacher, now that was over doing things. She knew of all the horrifying stories from Gohan about being taught by their mother and, for the first time, she found herself WANTING to go to her public school. But who knew when it would be rebuilt, or wished back with the Dragon Balls. That all depended on when Beryl would be destroyed. "But mom...!" She protested with a hint of a whine in her voice.  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she crossed her arms. "Don't 'But mom' me! Just because your school has been destroyed, doesn't mean your education stops too!"  
  
Usagi slumped over as she looked down to the floor. 'Man... talk about a bummer. Now how am I supposed to talk to the girls, or even fight? Mom's going to try to keep checking up on me all the time to make sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to.' She mustered up as many tears in her eyes as possible. She knew it would be a total lost cause to argue with her mother, but if she could just speak, face to face, with her friends once more, to wrap of the happenings of the day before, she would be content for a couple of days. But, there was only one way.   
  
Slowly, Usagi raised her eyes to her mother's. "But Makoto, Rei, and Hotaru... I didn't get to see them after everything happened. I want to see if they're ok..."  
  
Chi-Chi grinned as she started to push herself up. She knew exactly what her daughter was up to. She hadn't raised two rambunctious little boys and learned nothing. She knew how kids worked, but this time, it wouldn't go Usagi's way. She would have to learn one day that tears won't always work. "No," She shook her head from side to side, only to see her daughter's face drop. "Not today. You have to study."  
  
Goku, who also knew of his daughter's antics, was a little more forgiving. He knew what kind of hell their children were put through when it came to education. And beside that, the way he saw it, Usagi should be allowed a few days to recuperate. "Come on Chi-Chi, give her a break. She can study later."  
  
Usagi perked up at the sound of her father's voice. He always did know just when to intervene.   
  
Chi-Chi clenched her fists and turned around to face her husband as she let out a quietly growled. "Goku! Don't contradict my decision!"  
  
Goku frowned. This time, he wouldn't back down. "Chi-Chi, education is good, but not so soon after what happened yesterday. Why don't I take her to get something to eat, and then swing her over to get her friends?"   
  
Usagi nodded with excitement. "Yeah! Yeah! Only, can't I go myself?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "Better that you travel with an adult for a while. Your friends and yourself, especially, seem to be subject to quite a bit of their attacks."  
  
Usagi smiled. At least Someone was looking out for her safety, instead of constant education. "Ok. So we can go?" Usagi chirped as she looked back to her fuming mother.  
  
Chi-Chi found herself gritting her teeth again, her body going completely tense with frustration. But what could she do? She knew Goku would just sneak Usagi out of the house soon after she began studying. He never took her decisions seriously. Taking a giant breath and then releasing it again, she made her decision. Her body quickly relaxed and dropped its look of frustration as she closed her eyes. "Alright. You can go, I'm tired of all this arguing. But," She opened her eyes and turned down to her smiling daughter, "You study more tomorrow."  
  
Usagi nodded with a giggle. "Deal!" Not even thinking, she burst out with laughter and grabbed her mother around the waist. "You're the best!"  
  
Chi-Chi smiled a smile of accomplishment as she rubbed her hand around Usagi's back. It was at times like this when she felt most wanted. 'Maybe I should give her more freedom if I get reactions like these...' Her eyes turned downward at the ecstatic Saiyan. 'It's just too bad she never listens to me either way. I hope she hasn't had anymore to do with that cat.' She frowned as she looked up at her husband, who seemed to be walking away. 'It's because of him that she never listens to me. He always let her have what I wouldn't.'  
  
Goku walked halfway down the hall and stopped. He could sense that he had done wrong again from the way his wife was acting; so quiet when she was getting praise, but what could he do except apologize and try to make it up to her when he got back? Maybe he could stop contradicting her decision, like she had said. "Come on, shorty! I'm hungry... need eat."  
  
Usagi giggled as she pulled away from her mother and ran to join her father. "Coming!" She paused just before she left the living room. "Bye mom! See ya later!" With a quick wave, she was gone.  
  
(Ok.... Before I say anything else, Please allow me to Apologize for the HUGE delay. I know I told you that I would get more chapters out, but I'm finding that I'm becoming very pessimistic when it comes to writing... meaning, I'm just never happy with anything I write because basically, think it all sounds like utter crap! I think I just got tired of writing or something cause I know exactly what I want to say but can't write it, but, now I feel like writing again and I'm beginning to get happier with how it turns out again. Be happy! ^_^ I'm going to try to get myself back in the groove of writing a chapter a day, depending on how much homework I get a night, but this could take a while. So, for now, I'm shootin for maybe two or three a week. Sorry  
  
But now that, that is over, I'm finished with this chapter, as you can tell. I wasn't going to stop it here, but I decided that I would because the next part I want to do will be a good chapter starter, I guess. So, until then. Cya!) 


	121. Part 23

~*~*~*~  
  
Goku kept a close eye on his daughter, who stayed by his side, as he flew straight for the city. He didn't dare take his eye off her for too long. Because of their undetectable power, there was no telling whether or not the enemy was lurking around. He didn't want to chance another kidnapping, so, when he did look forward, he made sure he could see a small bit of her in the corner of his eye. There would be no chance taking anymore.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~Dark Kingdom~  
  
Raditz paced back and fourth with much anticipation. It would soon be time for him to transfer down to earth, where he would gather energy from the people there, as well as his prize, the Moon Princess, his niece. Not to mention kill Goku as he should have the first time they met. This time, a game of no mercy would be played. Now that Raditz had been injected with Dark energy, Goku would go down without a fighting chance.   
  
Thinking of how sweet his revenge would be, Raditz smirked. He looked up at the black ceiling and thought back to that day, the day he had been killed by the weaklings, Piccolo and Goku. Once he had arrived in the Judgment chambers, he was certain he would be banished to Hell, where he would have his soul cleaned and live in eternal torture. That only made him wish to get his revenge on his brother, no, all of earth more. But, there was no escape from the fiery pits of Hell. He would have to live with his pain for all eternity.   
  
Just as he was approaching his day of judgment, he was approached by a tall, slender woman with fiery red hair, with an eternal scowl, much like that of Vejita's. Seeing her only caused him to grow with fury. Was he to be taken to Hell by this petty woman? Had it not been bad enough that he had been killed by two lower class warriors? No, he wouldn't stand for it. He wouldn't go down without a fight.  
  
Raditz reacted the only way he knew, with an arsenal of only Ki attacks. Tens upon hundreds of his once powerful attacks were thrown in the path of the woman, only to find that they were useless. Upon impact they were diminished into nothing, not hurting her in the slightest way possible.  
  
That only caused his rage to rise to the limits. How could this be happening? Had he lost power on his way to earth? That had to be it. It was the only way that he could have been destroyed so easily and now. He remembered asking who she was, but received no answer. Raditz took the time, at that moment, to look around at his surroundings. The dead before and after him, as well as supervisors were all completely stunned. All attention was on him and the mysterious woman.   
  
And that's when it happened. He grunted in disgust and turned back to face the woman, only to be standing nose to nose. He remembered becoming even more enraged, but was calmed buy a swift punch to the stomach. He could also remember, quite clearly what she had whispered to him.   
  
'You want your revenge? Shut up and come with me!'  
  
All he remembered after that was appearing in this castle of the Dark Kingdom, thirty-five years into the future, the day Usagi had been born. The woman introduced herself as the Queen of Darkness, Beryl, said that she worked under another, Metallia. She told him the story of the Dark Kingdom and Silver Millennium, why she recruited him for the job of her General. As it turned out, she wanted those with connections to the Son family, that, she said, would be their motivation to kill them off.   
  
Well, after hearing that, Raditz took the job, no problem. With being infused with Dark Energy, he was given his life back, although , he did learn of two others that would be working by his side, but what did he care? He hated them both, especially the girl, which was why he helped her escape in the first place. He wished that when Beryl found her, she would kill her right away, as she should have from birth, but instead, she brainwashed her into thoughts of Evil once again, gaining an undefined hate for him. And the green fellow, well, he was a mistake from the beginning.   
  
Now, as he stood there, thinking back to all that he had been through, he decided that it was all well worth the trouble. It was better than going to Hell with a clean soul. So what if he died by the hands of Queen Beryl? He was never in it to serve her. He detested everything she did, especially the girl, Akii. He only obeyed her so he could one day fight Goku again, maybe even put him through an unthinkable pain by turning his daughter to the side of evil and order her to destroy the world. Wouldn't that be a sight? The Moon Princess, daughter to the strongest warrior in the world, destroy the earth! He couldn't help but smirk at that. Revenge would be sweet, and he had survived his Queen's wrath just long enough to fulfill his dreams.  
  
"Raditz!" Akii yelled from behind.   
  
The tall Saiyan growled as he turned around. He hated it when he was interrupted, especially by impudent fools such as Akii. "What is it, annoying woman!?"  
  
Akii shrugged off his rudeness and began walking away with a frown. "If you don't do the job right today you're a dead man, just like Cell."  
  
Raditz grinned at the smart remark. He knew the woman was only trying to tear at his emotions, but at a moment like this, nothing would penetrate his temper. "I won't fail, you'd do well to remember that I'M the fighter here, not you. I'll take my revenge and bring back the Moon brat with ease."  
  
Akii only continued to walk further and further down the hall. "Seems to me you've already lost once to these people. Once a failure, always a failure."  
  
Raditz growled as he turned the opposite way and stormed off. "You're one to be talking, weakling..."  
  
Akii paused with a scowl. So what if she wasn't a fighter? She was still a better asset than he was, that was why Beryl was so quick to retrieve her when she had left. "You'd do well to remember that Beryl holds the key to your power, just as Cell. You mess up this time and she'll take that power away and cast you to earth to be destroyed by that Goku fellow again."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~Earth~  
  
Two hungry Saiyans meandered down the city streets in search of an adequate, yet cheep, restaurant. These days, finding a place for both of them to get their fill at a cheep price was quite rare, with Usagi's appetite growing and all.   
  
Usagi paused her search, allowing her father to walk further ahead without notice. Stopping only caused her to be pushed around by the busy citizens, but none of this seemed important at the moment. She could feel a disturbance in the air, which could only mean one thing; another attack. Where they would hit this time, she knew not. But what she did know was that she could not let her father know. Somehow, she would have to sneak away and transform to Sailor Moon, without her father getting involved. That, she thought, would be absolutely impossible.  
  
She said not a single word as the sky above earned a piercing glare. The enemy was heading in her direction. 'Was dad right? Are they purposely following me wherever I go now?'   
  
Goku didn't get far before he realized his daughter was missing from his side. 'That girl...!' Worried that she had wandered far, he quickly turned around, ready to go on a full search. But, to his surprise, she hadn't gone anywhere. She was only staring, blankly, into the sky. '  
  
Sighing out of relief, Goku proceeded to approach his daughter with a forming frown. "Usagi..." He scolded, folding his arms over his chest. He had noticed that Usagi was beginning to enter the mindset that she could wander off now that she was older, and normally, he would be fine with that. But not now. Now would be the time that he would have to crack down on her, even though he hated doing it. His motivation was what kept him going; seeing her face full of fear when she had been kidnapped. He wouldn't let That happen Ever again.   
  
Usagi shook her thoughts away as she looked up to the stern face of her father. 'Gotta act completely normal.'   
  
"Sorry, daddy. I thought I saw something." She lowered her head, hoping that he wouldn't become angry.   
  
But Goku did just the opposite. He put aside the fact that Usagi had wandered away and let his stomach take over. Perking his head, a wide smile grew across the entirety of his face. "Oooh! Really?!"   
  
Usagi chuckled at her father's growling stomach. He always did forget all his problems when he was hungry, something she loved about him, for, it allowed her to conceal more. Had he been in tip-top shape and in full concentration, he would have been able to read right through her lie. Maybe, Usagi thought, she was beginning to figure her father out. "No. I thought I did, but it was nothing."  
  
Goku grumbled as his shoulders slumped. "Then let's go," He reached out and grasped his daughter's hand in his. "I'm too hungry to just stand around."   
  
Usagi nodded as she proceeded through the bustling crowd with her father. "Me too."   
  
Usagi allowed her father be her guide through the massive city while she devoted most senses to concentrating on the invading power level. The power seemed to be heading straight for her, not like it truly mattered for, she was in a bind either way she looked at her situation. Either the enemy would land in a far off area of Japan, where she would have to leave her father, who she knew would refuse to let her go alone. Or, the enemy would land near her, where she could easily transform to Sailor Moon and fight it off. The only problem with that would be getting away from her father, still.   
  
Either way she looked at it, she would have to reveal to him that she is Sailor Moon, she is the legendary Senshi of the Moon, Princess Serenity of the Silver Millennium Moon Kingdom. As she saw it now, there was no way to avoid it, and if there was, she surely did not know of one. But, what she did know, was that she would not let either of these scenarios stop her from accomplishing her duty to the citizens of earth. And she was certain that she would never allow the enemy to take so many innocent lives again, which meant she would have to act much faster. As soon as the enemy got close enough to kill, she would transform. Unless...  
  
"Usagi," Complained the famished Goku as he tugged on Usagi's arm. "Stop lagging behind. I'm hungry!"   
  
Usagi looked up to her father. "Coming." She wondered if she could use him somehow when the time came. He could fight against these creatures, but with no damage to his target. She knew that from firsthand experience. It was no lie that only planetary power had any effect on the creatures from the Dark Kingdom, and knowing her father, he would try anyway. But maybe, just maybe, that trait of his could be of some use to her.  
  
Usagi continued to follow the disturbance with her senses. It seemed to be getting closer, as well as faster with each minute that went by. 'It'll be here soon. I better not screw up today.' Knowing that it was definitely coming for her, Usagi tugged on her father's hand to gain his attention. "Daddy, can we eat somewhere where there isn't a lot of people around?"   
  
"Huh?" Goku glanced back to his wide-eyed daughter. "Why? I just thought of somewhere we can go. I remember taking Pan to it when she was a little girl."  
  
Usagi didn't know what to think of that. If it was a secluded place it would be fine, otherwise, there was just too much risk in it. If only he knew. "Are there lots of people there?"  
  
Goku nodded with a grand smile. "Yep. It's almost like a circus. They have all kinds of playground toys you can play on. Pan loved it... so did I. You'll have a blast. It'll be good to get your mind of things."   
  
Usagi groaned as she rubbed her head with frustration. On any other occasion she would have been thrilled. 'Why do I get the feeling he had this planned all along'   
  
"But I don't want to be around a lot of..." All emotion immediately dropped from the child's face. Not a trace of mirth or even fear resided on her face as she looked up at her father.   
  
Goku's smile fell from face, too, with one look at his daughter. It wasn't like her to just stop in the middle of a sentence without being overjoyed. "You alright?" He asked as he waved his hand in front of her face in hopes of gaining her attention back. "Usagi?"  
  
"Gone..." Usagi's eyes slowly turned back up into the bright blue sky and for now, they were forming the look of fear.   
  
Goku scratched his head with curiosity. His daughter Had been acting strange all day, he wondered what she could be so wound up about. "What's gone?" Not an answer arose from the girl, which only caused his stomach to perform loops. He stared at her, as she looked into the sky, with a fear of his own, for he knew that Usagi was able to detect these enemies. Although she never came right out and admitted it to him, if these people were with the same gang as Cell, then she would definitely be able to detect them for she could detect Cell when he had followed her to the future. "You can feel them, can't you?"  
  
Usagi said nothing, instead, she tried to concentrate harder. For some reason even she couldn't decipher, the energy pattern that she had been following just disappeared. Not that she minded that, but what concerned her most was that an attack had not ensued Anywhere in the world. It wasn't like these people to just come down to earth for a short visit. They always had to return home with a souvenir, meaning the energy of more victims.   
  
Goku lightly shook his daughter, too impatient for her to pull away from her concentration. If she knew something, she needed to tell him so they could hope to defeat it before more people had to give their lives. "Where is it?! Usagi!"   
  
Usagi's entire body, including thoughts, froze. She hadn't even heard a word her father had said to her, but instead, she put her full attention of the new power that had just reappeared directly into their vicinity. "...ah..." She slowly, and very timidly turned her head back up to her father. Thousands of thoughts rushed through her mind. What should she do? Fight as herself along side her father and lose, letting everyone around die, or turn to Sailor Moon and destroy the monster before it had a chance to harm anyone, allowing her father know he secret, which absolutely no one was meant to know.   
  
All though process ceased immediately once Usagi had her father's face in full vision. Her eyes were diverted from his comforting face of worry, directly back to the hatred eyes of Raditz, who stood behind Goku with his arms crossed over his chest. Seeing him put a new look of horror into Usagi's eyes, one that not even her father had seen. Though, not a horror from fearing for her life. She knew that she could handle herself if she could just turn into Sailor Moon, but all the people around...  
  
"YOU!" Usagi knew what she had to do now; now that she knew exactly Who earth's attacker was. Now would be the time to avenge everyone's death. All horror turned to an unstoppable rage as she lashed out for the man. And, to Usagi's dismay, she was stopped by the firm hand of her father.   
  
Goku, who frowned down at his daughter, pushed her back. He now knew that he stood before a great foe, obviously after what he had seen these people do. "Don't forget your training!"   
  
Raditz grinned down to the struggling child, who was attempting to escape from her father. "My, my little Saiyan. Aren't we fisty today. You should always listen to your father, especially if you don't want to be destroyed by those who are stronger. But in your case... you'll be destroyed either way."  
  
It didn't even take that many words for Goku to realize just WHO stood behind him. He knew that particular voice all too well, more than he wanted to. Too shocked to say even one word, he slowly turned around to face his brother, keeping a hand on Usagi to keep her out of harms reach. "Oh...My...God..."  
  
Usagi clutched her father's leg as she scowled up at her uncle, not knowing that he was just that. "That's the guy, daddy. He's the one who killed Miss Haruna and brought that monster to school yesterday. It's HIS fault!" She yelled as she ripped away from her father's grasp.   
  
Crossing his arms, Goku grinned as he looked down to his hotheaded daughter. He wasn't too worried about keeping her safe from Raditz, since she was, after all, stronger than him... or so he thought. "Don't worry, Usagi. This guy isn't anything to stress over. He may be with the new enemy, but I've fought him before." Chuckling, he looked back up to his brother. "I don't know why or how you're here, but I suggest you get lost. You're not match for us."  
  
Raditz joined his brother's chuckles as he unfolded his arms. "Think what you will, little brother."  
  
Not considerably confused, Usagi blinked. "What? Why did he just call you 'little brother', daddy?"   
  
Goku sighed as he looked down at his daughter. At that point, he wasn't all too concerned with Raditz's power. "This is Raditz. He's the guy who came here when Gohan was little and tried to kidnap him because I wouldn't kill anyone on earth. By blood, we're brothers, but not anything else."  
  
Usagi looked up to Raditz, who glared back down to her. 'MY UNCLE?! GROSS!'   
  
Goku knew exactly what his daughter was thinking, just by seeing the expression on her face. "Don't worry. Like I said, he's just a pushover."  
  
Usagi shook her head in disbelief. How could her father think that? He was with the enemy. If he was a weakling, he would have been destroyed earlier. Of course, it's as if he could read Raditz's power level so he had no way of knowing. "I don't think we should take him lightly, daddy. I couldn't beat him yesterday. He's got that Dark Energy stuff in him, remember? That made Cell almost impossible to beat."  
  
Raditz clasped his fists together as he crept up on Goku. And Goku, being unable to read his energy, remained unknowing of the attack that would soon come to be. "You should listen to your daughter more often, Kakarotto." And with that, his massive fists were thrown into the neck of Goku, causing him to fall flat on his face. "They may just be right."  
  
The crowd around took no time in retreating to safer grounds. With the past two attacks not a single soul wanted to take a chance of becoming a victim.  
  
"Daddy!" Usagi yelled as she knelt by her father's side. "Daddy, are you ok?!"   
  
Goku groaned as he reached for the back of his neck. He had expected his brother to go for such a dirty hit, he just hadn't expected him to be so strong. Maybe he had become a lot stronger, maybe it wasn't safe for Usagi to stick around after all. "I'm ok." He gently placed his hand on her chest to push her out of harm's way.  
  
Rubbing his soar neck, Goku slowly and painfully pushed himself to his feet. "You may be strong, Raditz, but I'm stronger. I can transform to the third level Super Saiyan."  
  
Raditz arrogantly chuckled as he turned his head to the side, away from Goku. "Little brother, your power is no match for mine, even if it IS Super Saiyan. The only reason why you were able to beat that Cell spawn with such ease is because Queen Beryl took away his Dark Energy, making him only as strong as the original Cell was when Gohan first beat him. Had Beryl allowed him to keep it, you would have never beaten him." His eyes flashed red as he faced back to Goku. "And because I have that same energy running through my veins, you will never beat me! My revenge that I have been dreaming for is finally coming true! And I'm going to start this little blood fest with you and your annoying little brat!"   
  
Goku knew this was for real. Raditz would be a lot stronger now that he had Dark Energy running through his body, making him much more powerful than before, but never the less, he would fight to protect all those who were around. "Your revenge won't succeed! I'll beat you again, just like Piccolo did the first time!"   
  
Raditz frowned as he extended an arm toward Goku. "You'll live to regret that day!" The only thing he could think about as a black ball of energy formed in his hand were ways to make Goku suffer the way he had. He wouldn't be quick to kill Goku off, first, he would torture him, make him cry out for mercy. To make things worse for the man, he would torture the girl, Usagi, as well. Just enough to make him feel mental pain as well as Physical.   
  
Raditz's frown quickly turned to a smirk of content. 'Finally, after all these years of waiting!' Just as his eye caught notice of Goku attempting to begin his own assault, Raditz released the energy unto him.   
  
Usagi watched in a frozen horror as the attack instantly wrapped itself around the body of her father, who was unable to see the attack with his senses. "No!" She closed her eyes and looked away from the terror.  
  
Goku cried out in pain. The attack, which had been too fast for him to see, spread out and tightened itself around Goku's body, disallowing any movement. "C...c...c..." He felt as if his energy was being ripped right out of him, but he refused to just stand there without a fight. "Raditz!!!" Thinking the power of a Super Saiyan would help anymore, Goku quickly powered up to the level Two Super Saiyan, allowing his hair to flair up to take to the color of Gold. He didn't dare go three unless it was an emergency, but he figured level Two would be enough.  
  
Raditz laughed aloud as he closed his hand, which only made the attack stronger. In doing this, another cry of sheer pain arose from the troubled Super Saiyan. "That's it, little brother. Let me hear your pain! Right now, this attack is taking your energy and delivering directly to Queen Beryl! The more you struggle, the more energy we get!"  
  
Raditz laughed when he saw the first bit of blood trickling down the part of Goku's arm which had not been covered by the energy. "All you had to do was join us, Kakarotto, but instead, you chose to come to the aid of this planet."  
  
Goku curled into a ball and closed his eyes as his hair went back to its normal color of black. He was only half able to listen to the words of his attacker. "Get....Over...It!"  
  
Usagi cried as she watched her father once again. The outcome of this battle was more than obvious. Her father was defenseless against the powers of the Dark Kingdom. Only a select five were capable of defeating Raditz, and she happened to be one of them, but, she couldn't bring herself to leaving her father at a time like this to transform. She didn't even think of what she was doing in her next action.   
  
Usagi put aside her fear for her father and thought of only her own revenge. Revenge for all those who had already died in the two previous attacks, as well as the pain inflicted on her father. "You...!" She said, quietly. "YOU!!" Letting her anger be known with a scream of hatred, Usagi jumped for her uncle, her eyes filled with rage.   
  
She didn't even bother to raise her power level for she knew it would be useless. Instead, she hovered behind Raditz and began beating on his head. "Get...away...from...my...daddy!" Strike after strike was laid on the back of his head, not to get a single response. But Usagi persisted.   
  
Goku, hearing the punches, opened his eyes with forced tears of his own. "Usagi," A whisper was all he could make out, "No... run away..."   
  
Raditz glanced over his shoulder to the young Saiyan. "Tch..." He narrowed his eyes into a glare. "Annoying little brat!"   
  
Raditz discontinued his attack on Goku and turned to face Usagi, whose attacks had not affected him in any way. "So you want your torture right away, do you?" He grinned as he looked over his shoulder to Goku, who was lying on the ground, unable to move. "Watch carefully, Kakarotto, as I mutilate your brat!"   
  
Usagi lowered herself to the ground and crouched into a fighting stance. She hadn't exactly thought her last decision completely through. Her emotions had gotten the best of her, and now, she was in a bind. She couldn't exactly transform into Sailor Moon unless she led Raditz away from her father, but leaving meant her father would be alone, and unable to move away to safer grounds.   
  
Raditz turned back to Usagi, his grin still very noticeable. "Don't worry, Beryl wants you back alive. I won't completely destroy you, just enough to suffice my revenge!" He stepped forward, toward Usagi, causing her to take a step back.  
  
Goku, fearing for the life of his daughter, and not caring of his own, grabbed his chest, and, with all his might, tried to muster enough energy to lift himself off the ground. The only thing on his mind now was protecting his daughter. "Stay away from her! Your fight is with me first... then her!"   
  
Raditz quirked his brow, keeping his attention purely on Usagi. "I should have known you wouldn't give in so easily! You always were a stubborn old fool! But I'm afraid," He quickly teleported behind Usagi, grasping onto her arm, "I've gone onto mental torture!"   
  
"No!" Goku cried out as he staggered back and fourth on his feet. "She did nothing! Just kill me and leave this place!"   
  
Usagi struggled to break free from Raditz's tight grip, but could not prevail. "Daddy! No!"   
  
Raditz frowned as he lifted Usagi into the air by her arm. "Shut up, brat!" He violently lifted her over his head and threw her back down to crash into the concrete below.   
  
"Usagi!" In a flash, Goku's eyes traveled from Raditz, to his daughter, and back to Raditz. When they returned to Raditz, however, they were filled with nothing but fury. As crushed as his body was, he would continue to fight. Nothing would stop him now. "You'll pay for that!" He yelled out as he powered up two small Ki blasts in the palm of his hands. He knew it was pointless to attack with Ki attacks, but maybe physical attacks back by Ki would do some damage. In anyway, with any outcome, it was worth a try, anything was.   
  
Raditz spread his feet apart and steadied his fists before himself. "Anything you do will be pointless. The Dark Kingdom has already been made stronger by your stupidity."   
  
Goku readied himself for his assault on Raditz. "I don't care!"   
  
No further words were spoken between the two, just how Goku wanted it. The less words that were spoken, the more he could concentrate on what he had to do. Goku ignored the excruciating pain that gushed throughout his entire body when he started his attack. His plan would be to clash with Raditz, and hopefully lead him away from Usagi. Although, with this strange Dark Energy he possessed, he wasn't sure how well it would work.   
  
Raditz, on the other hand, only stood tall and chuckled as he watched his brother approach. This would be it. He would wait until Goku got close enough, and then he would make his final move, the attack that would kill Goku once and for all.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Up top a nearby roof stood a tall figure all in black. A cap viciously waved behind the figure in the wind, and a tall hat covered a portion of the sun in the background. His job was to protect the innocent who could not protect themselves. He was the newest fighter of Justice, Tuxedo kamen.   
  
He had only just arrived on the scene when Usagi had been thrown down by the monster, only to see her father throwing himself into a death trap. But what could he do? The Sailor Senshi were no where in sight and had been almost powerless without using Ki.   
  
Feeling stupid and useless, he looked down to the ground in shame. Not more than a couple of seconds had passed before a flower bed had caught his eye. He thought it was peculiar that a flowerbed be on a roof, but, it was a help to him. Maybe if he could find a good sized rock, he could get stop Goku from his perilous attack. When he looked up, directly into the flowerbed, he saw nothing but a single rose. 'A rose?' He asked himself.   
  
He could sense the two power levels almost meeting, which would ultimately mean Goku's death. There was no time to think, nor was there any time to search for a rock big enough to stop Goku. So, doing all that he could think of, he reached for the rose, running to the side of the building as soon as he pulled it out.   
  
He stared down at the rose in his hand and frowned. 'This better work or Usagi's going to kill me...' And with that, he hurled the flower of the edge of the building down to Goku's path.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Also just arriving on the scene seconds after Tuxedo Kamen's decision, were the Sailor Senshi with Luna and Artimas. They too felt the disturbance, but were unable to get away from their new training as Sailor Senshi. They took no time rushing to the side of Usagi, hoping that she wasn't unconscious.   
  
~*~*~  
  
In its fall to the ground, the Red Rose scratched Goku's arm, causing him to become alarmed. He stopped immediately in his tracks, thinking that another enemy had come to bombard him with undetectable attacks. But, as he looked up in search of a new attacker, but found nothing.  
  
Raditz growled as he looked at the Rose, which was placed firmly in the concrete. It hadn't been thrown by just any normal person if it could penetrate concrete. "Who the hell is responsible for this?!"   
  
"Huh?" Goku wondered what Raditz was talking about. If Raditz didn't know what was going on, then it definitely wasn't another enemy to worry about.   
  
Raditz completely ignored Goku and flew into the air. He narrowed his eyes to search for whoever, or whatever threw the rose and stopped his brother's attack. He had really been looking forward to the kill. "When I find the little maggot that threw that rose..."  
  
Goku scratched his head as he looked up to check on the status of his daughter. What more did he see than four strange girls at his daughter's side. "Get away from her!" He tried with all his might to run to Usagi, but his wounded body wouldn't allow for it.  
  
Venus, being acting leader when Sailor Moon wasn't around, turned around to the ecstatic Goku. "It's alright, sir. We are the Sailor Senshi. We are here to help you."   
  
Goku sighed placed his hand over his heart as he sighed with a great relief. "The Sailor Senshi... We can trust you, correct?"   
  
Venus nodded, her warm smile calming Goku. "Yes."  
  
"Da...ddy..." Usagi grabbed her head as she tried to sit up, only to find Mercury gently pushing her back down.   
  
Goku's eyes widened with fear. This was no place for Usagi, especially now that she was hurt. "I can handle him, he's my fight. But, can I ask you to take Usagi away from here?"  
  
Mercury turned to look into Goku's eyes. "We can take her to safety..."  
  
"Right," Mars agreed, "But we can't let you fight him alone. He's a monster from the Dark Kingdom. You can't fight him effectively without planetary power, power of light."  
  
Goku frowned as he dropped to his knees. "I have to do this on my own."  
  
Venus shook her head. "You'll die if you do. Do you understand that? He was preparing a huge energy attack inside his body just now and would have killed you with it when you got close enough. You didn't even KNOW that's what he was doing! You don't HAVE to die now! Your daughter will be safe now! Please, let us end this!"  
  
Goku looked up into the air to Raditz. For the first time in his life, he felt as if he had already been defeated. It was true, what these girls told him. He wasn't able to detect that attack, which would have meant his death. And at this point in his life, death was unacceptable. He had to keep his promise to Usagi, the promise he had made the day she was born, that he would always be there for her.   
  
That's how he made his decision. He made it not for himself, but for Usagi. "Alright," He looked back down to the scouts. "But I'm going to stay here and watch."   
  
Venus looked back to Artimas and Luna, who nodded with their consent. "I guess it's alright."   
  
Goku looked past the girl in Orange, back to the two cats. He blinked twice and rubbed his eyes to make sure he knew exactly what he was seeing. "Isn't that black cat Luna?"   
  
Nodding, Venus gulped. "Uh... why yes it is... uh... why?"   
  
Jupiter cringed at the thought that Goku had just figured them out. Luna had saved Usagi's life, and then lived with them for a day, and now to find out that she was with the Sailor Senshi... not good.   
  
Goku cheerfully smiled. "She saved Usagi when she was kidnapped by these people. Guess I have you guys to thank!"  
  
Mars sighed. 'Thank god he's a dope sometimes.'   
  
Mercury placed one hand behind Usagi's head, and another under her back. "Let's get you out of here."  
  
Usagi nodded, knowing what she would have to do. "Ok."  
  
(Done! ^_^ Guess I'll see ya next time then! P.S. I'm going by Japanese Spellings, so it is Vejita with a J, other wise it would sound like the G in good. If I really wanted to get technical about spelling names, I would have it the real spelling, Bejita, but, well, that's a big stretch for even me. ) 


	122. Part 24

~*~*~*~  
  
Shortly after the Senshis' arrival, Usagi was led away from the fight by her advisors, Luna and Artimas, and fellow Senshi, Sailor Mars. Although Goku believed it was for her own safety, the girls had an entirely different reasoning for their actions. Leading Usagi elsewhere would enable her to transform safely to Sailor Moon without her father, or any one else for that matter, knowing her true identity. Nothing would be suspected.   
  
~*~*~  
  
The remaining Senshi looked directly up at their enemy, Raditz, who seemed to be more concerned with finding the fiend who stopped Goku from running into his death trap. Although they were grateful that this person had acted, the too were curious as to who acted so bravely.   
  
Mercury already had her visor and computer out for power readings. A high pitched noise came from the small machine in her hand, telling only one thing. "That one has the highest reading of Dark Energy." She explained as she closed up the computer.   
  
Jupiter nodded as she slumped her shoulders with a smile of arrogance. "We'll kick his butt with our attacks. He won't be that tough."  
  
Goku let out a quiet chuckle as he grinned. "You may wanna watch out for this one, he fights dirty. I should know, I fought him about forty five years ago when he first invaded earth."  
  
Venus gasped as she turned to the Saiyan warrior. She remembered quite well all the stories Usagi used to share with her when they were younger, about how the first time her father had died. It was during the fight with Raditz, when Gohan had been abducted. Her eyes became wide as she realized just who the attacker really was. 'That would mean he's Raditz.... Usagi's UNCLE?!'  
  
Gulping, she Venus tried her hardest to keep her knowledge of Raditz away from Goku. "Thanks for the tip, sir."  
  
Goku nodded, not detecting any bit that Venus knew anything of his older brother. "Sure..." He glared up at his brother, who seemed to have found what he was looking for.   
  
Also noticing this, Venus motioned for her friends to follow her in pursuit of Raditz. "Quietly now."  
  
As much as Goku wanted to join the Senshi, his wounds would not allow him to. He would have to be satisfied with watching the Senshi at work to destroy Raditz once and for all.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Raditz's eyes flared with hatred as he glared down upon Tuxedo Kamen. It was because of him that Goku continued to live, something he could not forgive. "You! Who are you?! Tell me!" He snarled.   
  
Holding his ground, Tuxedo Kamen grinned. "I am Tuxedo Kamen! Defender of those in Peril!"  
  
Raditz tightened his fists as a loud growl escaped his lips. "You'll die for interfering!"   
  
Although Tuxedo Kamen seemed arrogantly calm to all those around, inside, he was scared to death. Without being able to raise his power level, he would be helpless against Raditz. He hoped that the Senshi would come to his rescue soon, otherwise he would be joining all those who had died already.   
  
A small, green ball of energy flew down from above Raditz to hit him square on the back just as he began to advance at Tuxedo Kamen. "Damnit!" He growled as he turned his back to the caped fool.   
  
Jupiter glared down at the Saiyan with hatred. Today, his days of chaos would end and his death would mean one step closer to brining Miss Haruna back to life along with all the others. "That was just a warning. Leave that man alone and fight us!"  
  
Tuxedo Kamen arrogantly smirked as he let his eyes drop to Raditz's back. That attack had actually succeeded in searing the armor. "Looks like the tables have turned!"   
  
Raditz growled, shifting his eyes from the Senshi to Tuxedo Kamen. "Lights out." Not giving his target a chance to move, he quickly built up an attack of his own in the palm of his hand and fired it the boy.  
  
Although no one else had been able to detect the attack, for it was done too fast, Goku had expected something like that from his brother. He used his last of the energy left in his body to fire a Kamehameha at Raditz's attack., but his efforts did nothing. The energy from his Kamehameha wave was absorbed into Raditz's attack, only to make it stronger.  
  
Tuxedo Kamen was hit almost immediately after Goku's energy was absorbed. He struggled to push it away, but without being able to use his own power combined with the force of the impact, he was thrown into to cement railing of the building. He took one last hopeful look up at the girls with pleading eyes, which begged them to defeat this new threat before anymore were killed. "...ughh..." His head bobbed to the side as his eyes closed.  
  
Goku dropped to the ground as well, but only as a cause of no energy. He would have to keep his word, and allow the Senshi to fight on their own. He couldn't even help them if they needed it now.  
  
Raditz glanced back to the Senshi with a smirk. "Now that he's out of the way, I'll kill you three." He glared down at his brother, who returned the glare. "And then I'll kill you."  
  
Venus fired a small beam of energy at Raditz to grab his attention. "You have to get through us first!"   
  
Jupiter pulled her arms back slightly and made two fists, reading for anything. "Which isn't likely."  
  
Raditz's Saiyan instincts allowed him to smile at that point. A good fight did sound rather invigorating while he waited for the Moon brat to return. "Well then by all means, let's get this show on the road. But I must warn you, your little attacks may work on my pets, but they won't work on me." He slowly began to lower his altitude so they could fight on more sturdy grounds, with the Senshi following.  
  
Venus grinned. "We'll let the outcome of the fight speak for itself."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi staggered down the streets of the city, which had been cleared out earlier by the fleeing citizens. She had still been dizzy from being thrown into the ground, but she would have to fight through the pain. It wouldn't be the first time.   
  
Luna walked along side Usagi with worry. "Usagi, are you sure you'll be able to fight as Sailor Moon? You still look woozy."  
  
Usagi nodded as she grabbed her aching head. "I'll be fine. Raditz won't get away with murder, I won't let him. None of us will. That's our job, right? To defend our home and our people. We've already allowed too many people to die and I won't let it happen anymore. No more experimenting!"  
  
Sailor Mars nodded with a glimmer of righteousness in her eyes. "Right! We're going to put an end to it right now!"  
  
Usagi grabbed her broach from her pocket and held it above her head. "Moon Crystal Power...Make-Up!!" Usagi's body was engulfed in a bright, pink light. When it dissipated, before Mars, Luna, and Artimas stood Sailor Moon, the champion of Justice.   
  
Sailor Moon remembered all that Sailor Pluto had told her, about her power. She must use the true power of the Moon instead of power balls masked by Moon energy. Once she does this, she will get the item needed to defeat Beryl and Metallia.   
  
Mars placed her hand on Moon's shoulder with a smile. "Let's do this!"  
  
Moon nodded as she turned to face the direction in which she came, the direction which she would be going back. "Agreed." She looked over her shoulder down to Luna and Artimas. "You two should stay here so my dad thinks someone's with me, otherwise he might get suspicious."  
  
Artimas nodded. "Good luck."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury were testing their luck with Raditz. They seemed to be holding up quite well without their two missing partners, but Raditz wasn't falling easily. Their regular Ki attacks didn't seem to have too much effect on him except to slow him down. His attacks, however, did immense amount of damage to anyone or anything they hit.  
  
Venus threw yet another Ki attack down to Raditz. Raditz, who had detected the attack long before it made contact, jumped out of the way, only to find his neck being smashed in by Mercury's leg. "Why you..." He snarled as he reached for Mercury, who quickly retreated.   
  
Mercury pulled out her computer to check the damage level of Raditz, which was almost nothing. "Are attacks aren't doing very much damage."   
  
Jupiter didn't take the news as badly as Venus had. In fact, she rather liked hearing that Raditz was taking almost no damage from their attacks, it meant only one thing. "Let's do it."   
  
Venus looked to Jupiter with a smile. "Special attacks?"  
  
Jupiter nodded. "Yeah."  
  
"Ok. Let's." Venus brought her attention back to Raditz, who seemed to be powering up for another attack. "I'll go first."  
  
Jupiter shook her head. "No. Let me. I want to be the first to get pay back. I want to be the one to deliver the same pain that Miss Haruna felt."  
  
Venus nodded. She fully understood where her friend was coming from. She would have felt the same way if she had been the one to witness the tragedy. "No mercy, Jupiter."  
  
Jupiter nodded, showing her agreeance. She hadn't planed on showing any mercy to such a monster. She readied herself for attack as she glared back at Raditz, who was waiting impatiently for an attack he didn't think would hurt him. The girls had failed to do any damage before, why would now be any different. But what he didn't know was that the girls had truly been awakened as the Senshi of their planets. He would pay dearly for the trouble he and his people had caused.   
  
Jupiter knew not of what would happen when she activated her new attack for a purpose other than training. Would it truly hurt him, or would it just be absorbed into his body much like the rest of the attacks they had thrown at him? There was only one way to find out. Jupiter took a deep breath and decided to commence.   
  
"Supreme Thunder!" She cried out as a small, yet powerful attack emerged from her palms.   
  
Raditz smirked. This attack was nothing new to him. It was the same thing that they had been throwing at him all along. Did they expect that they could just slap on a name to the attack and intimidate him? Feeling confident of his power, he did nothing but stand and wait to be hit.   
  
With contact, the attack of Jupiter exploded, throwing its target to his back. Raditz growled, letting his pain be known. The attack had in fact succeeded in harming him. The Senshi around could feel a sudden decrease in his power.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars stopped short as soon as they felt the decrease in Raditz's power. Sailor Moon turned to her comrade, jaw open wide. "How did Jupiter get so strong?"  
  
Mars grinned with pride. "We've been given new attacks."  
  
Moon smiled wide with a bit of her own pride. If Jupiter's attack was so strong, and able to take that much out of their enemy, then what would her attack do? With her being the strongest Senshi and all.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku neared Raditz, who still lay on the ground. 'Amazing.' He thought to himself. He had never imagined these girls, with their ridiculous outfits, could have such a power enough to fall Raditz to his back. Even with all his power he had been useless.   
  
Jupiter laughed as she high-fived with Mercury. Their attacks were strong enough to take down even Raditz, the strongest of their foes so far. But, would it be able to harm the Queen. It was now apparent to the Senshi that they would have to toss aside regular attacks, and use only their planetary energy when fighting foes such as Raditz, or anyone from the Dark Kingdom for that matter.   
  
Raditz placed his hand over the wound now on his stomach. The armor had been completely pierced, leaving nothing but a puddle of blood on his flesh. Now he knew how the Saiyans had felt when they were bombarded by Frieza's troops. But he couldn't and wouldn't let his pain be known.   
  
He quickly jumped to his feet and faced the laughing Senshi. "You may have had fun that time, little girl, but believe me, I won't be caught off guard again."  
  
Jupiter grinned evilly as she continued to laugh. "Admit it, you weren't caught off guard, you just suck!" She hollered as she stuck her tongue at him. The others laughed harder at the joke.  
  
Raditz was now fuming with anger. Now would be the perfect time to attack, catch them off guard and see how they liked it. Then, while they were on the ground, helpless and crying for help from Goku, he would kill them one by one, and finish his business up with Goku. It would be that easy. He thanked his queen for picking such a time to attack, when the Senshi were young and naïve enough to laugh when they got one hit on their opponent.   
  
But as he waited and watched his slithering attack get nearer and nearer to the girls, he soon realized he was wrong. The Senshi easily dodged the attack as if they had been tracking it all along. 'Damnit! This is all Kakaratto's fault! If he hadn't trained them so well they'd be dead by now!'   
  
With an evil smirk, one much like Vejita used to give before he became a fighter for good instead of evil, he turned to his little brother, who was eagerly anticipating the Senshis' next move. Once again, he fired an attack at Goku, who had too much of a watchful eye on the Senshi to see that his death was flying toward him. Raditz chuckled. He had carefully shot it so it would hit him, full force in the head. Nothing would be sweeter than watching his brother's head be blown off.  
  
Venus stopped her laughter immediately and focused all of her attention of the deadly attack making its way to her friend's father. "Goku!" She futilely cried out. But it was pointless. Goku wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway. He was powerless against Raditz. It would be up to her or one of the other Senshi to stop the attack before it made contact.   
  
Acting purely on instinct, she held her out hand. "Crescent Beam!" A bright orange beam of light shot from her hand and into the Dark Energy, immediately diminishing it into nothing. "Mercury!"   
  
Mercury nodded as she shot a scowl in the direction of Raditz. He would have to be stopped before he tried anything else. "Shabon Spray!" She yelled out.   
  
Raditz was immediately engulfed by Mercury's watery attack. "WHAT'S GOING ON?!" How could this have been happening? He was supposed to be an all powerful being, against everyone, even the Senshi. And here he was being dominated by them. He couldn't even kill his own brother without them interfering.   
  
Goku pulled away from the fight even further. He looked down to his side only to notice Jupiter standing next to him. She looked up at him with curious eyes. "Are you alright, sir?"  
  
Goku nodded. He couldn't believe that he had just almost died. Damn that undetectable energy! "I'll be fine. You guys just worry about what you have to do."  
  
Jupiter nodded as she jumped back into the action.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars, who had only arrived, glared down at Raditz as he tried to dodge more attacks that kept coming from their fellow Senshi. They giggled when he got a Venus Beam directly in his butt. Moon, who could barely keep a straight face, turned up to her friend, who stood taller than her due to her heals. "Think we should help them out?"  
  
Mars nodded. "I do."  
  
"Good. I want the last hit though. This is personal. He tried to kill me and my dad and now it's payback time."  
  
Mars found herself nodding once again with a grin. "Be my guest."  
  
The two of them turned back to face Raditz, who was currently retaliating with a few of his own attacks. They did their damage, when they actually made a hit. Mercury had a bad leg injury, but that didn't stop her from making aerial attacks. Venus had been hit in the arm, but it was nothing too serious.   
  
Moon prepared herself for action, but suddenly remembered someone. Tuxedo Kamen. He was nowhere in sight, which meant one thing, he had to be injured, especially since she had not felt his power level to fly away. "Mars, can you go check on Mamoru real quick?"  
  
Mars quirked a brow with confusion. "Come again..."  
  
Moon giggled. "One little detail I left out about the other dimension. Mamoru is Tuxedo Kamen, the guy with the flower."  
  
Mars jumped back in surprise with a quick gasp. "He's WHO? That idiot with the flower is Mamoru!?"   
  
Moon nodded. "Yep! I knew, but I wasn't supposed to tell anyone." She said as she lowered her head as if she were being reprimanded.  
  
Mars grinned. "That's ok, he knows who we are too."  
  
Moon sighed. "Not even a week's gone by and he already knows. But it doesn't really matter." She trailed off into silence as she remembered the other dimension, how she was meant to marry him and have a child with him. She was determined that that would NEVER happen, nor would any of her friends be allowed to know. She knew they would laugh at her for days if they found out.  
  
"Oh, it matters alright! Do you know what's going to happen if he tells everyone about who the Senshi really are? Why doesn't it matter?! Answer me!" Mars asked with much curiosity. More juicy details of their hopeful future.  
  
Moon impishly smiled. She knew he wouldn't ever tell a soul about their identity. For some reason, even unknown to herself, she trusted that he would keep their secret. That's why he had even chosen to be Tuxedo Kamen in this dimension. "Believe me. It doesn't matter." She giggled as she jumped down to the ground, leaving Mars to look for Mamoru.   
  
~*~*~  
  
"Hey you!" Moon yelled from behind Raditz, who was once again on the ground due to an attack from Jupiter.   
  
Mercury looked down at the ground from the air with a wide smile. "Glad you could make it Sailor Moon."  
  
Moon temporarily ignored her friend in blue and stared down into the eyes of her uncle from above. Now it was her turn to deal out the pain. Her father and Piccolo had once defeated Raditz, and now it was her turn to do it once and for all. He would never come back after she was through with him.   
  
Goku's eyes widened with even more fascination. He hadn't expected anymore to show up, not that they weren't needed, but the original three seemed to have everything under control. From what he could tell, these girls were amazing, with power he never could have imagined existed. Whoever taught them how to fight must have been one grand fighter. They had wonderful fighting skills, were quick on their feet and in the air, and always seemed to be aware of where their enemy was at all times as well as his attacks. But he did wonder how well they did against more than one opponent at a time. He wished Usagi had been able to see this spectacular fight with him.  
  
Moon picked up Raditz, who was almost unable to move at all after the beating he had just received. "I am Sailor Moon!" She yelled, almost with pure hate. She pulled a fist back and quickly released it into his stomach. No mercy would be dealt with him, not after everything he had done to his victims in the past two days.  
  
She watched Raditz fall back to the ground. "I fight for Love and Justice! Two things you have none of! We are the Sailor Senshi and we Will Punish You!"   
  
Venus smiled as she began taunting Raditz. "You've messed with the wrong group of people! Once you mess with the Moon Kingdom, your days are done. Now you've upset Sailor Moon and now, you'll pay."  
  
Raditz growled as he pushed himself back up. He wouldn't just stand around and let this insolent children defeat him. He had Dark energy running throughout his body. It was supposed to be superior to that of any Sailor Senshi. "No more Mercy for you kids. Now that Moon is here, I'll be showing you my true power!"  
  
Mercury dropped herself until she was barely hovering over the ground.   
  
Sailor Moon crossed her arms across her chest and yawned. "I'm not in a very good mood right now, you know. I've had a hard week with you punks showing up and all. I'm not holding back either, that would be useless."  
  
Raditz smirked as he dropped his hands to his left side and pressed his palms together. "That's fine with me brat. You use your energy and I'll suck it in and take it to my queen. Then you'll see what happens when YOU mess with the Dark Kingdom." He stuck out his hands, ready to absorb the energy.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mars found Tuxedo Kamen leaning against the railing of a nearby building where he had fallen unconscious. She couldn't help but laugh her heart out. "That costume is so ridiculous. Mamoru, buddy, you can never laugh at us again!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Moon reached for her tiara. She was somewhat uneasy about using her attack. Not only because she hadn't used it before, but because of what would happen when she did. She remembered Pluto's words, how it would awaken yet another great power when she used it. Then, she would become the True Senshi of the Moon, the True Moon Princess.   
  
She gulped nervously as she as she pulled it out in front of her in order to throw it like a Frisbee. "Moon Tiara..." She paused. The tiara had begun glowing the same intensity of silver that the moon had only a few nights before. 'wow' She thought to herself. Little did she know that this silver was the same silver that her hair and tailed turned when she turned Super Saiyan, and little did she know that her father was thinking that exact thing when he saw this.   
  
Sailor Moon looked up to Raditz, who was still prepared to receive his prize. It was time to take him out. She curled up her nose and closed her eyes. "Action!" She three the Tiara as she would a Frisbee. She quickly opened her eyes, unable to wave the aching curiosity of watching the end of her uncle's reign of terror.   
  
Mars watched from above in complete awe.  
  
The tiara spun so rapidly that it looked like a pure attack of energy. Small sparks flew to the sides as it flew closer and closer to its target. Raditz braced himself for impact, but it was useless. No matter what he would have done, it wouldn't have worked. Sailor Moon's tiara of pure moon energy slashed directly through his hands. As it passed through his stomach, all traces of dark energy were quickly replaced with the piercing goodness of Moon energy. In short, the energy worked like acid inside his body. Almost as soon as it was in, it was out, but it took an unexpected turn. Instead of returning to its owner, it flew up into the sky, which was already beginning to darken.   
  
Sailor Moon found this rather peculiar, but soon found herself watching her uncle once again. Raditz's body was completely ridden of Dark Energy, which was the only thing that was keeping him alive in the first place. He held his hands in front of his face and looked at them in fear. Had he really been defeated by a mere rugrat? How could this have happened. His revenge had been planned out so well, and here he was, defeated by his own niece. It was all Kakaratto's fault! If hadn't bred such strong brats then none of this would have happened. "Damnit all!" He screamed out at the top of his lung as he fell face first onto the asphalt.   
  
Goku slowly made his way to his brother with a grim expression deep in his eyes. "I'm sorry it had to happen this way, Raditz."  
  
Sailor Moon looked up to her father with curious eyes. "Why? Didn't he try to kill you? He already killed so many people!"   
  
Jupiter nodded as she remembered the face of all those poor children and Miss Haruna. "Yeah! He deserved to die!"   
  
Venus agreed. "Yeah!"   
  
Goku shook his head as he looked around at the faces of the girls. They looked so familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on where he had seen them from. The power disguise was working well. "No one deserves to die. He was raised by Frieza, and knew nothing but killing. I don't know how he got into this crowd, but I bet if he knew anything other than killing, he would have been a good man."  
  
Sailor Moon lowered her head with a sigh. "I guess, but there was no way to change him. He was a threat. We had to get rid of him."  
  
Goku nodded. "Yeah." His face brightened up with a smile. "Yeah. You guys were great out there! I can't believe you were so good! I never thought you would have been!" His attention was caught by the girl in red carrying the man who had saved him from running into his death. They were flying down to him.   
  
Mercury dropped to the ground completely, keeping her hurt leg up. "At least Raditz is out of commission. Now all we have to worry about his Beryl."  
  
Goku gasped with widened eyes. "What?! There's more?! This isn't over yet?!"  
  
Moon shook her head. "No. But we're working on it."  
  
Goku smiled. "Is there anything I can do to help? I love a good fight every now and then and the earth's been quiet lately, no one strong to fight anymore."  
  
Mercury sighed. "I wouldn't suggest it. These people are way out of anyone's league here on earth. You more than anyone should know that. You were powerless against him."  
  
Goku dropped his head, his pride crushed. "... Where did you guys come from? When did you get here? Who are these people who are attacking?"  
  
The girls all exchanged looks of concern. They weren't sure how to answer those questions, let alone if they were allowed to. Moon took the liberty of trying to answer. After all, it was her father and she knew how to deal with him best. "Well, you see, we are Sailor Senshi. We fight for people who can't fight for themselves, or in your case, people who can't penetrate their Dark Energy. We've been fighting the Dark Kingdom for right around a thousand years already."  
  
"What?! A thousand years!?"  
  
Venus nodded, taking the place of Moon. "Yep. A pretty long time if I do say so myself. Anyway, as Sailor Moon was saying, I guess we've always been here, in this galaxy. We are the guardians of the Moon Princess Serenity. Our kingdom was destroyed and we've kind of been hanging around here. Now that the Dark Kingdom has attacked, I guess it's our job to destroy it again. Only Celestial energy penetrates it because it's pure energy of love... I guess."  
  
"Well," Goku said cheerfully, "Whatever works. And as long as you're on our side."  
  
Mars furiously nodded. "Of course we're on your side!"   
  
Goku paused and waited as he looked up into the night sky. "It sure got dark fast... right after you used that Tiara attack." He said, looking down at Sailor Moon.  
  
Sailor Moon didn't have a clue as to what she should say. She hadn't expected that to happen. All she knew was that her attack would activate something special, not that it would turn day into night before night was meant to happen. She said nothing and looked up. The Moon was becoming visible from behind a group of clouds. "The moon..."  
  
Goku groaned as he too looked up and noticed the Moon peaking out. The first thing he thought of was the night Usagi had been abducted. The first night this crap began to happen. "Is Usagi safe?" He turned to Mars for an answer.  
  
Mars nodded as she continued to hold Tuxedo Kamen. "Yes, she is. I can go get her if you like."  
  
Goku nodded. "Thank you."  
  
Mars gently placed Tuxedo Kamen on the ground next to Goku and motioned for Moon to follow. "We'll be right back."  
  
The two Senshi left, leaving a curious group of four staring down at Mamoru. Venus giggled as she poked at his arm. "What a bozo!" 


	123. Part 25

As soon as Usagi had arrived home that night with her father she went straight to her room for some serious thinking. As far as her parents were concerned, they figured she was tired and wanted to take a nap, which was good on her part since they wouldn't be disturbing her. Usagi wasn't concerned at all with Raditz anymore, in fact, she had completely forgotten about their encounter with him.   
  
The only thing she could think about now was the Moon. Why had it shown up all of a sudden. There shouldn't have been another full Moon for at least a month. Could it have to do with her attack on Raditz? It had to be, it was the only explanation. What else could it have been? Pluto had specifically said that something would happen concerning the Moon and a special person once she activated the full power of the Moon Senshi. Now all she had to worry about was what was going to happen to her friends and herself.  
  
She glared into the glimmering light of the Moon as her mind quickly flashed back to the face of her uncle as he was falling to the ground. All expression had vacated the man's face, which normally nurtured that of hatred. Only for a split second had she felt the slightest bit sorry for him, but she quickly reminded herself of his evil deeds, causing any guilt to vanish.   
  
She blinked twice as she rose to her feet and walked to the window. Why had it become dark so soon, she wondered. It was only the afternoon when Raditz had arrived and the fight couldn't have lasted longer than an hour and a half. Yes, her attack had somehow triggered the Moon to arrive, but darkness, no. She wondered who was up there, awaiting her. Maybe it was no one, or maybe...  
  
"What am I supposed to do now?!" She said allowed, almost loud enough for her parents to hear outside. She quickly covered her mouth, hoping they hadn't heard her. Knowing her mother she would come tramping in, in a fit over what had happened going on and on about how it wasn't normal for Usagi to be around so much violence after a 'traumatic experience', in Chi-Chi's words. That had been precisely what had happened when she first arrived home. Goku explained to her what happened and Chi-Chi immediately went into another motherly rage. But Usagi hadn't been in the mood for listening to her mother babble on about something she wasn't even upset over. That was when she had vacated to her room and now, as she sat there with her hands over her mouth, she wished it wouldn't happen again.   
  
Usagi slowly reached out and opened her window. She poked her head out to get a better look at the magnificent pearl that sat high in the sky. She could still hear the Television from outside her door which was apparently turned to the news since all that could be heard was a news anchor speaking of the day's strange events and latest attacks.   
  
Usagi squinted her eyes and blocked out any and all sound. She focused completely on the Moon. It seemed to be calling her, mesmerizing her. Her mouth dropped wide as she leaned out further yet as if she were trying to get closer. She covered her eyes with her hand as the Moon began to shine brighter with every second that passed. "It's so beautiful!" Her body was soon engulfed within the bright light of the Silvery White Moon.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sitting outside the room were Goku and Chi-Chi, unknowing of what was going on behind their daughter's door. They had failed to see the light, for it was only visible to Usagi and one other. They were completely oblivious.  
  
~*~*~  
  
As the light became brighter Usagi had closed her eyes, but now she detected no light except that of a dim aura. She slowly opened her eyes, not knowing what to expect to see. And what she did she, she surely didn't expect to see. "Where am I?" She asked as she turned around in full circle to view her new surroundings.   
  
She stood in the middle of what looked like a battlefield; ruins dating back at least a thousand years. Her mouth formed an 'O' as her eyes glittered with curiosity. Although everything lay in ruins, it was still quite breathtaking. Everything held its own Silver Aura. To the North atop a hill she could see a big white building. It seemed to be a palace, one that was terribly shattered. But on the top a large Crescent Moon resided. "No way..."  
  
She placed one hand on her waist in disbelief, only to feel something other than the cloths she had been wearing moments ago. It had a much more silky texture to it. "Huh?" She questioned her own judgment of sense as she dropped her head down. "WOW!" It wasn't her sense of feeling that was different, it was her entire outfit. Not only had she had a complete change of scenery, but cloths as well. Now she stood in a beautiful, white gown; one fit for a Princess. She remembered Eternal Sailor Moon from the other Dimension with the Crescent Moon on her forehead and slowly reached for her own. She gasped when she felt it. A small area of her skin was differently textured on her forehead in the shape of a Crescent Moon. "Am I on the Moon...?"  
  
"Whatever it is, it sure ain't any place I'd want to live." A tall figure walked in the shadows; his cape waving behind.   
  
Usagi gasped at the voice which trailed from behind. "Who's there?" She demanded with a shaky voice.  
  
The figure slowly emerged from his shadowy hiding place and smiled warmly upon the girl. "Ain't that always like Princesses? So pushy and demanding."  
  
Usagi quickly turned around, her heart beating hard and fast beneath her chest. That voice sounded awfully familiar, but it was too humble to be who she thought it was. But she was most surprised. In fact it had been who she was thinking it was. "Mamoru! How did you... Why..." She cried out.  
  
Mamoru shrugged his shoulders. He hadn't known anymore than she had. All he remembered was looking up into the Moon and then being taken over by a white light. He too was dressed differently than she remembered him. Last she had seen him, he was wearing that ridiculous Tuxedo outfit. But now, he looked much more sophisticated, more caring and compassionate. He wore his Prince's outfit with armor, cape, and all. Usagi couldn't help but think he was rather handsome. She quickly bobbed her head to the side and blushed. How could she have thought something like that? Mamoru of all people... HANDSOME! What was wrong with her! She hated him! He was her sworn rival... wasn't he? Besides, it was all the outfit, he was the same pestering Mamoru she had always known.  
  
Mamoru looked down at Usagi in her gown. She looked different now, less like a scrawny little child, but more of a composed young lady. Although her height still wasn't cutting it. "What's the matter Odango? You look a little tongue tied over there. Would you like me to help?"  
  
Usagi growled as she pushed him away. "Get away from me!"   
  
Mamoru grinned. "Alright, alright. A man can take a hint." He chuckled as he looked up and around. "This place sure is a desolate place to be taken, don't you think?"   
  
Usagi grabbed her arms and shivered. "How did you know I was a Princess?"  
  
Mamoru paused as he looked up at what used to be the Palace, which once held the Queen and her daughter. "I overheard that you, Sailor Moon was the Princess of the Moon Kingdom."  
  
Usagi would give him that. It wasn't a shock to her that he knew who she was since Rei had told her of his knowledge earlier in the day. "Don't think I don't know who you are too, PRINCE Mamoru."  
  
Mamoru's eyes bugged out at hearing that. "WHAT!?" He screamed at the top of his lungs. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" He lashed out at Usagi, who quickly backed away with a sneer. "I'M A WHAT!?"  
  
Usagi smiled as she looked up into Mamoru's black eyes. Although his voice seemed to tell a story of anger, his eyes told a story of peace and contentment. "You, my dear man, are a Prince. The Prince of Earth, to be exact."  
  
Mamoru grabbed Usagi by the arms and pulled her closer to him. He glared down into her fearless eyes. She knew he wouldn't try anything stupid. "And how did you come across this?"  
  
Usagi pulled away from Mamoru and frowned as she brushed dust off her gown. "I found out in the other dimension. I also know that you're Tuxedo Kamen."  
  
Mamoru rubbed his temples as he lowered himself to sit on the ground. He wasn't at all concerned with his identity as Tuxedo Kamen being blown. But, to be a Prince, the Prince of Earth. How could this be? He wasn't a Prince! He couldn't be a Prince. "There has to be a mistake, Odango. I'm not a Prince."  
  
Usagi sighed as she sat next to him and placed her hand on his knee. "I know it's hard, believe me, I know. I don't really want to be a Princess either, but you have to deal sometimes. You of all people should know you've gotta do things sometimes that you don't want to do. Look at who your dad is and look at who my mom is. We both know. This is just like last year when your dad made you train under me and my friends."  
  
Mamoru lifted his hand and slapped Usagi across the face. "Get away from me, brat!"   
  
Usagi, who was now on the ground, raised her hand to her face where she had been ruthlessly slapped for an unknown reason. The skin burned with pain, and under other circumstances, she would have probably cried, but not this time. She would have to be strong. She would have to walk Mamoru through this, as well as herself. She too wished not to be of royalty. "Mamoru..."  
  
"I'm not a Prince. I refuse!" He sneered.   
  
Usagi got back up and sat next to him again. "You also know more than anyone that all I've ever wanted was to be a normal kid. But I've never gotten it. This stupid tail and my stupid fighting skills have always separated me from being normal. Being the Princess has made it even worse on my emotions..."  
  
"Shut up will ya!? God! I don't want to hear about your damn problems all the time! I have my own, you know! I'm not as perfect as you think I am! Why don't you just get outta here!" He ripped away from Usagi and stood to his feet. "Don't know why you dumb brats think I'm your friend anyway. I never was! I never have been! AND I NEVER WILL BE!" He froze in place as his words sunk into his own reality. How could he have said that to her? Here she was trying to help him and he had to go off and say things to hurt her even more. "Look... Odango... I'm..." He turned around to see the tear-filled face of Usagi.   
  
"I thought you changed but you haven't!" She quickly got up and scampered off into the darkness.   
  
Mamoru once again reached for his temples and dropped back to the ground. What WAS his problem anyway? He had been doing a lot of thinking in the past few days about his life and had come to the conclusion that he hadn't led a very good one. He had put Usagi through so much torture in the past six years that it was unreal. The people he hung out with were bad news. How could someone like him be a Prince? He wasn't a good person at all, he wasn't Prince Material. It had to be a mistake, someone else had to be the Prince. He wasn't the right man for the job. "DAMNIT!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi wandered aimlessly among the rubble, not caring where she went. With tears in her eyes, the only thing she wanted to do was get away from Mamoru. If what he wanted was to be kept away from her then that's what he would get. She would NEVER marry him now, not even if her life depended on it. He was just completely unmarriable. All she had wanted to do was talk about their fear of being royalty and he had to snap at her. He had to bring back all the horrible memories of her past with EVERYONE. From her first encounter with Haruka to her horrible first day in Kindergarten with her classmates.   
  
She stopped running and rested her hands on her knees as she panted. She was far enough away from Mamoru to be satisfied. He wouldn't be able to find her anytime soon, not that she would stay to listen to him anymore. She had had enough of his annoying habits of taking all his problems out on her.   
  
Usagi continued to cry softly to herself until she noticed a soft light growing brighter and brighter. It was accompanied by an aura so big and powerful, yet so sweet, that she wanted to cry even harder with it. "Why must you cry, little one?"  
  
Usagi stood tall as she looked up and around. In the near distance she could see the figure of a tall, slender woman. "Are you the one...?"  
  
The woman walked closer to Usagi, her eyes full of cheer. "My daughter, I have awaited this day for a thousand years." The woman's voice sounded almost as sweet as a soothing song.  
  
Usagi dropped her jaw as the lady came closer. This couldn't be who she thought it was, could it? "Queen Serenity?" The angel nodded with a warm and caring smile. Mother and Daughter, finally reunited after a thousand years. Mamoru hid behind the rubble of a fallen building and watched the two, who looked so alike it was scary. The tall one had a set of Odangos just like Usagi's. Maybe she was the Queen, he had thought to himself.   
  
The Angel crept closer to the Princess with forever loving eyes. "I am Queen Serenity, and you are my daughter, Princess Serenity."  
  
Usagi's gut fell to the pit of her stomach as her legs became weak. This had been who Pluto spoke of. "I...I...I..."  
  
The Queen softly giggled as she placed her hand upon the child's shoulder. "There is no need to be frightened, my daughter. I shall not harm you."  
  
Usagi gulped as she nodded. "I've just never been in the presence of someone so special before, that's all." She lowered her head in embarrassment. "I'm terribly sorry."  
  
"Serenity, you must not think of me as a stranger for you are my daughter and I love you very much. You have grown so big over the past eleven years, but it has been a millennium since I have seen you last. I have watched you over the years, your laughter, your triumphs, your doubts... your heartaches... everything."  
  
Usagi raised her head to look into the Queen's eyes. "You have kept me safe?"  
  
Serenity nodded. "Yes. When you needed it, I shared my remaining power with your body to awaken the power inside you, but only for a moment. I'm sure you remember."  
  
Usagi nodded. She indeed remembered the incident from the year before when Mamoru had nearly killed her. The Moon power inside her body had somehow awakened inside her to move her out of the way. But as a result, her arm had been chopped off. "May I ask you a question?"  
  
Serenity giggled, making Usagi feel even more uneasy. "Such an inquisitive child. I remember the times we spent together when you were only a little girl, you would always ask me questions about this and that, as if you needed to know how Everything worked in the world."  
  
Usagi took this as a yes. "What happened to the Moon Kingdom, exactly? Why was I made to be born to my current mom and dad so far into the future."  
  
Serenity looked down to her young child. She had hoped this question would be saved for later, but she did owe it to the child to tell her. "If you wish to hear the story now, I will tell it." She grinned as she looked over her shoulder, "You, Endiymon, may come out as well, if you wish."  
  
Mamoru's head popped up from the rubble. He figured that was him since he was the only one around. His face was red with embarrassment. "Yes Ma'am."   
  
Usagi looked up at the Queen and awaited the story. Queen Serenity waited until Mamoru was beside Usagi to begin her story, but seeing the two together nearly brought tears in her eyes. "Two children of fate, one destiny."  
  
Mamoru immediately became confused. "Huh?"  
  
Usagi knew perfectly well what she was talking about, but wasn't about to mention it to the bonehead. Serenity nodded to let the kids know she would be starting. "A Thousand years ago, the Silver Millennium was the center of this Universe. We were known and loved by all. But there was one foul group who seemed to hate us. They were known as the Dark Kingdom and came from the Dark side of the Moon itself. How they were jealous of our power and how everyone loved us. At this time, I was the current ruler of the Kingdom, and I was raising my daughter to take my place when she grew old enough. We each had our own court, our protectors, you may say. They were Princesses of all the Planets around, all but Earth, Uranus, Pluto, and Saturn that is.   
  
"My daughter was just about to turn sixteen and was already in love with her true Prince. Day after day she cared to do nothing but stare at the Blue planet which held her Prince. She would occasionally escape down to the planet to see her Prince. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, the Prince was invited to the Moon for a big celebration. Everything was wonderful for my daughter and her guests until an unexpected guest showed up. The Senshi were immediately dispatched to fight our enemies, I held off as many as I could while the Prince of the Earth took my Daughter away from the chaos. But it was no use. They were attacked by Beryl herself. Endiymon drew his sword, the Princess begged him not to go. He promised her he would be ok and she reluctantly allowed him to go. So there she stood as she watched him jump to his death.   
  
"The Pain was just too much for my daughter. She couldn't live without her Prince so she too threw herself to her own death. By the time I had arrived both of them were lying on the floor next to each other. I screamed with tears in my eyes, but I knew there was still hope. I knew that this was meant to happen. I quickly got out of there, only to watch the last of the Senshi be killed. They were no match against the Dark Kingdom. Everyone had died. My palace was completely destroyed as well as all the surroundings. No one was left but myself and the two cats you have met, Luna and Artimas. That's when I knew what I had to do. I would sacrifice my own life for you, my daughter." She paused as she looked down to her daughter, who was once again shedding tears.   
  
"Luna and Artimas begged me not to do it, but I was powerless against Beryl and her Minions. I already knew where I wanted you seven so I worked fast. I sealed Beryl and her Generals into the Moon Crystal as well as you and your court, along with your Prince. I used almost all of my energy to send you into the future. Luna and Artimas then proceeded to put themselves into pods where they were have been frozen in time for the past millennium, waiting for you to waken as a Senshi. Upon doing so, I have become one with the Moon, only able to 'live' when the Moon is full. That is why I needed you to use your attack as Sailor Moon. When you used it, it flew straight here so and fed the Moon its energy, causing it to become full before time. Usually it takes a month to gather this much power. I was trying to take you three days ago, but Beryl got in the way of that. I am so happy to see you, daughter."   
  
Usagi smiled with tears in her eyes while Mamoru was ready to throw up. After hearing a story like that who wouldn't? Who would have ever thought that he of all people would try to save Usagi? Let alone be her Prince Charming. That's something that would NEVER happen in this time.   
  
"I can't believe that's how we were finished off. I'm very grateful for you sending us her and letting us be reborn, but something still bothers me. How come I'm a Son in this dimension, and the other Usagi is a Tsukino?"   
  
Serenity smiled warmly at her daughter. She had been waiting for this explanation for years. Even she wasn't sure how it happened. "Well, it all has to do with the workings of time, and that means Pluto was involved."  
  
Mamoru looked up to Serenity. "What? There's more Senshi?"  
  
Usagi frowned. "Be quiet, I wanna here this."  
  
Serenity continued. "The eve before your big party I was approached by Sailor Pluto, my most trusted advisor. But it wasn't MY Pluto. She seemed to be coming from the WAY distant future, maybe to the end of time. She told me that the next night would hold horrible events, that I would know them when I saw them and I would have to take drastic measures in the safety of the future. She informed me that I would have to send you and your court into the future because an attack would ensue. But, she didn't tell me by who or when exactly, just that it was the next night. She told me that danger would follow my daughter everywhere she went in her next life. She also told me that she would overcome it, until one time when she would fail to protect her loved ones. That, she said, would be the end. This is why I believe this Pluto was from the end of time. She told me of a way to reverse this. She told me of a man, a man named Son Goku who was both strong and caring. She told me that he and his wife Chi-Chi would raise the Princess and train her to be strong if I made her born to them. She told me that if I did this, the Universe would be saved. I of course believed her since she was a Senshi, and the Time Senshi at that. But there was a problem, she said. Goku was meant to die ten years after his first child would be born. She told me of two other candidates, but after hearing what kind of world you would be living in it decided against it.   
  
"That night, in one last hope, Pluto allowed a seventeen year old boy by the name of Trunks travel back in time to save Son Goku from this heart Virus. After this, the future was changed and Pluto was certain that Goku would be alive to father you. I knew he was the one, after hearing of all the times he would save the Earth from destruction, with his pure heart and strength and his level headed wife you would be raised as a normal, healthy child unknowing of her destiny until the time came.  
  
"But, in order to do this, I needed permission from the mother. After all, your parents were already nearing sixty when you were born, but thanks to those Dragon Balls, your parents had already wished for your mother to age as slow as Saiyans, which meant your mother stopped aging around the age of thirty five. Before I had sent you into the future, but after everything had been destroyed, I went to Chi-Chi at night. I asked her, I pleaded with her to allow you to be born to her. I told her of what had happened to us and our home. I told her of your destiny, how you would one day rise up to lead the world, the Universe how I once did. She agreed almost right off, as if she had wanted another child anyway, which I think she did. Once Pluto returned me to the past I sent you all to the future where you would be born. But, you weren't just going to be born off of my genes and your mother's, you needed your father's as well."  
  
Usagi giggled. She knew more than well where this was going. "And that's when mom and dad had adult time, right?"  
  
Serenity. "If that's what you kids are calling it these days, yes."  
  
Usagi stuck her tongue out. "Eeew!"   
  
Serenity giggled. "Nearly Nine months and some odd weeks later, you were born to the proud parents of Son Goku and Chi-Chi forever to be known as their daughter, Son Usagi. You truly are your parents' daughter, along with my genes. I never expected that you would become so strong, I know you have to power to beat Metallia and Beryl."  
  
"Will mom ever remember about your little meeting?"  
  
Serenity shook her head. "No. Never. Not even if you tell her about it. However, we have met since then. Do you remember when you got those earrings from the Chi-Chi in the past?"   
  
Usagi nodded. She reached for the earrings. "Yes. I got them when she came in the help us in the Room of Spirit and Time."  
  
"She got those after a meeting with me and your own mother. I left them behind for her to take to you. They were yours when you were a little girl, and I wanted you to have them again. I found them amongst the rubble of your room in the palace."  
  
Usagi sighed as she looked up into the solemn eyes of the Queen. She had been through so much in the past, and now to see her daughter in the hands of completely new parents must have been even harder on her. "Thank you." She paused as she looked at Mamoru. "Why did you bring them here, though?"  
  
"I needed to talk some sense into them. Both of them wanted you to stop fighting, but I knew you had to continue. Cell was part of the Dark Kingdom and would surely awaken your power to fight."  
  
Usagi nodded as she continued to look at Mamoru. Something had been bugging her that entire time. "Do we have to get married?"  
  
Mamoru jumped two feet into the air with a gasp. "WHAT? MARRIED?!"   
  
Serenity looked shocked as she watched the youngsters. "You don't want to?"  
  
Mamoru grabbed Usagi by the scruff of her neck and pulled her so they were face to face. "Excuse me?! You want to get married all of a sudden!?"  
  
Usagi pulled away from the boy with a frown. "No way! I detest you! Why would I want to get married?! Are you insane?"  
  
Mamoru frowned. "I was just about to ask you the same question."  
  
"Serenity, Serenity..." The Queen calmly sang as she pulled her daughter aside by the shoulder. "I thought it was your wish to marry this Prince."  
  
Usagi sighed. "Haven't you been taking notes on my life? Mamoru is HORRIBLE! He's always making fun of me, he's tried to kill me on so many different accounts that it's not even funny. There's no way I'd ever get married to him."  
  
Mamoru crossed his arms and scowled even harder. "You aren't so perfect yourself."   
  
This was a new revelation to Serenity. Never in her life had she expected that her daughter would not want to marry her one and only Prince. Of course, Mamoru HAD been mean to her all her life. "If it's what you wish you don't have to marry him. I don't want you to be unhappy."  
  
Usagi smirked. "Good, then I won't."  
  
Mamoru nodded as he crossed his arms and turned away. "Fine by me!"   
  
Serenity sighed. Kids these days were always so full of surprises. "You two can figure out your feelings about one another later. Right now we must talk of defeating Beryl before it becomes too late."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Right...But how?"  
  
The area above Serenity's heart began glowing as she closed her eyes. A startled Usagi gasped as her attention was brought down to her own heart, which was glowing along with the Queen's. A warm feeling of tranquility over took her body as a loving warmth filled her heart. She couldn't help but smile at this new and wonderful feeling.   
  
Serenity smiled at her daughter. "By the looks of that smile I'd say you feel it?"  
  
Usagi nodded as she looked up to the Queen, her body was now completely relaxed. She felt like she could be in heaven. "Is this the Moon Energy?"  
  
"Indeed it is, child. It is embedded deep within your soul. One could say it is your soul for you and it are connected to your roots of life. That light is the power of your heart, pure energy made from peace and love. With this, you can defeat even the toughest of foes." Serenity began making the motion of pulling something from her chest. As she stared down at her daughter, she could see a sly smile forming. "But you must be aware of the dangers involved with such a power, for, once you begin to use it, your own life energy begins to deteriorate. It is the Crystal's only demand. To use it means to give your very life."  
  
All trace of a smile faded away from Usagi's face as her eyes turned dark and grim. Mamoru studied her face for a moment and then Serenity's. Neither of them said a word, they just stared into each other's eyes. Mamoru couldn't take the silence. What was Usagi thinking? She had to be scared, she was always scared, it was her nature to be scared. It was also in her nature to whine like a brat with news like this, what was the deal? "Odango?"  
  
Usagi forced back the tears as she continued to look up with her hand over her chest. To protect her friends and loved ones she would have to give her own life, much like her mother had a thousand years before. She took one look at the antsy Mamoru and thought of everyone on earth. They were helpless against Beryl, the only people who could fight her were the Senshi, but they would just end up dying again like in the past.   
  
With tears forming in her eyes, she looked back up to the Queen and nodded. "If it is what I must do, then I will."  
  
Mamoru's eyes shot open in an instant as he grabbed his rival by the arms and shook her like a mad dog. "What are you talking about?! You can't die! What am I supposed to tell your family?! That some Queen from the past revealed your reincarnation to you and you decided to die fighting everyone!?"  
  
A slight smile flashed across Usagi's face as she sat there and stared into his eyes. He really was her friend even if he didn't like to show it. But her smile was soon replaced with a frown as she pushed Mamoru away. "You don't understand Mamoru! If I have the power to destroy whatever's attacking I have to! Think about all the people on Earth who will die if I don't! Beryl is probably one strong enemy otherwise I wouldn't be here today!" The tears that had been welling up in her eyes began to drip down her cheeks. "I'm only doing what I think is the right thing to do! I know my dad would do the same thing if he had to and I know yours would to!"   
  
Mamoru growled softly as he backed away from Usagi. He thought about his position in this for a moment and realized he actually wouldn't have given his life for the people of Earth and he definitely didn't see why she was trying to give her life. "I don't get it, Odango. The planet ridicules you for an entire lifetime and you STILL stand up for them."  
  
Usagi wiped away the tears. "It doesn't mean they don't deserve to live."  
  
Serenity smiled with great pride as she placed her hand upon her daughter's shoulder. "You are strong, my daughter. Not only physically, but mentally as well. Where I have failed, you will succeed. Here," She pulled out the remaining sliver her power and held it in the shape of a ball to her daughter. "With the power that I have saved over the years just for this occasion, your power will become even stronger."  
  
Usagi nodded, still with curiosity. "How am I supposed to use it? Like in an attack or something?"  
  
"You have inherited the Silver Crystal, an artifact that only the Queen of the Moon can hold, or in your case, the Princess. It is the very power of the Moon that intertwines itself within the soul of its holder over time. It is only as strong as its holder and you must realize that when all of its energy is gone, you will die with it. If you can, avoid using all its strength. Then, and only then will you recover from using it and will not die. In a time of need, the Queen would call it fourth, much as you call fourth your energy when attempting to create a Ki attack. But, in using the Crystal, you must concentrate harder and focus more on pure energy than anything. As you have found out, the tainted power of a Super Saiyan will only cover it and make it useless."  
  
Usagi nodded to show her understanding as she received the power from the Queen. "Thank you... Mother."  
  
Serenity graciously nodded with a blink. "The fate of the Universe lies in your hands. The Senshi will be powerless against Beryl. Her Dark Energy levels are too high for them to penetrate. That is why you must use the Crystal. Use it wisely."  
  
"I will." 


	124. Part 26

~*~*~*~  
  
Dark Kingdom:  
  
Akii stormed up the hallway to Beryl's room with a vile look of disgust. The news of Raditz's death had spread quickly throughout the Kingdom, and it was her duty to inform Beryl. She couldn't have been happier that her moronic brother had been defeated, but that meant that the child of the Moon was still loose. She was getting closer and closer to retrieving the Crystal while they still had almost no power from her. If she were to attack them they would be defenseless. Beryl would hold up against them, but she would surely be destroyed.   
  
As she walked up the hall she thought back to her days on Earth. Their happiness made her shudder with madness. How could she have been so stupid as to want to escape the Dark Kingdom and live on that jolly planet? But those days were over. She was safely tucked away in the castle where she could contemplate nothing but deeds of evil.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Earth:  
  
Usagi was returned home that night by her mother, the true Queen of the Moon. She returned with a sense of completion, like an empty space in her heart had been filled. And she knew exactly where this feeling had come from. Her heart was filled with the Crystal, which had finally been wakened up. She was finally the True Senshi of the Moon, Son Usagi, Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom. Now it would be up to her to stop the Dark Kingdom and their rule of evil.  
  
They would have to be stopped. There would be no more waiting for them to attack helpless victims. She had the power to stop them. The time was now.   
  
~*~*~  
  
11:00 P.M.  
  
When she returned home that day, she spent the rest of the day thinking of a way to defeat Beryl and only came up with one way.  
  
She was dressed for bed when she walked out of her room, her parents had already put her to bed two hours ago, but that didn't matter right now. With torn emotions, she proceeded to bypass the living room and walk straight into the Kitchen, where she found her mother cleaning up from her father's oversized dinner. She started to choke up with tears and pulled back behind the doorway. Her mother absolutely could NOT see tears in her eyes. If she broke down now, her plan would be revealed.   
  
She quickly wiped away the tears and stepped back into the kitchen where she approached her mother, who had yet to notice her daughter. Usagi tried desperately to hold back the tears as she wrapped her arms around her mother's waist and hugged her as tightly as she could.  
  
Chi-Chi, not knowing her daughter's intentions, smiled and grabbed her arms. "To what do I owe this occasion?" She asked cheerfully.  
  
Usagi closed her eyes and dug her nose deep into her mother's back as if to say she was sorry and get one last scent. "I love you, mom."   
  
Chi-Chi giggled as she unwrapped her daughter's arms and turned around. "What have you done, Usagi?" She asked playfully as she kneeled down to look into Usagi's watery eyes. She gasped with surprise. "What's wrong? Are you ok?"  
  
Usagi nodded, but quickly shook her head. She couldn't do this. Her mother would be devastated. Of course, they could always bring her back with the Dragon Balls, but it was still just too horrible to imagine. Dying at the age of eleven. She remembered that her father once told her that the Dragon Balls could only bring back people who died of an unnatural death. Was using the Crystal natural or unnatural? Maybe they wouldn't be able to bring her back after all. What a horrid though! "Oh Mom!" She cried out. This was all too much for her. Her eyes immediately began to swell in pure agony as she wrapped her arms around Chi-Chi's neck and went in for another hug.   
  
Chi-Chi embraced her daughter, who was sobbing into her shoulder like there was no tomorrow. "...Usagi...honey..." She looked up to the doorway where Goku was no standing with the greatest look of concern.   
  
"I'm sorry mom, I'm sorry....I'm sorry..." She continued to say she was sorry over and over again, which only worried Chi-Chi even further. Even when she had gone into the past she hadn't apologized so much and here she was, apologizing for something neither she nor Goku knew of.   
  
Goku slowly approached the mother-daughter duo and rubbed his hand around Usagi's head, only to cause her to cry harder. "Wanna tell us what's up?" He asked, half cheerfully, half solemnly.   
  
Usagi slowly pulled her face away from her mother's shoulder and turned up to her father. His face was pure white with worry. She tried to hold back any more tears that may have wanted to come out at that moment. She would have to be strong, for her parents' sake. They were part of her cause. It would be up to her to protect them this time. And it would be up to her friends to protect her while she did her job. She didn't know how she was going to break the news to them, but it would have to be done soon or else they may lose their chance.  
  
Usagi gently ripped away from her mother and gave her father a quick hug. If anytime she got scared and wanted to turn away, she would think of him and all the times he had sacrificed his body and his life for the good of the people. She would think of mother for always being there when she needed her, even if she was a pain most of the time, she would always love her. Her mother had never turned from her, even though more often than not she didn't behave. But most of all, she would think of Queen Serenity for giving her life to save her daughter. In doing that, it enabled her to become who she is today.   
  
"Nothing's wrong, I just wanted to let you guys know I love you." Without exchanging anymore words with her parents, Usagi left for her room, which she guessed she would never see again. In her thinking, she would never see her parents again.  
  
Goku looked down to his kneeling wife with confusion. "Chi-Chi? What was that?"  
  
Chi-Chi shrugged. "I don't know, but we better keep an eye on her. She may be more upset about these attacks then we think. I think she thinks it's somehow her fault."  
  
Goku looked over his shoulder and down the hall, where his daughter had previously walked. "I don't know... she's been acting strange for the past two weeks."  
  
Chi-Chi sighed. Men always had to make a big deal when a woman was upset. "Promise me you won't try to talk to her alone, ok? You men always find some way to muddle things up and make situations worse."  
  
"Oh don't worry, I know how you women get when you're upset or angry. I don't even wanna go there."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "And just what's that supposed to mean Son Goku!?"  
  
Goku grinned. "All I'm saying is that you guys get pretty moody and Usagi's reaching that age."  
  
Chi-Chi stood up and three her wet rag at him. "OHHH...YOU MEN ARE ALL THE SAME!"   
  
Goku chuckled as he ran from the room. Although he seemed full of the jollies, inside he knew that something greater was troubling their daughter, but he knew better than to press her on it. His daughter was quite sensitive, and he learned that when she ran crying into her room, it was meant that no men were allowed, not even him. Girls were just funny like that, he thought to himself.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Once Usagi returned to her room she fell, face forward, on her bed. "How could I have been so stupid!?" She screamed into the covers as she punched the bed as hard as she could. "I wasn't supposed to cry!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Dark Kingdom:   
  
Akii knocked on the tall, black double-doors that led into her Queen's room. Her heart pounded deep within her chest as she stood there. Although she was just the messenger, she was sure to get lashed out at by Beryl about her Raditz's death, knowing her temper. That was always the way. Whenever anything went wrong, she was always the one to hear about it. She took a deep breath and entered when Beryl confirmed entry.  
  
She noticed Beryl sitting at a desk while she tinkered with a bottle of sorts that was glowing. 'The Moon energy...'  
  
"What is it?!"  
  
Akii jumped in surprise, but quickly caught her composure. "We have a problem."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Earth:  
  
Taking a deep breath, Usagi took one last look around her room which she had practically grown up in. Her fondest memory was the time she had put her father in make-up with Minako. Looking back on that day made her laugh every time. "It's been fun, but I guess it's time to leave." She sighed and pulled out her broach. "Moon Crystal Power... Make-Up!"   
  
Her room was once again filled with a blinding white light, but not that of the Moon. This time it was the light created by the transformation from Usagi to Sailor Moon. When it diminished, Sailor Moon was left standing in Usagi's spot. Two people to become one, one destiny between the two.   
  
Sailor Moon walked to the window and opened it without another look at her room. It was best not to look back after you said your good-byes, as she had once read in a book. She took another deep breath and jumped out of the window, leaving her home for good.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru rummaged through his closet at his home when he felt the upsurge of power take off away from the Son house. He frowned with concern for he knew exactly what that Saiyan brat was up to. He knew the story, as well as her outlook on the situation. "That kid is actually going for it. She's too damn brave for her own good." A righteous smirk formed across his face as he continued his search. As much as he hated to admit, he was the Prince, and he had a duty to be kept to the Princess, even if he didn't particularly have any real feelings for her. She was still a Princess who would need more help then she could get. But, he would be virtually on his own this time. He couldn't tell his friends for the Senshis' identity would be broken.   
  
He smiled to himself as he pulled out the same Black Gi that he had worn to his and Usagi's fight at the tournament from the year before. "I don't care who it is... I was trained to save the people Earth in time's of need, even if they're bratty Saiyans."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Dark Kingdom:  
  
Beryl jumped from her desk, almost dropping the tube of Moon energy on the hard concrete flooring. "HE WHAT?!" She quickly caught herself and the energy.   
  
Akii flinched, but kept her composure to the best of her ability. "He was defeated."  
  
Beryl dropped her head to the side and grunted with disgust. "I knew the little bastard would fail me one of these days." She looked up with arrogance twinkling in her eyes. "It's up to you."  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
Beryl smirked. "I want you to take those brats out tomorrow. Take your strongest creature if you have to. Just do anything to kill them, except the Moon brat, I want her here alive so I can extract all of that exquisite energy from her body myself. I want to see her cry out in pain."  
  
Akii nervously nodded. She had never expected to have to kill anyone in this venture. "It shall be done." She swiftly clicked her heals together and turned around to leave. She wouldn't fail her Queen as that brash brother of hers had.   
  
Beryl waited until Akii left the room and punched a hole directly through the wall. "Damnit!" She screamed. "Now the brat has killed off ANOTHER of my men! Akii... You better NOT fail me!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Moon first arrived at the house of her best friend, Minako. Not only was she the other leader of the pack, but the two cats were currently housing there as well. She would need to seek advice from Luna, her advisor, not that it would do any good as her mind was already set. After hearing the story of how the Dark Kingdom had destroyed the Moon Kingdom and its warriors, she couldn't refuse. She would have to step up to the challenge and conquer her foes, as well as her fears.  
  
She knocked furiously on Minako's window and hoped that at least the cats would wake up and let her in. She knew it was no use with Minako since she was almost as hard a sleeper as herself, which she had learned from the many sleepovers they had had over the years. "Luna! Artimas! Wake up!"   
  
Inside, the two cats were curled up at the foot of Minako's bed. Artimas' ears twitched back and fourth, which to Sailor Moon, was a very good sign. She continued to knock as hard and as loud as she could as she yelled out for them. "Please! We don't have much time!"  
  
Artimas groggily yawned as he raised his head to the sound. "Huh?" He opened his heavy eyes only to see a white blob hollering from outside the window. "Usagi?"  
  
Sailor Moon smiled and yelled for joy. Finally, she had wakened one of them up. "Artimas! It's me! Open the window!"  
  
Artimas' eyes immediately popped wide open. "Sailor Moon!" Thinking of nothing but an attack, he jumped up to the window seal and unlocked the window. "Luna! LUNA!"   
  
Luna's body went flying into the air with a scream to accompany her. "What?!" With claws out, she landed directly atop Minako's stomach, which caused yet another loud shrill to echo around the room.  
  
Sailor Moon quickly climbed through the window and grabbed Minako by the arm. "Get up! We have to go!"  
  
"What's going on?" Minako took one look at her friend and realize exactly what was going on by her appearance. "Oh no! It's another attack and I'm sleeping right through it! Why didn't anyone wake me up earlier!?" She quickly swung her legs over the side of the bed and joined her friend on the floor. "Where is he!? Let me at it!"  
  
Sailor Moon giggled. "It's not an attack on us. We're attacking it!"   
  
Minako calmed down from her hysteria and plopped back down on the bed with a frown. "You mean you woke me up for THAT?!" She yawned and laid back down. "We can't go to the Dark Kingdom, we don't even know how to get there."  
  
Luna; "She's right Sailor Moon."  
  
Moon giggled as she yanked Minako out of bed again. "I have a plan. I think I know someone who can take us there."  
  
Minako reluctantly pulled herself back up. "But Usagi... it's too late! And I'm tired! I just wanna go back to sleep!"  
  
Moon looked at the clock and noticed that it was nearly midnight already. "We can't waste any time. Gather the others and tell them to meet me at the tree house in about an hour, alright? Tell them to come as Sailor Senshi. I have someone I want to talk to."  
  
Minako nodded with hesitation, weary of what her friend had planned for this. "Ok. I guess I can go BARDGING into other people's houses in the middle of the night just so we can track down some enemy who wants to destroy the world DURING THE DAY."  
  
Moon smiled, knowing full well that this was sarcasm. "Thanks Minako, you're the best." With that, she raised her fingers to her forehead and teleported directly to Sanctuary.  
  
Minako looked to the cats with the yawn. How did she always let herself get talked into these things? It seemed like every day that passed Usagi got more and more willing to kick some butt, and in this case, she didn't particularly like it.   
  
Artimas joined in with the yawning as he curled up into a tight little ball. "Was she always this crazy, or was this a recent development."  
  
Minako shrugged with a giggle as she stood up. "Guess we better round up the others."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Moon found herself standing on the top deck of sanctuary staring aimlessly into the sky. Was she up there? Was she around? Was she able to hear here? Was she able to answer? Would she be able to fulfill her request? There was only one way to find out. She cupped her hands around her mouth and began the second phase of her plan. "Sailor Pluto? Are you there? It's me! Usagi! I need your help!" She squinted her eyes almost to being closed as she stared up, hoping to see a sign that she was being heard and answered. But nothing happened. Not a sound could be heard but that of the crickets around.   
  
Sailor Moon slumped her shoulders as she walked to the other side of the deck. "Pluto! I know you can hear me! Please answer! I really need your help! It has to do with Beryl." She sighed as she paused and waited for an answer. Still, there was nothing.  
  
Sailor Moon looked back down, feeling discouraged. Maybe her plan wasn't going to work after all. Maybe she would see her parents again after all. That would only make it harder though. "What am I supposed to do?" She looked back up in concern. Why wasn't Pluto answering her? Being a Senshi, wasn't she meant to serve the royal family. That's it! She would use her status to bring Pluto down. "Pluto! Aren't you supposed to listen to the Princess? I'm trying to be brave for once! I'm trying to do the right thing and destroy these guys while I have a chance instead of what happened with Cell. I don't want to play anymore! We have to save the Earth! Please!"  
  
Sailor Moon gasped as two, tall, double doors appeared before her. "Pluto!" She said with excitement. She was forced to shield her eyes as the doors began to open for there was a bright purple light shining from behind. "You came!" She didn't even wait for the figure to fully emerge from the doorway before she threw herself to it.   
  
Pluto laughed allowed as she embraced the child. The doors closed and the doors to the Time Gate were once again sealed for the time being. "Your intentions are pure."  
  
Moon smiled wide as she looked up at Pluto. "Does that mean you'll help us?"  
  
Pluto shook her head, causing Sailor Moon's happy smile to drop flat. "I can not allow you to do this unless you know all the consequences of using the Silver Crystal."  
  
Moon rolled her eyes with an over abundant amount of confidence. "I know already. My Moon mom already explained to me that if I use it, I'll die."  
  
Pluto once again shook her head, this time her eyes held a heavy burden of truth. "But that is not all. If you die using the Crystal, you can not be brought back with any Dragon Balls, for, to revive the Crystal would take too much power, power that the Dragon Balls do not have. To be revived, it would have to have the pure energy of another's life."  
  
Her face dropped even further at hearing that. Then it was true, her assumption, something that she thought she'd hoped she was wrong about. She wouldn't be revived at all. If she died, she would never see any of her family or friends again. "Pluto..."  
  
"You have to understand and think out your decision. What you are trying to do is very noble, but I do not think that in your heart, you are willing to die quite so easily."  
  
Sailor Moon shook her head. "But I have to. I'm the Princess. I'm the only one who can do it because I'm the only one with the Moon Crystal. You know this."   
  
Pluto agreed. "I'm not trying to talk you out of it, I just want to lay everything out on the table for you so you're aware of what you're doing."  
  
Usagi thought of her father just as she was beginning to chicken out. She thought of his story of Cell, how he had risked his life for the Earth, knowing full well that he would never be allowed to come back to Earth. He had been brave in that fight, and she would be too. "I'll...I'll do it, Pluto. But," She said with a smirk, "I'll make sure I don't die!"   
  
Pluto nodded with a smile. "Then I shall send you and your court to the Dark Kingdom when the time comes!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Dark Kingdom:  
  
Akii walked into what looked like a control Center in the castle. All along the walls were computers and screens of all sorts with flashing lights and buttons that were eagerly waiting to be pressed. She glared around the room at the workers, who had been tracking the actions of people on Earth. It was their job to scout out their next target location for attacks depending on how many people would be there. The more energy recovered, the more pleased Beryl became. "Status report!"   
  
A short man with long, ragged white hair stood up and turned to face the woman. "Ma'am, we have had no unusual disturbances on Earth during the evening and we have located another target for tomorrow's attack."  
  
Akii smiled. "Good, where is it?"  
  
"We have pinpointed to industrious cities on two different continents that draw in people from all over the world and are always busy throughout the day. One is in Japan, Koube, and the other is in America, Seattle. If we do a simultaneous attack, the Senshi should be thrown off and only be able to stop one of our monsters."  
  
Akii grinned evilly. "Excellent. We shall commence tomorrow." She clicked her heals together and turned around to walk away. But it seemed as though the technician wasn't through with her.   
  
"Ms. Akii, we have also come across some rather interesting news."  
  
Akii stopped in place as her ears perked for the info. "I'm listening."  
  
"While monitoring the Gate of Time, we've noticed that Sailor Pluto has left her post."  
  
Akii frowned as she spun around. "She what?" She glared around the room, putting fear into every soul in that room. "Do you know what this means? She only leaves her post when something big is about to happen."  
  
"You don't suppose they're preparing to attack, do you?"  
  
Akii crossed her arms. She wasn't in the least bit concerned about an attack. If Sailor Pluto wanted to be dumb enough to send the Senshi here then it was all the better. They could capture them much easier on their turf. "I'll welcome them with open arms."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Earth:  
  
An hour had passed and Pluto was still at the side of Sailor Moon. The two of them were awaiting the arrival of the other Senshi. Pluto had yet to return because she not only wanted Sailor Moon to understand the consequences of her actions, but the other Senshi as well. They should have a say in their friend's actions since they were the ones who were meant to protect her. But in a situation like this, all they would have to do would be to make sure that Sailor Moon stayed alive long enough to make her move.   
  
Having the ability to sense power levels over Pluto, Moon noticed the others approaching first. "They're here." She said as she pushed herself up from her resting place.   
  
Pluto looked up into the sky in the direction that her Princess gazed into. "Good."  
  
Moon gulped nervously as she waited for them to get within speaking range. She wondered how they would take this, probably not good if she mentioned the possible death bit. "Guys!" She yelled as she waved her friends down. "Over here!"   
  
Mars led the way. Behind her, Mercury and Jupiter carried Luna and Artimas, who had insisted on going as a result of their extreme curiosity. Mars waved over her shoulder to sign her friends to begin to land. "There she is."  
  
Usagi watched her friends land with a wide and excited smile. It would almost be time to start her plan, the beginning of the end. All that was left would be to explain it. Although she knew she would get a lot of grief from them, she knew it was the right thing to do. In anyway, it was her decision, and she planned to go through with it. "Guys!"   
  
Mars ran directly to Usagi as soon as her feet touched the ground. Her face was timid and unsure of what to expect, but she knew it had to be something big. It wasn't like Usagi to just wake everyone up in the middle of the night. "This better be good."  
  
Jupiter set Artimas down while Mercury set Luna down. Both Senshi exchanged looks of concern with one another and sighed. Something big was going to go down tonight. They quickly turned back to Usagi, noticing Pluto behind her for the first time, someone they had never seen before.  
  
Venus cracked her knuckles with a frown. "Who's behind you?"  
  
Usagi grinned as she looked up to Pluto. "This," She looked back to her curious friends. "Is Sailor Pluto, the Guardian of Time." The four Senshi stared into the serious face of Pluto, the one who had been the cause of the entire ordeal in the past.   
  
Mercury bowed slightly out of respect. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Sailor Pluto. I am Sailor Mercury."  
  
Mars stepped forward with a frown planted deep within her eyes. "You! You're the reason why we had to stay in that awful time with Cell! You couldn't have just let us go back, could you!?"  
  
Pluto smiled as she looked down to the young, fiery face of Sailor Mars. "Sailor Mars, you always were a spunky child."  
  
Mars dropped her frown in surprise. "You know me?"  
  
Pluto nodded. "Of course, I know all of you. I have been watching over you since the time of your birth, making sure no true danger came to you. Now, I am afraid I must let you go."  
  
Mars quirked a brow and shifted her view to Sailor Moon, who faced down. "What's she talking about, Usagi? She has to let us go?"  
  
Usagi gulped as she slowly looked up to face her friends. This wouldn't be easy, but she took a deep breath anyway to begin. The faster she explained, the sooner it would all be over with. "Well... you see... You all know how the full Moon reappeared today almost out of no where?" She paused long enough to let her comrades nod. "Well, I was sent to the Moon, or taken there, and do you know who I met there?"  
  
Jupiter crossed her arms and smirked. "The Queen."   
  
Although she had been joking, thinking that that would never happen for the Queen had died many years ago, she was right. "Yes. I met Queen Serenity of the Silver Millennium Moon Kingdom, my Moon mother."  
  
Jupiter blinked twice in surprise. She had actually been right? "No way! Really?"  
  
Moon nodded. "Yes. She told me all about how the Moon Kingdom fell by the hands of Beryl and her army of Dark Creatures. She also told me of my death, how Mamoru is the Prince of Earth and died trying to protect me."  
  
Venus' eyes sparkled with envy. Two people she knew had already been dubbed important people. Although she too was a princess, she was only a lowly court member to the Moon Princess. Now Mamoru was a Prince, this was all too much. "He tried to protect you in a past life?"  
  
Jupiter grinned. "That's a real shocker."  
  
Usagi opted to leave out the detail of their betrothal and continued with her fast version of the story. "You all ended up dying at the hands of Beryl as well. My mother, the Queen used her last ounce of life to send us all here so we could defeat Beryl."  
  
Mars; "Oh, so I see. Now you want to destroy Beryl for your mother?"  
  
Usagi flinched. "Sort of. I haven't told you how my mother died sending us here." She paused, but only a silence was left to reign. She gulped before she went on. "She had this thing called Silver Crystal, a Crystal that held pure Moon power, pure power made from love. It was wound around her soul, making it part of her very source of life. When she used its power, it was drained, leaving her life power drained as well."  
  
Mercury; "That's awful. She gave her life so we could live."  
  
Sailor Moon looked down at her feet, refusing to make eye contact with any of her friends. "I know. But you see, this Crystal is the only way to defeat Beryl. My mother had a chance to either defeat Beryl or save us. And she chose to save us. But in doing so, the Crystal was passed down to me, and since it's the only thing to defeat her..." She let her voice trail into the nothing as the reality sank in deeper and deeper.  
  
Mars reached out and grabbed her Princess by the shoulder. What she was saying was unacceptable. "What?! You're going to use that thing?"  
  
Venus watched as the Saiyan said nothing, her own eyes beginning to tear up. How could she think of sacrificing herself. "No," She shook her head from side to side. "There has to be another way."  
  
Usagi looked up, her eyes free of tears. She had already come to accept the facts. "It's the only way, Minako. What else can we do? The Crystal is the only thing powerful enough to beat her. I need you guys to be there and make sure I'm able to deliver the blow without interruptions."  
  
Jupiter shook her head, her eyes were with tears as well. "No! I'm not going to help you kill yourself!"  
  
"IT'S THE ONLY WAY! PLEASE!"  
  
Luna trotted to her Princess' side. She was less reluctant than the other Senshi for she had actually seen the horror a thousand years ago. "Usagi, if it's what you must do."  
  
Sailor Moon nodded. "I know what I have to do. I have to be brave and strong like daddy is. He's never afraid to die when he's fighting for what he believes in. If I can defeat Beryl and Metallia then I can give Earth the hope of living." She paused and grinned. "But, there's still a slight chance that I can live. If I can destroy them both before I use all the power of the Crystal then I will live. I will recover my power and all is good."  
  
Pluto gently placed her hand upon her Princess' shoulder. "You are brave, your mother must be proud... both of them."  
  
Sailor Moon; "Pluto, if I do happen to die, can you tell my Mom and Dad everything so they don't worry about me?"  
  
Pluto nodded. "You don't have to worry."  
  
(The end!... of this chapter anyway. I know, I didn't update for the longest time, but I thought it would have been better if I didn't force myself to write. I got burned out, but I think I'm back. See? Three chapters in three days. Just like old times, right? I think I'm doing very well so far in regards to getting a chapter out every day. I'm even ahead of my game by one chapter! ^_^ Anyway, back to the entire purpose of this author's note. If I ever go into a slump again, do not think that I have abandoned this story. I will actually notify you if I decide to abandon it.... Which will never happen. It just takes a little while for me to come back out of my slump. Sorry about the waiting and all. Thanks for puttin up with me. ^_^ ) 


	125. Part 27

~*~*~*~  
  
The stage is now set. Usagi is ready to commence with her final plans to destroy the Dark Kingdom and restore peace to Earth. The Senshi would take the game into their hands.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Dark Kingdom:  
  
Five Senshi of love and justice stepped away from the Gates of time, leaving Pluto behind with Luna and Artimas, where they would stay until the final showdown was over. The groups waved goodbye to each other, with the two cats thinking it would most likely be their last time seeing their Princess. But Pluto thought otherwise. She knew the child's future, but still, there was that slight chance that something could trigger the future to change.   
  
The Senshi walked forward with Sailor Moon lagging behind and looking back at Pluto. She gave the trio a thumbs up as if to claim victory before winning. Pluto nodded back with a smile. "Good luck, Princess." She stepped back, motioning for the cats to do the same, and slowly, the doors began to close. Now Sailor Moon and her friends were sealed in this dimension, never to return until the victory was truly claimed by her side.   
  
Mercury paused and turned her upper body back to Sailor Moon, allowing her friends to go ahead. "Let's go." She said calmly, trying not to upset Moon.   
  
Moon nodded as she joined the Senshi in blue. As the two began walking forward to join the rest of the group, Moon began to examine her surroundings. They seemed to be outside, the air was muggy all around. This new, desolate land of death was completely dark with a few red stars above to guide the way to a tall castle, which sat atop a tall mountain in the far distance. The terrain seemed rather squishy beneath her feet, indicating to her that they were in some sort of swamp lands.  
  
Lingering behind the rest of the group, a shivering tingle ran up the spine of the young Senshi of the Moon. Being here reminded her of her abduction only three nights before. The same amount of hate energy that she had felt while her stay at the Castle pulsed through the air outside as well. She wondered how anything could be that full of dark energy. She ducked her head and grabbed her arms for comfort while she continued to lag behind the group.  
  
At the front of the group was Sailor Mars, walking nervously and slowly. She didn't want to take too fast of a pace for fear of startling the surroundings. She clenched her fists, ready for anything that might be preparing to jump out at them. Never had she been in such a frightening place, and never again did she wish to be after this whole ordeal was over. Her only reason for not turning back was her leader's wish to go on, which she still wasn't too keen on. How could Usagi be so selfish; to take on such a task such as this, to leave everything up to her? It wasn't fair. She had a life too. She shouldn't have been expected to give it up for the world which had always turned her out. Mars wanted so much to tell her 'No'. She didn't want to see her throw her life away, there had to be another way. Maybe if they all worked together. She knew not to say anything at the moment for Usagi had already made up her mind, but when the time came to actually going through with the plan, then maybe, just maybe Usagi would be in a different mind set. She couldn't just WANT to die, could she?  
  
Venus was having almost the same thoughts. She worried that her friend might be doing the wrong thing, that she might be jumping the gun on this whole situation. But much like Mars, she wasn't about to say anything. Usagi had always tried to be strong in times like this, but, like in the fight with Cell, had fallen short. Usagi had a tendency to try to show her foe her power, much like the fight that took place at school the day before. Venus figured that this was the reason why Usagi insisted on getting the job done now while she could before waiting for something else to attack and kill even more people. For this, Venus kept her mouth shut. She respected her friend's decision, but also feared for her.   
  
Jupiter walked next to Mercury, who was already scanning the area with her computer. She peeked over her comrade's shoulder and saw nothing but a bright, blue screen, which seemed to symbolize the Dark Energy levels. "This must really be the Dark Kingdom, it's so full of their energy."  
  
Mercury flinched with surprise when she turned her head and saw nothing but Jupiter's face. She raised her hand to her heart and sighed. "Don't scare me like that."  
  
Jupiter pulled away, a smile formed on her face. "Sorry." She said as she looked up to the dark, gloomy grayness of the sky. Black clouds seemed to be forming off in the distance.   
  
Mercury calmed herself as she looked around. Dark Energy levels were soaring. It seemed to be everywhere, but most of its concentration seemed to be around Beryl's castle, naturally. The castle which was their very destination. Mercury couldn't help but feel scared. This would be just like the fight with Cell, except now she was stronger and she knew a little more of what she was doing. Her skill had improved tremendously since then and now, there was no doubt that she would stand with Sailor Moon until the very end.  
  
Jupiter slowed down her pace until she was directly lined up with Sailor Moon. "Uh..." She started as she raised her hand behind her head to scratch it. "I... Uh..."  
  
Sailor Moon stared into Jupiter's eyes. She didn't even have to hear her out before she understood what was going to be said. "I know you're worried, Makoto, but I already told you, I have to do this." She looked down to her intertwined hands. "I'm sorry."  
  
Jupiter wrapped her arm around her leader's neck to comfort her. In fact she had not tried to talk her out of her decision. She was only trying to comfort her, make it easier on her. She knew Sailor Moon had to be feeling awful inside, like she was betraying her family and friends. "Don't, Usagi. Don't think we don't want you to do this."  
  
Mars, still with her feelings intact, glanced over her shoulder. She felt sorry for Usagi. Out of the entire gang of friends, Usagi had always received the worst treatment by far. Everyone always made fun of her for having a tail, which started it off. And, as knowing kids, they started getting nit-picky about everything she did, even her teachers treated her like crap. The only real reason she had ever gained respect in the first place was because of her skill in the Martial Arts. Sure, the other kids had had their fair share of problems, with Rei having her Mental powers and Makoto being somewhat of a Tomboy. Ami's love for books and learning had always made her an outcast. And Minako's natural love for everyone, even outcasts had made her an outcast herself. Her friendship with Usagi had automatically branded her as a "freak" in their early days. But, none of these compared to Usagi's hardships. None of them ever had to go through the Mental pain AND physical pain that Usagi had.   
  
Mars; "We're with you One-Hundred Percent."  
  
Venus smiled back to her best friend, whom she had known virtually forever. "We'll stick with you till the end, we always have, and always will."  
  
Mercury nodded. "That's what friends are for, right?"  
  
Feeling loved, Moon nodded. "Thanks you guys. You don't know how much I appreciate you going along with this. Only a true friend would."  
  
Jupiter grinned as she clenched her fists. "Let's get this show on the road and kick some butt!"  
  
Moon nodded. "Right!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Akii pulled her upper-body Armor over her head, the last of her preparations before her fight with the Senshi. She hadn't yet notified Beryl of her plan, but didn't plan to either. If she beat the Senshi tonight, after taking Sailor Moon's power and killing the rest, she would go to Earth and take care of some unfinished business that she had left when she was taken back to the Dark Kingdom.   
  
She quickly stood to her feet, revealing her pure white body suit. Her gloves and boots were white as well. Her hair was cut short and spiked at the end like that of a Saiyan. On her face she wore a sly smirk, calling out her own victory before her win. She could take on the Senshi in whatever form they wished for the Dark Energy flowing within her veins was strong and would guide her well. She would defeat them on any plain at anytime. The sooner the better.   
  
Her plan was to take out the Senshi here and now, and, upon returning the Moon Princess to her queen, ask for permission to travel to Earth to take care of one last item on her list. But for now, that would have to wait. Taking the Senshi out was the first thing she had to do.  
  
Akii walked out of her quarters, where she noticed one of the Dark Kingdom's lead scientists. She wondered what he could have possibly be doing out of his laboratory. His job was to create vicious monsters and vicious monsters only. Not to be running loose. "You there!" The old scientists stopped abruptly in his step and turned around with haste. His face was full of fright, like he had just seen a ghost. "State your business before I have you killed!"  
  
"They are here!"  
  
Akii flinched away. "What?!"  
  
"I was on my way to tell her majesty when..."  
  
Akii frowned. "If you value your life you won't say a word to her!" The scientist said nothing, instead, he only nodded, showing his compliance. "Get back to your position and finish that creature you were building for me!"  
  
"I...I..."  
  
Akii scowled harder at the ragged man. "Spit it out!"  
  
The man gulped with fear for he knew upsetting his superior would lead to death. "The Senshi have walked through my breeding grounds, all creatures I have been incubating have been killed or severely injured. I will have nothing for at least another week."   
  
Akii clenched her fists, as well as her teeth. Those brats had caused more of a problem than she could handle. Now she would have to deal with them completely on her own, not that she would have a problem with them anyway, but it would have been nice to have some help. "Then get back and stay there! Do not speak to Beryl or I will have your head!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Earth:   
  
Mamoru had just barely missed the girls' departure when he arrived at their treehouse, where he had felt Usagi for the longest time. He had hoped she would still be there while he made his way there, but halfway there, he had felt their energy signature's fall completely off of scale. Now where could they have gone? They didn't have anything to jump time with, had they? Usagi had been pretty set on defeating Beryl when they had left the shattered Moon Kingdom, maybe she had found a way to go travel to the Dark Kingdom, but how? She definitely didn't have a dimensional jumper, no such thing had ever been created. And it wasn't as if she could travel in and out of different dimensions with her teleportation. What else could it be? There was only one other person whom he knew of that could travel between dimensions besides Beryl. He looked up to the Moon in the sky with a smirk. That was it. That's how Usagi had gone to the Dark Kingdom.   
  
~*~*~  
  
The Senshi had quickened their pace, allowing them to approach their target, the castle much faster than before. Now, they were halfway to their destination and by now, with every step Sailor Moon's heart fluttered more and more. Millions of questions ran through her head over and over. Questions like: Was she doing the right thing? Would she regret this? Would her friends really going to stand by and help her kill herself if necessary? Would she chicken out? All of these and more contributed to her newly formed fear, but she knew, in her heart, that she couldn't give up. It was her duty to protect the Earth as not only her father's daughter, but as the Senshi of the Moon and the Moon Princess.   
  
Mercury, who was still at her leader's side, glanced to her side at Sailor Moon as she walked with her head low. She could tell that Moon was having second thoughts, thinking through her decision slowly and carefully. Maybe if they were lucky, she would change her mind and think of yet another way to defeat Beryl. Death didn't have to be the way. "Hey..." Just as she was about to attempt to comfort her friend, the gasping shock of her friends up ahead cut her short.   
  
The two Senshi in the back, Mercury and Moon quickly shot their heads up and in the direction of Jupiter, Mars, and Venus, who were further ahead scouting the terrain for any possible trouble. And that's exactly what they had found, trouble.  
  
Knowing that Moon would have to make it until the end, Mercury pushed Moon back to keep her safe. "What's wrong?!" Moon froze in place and, for a moment, allowed herself to stay behind, her heart beating faster than she could keep up.  
  
The three Senshi in front prepared themselves for combat. Out of no where a tall figure had appeared before them. From the shape of the body, it appeared to be that of a woman who just happened to hold more Dark Energy than Raditz had.  
  
Venus unconsciously shook out of fear. Where had this one come from? "We've been attacked."  
  
The figure emerged from her shadows, revealing herself to the Senshi. "Quite the contrary. You have attacked us."  
  
Mercury looked back to her leader to make sure she was still safe, and quickly raced to join her fellow Senshi. "Who're you?!"  
  
Jupiter clenched her fists. "We never attacked you!"  
  
The female addressed Mercury first. "I am known as Akii. You shouldn't have come here, unless death it what you please!" Hearing this only made Moon duck her head down further, but this time out of anger, and not fear. Akii grinned. "Why, I think I've angered the Princess." She mockingly bowed down. "My apologies."   
  
Jupiter frowned. "You witch!"   
  
Akii's eye flashed white as she looked up to the Senshi of Jupiter. "My, my, such harsh words. Haven't your parents ever taught you to respect adults?"  
  
"What would you know about parenting?"  
  
Akii grinned, knowing her position on this subject matter. "More than you think."  
  
Sailor Moon slowly raised her head and glared at her enemy. Although she wished not to, she knew that she would have to use some of her energy on fighting this 'Akii'. That would mean less power for Beryl and more of a chance of dying, but it wasn't like she wasn't prepared. "Shut up!"   
  
Akii frowned as she looked back to the lagging Senshi. "Excuse me!"   
  
"You heard me. I told you to shut up!"  
  
Mars smiled back at her Princess. "Let us take her out. You save your energy for the final fight."  
  
Akii; "Idiots. This IS the final fight. Not a single one of you can hurt me. You won't even reach the castle. I'll take you out in less than ten minutes."  
  
Venus grinned. "Oh really? Then why haven't you already done it?"  
  
Akii glared at the girl in orange as she pulled back. "Why don't I show you, then all your doubt will be put behind you."   
  
Venus mimicked Akii's movements. The rest of the Senshi were to follow. "Fine by me."  
  
Akii smiled to herself as she prepared for her fight, which she figured she already had won. She didn't even have to use a third of her energy to take these bozo's out. 'Good, good. That's it, throw yourselves into death.'  
  
Jupiter glanced over her shoulder back to her fellow Senshi. "On three..." Mars and Mercury exchanged glances of confusion. Jupiter sighed as she looked back to Akii, who seemed to be too busy powering up to notice them. Perfect, she thought to herself. With her power level high enough, she created a link between the five of them. 'On three we all attack. All except Usagi, that is.'  
  
Mars nodded, still not seeing what good that would do. 'Sure, so when we do that, it hurts her, but it doesn't destroy her.'  
  
Moon intercepted. 'No. Jupiter's plan should work. It won't destroy her, but it will make her weak enough to where I won't have to use as much energy to defeat her. She's about as strong as Cell was when he was at full power. If you all work together to take her down then we'll be good to go. Remember, the key to beating Cell was teamwork. No one of us could beat him at one time, but combined we were unbeatable, right Jupiter?'  
  
Jupiter nodded. 'Exactly.'  
  
Akii, now finished with her power up, advanced the for the nearest Senshi, Mars, who wasn't fully paying attention to her surroundings for she was paying more attention to her link. She raised her power infested fist and smashed it into the side of Mars' ribcage, causing her to fly back into a giant pile of goo.   
  
Venus flinched. "Mars!" She quickly ran for cover as she saw Akii nearing her with a fist surrounded completely by black Ki energy.   
  
Akii advanced for Moon next in a fitting rage. So far, things had been easier than she had expected. But not for long. Jupiter lined herself up directly with the warrior, scowling at her every minute. She would need to buy some time for Mars to recover. "Supreme Thunder!"   
  
A spiraling ball of Thunder came crashing toward Akii, who currently had her back turned to the Senshi of Thunder. She was completely unaware of her situation, but, just as the two made contact, she swiftly jumped to the side, leaving Sailor Moon wide open for a hit.  
  
Jupiter; "Usagi! Move!"   
  
But Akii wasn't about to let the child of the Moon get hurt. She needed her very much alive for the extraction process. "Damnit!" She raised her power enhanced hand and fired the exterior energy toward Jupiter's attack, immediately canceling it out.   
  
Sailor Moon lowered her head with a frown planted on her face. 'I hate this! I feel so weak!'   
  
Meanwhile, Mars still sat firmly in her pile of black ooze with a disgusted face. She lifted up her arm and immediately the goo began oozing off of it. She wrinkled her nose. "Oh, now that's just nasty." She sighed as she tried to push herself up, but her hands kept slipping. Not wanting to waste anytime, she used her ability to fly to pull herself out. "She's really gonna pay now!"   
  
"I'm up!" She yelled out at the top of her lungs, but looking down to the ground she noticed that her friends seemed to be in a pinch of their own. It was three on one with the Senshi using Akii's power fist attack. And even though it was a triple team attack, Akii seemed to be holding up quite well, almost as if she were Goku herself. "Now where di she learn how to fight?" Looking a little further away from the fight, she noticed Sailor Moon all alone. How she wished she could join in on the fun.   
  
Mars rolled her eyes as she watched the child's play. Her friends were only wasting time while they waited for her to get out of her situation, which she had. And now it was time to commence their attack. "Yoo Hoo!"   
  
The Senshi immediately pulled away from Akii, forming a circle around her. They didn't even have to confirm with Mars before they would begin. Taking time out for that would only cause more problems than they needed. This was only a preliminary fight, a bump in the road. They needed to get the job done as soon as possible and they weren't about to waste any time on Akii.   
  
The four Senshi took the form of a circle around Akii. One high in the air, one lower than that, one even lower than that, and one of the ground, just like with Cell. They remembered how it worked better at different altitudes and more spread out. The enemy was less likely to be able to block everything if they did. At least one hit would have to make it.  
  
Akii stared up and all around at the Senshi in confusion, but ended up laughing. "So what? Are you guys going to play a friendly game of ring-around-the-rosie? Sorry girls, it's too late to ask for forgiveness, but I'll make sure you have a nice place in hell."  
  
The Senshi all exchanged faces. How dumb Akii really was. They had no intention of playing a child's game with her. They had no intention of asking for forgiveness. They did, however, have intentions of destroying her. With a single nod the girls knew exactly what to do.   
  
Mercury; "Shabon Spray!"   
  
Mars; "Mars Fire Soul!"   
  
Venus; "Crescent Beam!"   
  
Jupiter; "Supreme Thunder!"   
  
At once, the sky grew bright with a spectacular color, blinding any creatures around. The four powers combined looked like a rainbow after a spring rain.   
  
Sailor Moon watched in complete awe at the dazzling colors that now filled the sky. It was even more beautiful than the glimmering Moon. "Amazing..."  
  
The four attacks bound together to work as one and reflected off one another unto it's target, the evil Akii, who was too stunned herself to move a single step, thus letting the gigantic attack hit her straight on. "You will never beat...!" She tried to yell out, but she was cut off mid sentence by the deafening sound of the explosion which was made at impact.   
  
Sailor Moon pulled off her tiara, ready for her portion of the attack. She would once again deliver the final blow. The Senshi who had pulled off the attack all stepped away from the explosion, which had caused all the goo on the ground to be thrown up. Mars especially got outta there. She had no desire to be covered in that stuff again.   
  
If any normal person had watched that, they would have expected that Akii was now lying dead somewhere, but to those who could read energy levels, she was very much alive, just wounded. Only the power of the Moon could truly defeat those of the Dark Kingdom. They were somehow linked with one another.   
  
As soon as the light cleared, thousands of tiny glops of ooze could be seen falling from the sky as a result of the planet's gravity. And Akii could be seen crawling away from a giant hole, which had obviously been caused by the blast. Her legs seemed to be broken, as she was pulling herself along by her arms only.  
  
Sailor Moon neared her foe, her fellow Senshi doing the same. "Evil shall live no longer..." She said in a calm voice. She held her tiara like a Frisbee in her arms and smiled. Now she would get her chance to fight, even if it wasn't much. "Moon... Tiara..."  
  
"Wait!" Akii yelled as she held her hand in the air to silence the child.   
  
Jupiter kicked the woman in the ribs. "Silence! You weren't going to forgive us! Why should we forgive YOU!?"  
  
Akii groaned as she tried desperately to roll herself over on her back. "I know that I should die, I do not argue that. I was beaten, and to my pride that means everything. I shall rather die than live knowing that I have lost to children." Her face lost almost all hatred, taking up qualities of that of a loving mother and wife. "But, I want to be able to tell you something." Sailor Moon lowered her half charged tiara. Jupiter frowned at her leader, but didn't question her judgment. It was obvious Akii couldn't do anything more in her condition. "I was not always like this. In fact, I am not like this at all."  
  
Mars frowned. "Oh really? Sounds to me like you're trying to see forgiveness. Give it up already."  
  
Akii sighed. "I wasn't expecting you to be so smart, brat. I should have had you all taken out by now, but for some reason, that doesn't matter to me anymore. I feel... I feel... I feel different somehow. As soon as I felt that blast I felt as if I were being purified again."  
  
Sailor Moon cocked her head in confusion. "Again?"  
  
Akii nodded. "Yes. As I said, I was not always like this. You see, I am not from this time. I am from at least seventy five years in the past. At least, that is what Beryl has told me."  
  
Sailor Moon kneeled beside Akii, ready to hear a story. But Jupiter wasn't going to have it. She quickly jumped to Moon's side and tried to pull her away. "She's dangerous. Don't get to close."  
  
Moon frowned. "Makoto, please. Akii, please continue. Did Beryl tell you why she took you from the past?"  
  
Akii nodded. "My story is as such. I only know about my childhood from what Beryl has told me, but I do not doubt her actions from what I've seen. She has told me all of her plans, big and small. When I was a baby, I did not even live on Earth. I lived on a planet named Vejita. You of all people should know about the planet, Sailor Moon." Sailor Moon immediately bolted her eyes up to Venus, no long weary of this woman. "I was born with the power to heal, thus making me a Saiyan healer. Saiyan healers are hated among Saiyan Warriors. We have no desire to fight, like them. Naturally, I was sentenced to death as an infant by the king, my father was to carry out the killing. But, there came a Queen from many years into the future, Beryl. She was seeking out the infant Goku. She had heard of him in her own time, and wanted to hire him as her Guardian and fighter. She told the people there that she needed him as an infant so she could raise him into her thinking. But the boy's father Bardock would not have it. He said that his son would be sent to earth in just a few days. Beryl was quite angry and had a fit."  
  
Sailor Moon, now scowling, leaned in further. "Why did she want my dad?"  
  
"She wanted him because she knew how powerful he would be. He wanted you to have to fight him so you would be confused and think that he is really your father and not want to fight him. After being refused the child, she stormed into the room, where she overheard the conversation between the king and my father. She inquired about my power, and upon hearing what I would be able to do, she immediately changed her mind and ordered for me to be given to her. There really was no argument over that. My father was happy to give me to the fiery haired woman. That virtually ended my life as a Saiyan. I was taken here, where I was raised until I was about fourteen years of age. I hated my life here, I was taught nothing but war and hate, when I really wanted nothing but peace. During this time, my mother, as I referred to her, scouted out other people to work under her in order to kill you and retrieve your energy.   
  
"She found Cell first, or at least, his body. She had to do much time travelling to do this though. Of course we know, Pluto was the one who allowed her to do this for a reason we don't know. She probably knew this would happen. It took years to develop Cell, but that's another story. When I was fourteen, I found a way to get to Earth. I don't know how or why, but a portal to your dimension was open in my mother's lair. I jumped in, hoping to get away from the madness. I was successful, but upon arrival here, I was treated like dirt, for many of the same reasons that you are, Sailor Moon."  
  
Sailor Moon shook her head in disbelief. She was still stuck on the fact that this woman was a Saiyan. What, or rather who would that make her?  
  
"I ended up wandering the streets for about a year and a half before I found an adoptive family. They took me in almost right away. Until I was about eighteen I lived a normal and happy life, well, as normal as I could get it. People still made fun of me, but not in so much excess. They just rather ignored me. Except for one boy, my true love. We became friends almost immediately. He loved science with all his heart and always took me on his little adventures. I'll never forget his face. Dr. Souichi Tomoe. Three years passed, and our friendship grew over the years. What was once an innocent relationship soon became marriage. Not much happened after we were married, except, we had a child, a daughter. She was such a beautiful child. Very talkative, but also very well mannered. She too bore the power of the healers. Her name is Hotaru, she should be six by now. My how the time has passed. I miss her dearly."  
  
There was no doubt about it. This was definitely Hotaru's mother. Sailor Moon's eyes widened to their fullest extent as she gazed down at the injured figure. Finally, her question of how another Saiyan could have existed had now been answered.   
  
"One day, when Hotaru was about three years old, she and her father went out, leaving me home alone. I was just cleaning up around the house, waiting for them to return so that we might dine together. But, an unexpected guest showed up. Someone grabbed me from behind and held me tight. I tried to struggle free, but their grip was too tight. Whoever it was ended up knocking me out and when I woke up, I was strapped down to a table, and my mother approached me. She said something to a tall man who was on my other side, whom I had never seen before and before I knew it, they were injecting me with massive amounts of Dark Energy. I cried out for them to stop, but my mother said it was for the better, that if I ever tried it again she would capture me again and kill me. At that point I relaxed. I had no desire to die. Luckily, she hadn't mentioned my husband or daughter, but I can only imagine their faces when they couldn't find me when they got home. In the back of my head, I've had an urge to travel back to Earth, to say goodbye to my daughter properly. I don't want her to worry about me, the little thing had such an attachment to me. I hope my leaving didn't wound her too much. And to my husband. I miss him so. That was what I was planing on doing when I killed you. I had no desire to kill them, even under the influence of the Dark Kingdom. That was one spot in my heart that they could never touch." She paused to cough, and when she did, spirts of blood flew out of her mouth. She knew death was nearing. She was too weak to hold on. "But, you delivered me from that hell hold. Somehow your energy combined drove out the dark energy from my body. But, I am afraid I'm going to die, whether I like it or not."  
  
Sailor Moon gasped as she grabbed Akii by the shoulders and shook her. "What are you talking about! I can heal you! You can return to your family! I know them! Hotaru is one of my best friends!"  
  
Akii smiled as she gently grabbed Moon's wrist. "I would love that, but I'm afraid Beryl would just hunt me down and use me for her own evil deeds again."  
  
Mercury grinned. "We're going to take care of that. She's going to be destroyed by Sailor Moon tonight."  
  
Akii closed her eyes. "If I don't make it, please tell my husband and daughter that I love them, that I'm ok."  
  
Sailor Moon frowned. "You WILL make it!"  
  
"Will she now?!" Yelled a voice from above.  
  
The Senshi gasped as they turned around. That was a voice that they had never heard before.  
  
(Ok, just to let you know, I most likely will not get a chapter out tomorrow. There is a basketball game in which I have to be at for band in school. Because of this I will not have enough time to get a chapter written in time to post it. But, I will have one out on Saturday. Ok, I just didn't want you to think that I was loosing my one chapter a day thing already. ^_^ ) 


	126. Part 28

Beryl stood on a cliff that looked down upon the Senshi and Akii, who has finally revealed herself to the Senshi as Hotaru's mother. Beryl had come to the fight as soon she had felt the presence of planetary power, the same power she had destroyed one thousand years ago. She narrowed her eyes into a pernicious little glare at Akii. Not only had the girl not told her of the Senshis' arrival, but she had also told Beryl's secret of where she had come from. "Stupid girl!"   
  
Akii squinted in pain as she tried to hold onto life for just a moment longer. Although she wished to see Hotaru one last time, she had no quarrel with dying. She had lived a horrible life, one full of death and destruction. The time she had spent on Earth had been the most wonderful experience of her life. She had a loving husband and a beautiful daughter. What more could one want? Her life had had a death warrant since her birth, it was amazing that she had even lasted this long. For the past three years she had been used as a puppet to Beryl and would continue to be used as such unless she was killed.   
  
Beryl raised her hand and prepared to build up what seemed like Dark Energy onto her index finger. Sailor Moon briskly pushed herself up and away from Akii. Her eyes locked with Beryl's and immediately, she knew exactly what she would have to do. It was time for the final showdown; the final hour of their lives had finally come. The goal would be to defeat Beryl at all costs in order to save the lives of her friends and Hotaru's mother, even if it meant giving up her own. "You must be Beryl!" She said as she clenched her fists, ready to concentrate to bring out her soul energy in the form of the Silver Crystal.   
  
Beryl ignored the girl and continued to pull fourth her evil energy. The air around slowly began to swirl as the power built up more and more. The girls would soon have to brace themselves in order to stay on their feet. Sailor Moon glanced over her shoulder at Akii, who had her eyes closed and was breathing heavily. "Don't give up, Akii. We'll protect you." She glared back up at Beryl and started racing toward her.  
  
Mercury had already had her computer out by this point. She, like everyone else around, could feel the massive power emerging from Beryl's evil body, but she wanted to know just what they were up against. "Wait, Sailor Moon.!" She yelled, immediately halting Sailor Moon in her tracks. "She's got way more Dark energy in her body than we've ever gone up against."  
  
Sailor Moon scowled up at Beryl, who was almost ready to commence her attack. If Beryl was too strong for them, she feared what Metallia would do to them. What would happen if she died while trying to beat Beryl? What would they rest of the Senshi do against Metallia? She bit her lower lip as she tried to contemplate her answers to the questions, coming up with one possible answer. She just couldn't die in this battle. "Cover me, girls!"  
  
The four Senshi exchanged glances and nodded. They would do their best to protect her, no matter what. Not because she was their Princess and it was their duty, but because she was their friend and a friendship yells louder than royalty.   
  
Beryl stopped powering up for her attack and grinned with a certain evil touch that sent chills up the spins of the Senshi. "Stupid girl! I told you what would happen next time you betrayed me!" Feeling her life deteriorating even further, Akii struggled to open her eyes and stare into Beryl's. "I'm going to kill your daughter next!" Without further words, she released her laser-like attack, which was bounded right for Akii's heart.   
  
Sailor Moon immediately turned her attention to Akii in fear. "No!"   
  
"Supreme Thunder!" Jupiter threw her attack of lightening into the beam of Dark Energy, expecting that it would counter its chemistry and destroy it. But to her surprise, it was absorbed into it. "What?!"  
  
Venus was up next. "Crescent Beam!" Her own beam of energy clashed with Beryl's, but it was still no match. It too was absorbed by the Dark Energy.  
  
Mercury noticed an influx of energy on her computer screen. "Stop you guys! You're only making it stronger! Her power is too strong!"   
  
Beryl laughed aloud. "Stupid children! Your power will never match mine!"  
  
Sailor Moon frowned. "We'll see about that."   
  
Time seemed almost to slow down as the Senshi turned their eyes to Akii. They could hear Beryl laughing in the background, but couldn't do anything. They were powerless. Nothing they could do now would save Hotaru's mother. Upon reaching its target, the beam of energy penetrated the armor which had been meant to protect Akii. The heart was next. The Dark Energy made its way throughout the entire body, poisoning everything it touched with a piercing sting. It was a swift, but painful process, one in which Akii cried out in pain throughout. She felt as if her entire insides were being ripped out of her body without any anesthetics. The Senshi could do nothing but sit by and watch the horrible act of violence.   
  
Sailor Moon could feel a lump in her throat as tears welded up in her eyes. The only thing she could think of was Hotaru. Her little friend would be horrified when she found out about this. She wished she could be there for support, but by the looks of things, she didn't think she would. "You monster!"   
  
Beryl grinned as she looked down to Sailor Moon. "Why, Serenity, you finally decided to show your pitiful face. I suggest you surrender calmly unless you want the same thing that happened to Akii to happen to you."  
  
Sailor Moon took a step back with a glare. "Why'd you do it? Akii did nothing to you! She didn't deserve to die!" Tears streamed down her face.  
  
Beryl frowned. "She was insubordinate. I had no use for her any longer." She paused to smirk. "But you, you're another story. Why don't you come here, little one. You can join my team, with Metallia. Together we will be invincible. Or you can resist, in which case I will have to take your energy by force and kill you. But anyway, I WILL have it!"  
  
Her gut feeling like a lead weight in her stomach, Sailor Moon continued to stand her ground, even through the threat. "You'll never have my power! I'll stand up to you just like my mother did!"  
  
Beryl laughed. "Your mother? Your mother was the weakest of them all! She couldn't have defeated me even if she tried! You Moon wenches are all the same! You will fall once again, just like you did a thousand years ago!" She paused and frowned, becoming quite anxious for the sweet Moon energy. "Hand over the Moon Crystal, brat!"  
  
Sailor Moon placed her hand over her heart and sighed. "Where is Metallia!? I want to fight her!"  
  
Stomping her foot into the ground, Beryl frowned. "She has not yet awakened! But, once we have your energy in our grasp, your world as you know it will be gone, and you can be happy to watch from your little hole in hell."  
  
Hearing that caused Sailor Moon to smirk. Metallia wasn't even awakened yet. She needed more energy, Moon energy to be exact. Now all she had to do was defeat Beryl and destroy the castle. Her world would then be safe. "You're the only one who's going to hell here!" Not waiting for another word, she closed her eyes and began calling fourth the Moon Crystal for aid.  
  
The other Senshi gathered together behind her and kneeled as if to be there only for mental support rather than physical. At that point, there was not much they could do but that.   
  
Beryl growled as she too began calling fourth her own power. She glared down at the Moon brat. There was no way that she would be beaten by such a child.  
  
Sailor Moon's chest began to glow silver with the same intensity of the Moon. Her Sailor suit was soon replaced with the gown of the Moon Princess, her tiara being replaced with a Crescent Moon. This would be the first time calling fourth the power of the crystal, but she felt as if she had done it a million times before, like it was a natural thing for her to do. "Please help me to defeat Beryl." She whispered. Immediately, the Crystal came fourth completely. The entire vicinity lightened up with the power from the Crystal. Serenity had no trouble in holding the crystal. "It's so warm..." She closed her eyes and began concentrating.   
  
The Senshi joined hands with one another as if to pray for her safety. Each of them was surprised by the massive power it was emitting, but none said a word. They were afraid to cause her to lose concentration.  
  
Beryl now had powered up to her fullest. She noticed that the Princess was also powered up completely as well. "It's time for you to hand over your power, brat!"  
  
Serenity opened her eyes and glared into Beryl's with her own hatred. It was because of her that she was even born into this time, away from her real mother, not that she was complaining. And it was because of her that so many people had died in the past few days. "Moon Crystal Power!" A white beam of light came fourth from the Crystal and headed straight for Beryl.  
  
Beryl did nothing but hold her hand up to the power. Just before the Moon energy made contact, a shield of Dark Energy appeared around her body. Her plan hadn't at all been to attack Serenity. It had been to wear Serenity down of her power so much that she would eventually give up. Then, and only then would the power belong to the Dark Kingdom and Metallia would once again be revived. "Try as you may, you will never win!"  
  
Serenity said nothing, but continued to pour her soul into the Crystal in hopes to defeat Beryl. She could tell very well what Beryl was trying to do. She wasn't stupid. She wouldn't give up for one soul reason. Both her and Beryl knew who had the stronger power here. The power of the Moon was slightly stronger than the Dark Kingdom's, which meant if she pushed herself all the way to death she would win. It would have to be now or never. If Beryl would be allowed to win, Metallia would never be destroyed. There would be no more Moon Princess' to defeat her. It was a cause she was willing to die for. If Beryl thought she was going to give up just before dying, she was sadly mistaking.   
  
When Beryl was forced to take a step back she put her other hand up to the power to brace herself. All she had to do was last until the brat could take no more. It wouldn't be that hard.  
  
~*~*~  
  
After about three minutes of such a harsh beating of having her life slowly ripped out of her body, Serenity began to feel the effects. Already she could hardly stand anymore, but she knew Beryl had to be in the same condition. That was her only motivation. Whatever she was feeling inside, Beryl had too. Her breathing had already become faster and heavier. Her face bore thousands of tiny sweat droplets. Every single muscle in her body ached with pain. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could handle, but that didn't much matter at this point.   
  
Beryl was in fact feeling the same effects as Serenity. She had already fallen to one knee. Any minute now she expected the girl to give in. Why hadn't she already?  
  
As much as the Senshi wanted close their eyes and keep from watching their friend slowly wither away, they forced themselves to keep watching. In their mind, it was the right thing to do. Every now and then they offered words of encouragement, words that had actually kept Serenity going.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Serenity, herself, was finally brought to a knee as her heart beat faster and faster. She was beginning to feel lightheaded as she effects wore on. Her body shook with pain, but this did not stop her. She could feel Beryl's power weakening. Both of them would be gone soon. But it was for the better.   
  
Beryl was now on both knees and barely able to keep the Moon power back. Her arms violently shook with pain. What was the brat doing? Why hadn't she given up yet? At this rate, both of them would be dead before long. Is that what she really wanted? To give her life?  
  
All of a sudden, a bright light of Gold flared up from behind Beryl. No one, not even the Princess or the Senshi knew who or what it belonged to. But, before Beryl knew what was happening, she was thrown forward into the Moon energy, which completely obliterated her. All that could be heard was a quick, loud shrill of pain, and then the loud flowing energy of the Moon.  
  
Feeling that Beryl's energy had ceased to be, Serenity discontinued the flow of energy to the Crystal, letting it slowly merged with her again, causing the area to become dark and gloomy again. Her gown slowly disappeared, leaving her as Sailor Moon, but her body had lost much too much energy to sustain this form that she went back to being plain old Usagi in her pajamas. With heavy breathing and an aching body, Usagi looked up to where Beryl previously stood. "Wha....who..." Before she knew it, she was lying on the ground with the Senshi gathering around her.   
  
Sailor Mercury placed her hand on her friend's chest over her heart. It was beating too fast for a normal person. Usagi would have to rest for a while before she could get up again. She would have to recover from her victory. But, why had Beryl fallen so soon. She should have been able to hold on for at least another minute. Her energy hadn't depleted that much. "Usagi, you did it."  
  
Usagi rested her head on the ground and closed her eyes. She felt as if she were in a gravity chamber with 100 times gravity all around. "Mam..." Her fast breathing didn't allow her to finish a single word.  
  
Mars smiled as she pressed her forehead to Usagi's with laughter. "You did it! You really did it! You defeated Beryl and you didn't die!"  
  
A small smile slowly crossed Usagi's lips as she tried to speak again. "Mam..."  
  
Venus raised Usagi's head into her lap to use as a pillow. She looked up to her friends. "What was that power we felt right there at the end?"  
  
Jupiter shrugged. "Beats me. I've never felt it before in my life."  
  
Usagi opened her eyes. "Mam..." She frowned as she took a deep breath. Obviously, she was too tired for words. With all the strength she could muster up, she raised her shaky arm and pointed to where Beryl had been standing.   
  
The Senshi turned their heads in the direction that Usagi pointed. There stood a tall, muscular figure dressed in a black Gi with his arms crossed. The girls all smiled with a quick gasp. They would know that Gi anywhere. "Mamoru!"   
  
Yes, Mamoru. In the end, he had come to the rescue of the Princess. Even though he would never dream of marrying her, she was still a Princess, a Princess who happened to be his friend, even though he would never dream of admitting it to anyone but himself. Once he had figured out that Usagi used Pluto to get to this dimension, he quickly called her out and asked to be sent there as well. After all, he had been part of the Cell escapade and above all, was the Prince of Earth. Pluto agreed with no problem.  
  
Upon arriving in the Dark Kingdom, he realized that Usagi was already engaged in a fight with Beryl. He knew this was the big one, that Usagi wouldn't hesitate in giving her life. When he saw her condition, he flipped. Usagi shouldn't have to give her life to save the planet. No one should. Not for any reason. He made up his mind that the girl was insane, that he would do anything to keep her from dying. And that's when it happened. His power level skyrocketed out into nowhere. His body was immediately engulfed in a bright, golden light. His actions after that were careless, but it had gotten the job done. Unless he intervened, Usagi would have died. In a flash, he kicked Beryl from behind and watched the beam of Moon energy rip into her body.   
  
He smirked now as he looked down to the shocked Senshi. "What? What would I do if my rival was killed? I would have to find a new one."  
  
Mars smiled warmly as she stood up and faced Mamoru. "Thanks, Mamoru."  
  
Venus nodded. "Yeah, thanks. But, how did you get here?"  
  
Mamoru turned around and began walking forward toward the castle. "I have my secrets." He stopped and looked up to the hill. The castle and its people no longer had a queen. "I guess that's where Metallia is. We better get Usagi rested up so she can fight her next."  
  
Jupiter grinned. "That won't be necessary."  
  
Mamoru glanced back to the Senshi in green. "Oh? Why is that?"  
  
Mercury; "Because she hasn't awakened yet. That's why Beryl needed the energy of the Moon. Not only to make the Dark Kingdom unbeatable, but also to use to wake Metallia from her slumber. We've already defeated her, in a way."  
  
Mamoru smiled. Inside, he was yelling out in happiness. Now Usagi wouldn't have to risk her life again. "Fine. Then I'll destroy the castle, you guys just sit here and don't do anything stupid." He jumped into the air toward the castle, which would be rubble in a matter of minutes.   
  
Mars looked back to Usagi, who was still smiling. "How you feel?"  
  
Usagi shifted her head on Mercury's lap with a grunt. "Horrible, but going home will make it better."  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Upon returning back home, the girls, with Mamoru took Usagi directly to Hotaru's in hopes that she could replenish her energy. It was already five in the morning when they returned, and the early risers were already beginning to stir, but everyone at Hotaru's was still fast asleep.   
  
Mamoru, being the oldest and the biggest, held Usagi in his arms. Rei knocked on the child's window, hoping that she wasn't too sound of a sleeper. Usagi would need to be healed before she went home so her parents would suspect anything.  
  
Inside the room, Hotaru heard only a small knock through her sleep. But, it was enough to wake her up. She yawned and stretched, wondering what time it was. Rei knocked harder when she noticed the girl inside was beginning to stir. Hotaru groggily turned her head and looked at the window. She couldn't figure out what in the world the noise was. "Who's there?" She asked, barely audible. She yawned again as she slowly swung her legs over the edge of the bed and walked to the window. Her eyes flew wide open as she gasped at who exactly WAS there. She didn't waste any time throwing the window open for everyone to come in. The first thing her eyes flashed to was Usagi in Mamoru's arms. "What happened?!"   
  
Mamoru was the last to come in. He gently walked to the child's bed and placed Usagi in it, receiving a grunt from her. "She fought Beryl."  
  
If Hotaru's eyes could have, they would have shot wider than they already were. "What?!" She looked around to the girls, all of which solemnly nodded. "What happened?" She shot her attention back to Usagi. "She's hurt!"  
  
Ami nodded. "Yes. She almost died. She would have gladly give her life to defeat Beryl, but Mamoru intercepted her and saved her."  
  
Hotaru looked up to Mamoru in pure amazement. "YOU saved her?"  
  
Mamoru grinned. "What can I say? She's royalty."  
  
Makoto kneeled down to get eye level with Hotaru. "Can you heal her? She can't go home like this, her parents will start to wonder." Her eyes were beginning to tear up as she stared into the eyes of the young Saiyan.   
  
Hotaru nodded, wary of the girls' saddened expressions. They knew something that she did not. She slowly walked to her bed and placed her hands over Usagi. Without a word, her hands began to glow purple. The glow slowly traveled down from her hands and across Usagi's body.   
  
Usagi opened her eyes as she felt her energy being returned to her body. "Hotaru..."  
  
Hotaru smiled as she continued to heal her friend. But, something was strange. Usagi had never lost this much energy in a battle before, not even in the fight where her arm had been blown off. Nevertheless, she continued to pour as much healing power as she could into the Saiyan's body.   
  
Usagi smiled. The energy was loving and warm, so much unlike the energy in which she encountered in the Dark Kingdom. "Thank you, Hotaru."  
  
Hotaru nodded as she gently pulled away. She had replenished as much of Usagi's energy as she could, but it still wasn't full. Hotaru had used some of her own energy as well, but it wasn't enough. Usagi would have to fully recover on her own. "That's as much as I can do."  
  
Usagi sat up and rubbed her head. "I feel a lot better. Thanks." She looked down at the child with pain in her eyes. She would have to tell her about her mother now, something she didn't particularly want to do. She knew it would hurt Hotaru deeply, but it would have to be done. "Hotaru... We need to talk about something." She looked up to her friends as if to ask if she could be the one to tell. After all, she had always had a deeper connection with Hotaru, with them being Saiyans and all.   
  
Hotaru crawled up onto her bed and stared Usagi directly in the eyes as she awaited the story. She nodded to let her know she was ready. Usagi took a deep breath and sighed. "While we were in the dark Kingdom, the others had to fight a woman to protect me. Her name was Akii."  
  
Hotaru nodded, waiting for the rest. Akii didn't ring a bell. "Go on."  
  
Usagi looked up to her friends. She thought for sure that she would know who she was talking about if she mentioned the name. "The others fought her to protect me so I could save all my energy for Beryl and Metallia, but once they used their attacks on her, she became good again."  
  
Hotaru cocked her head to the side. "Again?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "She told us she was from the Planet Vejita, that she was a Saiyan healer, just like you..."  
  
Hotaru's face filled with horror as she looked around the room for confirmation. "How?"  
  
Usagi gulped. Here it came. "She told us a little about herself. She came from the past. Beryl brought her here and trained her to be evil, but she didn't want to be evil. She ran away to earth and met your father..." Hotaru backed away from Usagi and grabbed a pillow for security. "She told us she was your mother, that she was kidnapped three years ago..."  
  
Tears began to stream down Hotaru's face as she dug her nose deep into the pillow. "No! It's not true!" Usagi paused, seeing the girl's obvious agony. Hotaru looked up, slightly. "What happened to her?"  
  
"Do you want me to tell you, Hotaru?" Hotaru nodded. "Ok. We tried to save her but..."  
  
Hotaru screamed out in agony as she fell sideways onto her bed. "MOMMY!"   
  
Usagi lowered her head. "I'm sorry."  
  
Hotaru said nothing, she just popped her thumb into her mouth and curled up into a ball. Minako sat next to the child and wrapped her arm around her. "Hotaru..." Still, no word came from the girl. She seemed to be in a trance of some sort.   
  
Minako shook the girl, hoping to get a word out of her. "Hotaru, please, say something. Don't just sit there." But the harder she shook, the tighter her curl became. It seemed to be no use.   
  
Mamoru approached the girl and rubbed her head. "You guys leave. I'll stay here with her until you can return."  
  
Rei looked up to him with confusion. "What are you talking about? We can't leave. Not with her like this!"  
  
Mamoru frowned. "You can't just stay here all night! You'll get in trouble, and I know Odango is gonna cry if she can't go home and see her parents real soon."  
  
Usagi frowned and slapped Mamoru in the back of the head. "That's not funny! I'm not going to cry!" She looked back down to Hotaru and calmed down. She did have to get out of there. She couldn't stay here forever. She would have to go home soon since her father would be waking up in about an hour and a half to go out and train. Hotaru would be safe with Mamoru, wouldn't she? He had changed so much, he even saved her from death. "Are you sure you'll be alright?"  
  
Mamoru nodded. "I'll be fine. My dad doesn't even care if I stay out all night anymore. I can take care of myself. I'll watch her until her dad wakes up."  
  
Ami; "What are you going to tell him?"  
  
Mamoru sighed. "Nothing, I'm going to leave before he sees me."  
  
Makoto lowered her head. "You're awful, you know that?"   
  
Mamoru frowned. "Do you WANT me to blow your cover? That's the only way I can tell him why she's like this! Any other way would be completely useless because it would be so unbelievable!"  
  
Makoto sighed. "Fine!" She turned looked up to Usagi, who was looking worriedly at Hotaru. "Let's go."  
  
Usagi nodded as she rubbed Hotaru's head. "We'll be back later to see how you're doing." She glared back up to Mamoru. "If she does ANYTHING tell us."  
  
Mamoru nodded. "Fine, fine."  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Once at home, Usagi ran directly to her parents' room. She didn't want to wait until later that day to see them. After having such a dramatic goodbye earlier, she felt as if she hadn't seen them in years. She wished she could have told them about her night, they would be so proud of her, but she knew she couldn't. It was the oath of a Senshi not to reveal their identity.   
  
She slowly opened the door to their room and smiled. There they were, sleeping so soundly, ignorant of her near death experience. If only they had known, they wouldn't be so calm. Closing the door behind her, she walked to their bed and pushed her way between them. She snuggled into her mother, causing her to wake up.  
  
Chi-Chi looked down at her daughter, who was still dressed for bed. She wrapped her arm over her child and smiled. "How are you feeling, Usagi?"  
  
Usagi smiled. She had beaten Beryl and escaped with her life. In doing so, she saved the Earth from destruction. And now, now she was home where she should be. There really was only one answer to be given. "Wonderful."  
  
(THE END!!!!!! ... of Book 7. Damn! That took me forever to write! I'm sorry! So... what did you think? I'd love to hear. On with the next Book! I already have it completely planned out too! ^_^ cya! ) 


	127. The Riple Effect Part 1

( Well, I finally made it to the next Book. I already have everything in mind about where I want to take this, so I don't think we have to worry about writer's block and I don't think I'm going to dip back into a slump again. And, I see some of you think 7 books is already A LOT, and, while it is, I hope you all remember why I am writing this story. I want to see how long I can keep this story going, and because it's fun ^_^ I'm even thinking about making another one right after this, because this story is about her childhood, well, because of something I wrote in book 7, I HAVE to write about her adulthood, or just to a certain point.... Well, Cya at the end! )  
  
  
Nearly eight months had passed since the episode with Beryl and, so far, nothing had happened in the way of attacks. The day after they returned to Earth, the girls transformed into the Senshi for one last deed, though not to fight. It was time to put everything right again. They gathered at their tree house, and, once transformed, teleported directly to the Son house, where three of the Dragon Balls were being held. This time, they didn't make the same mistake that they had in the past. They didn't just barge into the house, thinking that they would be able to take the Dragon Balls. At this point, the girls didn't want to turn Goku against them for he would be a powerful ally to them in the future, since they couldn't tell him who they really were. Instead, they told him of the situation, that they had beaten Beryl and her kingdom during the early hours of the night, that it was now safe to bring everyone back. Upon hearing this, Goku had willingly gathered all the Dragon Balls in the house, including Usagi's six star Ball, and accompanied the girls to Capsule Corp., where they would acquire the Dragon Ball radar. Although he knew the Senshi were for good, he wanted to make sure the job was done right.   
  
Once the Dragon Balls had been collected, they summoned the Dragon and wished for everyone on Earth that had been killed by the Dark Kingdom to be brought back to life. For their second wish, they wished that everyone on Earth, excluding the Z fighters and the Senshi, have their memories wiped clean of the incidents, just like they had when Buu was finally defeated.   
  
The Senshi felt the spirits of everyone returning to life, all except for one very important person and that was Hotaru's mother, Akii. She had died in another dimension, one that really had no connection with this one other than that of people moving from one to the other. She would stay dead, in the remains of the Dark Kingdom.   
  
The girls had gone to Hotaru's, later that day, just as they had promised. Mamoru had already left. Her father hadn't gone to work, fearing that his daughter had once again gone into her little hole. She hadn't said anything, and continued to say virtually nothing for the next eight months. The girls hadn't told her about the Dragon Balls, how they didn't bring her back, but she figured that's what had happened, which was why she pulled further away from the world. She continued to go to school, though not talking to anyone, not even her friends. She'd rather have just kept to herself while she did some heavy thinking. She had also given up learning how to fight. She had no will to anymore.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~*~ Eight Months Later ~*~  
  
Usagi rolled over in her bed as her alarm screamed at her to get up. She gave a huge yawn as she rubbed her heavy eyes. Today was a big day for her. She would finally be going to back to a real school. For a good part of her sixth grade year, she had studied at home with her mother due to the destroying of her elementary. But now, it was September again and she would be going to a new school. Today, she would be starting her seventh year of schooling at Junior High.   
  
She took one look at her clock, which read "7:00 A.M" and immediately dove her head under her pillows to block out the sound. Although it was a new school with a new environment, it was still school, nonetheless. She had enjoyed her time alone for the past three months of summer vacation. Usagi could hear the door to her room slowly opening and immediately knew who it was, her mother.   
  
Chi-Chi walked to her daughter's bed and chuckled. "Time to get up. School starts at Eight. You don't want to be late for your first day, do you?" She walked to the clock on her daughters desk and turned off the alarm. She turned back to her daughter and noticed that she hadn't moved a muscle. "Son Usagi! Get your butt out of bed!"   
  
Usagi groaned as she pulled her head out from under her pillow. She knew better than to disobey her mother when it came to school. "Yes, mom." Her hair was a mess of tangles and the fur on her tail was matted.   
  
Chi-Chi smiled as she turned to leave. "Breakfast will be ready in a little while."  
  
Usagi groggily swung her legs over the edge of her bed. "Ok." She waited until her mother was completely out of the room and let herself fall back over into her soft, warm bed.  
  
Outside her daughter's door, Chi-Chi grinned. She knew how kids worked. "And don't let me catch you falling back to sleep!"   
  
Usagi's eyes bolted open as she jumped up from her bed. The first thing she focused on was the door to make sure her mother hadn't seen her lying in bed again. She rubbed her head with another yawn. Hopefully her first day at this school would be nothing like her first day at her last school. There would be kids at this school who had never been to her old school because four elementary schools fed this one. There would be people there who had never seen or met her before. Of course, these people would be older and more mature than before...hopefully.   
  
From her closet, she pulled out one of her new school uniforms, which she had gotten only two weeks before. It was the of a different color than her old uniform that she had to wear. This one had a white shirt with a blue skirt.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi dressed herself for school rather quickly. She didn't want to miss out on breakfast. Once she had finally gotten her hair under control, she made a quick dash for the kitchen, where she could already smell the sweet aroma of her mother's cooking. "Mmm... mom that smells good." She commented as she turned the corner into the kitchen where she found her father already on his fifth plate. She gave him a playful frown and sat down next to him at the table. "I really hope you didn't eat it all or else there's gonna be trouble."  
  
Goku returned the frown with a grin of his own. "You really think you can take me down?"  
  
Usagi smiled as she began filling her own plate. "Maybe. Mom did." She grinned as she glanced at her father.  
  
"Hey, hey. We don't have to bring that up now." His fifth plate was gone, and now he was on his sixth.  
  
Chi-Chi chuckled as sat on the end of the table with her own food. She was through serving her husband. If he wanted more, he would have to get it himself. "Oh come on, Goku. Have a little fun, I bet I could do it again."  
  
Goku gave his wife a playful smirk. "Yeah right. I'd be ready for ya. You couldn't even lay a single finger on me. I don't even have to raise my power level to take you out."  
  
Usagi giggled as she looked up to her mother, who apparently wasn't going to say anything. She was too busy with her food. "Oooh. Are you just going to sit there and let him talk to you like that? As a proud woman, mom, I don't think you should take that." She grinned at her father, who was already scooping himself his seventh plate of food.  
  
This time, Goku filled his plate so tall that the food looked as if it were going to tip over. "Don't you have some place you have to be, kiddo?" He rubbed his hands together and licked his lips. Finally, his stomach would be satisfied. "Now this is what I call a meal!"  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes at her father's antics. Meals at her house were always the best. Her father was always so entertaining. "No more for you." She reached over him and grabbed the remaining food and placed it in front of her own plate. "I haven't even had seconds yet."  
  
Chi-Chi looked up from her meal and at the clock. It read 7:40 A.M. "You should hurry up, Usagi. School's going to start in twenty minutes. Do you remember the promise you made to your father and I?"  
  
Usagi nodded with a sigh. "Yes."  
  
Satisfied with her daughter's answer, Chi-Chi smiled. "Good. You're going to put an honest effort to get to school on time from now on. No more walking into class one minute before it starts."  
  
Usagi nodded again as she filled her plate with her seconds, which would be her last. "I know mom. I told you I remembered."  
  
"I'm just making sure."  
  
"Come on. Give her a break, Chi-Chi. She knows." Goku finished his last bite of food and patted his stomach. "When's lunch?"   
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she looked up to her husband. "Can it. You've already had enough food for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner in one sitting. You can wait."  
  
Goku sighed as he looked down to his giggling daughter. His face all of a sudden became serious. "How's Hotaru doing? Has she gotten any better?"  
  
Usagi took a sip of orange juice as she swallowed her food to answer. "Not really." She looked up to her father, who seemed to be ready to listen intently. "We went to her house a couple of days ago. She didn't really seem to want to talk at all so Kaori turned us away. I haven't really been able to see her for a few weeks now. We just keep getting turned away."  
  
Chi-Chi sighed as she stood up and began to clear off the table. "That poor thing. I wonder how it happened."  
  
Goku; "Who knows. She was fine until the day after the Senshi beat Beryl."   
  
"Speaking of the Senshi, I wonder what ever happened to them. We never see them around anymore."  
  
Goku shook his head. "Not after Beryl was beaten, no." He looked back to his daughter. "Have you seen or heard from them?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. Of course she was lying, but she had gotten quite good at hiding the important things from him. "Nope. Not a word." She looked at the clock. Thank goodness. It was already 7:45. She could escape this conversation before she slipped and said something. "Gotta go! Don't wanna be late!"   
  
Goku grinned. "You've only got about fifteen minutes. You're going to be late."  
  
Usagi returned the grin as her hair and tail flared up in silver. "Not if I got like this!" She laughed aloud as she turned around and began leaving the room.  
  
Goku smiled at his daughter. "Have fun... and don't fight with any of the upperclassmen this time."   
  
Remembering all the trouble that they had had in the past when Usagi first went to school, Chi-Chi slapped her husband on the back of the head. How could he be so inconsiderate? "Goku! That's not funny!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi flew as fast as she could to her new school, which was almost right by Capsule Corp. She definitely didn't want to be late for her first day of school. That wouldn't be a good thing, especially since she was going to try her hardest to get on the good side of her teacher. That had always been a rough spot for her. Her teachers always seemed to have some reason to be on her case about. Except for Miss Haruna. But that was another story. Part of her wanted to go to school for the new experience, but another part wished it hadn't come yet. School only meant more work for her.  
  
Now she was almost halfway to school with nearly ten minutes to spare. She was making great time, according to her, that is. She already knew where her class was since she had taken a tour of the place with her parents the day she went into register. Now it was just a matter of showing up. She didn't even have to worry about finding her friends. They still had the same class as they had when they were in elementary school, luckily. After the destruction of the school, most of the students were held back a year. She and her friends had been lucky enough to be home-schooled so they could move onto the next year. They only knew of five other people from their class that had moved on.   
  
Noticing that she only had about seven minutes left and being only a three fourths of the way there, Usagi upped her power level a bit, increasing her speed.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, at school, Rei, Minako, Makoto, and Ami all gathered together in their new classroom. It was much bigger than their old one, but it still felt like school. The room was filled with many kids whom they had never met nor did they wish to. They rather liked the security of their own group, especially now that their true identity had been revealed to them. They felt as if no one else should be let into their small group of friends.   
  
Minutes ago, Ami had picked out her seat in the center front of the room. This would be her desk of choice to sit in for the rest of the year. Here, she could see the bored easily without being distracted by the rest of the students.   
  
Minako had already placed her things at a desk in the back of the room. She didn't much care for the front where the teacher stood. It left her too wide open for questioning. She much rather liked to sit in the back where she could drift off into her own little world without having to worry about the teacher noticing. She saved a place next to her for Usagi, who she knew would definitely have a fit if she couldn't sit in the back.  
  
Makoto and Rei picked seats next to each other in the middle of the room, right where they liked it. They didn't like to be in front, for the same reasons Minako didn't, but they also didn't like sitting in the back because, unlike Minako and Usagi, they wanted to learn something.   
  
Usagi burst into the room about five minutes before school started. Before she even entered the building she lowered her power level so her hair would go back to its normal color. She looked around the bustling room, not recognizing a single face besides those of her friends, who were all huddled in a corner in the back of the room. It was like the first day of kindergarten all over again, minus the teasing. She held her bag in her hands as she slowly made her way to the corner of the room, noticing that not a single person was looking at her even though she waved her tail behind her legs to test them.   
  
Ami was the first to notice Usagi and the first thing she did was shoot a glance up at the clock. She shook her head with a smirk. "You're losing it already, Usagi. Didn't you tell your mom you'd make an honest effort to get to school on time this year?"  
  
Usagi smiled as she dropped her bag on the ground. "I did get here on time. I still have five minutes." She explained as she pointed up at the clock. "I'd never break a promise to my mom... anymore."  
  
Rei rolled her eyes as she pulled away from the wall in which she was leaning against. "We'll believe that when we see that."  
  
Usagi sighed. "My friends have no faith in me." She grinned as she looked up. "So! How has everyone's day gone so far?! Mine's absolutely perfect! No one's stared at me once since I got here, and no one here knows me!"   
  
Minako glanced to her right. She noticed a dusty-blonde haired kid looking their way. Quickly turning away, she grabbed Usagi by the arm with a frown. "Well, there is one person, I think."  
  
Usagi sighed once again as she lowered her head. When would people learn? She looked back up. She wouldn't let this person ruin her first day of Junior High. She was stronger, emotionally, now than she was before. "Who cares! I'm still gonna have a great day. I can feel it."   
  
Just then, the door opened and the first teacher of the day made his way to the front desk, letting the students know that class would be starting. The girls quickly dispersed to their seats. Usagi followed Minako to their back of the room seats, while Ami made her way to the front.   
  
As Ami was pulling out her things, she couldn't help but notice the person sitting next to her, staring at her with empty. It was the same dusty-blonde haired kid who had been watching Usagi with curiosity, but she hadn't noticed him before. She smiled kindly at him as she set her binder on her desk and turned back to the teacher.   
  
The young teacher, who looked to be in his mid twenties, stood in front of his desk and looked around to the room of students, who stared impatiently back at him. They looked like a room full of drones with their drooping eyes looking as if they were about to fall out of their sockets. "Good morning class. I am Mr. Sakaguchi and I will be your History teacher for the year." The room sounded out with groans. History was probably the worst subject to have first period since it had a tendency to put people to sleep and the students were already tired from having to wake up so early. "I know, I know. But I'm stuck with you too. Don't think I'm getting the good end of the bargain."  
  
Minako frowned as she leaned over to Usagi. "Who does this guy think he is?" Usagi shrugged as she set her head on the table.  
  
Mr. Sakaguchi looked around the room at the gloomy students. "You guys need to wake up a bit. Why don't you all try to get to know each other's names a bit before we start. After all, you're going to be stuck with each other for the next three years." He walked behind his desk and sat down in the chair, only to be faced with the bored faces of his students once again. "Come on. Get up and meet some new people. You can't all know each other."  
  
The students all stared at each other in pure amazement that a teacher would ever allow them to do such a thing. But, slowly, the room began to liven up again with chatter as students started to introduce themselves to one another.   
  
Just as Ami was getting up from her seat, she noticed that the boy on her right, the dusty-haired boy wasn't moving or saying a word to anyone. He just sat there looking like a machine with no one to serve. He reminded her of herself when she was younger, before she had met her friends. During things like these she would always just sit there on her own with no one to talk to. No one really cared to talk to a bookworm like her. Thinking that this was the reason why he wasn't moving, she decided to introduce herself to him. "Hi!" She chirped as she held out her hand to the boy. "I'm Mizuno Ami, what's your name?"  
  
The boy turned his head up to her without a smile. He just stared blankly into her eyes. "Tatsuo."  
  
Ami smiled. "No last name?"  
  
The boy slowly shook his head. "No last name." He continued to stare at her as if he couldn't move his head.   
  
"Strange." She said as she pulled up her chair and sat next to him. She felt somewhat uncomfortable that he was staring at her in such a manner, as well as rude. "So, what elementary school are you from?" The closer she got to him, the stranger he looked at her and the more she began to feel that this kid was one strange cookie. He just kept staring at her like a drone, like he didn't know what else he was supposed to do. Ami had heard a lot of strange things about people in Junior High, but this was just ridiculous.   
  
Tatsuo made no movement what-so-ever. He just sat there. "This is the first time I've gone to school."  
  
Ami lifted a brow in surprise. "The first time? That's odd. All kids are supposed to go to school before this. Are you sure it just wasn't called something else? Like a secondary learning center or something?"   
  
Tatsuo shook his head back and fourth in the most uniform style one could. "I'm sure." He made his first normal movement when he rested his elbow on his knee and his head in his palm. "So tell me, Mizuno Ami, what school are you from?"  
  
Ami smiled. "You don't have to be so formal. Call me Ami."  
  
Tatsuo nodded. "I will, Ami."  
  
"I'm from the school that was destroyed last year. My friends and I were educated at home, which is the only reason why we were able to advance."  
  
A slight smile crossed the lips of the strange boy as he leaned forward. "Your school blew up?"  
  
Ami nodded. "How could you not know? It was all over the news for a week." Remembering that they had used the Dragon Balls to erase the memories of Earth's people, she used the false reason why it had blown up, the reason that the media had come up with. "There was a gas leak, but no one was hurt. The building was completely lost, though."  
  
Tatsuo leaned even more forward. "Are you sure it was a gas leak, or was it really something else?"   
  
Ami backed away a little. Now he was getting weird. He didn't know, did he? How could he? His memory of the incident was wiped clean by the power of the Dragon Balls. "I wouldn't know. I'm pretty sure it is that because that's what was told over the news."  
  
Tatsuo chuckled, his first sign of any emotion. "You can't trust anything the media puts out over the news these days. One should only take the word of a witness."  
  
Ami gritted her teeth. There he went again, making accusations that pointed to her knowing something more than she should. What was up with this kid? "What are you getting at?"  
  
Tatsuo frowned. "You were there when it happened right? I mean, you had to have been in class when it happened, right? Unless school was out."  
  
Ami calmed down a bit as she bit her lower lip. Maybe she was jumping to too many conclusions. Of course he wouldn't know her secret. "Yes. I was there when it happened. We were all evacuated already when it happened. You know, routine earthquake drills and all. At the first sign of a fire in the school and we were taken further away from the school. It wasn't until most of us were gone when it actually exploded." Ami wasn't sure if this was actually how people remembered it because of the Dragon Balls, but what did it matter? This kid seemed to be completely clueless. "So, where were you when all of this was happening?" It was her turn to ask the questions now. Her turn to make him feel uncomfortable.  
  
Tatsuo leaned back in his chair with a wide smile. "Away."  
  
Ami sighed. This kid was way too vague. "Away?"  
  
Tatsuo nodded. "Away."  
  
Ami sighed again as she banged her head against the table. 'Why o' why did I have to come over here and talk to him? He's SO weird! This isn't even funny!'  
  
Tatsuo stood up and looked around the classroom. He paid special attention to Usagi and the girls she was with. "Is that blonde haired girl with the pigtails your friend?"  
  
Ami raised her head and nodded. "Yes, why?"  
  
Tatsuo shrugged. "Just wondering." He looked back down at Ami and smiled. "So, Ami, why does she have a tail? I mean, is she deformed or something? Is that supposed to be a third leg growing out of her butt that never fully developed?"  
  
Ami frowned as she stood up. How could this kid be like a zombie one minute and then a complete ass the next. "I don't know! Why don't you ask here yourself!?"  
  
Tatsuo chuckled as he sat back down in his chair. "It was an honest question. I wasn't trying to be mean or anything." A long silence followed his apology as he looked at the trees and birds just outside the window. "Ami?"  
  
Ami frowned. She figured he was just going to make another rude comment about Usagi, or ask about her again, which she wasn't about to tell. That was Usagi's business, which she would never tell unless she was told to. "What?"  
  
Tatsuo's eyes glimmered with curiosity. "Tell me about this planet."  
  
Ami flinched away, wary of his question. "What are you talking about? You've lived here your whole life and you don't know anything about it?"  
  
Tatsuo quickly looked around the room as if he had been caught in the middle of something, but soon found himself looking out the window again. "I never said I don't know anything about it, I just want to know more. You seem like the kind of person to know a lot of stuff."  
  
Ami fluttered her eyes and put her hands together. "You mean a dork?" She asked sweetly.  
  
Tatsuo smiled, though not arrogantly or rudely. "If that's what you call it."  
  
Ami frowned as she set her hands on her waist and stood up. "You jerk!" She quickly turned to walk away. Dork was something she hadn't been called in a long time and it wasn't something she was willing to listen to anymore. She had been called that her entire life, and wasn't about to put up with it anymore.  
  
Tatsuo was left, curious as to what had set the girl off so easily. "Wha'd I say?"   
  
~*~*~  
  
For the rest of the period, the students pretty much had free time. Their teacher hadn't been completely prepared for the day either. But, he promised them that the following day would be a work day, which was fine by the students. At least they wouldn't have to do anything that day. But, the other periods of the day were filled with work. Ami had tried her best not to look at Tatsuo, even though it was hard not to since he sat next to her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him staring at her like a Zombie again. And at every break between periods he would always want to talk to her. She was beginning to think that sitting in the front wasn't the best idea.  
  
She was happy when lunch finally rolled around. It would be the only time of the day when she could get away from him since there was no recess in Junior High.   
  
The first thing she did when the lunch bell rang was dart directly for the door and out of the room, leaving Tatsuo behind. Usagi and Minako in the back of the room were amazed. Ami was usually one of the last people out of the room for lunch, but here she was, one of the firsts. They exchanged looks with Rei and Makoto as they joined up into a group of four and simply shrugged. They figured Ami was exceptionally hungry that day.  
  
The group of four vacated their classroom almost as fast as Ami had, except with more people to block their way at the door. By the time they left, however, Tatsuo was still sitting at his desk and staring at the board, though none of the girls noticed this.   
  
Minako was the first to notice Ami standing WAY down the hall. "Ami! Whatcha doin down there?!"  
  
Ami looked around, Tatsuo was no where in sight, but he hadn't come out yet. She needed time alone to talk to her friends without him. She needed to tell them about him, that she needed saving. Maybe she could switch seats with one of the other classmen. She refused to sit by someone who thought of her as a dork, as well as someone who was so strange as him. "Shh!" She scolded.  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes as she began walking in the direction of the lunch room, her stomach growling loudly. This time, on her way to the eating area, she held no lunch bag. That was yet another perk of starting Junior High. She could now buy her lunch at school instead of take it from home. Her mother now trusted her with keeping a daily budget of Lunch money, now that she was becoming more responsible.   
  
Makoto reached back and grabbed Usagi by the collar of her shirt. "Where do you think you're going?"  
  
Usagi sighed. "I'm hungry." She whined. "I need food."   
  
Makoto grinned. "We have to go together. The lunch room was the only place we didn't go during out tour, remember? We wanted to wait until today."  
  
Usagi once again sighed of hunger. "Fine." She turned back around and hollered down the hall. "Come on! We're hungry!"  
  
Ami nodded as she ran down the hall as fast as she could, passing up her classroom on the way. "Well!" She shouted back to her friends, "Let's go!"   
  
  
( Ok, I realize this is out a little later than I had hoped by a couple of hours, but I forgot to tell you. Sunday's for the next few weeks are going to be quite busy for me so I probably won't always be able to get a new chapter out on these days. And if I do, it will be later than usual. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. The only reason why I got one out today is because I didn't tell you. Sorry. Anyway, it's sort of slow moving so far, but once I get past phase one it will pick up. How'd it sound so far? ) 


	128. Part 2

~*~*~*~  
  
The room was huge, bigger than they had expected. It was even bigger than the gym in their old school. It had to be if it were meant to fit half a school of growing kids in for lunch. There were a total of five lines all spread out throughout this massive room known only as the cafeteria. A couple of the lines were for buying a regular lunch, while another was kept for a specialty. The other two lines were snack lines, one Usagi's eyes made their way to as soon as the group of friends had entered. Each one of the girls had their own choice of food.   
  
Usagi opened her mouth with glimmering eyes as she licked her lips. "I think I'm gonna like lunch here."  
  
Noticing exactly what the Saiyan had in her view, Makoto giggled. "And if your mom ever found out about your o-so-nutritious lunch she'd freak."  
  
Usagi grinned as she began making her way to one of the snack lines where the line was already building to be twice as long as the regular lunch line. "She's not here, is she? I told her I'd buy lunch, I didn't tell her what though."  
  
Minako smiled wide as she grabbed Usagi by the wrist. "Come on! Let's get us some sweetness!"  
  
Makoto slapped her forehead with a sigh. "They've passed onto the dark side."  
  
Rei smiled, her own eyes were on the salad bar. "Come on, let's indulge ourselves into this greatness."   
  
Makoto shrugged her shoulders with a nod. "Ok." Just as she was beginning to step away, she stopped, noticing that Ami was looking around as if to make sure that no one had followed her here. She found this weird, as Ami had never really been the most paranoid person in the world. But, even her behavior before they had come down to the cafeteria had been strange. "You got something on your mind?" She asked with concern.  
  
Ami quickly flinched away and turned up to face Makoto. She put on a false smile and shook her head. "No... well..." Her smile slowly began to fade as the two girls started for the lunch line. "There's this boy..."  
  
Makoto grinned as she looked over to her friend. "Oh? A boy? Do you have a crush on him, or does he have a crush on you?"  
  
Ami blushed with a quick shaking of her head. "No, no. It's nothing like that. It's one of the boy's from our class, Tatsuo. Apparently he's a new kid."  
  
Makoto got in line behind the last person, motioning for Ami to do the same. "He's new? Where's he from?"  
  
Ami remembered their conversation. She remembered asking him that same question, but being returned with a vague answer. "I'm not sure. He just said he was away. I don't think he was anywhere around here because he didn't even know about the explosion." She paused to look at Makoto, who seemed to be listening intently. "He was really kind of creepy, you know? He's never even been to school before this day, that's not normal."  
  
"He was probably home-schooled. Lots of kids are these days, you know? Gohan and Goten were home-schooled until high school, this kid must have been home-schooled just until this year. What's his name?"   
  
Ami nodded. That was a possibility she hadn't thought of before. Maybe that was it. Maybe, just maybe that was why he was acting so strange. He had never really had any interaction with other children before and didn't know how to handle himself. But then, why would he ask about the Earth? Didn't he know anything about it? Hadn't he been taught anything? "His name is Tatsuo, he's the blonde who sits by me in the front. He kept trying to talk to me during every break between classes and every time a new teacher would come in."  
  
Makoto found herself giggling. It hadn't even dawned on her that Ami hadn't really ever been put in a situation like this before. Before Bulma had introduced them, no one had really tried to talk to her before. This must have been a strange experience. She figured her friend was just exaggerating. She probably felt as if this kid was only being nice to her hurt her in the end. "Look at this, normally you're the one with the straight head on her shoulders, but now look at you."  
  
Ami blushed as she lowered her head. She began to quietly giggle to herself. "Yeah. I'm probably blowing this entire thing out of proportion."  
  
Another person bumped into Ami from behind. "Blowing what out of proportion?"   
  
Ami continued to giggle until she turned around to see exactly who had just come to her. It was Tatsuo. She quickly jumped back into Makoto with a gasp. "Tatsuo!" She yelled in a fret. Her heart began to speed up as she looked around for reassurance. How long had he been standing there? How much had he heard? Had he heard anything at all? "Ho...how long have you been standing there?"  
  
Tatsuo stood with a huge, goofy smile on his face; goofier than Goku's normal smile. "Long enough."  
  
Ami's face turned completely pale. "Long enough?"  
  
Tatsuo nodded big, still with his goofy smile. "Long enough to realize who you are. Did I scare you, Mizuno Ami?"  
  
Ami's heart slowly calmed down as she let out a big sigh. This kid was just too much for her. She looked up to face Tatsuo in the eyes. "No, Tatsuo, you didn't scare me. You only startled me."  
  
Still smiling wide, Tatsuo looked up to Makoto, who was looking curiously back down at him. "Who is this? Is this a friend?"  
  
Ami looked up to Makoto and then back to Tatsuo. "Yes. This is Makoto."  
  
Makoto smiled as she reached around Ami and held her hand for the boy to take. "Nice to meet you, Tatsuo."  
  
Tatsuo looked down at the hand, confused, as if he didn't know what to do, and then back up to its owner. "What do you want me to do?"  
  
Makoto's smile soon faded as she pulled her hand back. "Weird guy." She whispered into Ami's ear.  
  
Ami nodded. "Tell me about it."  
  
Tatsuo turned back to Ami as the line finally moved up two steps. "You never told me about the Earth." He looked out the window at a statue that stood in the quad which looked to be the home to many birds. "I want to know about its ecosystem, the seasons, any atta... I mean any disasters."  
  
Ami and Makoto exchanged looks with one another. Neither of them knew what to say. They slowly turned back to face him, but with an intention of keeping their knowledge to themselves.   
  
Makoto; "Did you just say what I think you said, cause I could have sworn you were about to say..."  
  
Tatsuo; "I said everything I meant to say and nothing else." His smile soon disappeared, and was replaced with a solemn expression, much like Ami wore on her face.   
  
~*~*~  
  
It was now Usagi and Minako's turn to purchase their lunch, after waiting seven minutes for the line to die down. They both eagerly eyed the menu like two little, devil-eyed gremlins. The lady behind the counter had never seen such a sight. "Hurry up and make an order."  
  
Usagi slapped down a five-dollar bill on the counter, which her mother had given her earlier that morning. It would have been enough for two lunches and a snack, but spending it all on junk food would get her more for her money in the long run. She began naming off items that she wanted, and the lady behind the counter complied.   
  
After Usagi, it was Minako's turn. She herself slapped down her own five-dollar bill. "I want the same."   
  
The lady behind the counter looked down at the girl in amazement. Out of all the years she had been serving this school she had never met any child who ordered as much junk food as these two did. "Does your mother know you're eating like this?" She asked as she glared at the two kids.  
  
Minako frowned. "Ma'am, if my mother cared what I buy for lunch she would make me take one from home."  
  
Usagi nodded. "If you don't want kids to eat like this, then don't offer this kind of stuff at lunch."  
  
The lady grunted as she reluctantly served Minako the food in which she had ordered. The kids were right, in a way, and she couldn't exactly fight back with them without getting in trouble. "If you were my kids I would never let you eat like this. You're not being fair to your body."  
  
Ignoring the lecture, Minako licked her lips and picked up the tray from the counter. "Yum!"  
  
Usagi nodded with much excitement. "Now this is what I call lunch!" She looked over her own tray one more time to make sure she had everything that she wanted. When she looked up, the first things she looked for were her friends. She spotted them in at a table in a small corner in the very back of the room by two huge windows. "Looks like everyone got their lunch already." She said as she tried her best to point.  
  
"Huh?" Minako looked up, her eyes trailing directly to where Usagi was pointing to. "Oh. I see." She smiled as she couldn't wait to tell the girls about the snack line. But, she noticed someone new at the table. It was a boy, the same boy who had been staring at Usagi before their first class. What was he doing sitting there? Had he come to make fun of Usagi to her face? "Uh-oh."  
  
Usagi looked up from her delicious looking food. "What?"  
  
Minako frowned. "Looks like we've got company."  
  
Usagi looked back at their table and took special notice to the boy who was sitting there with her friends. "Cool. Looks like someone made a new friend."   
  
Minako rolled her eyes. "No. I don't think so. That's the guy who was staring at you earlier today. He's probably come to make fun of you or something."  
  
Usagi frowned as she sped up her pace. "Great."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Tatsuo watched as Makoto, Ami, and Rei devoured their food in fascination. Although he had gone through the lunch line, he had bought nothing, which the girls had found strange. Now he watched them as if they were doing something out of the ordinary. And they watched him the same.   
  
He bent over with his hand on his stomach. "Why is my middle feeling so strange?" He had already stopped staring at Ami like a drone had already become more emotional than before, though he stayed with one emotion for a few minutes and then all of a sudden changed. He also seemed to lack common knowledge.  
  
Rei looked over at Ami as she took a bit of her salad. She had only just met the boy, and already, she thought him to be a little on the weird side, though not as weird as Ami had. She just figured it was because it was the first day of school, his first day ever going to school around here. "Don't you mean your stomach?"  
  
Tatsuo nodded. "...Yes... That's precisely what I meant." He looked down to it as it growled at him. "It's making strange noises."  
  
Ami sighed as she rested her forehead in the palm of her hands. "That means you're hungry. You need to fill it with food."  
  
Tatsuo cocked his head to the side. "Oh! Nutrition...right?"  
  
Ami nodded. "If that's what you call it, yes."  
  
Tatsuo nodded. "That is what I call it. My STOMACH needs nutrition from food. I will go and get some." Just as he looked up to get himself out of his chair, he noticed Usagi and Minako making their way to the table and a sly grin crossed his face. Finally, he would get to talk with the tailed girl. "Ami, your other friends have come."   
  
Ami looked up to Minako and Usagi, her only two friends who have yet to meet this annoying boy. To think, they would have to put up with him for three years. She didn't think she would be able to make it if he was this annoying after only about four hours. "Hey, guys."  
  
Minako and Usagi were unresponsive. They were more concerned with this Tatsuo guy. What did he want? Why was he at their table acting all buddy-buddy with their friends? Usagi set her tray down on the table. "So..."  
  
Rei stared at Usagi and Minako, who were frowning. "What's up? You two don't look too happy?"  
  
Tatsuo looked at Usagi and Minako and frowned. "Why aren't you going to introduce me to your friends, Mizuno Ami?"   
  
Ami sighed. "It's Ami, just Ami. And, these are my friends, Usagi with the Odangos and Minako with the red bow. Guys, this is Tatsuo, he's not from around here and hasn't really gone to school before this."   
  
Tatsuo continued to frown. "It's nice to meet you."   
  
Usagi noticed the boy scowling at her and frowned back. "What's wrong with you? Did your face get stuck like that?"  
  
Tatsuo wiped the frown off his face and became curious. "Is it possible for humans' faces to become stuck in one position, Ami?"  
  
Ami shrugged. "I don't know, maybe." She knew the answer, but who cares if she told it right. She was already sick of this kid. She wanted to hang out with her friends, alone. Not with this guy following them around.   
  
Makoto noticed that Minako and Usagi were both still frowning at Tatsuo. She wondered if they had already met him before. "What's wrong?"  
  
Minako shook her head. "Nothing." She grasped Tatsuo's arm to grab his attention. "You were staring at Usagi earlier."  
  
Tatsuo nodded, not knowing of what he was being accused of, if anything. "Yes. I was."  
  
Usagi slammed her hand down on the table, just to intimidate the guy a little. "So, what do you think?"  
  
Tatsuo blinked out of curiosity. "Of what?"  
  
Usagi snorted. "Duh! The little brown thing that hangs out behind my legs."  
  
Tatsuo smirked. "Oh! That. The tail!" He paused, anticipating Usagi's next reaction. But she said nothing, she only continued to stare at him. "I was wondering about that. At first I thought it was strange, but then I realized that there are a lot of strange people in this world, so really, no one is truly weird."  
  
Usagi was officially in shock. He had been the first person, besides her friends who had been mature enough to come to such a decision. He in fact wasn't here to make fun of her. She turned to Minako and her frown immediately turned into a wide smile. "So, Tatsuo, buddy, pal..."  
  
Tatsuo smiled to himself. He would finally be able to retrieve some information. "So, Usagi, tell me, what IS up with the tail?"  
  
Usagi lifted up her first piece of junk food, a glazed donut. Now that she was in the clear, she could happily eat. "Well, that's a simple question. My dad's a Saiyan."  
  
Tatsuo's eyes opened wider than normal. "A Saiyan?" He asked in confusion.  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yes. A Saiyan. He came from this planet far away named Vejita. He's an alien." She paused to giggle. "I guess I'm part alien! There are more of us on this planet too. But only two are true Saiyans. The rest of us are only half and one is only a quarter."  
  
Tatsuo's eyes returned to their normal size as he rested his head on the table. Ami, who sat next to him, wasn't exactly sure this was information Usagi should be sharing with him. Not only did a bad feeling, but this guy was strange, a little too strange for her liking. But Usagi, obviously, didn't see it.  
  
Tatsuo; "What is the significance of the tail?" He asked with much curiosity.  
  
Usagi smashed her donut into her mouth and savored the taste as if she hadn't eaten anything sweet in ages. Her friends, all but Minako, were officially disgusted, but she didn't care. As long as she was enjoying herself. "Well..." She began with a mouth full, "At the sight of the moon, a Saiyan who still has their tail will turn into a giant ape... all but me and my other friend Hotaru, that is."   
  
Rei shot a deadly glare at her friend. She wasn't sure about any of the other information she had already told, but she knew for sure that her not being able to turn into an ape at the sight of the moon definitely wasn't something that she should be sharing with others, especially people they didn't know very well. Granted, this guy wasn't anyone to worry about, but what if someone else overheard who really was with the side of evil? "Usagi!"  
  
Usagi ignored Rei and continued on with her story. "And when Saiyans turn into monkeys, all we do is destroy things and go on rampages. We usually kill everyone that we can. We don't know why I can't turn into a monkey, but we do know one thing, we're really glad about it. My dad would have to destroy the moon if I did."  
  
Tatsuo leaned in further. "Oh? Why doesn't your dad do it anyway? Doesn't he have a tail?"   
  
Usagi shook her head as she stuffed more food into her mouth. "Nope. He had it cut off when he was little. Only me and Hotaru have tails. But that's ok, cause all other Saiyans turn into monkeys when the moon comes out. My dad would probably do the most damage since he's the strongest person in the world, maybe the universe!" She loved bragging about her family's strength.   
  
Tatsuo sighed as he leaned back in his chair as though something Usagi had said angered him. "That's too bad your dad doesn't have his tail anymore." He muttered under his breath.  
  
Usagi was confused. "What? That's not bad. It's good. Now he can't hurt anyone."  
  
Tatsuo nodded. "Yeah, but now he can't turn ... I mean, now he's not whole anymore."  
  
Makoto and Ami darted a glare at Usagi to see if she had caught what Tatsuo was just about to say, but she looked to have been too busy eating to realize, Minako as well. Both of them were just too alike it was scary. Had it not been for the tail, anyone could have mistaken them for twins. They quickly glanced at Rei, who seemed to have caught it as well.   
  
Usagi at the last bit of her food and licked the tips of her fingers. "That was good, but I'm still hungry."   
  
Minako giggled. "What's new? You're always hungry."  
  
Usagi smiled. "I can't help it if eating is my hobby."  
  
Tatsuo put his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair. "So your dad fights, does he?"   
  
Usagi nodded as she took a sip of her soda. "Yep! He even taught all of us how to fight. We've been training under him since kindergarten."  
  
Tatsuo brought his head back down to stare at the girl. "I bet that's been rough, to have your dad be your Sensei, as well as the strongest guy around."   
  
Usagi shook her head. "No. It's been more fun than anything. My dad isn't mean or anything, so he's not rough on us unless he knows we can handle it."  
  
Tatsuo smirked. "I don't think your dad is all that strong."  
  
Minako slammed her fist on the table as she glared into Tatsuo's eyes. "You haven't even met the man!"  
  
Tatsuo leaned against the table, now with a frown. "Mr. Satan is probably stronger. He's the strongest man on this planet, you know."  
  
Rei spit out her soda as she went into a laughing frenzy. "Oh! Oh my! That's just too good! I could have sworn you just said Mr. Satan is stronger!"  
  
Makoto hit her fist against the table as she lowered her head down, she too laughed at the top of her lungs. "And I could have sworn you just said that Mr. Satan was the STRONGEST man on this planet!"   
  
Tatsuo lowered his head in confusion. "Was it something I said?"  
  
Ami herself couldn't help but giggle. "You don't watch much T.V., Do you?"'  
  
Tatsuo shook his head. "My parents don't believe in T.V. They think it's the devil."  
  
Usagi smirked. Then he hadn't seen what she had done at the tournament. How she had called out his lie. "That's ok, Tatsuo. Why don't we show you who the true hero of this planet is. Why don't you come to my house tomorrow after school so you can meet my dad?"   
  
Ami's eyes shot wide open at that. What could she be thinking? Was she crazy? She didn't even know the guy and here she was inviting him over? She didn't know how strange he was. Of course, how could she? He hadn't really acted all that strange when she was around. He was acting almost normal all of a sudden. But still, Usagi would have to be warned about his behavior.   
  
Tatsuo smiled deviously. "Why not today?"  
  
Usagi sighed as she looked down at her empty tray. She had promised herself that she would visit Hotaru after school that day. Hotaru would have to be feeling horrible today, now that she had been forced out of the house to go to school by herself. She wanted to cheer her up, she and her friends. She hoped that Hotaru wouldn't be acting like this for too long. It was nuts, although she didn't blame her. If she had found out that her mother was in the same predicament that Akii had been in, or even her father for that matter, she would have gone into a withdrawal from the world as well. "We've promised a friend that we would visit her today."  
  
Tatsuo continued to smile, though no longer deviously. "Oh. Ok. I can wait until tomorrow. Then we will see who is stronger. Mr. Satan, or your dad." He looked down to his stomach, which was rumbling even louder at him. "I must fill my stomach." Without a further word he stood up and walked to the lunch line, leaving the girls alone.   
  
A smile grew on Usagi's face as she watched him. "Such a nice guy."  
  
Rei snorted. "Yeah right. That guy is such a weirdo. He didn't even know what to call his stomach."  
  
Makoto; "Yeah, he called it his 'middle'."  
  
Ami turned around to glare at him as he walked further and further out of her view. "He's really creepy."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes. "Nah. He's nice, he's just different from us. Like he said, there are lot's of different people on this planet."  
  
Ami shivered as she thought of their conversation from earlier that morning. At least he hadn't acted like a computer this time. "I want to be there when he comes over tomorrow."  
  
Rei nodded. "Me too."  
  
Makoto; "And me."  
  
Minako looked up from her soda. "Well, if we're going to make a party out of it, count me in too."  
  
Usagi sighed as she stood up. "There's nothing wrong with him, and I'll prove it to you. You have to have faith in people a little."  
  
Minako nodded. "I saw nothing wrong with him, Usagi's right. We're just acting like everyone we hate."  
  
Makoto sighed. "You didn't see him before you guys got here. He was acting real weird. I think we should watch him, he may be a real weirdo."  
  
Minako; "What, do you mean like a stalker?"  
  
Makoto shrugged. "I don't know. But I don't want to find out the hard way, do you?"  
  
Usagi frowned as she grabbed her bag. "You guys are going to see. He's not a strange little punk like Mamoru was."  
  
Rei grinned. "What do you mean 'was'? He still IS."  
  
Usagi giggled. "Maybe. But he still saved me. That has to count for something. I mean, you know..."  
  
Minako gently shoved Usagi. "Oh? Are you liking him?"  
  
Usagi blushed with a frown. "Of course not, but I think he's really changing for good." She picked up her tray and, with her friends, she walked to a nearby garbage can and dumped her tray. "I think we really did some good our summer at camp."  
  
Rei found herself nodding. She couldn't disagree with that. It was true, he had started to change. All of his little cronies had, although they didn't see much of the Americans anymore. They kind of branched off into their own little group of friends, though they still hang out with Haruka and Michiru and Mamoru every now and then. "I think they're also beginning to grow up, too, finally."  
  
The girls made their way for the cafeteria door, which led outside to the quad where many of the upperclassmen were gathering, which meant that lunch was almost over. Usagi covered her eyes as she looked up into the blue sky. "I wonder how Hotaru is fairing on her first day of school?"  
  
Rei crossed her arms as she looked down at her feet. "I don't know. It's gotta be rough, you know. She's been in her trance for nearly a year, and now to be forced to go to school like this..."  
  
Usagi nodded. "At least when she did this when she was younger she was too young to go to school. I don't know why anyone would be mean enough to send her to school like this. At least last year they hired a tutor for her."   
  
Makoto; "I'll bet it's that Kaori person. She's always pushing us around whenever we go to Hotaru's house. It's like she doesn't care about her well being or something."  
  
Usagi; "Exactly. I told my parents about her and they said there was nothing they could do about it because it wasn't their business. But, my mom did threaten to kick Kaori's butt if she tried anything with me."  
  
Makoto grinned. "That would teach her, wouldn't it?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yeah. Hotaru's got it rough, with Kaori making it worse. At least we'll be able to comfort Hotaru after school."  
  
(Sorry, I guess I had a basketball game I had to be at last night and didn't know it, but thank god it's the last one of the season unless they go to state. Okay, a bit of business. Someone has asked if this will be my last book in this story... and my reply is... not by a long shot! ^_^ I kind of cut this chapter short ( 8 pages) but I have a lot of homework tonight that I need to do. I'll try to make tomorrow's part longer, as well as more interesting.) 


	129. Part 3

~*~*~*~  
  
Even though their school was utterly destroyed, Hotaru still had an alternative. She had been mainly tutored by a hired hand in her own home for the remainder of the year before. Her father watched her mental state diminish over the past eight months. He was about the only person she would really talk to, she even shut out her friends. She had given up almost everything she had ever loved and somehow sank back into her own little hole of loneliness. She was acting just as she had when her mother had been killed. She seemed to have been making such good progress over the past two years, and now this. Out of no where, she had all of a sudden gone backwards. Her father had had to take time off from work too often to comfort her that he was afraid that he would lose his job, but he hadn't.   
  
About a month before the school year had started, Professor Tomoe made a phone call to her old school and asked for her to be readmitted. She needed to get out of the house, be around kids her own age. If she had stayed home forever, she would never get over whatever was eating her inside. And although he knew it would hurt her at first, he truly believed that he was doing her bad by letting her stay at home with no outside contact other than himself and her care taker, Kaori.   
  
Hotaru hadn't exactly fought her father's decision to go back to school for she had no will to. But now, as she stood outside her school in the main quad, as she had so many times before, she wished that she could just give up and say 'no', she would not be going to school no matter how much her father wanted her to.   
  
Her first day back in a school environment had been hell. The kids, whom she remembered all too well, were at first afraid of her. They too seemed to remember who she was and her strange power. But, as the day drew on, one brazen little brat began to notice how quiet she seemed, just like the old days. The insecure Hotaru was all of a sudden back. The boy thus began his assault on the young Saiyan, saying anything he could to her. It wasn't long before the other children began laughing at her and poking fun at her as well. Hotaru didn't seem too interested in fighting back, she had almost completely given up on fighting. That was how her mother had died, on the battle grounds of the biggest fight in years. This kids took this as an open opportunity to tease her even further. And so went her day of stress. Up until the very end when school let out.   
  
She stood at the very edge of the flight stairs which led to the front quad as she waited for Kaori to drive by to pick her up, thus was the arrangement between her and her father. She could hear a quiet trickling of water in the background quite easy thanks to her Saiyan hearing. But, the sound was soon drowned out by the sounds of a group of her classmates coming out from the front of the building. With her eyes watering up, she sighed and sat down, resting her head in the palm of her hands. She wasn't in the mood for any more laughter, yet she just couldn't bring herself to raise a hand at them. She felt completely weak and helpless.   
  
One of the boys, the one who had made fun of her ever since he first met her two years ago, walked to her and smirked arrogantly. This would be too easy. She had made him look like a fool before the entire school once, her and that bratty blonde who also had a tail. But now, she wasn't around to do anything and Hotaru was all alone. He looked at her face, only to see that she was completely like a drone. "Yo! Freak! Why you just sittin here like this? You think you're better than us?"  
  
Hotaru said nothing, she just curled up further with a look of worry deep in her eyes. Her plan was to ignore the boy, just as she had before. But she didn't know how long she could hold up against his rants. All day she had listened to questions pertaining to her tail, and everything else that was physically wrong wit her.   
  
Not happy with Hotaru's failure to response, the boy nudged his foot into her back to grab her attention. "Hey! Freak! I was talkin to you!" He evilly grinned as he rubbed his hands together. He remembered the one thing that would always set Hotaru off. "So, freak, how's your mom doin? Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot! She was slaughtered like the monkey she was!" The boy and his group of friends laughed at the top of their lungs.  
  
At first, after hearing that, Hotaru's power level grew with immensely with her rage, but she quickly calmed down as she thought of mother. She could still vividly remember, with great detail, walking into her house and seeing the body of her mother lying on the ground, being only three years old when it happened, but now she knew the truth. That hadn't been her mother, her mother had only been kidnapped, only to be killed three years later. Her mother was slaughtered, no doubt about it. Thinking of this only made Hotaru sink her head lower to her knees. She wished Kaori would get there soon, even though that woman, too, made fun of her, especially now. She felt as if she hadn't a friend in the world, even though she knew there were still many people who loved her.   
  
She slowly turned her face up to the sky where she could feel a familiar Ki fast approaching. It belonged to someone whom she hadn't seen or heard from in a couple of weeks, but still someone who had visited her quite often. For the first time that day, Hotaru's lips slowly curled up into a quaint little smile.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru landed beside her, still in his black school uniform. The kids who had been picking on her slowly backed away from the newcomer, afraid that he might use his magic to really hurt them. The Senior glared at the younger students with hatred. He had watched out for the well being of Hotaru ever since the defeat of Beryl and he wouldn't stop even now as the school year started. His friends understood this, too. They too sometimes came to see how she was doing, though Usagi never knew of these meetings.   
  
Mamoru looked down at the girl, who looked curiously back up at him. She had always thought of Mamoru as a sort of monster. How couldn't she? Ever since she knew him he had always tried to kill or severely hurt Usagi. But over the past eight months her views of him had begun to change. She began to see the true Mamoru, especially now that his true identity as the Prince of Earth had been revealed. He only seemed to get nicer, though he and Usagi were still rivals. She said nothing and returned his stare with one of her own.  
  
Mamoru frowned as he looked back up to the kids, who were about to run away in fear. "Get outta here! Scram! This kid may be pretty scrawny, but that doesn't excuse your behavior! Only I can make fun of her!" He looked back down to the child and winked. Not that he would really ever make fun of her anymore, he had no reason to. He had grown up, physically and mentally. He was seventeen already and was finally beginning to put behind himself all of his bullying of people habits.   
  
The boys who had been making fun of her turned and ran away from the older kid. They weren't one to mess with those who could perform magic tricks, as they referred to it.  
  
Hotaru smiled up at him, though saying nothing. She knew that probably wouldn't be the first time he saved her from being taunted. But she was thankful that he would take the time out of his day to do so. She looked back down to her feet with a long sigh.  
  
Mamoru looked up into the air, where Michiru and Haruka had just arrived. They had yet to know about all that took place in the last eight months. He hadn't told them a single thing about his knowledge of the Senshi, or the Moon Kingdom. That wasn't something they should know. It was too serious of a subject for them to find out, considering the fact that Haruka, especially, wouldn't take it seriously. No, this was something to be kept from them.  
  
He dropped his attention back down to Hotaru. "I'll see you around, squirt."  
  
Hotaru nodded, and with an almost silent whisper, found the words to express her gratitude. "Thank you." She stood up just as Mamoru was leaving. The black car of Kaori was finally here. She would have to battle taunts once again, though from a person who should want to protect her.   
  
She slowly made her way down the tall flight of stairs and to the car. Inside, she could see Kaori glaring at her as if she had done something to be punished for. She groaned as she opened the door and threw her bag in the backseat.   
  
Kaori glared at the child. "Hurry up and get in, brat!"  
  
Hotaru said nothing, as usual. She quickly crawled into the car and shut the door. Almost immediately, Kaori put her foot on the gas and the car flew off into traffic.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi, Minako, Makoto, Ami, and Rei all sat on the stoop of Hotaru's house, awaiting her arrival. None of them had actually seen her for a couple of weeks, even though they had been trying to talk to her. Kaori only turned them away. But now they were determined to talk to her, or at least see how she was doing if she didn't feel like talking yet. They hadn't really been able to discuss her mother with her yet, not that she would want to anyway.   
  
They all watched the black car of Kaori's pull into the driveway, Hotaru could be seen in the front seat with her face down. They weren't sure if it was because of something Kaori said, or something that happened at school, but she looked terribly sad, even for her current mood.   
  
Usagi was the first to stand, but her friends soon followed her movements. They all glared at Kaori as she got out of the driver's seat. The red head did nothing but glare back at those whom she deemed to be brats. The truth of the matter was that she hated kids. She only worked with them so she could get closer to Professor Tomoe's research.   
  
Hotaru was next to hop out of the car, though on the other side. She had already noticed her friends waiting for her and almost in a flash, as she let the realization sink in, she became somewhat happy. She wondered why they hadn't come to visit her in a while. It seemed like she hadn't seen them for ages. One day, they just all of a sudden stopped coming, which was another addition to her sorrow. She felt as if her own pain pushed them away, like they were getting angry at her for being sad all the time. With a smile growing wide on her face, she pulled her bag out of the back and made a running dash for her friends, only to find a firm hand on her shoulder. She looked up with heavy eyes at Kaori, her caretaker.   
  
Makoto frowned as she advanced for the duo. Kaori frowned at the girl. She didn't much care for Hotaru's friends. They were much to vocal with their opinions. It was her idea that children should be seen, and not heard, but the Professor didn't think that at all. He loved his child, and her friends almost as much. He was grateful that she had found such good friends who actually cared about her. Kaori found them to be a nightmare. They were just more annoyances that she would have to put up with everyday, which was why she loved the fact that Hotaru had dipped back into being a zombie. It gave her a reason to turn the girls away every time they came. "You need to leave."  
  
Makoto frowned as she placed her hands on her hips. "Why?" The others quickly found their places next to her. "We came to see how Hotaru is doing." She said, pointing to the girl in front of the red head.  
  
Kaori frowned as she pulled Hotaru behind her. "She's still not talking. She didn't say a word all the way here, and she definitely doesn't want to talk now. As if you can't tell, she's still upset about something." She looked down to Hotaru with a frown of intimidation.  
  
But Hotaru wasn't going to sit back and take this. Now she understood why the girls hadn't come to see her. Kaori must have constantly been turning them away every time they came. It wasn't because they were annoyed with her. She looked back to her friends, who were giving Kaori a frown of their own. "I don't mind." She whispered.   
  
Kaori glared at the child with pure hatred. She hadn't wanted to be disturbed with more annoying brats running about the house. "You have ten minutes, brat." She said with gritted teeth. She pushed Hotaru away and began walking to the house.  
  
The girls moved to the side and glared at Kaori until she was inside, all with clenched fists. Makoto glared the hardest. She hated Kaori the most. She always pushed Hotaru around, even more so now that she had gone into non-speaking mode. "I can't believe how rude she is!"   
  
Minako walked to Hotaru and wrapped her arm around her shoulder. She was careful not to be too rough with her. "It's ok, Hotaru."  
  
Hotaru continued to frown at the front door of her home where Kaori had just entered. "I hate her!" She cried out quite loud.   
  
Usagi and Rei exchanged looks of surprise. That was the first time in eight months that they had heard her yell out like that. Rei looked back at the girl with a grin. "Don't we all..."  
  
Hotaru clenched her fists, but quickly dropped them again. "I hate her!" She cried out again. It felt good to finally yell out like this after all this time. Her frown turned into a piercing scowl as she pulled away from Minako's warm grip. "I HATE YOU, KAORI!" Tears began to weld together in her eyes as she backed away into the car. Her legs soon let out from beneath her body and she slowly slid to be sitting with her knees against her chest with tears running down her cheeks. Her friends wasted no time in gathering around her in sympathy, their hate growing for Kaori by the second.  
  
Minako wrapped her arm around Hotaru once again. She felt like crying herself. "Hotaru, don't cry. Kaori's always mean, we all know this."   
  
Rei nodded as she grabbed Hotaru's hands in her own. "Yeah. Don't worry. Kaori may treat you wrong, but the important thing is that your dad still loves you."  
  
Hotaru sniffled as she looked up at the faces of her friends. "It's not that." She whined as she leaned into the loving Minako.   
  
Usagi glared back at the house where Kaori resided. She would never forgive her for this, that was for sure. She looked back at Hotaru, wanting to cry herself. She knew how horrible it was to have adults making fun of you all the time. She had put up with it almost every year of her school career. "Wanna tell us what's really wrong? Or do you just want to go inside to think?"  
  
Hotaru shook her head. "I don't wanna go in there with her." She sniffled again. "She'll only make fun of me more, and then call me a brat." She looked up into the sky. She found herself speechless of any words but three. "I hate her! She will never be..." She couldn't even bring herself to say it.   
  
Minako rubbed the child's forehead. "It's ok, Hotaru. We know."  
  
Hotaru closed her eyes only to see the image of her mother. "I miss her." She whispered. "I wish I could see her just one more time. But she had to..." She lowered her head. "She had to..." The tears came faster as she pushed her face even further into Minako's chest. None of her friends knew what to say to comfort her. They were too amazed that she was even talking as much as she was. Maybe she was pulling out of her trance, or maybe talking about it would only make it worse. "Kaori doesn't help. She always tells me that I'm stupid for acting like this, that I'm just trying to get attention. She says I'm a spoiled little brat. She's always said that, ever since I was really little. She says to me, "Your mother's dead, now deal with it, brat", like it shouldn't mean anything to me. She's the only one who thinks that's why I've gone into a "mood" like this, and she's right. But now that I know she wasn't really dead, and NOW she is, it makes it worse."  
  
Makoto stood up with a frown. This was all Beryl's fault. It was her fault that Akii was killed. Of course, without her, Hotaru wouldn't have been born into this world as a Saiyan, but who cared about that? At least Hotaru would have had a mother with her for all time. She looked down at Hotaru, who had already become silent. "Do you ever tell your dad about the way she treats you?"  
  
Hotaru nodded. "Of course, but he doesn't believe me. Kaori lies to him and tells him that I'm just "acting out" because I don't want her to take the place of my mom."  
  
Usagi clenched her fists at the sound of that. She had heard from many of her classmates in the past about people like that. They were usually women who wanted to move in on a single father who had children. She wondered if that was what Kaori was trying to do. Maybe she really was trying to take the place of Hotaru's mother. "I can't believe her!"   
  
Hotaru sighed as she wiped the tears away from her eyes. "I hate this. I hate Kaori! I hate Beryl! I hate the people at school! I hate everything!"   
  
Ami rubbed Hotaru's head with concern. It wasn't healthy for a seven year old child to be speaking like that. "You don't have everything, Hotaru. You're just vulnerable right now, you have to build up your resistance again. You have to learn to be strong again."  
  
Hotaru lowered her head further yet. "I don't want to do anything right now. I don't want to go back to school. I don't want Kaori around anymore." She broke her sentence there and closed her eyes. More tears began to stream down her face. "I don't want to know the truth about my mom."  
  
At that moment, Kaori came out from the house and glared at Hotaru with her arms crossed over her chest.   
"Hotaru! It's time for your friends to leave! They've overstayed their welcome! You need to come inside now!"  
  
Hotaru frowned as she opened her eyes and looked straight into Kaori's eyes. "Yes, ma'am."   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi flew home as fast as she could when she left Hotaru's. Her mother expected her home by 4:00 on schooldays, and by the time she left, it was already 3:30. It had already been an hour since school had ended. All the way home she could think of nothing but Hotaru and Kaori. That girl had it rough. Kaori treated her like dirt and at the same time, tried to take the place of her mother. Learning of her mother's real death had pretty much thrown Hotaru over the edge and Kaori had only caused more problems right under Professor Tomoe's nose. She would have to do something about the witch, but what? Kaori was an adult, and she herself was only a kid. She learned early that adults always had the winning hand in things like this. It would take time, but she would somehow find a way to help her friend.   
  
Her thoughts were soon switched to her day at school and her encounter with the new kid, Tatsuo. For a reason she figured she would never understand, Makoto, Rei, and Ami thought that he was the strangest guy. He seemed pretty normal. He may have been a little strange, but she figured it was because he wasn't from around here. She grinned to herself as she came upon her house. She would show them sooner or later that there was nothing wrong with him, he was completely normal.   
  
She landed on the ground and made a dashing run for her house. As she got closer, she noticed her father stretching outside. With sweat dripping down his face, he looked as if he had just gotten through with a spar. It was his custom to stretch before and after a fight, as was hers. The first time was obvious, but Usagi had always wondered about the second time. He had explained to her that it was to cool down your muscles. It isn't good to just fight and fight and fight and then all of a sudden stop moving. It was always good to continue to use them until you cooled yourself down.   
  
She continued to run forward until she was at his side. "Hi daddy!" She chirped as she dropped her bag on the ground.   
  
Goku smiled as he looked up to his daughter. He pulled his legs in and pushed himself up. "I didn't think it was getting that late."  
  
"It's only...," She trailed off as she looked down at her watch, "3:47." She exclaimed.  
  
Goku extended his arms out to stretch them a bit more before he would quit. "So, how was school?"  
  
Usagi smiled wide, forgetting all about Hotaru. "Great! It was so cool! Way cooler than elementary school was! Our first period teacher let us have free time to get to know people in the class!"  
  
Goku found himself smiling again. "Did YOU meet anyone new?"   
  
Usagi nodded. "Yep. Well, actually, Ami did, but she introduced him to us."  
  
Goku all of a sudden stopped stretching, quite abruptly, and glared down at his daughter with suspicion. He cocked a brow up. " 'Him'?"  
  
Usagi nodded, not catching why her father had stopped so suddenly. "Yeah. That's what I said. His name's Tatsuo."  
  
Goku continued to glare at his confused daughter. "And what did you talk about?"  
  
Usagi turned her head up on its side in confusion. Why the sudden interest in what they talked about. "Stuff. Mostly about why I have a tail. He was really nice about it too. He didn't make fun of me like other people usually do. He said that everyone is different and that's just the way it is."  
  
Goku nodded. He couldn't disagree with that. "Ok..."  
  
"Daddy, what are you doing tomorrow after I get home from school?" She asked, hoping that he hadn't planned to spar with her brother's or anyone else. She really wanted Tatsuo to meet with her father. She wanted him to know exactly how much stronger her father was than Mr. Satan.  
  
Goku sighed with much relief. "Well," he started, "I had planned on us sparring when you got home. I thought maybe we'd go see what Piccolo was up to." Usagi groaned, showing her father that she wasn't quite up with that plan. "Why?"  
  
Usagi; "Well, I want you to meet Tatsuo." Goku's jaw nearly dropped to the ground after hearing that. It wasn't a good sign when a daughter wanted her father to actually meet a boy from what he heard from Gohan and Vejita. Usagi could see anger building up in her father's eyes, and for what, she didn't know. "What's wrong? You don't want to meet him? He's really nice. You'll like him."  
  
Goku's ears burned. He had heard Pan spill that line to Gohan thousands of times. "Usagi..." He said with a queezing stomach. "You're too young." That was that. He had said it. Any further argument would be at no fault of his own.  
  
Usagi looked up at her father, even more confused than before. "Too young for what? To bring him over here to meet you?"  
  
Goku nodded with a firm frown. "Exactly. You're too young and I won't have it."  
  
Usagi frowned. "But you've always let me bring my friends over here before. That's not fair!"  
  
Goku stopped frowning. He wondered why she hadn't started complaining that all the other girls were doing it, and at this point he would have to tell her that she's not all the other girls. But not a single word like that came out. "I don't care if they're JUST friends, but you're too young to be bringing boys over for me to meet."  
  
Usagi giggled. After hearing that she finally got the picture. "It's not like that, daddy." She said, her giggles turning into pure laughter. "I don't like him like that."  
  
Goku's face turned red. "What?"   
  
Usagi grinned. "I just want him to see that you're stronger than Mr. Satan."  
  
Goku could have turned away right there and then and walked away from the conversation. He was too embarrassed to go on, but he had been through worse embarrassment than that with his daughter. This wasn't anything compared to Chi-Chi though, thinking that their daughter had a crush on someone only to find out that that wasn't what was troubling her. "Let me get this straight, you just want him to meet me so I can show him my strength?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "That's about it." More giggling bubbled out of the young Saiyan's mouth as she looked at the red face of her father. "Don't worry dad, you'll know when I REALLY like a boy."  
  
Goku playfully frowned as he grabbed his daughter and pulled her closer to him. "Don't worry, when you do, I'll kill him."  
  
Usagi let out a quick laugh. "No you wouldn't, you're too nice."  
  
All expressions of play were erased from Goku's face and replaced with a look of pure seriousness. "I would if one ever hurt you."   
  
(Wow, well now that's really shorter than usual. Sorry. But, this, I thought, was a good place to stop. It kind of goes along with what I'm going to do a little later. Phase one almost complete! ^_^ Then my setup of this book will basically be complete. Yay! Ok, well, I guess I'll Cya tomorrow then... Or Friday depending on my homework. Ugh! ) 


	130. Part 4

~*~*~*~  
  
~~The Next Day~~  
  
Tatsuo walked into class the next morning with his books in his hand. He hadn't a bag like all the other students. He preferred less bulk. But much like the other students, he wore a wide smile on his face. Slowly closing the door behind himself, he looked to the back of the room, where he had seen Ami and her friends gather the day before. And sure enough, as he had figured, they were there again, huddled in their own little group. Even Usagi was there, and there was at least ten minutes left before school. Part of that was due to her mother, who had forced her to get up a half hour earlier than the day before so she would leave for school without having to transform into a Super Saiyan.   
  
Tatsuo's smile grew more devious as he set his books down at his desk, which was the closest one to the door, and began walking to the back of the room. He still wanted to know more about these girls. He wanted to know all about them, their power, their weaknesses, their strengths. He wanted to absolutely EVERYTHING.  
  
Usagi was the first to notice the advancing boy. She welcomed him with a warm smile and a soft giggle. She remembered the conversation with her father from the night before, how he thought that she had liked this boy. That was a joke, he wasn't the type she could like. At that point in her life, she wasn't sure what type of boy she liked, she wasn't even sure if she liked one yet. Well, no, she couldn't say that. Not quite. "Hi Tatsuo!" She chirped.  
  
The perverse element of his smile faded away, leaving only a friendly smile to be seen. He said nothing as the girls turned to face him, all of whom welcomed him with their own 'hellos'. Just as he was about to welcome them back, his eyes were diverted to Usagi's chest. In the center of the bow on her uniform was a strange broach of some sort, one which he had failed to see the day before. He figured it was because he was New. He was trying to acclimate to his New surroundings. But there sat a pink and yellow broach upon her chest, as clear as day. His mind was suddenly erased of anything he had planned to say. His thoughts were now replaced with questions of what the purpose of this suspicious looking broach. "Usagi...?"   
  
Usagi nodded to acknowledge him. "What?"  
  
He pointed at her broach with a look of question. "What's that?"  
  
Usagi didn't respond to that right away. She wasn't sure how to answer it. She looked up to her friends, who were as equally questioning. They didn't seem to know how to answer. She quickly looked back to the inquisitive Tatsuo. She didn't want to wait too long to answer otherwise he may become suspicious that she's hiding something, that this broach means more than the eye can tell. "Well... it's ... it was a gift from my mother." She blurted out, not knowing of anything else to answer with. It wasn't a lie, in fact, it was far from a lie. It was in fact from her mother. Her Moon mother, that is.   
  
Tatsuo nodded, his suspicions growing even more by the tone of her voice. "It's pretty." He said as he reached for it. "Can I see it?"  
  
Usagi wrapped her hand around her broach and pulled away. "No." She complained. She could never let anyone touch it, not even her parents. Her mother had once inquired about it, she only replied that it was a present from a friend, nothing more. She kept her hand over her broach.  
  
Tatsuo frowned as he pulled back a bit as well. "Why not?" He reached for it once again, only to find Makoto pushing him aside. He looked up at the brunet, his eyes narrowed further. "What's the big idea?"  
  
Makoto frowned down at Tatsuo who was about three inches shorter than her. "She said no." She said with a glare.  
  
Tatsuo stood erected and glared back into Makoto's eyes. He raised his fist, only to quickly drop it back down again. "You don't have to be stubborn, gees. It's not like I'm going to break it." He said as he moved his head to the side in order to look at Usagi.  
  
Usagi grasped the broach harder. She couldn't let it get into the wrong hands. She hadn't even let her friends touch it. "I'd rather not. It's really special and I'd kill myself if it got broken."  
  
Tatsuo dropped his composure and shrugged. He seemed to accept the answer given to him. "Alright. You don't have to show me if you don't want to." He narrowed his eyes into a frown once again, and, while eyeing Usagi's hands which were over her broach, he turned away only to pause in his step. "Are we still on to meet at your house after school, Usagi?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "I...I guess." She stammered, still not sure what to do, or even what to think.   
  
Tatsuo smiled to himself. "Good. I'll see you all at lunch then." With that, he made his way to the front of the room to his seat, leaving the girls to ponder over what just took place.  
  
Usagi backed up and allowed herself to lean against the back wall. Her legs felt like wet noodles beneath the weight of her body. She let out a deep sigh of relief as she slowly uncovered her broach. "That was close."  
  
Ami nodded as she eyed Tatsuo in his seat. He looked to just be sitting, staring blankly at the empty blackboard. "I told you he was strange."  
  
Minako slightly frowned at that. "I think you're wrong, Ami. He's different than us, yes, but he's acting petty normal to me. He just wanted to see the broach. He was curious. It's a normal, healthy thing for people to be curious about things, right?"   
  
Rei, too, found herself glaring at the boy. She wasn't sure if she completely agreed with Minako on that one. Sure, he was acting normal whenever Usagi and Minako were around, but the day before in the lunch room he acted stranger than anyone she had ever met. "I say we keep an eye on him."  
  
Usagi sighed. "You guys are always jumping to conclusion."  
  
Rei frowned as he turned back to Usagi. "Well think about it, Usagi! We've already been through so much. All Saiyans were attacked by Kiro during the tournament. Then Cell, then Beryl. And this doesn't only date back to us, you know. Your family and their friends have been fighting strong threats for their entire lives. It's like a tradition that we fight off all threats. Even us, it's our destiny. It's your family's destiny to fight, and it's ours to protect you, the Moon Princess. "  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes and she pulled away from the wall. "Yeah, so what. What does this have to do with Tatsuo? He hasn't given me any reason to think he's an enemy. Strange maybe, yes, but that's because he's only just moved here."  
  
Rei sighed. It was obvious she wasn't going to listen, not until she was proved that he was weird. "I have a feeling, alright?" And it was true. Tatsuo gave off strange vibes to her, ever since she had first met him and held a conversation with him the day before at lunch. It's not that they were evil. She didn't quite know what they were. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it was just strange, something to watch for. Ever since she was little she would get these feelings, it was the same with Kiro. Although, in that situation, she actually had visions. She knew that they were evil. But, what really WAS up with Tatsuo?   
  
Usagi couldn't quite argue with that. Rei was known for knowing things the others hadn't. She had learned to trust her early on in her life, and would not defy her feelings. "Ok." She said, almost defeated. "I'll watch out for any strangeness. I'll watch my back and make sure nothing happens."  
  
Makoto nodded to show that she agreed it was a good idea. "Thank you." She looked up at the clock, they had three minutes before class would start. "Class is gonna start soon."  
  
Ami turned her head to the clock for confirmation, then let her eyes wander down to the head of Tatsuo, which hadn't moved an inch since the last time she had looked at him. She shuddered at the thought of having to go through four periods of him acting like a drone. That was it! He would act like a machine again during class, Usagi wouldn't be around so he wouldn't have to act normal. As she thought about it harder, a question came to mind. Why DID he act so normal around the blondes, yet not around the others. He seemed exceptionally interested in Usagi, more so than Minako. Maybe it wasn't about Minako. Maybe it was only Usagi. After all, everywhere that Usagi went, Minako wasn't too far behind. "Usagi," She began as she turned back to her friend, who was already starting out for her seat, "Watch him during class today. He'll act like a robot."  
  
Makoto nodded as she too looked back to Usagi. "And try to listen to anything he says. He says some strange thing that no normal human says."  
  
Usagi nodded. Maybe there was something wrong with him. Her friends, after all, weren't known to try and pick things out that were wrong with others. Or maybe he had just been that out of society for so long that he was naturally strange. That was the case with her father. He had lived in the mountains with his grandfather until he was about eleven. He hadn't had any outside contact, and then when Gohan had died, he was all alone, with virtually no contact. She had heard many stories from Bulma and Yamcha about how strange he was, with all the weird things he would do. He hadn't even known what a machine was. He thought they were monsters at first, and took Bulma for a witch. She even heard about all the times he would go up to women and try to feel around their bodies to decipher whether they were actually women or not. But, eventually her father had integrated into society, but had always kept his immaturity and some strangeness. It wasn't until about fifteen to twenty years ago when he REALLY started to act like a person of society. Maybe it would just take some time for this guy to integrate himself as well.  
  
In any way, she couldn't promise that she would be trying to listen for anything he said. She would be trying to juggle her own conversation with Minako and listen to the teacher's lectures at the same time. Of course, her Saiyan hearing would allow for better eavesdropping. "Ok, I'll listen for anything strange."  
  
Ami smiled. "Good." The girls dispersed from their gathering and made their way to their seats when Mr. Sakaguchi walked into the room, ready to start the day's history lesson.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Over the course of the next four hours, Usagi set aside any conversation she would have liked to had with Minako, as well as what the teachers were lecturing about. She tuned in solely on Tatsuo and anything that he would say, which was virtually nothing. Once or twice he had asked Ami for a pen and paper, but nothing out of the ordinary. But, she would continue to listen for anything funny, not because she thought Tatsuo was a suspicious character, but because she respected her friends' word.  
  
By the time lunch rolled around, nothing had happened. Tatsuo stayed completely quiet. He hadn't even moved an inch, which Usagi found sort of weird, but nothing to be alarmed about. She figured that he was just really interested in what was being said. She had even found herself so intent on listening to what was being said that she hadn't really moved or said anything once.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Class was once again dismissed for Lunch after fourth period. Minako and Usagi, as usual, were the first to zoom out into the hall. They had been almost late to lunch the day before, but today, they planned on getting to be one of the firsts in the snack line.  
  
The others were soon to trail, with Tatsuo following closely behind. But by the time they were out in the clear, Usagi and Minako could no longer be seen, only felt. Tatsuo cocked his head to the side in confusion. Never had he seen anyone with such speed. Not anyone normal, at least. "Why is it that we were short to follow those two and now they are already so far ahead?"  
  
A normal question for a normal human being, Makoto thought. "That's a result of our training."  
  
Tatsuo's composure dropped a bit as he turned to Makoto in surprise. "You can all do this?"  
  
Makoto nodded. At least now he was asking valid questions, instead of why his stomach felt strange when it was empty. "Of course. We've all been training since we were five. But, none of us, not even Usagi are nearly as strong as Goku. He can transform to the third level of Super Saiyan."  
  
Tatsuo groaned for a reason unknown to the girls. But he wasn't about to tell their curious faces why. "Why do you people wish for this power?"  
  
Rei frowned. What was with this guy? He was always so full of questions, so nosy. And here they were knowing nothing about him. "He protects the earth, simple as that."  
  
Tatsuo had nothing to say at that. He just went on with a smile, anticipating his meeting with Goku even more. He wanted to see if this Goku was anything compared to Mr. Satan, who was proclaimed to be the savior of the Earth by many books he had read. He wanted to know exactly WHO was the strongest, which would determine only one thing.  
  
~*~*~  
  
And so the day went on. Lunch was a normal proceeding, one the girls had become accustomed to over the years. It was a time of relaxation and a time to goof off before the ending periods of the day. And, much like in the classroom, Usagi watched Tatsuo very carefully, finding not a single flaw with him, except for the way he ate his food. He just kind of picked a handful of it up and stuffed it into her mouth, sort of like her father, but more animal-like.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son Household~~  
  
Chi-Chi walked into her daughter's room holding a blue laundry basket. Although it wasn't her job to do so, she constantly found herself picking up her daughter's dirty clothing day after day after day. It was Usagi's responsibility to do so, but like most pre-teens, she neglected it.   
  
In the background, she could hear her husband lurking around, which wasn't normal for him. Normally, during this time of day, he would be out somewhere either doing something recreational by himself, or sparring with either their sons or his friends while he waited for Usagi to come home from school so they could go out and do something. Of course sparring was considered to be a recreation when Goku was being talked about. But still, she couldn't help but wonder why he was home at this time of day.  
  
Thinking that he was hiding something from her, as he always behaves strangely when he's hiding something from her, Chi-Chi backed out of her daughter's room just in time to see her husband walking from their room and to the hall. She dropped the laundry basket, causing it to clank against the wooden flooring and gaining Goku's attention. She frowned suspiciously as she put her hands around her waist. "What are you doing home? First you get me accustomed to you not being home during the day and now here you are, home. Make up your mind and stick with it."  
  
Goku gave his wife a carefree smile. "Usagi's bringing home a boy."  
  
Chi-Chi's frown disappeared and was replaced with a prideful smile. Finally, her daughter had found a boy she liked. Not that she was going to approve a relationship at such an early age, but it was nice to know. "Really? A boy?" Her eyes dazzled for just a moment longer when it hit her. Goku was acting strange for her bringing home a boy. "Now just hold on a second, bud. YOU allowed her to bring home a boy?" She grinned as she walked forward to get in closer dialogue range with him.  
  
Goku nodded, still with a smile on his face. "Yes."  
  
Chi-Chi stopped and laughed. "You? Of all people. You're the one who doesn't want her to get interested in boys."  
  
Goku once again nodded, throwing his wife into even further confusion. It was true, he didn't want her to get interested in boys. Not only because she was his little girl, but because he knew exactly what boys would do to her, and exactly what they were interested in. He had seen the troubles Gohan had had when Pan hit this age. They weren't pretty. Pan was always brining boys home. Poor Gohan and Videl didn't know if she actually liked him or what half of the time. And then there were the times she would overhear Chi-Chi and Videl talking about Pan's latest boyfriend who had once again thrown her into "depression" because they broke up. And then the other times one would try to push Pan into something she didn't want to do. That was one phase Goku wasn't looking forward to going through, which was creeping up on him. That was why he was so protective over Usagi. He hadn't wanted her to go through that, but it looked almost inevitable. But luckily, Usagi had assured him that she wasn't interested in the boy she was bringing over that day. "Who said anything about being interested? She just wants me to show him that I'm stronger than Mr. Satan."  
  
Chi-Chi sighed with a face fault. She too hadn't quite wanted Usagi to go through the troubles of dating, but it still would have been nice to know she was finally maturing. "You've corrupted my daughter, Goku."   
  
Goku snorted arrogantly. "Me? Corrupt her? You're the one that keeps telling her it's perfectly normal to like boys at her age."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Well it is!"   
  
Goku; "It may be normal, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I've seen what those little brats want to do with girls."  
  
Chi-Chi's frown almost immediately faded away with a smile appearing in its place. At least she knew he wasn't just trying to be selfish and keep her a little girl all her life. "True, but Usagi is mature enough not to listen."  
  
Goku; "I'm not worried about that. I have complete confidence in her, but I don't want her to have to put up with that crap."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded. That was something she could most definitely agree with. "True, but you know, there are worse things than her going out with some random boy."  
  
Goku groaned. He didn't even want to think about that. Going out with just anyone was bad enough. What could possibly be worse? "Do I even dare to ask?"  
  
Chi-Chi grinned. The idea even made her queasy. "If she was ever insane enough to go out with Mamoru."  
  
Goku's face turned green with nausea at the thought. "I'd kill them BOTH. Mamoru for having the gal to go out with MY daughter after all the crap he's pulled, and Usagi for being insane enough to EVER do something so stupid." He chuckled to himself, and soon, Chi-Chi joined him with giggles of her own. Neither of them could ever picture that pairing happening.  
  
~*~*~  
  
After lunch, the school day was pretty laid back for the gang of friends. Usagi continued to listen for Tatsuo, but heard nothing, as usual. Even the other girls had opted to watch for strange behavior, but they hadn't see anything either.   
  
Now school was finally over, and the awaited hour had Tatsuo in a fit of excitement. He would finally meet Goku, the supposed strongest person in the world. He met the girls just outside the school, who had all decided to go the day before to keep an eye on the situation. But he hadn't known that. He figured that they were just getting together as friends often do, which was how they wanted to keep it.   
  
Minako was the first to notice the character meandering toward them. She turned back to her circle of friends with a smile. It had been a while since they had gotten together at Usagi's house. They usually just met in the city and hung out at random locations. "He's here."  
  
Usagi looked up with a smile. "Good. Now we can get going."   
  
Rei, Makoto, and Ami exchanged looks of concern. If he was going to try anything, if was truly a new opponent, he would most likely try something now since he knew Goku as the strongest character on the planet.  
  
Tatsuo stopped in front of the girls with a huge smile on his face, as it had been the entire day. "I'm ready!"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Ok. Normally, we'd fly for exercise, but I don't want to keep my dad waiting. He's probably chomping at the bit right now."  
  
Tatsuo turned his head onto its side. "Why?"  
  
Usagi grinned. "He doesn't really like the idea of me bringing home a boy right now, even if it is for something as innocent as this."  
  
Tatsuo smirked with an impish tint. That was an interesting bit of information. Her father was very protective, which must mean that he loved her quite a bit. "Let's go then. Wouldn't want to keep a man of his stature waiting, would we?"  
  
Usagi reached out and grabbed his hand and put her forefinger and middle finger on her forehead like her father had taught her all those years ago. She motioned her friends to do the same, which they did. In a quick flash, she concentrated her energy to her father's as did her friends, and just like that, they were gone.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son Household~~  
  
Usagi and Tatsuo appeared in front of her house along with the other girls. An excited chocolate brown dog came running for them with its tongue hanging out of its mouth. Usagi smiled as she kneeled down to welcome the kind animal. "Lucky!" She squealed.   
  
Tatsuo looked at the dog with a frown. "Such an inferior creature."  
  
Ami found herself frowning at Tatsuo. She hoped Usagi had heard that. "Dogs are smarter than we humans suggest."  
  
Tatsuo ignored the blue-haired girl and continued to stare at the dog, who was now sniffing around his feet. "I don't like dogs."  
  
Usagi reached down and grabbed Lucky's collar and pulled her away from the boy. "Sorry. She likes meeting new people." She pushed the dog away. "Go on."   
  
Tatsuo kept his eyes on the dog, still with a frown implanted deep in his eyes. Makoto, who was equally frowning at him, pushed forward, motioning for him to follow. "The house is this way."  
  
Usagi smiled as she grabbed Tatsuo by the wrist and began guiding him forward. "Yeah, my house is this way. My dad's waiting for you." She yelled excitedly as she led her new friend to the front door. Ami, Rei, and Makoto followed close behind, watching his every move. She placed her hand on the knob and slowly pushed in. "Mom? Dad?" She called in as she motioned for her friends to come in.  
  
The girls acted pretty normal as they had been here thousands of times before, but Tatsuo hadn't. He was looking eagerly around as if he had never seen the inside of a house before this day. He examined absolutely everything. Even the wooden flooring.   
  
Usagi turned to face her friends. "I'll be right back." She looked down at Tatsuo, who was on his knees currently examining the phone. For the first time, she quirked a brow, thinking that this was somewhat strange behavior. "I'm going to go get my dad." She said as she slowly backed away, keeping her eyes on the curious Tatsuo.   
  
She turned down the hall and then into the living room. Her mother was sitting on the couch reading some adult magazine, something which she was definitely interested in. "Hi mom."   
  
Chi-Chi smiled as she turned around to her daughter. She knew who she was looking for. "Your father is in our room. I think he's preparing himself."   
  
Usagi giggled. "He's so silly sometimes."  
  
Chi-Chi grinned. "All the time's more like it."   
  
Usagi nodded with a wide grin of her own. "I'm afraid of what he's going to do when I actually try to bring a boy home who I like."  
  
Chi-Chi; "I don't think you have to worry. Your father would only freak out if the boy did something to you."  
  
Usagi sighed. "I guess."  
  
Chi-Chi's grin was quickly wiped away as she looked back to her magazine. "Change out of your school cloths before you do anything. I don't want them getting dirty or ripped."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yes mom." She turned around and walked into her room. Then, after changing, she would retrieve her father.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku had heard the voice of his daughter echoing from outside his room, where he had actually been preparing. Not because he thought Usagi actually liked this boy, but because he had to tell himself over and over that she didn't.   
  
Chi-Chi looked up from her reading again when she heard the door of her room opening, and out came Goku dressed in his usual orange Gi. "Usagi's getting changed."  
  
Goku nodded. He knew that for he had heard Chi-Chi telling her to get changed. He wasn't all too concerned with that. "Is he here?"  
  
Chi-Chi nodded. "I'm guessing so. But," She looked up with a warnful eyes, "don't go out there until she's ready to bring you out there. That could be tragic. Always let the girls make the first move."  
  
Goku groaned. That sounded too much like dating advice. "Gotcha." The squeaking of his daughter's door soon caught his attention. "Usagi!" He said as he waved his hand to greet her.  
  
Usagi smiled as she emerged from her room in a new set of cloths. More like her Gi. She planned on sparring with her father later when Tatsuo and her friends left. "Hi daddy! Ready to go show off?"  
  
Goku grinned as he walked around the couch. "Sure."  
  
Usagi wrapped her arm around her father's and the two walked down the hall and into the family room together, where Tatsuo seemed to have calmed down in regards to curiosity. Now he just sat with wide eyes as he took in the entire structure of the house. But, he soon let his eyes fall upon the father and daughter duo and smiled.  
  
Usagi let go of her father and walked to Tatsuo. "Tatsuo, this is my dad, Son Goku." She said, very politely. She turned to her father with a huge grin. "Daddy, this is the boy I was telling you about, Tatsuo. And I know what you're thinking so stop it."   
  
Tatsuo jumped to his feet and stood before Goku with a wide smile. He was about shoulder height on him, while Usagi only reached to his lower stomach. "Hello, Son Goku. I am Tatsuo." He looked back to Usagi, noticing that she had changed and was no longer wearing her broach she held so dear to her heart earlier.  
  
Goku looked down at the boy, though he didn't have to look far. This was such a change from all of Usagi's friends who were substantially shorter. "Hi, Tatsuo!" He said in a chipper voice. The two extended hands and went in for a handshake.   
  
Usagi smiled. They had gotten through the handshake. "Good, now that you two have met, let's get this show on the road."  
  
Minako grinned. "Yeah. Tatsuo, you're finally going to see the true hero of earth in action."   
  
Rei found herself smiling. "He's better than us, not that you've seen us fighting before, but just know, he's better than us."   
  
Goku blushed slightly as he pulled back his hand. "I can't take all the credit you guys. Don't forget, Gohan beat Cell, and then Usagi, you showed Kiro that Saiyans here aren't bad. And in the past, you five fought and defeated Cell. And then there are the Senshi, our most recent heroes." Tatsuo perked up at the word 'Senshi'. Why, no one knows, but he seemed interested by the word.   
  
Usagi sighed. "Yeah, but you beat Cell the second time he came to earth. And then all those other guys you beat. Piccolo, the red Ribbon Army, Raditz, the people who invaded Namek, Freiza, and Buu."  
  
Tatsuo looked up to Goku with a blank expression. His eyes told of his deep fascination. These people had been through so much trying to save the earth it was insane. "Why do you fight to save everyone? That's crazy. You should let them fight for themselves."  
  
Goku decided to take that question for he knew best. "I don't know about everyone else, I fight for everyone I love. My family and my friends mean everything to me." He wrapped his arm around his daughter's neck. Just the thought of anything bad happening to her made him angry. "But part of my mind tells me to fight for those who can't fight back. They don't deserve to die. Most of these enemies have even killed some of us off. Technically I shouldn't be here because I've died too many times."  
  
This struck Tatsuo as strange. How could someone die, and then be standing here alive as ever? "Excuse me, but, are you telling me that you're dead?"  
  
Goku chuckled. "No. I'm very much alive." He could see the boy falling into even more confusion. "You see, we have these things called Dragon Balls. They allow us to make two wishes. We will usually bring back anyone who has died of an unnatural cause. That means, anyone who dies in the process of our fighting will be brought back. But that wasn't the case with me. I died twice and am only allowed one time. But, I was given someone else's life for the good of the earth when Buu came."  
  
Ami cleared her throat, basically telling Goku to shut up. She hadn't yet had a chance to tell him about this boy's strange behavior, that they didn't trust him enough to be telling him about the Dragon Balls. But, he didn't get the hint. He was obviously too much like Usagi to understand.  
  
Tatsuo smiled at the mentioning of the Dragon Balls. They could be very useful. "Dragon Balls, eh? Where can I find them?"  
  
Ami frowned. She didn't like the sound of that. She looked at Usagi, pleadingly, as if asking her to stop Goku now. But Usagi wasn't paying attention to her. She was more paying attention to her father and Tatsuo.  
  
Goku; "Normally, I keep some here, and one belongs to Usagi."  
  
Usagi smiled. "And I'm still waiting for them to return to normal so I can have mine back!"   
  
Tatsuo; "Stone?"  
  
Goku nodded. "After we use them, they turn to stone for a year so we don't have unlimited wishes. They also spread themselves around so we don't know exactly where they are at the moment."  
  
Tatsuo hunched his shoulders. "That sucks."  
  
Goku grinned, thinking that Tatsuo was referring to the fact that he couldn't make a wish right now. "Maybe we'll let you make one when they turn back. It should only be about four more months."  
  
Tatsuo sighed. "Ok." He looked up into the eyes of Goku, who seemed to be completely comfortable with the boy. "Before you show me how strong you are, can I use the restroom?"  
  
Usagi nodded, taking the place of her father. "Sure. It's down the hall and around the corner, second room on the right."  
  
Tatsuo smiled. "Thanks." He pushed past Goku and Usagi and followed Usagi's direction.  
  
Usagi looked up at her father with a wide smile as she pulled away from his grip. "See? I told you you'd like him! Isn't he nice?"  
  
Goku nodded. "I only like him because you don't like each other."  
  
Usagi giggled. "You're silly, daddy."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Tatsuo stood in the living room where he could see a woman sitting on the sofa in the middle of the room. This room was completely different from the other room from which he had just come from. In the middle there was a big, black box just sitting here. He figured it was a T.V. for he had seen many in the books he had read. "Hello." He said as he walked around the sofa.  
  
Chi-Chi put her magazine down and looked up the unfamiliar voice with a smile. "Why hello, you must be Usagi's friend." If this were anyone else, someone she knew well she would have been down their throats already. She was getting tired of being interrupted.   
  
Tatsuo nodded. "I'm Tatsuo, Mrs. Son."  
  
Chi-Chi; "Oh, I'm sorry, my name is Chi-Chi."  
  
Tatsuo smiled. "Nice to meet you. Your husband is a very nice man. I am looking forward to seeing his strength."  
  
Chi-Chi grinned. She wished Usagi had liked this boy. It wasn't everyday you find such a young man so nice. "You're in for a show. Just don't let him talk you into fighting him if you don't want to."  
  
Tatsuo nodded. "I will keep that in mind. I have to use the restroom."  
  
"It's right there." She said pointing the door to the left of her daughter's door.   
  
Tatsuo turned around and confirmed his destination. "Thank you."   
  
Chi-Chi smiled warmly. "You're welcome."  
  
As Chi-Chi went back to her reading, Tatsuo walked to Usagi's door, which he had pinpointed as her room when he first walked into the living room. In fact he had not needed to use the restroom. He only used that as an excuse to gain access to Usagi's room. He looked over his shoulder at Chi-Chi. She seemed too busy with what she was doing to really notice that he was going into the wrong room. He smirked. "Bingo." He whispered. He slowly began to push the door in, and, once he was inside completely, he closed it behind himself.   
  
The room was dark, but that didn't much matter. On the girl's bed lay his target. Her school uniform lay folded upon her bed. In the middle of the bow was the sacred broach. His suspicions would now be fulfilled. He slowly walked to the bed and pulled the broach off of the school uniform. "Let's see who you really are, Son Usagi."   
  
He pulled the heart broach close to his face and examined it. It seemed to be your everyday broach, except for one thing. It seemed to open up at the bottom. His eyes grew wide as he ran his finger along the opening. This was it. He used his strength to pry the lid off, and when he did, the room lit up with a bright, silver light. He had to cover his eyes from the intensity of the light, but he didn't have to see it to realize what it was. Whatever was inside, when unleashed, gave off the most powerful aura he had ever felt in his life. His suspicions being fulfilled, he quickly closed the broach and placed it back on top of Usagi's school uniform. He would have to vacate the room if he wanted Usagi to continue thinking that he was only using the restroom. But, he knew the truth now. That had not been the first time he felt that aura before. It had been eight months since he felt that power, and now, he finally knew who it belonged to.  
  
  
(Hmm.... Interesting... very interesting... I hadn't expected the chapter to be this long... oh well! Tis still ok. I guess I'm done for today. Sorry I didn't get a chance to get anything out last night. Cya tomorrow then! ) 


	131. Part 5

~*~*~*~  
  
After returning back down the hall to join Goku and the girls, Tatsuo followed them outside where he would see Goku display his power. After this, there would be only one thing left for him to do, but that was another situation altogether. He would do his scouting carefully so as to not make a wrong move. And now that he knew exactly what was in that little broach of Usagi's, things would get so much easier. "I have to get home soon," He said, almost as if he wanted to leave right now, "My parents are expecting me home at a decent time."  
  
Goku nodded as he led the group further away from his home. He could understand that. He had to living with Chi-Chi. Every day she would tell Usagi not to forget to come home when she was supposed to. "This won't take long." He looked down at his daughter, who walked at his side. "Since you're already dressed for it, I'll use you as my dummy." He said, noticing that she was dressed in her fighting gear. "That means you can't fight back... that is, until I'm ready for it."  
  
Usagi groaned as she looked up to her father. This couldn't have been good. "Be nice..." She said, half afraid. In a fight, she could easily go up against his father, well, as long as he didn't use his full strength. But this wasn't a fight. The only thing she could do was stand and defend herself against his power.  
  
Goku smiled. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."  
  
Usagi grinned. "I know how you like to get carried away sometimes, daddy. Just like the time you and Gohan took to the air when I still couldn't fly yet."  
  
Goku chuckled. He had in fact remembered that. "Yes, but, I wasn't really hurting you, was I?"  
  
Tatsuo walked behind the Saiyan pair along with the other four girls. He couldn't wait to see what kind of power this man held. It had to be something great, yes, he knew that after being teleported to this house but just a girl. "Are we far enough away yet?"  
  
Goku stopped and turned around to face the impatient boy. "Fine. I'll direct my attacks away from the house."  
  
Usagi tapped her father on the arm to gain his attention. "Won't mom get mad if we fight this close to the house? She had a conniption last time."  
  
Goku grinned. "Ah, but we aren't fighting, just demonstrating."  
  
Usagi giggled as she began to walk further away. "You really have a thing about making mom mad, don't you?"  
  
Makoto, Ami, Rei, and Minako led Tatsuo to the left, out of Goku's way. They didn't want him getting in the way and getting himself hurt. Tatsuo stood with his arms crossed to act as if he didn't believe that anyone could ever be stronger than Mr. Satan, but he knew it was a lie. He knew that Mr. Satan had to be a false hope after seeing what Usagi held. "Let's get this show on the road and prove me RIGHT." He yelled out in laughter.  
  
Usagi smiled as she prepared herself for anything her father would throw at her. "The only proving we'll be doing is proving you WRONG!" She retorted with laughter of her own.  
  
Goku planted his feet in the ground to prepare himself for his first 'attack'. "Go Super Saiyan, Usagi."  
  
Usagi quickly turned her head back to her father, half in surprise. "What? Why?"  
  
Goku slightly frowned, though not in anger. "Just do it." He frowned harder when his daughter didn't obey his wishes. "Trust me, you'll end up wanting to."  
  
Usagi shrugged her shoulders at her father's odd request, but obeyed him nonetheless. "O...ok." She wondered what he could be planning to make her WANT to power all the way up to a Super Saiyan. She already held more power than him in her normal form. What could he be planning? "Don't do anything till I say."  
  
Goku nodded. "Don't worry."   
  
Usagi equally planted her feet into the ground just as her father had done and began powering up like she had so many times before. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see Tatsuo still standing casually. But he wouldn't be like that for much longer. Before long, her hair and tail flashed into a brilliant color of silver and her power level skyrocketed. She kept her eyes focused on her father. Now she was ready for anything he threw at her, even though she had no idea what that would be. "Ok. I'm ready."  
  
Goku smirked. "Good." He lowered himself down into his fighting stance, slowly raising his power level close to that of a Super Saiyan as he did. Next, he placed his hands down at the left side of his waist. He nodded once at his daughter to show her that he was ready. "Ka - Me..."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened at the first syllable of her father's most powerful attack. "Wha..." She braced herself even further. No wonder why he had wanted her to transform. His attack was already powering up to be as strong as she was without transforming. Technically, it was only one level below hers.   
  
"...HA!" With that, Goku threw a continuous energy attack at his daughter, one that would have overpowered her had she not powered up.   
  
Usagi extended her arms out as far as they would go to welcome the Kamehameha wave. She let her eyes travel over to Tatsuo, who now stood with his mouth wide open. She couldn't help but smirk. He had already been proved wrong with one little attack. Her father really had made it quick and easy.   
  
She quickly turned her attention back to her father and his attack, which was slowly beginning to grow stronger. 'What's he doing?' She thought to herself. She found herself having to push with her full weight against the power wave. But even with that, she could still feel herself sliding back. Blocking a power attack physically was much harder than blocking it with a power attack of her own. But she knew she wasn't in any danger of being hurt in anyway. The attack was still too weak to do any damage, and it had no potential to ever do so.  
  
Goku slowly began to power down to control the rising power of his attack. "Okay! Jump away!" Usagi did as she was told, and in a flash of silver, she was up in the air looking down at her father's attack, which he had finally decided to break off from his power sources.   
  
Tatsuo looked up at Usagi in complete awe. He hadn't expected Usagi to be so strong. She could be a problem... maybe. That was one girl he never wanted to become enemies with. "Wow..."  
  
Minako grinned in Tatsuo's direction. She couldn't stop giggling. She always loved showing people their true power, even if she, as a human, wasn't nearly as strong as Usagi. She could still fight in ways that most humans couldn't. "So...?"  
  
Tatsuo watched Usagi drop to the ground next to her father, he couldn't keep his eyes of either one of them. "And... you are even stronger than that, Goku?"  
  
Goku nodded with a huge smile as he stretched his arms out. "Yep. That was just my normal power, but I can make it a lot bigger if I power up to Super Saiyan levels one, two, and three."  
  
Tatsuo looked down to his feet in pure shock. He had expected Goku to be strong, yes, and he was. But there was even more power behind that? That was insane. And Usagi, without her broach was stronger than he had imagined. He looked back up and sighed. "I would hate to make you guys my enemy."  
  
Usagi giggled as she waddled her way over to the boy. "Told ya! My dad's awesome! I'm not even as strong as him. But I hope I will be one day." She looked up at her father, who had joined her by her side. Even though that was her hope and her dream, to one day become as strong as him, she wasn't sure anymore if that would ever happen. As it was, from what Pluto had told her, she wasn't even sure if she was ever meant to get as strong as she is right now. The power of a Super Saiyan has a hard time coinciding with the Moon power that lies within her soul. But there is always that hope that she could be wrong, after all, she had become this powerful without dying.   
  
Goku placed his hand on her shoulder with a prideful smile. "And that, Tatsuo, is what we like to call real power."  
  
Tatsuo nodded, still in awe. "I guess so, Mr. Son. You can fly like your daughter?" Goku nodded. Tatsuo looked back down to the ground with a frown. This looked bad. These people were strong, very strong. But, there was something that he wanted, something that he needed. Maybe, just maybe... "Have you two ever actually gotten so angry with each other that you've fought for real?"  
  
Goku looked confused. That question just kind of flew out of no where. "No, why?"  
  
Usagi frowned. What would make him think that? "Yeah, why?!"   
  
Tatsuo grinned. "Just wondering. You know, kids always fight with their parents, I do. And I was just wondering if you ever settle it this way."  
  
Goku frowned. That had to be the most outrageous thing he had ever heard of. "Of course not. I would never hit my daughter like that. I could never get that angry with her."  
  
Tatsuo frowned. "What if she tried to kill you?"  
  
Usagi glared at the boy. Now he really WAS starting to get strange. "What kind of a question is that?! Why would I want to kill him? Why would he want to even hurt me like that?! That goes against both of our morals...AND FEELINGS!"   
  
Goku pulled his daughter aside. He knew that she could get herself pretty worked up when it came to defending herself, as well as her friends and family. This kid seemed to be asking honest questions that any over curious boy would ever ask. Although, he didn't much appreciate them. "Let me answer this quick. Neither of us would ever try to hurt each other. Her brothers and her mother would never engage in a fight with her and she wouldn't with them. We may get a little hot headed every now and then, but we will always control ourselves."  
  
Usagi crossed her arms. "And I would never try to kill any of them!"   
  
Tatsuo frowned at the responses. They were just questions. He didn't know what people with this kind of power did when they were angry with one another. "Fine."  
  
Ami, Rei, and Makoto scowled at the boy, probably more so than the offended father-daughter pair. That was the tip of the iceberg. He was just getting way too strange. Usagi and Minako had to have seen what they were talking about now. Now he was asking insane questions wanting to know if they would ever fight each other.   
  
Tatsuo; "I have one more question I'd like to ask you, Goku."  
  
Goku, still frowning, sighed. He was actually beginning to grow tired of the boy already. He sure was glad Usagi hadn't chosen to like him. "What?"  
  
"Who made the Dragon Balls?"  
  
Goku crossed his arms. Why was it any of his business? Why did he need to know? Of course, it wouldn't hurt to let him know. "Kami, Earth's God."  
  
Tatsuo calmly smiled. "Oh, the guy who lives in the sky, right?"  
  
Goku drew back with surprise. "How did you know he lived in the sky?"  
  
Tatsuo arrogantly rolled his eyes. "Everyone knows he lives in the sky. He's God. God lives in the sky. Heaven, I believe."  
  
Goku sighed with relief. He forgot that people down here believed that Heaven was in the sky, and not in another dimension completely. "Oh."  
  
Tatsuo smirked as he stretched with a yawn. "Well, I guess I should get going. My parents want me home for chores."   
  
Goku looked around to the girls. "Who's gonna take him home." He looked back at his daughter, who gave him a dirty look in return. She still looked to be upset with Tatsuo. "Ok... not you."  
  
Minako grabbed Tatsuo by the arm with a wide smile. "I will!" She chirped.   
  
Makoto sighed. "Leave it to you, Minako."  
  
Minako frowned. "And just what is that supposed to mean? There's nothing wrong with taking him home."  
  
Makoto shook her head. Minako obviously hadn't been paying much attention to what had just happened. "Never mind. Let's just go."  
  
Minako nodded. "Ok." She pulled Tatsuo closer as she prepared for teleportation. But then she realized something very important. She had no idea where she was going. "Uh... Tatsuo, where are we going?"  
  
Tatsuo groaned. He had completely forgotten about that. He didn't know where he was going. "Just take me to the school. I can walk from there. I don't know the way otherwise."  
  
Minako nodded, not finding anything strange about that. "Ok." And then, they were gone, leaving the other girls with Goku.  
  
Rei looked over in the direction of Usagi, her eyes telling of her concern. "We told you he was weird. But you didn't believe us."  
  
Usagi sighed as she looked down to the ground. She had been proved wrong, and she hated it. "I have to admit, he got a little strange there."  
  
Makoto; "No kidding. What kind of questions were those anyway? It's like he wanted to know everything about you guys or something. And all those questions about the Dragon Balls."  
  
Goku nodded. "He was different, I'll give you that much." He looked down to his daughter with a wide grin. "I really hope you don't like him."  
  
Usagi frowned. "I already told you I don't!"   
  
Goku chuckled as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Sure, sure." He paused and looked back to the remaining kids. "Do you guys want to stay for dinner or something? Chi-Chi's probably already mad at me for doing this so close to the house so it doesn't really matter." The girls all exchanged looks with one another, and all ended up shaking their heads 'no'.   
  
Makoto; "My parents will get mad if I stay out late on a school night now that I'm in Junior High. They want me to be more focused on school work."  
  
Rei; "I have chores at the shrine."  
  
Ami; "I want to do some studying, thanks for the offer."  
  
Goku lowered his head. He had wished at least one of them had stayed, then Chi-Chi wouldn't yell at him. She never yelled at him when others were around. "Suit yourselves."   
  
The group said their good-byes. Makoto, Ami, and Rei teleported away to their own homes, leaving only Usagi and Goku. The two slowly made their way back to the house, where Chi-Chi was sure to be waiting to chew them out. Usagi looked up to her father with a sly grin. "Daddy, you do this all the time. Mom wouldn't yell at you if you didn't do stuff like this, you know?"  
  
Goku smirked sarcastically. "And when did you get so smart all of a sudden?"   
  
Usagi frowned. "It's just a suggestion."   
  
Goku pulled his daughter closer with a smile. "I'm sorry... I'm not really concerned with being yelled at. I just don't want to listen to it, you know?"  
  
Boy did she ever know. "I know. But you have to admit, she's gotten a lot better."  
  
Goku nodded. "She has." The duo paused in front of the door. "Ready?"  
  
Usagi smiled. "As ready as I'll ever be."   
  
Goku opened the door, and the two quietly stepped in. As soon as they did, they felt the heat of Chi-Chi. But, she didn't sound angry. She sounded more concerned than anything. "Goku!" She yelled from the living room.  
  
Goku looked down to his daughter. The two of them didn't even have to exchange words before they were running back to the other room. "Chi-Chi!" Goku yelled, thinking that something was happening to her.  
  
Usagi trailed behind her father, who made a running dash in front of her. She couldn't feel anything such as an enemy, but there didn't need to be an attack for something bad to be happening. She could have just had an accident. "Mom! What's wrong?!" She cried out as she ran into her now halted father.   
  
Goku stared at his wife, his heart beating faster than ever in fear. She seemed fine. She was sitting on the sofa facing the T.V. which seemed to be turned on to the nightly news. "Chi-Chi?" He inquired.   
  
Usagi walked around her father to see what was going on and wasn't at all disappointed when she found her that her mother was just fine. "Mom? Are you ok?"  
  
Chi-Chi turned back to her husband and daughter with a pale face. "I'm fine, but..." Her voice trailed off into nothingness as she turned back to the television and pointed at the screen. "Look."   
  
Goku and Usagi made their way closer to the television to get a better look at the screen. But what they did see completely horrified them. There was a picture of Tatsuo. He appeared to be dead. Usagi walked even closer to get a better look, but it was still Tatsuo. "What?" She looked back to her mother for answers.   
  
Chi-Chi didn't know what to say? She had just seen the boy standing in her house, and now he was dead. "The police found his body in an alley by the ruble of your old school. He had a huge gash on his forehead, which they think is what he died from. They also say he's been dead for a couple of days."  
  
Usagi shook her head in disbelief. "That can't be true. I just talked to him. He was just outside with us..." She looked up to her father in confusion. "Wasn't he, daddy?"  
  
Goku nodded. There was no doubt about it. He HAD just been outside with them. "Of course Tatsuo was just out there with us. Who else could it be?"  
  
Usagi turned back to the screen. "Then who's that?"  
  
Chi-Chi cleared her throat, causing Usagi to turn back. "They say his name was Akio. He's your age, Usagi. They think he was attacked by a gang and then left for dead."  
  
Usagi gulped. "That has to be wrong. Maybe he's Tatsuo's twin?"   
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Wouldn't Tatsuo have told you?"  
  
Usagi looked at the floor. None of this made sense. Now she believed that there was definitely something majorly wrong with the boy. There was no doubt about it. "I don't know!"  
  
Goku; "Usagi, I want you to stay away from Tatsuo. With his strange questions and now this, I want to find out some more about him."  
  
Usagi nodded. She didn't find a single quarrel wrong with that. "Sure thing."   
  
"Let's try not to think about this right now. Let's try to put this behind us. It's none of our concern. Just stay away from him, Usagi, and we'll be fine." Chi-Chi said as she turned off the television.  
  
Goku frowned. "We can't just put this behind us, Chi-Chi. This is something big. Something peculiar is up. You should have heard some of the questions he was asking."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yeah. He wanted to know if me and dad were ever in a fight to kill each other, or at least really hurt each other. And then he asked if there would ever be a way that we would. Then he wanted to know all about the Dragon Balls."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Just stay away from him." She exclaimed as she stood up and walked to the opening of the hallway. "I don't want to talk about it anymore."  
  
Now Usagi was the one sporting a frown. "Why are you avoiding this, mom?"  
  
Chi-Chi sighed. "Because I don't want you two to go tramping off and fighting again!" With that being said, she stomped off down into the hall to be on her own.   
  
~*~*~  
  
The rest of that evening was pretty quiet at the Son house. The only thing that Chi-Chi could think of was her husband and daughter leaving her to go fight off some unknown force, just as Goku had with Gohan so many times in the past. This Tatsuo-Akio situation seemed pretty suspicious, which was what made her worry even more. Hopefully it was nothing. And if it was, maybe the Senshi could take care of it like they had before. Then her family wouldn't have to put themselves into any danger.   
  
Usagi pretty much stayed in her room to think of the past two days. She went over every conversation she had had with Tatsuo, hoping that she could remember something strange that he had done or said. She could think of nothing, but one instance. Earlier that morning he had asked about her Broach and seemed pretty insistent upon looking at it.   
  
Goku, unlike his wife and child, spent the entire night eating, as usual. His mind had soon wandered away from Tatsuo and onto his stomach. He would worry about fighting if the time came  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Kami's Tower~~  
  
A short, metallic blue figure slithered around Kami's lookout late that night after the sun had already set. It was in search of one thing, and one thing only, Kami, who was currently Dende. The figured peered in and out of every room of Dende's palace. With no luck of finding Dende on one of the first tries, the figure grew bored with searching. It wondered if it should just maybe wait four months before its plan was put into motion.   
  
Ready to leave and return to the Earth, the figure's attention was drawn to a room where a soft orange glow was being emitted. Feeling curious, it ventured toward the glow only to find itself face with seven orange balls. "Dragon Balls?" It ventured closer to get a better look. It only made sense that they were Dragon Balls. This was, after all, Kami's residing place. It was the platform in the sky. Why were there Dragon Balls here if they were supposed to be stone for another four months? Did these people lie to him? He looked closer. Each one of them had little black stars on them. They ranged from a One star ball all the way to a Seven star ball. The figure turned its head from side to side to make sure that no one was around to see him. Once satisfied, it scooped the balls into a bag which it was carrying. Finally, he could begin everything.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The next morning, Usagi arrived at school early, just as she had the day before. This time, she had left of her own accord instead of her mother nagging her to. She had a few things she had to talk to her friends about. She wondered if they had seen the news too? Probably only Ami had. She was the only one who ever watched the news for recreational purposes.   
  
She landed in the front quad. There weren't many students huddled around here for most were already gathering inside for class, which would start in fifteen minutes. If this were any other day, she would have dragged her feet to class, but on this particular day, she almost found herself running. "Gotta hurry, gotta hurry!" She chanted to herself. Her mother had told her to forget about Tatsuo, but how could she? Especially since he was in the same class. How would she get passed talking to him? How could she get passed asking him about the boy who had been killed in the alley three days ago? Come to think of it, three days ago Tatsuo appeared. It was his first day in town. Usagi groaned to herself. The more she thought about him, the more she freaked herself out. Maybe she should take her mother's advice and try to forget about it.  
  
"You're thinking about me..." Came a coarse voice inside Usagi's head.  
  
Usagi looked up into the blue sky in confusion. Where had that voice come from? And more importantly, who was it? "Who are you?"  
  
"Someone who wants to meet you..." Now, the plan was set, it would only be time before it was fulfilled. Nothing could stop it from happening now.  
  
  
( Ok, so those of you who know me well enough to know I absolutely detest DBGT and everything it stands for, I'm going to tell you, I know what I'm doing. The Black Star Dragon Balls does not mean that I'm going GT on you. And if you haven't guess, I'm taking a break from Sailor Moon and doing more of a DBZ based chapter. Now that that's been said and done, I guess I should go. Sorry it came out so late tonight, I made a promise to someone that I would help them with some work today so I couldn't write during the day. Cya later! ) 


	132. Part 6

(Ok, so my message on my last chapter was a little wrong. I am SORT OF going GT with this chapter, even though, as I said, I HATE IT! That is why, I am picking and choosing the concepts I "liked" and basically TWISTING them to make them completely workable (for my story only), since GT was an inconsistent series anyway, it doesn't matter. No, they aren't going to have to search for the Dragon Balls in order to make the earth stay alive, and no, they won't be having to fight the Dragons, just to tell you before hands. I'm not going to use any plot-line. And no, Bebi is NOT the enemy in this. I think you all know who is.)   
  
  
~*~*~*~   
  
It had started out to be a normal day for Dende. He awakened early, as was his usual ritual. The morning was great, the sun had already began to show itself to the world and was already beginning to warm the planet. Continuing with his morning ritual, he made his rounds around the lookout, leaving the center to be last, as usual. He didn't much like to travel down there, for there lay seven mysterious Dragon Balls which even he was unfamiliar with. These Dragon Balls were much different than those found around the earth. Not only in appearance, with their black stars instead of red, but also with their power. All he knew about them was that they had been made by Kami before the original split. In essence, they were the original Dragon Balls, holding more power than the red star balls. He wasn't sure why they kept around, but, as directed by Piccolo, he was sure to keep up his promise to keep them absolutely secret from anyone, even those who fought for earth. Piccolo had warned him that these particular Dragon Balls were so powerful that they could do almost anything. They could do more damage than the red star balls. If any enemy were to find out about them, the earth would be doomed.   
  
Upon making the last of his rounds, Dende, as usual, made his way down to the center of the lookout, where the Room of Spirit of Time had once resided before it had been destroyed. But now, it was the home to the Black Star Dragon Balls. As he walked into the room where they had always been, and hopefully would always stay, unused for eternity, what did he see? Absolutely nothing. Not a sign of a Single Dragon Ball anywhere. He could think of only one thing to say in a moment such as this... "Aww shit!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
Usagi stood, all alone, with fifteen minutes to get to class, looking for who might have been speaking with her. It was a voice in which she didn't recognize, probably because she had never heard it before. It was a coarse voice, one that sounded empty, emotionless. Who could it have been? That was one question Usagi was unable to answer. As she searched the quad, she could see no one. "He...hello?" Her voice shook with slight fear, for, not only was she unable to SEE whoever was talking with her, she couldn't feel it either, not that she knew what she should be feeling for anyway.   
  
She set her bag down on the ground next to her legs and circled around it, hoping to pinpoint who was speaking with her. Maybe it was nothing, maybe it was just some sick upperclassman playing a trick on her by using a megaphone. Maybe that was why there weren't any upperclassman around, they were all trying to scare her. That had to be it. She sighed with relief as she tried to talk herself out of being scared. She would just have to ignore the calls and be on with her day.  
  
Usagi bent over to pick up her bag. "Man, this Tatsuo thing has really gotten me paranoid."  
  
"Tatsuo..." called the voice.  
  
Usagi jumped away from her bag and looked up, her heart wildly racing inside her chest. "Who said that? How did you hear me?!" She darted a glance in all directions. Maybe this wasn't all in her imagination.   
  
"Idiot!"   
  
Usagi jumped back again. WHO was that? "Where are you? Show yourself!" She lowered herself into a fighting position.   
  
"I am talking to you telepathically!"  
  
Usagi stood back up with fear written in her eyes. "Ok...?" She looked down to her hands, which were now shaking. Why had this person decided to contact her? She wasn't sure, but she knew it had to do with the resemblance between Tatsuo and the boy who had died. It had to have. Nothing weird started happening until Tatsuo arrived.   
  
"Teleport to me!"  
  
Usagi's eyes widened with surprise. "I can't."  
  
"Yes you can! I've seen you! Now do it!"  
  
Usagi bent over to pick up her bag this time with a frown. Tatsuo was the only one who knew she could teleport. But, this voice didn't sound at all like Tatsuo. Tatsuo had a sweet voice, a voice that would never have any hate behind it, whereas this guy did. "Why would I want to? Why don't you come to me?!"  
  
"YOU will teleport to ME... or else I will use the Dragon Balls and wish for something horrible to happen to this planet! You wouldn't want that, would you?"  
  
Usagi grinned. What was this guy trying to pull? There were no Dragon Balls to be wished upon. "You're lying! The Dragon Balls are stone right now! You have nothing against me!"  
  
"Is that a fact? Well, I seem to have seven shiny orange balls sitting right here in my side-pouch. Each of them have cute little stars to go along with them."  
  
Usagi frowned. She didn't remember her father describing the looks of the Dragon Balls to Tatsuo the day before. There was only one anyone could know that, and that would be if he saw them, and the only way he could see them is if they were turned back to normal, and if they were turned back to normal then he probably had all of them already.   
  
Even though she didn't fully believe this guy about the Dragon Balls, there was only one way to find out if he was telling the truth or not. "Where are you?"  
  
"In the park near Capsule Corporation. Come alone." The voice sounded extra pleased now.  
  
"Why?" Usagi growled.  
  
"Just do it!"   
  
Usagi sighed as she placed her bag next to a bench near the building. This could get interesting. What could this guy want? Maybe it was nothing special. Maybe he just wanted to have a nice dinner with her. She couldn't help but giggle at the thought. What were the chances of that ever happening. This guy didn't sound too friendly. Knowing her luck, he would just want to kill her from some stupid reason and then go on to the people she loved most. It was the same with every enemy who had come to earth before. But she wasn't worried. She knew she was strong, she could handle whatever force this was, if it was any at all. And beside, she wouldn't even be fighting all alone. Once her father felt her energy level go up during school hours, as well as the other guys, he would come straight for her to see what was wrong. And then, hopefully he would take over the fight from there.  
  
She quickly pressed her fingers to her forehead and searched out for the park by Capsule Corp, the same park in which she had met Makoto for the very first time. Once it was found, she was gone and away from school.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Kami's Lookout~~  
  
"Popo! Popo! They're gone! The Dragon Balls! They're gone!" Not knowing what to do, Dende found himself running aimlessly around his palace. He knew what he needed to do. He needed to find Mr. Popo so he could get the word to Master Kalin and Yajurobi so they could get the word to Piccolo. But, finding Mr. Popo in such massive palace wouldn't be too easy, but he did have an idea as to where he would be. Usually, he could find Mr. Popo tending to the gardens in the afternoons, but the mornings he wasn't sure of. In anyway, he decided to try the gardens anyway. It was worth a shot. Anything to get the word to Piccolo.  
  
He ran up multiple hallways, taking mostly those that peered out into the quad in hopes to see Mr. Popo out with this garden. "Popo! Where are you?" He soon found himself running for the doorway that led outside. He wasn't the least bit surprised to find Mr. Popo standing before it with his gardening tools. "Mr. Popo!" He cried out in a rage of fear.   
  
Mr. Popo swiftly turned around with a fear of his own. Dende was always calm and composed, this sudden outburst could only mean trouble. "What?!" He yelled down the hall as he dropped his tools to clank against the hard marble flooring.   
  
"The Dragon Balls! They're missing!"   
  
Mr. Popo gasped. He was the only other soul besides Piccolo who was not god who knew about he Black Star Dragon Balls and the power they held. He knew if they fell into the wrong hands they could mean the complete destruction of the world, maybe even the universe. "Horrible! When did it happen?!"   
  
Dende came to a sliding halt before Popo and shook his head. "I don't know. I went to check on them like I do everyday but they weren't there this time. I don't know who could have done it. I haven't felt any disturbances lately."  
  
Popo frowned. There was only one person who would truly know what they were facing, and that would be the Dragon Balls' original creator, who didn't technically exist anymore. "I'll tell Yajurobi to summon Piccolo."  
  
Dende nodded. "I don't want anyone else to know about this yet, so tell Yajurobi to make sure Piccolo doesn't bring anyone else with him."  
  
"I don't think Piccolo will have too much of an objection with that. He doesn't want anyone to know either."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Park~~  
  
Usagi appeared on a concrete clearing in the park. This was something she definitely recognized. This was where she fought Makoto for the very first time. She proceeded forward. She would have to keep herself alert for anything strange, for, if she didn't, the enemy could get the upper hand. All that she wondered now was why she wasn't able to feel it.  
  
"You came." Exclaimed the voice from behind.  
  
Surprised, Usagi gasped and jumped around. Her eyes widened and her mouth nearly dropped at what she saw. Before her stood a small, metallic creature, the same creature who stole the Dragon Balls the night before. But Usagi didn't know that. All she knew was that this thing called her out to this park and she was ready to fight it if needed. But, before she tried anything, she would have to find out if it actually had the Dragon Balls or not. "So?" She rudely questioned.  
  
The creature bobbed around her in a full circle as if to check her out. It paid special attention to her tail, which hang carelessly behind her legs. "So what?"  
  
Usagi placed her hands on her hips and frowned. "Do you have them or not?"  
  
The creature nodded. "I do!" He reached one of his hands to his side. For almost a second, it disappeared, but almost immediately reappeared with an orange Dragon Ball in it. It held the Ball up for Usagi to see. "I have it!"  
  
Usagi groaned. 'So he DOES have it. This could be bad. That means I have to defeat him, or do whatever he wants until I can get home and tell daddy. Whatever I do, I better be fast in my decision otherwise it might be too late.' She thought about her position for a few seconds. On the one hand, this thing didn't seem too strong. It probably wasn't, which was why it had the Dragon Balls to blackmail her, or it wanted her to THINK it wasn't strong. 'I don't know how long it would take for daddy to realize something was going on. Probably about five minutes. He'll probably just think me and the girls are play fighting again. Maybe if I went Super Saiyan right away. He knows I never go Super Saiyan unless I'm fighting with him. Never the girls.'  
  
The creature walked up to Usagi and looked her straight in the eye. The two were just about the same height, except this thing was a little taller than Usagi. "What are you thinking about?"  
  
Usagi shook her head rather quickly to snap out of her thoughts. "N...nothing. Sorry." She studied the Dragon Ball in the blue guy's hand. "Can I see it?" She wanted to make sure it was genuine before she made up her mind.  
  
The creature smirked deviously as he pulled it away from her and held it tightly. "No." He smirked wider. "But I'll make you a trade."  
  
Usagi quirked an eyebrow in curiosity. This had to be good. What could he possibly want in place of the Dragon Balls? Whatever he wanted he could just WISH for. But, anything to get the Dragon Balls back. She wouldn't be dumb enough to try to tell him otherwise. "I'm listening."  
  
"Good." The creature pointed at Usagi's chest. "I want that broach that you're wearing on your chest."  
  
Usagi gasped as she looked down at her broach, and then back up at the blue guy. "What?! You've gotta be nuts! You can't have this! It's mine!"  
  
The creature put the Dragon Ball back where he got it from. "Then you can't have MY Dragon Balls."   
  
Usagi frowned. "They aren't yours! You stole them! Give them back!"   
  
The Creature grinned. "I can't do that. I already have a use for these babies. I was hopping you'd be a good little girl and give me what I wanted in exchange for something you wanted, but it looks like I'll have to take it the hard way."  
  
Seeing where this was going, Usagi crouched into a fighting stance. "Hard for you. I don't go down so easily. And once my dad feels my energy fly up he'll come racing down here to kick your butt!"  
  
"I don't know about that..." Without even finishing his thought, the blue creature disappeared and reappeared behind Usagi. And, before she could even move to defend, he reached out and grabbed her by her tail.   
  
Usagi only grinned. "I fixed that problem a while back."  
  
The creature returned the grin with a sly one of his own. "I didn't even know anything happened when your tail was grabbed. I was planning on something else!" Usagi looked quite confused. But this was all clarified when she found herself being thrown into the concrete over and over by her own tail. "Bleed you stupid brat!"   
  
Usagi cried out in pain, unable to think of anything but attacking back. She couldn't even raise her power level in her current condition. This guy was much faster than she could detect, though she could now feel its power level skyrocketing, and it was much stronger than she could ever hope to be. But, as wrong as this sounded, she was glad of this. This was a power level that everyone had never felt, and now they would come racing down here to kill it off. But, she had to do something if she wanted to be alive by the time they arrived. "You!" She screamed. Doing all that she could think of the keep him under control at her current power level. She quickly began building up her attack which she had made when she was seven.   
  
Golden energy, which made a crackling noise. began to surround her hands. "Take this!" She yelled just as she was once again thrown into the ground. She released her energy onto her attacker, hoping that it would actually work this time. In past experiences, it had never really worked when she needed it to.   
  
The golden ball of energy didn't have long before it smashed into the body of the metallic creature, but it didn't explode. It more rather stayed on one point in his body and began to spread further up and down, causing him to scream out as it sent electrical shocks throughout his body.   
  
Usagi's tail was soon dropped and she was once again in control of her body. Her body had been bruised, but thanks to her toughening Saiyan skin, she wasn't quite bleeding yet, though it was close. She sat on the ground and glared at her attacker, who was unable to move due to her attack. Finally, it had worked when she needed it most. Soon, someone would be here to help. She wasn't strong enough to beat him alone. But, her brother Gohan and her father were. And the fused Gotenks would easily be able to take him out, but she knew the chances of that guy showing up were very slim. Goten and Trunks had given up fusing when they became adults. They said it was too childish.   
  
Usagi continued to watch in horror. Where had he come from? He surely wasn't Tatsuo, nor was he the kid who was found dead in the alley the other day. She wondered if Tatsuo was even at school. Just as more questions arose in her head, she noticed that her attack was beginning to wear off. 'I didn't get to put enough power into it.' She stood up and prepared to fight, this time, she wouldn't be caught off her guard. This guy was sneaky, and faster than her, but she wouldn't let that get her down.  
  
But the creature didn't seem to respond quite like Usagi had expected. Instead of attacking again, he only smirked at her. "You will never be able to beat me with that kind of power. It is way too low. Why don't you try something else?"  
  
Usagi cocked her head to the side. What was he trying to get at? What else could she try. She looked down at her chest, where he was pointing at. He wanted her to use her broach, but why? What was the big deal about this broach?   
  
"Give it to me."  
  
Usagi frowned as she reached down for her broach and pulled it off her school uniform. "Oh don't worry, I'll give it to you all right." She raised her broach to the air and smiled. If her Super Saiyan power wouldn't work, maybe it was time to bring in Sailor Moon. It couldn't hurt. "Moon Crystal Power... Make-up!"   
  
In a flash of silver, Usagi as a civilian was replaced with the fighter of justice, Sailor Moon. "Normally I wouldn't transform in front of an enemy, but I think I'll take the chance. You're going down."  
  
The creature smiled wide and evilly. "I KNEW IT!"   
  
Sailor Moon frowned. Although she was very curious about what he was blabbing on about, this wasn't the time to engage into dialogue. "You have come to earth thinking that you're going to ... well... do something evil! But you're wrong! You won't get past me! I am the fighter of Love and Justice, Sailor Moon! And in the name of the Moon... I shall punish you!"   
  
'Well, Tsukino Usagi... I hope that was corny enough!'  
  
The creature continued to smile arrogantly at the girl. "That's the power... that's what I felt... I must have it..." He approached Sailor Moon very slowly. "Give it to me... give me the broach... The ultimate power of the universe lies within it... I MUST HAVE IT!"   
  
Sailor Moon backed away as she scowled at the blue annoyance. "What are you talking about? If you think I'm ever going to hand this over you're nuts." With that, she reached for her tiara and pulled it down to her stomach and held it like a frisbee. "Eat this! Moon Tiara Action!" She threw her tiara powered by Moon energy at her foe, only to find it bounce right off him without a single scratch and fly back to her. "What?!"   
  
The creature smiled even wider. "A perfect match! My chemistry, added with the chemistry of that sweet energy will be bright enough to rule the world!"  
  
Sailor Moon backed away in fear. What was going on? Her power wouldn't even penetrate his skin. He had even lowered his power level. It hadn't been up that long, which meant her family probably hadn't felt it for all that long. They probably thought she and her friends were play fighting. But what about her friends in school? Didn't they wonder where she was. She groaned. Of course not, she had a habit of being late. "You'll never get your hands on this."  
  
The creature grinned. "I wouldn't count on that. But I'm a patient guy. I'm willing to go through a lot to achieve the ultimate power of the universe."   
  
Sailor Moon blinked twice when he disappeared before her eyes. There he went using his speed again. But this time, she felt him go by her. And then, he was gone... for good. But he left her with a parting gift. As she looked down to her now stinging arm, she noticed a long scratch going from her elbow, down to her wrist. "What the...?"   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Kami's Lookout~~  
  
Piccolo was out meditating on his own when Yajurobi arrived. Yajurobi approached the green monster, as he referred to him as, with great caution. He still wasn't too buddy-buddy with him, mostly because he was scared of him still from the old days. Piccolo hadn't been too happy about the interruption, as he would never be happy with interruptions. But, he was even angrier when Yajurobi wouldn't tell him what was wrong. He just told him that it was urgent news from the top and that he was needed at Kami's Lookout right away.  
  
Piccolo reluctantly stopped his mediations and flew to Dende's. He knew it HAD to be something big if he was being SUMMONED. Dende wasn't usually one to freak out. And so now here he was, at Kami's lookout, before Dende, waiting for an explanation of the urgent problem.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Dende worriedly looked up at Piccolo as if to beg for mercy. He could remember the first day he had officially become God of the earth. It was the day after Goku's funeral, and Piccolo had just explained about the Black Star Dragon Balls, that they were never to be used by ANYONE, not even God himself. They were to be kept in secrecy, away from the world. Which was why he had chosen to put them in the center of the lookout. He figured no one would ever find them there, he figured wrong. "Piccolo..." He stared in shame as he looked down.  
  
Piccolo frowned at the younger Namek. He hated this. "Just say what you need to say!"   
  
Dende nodded. "I lost... That is... I can't find..."  
  
Piccolo sighed as he slapped himself on the forehead. He hated it when people beat around the bush. "Just say it already!"  
  
Dende jumped. He was more than hesitant. Making Piccolo mad about this wasn't nearly as bad as making him mad about the Dragon Balls. "It's the Dragon Balls..." He mumbled. "They've been stolen."  
  
Piccolo looked down to the ground, his breathing becoming heavier and heavier. "They've what?" He asked, trying to keep himself in a calmly manner.   
  
Dende nodded. "They aren't there anymore, the Black Star Dragon Balls."  
  
Piccolo looked up with a full fledged glare. "WHERE ARE THEY?!" He demanded.   
  
Dende stepped back in shock. Although he had seen Piccolo angry before, this was over the top. He could actually FEEL the man's rage. "Piccolo, I'm sorry."  
  
Piccolo looked back down to the ground to try and control his anger. "It's not your fault. You've done all you can to protect those things. I just hope you realize what kind of a problem this creates."  
  
Dende sighed. "Piccolo, please, tell me about these particular Dragon Balls. I want to know more. Why are they so dangerous?"  
  
Piccolo; "I guess you have a right to know. You know they were made by me before I split, before I became Kami in the first place. They were made with an evil heart, which means they were designed to be used by an evil heart only. That means they can only be used by evil, which is why they are so dangerous."   
  
Dende nodded in awe as to beg Piccolo for more. "Go on..."  
  
"We would have destroyed them when we split, but they can only be destroyed by their creator. That's what happens when an evil man creates things, they make it impossible for anyone else to use or destroy. It was a perfect plan, until we split and I became good too. Now all they are is a problem. We can never destroy them because we are no longer in our original form, we've changed too much. And we can't even use them because we aren't evil."  
  
Dende; "I'm betting whoever has them is evil, which means major trouble."  
  
Piccolo nodded. "I don't want anyone else to know about this until we know what we're dealing with. Dende, I want you to watch earth extra close for a while. I want to know ANYTHING strange that happens."  
  
Dende nodded. "I've got it covered."  
  
  
(Ah, yes, there is a point to this chapter. There is a point to every chapter, no matter if something small happens, or something big. No matter if something happens that seems stupid to put in, remember who's writing this. I love to be completely set up before I dive into the actual point of the book. Well, I hope you liked it. Sorry it was out late. I spent half the day trying to figure out how to unjam my printer only to find out that the back comes apart. ^_^ don't I feel stupid! ^_^ Well, I'll see ya!) 


	133. Part 7

~*~*~*~  
  
After being deserted in the park, Usagi had no idea what to do. No one else had come to see what was going on, not that there was a chance for them to. It had all happened so fast that it probably didn't even register in the minds of her friends and family. They weren't always just looking for disturbances, if they were going to feel it, it would have to last longer than what had just happened.   
  
Sighing to herself, Usagi shot a glance around the park. Nothing seemed to be any different. No one seemed to have even noticed what had happened. Not that there was really anyone around. There were mostly just business men and women passing by on their way to work, too busy to notice anything but themselves.   
  
She was lucky for that. The world didn't need to know of yet another upstir of trouble. There had been too many of those in history, even though two of them had been erased from their memories. Another enemy would only mean more deaths, something they didn't even have the Dragon Balls for. That little blue guy did. As she thought more, she came to realize that anyone who died now would never be revived if the Dragon Balls were used anytime after for something other than bring them back to live. The Dragon Balls would be stone for another year, but they can only bring those back who died within a year. She remembered that from all the stories she had heard from her family.  
  
That's when she realized what she would have to do. She would have to return right home to inform everyone of what had just happened. Although, she would have to keep out the little bit about the guy wanting to trade the Dragon Balls for her broach. Then they would know for sure that there was something more to it than she was really telling. But as she thought more, she remembered that, as soon as she turned into Sailor Moon, the little guy went nuts saying that it was the power that he had felt before. What was that supposed to mean, she wondered.   
  
She took another look down at the fine scratch on her arm. Why had the little thing done that? What was the purpose? He ran from the battlefield, leaving her with bruises and one little scratch, not to mention her torn School Uniform. Not even three days into the school year and she had already gotten one of her uniforms ruined. Why was this reminding her of her first day of her school career?   
  
Usagi picked herself up and prepared to teleport home. She would have to go there and tell her father of what just happened, as well as pick up some new cloths. It was certain that her mother would send her back to school, not that she had any quarrel with it. She needed to speak to her friends about the news broadcast of Tatsuo's body, as well as what just happened with the broach and how her Senshi powers would not work against this creature. They seemed only to bounce back.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
It was already twenty minutes into the school day when Tatsuo walked into class. The girls had wondered where he was, but their minds were mostly on Usagi. When she hadn't showed up at the beginning on time, they had figured that she was just falling back into her slump of getting to school late, but when she hadn't shown up ten minutes into class, that was when each one of them began to worry that something had happened. But to make matters worse, they felt a quick surge of Sailor Moon enter world. For what reason they didn't know, but it couldn't have been good. It was gone almost as soon as it appeared, which worried them more. What had happened to her? Had she fallen at the hands of evil? Had she destroyed it that quickly? These were all questions that flew through the minds of her friends, who were currently not in a position to run out to help her.   
  
What worried them even more was the fact that they couldn't exactly feel what she was fighting. They hadn't felt a thing, only Sailor Moon, who's power always shone bright whenever it emerged from Usagi's soul. Each one of them shared a constant look of concern with one another, while Tatsuo sat facing straight forward listening intently as the teacher spoke.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi teleported directly home after her little run-in with the little blue man. She found herself in the family room first, where she found no one, but she could hear her mother moving about in the back of the house. "Mom?" She ran straight down the hall to find herself in the living room where her mother seemed to be cleaning up after the other two occupants of the house. "Mom!"   
  
Chi-Chi looked up from what she was doing with a frown. She didn't even have to look twice before she noticed her daughter's torn school uniform. "Son Usagi! What is wrong with you!?"  
  
Usagi sighed. She should have known that was going to happen, but she couldn't quite blame the woman. She had, after all, given her mother reason before to yell at her like that. She looked down at her clothing with a grin, but quickly turned back up to her mother. "I got in a fight."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned harder as she walked to her daughter and grabbed her by the arm. "Young lady! What did you father distinctly tell you the other morning before you went to school?!"  
  
Usagi groaned as she threw her head back. "It wasn't my fault, mom."  
  
Chi-Chi dropped her daughter's arm and leaned against the sofa. "I'm waiting for an explanation."  
  
Usagi took a deep breath. "Ok, well, you see, I got to school, and I was going to class when this voice told me to go to the park by Bulma's because it had the Dragon Balls." She paused when she noticed her mother's mood dropping even more. She didn't seem to buy it. "Well, I didn't believe it had the Dragon Balls, but then he explained to me what it looked like, so I did what anyone else would have done and went to check it out. When I got there, there was this little blue guy and he wanted to fight me if I didn't give him what he wanted." She decided to kind of bounce over the detail about her broach. "He didn't even tell me what it was before was behind me and grabbing my tail flipping me back and fourth on the concrete. I whopped him a good one and then he raised his power level, which was higher than mine could ever get."  
  
"That's funny, I didn't feel anything." Chi-Chi growled, as she crossed her arms. "Are you lying to me? I told you I don't like that..."  
  
Usagi sighed. "I'm not lying this time, I promise. I wouldn't lie about something like this, you know me. You're talking to the person who ratted herself out when she got into a fight with Haruka and Michiru. Please mom, give me some credit."  
  
Chi-Chi couldn't argue with that. It was true. Usagi usually wouldn't lie about something this big. "Go on."   
  
Usagi smiled. For once, her mother had gone down without a fight. "Anyway, he yelled at me some more and said he would use the Dragon Balls if he had to just to get what he wanted. So, after that he left. Looks like Daddy and the rest of us are gonna have to fight after all, mom."  
  
That was all Chi-Chi had to hear come out of her daughter's mouth. After years of hearing out of her husband for so many years, and then having so much peace where her husband stayed with her all the way through, it was just too much. She closed her eyes and dropped back onto the sofa.  
  
Reacting to her mother, Usagi found herself jumping over the back of the sofa and sitting by her mother's face. "Mom! Mom! Are you ok? Mom!" She said as she slapped her mother's face around a bit. "Wake up Mom!" Usagi sighed as she stood up, but continued to look down at her mother. "Great. Now she's fainted again." She grinned to herself as she went to change into another School Uniform. "Next stop, dad."   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Open Sparring Field~~  
  
Goku was out for his daily spar with Gohan and Goten, which had just been recently reinstated by the group of three about a year ago. He stared at directly at his sons, who had just arrived. "Ok, let's get this started." The two younger Saiyans nodded to show that they were ready. Goku grinned. "Let's have some hardcore fighting today, boys."  
  
Goten smirked. He loved it when they could fight rough. "Super Saiyan?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Of course. No holding back."   
  
Gohan nodded. "Right." He glanced over to his brother, and then back to his father. It had been a while since they fought in a higher form than usual. "Let's go."   
  
The three confirmed their positions and began their power-ups. In a flash of golden light, the trio powered up to the first level of Super Saiyan, their hair gold like the sun. Each of them lowered themselves down into their own fighting position, Goten's being the most laid back.   
  
Goku, as usual, made the first move with an advancement toward his youngest son. He tightened his fist and brought it up Goten's face, only to find interference from an unknown source. But, he still made contact with something, just the wrong something. After hitting, he knew exactly what and who it was he actually hit. "Holy...!" He yelled out, stopping himself short before he did any damage. Yes, it was Usagi. She teleported directly to his power level at exactly the wrong time.   
  
Usagi went flying into her brother, and by the force of their father's punch, they were both thrown backwards with Goten to break Usagi's fall. "Owe!" She looked up at her father who had that 'aww Shit' look on his face. She rubbed her cheek, where she had been hit. Just yet another bruise her body would hold after a day of beatings. "Daddy, what was that for?!" She rolled over off of Goten, only to notice that her uniform was now dirty yet again.   
  
Goku ran to his daughter, Gohan not far behind, and picked her up to set her on her feet. He quickly began brushing her off in hopes to make amends with her before she got angry. "Usagi, I'm SO sorry."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father, who was still Super Saiyan. "That hurt..." She whined.   
  
Gohan chuckled. "That was interesting."  
  
Usagi frowned at her eldest brother. "Ohhh! You're terrible!" She watched as her father helped pull Goten to his feet. "At least Goten was there to break my fall. That would have really hurt!"  
  
Goten bent over as he rubbed his back, which had just been thrown across a large field where there were rocks just under the soil. "Yeah...right. That's easy for you to say, you weren't the one who had to endure something like that."  
  
Goku ignored his son's comment and looked down to his daughter's cheek with concern. He had hit her pretty hard, what with him being at the power of Super Saiyan and all. She hadn't been powered up at all, nor had she expected that. He grabbed the side of her face which he had not hit and turned her head to the side so he could see what had been hit. It was already beginning to shine. "Oh yeah, that's gonna bruise nicely. Chi-Chi's gonna have a cow."   
  
Usagi groaned. "Oh great, another bruise."  
  
Gohan frowned. " 'Another' bruise?"  
  
Goku let go of his daughter and powered down. There was no sense on wasting power if it wasn't going to be used. He and the boys would just have to continue their little spar later. "Usagi, if you don't mind me asking, why exactly did you come here? Don't you have school?"  
  
Usagi nodded to both her brother and father. "Yes, and I was on my way to school when everything started."  
  
Goten shared a worried look with his brother, and then father. "Uh-oh. Do we dare ask what happened."  
  
Usagi; "To make a long story very short, there was this guy, he wasn't much taller than me and he was BLUE. He has the Dragon Balls, even though I don't know how because didn't you say they turn to stone for a year?" She questioned her father. All she received was a quick nod. "Anyway, so he's way faster than me and he grabs my tail and bashes me around for a few seconds until I hit him with my own attack. You must not of felt it OTHERWISE you would have come to help me, RIGHT?" She glared around the faces of her family.  
  
Gohan frowned. What was she trying to get at? "Of course we would have, silly girl. We didn't feel anything out of the ordinary."  
  
Goku looked troubled. "He had the Dragon Balls? Did he say how?"  
  
Usagi turned up to her father and shrugged. "I don't know, but he showed me one and it was the real thing, so I believed him."  
  
Goku groaned. When would the attacks on earth end? This was getting ridiculous. "Ok look, here's what we're going to do. If he contacts you again..." He paused to look at his younger Son, "Any of us, raise your power level as high as you can get it." He glanced back to Gohan. "Just like when the Androids came, remember?"   
  
Gohan nodded. "How could I not?"  
  
Goku; "Ok." He turned back to his daughter. "It's a known sign throughout the group to come directly there to help."  
  
Usagi frowned as she remembered back to her run in. It hadn't been that easy. This guy was much faster than she was. Of course, she should have raised her power level anyway to get someone there to help. But she hadn't because she thought it would be pointless since he was contained and because he was stronger than her. But next time she would. "You mean you aren't going to do anything about it?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "Nope."  
  
"Why not? Don't you wanna go search for him and pound him into the ground, take back the Dragon Balls and then send him on his way?"  
  
Goku, again, shook his head no. "Let him come to us, then, if he's really serious about this, we'll fight him, but only on OUR turf. Never let the enemy take you to his turf otherwise you'll be in big trouble. He'll have the upper hand."  
  
Usagi looked down to the ground. That was something she hadn't thought of. Maybe going to the park hadn't been such a good idea after all. But she needed to find out if that thing had the Dragon Balls or not. "What are you going to do about the Dragon Balls, daddy?"   
  
"Well, I personally don't believe he's got them..."  
  
Usagi frowned. "But I saw them with my own eyes!"  
  
Goku put his hands out to calm his daughter. "Hold on, hold on. I'm not saying you're lying, BUT... I just don't believe that they've turned from stone in only eight short months. They've always taken a year I don't see why now would be any different."  
  
"But..." She rebutted.   
  
But Goku still quieted her down. "I'll go talk to Dende later today and find out what's up. We'll figure this out, ok?"  
  
Usagi sighed as she looked down to the ground. She didn't like this situation one bit at all. And not being able to tell them the entire story because it might reveal who she is was even worse. But she couldn't divulge her secrets, it was against her code as a Senshi. "Yes, daddy."  
  
Seeing that his daughter was having a hard time with his decision, Goku wrapped his hand around her chin and brought her face up to face his. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing. Everything will work out fine, you'll see."  
  
Usagi smiled. She couldn't refuse words like that. It was true, her father did always seem to know what he was doing when it came to fighting tactics. "You've never lost a fight yet, so I believe you."  
  
Goku smiled. "Good. Now, just don't tell your mother about this until we know more. I don't want her flying off the handle if we aren't really going to fight."  
  
Usagi grinned. "Too late. She's laying on the couch now. She fainted when I said we might have to go fight."  
  
Gohan smirked. That brought back so many memories of his childhood. Actually, that was usually how it went. They would tell Chi-Chi they had to go fight and she would faint. He patted his father on the shoulder with a chuckle. "I'm glad I'm not in your shoes right now."   
  
Goku groaned. "You just have to tell your mother everything, don't you?" He said with a grin.   
  
Usagi nodded with a grin of her own. "Well, she was the only one home. I had to tell her."  
  
Goku smiled. "Well, ok, so, I'll talk to Dende, and then figure out some way to calm your mother down, meanwhile, you need to get to school. If I keep you out any longer that's two things I'm going to have to listen to."  
  
Usagi; "Ok." She chirped. She had no problem with that. She had already told two of the three groups. Now she would have to tell the real story to her friends and talk to Luna and Artimas about what to do. Maybe she could talk them into letting her tell her parents about her identity. But what were the chances of that happening. It was strictly forbidden to let anyone know their identities.   
  
Usagi left soon after that, leaving only the men to themselves. But, after hearing what Usagi had just told them. Goku glanced over his shoulder to his sons. "This troubles me. Why didn't we feel it?"  
  
Goten shrugged as he rubbed his back. "It was probably just here and gone before we could even detect it. But poor Usagi, she's had it rough today."  
  
Goku scratched his head with a goofy grin on his face. "Yeah, I feel horrible."  
  
Gohan; "She's been through worse. And I'm guessing being tossed into concrete by her tail was probably worse than being hit."  
  
Goku nodded. "I guess. But now we should be thinking more about this new guy rather than sparring for fun. It looks like things are getting back to normal around here. Time to fight us a new disturbance!"   
  
Goten; "This outta be good. I wonder what he looks like... short and blue..."  
  
Goku; "You guys tell the others to be on the lookout. I want to talk to Dende a little about the Dragon Balls, see if he knows anything." He paused and grinned. Inside he was truly liking this. It had been years since he had actually had an opponent he could actually fight without ease. The last one had been Chibi Cell, who came from the past, but he was too easy. He has been at the same power level that the original Cell had been at when he came all those years ago. Then there was Beryl, but she was the Senshis' game. This time, Goku would take the first swing.   
  
~*~*~  
  
From her father's sparring field, Usagi teleported directly to the hallway outside her classroom door. She peered into the window, where she could see the kids socializing and whatnot. 'First period is already over... That must mean we have at least five minutes before the next class.' She thought to herself. She looked at the closest desk to the window, and there was Tatsuo, sitting quietly by himself. She was all of a sudden reminded of the news broadcast that her mother had pointed out to her the night before. The resemblance between the boy found dead and Tatsuo was uncanny. Taking a deep breath, Usagi pushed down on the door handle and made her way inside. She was sure to hear it from her friends for being so late.  
  
Tatsuo's head cocked to the door as he heard it squeak open. His eyes immediately widened as he set his eyes on the bruise that was already beginning to take form on her cheek. "Usagi ... your cheek!" He exclaimed for the whole class to hear. He abruptly stood up, his seat flying out from beneath. "You've been beaten!" He yelled again, this time, the entire class turned to the direction of the now blushing Saiyan.   
  
Usagi hated it when attention was brought to her. Despite her outgoing behavior when she was around her friends, she was still shy around big groups of people she didn't know well. "No I haven't." All but four of the other class members turned away and went back to their conversations. They all knew that Usagi was the fighting type from the Junior Tournament. They figured that she had just gotten hurt while sparring. No big deal.   
  
Tatsuo frowned as he made his way to the girl with the tail. "Did you get into a fight with your father last night?" He smiled impishly. "Did your father hit you?"   
  
Usagi frowned at the boy. She knew she wasn't meant to be talking to him, but a comment like that, after the questions he had asked the day before, were just uncalled for. "Shut up, Tatsuo. My dad would never hit me..." She paused. She knew exactly who had hit her, but it hadn't been on purpose. "Well, not to actually hurt me because of something I did..."  
  
Her friends walked up from behind Tatsuo. A group of gasps arose from them. Rei pushed past Tatsuo and grabbed Usagi by the face and looked at the shiner. "Usagi! Your dad did THIS to you? Is this why you're so late? What happened at home last night?!"   
  
Makoto equally grabbed Usagi and pulled her away from Rei. "Your dad must have been really mad at you to do something like this to you..."   
  
Usagi growled softly as she pulled away from her brunette friend. "Please, you guys. Stop it. My dad would never hit me on purpose. It was my fault anyway."  
  
Tatsuo smirked. This was his chance to move in. "Parents only try to make their children think it was their fault, but really, the parents had no right to touch them in the first place."  
  
Usagi pushed Tatsuo back with a forceful punch. "What's wrong with you? Why do you want me and my parents to fight? Nothing happened, ok? I teleported right into a fight without knowing it was taking place. It WAS my fault, end of story!"   
  
Minako frowned back at Tatsuo. That HAD been uncalled for, but, he didn't seem to care. He only laughed it off. "Shut up, freak. It's not the first time something like that's happened. We've all done it some time or another."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yeah. Why don't you just leave us alone?"  
  
Tatsuo frowned. "That isn't anyway to treat a friend."  
  
Makoto smiled at the boy. Finally, Usagi was beginning to realize just how strange she was. "Neither was what you're doing."  
  
Tatsuo looked pitifully at the ground. "Fine I don't really care, but I want to know one thing... ," He looked back up at the girls, "When is the next full moon?"  
  
Usagi froze at hearing that. Too many strange occurrences had already taken place. Why did he need to know that? What relevancy was this to anything that just happened? With a hateful sneer, Usagi decided to answer, but not to his liking. "Figure it out yourself."  
  
"Fine!" Tatsuo growled as he picked his seat up and placed it in front of his desk. "Don't look at me the next time your father hits you though. I won't be there to help."  
  
Usagi slammed her hands on his desk with a rage unknown even to herself and lowered her head to let her eyes stare directly into her his. "There WON'T be a NEXT time!" She yelled. The entire class stopped their conversations and turned their heads back to the heated discussion of Usagi and Tatsuo.  
  
Tatsuo just shrugged as he comfortably sat back in his chair and put his arms behind his head. "I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you..."  
  
Seeing that her friend was building up for a huge let out of steam, Makoto grabbed Usagi by the arm and pulled her aside where she could do no harm to anyone. "Usagi... calm down, girl."  
  
Minako placed her hand on Usagi's shoulder. "Yeah, we know Tatsuo offended you, but this is nuts. I've NEVER seen you like this... well, there was the time in kindergarten when you almost beat that kid up for calling you Monkey Girl, but this is way different..."  
  
Usagi groaned as she dropped her head. She had to admit, she had let herself go too much this time. She knew better than that. She had been taught better than that, But Tatsuo was being very suspicious. He had dipped into a part of her life that should never be touched by anyone that had any common sense, her family. That was the only thing that she could really get upset over. "I'm sorry, I don't know what..."  
  
Ami patted Usagi on the back. "It's ok, we understand, right girls?"  
  
Rei nodded. "Of course we do."  
  
Usagi looked up with a smile. She was happy to have friends who could put up with her. "Thanks you guys, but, there's more to this than you think..." She looked over Makoto to make sure Tatsuo was looking. "When we're alone I'll tell you guys why I was so late."  
  
Rei smirked. "Speaking of that... you had better have a good reason for being so late today."  
  
Usagi; "Oh I do, believe me, I do."  
  
Tatsuo slowly turned his head to the side and watched the girls. He particularly watched the broach which was again placed on the center of her bow. His eyes flashed blue as he turned his head back to the board.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Kami's Lookout~~  
  
Goku went almost directly to Kami's lookout after the three men dispersed from the sparring field. But first, he had stopped off at his home to check on Chi-Chi. He found her exactly where Usagi had said she left her, lying on the sofa. She was still pretty out of it, not even his voice could wake her up. He wondered if that's how she had been whenever he was out fighting. He hoped not. He would hate to have been putting her through so much distress over the years, but he only fought to protect his family.  
  
After checking on Chi-Chi, he flew himself out to Kami's Lookout, where he hoped he would get some answers. As he had told his daughter, he found it quite hard to believe that the Dragon Balls had been revived so early. It had never happened before, and he saw no reason why it would happen now. But nonetheless, to appease his daughter's nerves, as well as his own, he would talk to Dende and find out the current situation.   
  
He found Mr. Popo in his usual spot tending the gardens. "Popo!"   
  
Mr. Popo picked his head up and almost immediately became nervous. Why was Goku there? Goku never came unless something was up, what was up? Did he know something? Did he have confrontation with the Dragon Ball thief? He put down his gardening tools and nervously stood up. "Ah... Goku. What brings you here on such a fine day?"  
  
Goku eased his composure and approached his long time friend. "Well, I was just wondering if Dende was around." Of course he knew the little green guy was around, he was really wondering if he was available. Mr. Popo nervously looked from side to side, not saying anything. Goku too looked around as if searching for something out of the ordinary for Mr. Popo. "What are we looking for?"  
  
Mr. Popo stopped immediately and froze. "Dende? He's not around."  
  
Goku chuckled. "I can see that. Is he available?"   
  
Mr. Popo shifted back a ways. "I suppose..."  
  
Goku's chuckle soon became an expression of concern. "You seem to be stressed about something, Popo."  
  
Mr. Popo once again froze in place. What could he say? Goku could see through any lie and it was obvious he knew something. otherwise he wouldn't be there anymore. He couldn't tell Goku about the Black Star Dragon Balls. Piccolo had always told him not to say anything, and had even said it earlier that morning. He wondered if Piccolo was still there. If Goku found Piccolo and Dende together he would really start to wonder. Piccolo never came up here anymore now that he had a place of his own. "I'll find Dende for you."  
  
Goku smiled, though he COULD see that Mr. Popo seemed nervous about something. "Great!"   
  
Mr. Popo began walking toward the palace, only to hear footsteps from behind. He paused and turned around. "Yes?"  
  
Goku looked down. "We're going to find Dende, right?"  
  
Mr. Popo eased himself back. "You can stay out here."  
  
Goku slightly frowned. "I've never had to before..."  
  
"I know, just do it this once though..." With that, he turned himself around and began making his way toward the Palace, this time, with no extra footsteps behind his own.  
  
Goku put on a goofy grin. "What a strange little man he's become."   
  
(ok, so I'm done for tonight. I must apologize for not bringing this out last night. Sorry... Well, I hoped you liked it, yes, I'm still setting things up, but I'm SLOWLY easing out of that phase. ) 


	134. Part 8

~*~*~*~  
  
Mr. Popo found himself wandering the halls of Kami's Palace before actually starting his search for Dende. He wasn't too sure about what to do really. Goku obviously knew something was up, which wasn't good. And if Piccolo was still here, and he found out about Goku's knowledge, then an even greater trouble would surely arise. He wondered if Piccolo would actually tell Goku the truth, or if he would just let him leave in silence, not spilling a single word about the sacred Dragon Balls.   
  
He found Dende in the foyer located just outside the room where the Dragon Balls were previously kept. And there by him stood Piccolo still in an angered fit over the disappearance. Mr. Popo sighed. He had hoped Piccolo wasn't there. Now, if Goku found out about the Dragon Balls, it would surely come from his mouth, and not Dende's which was in a way, better than the situation before. "Dende, Piccolo..."   
  
The two Namekians turned their heads to the side at Mr. Popo in surprise. Neither of them had expected anyone to come down to that area of the lookout.   
  
Mr. Popo ran to them in a hurry. He didn't want to make Goku wait. Goku had a tendency to get bored and wander around and he was positive Piccolo didn't want him to think there was some significance to this are any longer. "Goku's here. He wants to speak with Dende."  
  
Dende looked slightly up at the Namek who was barely taller than him. "Piccolo..." He asked, half worried.   
  
Piccolo looked down at the shorter man and wondered what Goku could have possibly wanted at a time like this. He was normally training during this time of the day, and usually nothing could get him away from that daily ritual. "What's he want?"   
  
Mr. Popo shrugged shoulders. He hadn't bothered to ask. He had been much too nervous for that. "He just said he wanted to see Dende."  
  
Piccolo frowned with a soft, but somewhat coarse growl. "He knows something."  
  
Dende gasped. "What? How could he know? He's never even seen the Dragon Balls."  
  
Piccolo clenched his fists as he began walking up the hall where Mr. Popo had come from in the first place. "I don't know, but that man is too sneaky to trust in matters like this. He knows something up, otherwise he wouldn't have come here."  
  
Dende turned and watched Piccolo. "What do you suggest we do then?"  
  
Not turning around, Piccolo paused in his movements. "We talk to him and find out what he wants. If he knows something, we let him bring it up." He glanced back to Mr. Popo, who had always been known to be jittery when he was nervous or hiding something. "You stay out of sight, if he notices that you're not calm he'll know for sure. Goku knows whenever someone is lying to him and I don't want to blow this if he don't have to. I want those Dragon Balls back without anyone ever knowing."  
  
Dende nodded as he ran to Piccolo's side, who had just begun walking forward again. "Right! If it gets violent down there though, then we'll call in the big guns, right?"  
  
Piccolo nodded. "Sure."  
  
Mr. Popo followed the two Namekians close behind, but knew to stay back when they emerged from the Palace to meet with Goku. He knew for sure their cover would be blown if he were to go out there.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku crossed his arms across his chest in annoyance. He hated having to wait. He couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to just go into the Palace with Mr. Popo. He had always been able to before. Why was he forced to stay out now? Of course, he knew that something must have happened up here in the past week. Mr. Popo had been completely worried about something and the more he thought about it, the more he figured it was because of the Dragon Balls. But then again, how could it? The Dragon Balls still had a four month clock on them and they had never been revived before that time ever.   
  
Noticing not one, but two figures coming out from the Palace, Goku quickly shoved his thoughts aside and looked up with a smile. The man accompanying Dende was none other than Piccolo. Goku found in strange that Piccolo would be here on a day like this, a PEACEFUL day like this... or was it? "Yo!" He called out to get their attention.  
  
Dende happily returned the greeting with a smile of his own and a wave. "Hi Goku!" He said, just as he stopped before him. Piccolo did nothing but frown as usual.   
  
Goku smiled at both of them. "How's it goin, guys?"  
  
Dende's smile dropped. "Good, good."  
  
Goku; "Good. I hope you guys are in an answering mood cause I have some questions I wanna ask you." Piccolo groaned as he turned his back on the man in orange, causing Goku to become even more suspicious. "Fine, Piccolo, you don't have to answer anything." He grinned as he looked back to Dende. "So, Dende, seen any interruptions lately?"  
  
Dende slowly shook his head, not knowing exactly what to say. He wasn't sure he liked lying to Goku, but a promise was a promise and he would have to uphold his promise to Piccolo. "No, no interruptions."  
  
Goku didn't seem moved by the answer. "I mean, on earth. Have you seen any strange activities or anything in the past couple of days?"   
  
Again, Dende slowly shook his head. "I...I haven't seen anything, Goku, why?"   
  
Goku shrugged. "Just wondering."  
  
Piccolo frowned as he turned back around to face Goku. "That's bull crap!"  
  
Goku stepped back a bit in surprise. He hadn't expected an answer like that from Piccolo. "Oh? Why?"  
  
Piccolo growled as he dropped his arms to his side. There he went again, keeping the subject going on. "I know you, you wouldn't be here unless you had a reason. Just spit it out and be on your way."  
  
Goku grinned. This was great, he hadn't asked many questions yet and already he knew that they knew something valuable. He would just have to feel his way around the blunt questions. "What about you, Piccolo? Why are you here on this fine day?" He asked mockingly.   
  
Piccolo kept his mouth shut. He knew he had no reason to be there other than to inspect the place, but Goku didn't have to know that. "I asked you first."  
  
Goku dropped his arms. "Alright. I was out sparring with Gohan and Goten today. Usagi teleported to us. She looked pretty beaten up, like she'd been in a fight. And of course, no one at school could do that to her except her friends, who wouldn't during school hours."  
  
Piccolo groaned. So not only did Goku know, his brats did too. "So..."  
  
Goku frowned. "SO... She told me about something that attacked her. He had the Dragon Balls. I came here to check it out. You know, to make sure they weren't the Dragon Balls. I told her I'd take care of it, but truthfully, I don't believe they're the real thing. They still have a month left before they actually turn back into regular Dragon Balls. You guys can't revive them any sooner, can you?"  
  
Dende; "No, of course not. They were designed only to serve once every year, no more."  
  
Goku smiled at that. "Good, then we have nothing to worry about. They must be fake." He looked down at his feet in wonder. "But that still means there's something running around with the power to do some serious damage. Usagi said it was stronger than her."  
  
Piccolo growled as he too found himself looking at the ground. Here Goku was, thinking that there weren't any Dragon Balls to worry about, and there actually were. They were the worst kind of Dragon Balls. They could only be used by those with an evil heart. And even though Piccolo could have easily let Goku go at that, he couldn't. "Goku..."  
  
Goku looked up at Piccolo, still wondering how they were going to pull off this fight, if there was one. Usagi was able to get as strong as his Super Saiyan two, and this guy was still stronger than that, which would mean only himself or Gohan would have a chance at destroying this maniac. "Yeah?"  
  
Piccolo sighed. He would have to go through with this after all. Goku had a right to know, and he could keep pretty good secrets so he wasn't all too worried. "He actually DOES have Dragon Balls."  
  
Goku blinked twice in surprise. Was Piccolo trying to kid with him, or was he actually serious. Before he said anything more, he read the green man's face for any possible signs of laughter, but there were none. "What? You mean the Dragon Balls came back early? That's amazing!"   
  
Dende; "No, Goku, no early."  
  
Piccolo nodded. "There were two sets of Dragon Balls, there always were." He paused to allow the Saiyan to say anything he wished, but the man seemed to have nothing to say. "A set was made before Kami and I split. They were the Black Star Dragon Balls, made by an evil heart for evil doings only. To make sure they would never be destroyed, they can only be destroyed by their original creator, who no longer lives. I wanted to keep this a secret from everyone, but now that your daughter has seen who has it..."  
  
Goku found himself frowning at his own feet. "Boy... I didn't see that one coming..." He wasn't at all mad that he was never told about these particular Dragon Balls, in fact, he was happy that he and everyone else had never been told. Knowing about them would have added just that much more complication to their situations in the past. But this did put a damper on how he would handle this new disturbance. He would have to walk on ice around whatever was attacking in hopes that it wouldn't activate a wish from the Black Star Dragon Balls. "And they were here all along?" He asked as he turned up to Dende.  
  
Dende nodded. "Yes, we've been hiding them here. They were stolen last night, from who we don't know, but I'm going to keep a close eye on what happens down on earth. You should too."  
  
Goku; "We've already got a plan to raise our power levels and then down quickly as a signal to each other if something does happen. I'll be able to teleport right away but others will have to fly there. Gohan and Goten are currently spreading the news to everyone."  
  
Piccolo frowned again. Now everyone knew of this new attack, not that it was a bad thing. It was for the best that everyone knew something could happen at any moment, but he didn't want anyone else to know about the Dragon Balls. "Goku, you can't tell anyone else about the Black Star Dragon Balls! No one! Not even your family. I don't want this getting around."  
  
Goku nodded, though he wasn't too sure about why they shouldn't know. There was a chance that they could be used, and only for something evil. "Well..."  
  
"No One! Just get them back as soon as you can. I'll dispose of them once and for all after you do." Piccolo growled back.   
  
Goku sighed. "Alright. But how do you plan on doing that? Didn't you say they can only be destroyed by your original self, who doesn't exist anymore?"  
  
Piccolo groaned. "Well, I'm not stupid enough to wish my old self back with the Dragon Balls. But, I'm going to try to open up the gates to the room of spirit and time."  
  
Goku smirked. "That's impossible. You said it yourself, it can never be revived. That gate was created thousands of years ago..."  
  
"We've gotta find a way. These Dragon Balls are too dangerous to keep around here. But I'd rather have them here on earth then have them wander the universe and fall into the wrong hands, could you imagine if Frieza got his hands on them?"  
  
Goku couldn't help but chuckle at that. "The Universe as we know it wouldn't exist." And so Goku's day went. He had found out some valuable information. Now he would know not to turn his back on the enemy once he got a chance to fight him. And of course, he wouldn't let that thing get away without a serious beating from hurting his daughter.   
  
~*~*~  
  
The rest of the day went quite slow the rest of the day for Usagi. She felt as if time had stopped, and she would never get out of school and away from her classmates in order to tell the girls. Just another side effect of being excited, she thought. She had said nothing of her encounter the entire day, which drover her friends nuts as well. They knew something was troubling their friend, for she was so quiet throughout the entire day, a trait which wasn't well associated with the young Saiyan.   
  
Everyone had kept their eyes on Tatsuo the rest of the day. They wanted to make sure he didn't try anything stupid, especially after what he had said. Why had he said that she and her father would get into a fight, and furthermore, why had he said that her father would hit her again? It was safe to say that all five of the girls were officially weirded out by the boy and would be staying as far away from him as possible. Usagi knew her news would spread them even further apart. At lunch, he hadn't really tried to sit with them as he had the past two days. In fact, the girls hadn't seen him at all, which they didn't mind. But Usagi was still wary about spilling her guts. He could have been anywhere.  
  
But finally, at two thirty, Usagi's wishes were granted. The end of the day had finally been reached. She could finally get everything off her mind and ask for help from her friends, as well as her advisor, Luna. She honestly knew not what to do at this point. She had to protect her broach at all costs, but then again, that thing had the Dragon Balls and could do anything he wanted to. He could wish her family into a heap of trouble, or wish that something horrible and irreversible happen to the earth. This was the first time that an enemy had gotten their hands on the Dragon Balls, which only made the situation worse.   
  
Usagi and her friends were the firsts out of class that day, with Tatsuo lagging behind everyone. He wasn't in much of a good mood after his encounter with Usagi earlier that morning. But Usagi wasn't much caring about him. None of them were. They were too busy in their own world to care.  
  
They vacated the building in a rush, along with the rest of the school. All the girls had their eyes planted on Usagi as if waiting for her to begin, but she had other plans. "Let's wait until we're away from the school, alright?" Her friends nodded, showing that they understood. "Let's just walk for a little bit so we can talk." Again, she received a nod of approval.   
  
Makoto, being the most paranoid out of the group of friends, found herself constantly looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was following them, especially Tatsuo. But, to her pleasure, she saw no one. "Where are we going?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. She hadn't thought her plan that far out. "Dunno. We're just walkin..." She brought her hand up and clasped her hand over her broach.   
  
Ami took immediate notice to that. "Is Tatsuo really creeping you out that much?" She asked just as the group turned off campus onto the main road where those who walked home were already grouping at.  
  
Usagi shook her head, but then quickly changed it to a nod. "Not really... well, sort of." She said in her most confused voice. She took a quick look around, only to see a group of students from both Junior High, as well as High school trailing behind her. It wasn't at all strange to see High school students hanging around because the two schools were practically neighbors with only one block in between. "It's just..." She looked down at the ground as she continued to walk further forward. "I..."  
  
"Hey!" Called a familiar voice from behind. The girls all stopped in their tracks and almost simultaneously turned around to greet who called them.   
  
Usagi smiled when she realized who it was. It was none other than Mamoru with a group of his school buddies, excluding Michiru and Haruka. She hadn't seen him around in a while. Ever since Beryl was beaten, the two did their own things. Mamoru was growing up, so he didn't seek out Usagi just to make fun of her anymore. But, it was nice to see him every now and then. "Mamoru!"   
  
Minako grinned as she watched Usagi. "Oooh..."  
  
Usagi playfully frowned. "Shut up, Minako!"  
  
Mamoru turned to his friends with a smile. "I'll catch up with you later." With that, he was running toward the girls. His smile had already been wiped off his face. "Yo, Odango!" He stopped before them. "Minako, Makoto, Ami, Rei..." He said, acknowledging them all. He looked particularly at Usagi, though, without really taking any real notice to the others. "What's up?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "Nothing but school."  
  
Makoto; "So, Mamoru, what brings you here? Come to check up on all the fourteen year olds?" She smirked as she pointed to a group of the populars. "I know how you older men like a young, frisky woman, but don't you think you're just a little old for even the ninth graders here?"  
  
Mamoru frowned as he mischievously pushed Makoto back. "Yeah, yeah, I prefer a girl my own age, thank you..."  
  
Minako giggled. So many of the high school boys came to flirt with the older girls at the school it was crazy. She couldn't wait until she was older, then maybe they would flirt with her too... "So, Mamoru, why ARE you here?"  
  
Mamoru grinned. "What? Can't I come say hello to my rival anymore without a game of twenty questions?"   
  
Minako; "Nope."  
  
Mamoru sighed. "All I want to do is ask Odango a question."  
  
Usagi knew exactly what this was about. "Shoot. I probably know what you're asking about anyway."  
  
Mamoru nodded. "What's up with bringing out you know who this morning?"  
  
Usagi had been right. "Long story, I was attacked." That little answer received a gasp from her friends. She frowned as she turned to them. "What? Like you didn't feel it this morning?"  
  
Ami; "We felt it, but we didn't feel anyone else with you."  
  
Rei; "That's not exactly true. I felt an evil spirit lurking about near Sailor Moon, but it was really brief. It was here, and then flash, gone, just like that."  
  
Usagi looked down to the ground. "Well, yep, that's why I was late today. Then I had to go home and change, ended up making my mom faint, and then I teleported right into a punch."  
  
Mamoru chuckled. "I was wondering where you got that bruise on your cheek from. That's huge. Who did it?"  
  
"My dad."  
  
"Oh great, so he can hit you but I can't. What a deal."  
  
Usagi shot a glare up at her rival with pure hatred. "Don't EVER say that again!"  
  
Mamoru backed up in surprise. "Man, I didn't mean to upset you, I was just joking."  
  
Ami, noticing that her friend was still very sensitive to that matter after what Tatsuo pulled, knew it wasn't good to try and cheer her up. "Let's just drop it, ok? No fighting."  
  
Minako knew that was probably for the best and she knew exactly how to change the subject. "So, where's the rest of your group?"  
  
"Well, Michiru and Haruka wanted to go to a movie alone, and me and the rest of the guys are gonna go hang out for a while. But first I'm gonna go check on the squirt."  
  
Usagi calmed herself just enough to tolerate Mamoru. "Hotaru?" She asked. Mamoru nodded. "Oh! How sweet."  
  
Makoto rolled her eyes. "Yeah, how sweet of you Mamoru."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Someone's gotta save her from those brats at school, and that witch Kaori. And besides, she needs a man in her life, someone to make her tough. All she's got is that scientist for a father, eh, who needs em?"  
  
Ami frowned at that. "Mamoru, when are you going to learn that life isn't all about muscle? Her father loves her, she doesn't need you interfering."  
  
Rei giggled. "He's a guy, he's never gonna get it through his head that there are other things than muscles and fighting." She turned to Mamoru, her giggling now stopped. "Just remember, Mamoru, Hotaru is going through a rough time right now, she's likely to get angry with you easily."  
  
Mamoru nodded. "I'll keep that in mind." He looked at Usagi, who seemed to be calming down again. "Anyways, I'll see you all later. Tell me if you find out anything about this guy who attacked you, and when you do, I'm your man. I'll kick its ass so fast it won't know what hit him. Until next time, ladies." With that, he performed a quick spin around, only to be faced with a disturbing young man. "What do you want?" He glanced back over his shoulder to the girls, who had already begun walking away. "Yo, you know this guy?"  
  
Usagi stopped and turned around, only to see Tatsuo standing next to Mamoru. Her eyes widened and she found herself wanting to lunge for the boy, who was supposedly dead. "Tatsuo!"  
  
Makoto frowned as she too had to hold herself back from lunging at the boy. "What do you want?" She asked with narrowing eyes.  
  
Tatsuo looked at the girls with no emotion, which sent chills up their backs. "I want to apologize."  
  
Rei too found herself frowning right along side Makoto. "Apology not accepted!" She looked back at her friend in Odangos. "Right?"  
  
Usagi sighed. "Right..."   
  
Mamoru frowned as he pushed the kid away. "Hey! Get outta here! Didn't you hear them?"  
  
Tatsuo pushed Mamoru back. "Who the hell are you?"  
  
Mamoru looked down at his chest where Tatsuo had pushed him, and then back up. "I know you didn't just do that to me..."  
  
Minako giggled, even though she knew it was wrong. But, for once, they had not been on the receiving end of Mamoru's abuse. "Careful Mamoru, you don't wanna hurt him."  
  
Mamoru grinned at the kid. "Maybe you don't, but I have no problem doing to others what they deserve." He pulled his fists up and stared down into they eyes of Tatsuo.  
  
Tatsuo looked directly up at Mamoru. "I asked you who you were, boy, now tell me!"  
  
Mamoru laughed aloud. "Oh, ho, ho... what's this?" He pushed Tatsuo back even further. "First you harass MY rival and her friends and then you push ME back and call me 'boy'... you aren't my grandfather... hell, you aren't even my father, you don't have the RIGHT to call me that... You better be running before you get your ass beat!"   
  
Tatsuo scowled up at the eighteen year old. "You can't do anything to me, you don't have the guts."  
  
Usagi couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had NEVER Tatsuo speak like that before. Didn't he know what he was getting himself into? It's not like Mamoru LOOKED weak, in fact, he looked quite strong. What was wrong with the guy? "Please, stop you guys."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "No, I have to defend my rights to be your rival, don't I? Seems I have some competition. I want to clarify exactly who's the better rival for you, Odango. This guy, or me."  
  
Tatsuo smirked. "I assure you, I am."  
  
Minako gave a grin of her own to the concerned Usagi. She knew exactly what was going on, but, the question was, did Usagi.  
  
Makoto frowned as she threw her hands up at the two boys. "You men are all the same. You always have to show each other your strength, don't you?"  
  
Tatsuo ignored Makoto and continued to glare into Mamoru's eyes. And Mamoru did the same. The two boys stood face to face, or as well as they could. Tatsuo only came up to Mamoru's shoulders as he had with Goku. Tatsuo lifted his fist and punch Mamoru square in the chest, only causing him to take a few steps back. But Mamoru came back with his most forceful punch to the face, causing Tatsuo to fly quite a ways backward.   
  
Mamoru waved his fist in the air before his face and blew on it as if it were a pistol that he had just shot. "Looks like I'm the better rival than you after all, shorty."  
  
Tatsuo rubbed his cheek where Mamoru had hit him. It was sure to bruise up just as Usagi's had. "I AM the better suited rival..."  
  
Mamoru rolled his eyes as he turned back to the girls. "Yeah, yeah. I just kicked your ass in one hit, you have nothing to be saying. Just get outta here." Tatsuo did as Mamoru told him, but only because he had planned on it anyway. He gave a quick glare at Usagi, his eyes flaring up in blue, and then was on his way.   
  
Minako grinned. "Oh... how cute, Mamoru, you stood up for Usagi."   
  
Mamoru smirked. "Yeah right, I'm protecting my rivalry with Odango. If I lose her now, I'll have no one left. I'll just become a nobody..." He chuckled to himself as he turned away from the girls   
  
Usagi was left smiling to herself. But her mood was still deteriorated. This was all she had to go through to make this day officially her worst day since she was kidnapped by Beryl's minions. "That was interesting."  
  
Rei looked over at her friend, who seemed to tired to even go on with anything anymore. "What's up Usagi? Tell us."  
  
Usagi nodded with a deep breath. It was time to spill everything. "Well, you know I was attacked today, you know I had to go home for a while. But that's not the worst part, the new enemy has the Dragon Balls, AND he said if I didn't give him my broach he said he would do something horrible to the earth with the Dragon Balls. And he's pretty strong. It's already way stronger than me and faster."  
  
Makoto frowned. "Why does he want your broach?! That's nuts! Don't give it to him!"  
  
Usagi; "I know! I'm not stupid! I don't know why he wants my broach. It's crazy. All he said was that it would give him the ultimate power of the universe. I tried attacking him as Sailor Moon but my power bounced right off him."  
  
Ami; "Weird."  
  
Usagi; "I know. Then..." She paused as she wrapped up the sleeve on her uniform to reveal the scratch running from her wrist to her elbow, "When he left, he made this on my arm, and I don't know what it means."  
  
Ami grabbed Usagi's arm and examined it. "It just looks like a normal cut."  
  
Rei grinned. "Maybe he was trying to cut it off."  
  
Usagi frowned as she turned to Rei. "Not funny." She rolled down her sleeve just as she remembered the most important information she had. "Did anyone watch the news last night?" Her friends shook their heads, receiving a groan from Usagi. "On the news, they said Tatsuo was dead. They showed a picture of him. They found him in an alley and identified him as Akio."  
  
Makoto frowned. "It can't be him, Tatsuo's alive and well, unfortunately."  
  
"But it had to be him. My mom and dad saw the picture too. They knew exactly who it was. They found a big gash on his body too. The police say it was a gang beating." Usagi looking in the directly that Tatsuo had left just to make sure he wasn't standing there again. "It's freaky."  
  
Minako grabbed her arms. "You're telling me. So Tatsuo's dead?"  
  
Ami; "She's not saying that, Minako."  
  
Usagi nodded. "I don't know what I'm saying, guys. I'm just telling you what I saw. Tatsuo can't be dead."  
  
Makoto smirked. "Well, you never know, haven't you ever seen those movies where the zombies come to eat everyone's brains out?"  
  
Ami rolled her eyes. "Makoto, that was just a movie."  
  
"Well you never know."  
  
Usagi; "I just thought you should know. I want to talk to Luna, maybe she'll know what to do..."   
  
(Sorry this didn't come out yesterday. For some reason FF.Net wouldn't let me upload anything. But it's out now! ^_^ . Ok, so there's another chapter in the bucket. I'll Cya tomorrow! ) 


	135. Part 9

~*~*~*~  
  
Dende kept a watchful eye on Earth the rest of that day after Goku had left. Piccolo had decided on scouting out around the Earth for any abnormalities. He would go along with Goku's plan of waiting for the enemy to strike first for he knew the advantages to fighting on your own turf, but he also knew that they wouldn't be able to take their eye of the guy when they finally got a hold of him. That would be utterly dangerous for, once they engaged in a fight, and stopped for a breather, this thing could have time summon the Dragon and have earth destroyed. They would have to finish it off quickly.  
  
But, what puzzled Piccolo the most was why it had shown itself to Usagi first of all. That brat always seemed to be the first one to know about recent attacks. Of course, as Usagi had reported, Cell had been sent by Beryl, and Beryl wanted Usagi's Strength. Beryl had been defeated, this guy couldn't have been affiliated with her, could he? That was nonsense. The Senshi had destroyed Beryl in the Dark Kingdom itself. Plus, she was a tired subject. This guy couldn't have anything to do with her, but then, why had he gone to Usagi? Goku had told him everything she had told. Maybe there was something she wasn't telling anyone. Of course, then again, what reason would she have to lie? Usagi seemed to have learned her lesson when not to lie when it came to important things such as this. She was old enough to understand that it wasn't a game.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi opted not to go and visit Luna, who now lived with Minako and Artimas. The day had worn not only on her emotions, but her physical strength as well. She was too tired to really discuss what happened for yet another time. She was ready to return home and relax for the evening. Nothing could change her mind now, especially not after what happened with Tatsuo and Mamoru. She even found that a little strange. Why had Tatsuo come up to them again, especially after what happened when she arrived at school that morning? Didn't he know that after an argument, a near physical event like that, that she wouldn't want to talk to him again, let alone make up with him. As much like her father she wanted to be - calm, composed, and forgiving - she was going to forget his teachings and elect not to talk to the boy ever again.   
  
Emotionally exhausted, Usagi turned to her friends. She couldn't help but put on a small smile. "Thanks for listening, guys."  
  
Minako smiled back at her friend as she wrapped her arm around her shoulder. "No prob."  
  
Makoto nodded in agreeance to Minako's words. "That's what we're here for, to be friends."  
  
Usagi smiled wider at that. She knew, no matter what, that she would always have her friends to hold her in place. They had always, and would always be there for her no matter what. "I know." She turned her attention to the sky at a flock of birds who flew overhead. "I think I'm gonna go home, Minako." She said as she looked back down to the girl with the red ribbon. "I'm too tired to explain anything anymore. I just wanna go home and relax on something soft, preferably the couch where I can watch cartoons or something."  
  
Minako grinned. That didn't sound like a half bad idea. "Ok. I'll tell Luna and Artimas for you then."  
  
Usagi nodded slightly to show her appreciation. "Thanks, Minako." She looked around to her friends, still with a smile. "See you guys tomorrow!" Waving goodbye to her friends, Usagi let herself rise into the air. From there, she flew in the direction of her home.  
  
On her way home, she soon began to wonder if her mother was ok, or more importantly, if she had even waken up from her fainted state. She remembered her grandfather telling her of all the times her mother had fainted, how she would usually stay out of it for a few hours. She hoped she hadn't caused her mother all that much pain with her news, but it couldn't exactly have been avoided. Her mother would have had to found out sooner or later, and she rather it have been sooner than later.  
  
Usagi sped up at the thought of finding out what happened with her father and Dende. She had actually hoped that her father had been right when he told her that there was no way the Dragon Balls could have been revived so early, but then again, she had seen them with her own eyes in the hand of the her attacker. The situation was much too confusing, even for herself. She would just have to wait until she arrived home to find out the verdict.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son Household~~  
  
Goku watched over his wife with an eye of worry. Usagi would be home soon and Chi-Chi still hadn't wakened from her fainted state. He had never seen her out of his for so long, of course, she had been told something huge. There was a chance that he would have to go off and fight again. He remembered hearing from Master Roshii of all the times she had fainted, but he never thought it had been this bad. The worst, he had heard, was the time Buu had attacked and he had left the lookout to stall and give Trunks time to go home and find the Dragon Radar. She had lost it that time. She hadn't even waken up until she heard that Goku was departing for the afterlife, which was some time after that. He hoped she hadn't been stunned too terribly. He had actually wished Usagi hadn't told Chi-Chi before himself. He wished that he could have been the one to spill the news, something he had never been able to do. He wished that he could have tried to calm her before she fainted. But there wasn't much he could do about it now.   
  
He sat on the coffee table that sat in front of the sofa with his elbows rested on his knees. As he sat there, watching over his wife, he was reminded of the time he had watched over their daughter after passing out from over exertion. The only difference here was Chi-Chi had done nothing, physically, to herself.   
  
With a sigh, he looked up the ceiling in wonder. What exactly would he tell her when she did come to? He was certain she would go nuts just as she always had, and she had every right to. But what could he say? It was either risk his life to protect the Earth, his home, and family, or stand by and let the opposing force take everything they ever had? He would have to make her understand. Now that he was older, he understood his wife's grief, but couldn't abide by her calling heart.   
  
He turned his eyes back down to the woman when he heard a moan of fear escape her lips. "Chi-Chi..." He reached forward and placed his hand upon her stomach and gently began to shake her. "Chi-Chi. Are you alright?"   
  
Chi-Chi's eyes slowly opened and fell into those of her husbands. Not a single thought of anger or rage crossed her mind, yet she was completely aware of what took place earlier that morning. With a groan, almost that of distress, she covered her face with her hands. This had to be the first time she remembered waking up so calmly from being so troubled.   
  
Worried that she may have forgotten for her lack of anger, Goku pushed himself to the floor and kneeled beside the sofa. He placed his other hand on her arm as if to comfort her just on the chance that she had in fact remembered. "Are you ok?"  
  
Chi-Chi let out another long groan. She didn't need this right now. This was not something she was supposed to be dealing with anymore. The Earth had been saved, hadn't it? Things were supposed to go back to normal. This wasn't normal. As she sat there with her face covered, thousands of questions raced through her mind, the most predominant being "why me?". All she had ever dreamed of was a nice family with a husband who would stay with her for all time, without the risk of dying every five years.   
  
Felling like a child, she pulled her hands away from her face so she could look back to her worried husband. Seeing his concern she actually felt satisfied that she had caused him pain. For once, he knew a little of what she felt every time he went tramping around the Universe.   
  
Goku gulped. He knew for sure Chi-Chi remembered. She wouldn't have been so silent otherwise. She would have asked him why he was looking at her so strangely. He was grateful for that for he wouldn't have to explain to her again, yet, he felt guilty for putting her through something like this again. "Chi-Chi, we need to talk."   
  
Chi-Chi sighed with a nod. She had no desire to sit up. All she wanted to do was relax and allow everything to settle in. "Usagi told me..." She looked away from his face and up to the ceiling. "You have to go away again."  
  
Goku cringed at that. That sounded so harsh. It made him sound like one of those sleazy husbands who was never home for his wife and children. "You know why I have to."  
  
Chi-Chi closed her eyes. "I know. It's not because you want to..."  
  
Goku grinned. "Well, maybe a little."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she slapped her husband across the face. "This is no time to be joking!"  
  
Goku lowered his head. "Sorry..." He replied sheepishly. Chi-Chi's frown disappeared rather quickly, sooner than Goku had expected. Her silence was NOT a good thing. "Look, we may not even have to fight. The thing that attacked Usagi..." His explanation was cut short by the tears now forming in his wife's eyes. He knew he touched on an extremely soft spot on that one. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and lifted her up a bit. "I..."  
  
Chi-Chi shook her head to tell him not to go on any further. These were the tears that she had been holding up inside her for so many years, the tears she had been saving just for him. "You don't understand, do you?" Goku was left speechless and said nothing. "All these years you've fought with my Gohan... it was hard enough. And then you died for good, only to return to me for a day."  
  
Goku tried to smile, but it was too hard. He didn't know how anyone could try to look on the bright side of this, but he would have to try, for her sanity. "But at least I was brought back..."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "You really have no idea, do you? You DIED. I was alone, I had two sons, YOUR sons to raise ALONE." She paused to form a slight smile. "But, I am grateful for them being alive. And now, Usagi comes to tell me she may have to go and fight with you guys, you veterans, it's just too much for this old mother to take."  
  
Goku hugged his wife tighter. He never knew it hurt her so. "I know, but ..."  
  
Chi-Chi cut him off yet again, this time with a scowling glare. "No! You don't know, Goku, you don't! You don't know what it's like worrying if your husband and child will survive the day! You don't know what it's like worrying if something will attack and literally rip your family apart! I don't know if I can live like that anymore."  
  
"If you're worried about Usagi getting hurt then ..."  
  
Chi-Chi shook her head. "I'm not worried about her. I know you'll protect her, you've always gotten my children home to me. I trust you. I'm worried about you, Goku. In protecting the kids, and everyone else, you get yourself killed, promise me you won't get yourself killed this time... if not for me, then for Usagi..."  
  
Goku closed his eyes for a moment. That hit too close to home for his liking. That had been the exact reason why he hadn't particularly wanted another child before Usagi was born. He didn't want to have to end up hurting it because of a silly fight. His main worry had always been having to leave like he had Gohan and Goten.  
  
But he knew there was no telling what would happen. Fights were unpredictable, especially since he didn't know exactly what he was up against. "I don't know if I can."  
  
Chi-Chi closed her eyes once again. At this point, she would have begged if she had to. "Please, Goku, promise me, you won't die."  
  
Goku nodded with compliance. What else could he say to her? "I promise."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi arrived home at her usual time of 3:00, a half hour after school had been let out. All they way home she couldn't help but get herself excited over what her father may have found out. She played scenario after scenario of what he would tell her when she got home. But the one she wished for most was the Dende would have told him that the Dragon Balls had not been revived but had only been replicated in appearance and not power.  
  
A small smile cracked on her face as she reached for the knob of the front door. Now would come the time that her hopes would be a proven fact. Taking a deep breath for luck, she slowly turned the knob and pushed in, only to see a vacated family room. She took a step in and closed the door behind her, setting her school bag down to the side. "Your loving daughter's home!" She grinned to herself as she walked further into the room.  
  
Looking around the room, she noticed that nothing had really been altered since she left earlier that morning. "Hmm..." She slipped her shoes off and lazily tossed them back to her bag and began making her way to the living room where she had last seen her mother, fainted.   
  
"Mom? Dad?" she called out as she turned the corner. She sighed of relief when she saw her mother sit up from the sofa; her father stood to his feet from the floor. Her grin grew to a smile as she walked to the sofa and leaned over the back of it. Her mother looked horrible. Her eyes had heavy black bags forming beneath them from being stressed, as well as red rings from her cry. She basically looked as if she had just waken up, which was probably the case. Her father was probably speaking to her about his findings just before she got home. "Feeling better?"  
  
Chi-Chi said nothing. Instead, she just stared up at her daughter in shock. Her eyes had been planted on the black cheek of Usagi. She blinked twice just to make sure her eyes weren't playing any tricks on her, that her daughter's cheek really was THAT black. Had that been there earlier when Usagi came to her before, or was that a new development? Did Usagi get attacked again. "Honey..."  
  
Usagi turned her head on its side in curiosity. She wondered why her mother was looking at her so strangely. "Yes?" She glanced up at her father, who had said nothing so far.  
  
Chi-Chi reached for her daughter's cheek, causing the girl to pull back in pain. "What happened to your face?" She demanded as she threw her feet off the couch and proceeded to stand.   
  
Usagi put her hand over the bruise, though not directly on it. She only wanted to protect it from further touch. Looking down at he ground, she remembered back to that morning. All she could really remember was teleporting to her father's newly raised power level and then seeing a flash of gold coming for her and bam, next thing she knew she was flying back into one of her brothers with a huge pain in her face. "It's a bruise..." She explained with a grin. "I'm not sure I like it, it's not exactly my color, what do you think?" She giggled to herself as she tried to make this situation easier on her mother.  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. She didn't find that at all amusing. Here was her daughter with a huge, ugly, black bruise planted on her face. It had been years since she came home with an "injury" like this. "Well, dear, how did it happen? Were you attacked again?" Goku chuckled to himself, which only gained him a sharp glare from his wife. "Do you think it's funny that your little girl has such a bruise on her face?"   
  
Goku did nothing but throw his hand behind his head. It wouldn't be long before he was in the doghouse again because of this. That always seemed to be the case. He would get blamed for Usagi's injuries every time, even if he had nothing to do with it. Chi-Chi blamed it on the fact that he was the one who had trained her and taught her to be so rough. But actually, for once, this HAD been his fault.   
  
Usagi looked at her mother, and then her father. She wanted to save his skin, like he head for her so many times, but it didn't look like there was going to be any way around it. "Well... you see... I... Uh..."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Usagi, please just tell me, I won't get mad. If you DID Get into another fight I'll know it wasn't your fault. You were attacked, right? Your father ..."  
  
"...is the one who did it..." Usagi looked up to her father who was now backing away from his wife. A small giggled bubbled out of her lips.  
  
Chi-Chi paused mid-sentence. "Usagi, I think you're going to have to say that again because I could have sworn you just said your father was the one who hit you."  
  
Usagi stared down into her mother's eyes. "He did..."  
  
Before Usagi could explain anything Chi-Chi had dashed to her husband and grabbed him by the throat against the wall. "You HIT her?!"   
  
Usagi's eyes widened as she joined her mother at her side. "Mom no... it's not what you think! Daddy didn't mean to! It was my fault!"   
  
Goku calmly grabbed his wife's wrist with a gulp. It had been years since he was actually kind of afraid of what his wife would do. Of course, he knew better than to cross Chi-Chi. She was one angry cookie when one of her children were in danger, even if they were put into danger of their own father, which would be him. "Chi-Chi I..." He squeezed her wrist and slightly tugged on her arm to pull it away from his throat.  
  
Chi-Chi dropped her grip on her husband when she realized exactly what she had done. She hadn't intended to do that at all. It was more of a protective reaction than anything. "I...I...I'm sorry...I don't know what came over me..." She dropped to her knees and dropped her head.  
  
Goku sighed as he looked at his daughter, and then at his wife. He knew exactly why she had done what she did. She was worried. He knew that first hand, he had never seen his wife so calm with such emotions. She had been trying to so hard to stay calm lately. He had to commend her effort, but at another time. Goku held his hand out for his wife in comfort with a smile. "It's ok, Chi-Chi."  
  
Usagi looked down at her mother in full amazement. She had always seen her mother strike her father for silly, menial things. But this, THIS was something else. She could feel her mother's rage when she burst up and grabbed her father. Something must have happened while she was on her way home, it was the only explanation. She knelt down and wrapped her arms around her mother's shoulders. "Mama? Are you ok? You need anything?"   
  
Chi-Chi smiled softly as she patted her hand on her daughter's helpful arm. "Thanks, Usagi, but I'm fine." She laughed quietly as she looked up at her husband. He had put up with so much from her over the years and here he was, still at her side. It amazed even her that he would put up with all her crap without a fuss. That was just one of the many things she loved about him. She kindly placed her hand in his and allowed herself to be pulled up. She looked into Goku's eyes and held her head with shame. She couldn't believe what she had just done, but it looked like he had already forgiven her stupidity. "I think I'm going to ... make something to eat..."   
  
Usagi scratched her head in confusion. Was her mother just going to let things go at that? Of course, she wouldn't be dumb enough to ask her that. She knew better than to question her mother at times like this, but this was particularly strange. More so than normal even. 'Something BIG must have happened while I was gone. This is not MY mom.'   
  
On her way to the kitchen, Chi-Chi stopped short and slightly turned her body toward Goku. She wore a wide smile of thanks on her face. "Thank you, Goku. Just don't forget your promise." Smiling out of her own satisfaction, she turned back and began making her way to the kitchen where she would take her mind of things by baking something, just as she always had in her youth.   
  
Usagi was left between her parents, sharing glances between the two of them. It was at that point that she knew SOMETHING happened, though she wasn't sure what. Her father had seemed to make amends with her mother, but how? Her mother had always been difficult, of course, she seemed extra upset about something this time. Maybe this new attack had gotten to her more than she let on. In anyway, she was sure she could get all the answers she wanted from the one person she could always count on. "What was that all about?" She asked as she turned to her father.   
  
Goku smiled at himself. He had done good, for once. Maybe he was actually getting a hang of this husband thing finally. They had gotten through that without a fight, well, almost. He looked down to his questioning daughter with a grin. " Let me worry about it, sweetie. It's a parent thing. Your mom is having a hard time coping with this."  
  
Usagi said nothing in reply to that, she knew better. But she didn't really have anything to add anyway. She knew her mother was obviously having a hard time, and was trying hard to keep from going off. But her mother had always been a ticking time bomb waiting to go off at the slightest touch, it was only a matter of time before the right thing would set her off. "Oh." She said solemnly.  
  
Goku hunched his back. He hated having to be in the middle of this, but he would just have to give Chi-Chi the space she needed. At least this time she had kept from going completely nuts. "So? What's up?"  
  
Usagi tried to forget what had just happened as she sat down on the sofa and stared up at her father. This was just not her day. Why couldn't things just go right for once? Everything always seemed to go wrong at exactly the same time, and this topped the day off completely. "I might ask you the same question, dad."  
  
Goku scratched his head as he took his place on the coffee table. He hadn't exactly thought of something to tell her. He hadn't the time. As soon as he got home, he found his wife lying in her fainted state, just as Usagi had described, and his thoughts were immediately turned to her. But now, that was behind him, and he still had nothing to present to his daughter. He didn't exactly want to lie, yet, he swore to Piccolo that he would say nothing.   
  
He rested his hand upon his knee and looked side to side. He couldn't think of anything believable to tell her. Anything he would say would either be a lie or a bogus reason.   
  
Usagi became quite suspicious at her father's actions. "Daddy? Something wrong?"   
  
Goku snapped his attention back to his daughter. Better come out with it, while leaving out important details. She wasn't to know now, she wasn't in any immediate danger at the moment. It wouldn't have been any use to have her worried as well as Chi-Chi. He especially didn't want Chi-Chi knowing about the Black Star Dragon Balls, not now anyway. She was already in too bad a mood for that. And Usagi, she was already worried enough about the Red Star Dragon Balls. "Well..."  
  
Usagi leaned in closer to her father, part in excitement, and part in fear. She wanted to know, yet she didn't. "Yeah!"  
  
Goku sighed. Here it went. "I talked to Dende today..." He paused as he pondered over the next detail. Telling her that Piccolo was there may have risen suspicion on her part. Then again, he could tell her that Piccolo had been there because he felt the flash of the invader's power. "...and Piccolo who had been there because he felt the enemy's presence earlier, but only for a few seconds. We talked, and our Dragon Balls haven't been revived. We don't have to worry about those, but this guy is still REALLY dangerous." He smiled to himself in the back of his mind. He had pulled that off rather smoothly. Technically he hadn't lied to her. He had just skipped over some truths, much like Usagi had done when she told him about her fight earlier, which he still remained completely clueless about.  
  
Usagi appeared to believe her father. And why shouldn't she? It was completely true. "So what are we going to do?"  
  
Goku; "What I said earlier. We wait for an attack here first. Hopefully it'll have more guts than to attack a kid again. It'll go after something that's stronger than you, not that you're weak or stupid because you're younger."  
  
Usagi grinned. She so could have played her father along with this one by giving a huge guilt trip, but she knew better to at this point. He too had a lot on his mind with her mother and having to lead the fight. "Ok. So we wait, got it. As long as he doesn't have our Dragon Balls things are looking up, right?"  
  
Goku knew in the back of his mind that things weren't looking up. In fact, quit the opposite, now that he knew exactly what kind of power this thing held in its possession, things were worse. And as much as he wanted to tell her, his conscious told him not to, that he should uphold his promise. He said nothing either way. Instead, he decided to change the subject to more important matters. He reached out and wrapped his fingers around her chin, slowly turning her head so he could get a better look at her cheek where she had been hit. It was already black as night with edged of blue. It was hard to believe that such a bruise came from his own fist, though completely accidental. "I'm SO sorry."  
  
Usagi smiled with pride. If he was really abusive like Tatsuo suggested, he wouldn't be apologizing. Her father had never hit her before, and he never would. She couldn't understand why he didn't realize that. "It's ok, dad. I know it wasn't your fault, it was mine."  
  
"I hope none of the teachers gave you trouble about it."  
  
Usagi shook her head. "Nope!" She exclaimed as she pulled away from his grip to gain control over her face movement once again. "I told them what happened and they believed me. But..."  
  
Goku frowned. He knew that but. "But? But what?"  
  
Usagi joined her father with a frown of her own. "Tatsuo didn't believe me. He said you wanted me to think it was my fault. He's one crazy guy, but it's annoying. I don't know why he wants us to fight so badly."  
  
Goku let out a soft growl. He couldn't believe that kid. "Ignore him. He doesn't know what he's talking about."  
  
Usagi smiled. "I know that. He said you'd do it again, but I said you didn't do anything in the first place. So oh well to him!"   
  
Goku chuckled. He didn't quite believe that. Although his daughter had one of the kindest hearts around, she also had a bit of a temper when it came to her family. "Yeah..." He said with much suspicion lingering in his voice. "You should get changed out of your uniform for dinner. Your mom's probably got something big cooking."  
  
Usagi grinned. Her mother always liked to cook something big when she was upset about something. It was how she got her mind of the things that made her angry. "Alright." She stood from the couch and stretched tall. "What a day."  
  
Goku watched as she walked to her room. She as such a resilient kid it was amazing. He didn't know anyone who could go through so much in such a short life and continue to be so cheery. Of course, she was his daughter. All of his kids seemed to be able to bounce back from the harsh and cruel world, him included. Chi-Chi was another case though. She would take some work, but he seemed to have that under control. Maybe he had finally figured her out. He put his hands behind his back with a smirk of pride. 'Yeah, I got this marriage and parenting thing down pat...'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi walked into her dark room, without turning on the lights. The sky outside was already beginning to darken, but there was still a sufficient amount of light to see in. All she needed to do was change into some regular cloths and then it would be right back out to watch T.V. before dinner. With a long sigh, she flopped on her back to lay on her bed. She closed her eyes and smiled. "Finally, I get to relax."  
  
"I wouldn't say that quite yet..."  
  
Usagi's eyes flew open with fear as she shot herself up to a fierce sitting position. She glared around her room, using her ears as well to detect whoever just said that. Of course, she was pretty sure of who it was. The voice sounded all too familiar. "You!" She sneered in a rage. All she wanted to do was relax and here he was disturbing her rest again. "I'm not giving you the Broach. You'll have to come and get it offa me if you want it!"   
  
"Great minds do think alike, don't they. Though I think on this one it was a fluke in your case!"  
  
Usagi looked toward her closet where the voice seemed to be coming from. "What?!"   
  
Without further notice, the next thing she knew a blue blob had her on the ground. He sat on top of her and slapped her across the face a couple times, causing her to whimper in pain. But, as soon as his eyes traveled down to the treasure on her chest. "It's mine now!" Holding her head back by her face, with his free hand he reached down and ripped the item away from her shirt.   
  
With her mouth covered, she couldn't cry out for help and she wasn't in much of a position to raise her power. She wasn't completely thinking enough to surge it as she was told. She was too frightened. So instead, she lifted her tail and wrapped it around the creature's throat.  
  
The creature quickly lifted his hand away from her face and numbed the tail with his power, causing it to drop to the ground. But, it was just enough time for Usagi to make her move. "DADDY HELP!"   
  
It was at that moment, that a Super Saiyan three Goku burst into the room. He knew exactly what had caused her to cry out like that. She had to have been attacked again. He took one look at the ordeal and powered up a small Ki attack and fired it at the back of his daughter's attacker. "Usagi!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, fearing that this thing that had done some serious damage to her.  
  
The blue guy actually looked to be hurt by the attack. Upon impact, the broach flew out of his hands and slid under Usagi's bed. He jumped away from Usagi and lingered in the air as he glared down at Goku, who was scowling up at him. "Shit!" He seemed not to care about Goku. In a fret, his eyes traveled to the floor in search of the treasure he had just dropped.   
  
Goku rose to the creature's altitude. This wouldn't help Chi-Chi's mood to have their child attacked in their own home, but that didn't quite matter at this point. He kept his eyes on this guy and watched his every move.   
  
The creature looked back up to Goku after he decided to forget the broach for now. Goku was too much stronger than him right now. It looked like he would have to go to plan B. Usagi wouldn't be so careless anymore. Attacking at her home was his last hope of catching her off guard, unless... maybe he wouldn't have to go to Plan B right away. Maybe there was an alternative. "You leave me no other choice than to vacate the premises."  
  
Goku frowned. "You aren't going anywhere!" At that moment, the door slammed open to reveal an angry mother who, at that point, could have passed for a rapid dog. Goku didn't take his eyes off his opponent for a moment, but didn't have to. He knew exactly who was standing there at the door. "Chi-Chi, leave!"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned at her husband. "No one attacks my home and gets away with it!" She looked down at her daughter, who had her head under her bed. "Usagi, get out of here! Leave this to me!"  
  
Goku growled, not taking his eye away from his foe. "Usagi, get your mother out of here!"   
  
Usagi popped her head out from under her bed and looked up at her father and then to the blue creature who had just attacked her. Her face still stung from his slaps. "Ok!" She stood up and began running for her mother.  
  
The creature smirked. "Looks like I'm the center of the party, but I'm really going to have to get going now. It's so late."  
  
Goku grinned. This guy was gonna run scared. They both knew who the stronger fighter he was. Maybe they could get through this without losing anyone but the invader. "I don't think so."  
  
The creature said nothing. He just waved to the group and then, poof, he was gone.  
  
Goku blinked twice, Usagi and Chi-Chi weren't far behind. He scratched his head in confusion as he powered down. There didn't seem to be a need to be powered up anymore as the power level he had just felt was suddenly gone. "Where'd he go?"  
  
Usagi, who was already halfway out of the room shrugged. "See? That's what happened today."  
  
With Usagi in her hands, Chi-Chi ran to Goku and hugged the both of them. "We're moving!"   
  
Goku said nothing as he placed his hand upon Usagi's head. His heart was still racing deep inside. There was nothing worse than to hear his little girl crying out for help in their own home and then to find someone actually attacking her. She didn't look too beaten up. "You ok?"  
  
Usagi nodded with a heavy breath. "I'll be fine, just a little shaken up." She smiled up at him as she hugged him harder. "Thanks for helping me. I was really scared there."  
  
Goku smiled. "So was I."  
  
Chi-Chi grabbed her husband with a sharp glare. "Who in the HELL was that?!"  
  
Usagi pulled her mother aside and put her hands on her shoulders. "Mom... now, don't get upset, but, that was the guy who attacked me earlier."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she looked up to her husband again. "THAT?!"  
  
Goku nodded. "Apparently." He looked down at his daughter, still worried that she may have been hurt more than before. "Was that it?"  
  
Usagi nodded to confirm. "It was. Last time it didn't just disappear like that though. I could actually feel it running away."  
  
Goku groaned. This was the first time he didn't know what he was facing. And now, they had met and the critter got away without being beaten, or getting the Dragon Balls back. "What was he doing to you when I came in here?"  
  
Usagi gulped, she didn't exactly want to tell him that. "I... I don't know."  
  
Goku knew different. He knew she did. He was distinctly holding something. "What was he holding?"  
  
Usagi shook her head again, backing up a ways into her mother. "I...I really don't know, daddy."  
  
Goku frowned. "Are you lying to me?"  
  
Usagi backed away even further. "No. Of course not, I really don't know."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned up at her husband as she pulled her daughter to the side and covered her with her arms. "Goku! Stop it! She didn't do anything, she's the victim here!"  
  
Goku sighed as he dropped his tall composure. "I guess." He watched his daughter carefully for any sign of strange activities. There had to be SOME reason why that guy would be so persistent as to chase her around. And what was it that he was holding. Looking down at Usagi, he realized that something about her outfit was missing, but what? That's it, the locket she usually wore on her school uniform, It was gone. Was that what he had been after? But why would he be after such a silly trinket? "I'm sorry, Usagi." He smiled as he wrapped his hand around her head. "I'm just glad you're alright."  
  
(La la la la.... Oh yeah, that's the end of this part. See ya tomorrow! ) 


	136. Part 10

~*~*~*~  
  
Usagi went to bed earlier than usual that evening. The day had been way too much for her to handle. With being attacked in the morning and having an outburst with Tatsuo, she had already been pretty worn out. Add the encounter with Mamoru and Tatsuo and her day was feeling pretty complete. All she had wanted to do after that was relax on her own without interruptions, but then she was attacked, her broach being stolen in the process. Had it not been for her tail she didn't know WHAT would have happened. Luckily, when her father hit the creature with his energy attack, the broach flew out of its hand and made its way under her bed.   
  
Things seemed to calm down after that, or had they? Her father knew something was up with that broach, she could hear it in his voice when he spoke to her, not to mention see it in his eyes. She could always tell when he knew when she was lying, just as he had always known when he was lying. And the one thing about him that she had always loved was if she told him she wasn't lying when he asked, he wouldn't persist in asking. He wouldn't in anyway insist that she tell him the truth, unless he thought it was imperative that he be told. But, even knowing that he knew made her feel guilty. She knew that every time she lied he lost trust in her, which only added to her guilt. She hated having to lie, it wasn't something she really did anymore unless it was truly important, like her Broach. She wished she could tell everyone, but it was against the rules, something she didn't intend on breaking.   
  
The night had been hectic, yes, but at least she could sleep in her own bed without worrying about another attack. The creature who had attacked her obviously knew he wasn't a match for her father otherwise it wouldn't have left so quickly.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~Later that Night~   
  
Chi-Chi lay, restless, in her bed that night in a ball of pain. Though not Physical pain, it still ached deep in her heart. It was a pain that she had been unconsciously been building up since the days of her past. Her daughter's attack had only added to it, making it so unbearable that she couldn't stand it.   
  
As she lay there, she wondered about so many things. Mostly about days of peace, would they ever come? Things seemed to calm down after Buu had been beaten, starting up only after Usagi had turned seven with the arrival of Kiro. Not that she could blame them, after all, their home planet had been originally destroyed by the Saiyans. But not long after Cell had been sent to kill their daughter... then Beryl wanted her dead... and now this guy... Thinking more and more, she began to realize a distinct trend with these attacks. In the past, most of them had been caused because Freiza wanted Goku dead, as well as Dr. Gero, but now it was Usagi. What was so special about her? She let out a long sigh as she turned over to her side and looked at her husband. She was surprised to see him staring directly back at her.   
  
She smiled at him. For once, she was happy with him even in a time of "war". He had actually taken the time out to comfort him, instead of being his usual assholish-self and not care about her feelings. "Can't sleep?"  
  
Goku gave a slight nod. He too couldn't sleep that night, but not exactly for the same reasons. He was in a troubled state of mind. Not only over the night's attack, but because Usagi lied to him, blatantly, when he asked her straight up. She had no reason to do so, yet she chose to. He thought that she had been past the lying age, but he must have been wrong. "No, you?"  
  
Chi-Chi nodded back as she moved in closer. "No. I haven't been able to sleep at all. This whole day's just been, well..."  
  
Goku wrapped his arms around his wife and closed his eyes. "I know. It's been rough for both you and Usagi."  
  
Chi-Chi relaxed into husband's soft embrace. She could have cried right there and then, but she figured she had done enough of that. After the small blue thing had left, she had run directly into her room and cried, only to be followed by Goku. Even if she wanted to cry now, she didn't think that she would have enough moisture left in her tear ducts to do so. "Goku, have you ever wondered why all three of the past enemies, which includes the latest, has gone for Usagi?"  
  
Goku frowned. He had in fact thought of that. "Strange, isn't it?"  
  
Chi-Chi nodded as she snuggled even further into his chest. "I don't like it one bit."  
  
Goku could definitely agree with that, no problem. "I don't know why Beryl went after her other than her power, but I know why this knew guy is attack her. It's because of that broach she's got. When I went into her room he was holding it in his hands. It wasn't until I hit the damned thing that I realized he was holding something because the thing went flying out of its hand under Usagi's bed."  
  
Chi-Chi thought about her husband's words for a moment and remembered back to the immediate response of Goku after the creature left. She distinctly remembered Usagi telling him that she knew nothing. "Are you saying she lied?"  
  
Goku nodded his head rather softly. He didn't want to alarm his wife that Usagi may be hiding something yet again, but it was the truth. Any other time he would have kept quiet and kept it away from her, but she had a right to know, it wasn't right to keep her in the dark in situations like this. It was her family too, not only his. "I am. I could tell she was nervous when I asked her about it tonight."  
  
Chi-Chi rolled her eyes, half in relief. "She was just frightened from the attack."  
  
"I don't think so. I can usually tell when she's lying to me, and I think she is. She's not telling us something, something important that may play an important role in this entire situation."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. She hadn't thought Usagi was acting any different that night, just scared, something for which she didn't blame her. She had been scared too. "If you believe that, then why didn't you tell her to come out with it?"  
  
Goku sighed. That was something he didn't know. He was hoping before the night ended Usagi would have told him to clear her guilt, but she had chosen otherwise. "I may have to, but I'd rather she comes out with it on her own."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned harder. That wasn't the way to handle children. Learned from her own experience, Chi-Chi came to realize that once you let a child go off on their own and they do something wrong, or tell a lie, without some SORT of guidance, no matter how much or little, they will never learn to do right, for they believe their behavior is acceptable. "If what you say is true, she lied to your face, even upon questioning. She isn't going to come clean, I know how kids are, Goku. Believe me."  
  
Goku sighed. He in fact was very angry with his daughter for lying to him, but he still believed that she would be good enough to come out and say whatever was on her mind, or in this case, what she knew. "I'll give her until tomorrow night to come out with it, otherwise I'll ask her again. This is too serious to be playing games like this."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled as she closed her eyes. "Thank you, Goku, for everything. For putting up with me all these years and now, I'm even worse. I can't even keep my eyes dry these days."   
  
Goku chuckled as he held his wife closer. He could sense her tormented feelings quite easily now, whereas earlier, he had to guess on instinct. But either way, it didn't really matter. All he knew was that she needed comforting, something she wouldn't normally get from him in cases like this because he was the one causing it by being away.   
  
Chi-Chi smiled as she felt herself. She was becoming tired for the first time since she had gone to bed that night. "Tell me you won't leave me again, please."  
  
Inside, Goku knew that he couldn't make that promise, still. But, he knew how much it meant to his wife to hear those words. He know knew how secure she would feel if he said what she wanted to hear. "I won't leave you, Chi-Chi."  
  
Chi-Chi's smile turned into a proud grin. She loved to hear those words, more so than Goku would ever know. When they were younger, she had never been able to get the man to say them to her. It was as if he was afraid to or something. But it filled her heart to be able to hear him say such a thing so openly without hesitation. Maybe wisdom did come with age. Although Goku was no where close to being wise, he was at least acting like a normal husband. Having her feelings appeased, Chi-Chi soon drifted off to sleep, leaving Goku to himself and his thoughts.   
  
Goku slowly unwrapped his arms from around his wife and moved her back onto her side of the bed. Although she had been calmed enough to sleep, he hadn't. He was still worried that Usagi knew something valuable, something which could change the entire idea of how to go up against this guy. He was positive it had something to do with that broach of hers. That wasn't even a question. The real question was, what exactly is its importance? She had told them that it was a gift from a friend, but not an exact person. It could have been the key to this guy. He wouldn't know until he got a hold of it. Then, he would have to take it to Bulma so she could check it out. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to impose force upon his daughter, and she would willingly, of her own accord, bring it fourth to him in the morning. She had until the next night to make her decision, otherwise he would move in.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The next morning, Usagi awoke with a body full of pain. The beatings from the day before were finally starting to set in. As soon as she rolled over and out of her bed, she immediately knew that being beaten into concrete by her tail had done more damage than she originally calculated. She could barely move she was so stiff. Even a little thing such as standing up was a chore. "Uhh..." She groaned as she stood tall to crack her back. Not even that helped. Every muscle in her body ached.   
  
To the best of her ability, she slowly wobbled to her desk where she had put her Broach into a box for safe keeping. She couldn't wear it on the front of her cloths anymore, or at least, until this entire ordeal blew over. Not only were Tatsuo and the blue guy, who were presumably the same people, after it, but her father was now suspicious, and most likely knew there was something special about it.   
  
Realizing she was already five minutes behind, Usagi threw the compact onto her bed and pulled out a clean School Uniform. She proceeded to get dressed, though not very fast. Every movement was accompanied by a wail of pain from the young Saiyan.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Once done with the painful job of preparing herself for school, Usagi raced, or as well as she could, to the kitchen, where she would have to face her parents, or more overall, her father. She knew he would give her the "I Know you're lying so just tell me" look, but not actually say anything. That was the worst look he could ever give her. It made her feel horrible when she knew that he knew that she was lying. She knew exactly what would happen when she would walk in to greet her parents. Her mother would smile happily and her father would just eat ever so slowly while glaring at her. She wondered how long it would be before he just came out and called her on her lie and demanded the truth. Even when he did, she still couldn't tell him.   
  
She wobbled into the kitchen VERY stiffly, almost as if she had been starched the night before. Just as she predicted, her mother smiled cheerfully as she served her father his second helping, while her father ate slower and watched her every move while giving her his patented look that sent her into a Universe of Guilt, but she refused to show it. This was one mental battle he wouldn't win.   
  
Chi-Chi turned around to her daughter and watched her sit down with a moan of pain. "You look awful."  
  
Sitting uncomfortably on the hard chair, Usagi groaned. "Great. That's just what I need, to look awful." She looked at the plate of food before her and wondered how in the world she was going to eat it without hurting herself. Even more importantly, she wondered how she was going to survive in school. She knew very well that she could heal herself at any moment, but that went against her rules. Much like the use of the Senzu beans, using her healing power which she had learned from Hotaru was strictly for emergencies, nothing else.   
  
Goku grinned down at his food as he took a huge bite. Usagi noticed that, and wondered why in the world he would think something this tragic was so funny. "You find it funny?"  
  
Goku shook his head, still with a grin. "No, nothing funny about it ... gimpy..."  
  
Usagi frowned as she hit her head against he table. She couldn't believe he would take such a low hit when she was in so much pain. "Daddy!" She whined.  
  
On her way to her own seat, Chi-Chi hit her husband in the back of he head with her hand. "Goku! Your daughter is in pain, show some respect!"  
  
Goku tried to keep his chuckles from boiling to the surface. He knew this was neither the time nor the place to play like this. "Alright, alright. Sorry, kiddo."  
  
Usagi picked up her head and leaned back in her chair. Instead of eating her food, she waved her eating utensils around in it. She didn't have much of an appetite. There was far too much on her mind to want to eat. "Mom, do I have to go to school? I hurt!"  
  
Chi-Chi nodded as she put down her glass of orange juice from taking a drink. "Yes ma'am, you do. Just take it easy today. Your teachers will understand. Maybe your dad will take you there so you don't have to use any power and hurt yourself even more."  
  
Usagi sighed as she looked up to her father, whom she had been trying to avoid making any eye contact with so far. That didn't sound like a half bad idea. She wanted to conserve all the energy she could in order to recover sooner, and just in case she was attacked again, which she didn't think would happen. So far she had proven to hold her own against whatever was attacking. It even seemed disgruntled the night before.   
  
Goku nodded as he finished off his plate, which was only his second. He really had slowed down his eating. A slow pattern in his eating habits was always a sure sign of being upset over something, and Usagi knew exactly what. He stood up from the table and looked down at his wife, who stared back up at him in pure confusion.  
  
"Aren't you going to eat anymore?"  
  
Rubbing his hands together, he shook his head. He wasn't in the mood for eating at the moment. He had too many other things on his mind. "Maybe later."  
  
Usagi slid further into her chair. He didn't sound too happy. Maybe having him take her wasn't such a good idea after all. He would probably ask her about her broach the first chance he got. "I...think I should get going." She said, looking up to her father.  
  
Chi-Chi turned her attention to her daughter. "Usagi, you haven't eaten a single bite of your food yet."  
  
Usagi looked at her mother. She hadn't meant to not eat anything, but her stomach was doing flips inside her. She couldn't eat when she had no idea what the day had in store for her. "I'm not really hungry."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she looked down at her food. She couldn't believe that neither of them of them wanted to eat. Of course, with the chemistry they had going on between the two of them, who would. She could sense from both sides, the tension building. It was at that moment when she realized Usagi really WAS hiding something from them, it was so obvious. Goku had been working on making her feel guilty with his "guilt" looks all morning, and they were actually working. "I'll never understand the Saiyan stomach..." She said, not wanting to add to either side.   
  
Usagi slowly pushed herself up and walked to her mother to give her a hug. "Bye mom."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled. It wasn't every day that she got a hug in the morning. Usagi was usually too busy running out the door for school so she wouldn't be late that she rarely received one. "Bye dear. Don't get into any trouble."  
  
Usagi grinned. She couldn't guarantee anything with Tatsuo, but she would try. Hopefully she would be able to uphold her promise. "Ok." She slowly made her way to her father without making any eye contact. She wouldn't allow him the satisfactory of giving her even more guilt than she already held.  
  
Goku gripped his daughter's shoulder and prepared for a quick teleportation. Under any other circumstances he would have been happy to fly her out there without using any real special power, but he didn't want to risk anything happening while he was away from the house. But not only that, he had a few words to share with Usagi.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Tatsuo whistled happily as he walked through the empty hallways of his school on his way to class. He was in an unusually jolly mood that morning, for a reason that didn't go unjustified. In his possession he held the key to his true happiness, his hopes and dreams. He only had one last obstacle in his way before they would be fulfilled and he was sure to surpass it that very day before class. Yes, this was the day he would obtain the final piece of the puzzle.   
  
Just as he was about to turn the corner from the flight of stairs he had just gone up into the hall that would lead him to his class, he began to hear an echo of voices; familiar voices. A young girl, and an adult man. A wide smile spread across his face. 'Great, she's handed herself to me.' He poked his head around the corner, keeping his original position before the corner. From here, he would wait and watch.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku arrived with Usagi in front of her classroom. Goku hadn't wanted her to have to walk up a flight of stairs just to get to class. He could tell that she was hurting badly. By teleporting in front of her room, she would be right there. All that would be left to do was walk in and sit down. He peered into the room with a curious eye. He had never seen an actual classroom at work with students inside. There were the many times that Chi-Chi had dragged him into teacher-parent conferences, but this was something else. In the back of the room he spotted Minako, Ami, Makoto, and Rei.   
  
Goku looked down to his aching daughter and gently placed his hand upon her shoulder, careful not to be too forceful. "Usagi," He began with a small sigh, "I want you to know that you can always tell me anything, no matter what. You can always trust me, you know that, right?"  
  
Usagi groaned as she looked up at her father. She made to be careful not to look directly into his eyes. She knew she wouldn't be able to hold up her lie any longer if she had. "I know, daddy. I know I can trust you, I've always been able to trust you..." She knew these words were true. She HAD always been able to count on him, but this time she was forbidden to tell. There was no way she could break that promise.   
  
Goku smiled. "Right. So don't be afraid to tell me anything that's on your mind..."  
  
Usagi gulped. He was testing her, trying to sound like the good guy. Why couldn't he just understand that she wouldn't tell him no matter what? It was out of the question. "Ok."  
  
Goku frowned that hadn't been the answer he was looking for. He had just given her an open opportunity to come clean, to come out with her lie and relieve herself of her self-made guilt. And yet she refused. He would have to force it out of her later that night if she hadn't decided to tell him by the time she was to go to bed. This wasn't a time to be keeping secrets from him. He needed to know the whole story, Dende and Piccolo needed to know the whole story.   
  
He decided not to dwell on it right now. The important thing was to get her through the day without any more attacks. "Take it easy today, kiddo. Don't go off by yourself if that thing calls for you. I don't think it'll come around with so many others in the area."  
  
Usagi nodded with a sigh of relief. At least he hadn't tried to keep on going with trying to make her feel guilty. He had been smart enough to change the subject. "That's what I was thinking."  
  
Goku smiled as he took away his hand and patted her on the arm. "Don't overwork yourself." He prepared himself for another teleportion. "See ya."  
  
Usagi smiled to herself. At least he would be leaving on a good note. "Bye daddy!" She gave a quick wave, but he was gone before it was noticed.   
  
~*~*~  
  
From the other end of the hall, Tatsuo emerged. "Odango!" He hollered down the hall to get Usagi's attention.   
  
Usagi frowned with a growl as she stopped herself from turning to enter her classroom. She dropped her arms to her side in slight pain. Her body still ached, but she was beginning to get used to the pain, but she would surely feel it again the next morning. "What?!" She demanded as she looked up to the annoyance. Before even seeing who it was she knew who had called for her. It was the one person whom she never really wanted to see again. "Where do you get off calling me that?!"  
  
Tatsuo smirked as he reached into his pocket while he approached the Saiyan. "That's what that other guy called you. I think it rather fits you, Odango."  
  
Usagi clenched her fists. Why was he trying to anger her? He had seemed like such a nice kid from the beginning, then when she had taken her to meet her father things just seemed to kind of fall apart. He just kept getting weirder and ruder with each coming day. "Only Mamoru can call me that!"   
  
Tatsuo stopped in front of Usagi, still with a smirk of arrogance. It was the same smirk that Mamoru had worn in his earlier childhood. A smirk still known to the face, though not worn nearly as often. "Oh? And is this Mamoru your boyfriend?"  
  
Usagi frowned even harder as she overcame her pain just long enough to violently shake her head from side to side. She was immediately reminded of her destiny to marry him, and was utterly sickened by the thought, though she did blush slightly. "No way! Mamoru's my rival, so he's the only one who can make fun of me! It's funny like that."  
  
Tatsuo's smirk dropped and was replaced with a deep scowl of hatred. "Oh... well then, I'd like you to give your rival something. You see, he hurt me yesterday, and now I want my payback." Without letting the girl respond, he pulled his out hand and ran it down her arm from her shoulder to elbow with rapid motion, causing the cloth of her uniform to rip open. All the way down, her skin, too, was cut open as well, revealing a trail of blood down her arm. She now had two long cuts on one arm trailing from her shoulder to her elbow. And then her elbow to her wrist.   
  
Tatsuo pulled back his hand from the stunned Usagi and revealed a sharp piece of glass with blood on the very tip. He laughed aloud as he pulled out a plastic baggy from his other hand and dropped the glass in it. He proceeded to stare back up at the girl, whose face was growing red with each passing second. He just smiled on. "That was for Mamoru."  
  
Usagi looked down at her stinging arm with a twitching eye. The anger built up inside to the point of bursting. How dare this boy come to her and harm her just because of something Mamoru had done. She looked back up to the blonde with rage burning in her eyes. "This is from Mamoru!" She said as she formed a fist and punched the boy square between the eyes.  
  
A loud slap could be heard echoing through the halls on contact. Tatsuo was thrown to the ground, which was followed by yet another clank.  
  
Usagi gasped slightly at the spectacle. She hadn't meant to hit him that hard, but after thinking about it for a couple of seconds, she found her actions easily justified. He had attacked her first, in a way. He drew the first blood. Her father had never warned against hitting civilians so hard that they were knocked out after they hurt you first. All he had ever taught her was that, if they hit first, then you can hit back.   
  
She looked back at her arm, which now hurt more than any other place on her body. Blood ran down from where her arm had been slashed open. Now her entire arm would be raw. What would she tell her parents? This time she had been attacked by some body at school, Tatsuo, the same boy they had specifically told her to stay away from. But that didn't really matter. She knew they wouldn't be angry with her for conversing with him. What would set her mother off, however, was the fact that she had gotten another shirt ruined. That would be two uniforms they would have to buy instead of just one.  
  
She glared down at Tatsuo as she placed her hand on the door handle. She thought about helping him up, but why should she? He had only caused her trouble. He would probably try something again. Shrugging to herself, she opened the door and proceeded to go through, leaving the knocked out Tatsuo to be left in the hall by himself.   
  
Once Usagi had entered the classroom there was no one left in the hallway. Class would be starting soon, and Tatsuo was lying on the floor unconscious. Not a single footstep echoed in the hall, not a single sound resided.   
  
Tatsuo's eyes popped open rather energetically. Soon, he was jumping up to his feet with a sly little smirk on his face. Usagi had been fooled, again. His plan was full in motion. He had successfully become informed of Earth and its fighters without being found out. He had successfully retrieved a means of conquering Goku, who was stronger than him. He had figured out a way to get rid of Usagi. And now, with her blood, her DNA at her disposal, he would be unstoppable. It wouldn't be long before he had the ultimate power of the universe in his hands. Moon power added to his power would make him the strongest being in the world. Before class started, he scampered off, never to be seen in the halls of that building again.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku didn't return home directly after dropping Usagi off at school. He still had a few things he needed to do. He ended up teleporting himself to Kami's lookout, hoping that Dende was there to speak with. He wanted to know if he had seen any strange occurrences since they last talked.   
  
He arrived in the main garden, where he found Dende with Mr. Popo. He was relieved that he wouldn't have to go through that big long wait that he had the day before. Dende was just out there in the open to talk to. "Dende!"   
  
Dende jumped in surprise as he turned his head to the Saiyan. "Goku...I didn't see you come in..."  
  
Goku chuckled. Dende had always been easily frightened ever since Buu. "Just came to check up on everything. Anything strange us guys on earth should know about?"  
  
Dende, with pride, shook his head. He had stayed up the entire night just to watch for something strange to happen. "Nothing."  
  
Goku liked the sound of that. At least no one else was in danger while this thing was around. "Good. Actually, I came here to ask you something else too."  
  
Dende smiled. "Shoot."  
  
Goku did just that. He tried to think of his daughter's broach that she wore everyday. He had seen it, noticed it, but never really took the time to memorize what it looked like. "What do you know about a pink broach with a yellow star on it?"  
  
Dende shrugged. "Gee, Goku, I don't know. I've never really had one before, doesn't your daughter where one? You should ask her about it."  
  
Goku frowned. "I can't. You see, I think that's a missing piece of the puzzle, but she won't tell me. Last night, that creature attacked HER again, in her room. It seemed to be after that broach. She's reluctant to even make eye contact with me anymore. She knows I know, but she isn't saying anything."  
  
Dende sighed. Children could be so difficult sometimes. "I'm sure she has a good reason, Goku."  
  
Goku didn't know what to say to that. There was never a good reason to lie with things like this. This could solve the entire problem that this guy has, yet she won't tell him anything. "She knows better..."  
  
Dende nodded. "True. Do you think you could bring it here? I want to look at it."  
  
Goku; "Sure, but I'm not sure how I'm going to get it from her. I don't want to go through her things, and I don't want to just have to take it from her."  
  
Dende frowned. Sometimes even Goku was too soft. "You may have to if you really think it's that important."  
  
Goku nodded. He couldn't disagree with that. Even he had thought he may have to do that. "I might. I'll think about it. I'm hoping she'll just come out with it." He hated the thought of forcing his daughter to do something she didn't want to, but sometimes you just had to do things you don't want to do, and it was about time she learned that lesson.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Tatsuo hadn't stepped foot into the school after he left, though he still hung around the quad. He still had one thing left to do before he could go "home".   
  
Usagi had wondered why Tatsuo hadn't shown up to class, though her friends hadn't. Usagi hadn't told them of her strange encounter with him that morning, so they figured he was just hurt from his "fight" with Mamoru. But Usagi knew otherwise. At lunch break, he hadn't been in the hall, meaning he must've wakened up and left. But where could he have gone? And why hadn't he come to class if he was feeling better? Maybe she had hit him so hard that someone had to carry him out, but then, wouldn't they wonder who did it?  
  
In anyway, Usagi didn't really care. He was just a nuisance in her life. She had tried to be nice to her and how did he repay her? He engraved a deep scratch into her arm for no reason other than that he was a jerk.   
  
After school, she and the girls walked through the quad, as they had done for the past week, to get to the front of the school campus. It was the shortest way from the building to the parking lot, where they usually departed.   
  
The group of five stopped halfway on the way to the parking lot by cause of Usagi, who wasn't ready to go home. She wasn't ready to go home to face her father. It wasn't that she was mad at him, and it wasn't that she didn't love him, she just wasn't in the mood for more guilt. In fact, she was sure she was as full of guilt as one could possibly be. Anymore and she would burst, but she would have to return sooner or later.   
  
Ami, being the most compassionate in this case, turned to her friend in worry. It was too dangerous for Goku to be so suspicious of the broach. Usagi should have been smart and lied to him and made up some bizarre reason for having the broach, but then again, Goku could see through almost any big lie, and this was a doozy. "Cheer up, Usagi."  
  
Usagi said nothing, but just stared blankly into the blue sky. "He's gonna pry it outta me sooner or later."  
  
Makoto frowned. "Come on, Usagi. It can't be that bad."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened as she furiously nodded. "Yeah he is. If I don't tell him and he gets mad about it, he'll yell at me and MAKE me tell him otherwise I'll be in trouble. But this time, I still can't tell him so I'll be in trouble forever."  
  
Minako sighed. She knew what it was like to have a father like that. Her parents hated it when she was lying, although, she didn't have it so rough. Her parents couldn't see through lies as easily as Usagi's could. "It's probably too late to tell him it's nothing?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "He knows that I know."  
  
Minako frowned. "Great. Just great. Why don't you tell him that you can't tell him?"  
  
Usagi played around with the though in her head, but it was no use. If her father thought that it could be something important, and in this case it was, he would make her tell, and probably not even threaten to punish her if she didn't. Knowing her father, he would just tell her that she would be letting thousands of people down if she didn't, she had seen lots of T.V. fathers tell their children that. "I don't think that would..."   
  
Usagi was stopped mid sentence. In a split second she felt two arms wrapping around her and lifting her up into the air. All that was heard from her was a low squeal of fear and she was gone without a trace.   
  
Her friends were left behind in a fit of confusion. Each of their eyes darted around the area in search of Usagi, but she was no where in sight. They all glared at each other in shock, as well as fear, and within seconds, Minako, Makoto, and Rei were turning to Ami for answers.   
  
Ami; "What just happened?"  
  
Rei shook her head, unknowing of the proper answer, if there even was one. "We were hoping you knew. Can your computer tell us anything?"  
  
Ami shrugged. "I have no idea. Let's get outta here and check it out!"  
  
All of the girls nodded. They feared for their friend's safety. Something must have come and grabbed her from above, but who? They felt no one but for a split second, right after Usagi had vanished, and then it was gone with Usagi.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi was dropped from the air into a deserted back alley in the city. Her heart raced with genuine fear. This was just too much for her. Too many attacks in two days. Was this her life as a Sailor Senshi? Was this what she would have to put up with for the rest of her life? Maybe she would just come out and tell her parents, at least then she wouldn't have to go through this alone. Not that she was alone with her friends by her side, but it would have been nice to have her parents on her side, instead of mad at her for lying to them. She tried to sit up, but found her body too heavy with pain to move an inch. Being thrown into the hard concrete topped off everything. "Owe..."  
  
All this seemed not to matter when she rolled over on her back and saw who had taken her. She gave out a loud shriek of a gasp as she stared into his eyes. She wasn't given any time to let it register in her mind any further before her abductor picked her up and punched her in the neck, causing her to fall unconscious with excruciating pain.   
  
The figure who had taken her from her friends bent over her and examined the broach placed ever so neatly upon her chest. He smirked arrogantly as he reached out and picked it from her Uniform. "Yes, my little child, I told you I was a patience being. I now have you trapped in my puzzle." He stood up and pulled out a small, plastic bag from his pocket. Inside the bag was a small needle, which contained a sample of her blood. "And you thought I was just a weakling. Silly girl. You should never trust anyone you don't know. Your biggest mistake, telling me everything about your heritage. It will be your downfall."   
  
He proceeded to pull out the needed and roll up his sleeve with the broach in his hand. "It is time for me to become Usagi, instead of being stuck in this stupid weakling's form." He then stuck the needle into his arm and injected the sample of Usagi's DNA into his body.   
  
As soon as the needle was empty, his form immediately began to change. With the DNA from her blood, he has been able to mold himself into a perfect shape of Usagi. He now held every likeness of Usagi from her long blonde hair to her golden brown tail, including her power, though it still wasn't strong enough. But, it would do the job. Even the bruises that had been on her body had appeared on his. He smiled as he picked the real Usagi up and threw her into a trash bin. "This is where trash belongs..." He looked down at the broach in his hand happily placed it onto the bow of his brand new Uniform. "Now I, Tatsuo, am closer than ever to achieving the power that will turn me into the strongest being in the universe! The power I felt one year ago will now be mine!"  
  
  
(Hungry! Must stop here! Need food! ... Ok, it's ten pages long, I think I'm done for now. Sorry it took so long to get out, a day later than usual, but I decided to add some stuff to it so I didn't post it yesterday. Anyway, here it is. Wha'd you think ? See ya later then! ) 


	137. Part 11

~*~*~*~  
  
Tatsuo, now as Usagi, looked at the trash bin in which he had placed the real Saiyan. She had been knocked out pretty hard. Hopefully long enough to stay unconscious for a while. He knew he hadn't hit her hard enough to kill her, which was his plan. He didn't plan on staying in such a wretched body forever, only long enough to do what he needed to do. In fact, he WANTED Usagi to wake up later that night, just not before he was done.   
  
With a sly smirk of arrogance, the Usagi clone casually made its way out of the alley and into the busy and crowded streets of downtown. Because of how he had to kidnap Usagi, by taking her away from her friends right before them, he would have to pause his plans for just a moment longer to stop them from trying to find out what happened. He didn't want them going to Goku and Chi-Chi.   
  
Just coming out of the alley to make sure that no one had seen what just happened, the male Usagi made his way back to where he had come from. He tested out the lengths of his new power level. It would take some time getting used to such a low power level, but he would make do. He slowly rose into the air, just barely off his feet. The body was a lot lighter than the boy's had been, but it was still heavier than his original body. But it would do. They power seemed a lot easier to control though, which was a plus.  
  
Once he got a hang of his new surroundings, Tatsuo looked up into the air with a smirk. "Time to start!" even know what hit em!" With no further thought, Tatsuo was up in the air and on his way to rendezvous with Usagi's friends.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto led the way to Sanctuary, where hopefully Ami would be able to locate Usagi's position from. There, Ami would be able to safely be able to transform into Sailor Mercury without any interruptions from an outside force. After Beryl had been defeated, the girls had begun to worry that Usagi, or any of the other girls for that matter, may be taken into another dimension. After much research, Ami had been able to program her computer to detect any one of the Senshis' transformation pens, or in Usagi's case, her broach. Although they weren't quite sure if it would work between dimensions, they knew for sure it worked throughout this one. This way, if one of the girls were knocked out and their power levels couldn't be felt, they could still be located, which is precisely what Ami had in mind to do.  
  
The group of four landed on the top floor of Sanctuary, which was mostly an open platform. At once, all eyes turned to Ami. It was all in her hands now.   
  
Minako; "Hurry up and transform! We don't have any time to waste!"  
  
Rei nodded furiously, afraid that Usagi could be in some serious danger. "She could be almost beaten to death by now! We have to find her, fast!"   
  
Makoto said nothing, but her eyes told of her fear. Ami nodded as she backed away from her friends to give herself a sufficient amount of space to transform. She dug into her pocket and grasped her hand around a small pen, which had been given to her the year before. "Mercury Star Power... Make up!"   
  
The remaining girls covered their eyes from the bright, blue light that had been created around Ami. What little energy she was giving off as Ami was taken away and completely replaced by Mercury's planetary power. Not only was Ami's power replaced, but her entire identity was as well. Now stood Sailor Mercury in her place.   
  
Minako brought her hands away from her face for just a moment to see if the light had gone down. "Wow, I never knew there was so much light when we transform. It's blinding. I don't even it when I transform."  
  
Ami pulled out her computer from her sub-space pocket. "It's so we don't get our identities revealed to anyone who may walk in after we've already triggered the transformation process." She punched in a few buttons and the computer beeped at her. She frowned as she typed in a few more keys, but she got the same response.   
  
Rei walked behind Mercury with her heart beating rather fast. The look on Mercury's face did not calm her nerves one bit. She studied the screen, but couldn't make sense of the words. It was written in too much of an advanced version of her language. "So?!" She yelled out, unable to keep her emotions calm.  
  
Makoto join Rei and peered over Mercury's shoulder in wonder. On the screen there was a circle and a flashing dot. In Ami's explanation from before when the program was first made, she had explained the flashing dot meant the person's position. "So what's wrong? She's right there."  
  
Rei frowned. "Yeah, but where is there compared to here?"   
  
Mercury sighed as she closed the computer. "The flashing dot is at OUR position right now."  
  
Minako quietly laughed. "That's impossible..." She slowly began to lift her vision up to the sky, "That would mean she's right abo..." Her sentence was cut short when she noticed that Usagi was floated above them with a quaint smirk and her arms crossed over her chest. "Oh..."  
  
Mercury, Rei, and Makoto looked up too, only to see Usagi floating above, just as Minako had before them. Mercury took the time to detransform back into Ami, this time, with no bright, blinding light. "Usagi?" Little did they know that this wasn't their true friend, though her power level and appearance said otherwise.   
  
Tatsuo, as Usagi, lowered himself to the girls' level with a cold look of pride on his/her face. He looked around at the individual faces of the girls, all of whom were in shock and surprise. "What? You expected that I'd be knocked out somewhere?"   
  
Seeing that her friend was alive and well, except for the cuts and bruises she had earned herself earlier, Rei frowned. "You idiot! Where have you been?!"   
  
Tatsuo dropped his hands to his side and circled around the group with a frown. He stopped once he got to Rei. "Don't you dare call me an idiot!" The voice he used was one filled entirely of hate, as if he were ready to lash out and hit the girl who had insulted him.   
  
Rei's frown disappeared as she stepped away from her friend. She had never heard Usagi speak in such a manner. It was unlike Usagi to EVER speak to anyone, especially her friends with such harsh words. Sure, Rei shouldn't have said what she had, but it was almost like an understanding between herself and Usagi that she got a little too angry too easily. Usagi had never minded before. "I... I'm sorry, Usagi. I won't do you again."  
  
Minako frowned. 'That was strange. Usagi's never said something like that before... of course, she's been through a lot lately. Maybe she's just letting off some steam without even realizing it.'  
  
Realizing what he had just done, Tatsuo immediately smiled wide. The one thing he didn't want was to let the girls know what he had done, that he wasn't really Usagi. He had been watching her closely for the past week, her attitude, the way she spoke, and the way she walked. Everything about her, he knew. He had planned this from the start, ever since he found out that she carried the power of the Moon. Now he would have to use that information to fool her friends. If her friends found out about this little switch, they would surely tell Usagi's parents and then everything would be ruined. His actions would all be in vein. "I'm sorry, Rei. I shouldn't have done that..." He dropped his head and looked at his new feet. He was wearing black dress shoes and white socks that went up a little past his ankle. "I've been stressed lately, will you forgive me?" He looked back up with forced tears in his eyes.  
  
Rei couldn't resist the forming tears in Usagi's eyes. "It's ok, Usagi!" She smiled wide and threw her arms around the imposter's neck. "I understand."  
  
Tatsuo smiled to himself with a chuckle. 'What a pushover.' He thought to himself.   
  
Ami put her computer back in its place in her subspace pocket. She looked over to Makoto, and then to Minako. None of them found Usagi's behavior the least bit strange, well, not after she apologized. All of them knew how moody Usagi could get. One minute she's completely bubbly, and the next she could be in tears and begging for forgiveness, sincerely. "Usagi..." She started. Rei and Usagi let go of one another. "What happened back there at school?"  
  
Minako; "Yeah, we were really worried about you. We thought you'd been attacked."  
  
Tatsuo waited for a while before he answered. He wanted to think over his answer clearly. He already had in mind what he wanted to say, it was just how he wanted to say it. He would have to make sure not to sound too arrogant and cocky as Usagi would never. "Well, I WAS attacked." Gasps arose from all around and as he his eyes made their way around the group once again, he could see the questions of how he escaped arising, but none were made vocal. "Some blue guy attacked me again and I totally went off on him."  
  
Makoto's eyes widened as she approached her friend. "What? But we didn't feel anything..."  
  
Tatsuo growled as he pulled back from the group. He had forgotten that the brats could feel each other's energy patterns from far away. "Well..." He started with his teeth being ground together. He wasn't too sure on how to answer that. There was no logical reason for them to not feel a fight.  
  
But luckily Minako had thought of a reason. "Well, we were all pretty worried about her. We probably couldn't feel her because we were more concerned with finding her that we were..."  
  
"Yeah! That's probably it! While I was beating him, you guys were too busy trying to find me to feel my power." Tatsuo interrupted. He didn't need to hear more. That was a logical reason, wasn't it?  
  
Rei shook her head with crossed arms. She wasn't sure she bought that. "I don't know. I mean, didn't you say you weren't strong enough to fight that guy even in Super Saiyan? So that means, if you beat him, you had to go Super Saiyan in order to do it. We should have been able to feel you no matter what."  
  
Tatsuo frowned as he pulled further away from the group. He didn't like this one bit. The girls were way to analytical for his liking. The blonde could be fooled, as he had noticed over the past few days, but the others weren't so easily fooled. "Well then..." He said with a shrug, "I don't know what to tell ya. All I know is that I beat him and now we don't have to worry about it anymore. I can go home and not worry about being attacked."  
  
Now Makoto was the one frowning. Something Rei had said didn't make any sense. "Wait a minute, Usagi, you said that he was stronger than you, almost as strong as your dad's Super Saiyan three, but not quite. How did you beat him?"  
  
Tatsuo frowned even harder. The girls were too entirely nosy. Weren't kids supposed to be ignorant and unmotivated to ask questions? "Well, ok, so I lied. I didn't have to beat him using any power, ok? I just wanted to sound like a war hero..."  
  
Makoto, as well as the rest of the girls, found that sentence way too strange for something Usagi to say. It wasn't normal for her to want to lie just to make herself look better. "Ok... then how did you beat him?"  
  
Ami nodded with the same thoughts as Makoto. Usagi was acting strangely. "Usagi, are you feeling ok?"  
  
Tatsuo nodded with a slight smile forming. He had an idea. "I'm fine, Ami. I actually beat him by giving him what he wants. The broach..."  
  
Rei slapped Tatsuo in the back of the head with a scowl. "You what?! How could you do something so stupid?! You idiot!"  
  
Tatsuo, who hadn't been expecting such violence, grabbed the back of his head which now stung with pain. "Owe... Rei..." He whined like he had seen Usagi do before. "Not the real one! A fake one!"  
  
Minako smiled as she slightly jumped off the ground with happiness. "Ohhh! How smart! Now he thinks he has the power and he doesn't... but what if he comes back?"  
  
Tatsuo groaned. These girls just never gave up. "He won't."  
  
Makoto; "How do you know?"   
  
Tatsuo glared at Makoto. He was growing tired of this game. He didn't have time for this. He still had one more thing he could do before he returned to his new home and he had no idea when the real Usagi would wake up. "Because he won't. He'll realize that the broach is useless and won't come back. He opened it up and said, 'It's the one it's the one!'. And then he left."  
  
Ami looked over the edge of Sanctuary with a frown. She didn't want to let Usagi see the doubt in her eyes. "Sounds simple..."  
  
Rei nodded. "Too simple if you ask me."  
  
Tatsuo smiled as he threw his arms behind his head. "Yeah, well, what can I say?"  
  
Ami sighed as she turned back to Usagi. For some reason, she didn't believe that this was over, but what did it matter? She knew it would be solved soon anyway. And the important thing was that Usagi was back where she belonged. Back or not, she was still acting strange. She was probably just stressed, though. "Usagi, do me a favor."  
  
Tatsuo perked up. If it involved leaving, he'd be completely happy. There was someone he desperately needed to visit. "Yeah?"  
  
Ami walked to Usagi and placed her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Go home and get some rest. You're acting a little weird."  
  
'Shit!' Tatsuo cursed to himself. He hadn't wanted to seem at all different to them, but he had. Even though it didn't really matter. They still thought he was Usagi, which gave him the upper hand. "Alright." He gave them a quick smile and was off. The girls were left to themselves after that. They all replayed what had just happened in their minds, each picking out what was different or strange about Usagi's behavior.   
  
Probably being the most worried about her friend, Minako was the first to speak after Usagi had left. "Anyone else think that was a little weird... even for Usagi?"  
  
Makoto shrugged. "I really don't know. Usagi always surprises us."  
  
Rei giggled. "Usagi is always full of surprises. We can never know what to expect."  
  
Minako nodded with a pondering thought. "Yeah, but I never expected her to act like that. That... that arrogance. It was just like Mamoru when he was younger."  
  
Ami could agree with that. The first time she had ever met the boy he was an arrogant fool. That was the day that he and Usagi had their battle, they day that Piccolo had finally be revealed as the boy's father. Usagi had just shown a resemblance to his attitude, something that, out of the all the years she had known her, had never happened. And she never thought she'd whiteness they day it did. "She was a little strange, but I'm betting she's just tired, and not completely aware of what she's doing right now. People can get a little cranky when they're tired or stressed. We'll see how she's doing tomorrow."  
  
Makoto nodded in agreeance. That was precisely what she had been thinking. "Right. But, what about the other guy? He's still at large, in a way. I mean, Usagi gave him a fake broach, but there's no telling what'll happen when he finds out it's a fake."  
  
Minako gulped. "Yeah, and she's really tired. What if she accidentally gave him the wrong one, meaning the REAL one."  
  
Ami played with the idea in her head for a while, but the more she thought about it, the more unlikely it seemed. "I doubt it. Usagi may be careless with some things, but not when it really counts, not in cases like this."  
  
Rei nodded. "Definitely. Usagi wouldn't be that stupid. She never has before. And I doubt she is now."  
  
Minako smiled. Her friends were right. There was no way Usagi would do such a stupid thing. "I guess we wait and see what happens then."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Tatsuo flew at top speed, not for Usagi's home like he had told Ami he would, but for the Mugen School for the Gifted, where he felt a very special power. The same power that he had felt the day before right before he was knocked out. He couldn't wait to get his payback. Mamoru would learn what true power was, and who Usagi's true rival really is. "Oh Mamoru... I'm coming to get you!" He laughed to himself as he raised his power to speed up. He didn't want to go Super Saiyan, fearing that Goku would wonder what was going on and try to come to his daughter's aid, so he stayed just below those lines. But this speed wasn't fast enough for him. He wished he knew how to activate teleportation. He had seen Usagi do it, and Minako, but he just couldn't figure it out, which annoyed him.   
  
But his fast pace flying seemed to be sufficient. He was making perfect time. Within ten minutes, he was already at his destination. As he looked down from the air, he could see Mamoru walking in front of the giant school with a young girl, a girl who was younger than even Usagi. He guessed it was the boy's sister, which meant she would have to pay too. He failed to notice her tail, which she had kept wrapped around her waist since her re-arrival at this school. "Hey! Mamopoo!"   
  
From the ground, Mamoru looked up with a surprised expression. Hotaru was quite the opposite. She had been surprised when Mamoru showed up to check up on her after school two days in a row, but to have Usagi come as well threw her into a state of being overjoyed. "Usagi!" She chirped up to the sky.  
  
Mamoru was a little more unforgiving. He frowned up at the girl. "What did you just called me?!"   
  
Tatsuo smirked as he slowly began to lower his body to the ground. "You heard me. I called you Mamopoo. That is your name, isn't it?"  
  
Mamoru watched Usagi as she landed. "What's got you in such a foul mood, brat?"  
  
Tatsuo's expression failed to change. He was in too good of a mood to be angered by such a remark. "You, of course, Mamopoo." He set his eyes on the girl next to Mamoru, who was still smiling widely at her. "Stop looking at me brat!"   
  
Hotaru's smile immediately dropped as she fell behind Mamoru, her heart dropping to the pit of her stomach. She didn't even bother to say anything back. She figured she deserved it, as Usagi would never have yelled at her otherwise.   
  
Mamoru glared at the Saiyan girl. He couldn't believe what had just come out of her mouth. It was one thing to call him names, but to snap at Hotaru for no reason, that was just ridiculous. "Cut it out, Odango! The only brat here is you!"   
  
Tatsuo switched his attention back to Mamoru. "Yeah, now that's a good one. I'M the brat..."  
  
Mamoru pushed Hotaru back a bit. "What the hell is wrong with you today? You on PMS or something?"  
  
Tatsuo frowned at that. It wasn't that he took it as an insult, as he was sure that's what it was, but he didn't even know what THAT was. "Excuse me... Mamopoo, but you better watch out what you say to me because I can kick your ass at any moment. It's my privilege as your rival, ain't it?"   
  
Hotaru, as well as Mamoru, gasped at hearing that. Usagi had sworn. Could it have been? Usagi never swore. She hated swearing, and she hated it when others did so. Why would she bring herself down to that level. Hotaru had always looked up to Usagi as the older sister she never had, as her best friend. But right now, Usagi wasn't being the person she had learned to love. "Usagi..."  
  
Tatsuo gave a quick glare at the child and shot a quick energy blast at her. "Silence, brat!"   
  
Mamoru shot an energy ball of his own at the golden ball of energy created by Usagi to divert it from hitting Hotaru. He scowled at Usagi like he had never done so before. For once, he was angry with her for being 'evil' instead of the other way around. "What's going on with you? You're acting like you got a stick up your ass. You have no reason to be acting like this! So grow up and STOP IT!" He demanded. "This is my job!"   
  
Hotaru's eyes began to fill with tears as she backed away. Usagi had never tried to hurt her before, she had never even yelled at her before. She didn't understand. All she knew was that her best friend hated her for some reason. With tears now flowing down her face, she turned around and ran off to be by herself. She wouldn't stay there any longer while her ex-friend tried to kill her.   
  
Tatsuo grinned as he stretched his arms. "You know that fight you had with my dear friend Tatsuo yesterday?"   
  
Mamrou frowned as he watched Hotaru run off in the corner of his eyes. He remembered that fight clearly, if you could even call it that. "Dear friend? I thought you hated him." Hotaru was no longer in the area. He couldn't understand what was going on with Usagi. She had never thought of hurting Hotaru before, in fact, he had gotten in trouble on many occasions for tying to hurt her or 'corrupt' her. Why were the tables turning all of a sudden?  
  
Tatsuo smirked. This was his chance to get between the two and keep Mamoru from interfering in a later battle, if there was even a need for one anymore. "Well, you jumped to conclusions. I just said I wouldn't forgive him, which now I do. I've changed my mind and I think he's a better rival."  
  
Mamoru snorted with a laugh. "Oh, right. He's a better rival. Now THAT'S a good one. That boy couldn't hurt anyone to save his life."  
  
Tatsuo frowned. Mamoru would have to pay dearly for that. "Wanna bet?"   
  
Mamoru frowned. "Usagi, you're pissing me off, ok? I don't know what the hell crawled up your butt and died, but I suggest you get it out because is distorting your common sense."  
  
Tatsuo gave a small smile. It was working, so far he had turned Mamoru's sister against Usagi, who obviously was close to her, and he's already started on Mamoru. Things were looking up. Now all that would be left was her family, which could only be done through one grueling way. "Nothing crawled up my ass... your just a pain in mine so I have to get rid of you. So, let's fight. I beat you, then Tatsuo's my new rival and you never talk to me again, and keep that black haired brat away from me too."  
  
Mamoru growled as he dropped his school bag to the side and stood tall to try and intimidate Usagi. It wasn't like her to go around and challenge people to a true fight. "What is WRONG with you? Hotaru didn't do anything to you! She didn't deserve that! You know she's got it rough with Kaori and all!"  
  
Tatsuo didn't care about that. This wasn't her problem. "Why are you changing the subject? I don't care about the kid. I want to fight you! Are you afraid you'll lose to me?"   
  
In fact Mamoru was afraid that he would lose to Usagi. He knew he would, especially if she transformed into a Super Saiyan. Normally, during a spar, she would hold back and only fight at his level, but with this attitude of hate, he was certain she would give it her all. "I'm not afraid to fight you, brat!" He spread his feet apart and readied himself for an attack.   
  
Tatsuo smiled once again. He had Mamoru right where he wanted him. "Idiot. You're going to lose. That means you better stay the hell away from me from now on."  
  
Mamoru grinned. He didn't care what Usagi said. He would harass her for all time even more if she beat him. "Does Goku know you're using such language? He'd kick your ass if he knew how you spoke."  
  
"I don't care what he says. He has no control over what he I do! I don't care what he does to me, he can never tell me what to do! Now, let's fight!" Tatsuo jumped into a comfortable starting position. No more words were spoken between the two.   
  
From afar, Hotaru sat with her legs pulled against her chest as she watched with tears running down her cheeks. She didn't understand at all what Usagi was doing, nor why she was so angry with her all of a sudden. Maybe she had been too upset about her mother's death, and about Kaori and her father ignoring her a lot lately. Maybe Usagi was angry about her being so detached lately. In anyway it didn't matter. It was obvious that Usagi didn't want to be friends anymore. She had lost everything now, with only Mamoru to protect her. She was certain that if Usagi hated her, the others did too. All she could do now was watch the fight.  
  
The two fighters glared into one another's eyes as they both powered up to their fullest. And just as Mamoru had feared, Usagi powered up to the power of a Super Saiyan. He had no chance against her now, but he wouldn't do down without a fight. He still couldn't grasp the fact that this was Usagi, though. He thought their bad times were over, that they were now FRIENDLY rivals, instead of enemies. Yes, he had done some horrible things to her in the past, but Usagi had always been so forgiving that it was almost as if these things had never happened in her mind.   
  
And now, the way she spoke scared him. Her voice was filled with so much hate that it was unbearable to listen to. Especially the way she talked about her father. How she didn't care what he thought. She had always cared about her family, and what they thought of her. Why did she all of a sudden change her mind? This wasn't Usagi at all and it was beginning to worry him. Usagi was reminding him of himself. That's exactly how he had thought when he was younger. That his father had absolutely no control over what he did, that he didn't care what his father thought. He knew where that kind of thinking could get you.  
  
Tatsuo opened and closed his fists over and over just to get a feel for the power. He couldn't wait to dig into Mamoru. It would be his revenge for the day before. The boy only amounted for half his power. It was useless to fight, but it was up to Mamoru. If he wanted to get hurt beyond words it would be up to him. "Let's go."  
  
Mamoru nodded as he scanned the area. No one was around and Kaori was already an hour late. He could sense Hotaru nearby. She was probably watching. She would see him get beaten by the Saiyan, but he didn't care. He wouldn't go down with out a fight. "Brat!" He yelled as he advanced for Usagi.  
  
Tatsuo didn't move. He knew exactly how to control his new body. With one quick cry out in anger, a large shower of silver power arose from his body and performed a shock wave, causing Mamoru to fly back into the fountain.  
  
Hotaru squealed in fear as she dug her face into her knees. She had never seen her friend so ruthless, and it scared her beyond her wits.   
  
Mamoru smashed into the fountain with his back, causing it to crumble beneath him. The water now sprayed directly up with nothing to control its destination. "Odango!" He cried out in anger. He quickly jumped back to his feet with an aching back. He wondered where she had learned such an attack. That was something he had seen Vejita perform countless times.   
  
Tatsuo chuckled as he dropped his fighting pose and stood comfortably. "So how's it feel to get beaten up by a girl?"   
  
Mamoru frowned as he stretched his back out. "That's not the first time you've beaten me, brat. But it's the first time you've beaten me for the hell of it. Most the time it's to prove your skill... what's wrong with you?!"  
  
Tatsuo laughed aloud as he turned his back to the older boy. "You just suck, that's all. I thought you should know. You couldn't even get a hit on me. Hell, you couldn't even get close to me."  
  
Mamoru frowned as he fired an energy ball at Usagi, one which was easily devoured by a larger, more powerful attack from Usagi. Her attack ate his with no trouble and even went flying for him. Needless to say he easily dodged it. Had he been hit by it he would have been out of commission for a while. "You're pissing me off!"  
  
Tatsuo stopped laughing as he put his hands on his waist. "Well, it looks like I'm done here. I won. So..." He paused as he turned his head in the direction of Hotaru, who he could hear weeping with his new and improved hearing. "Neither of you can ever talk to me again, or come near me. I'm better than both of you, I'm stronger, and cooler... and Tatsuo is a better fit rival for me."  
  
Mamoru growled as he turned his back to Usagi. Even though she said they weren't rivals anymore, that didn't stop them from being enemies. "Some Princess you are, brat. You've let all your power go to your head. Weren't you the one who was so pissy about wanting me to become nice, LIKE YOU?!"  
  
Tatsuo shrugged his shoulders as he let himself float into the air. "Yeah, well, people grown, people change, and ideas change. Deal with it."  
  
Hotaru noticed Usagi departing. She quickly ran out from her hiding place and waved for Usagi to notice her. "Usagi! Wait! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"   
  
Mamoru frowned as he turned to Hotaru. "Don't apologize! You didn't do anything wrong! Odango's the one in the wrong here!"  
  
Tatsuo glared at the child. "Shut up!" And with that, he was off for home.   
  
Hotaru dropped to her knees as she continued to watch her friend fly away. She sniffled as she wiped the tears away from her face. "I lost..." She whispered.  
  
Mamoru groaned as he made his way over to the child. Watching her, he was reminded of Monoko, the child he had met at camp two summers ago. That was the summer he and Usagi had gotten closer, the summer he had finally started to appreciate her for who she was, instead of what she looked like, the summer she gave him hell for being who he was. It was the summer he had really started to change. It was because of Usagi and her stupid friends, and he couldn't have thanked them enough after that, but now, Usagi was up and changing on them. Now she was hurting Hotaru, the girl he had basically taken in as a kid sister since she was having such hard times at home as well as school. And now Usagi had to treat her this way. "Hotaru, don't worry about her. She's an idiot."  
  
Hotaru frowned as she glared up at Mamoru. "No she's not! She's mad at me for something. I did something. I had to have! She wouldn't be mean to me otherwise!"   
  
It was at that moment that Mamoru realized how much he had hurt Usagi in the past. Usagi had just bullied Hotaru, and now he was seeing the effects of it. That had to have been how she ended up after every encounter with him. She must have cried her heart out to her parents every night. After all those years of being bullied by him, it was a wonder why she had ever forgiven him. It was a wonder that Goku had even allowed him to be around his daughter, with everything that he had pulled. Those two really were alike, well, up until today. Now Usagi had no resemblance to her father, and he would soon find that out with her attitude. He would hate to be Usagi when Goku got his hands on her.   
  
"Hotaru, you didn't do anything wrong, ok? Usagi's got something wrong with her right now."  
  
Hotaru continued to glare at Mamoru. As mad at Usagi as she was at that moment, she still couldn't believe that Usagi would be mean to her for no reason. "I had to have..."  
  
( Done! So.... Wha'd ya think! I gotta go! Cya later! ^_^ ) 


	138. Part 12

~*~*~*~  
  
Tatsuo continued to stay in his form of being Super Saiyan on his way to the Son House, where he would hope to find Goku, his last remaining target. After he was done with Goku, he would have almost nothing to worry about, unless somehow these people figured out who he really was, but what was the chance of that happening? He had thought his plan through completely and found no flaws with it.   
  
Now in the mountains and even closer to his destination he searched for the real Usagi's power level. To his satisfactory, there wasn't any. 'Good,' he thought to himself, 'the brat's still asleep.' He sped up when he noticed the beginning of a clearing of trees. 'Time to get busy. She should have listened to me the first time and given me the broach when I first asked for it, now she'll have to pay... they all will.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi angrily slammed down a plate onto the table in the kitchen as she stared at the clock on the microwave, which read 4:45. Usagi was already forty-five minutes late home and dinner was already done. She specifically remembered telling her daughter to be home by four on school nights. If lying hadn't been bad enough, now she was breaking her curfew. And worse, she had to put up with Goku's grumbling stomach. "That girl..." She started with a growl of anger.  
  
Goku, who was impatiently sitting at the table with a fork and knife in each hand, stared at his wife. For once, he wasn't going to try to talk her out of being angry. Usagi was blatantly in the wrong this time. She knew the curfew, and he broken it. Unless there was a good reason for her to be late, then he wouldn't stand in the way of a punishment, especially since he was already a bit mad at her himself for being lied to. "She's on her way."  
  
Chi-Chi narrowed her eyes as she slowly turned her head to her husband. "I know that! Don't you think I don't know that! I can feel her! BUT SHE'S LATE!"   
  
For once, Goku didn't flinch away. He had finally started to learn not to be afraid of his wife when she was in such a bad mood. And beside, she wasn't angry at him, but yet again their daughter who always seemed to be getting herself into trouble.   
  
Turning his eyes back down to his empty plate, he frowned. He wondered why she had stayed in her form of Super Saiyan. He knew why she was in it in the first place. She had fought with Mamoru, but that was just yet another thing to be angry with her about. She knew better than to spar with someone weaker than herself and use her full strength. It wasn't fair, nor was it the sign of an honorable fighter. But what could he say? She was going to do what she was going to do. He could regulate how she fought. If she wanted to do something so stupid, then she could be looked upon as a cheap fighter.   
  
Goku looked back up to his wife when he noticed her heading for the stove where their food was keeping warm. "Are we gonna eat now? I'm starving!" He rubbed his hand over his rumbling stomach.   
  
Chi-Chi sighed as she hunched her back. "Fine, Goku. You can eat, but I'm waiting until Usagi gets home."  
  
Goku smiled as he sat straight and rubbed his hands together. He didn't care who he ate with or if he ate with anybody at all. All he knew was that he was hungry and wanted food. "Finally! I've been waiting forever!"   
  
Chi-Chi grinned. "You just had a huge sandwich a half-hour ago."  
  
Goku innocently stared up at his wife with the most serious expression. "Like I said, forever!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Tatsuo landed just before he crashed into the front door. He lowered his power level, now that he was home. His hair and tail returned to their normal colors and his body felt weaker than ever. He smiled evilly as he placed his hand on the door. But he paused before opening. He reminded himself that he would have to act normal until just the right time. He would have to catch the parents of Usagi off guard, making them think that he was really Usagi until he was truly ready to turn parent against child. He let out an impish laugh as he pushed open the door. Immediately he could smell the sweet aroma of Chi-Chi's cooking escaping into the outside. 'Dinner time... this should be interesting...'   
  
Tatsuo stepped into the house, this time not taking the time out to examine everything. He already had what he wanted and it was placed exactly where Usagi had always placed it; on the bow of her Uniform. "Hello?" He called out, wondering exactly where the parents were.  
  
It was at that moment when Chi-Chi literally jumped out in front of him with a wooden spoon in her hand. She waved the spoon in front of her daughter's face as if to threaten her, or keep her in her place. "Son Usagi! Do you know what time it is?!"   
  
Tatsuo frowned. He hadn't expected this. He hadn't expected to come into the house and be attacked by an insane, raging woman with a weapon. But he knew this woman. It was Usagi's mother, the woman who had directed him to the restroom the other day. Was she always this way? He looked down to his wrist at the watch that had formed on his hand when he took the body of Usagi. "Well, MOTHER... it seems to be about 4:50 in the afternoon," He looked up to Chi-Chi with a smile, hoping to calm her. "Why do you ask?"  
  
From the kitchen, loud laughter could be heard from Usagi's father. Tatsuo glared in his direction, completely ignoring the mother, whose face was in the process of turning red. "What's so dang funny?"  
  
Goku threw down his fork into his plate of food and quickly jumped out of his chair and ran into the next room where he saw his wife too angry for words. He turned down to his daughter with a forming frown. Tatsuo looked at both Goku and Chi-Chi with an expressionless face. He must have done something to set the two off. Maybe Usagi was meant to be home before a certain time.  
  
As hard as she was trying to calm her temper, Chi-Chi couldn't do it. She had been giving her daughter room for mistakes, but this was just too much. Not only did she break curfew, but she didn't even seem to give a damn about it. "If you can't learn to follow the rules of this house young lady..."  
  
Seeing that this could get ugly, Goku stopped his wife mid-sentence and pulled her away from their daughter. It was true that Usagi had broken the rule, but Chi-Chi, who was already going through a rough time, would only make things worse. "Whoa... whoa... calm down, Chi-Chi..."  
  
Chi-Chi kicked her husband in the shin, causing him to let go at once. "She's an hour late, Goku! And she didn't even care!"   
  
Tatsuo's eyes widened at that. If he would have known that she was meant to be home by a certain hour he would have complied with it. He wanted everything to seem normal until HE was ready to make his move. He didn't want anger in the house until then. There were still a couple of things he wanted to ask, but now he may have to start early. "AN HOUR LATE?! HOLY CRAP!"   
  
Goku shot an angry glare at his daughter and nearly went off himself. "Hey! Watch your mouth, young lady!"   
  
Chi-Chi reached for her daughter, and grabbed her by the arm. "I've given you a lot of freedom lately, without yelling at you for a lot of the things you pull. But this is the top of the line! If you can't respect my rules then I'll just have to take away all your privileges. Four o'clock on a school night for a girl your age is long enough! That gives you an hour and a half to goof off with your friends! You need to spend the rest of the night studying! Do I make myself clear!?"  
  
Tatsuo pulled his arm away from the blithering woman. "Yes mother." He mumbled. Although he hated to take orders from these people, he would have to until later.  
  
Chi-Chi's frown did not move. She wasn't happy with that answer. It was too sarcastic. Usagi never called her mother unless she was being sarcastic. "Watch it..."  
  
Tatsuo sighed. "Sorry, MOM."  
  
Chi-Chi lightened up on her frown, but it wasn't replaced. "That's better. Now march your little butt into the kitchen and eat your dinner before it gets cold."   
  
Tatsuo did as he was told, though he didn't like it one bit. He would make his move after dinner, and he would be even harsher with them than he originally planned for treating him like that. They would learn sooner than later. "Ok, MOM."   
  
Goku frowned at his daughter. He had never seen her so brazen and resistant toward them. "Watch how you talk to your mother!"   
  
Tatsuo paused just before he entered the kitchen and hung his head. He wasn't doing a very good job of keeping the peace. He wondered how Usagi could ever live like this. Actually, he wondered how any kid could EVER live with people regulating their lives, how they act and what they say and how they say it. "Yes, dad."   
  
Goku continued to frown as he turned back to his wife. He didn't know what was going on with Usagi, but he sure didn't like it. First she lied to him, then she used her full power against an opponent weaker than herself, and now this disrespectful behavior. Where had she learned to act like this? Surely they never taught her to be like this. "What was that all about?"  
  
Chi-Chi's frown disappeared and was replaced with a look of motherly distress. "She's a twelve year old girl, Goku, get used to this kind of attitude until she's about twenty."  
  
Goku didn't believe that. He couldn't believe that. He didn't want to believe that. "But she's never acted like that before. She..."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded to reinforce her theory. "Goku, Goku, listen to me, I know these things. I was a girl her age once, you know. You think you know a girl, and then bam, she hits puberty and completely changes right before your eyes."  
  
Goku sighed as he turned back to the kitchen. Was that true? Would he have to live with something like that for the rest of the time his daughter lived in his house? No. He wouldn't believe that. It was impossible. I had to have been something else. Maybe she was just having a bad day. He hoped and prayed that Chi-Chi was wrong, of course, she would know best of all. She was twelve once. "Well, I guess we should go back in there."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded as she walked past her husband into the kitchen, where Usagi was twirling a fork in her food. "Eat it, dear, don't play with it. I shouldn't have to tell you that."  
  
Tatsuo rested his head in his hand as he looked up and watched the two join him in the kitchen. If only they knew. He grinned. But then that wouldn't be as much fun. He had many things planned for them. "Yes, mom."  
  
Goku took his seat next to Usagi. All of a sudden he lost his appetite. He was more concerned with what just took place than eating. "You feeling alright, kiddo?"  
  
Tatsuo nodded softly. He didn't know if he could put up with these people much longer. They were probably going to be just like Usagi's friends and ask question, after question, after question. "I'm fine, Dad."  
  
Goku said nothing as he put a forkful of food into his mouth. "Did you have a bad day?"  
  
Tatsuo frowned. "No, dad, my day was fine. WHY?"  
  
Goku frowned. "Hey. That was uncalled for. You seem a little edgy right now. Stop it."  
  
Tatsuo dropped his fork and stared at Goku, his main target at the moment. He grinned to himself as an idea came to him. Maybe he would help the kid out a little. Her parents seemed much too strict for his liking. He liked a parent that did no parenting at all. "Why should I stop it? I'm my own person, aren't I? Why should I let you regulate how I can act? Why should I let you choose how I can talk to you?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she slammed a saucepan onto the counter, creating a clanking sound throughout the room. "Usagi! We are your parents, that's why! You can't just talk to people like this! When you get a job, you can't talk to your bosses like this! We are like your bosses, except we love you."  
  
Tatsuo frowned to himself. He didn't like the sound of that. "You're my boss? I have no boss! I'm my own boss! You can't tell me what to do!"   
  
'Screw keeping the peace!' He thought. 'This is too much fun! I love ruining peoples' lives!'  
  
That was about all Goku could take from Usagi. He had never seen her so out of place before in his life. It wasn't like her at all. "Usagi, what's wrong with you?"  
  
Tatsuo impishly smirked as he turned his attention to the full Saiyan. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me?! I'll tell you what's wrong with me! You people are always telling me what to do! I'm twelve years old for god's sake! I should be able to do whatever I want! I should be able to move away from here if I want! You think I like living here with you people? I want a place of my own."  
  
Chi-Chi walked to her daughter and gave her a slap across the face. "That's it, young lady! You're out of line! First of all, you're too young to live on your own! It's against he law and if you were to leave, you would either get sent to a children's home, or back here! You don't know how good you've got it!"  
  
Goku, ready to slap her himself, refrained. He knew something had to be eating her, but he couldn't forgive her for speaking to him the way she did. She had no respect for anything they've ever done. "Usagi...!" He started with grinding teeth.  
  
Chi-Chi put her hand out for her husband too stop, which he did. "Look, you may be having it rough right now with all these attacks and all, but it does not excuse your behavior! I don't know WHO you think you are, but you have no right to talk to us or ANYONE like this!"  
  
Goku stood up and threw down his fork. He wouldn't take this sitting down anymore. For once, he may actually have to punish his daughter. "Look, I don't know what's gotten into you, but I don't like it. And if I don't like it, you don't like it."  
  
Tatsuo grinned, causing Goku's anger to rise even higher. He was thoroughly enjoying himself. "Oh, and is that a threat?"  
  
Goku slammed his hands down onto the table and leaned over in front of his daughter's face. He had had enough of her. First she lies, then this. "You, young lady, are grounded until I say otherwise!"   
  
Chi-Chi was completely shocked at her husband's actions. That was the first time she had ever heard those words come out of her husband's mouth. She was too shocked for words. She had always been the one to dish out the punishments, but here he was doing this of his own accord. AND making threats to their daughter, not to say she didn't deserve some of it though. "Go...Goku...u..."  
  
Tatsuo didn't even seem to care, and why should he? When this was all done and over he would be gone, ruler of the Universe, and Usagi would be stuck in this sticky situation. "Oooooh, and that's supposed to hurt me... how?"  
  
Goku had to literally pull his arms behind he back to keep from slapping her. He would not resort to hitting her just because he was angry with her. And he knew Chi-Chi had only done it because of her uncontrollable anger, which she had been controlling better these days. "And while we're on to topic of punishments," He started as he looked down to the broach on her school uniform, "You're going to tell me exactly what that broach is, and why the enemy wants it!"   
  
Tatsuo calmly stood to his feet. 'And this is where I begin. He's hit too close to home now. Now he wants MY power...' He looked up to Goku, Usagi's father. "And what if I don't?"  
  
Goku arched his back at his daughter. She was blatantly challenging him, and didn't even seem to care how angry she was making him. "Usagi!" He hissed. "You know I hate it when you lie to me!"  
  
Tatsuo chuckled. "Oh, but father, I'm not LYING to you, per se. You see, I just asked you what would happen if I didn't tell you."  
  
Goku growled as he stood tall. His daughter was testing him, and he would make a move if he had to. He would steal it if he had to. It was obviously something of importance, especially now. "Something you won't like."  
  
Tatsuo back away, though not in fear. "Oh... father..." He began in a high pitched mocking voice, "You wouldn't .... Hit your dear ol' daughter, would you?"  
  
Goku growled even louder. "Usagi! Tell me! What's in it?!"  
  
Tatsuo didn't even care about what he was being asked. He had other intentions. He wanted to see if Goku really would hit Usagi if the circumstances were necessary. He calmly walked to Goku and stared up at him with innocent eyes. "Daddy..." He said with forced tears, "I'm sorry."  
  
Goku, being the kind hearted person that he is, couldn't resist the tears and apology of his daughter. He wasn't sure what had gotten into her, but now, she was acting like his Usagi. "Usagi, it's... well..." He lifted his hand to put it on her shoulder.  
  
That's when Tatsuo made his move. Goku was wide open. He balled his hand into a tight fist and socked Goku right in the stomach. Goku grabbed his stomach with his eyes almost bulging out of their sockets. He had been completely unprepared for that, which made it all the more painful. Chi-Chi gasped at the spectacle. Never in her life would she expect Usagi to punch her father over such a stupid quarrel, actually, over anything.  
  
Tatsuo laughed at the top of his lungs at the Saiyan in pain. "You idiot! You should NEVER trust a lunatic like myself!"  
  
Goku frowned at his daughter in pain. "And that's exactly what you are! Crazy! You've gone mad!"   
  
Tatsuo glared at Goku. "HEY! I've not gone mad! I'm just finally standing up for myself. You treat me like crap, I treat you like crap. You hit me, I hit you!"  
  
Chi-Chi ran to her daughter and pulled her back by the shoulder. "You father has NEVER hit you like that for NO reason! What's wrong with you?!"   
  
Tatsuo narrowed his glare at Chi-Chi. "He DID hit me! He gave me this bruise on my cheek. Payback's a bitch!" He yelled as he threw Chi-Chi aside by the arm.  
  
Chi-Chi slammed into the wall with her back, letting out a loud squeal of pain. Goku had had it at that point. Usagi was way out of line. He didn't know how much more of this he could take. "Brat!" He raised his hand and slapped his daughter across the face almost as hard as he could. "Don't you EVER do that to your mother again!" At that point, Goku truly thought that there was something mentally wrong with his daughter. She had never acted like this before, and he knew it wasn't because of her age. This was something completely different.   
  
Tatsuo paused his rage for just a moment. About to cry to try and fool Goku again, he lifted his hand to his cheek which stung with pain now. Goku had done it, he had gotten the man to strike his daughter. Maybe there was hope for him yet. "Son of a..." Not even finishing his sentence, Tatsuo jumped into the air just high enough to kick Goku in the face.   
  
Chi-Chi screamed out in fear. She knew her husband could take more, but her daughter was on a raging rampage for no reason. "Goku! Usagi Stop it! He's your father! Stop!" She pleaded for her daughter to stop, knowing full well that she wouldn't. She herself was beginning to believe that something was going wrong with her daughter. Maybe, after all these years of fighting she had finally snapped. She jumped to her feet and ran to her daughter, only to be thrown back yet again.  
  
Goku, who hadn't been moved a single inch by the kick, but his lip was bleeding badly. He had been kicked with the heal of his daughter's shoes. But he didn't care. The only thing he cared about was that the child, his child, had attacked her mother, his wife again. Without thinking about his decision, he grabbed Usagi and slapped her again, hoping to knock some sense into her. But, in the back of his mind, he knew it wouldn't work. He truly believed that she had been possessed by something, either that or she had gone mad. Any way, she had to be stopped.   
  
Tatsuo retaliated with a swift punch, which was easily caught by Goku. Goku didn't let go of the girl's fist, in fact, he gripped it as tightly as he could and began pushing against her strength. Needless to say he was too strong for her to keep up for she hadn't a chance to raise her power level. Goku continued to push back on her arm, causing her to cry out in pain. "Stop pushing back and I'll stop!" Goku could hear his wife crying out in the background. But he could hear Usagi's cries louder. They were cries of pain, cries he had heard long before this day, but they had never been caused by him.   
  
Tatsuo didn't comply. He wouldn't lose to this barbarian of a father. He could take the pain, he hoped. He hadn't gotten a chance to raise his power level. He hadn't expected to have to because he hadn't expected Goku to fight back this time. He looked into Goku's eyes, which were coated with a thin layer of anger, but mostly consisted of fear. "Stop!"  
  
Goku cringed at the sound of his daughter begging for him to stop. But he couldn't. He couldn't back down now. She would just start up again if he did. He didn't want to attack her, or cause her pain, but if she were to attack him again, he would have to just to defend himself from her. "You stop first! I'm not stopping until you do, little girl!"   
  
Chi-Chi's eyes were full of tears as she made her way back up to her feet. "Goku, please..." She begged. "Don't do this."  
  
Goku frowned. "Don't tell me, tell her."  
  
Chi-Chi dropped back to her knees. This was all too much for her. "Please..."  
  
Seeing the pain in his wife's eyes, Goku made his decision. He couldn't continue this here, not in front of Chi-Chi. It was too much for a mother to handle. "Chi-Chi, we'll be back."  
  
Chi-Chi perked up in fear. "What!?" She jumped back up to her feet and limped to her husband's side. "Where are you going?! No! You can't go! You have to stay here!" She latched onto her husband's arm. "Both of you stop this! Right now!"  
  
Tatsuo clenched his teeth and leaned back. Goku was overpowering him. "No! Get the hell outta here, woman!"   
  
Goku kicked his daughter, softly, in the leg. "Don't push your luck! I'm still stronger than you! Watch what you say to your mother!" Tatsuo glared up at Goku. He said nothing, but spit up at him. Goku took his eye of Usagi for just a moment, and looked over to his worried wife. "We'll be back soon, Chi-Chi."  
  
Chi-Chi knew better than to argue with her husband, especially if he was mad enough to hit and threaten Usagi. She grabbed his face with both hands and frowned. "Don't hurt her!"  
  
Goku nodded. "Not too bad. But if I have to, I will."  
  
Chi-Chi growled as she pulled away from him. She knew Goku had great judgment, and would only do something drastic if the situation called for it. "I love you," She looked down to her daughter. "Both of you. No matter what!"  
  
Tatsuo rolled his eyes. "Can it!"  
  
Goku kicked his daughter again, though not hard enough to do any damage. Just enough to remind her who was in charge. "Let's go." He let go of her fist and grabbed the back of her neck while, with his other hand, he pressed his index and middle finger against his forehead.   
  
Within seconds, the two were gone and Chi-Chi was left on her own in a fit of hysteria. She couldn't believe what just took place in her very house. It seemed as though her entire family had been turned upside down. It was Usagi against her parents. What had happened to her? She seemed like a perfect angel when she left in the morning. She didn't think it was because of the broach. This had started before the broach was even mentioned. It wasn't like Usagi at all, but it really WAS Usagi. Same power and everything. It wasn't someone dressed up as Usagi.   
  
She took a seat at the table and dropped her face into her hands and began weeping to herself. This time, she wouldn't have her husband to try and comfort her. It would be just like the days when Goku was gone. She was alone, without even a child to consult. Her youngest had turned against her, as well as her father. What was she to do?  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku took Usagi to another clearing high in the mountains. Not a single sign of life was there, not even that of an animal. Here, he and Usagi could have it out if needed, but first, a little reprimanding from him. Something that she deserved, but not when Chi-Chi was around. She would have gotten even more hysterical.   
  
Tatsuo roughly pulled his arm out of Goku's grip and rubbed it as he ventured away. The bone felt as if it had broke, and who knows, maybe it had. Goku had used a lot of his strength and pushed back pretty hard. Tatsuo was only sorry that the real Usagi wouldn't have any of the pain that had been dealt to him. "Wow, so you're letting me live in the woods, what a guy?" He grinned as he walked away.  
  
Goku frowned as he teleported to be directly in front of his daughter. "Usagi! I am NOT letting you get away that easily! We have to talk about your behavior!" He grabbed his daughter by the arm and pulled her toward him so she wouldn't try to run away. "What you did back there was completely unacceptable! You know your mother's going through a rough time! How could you act like that?!"  
  
Tatsuo rolled his eyes. He couldn't care less. "Shut up, old man!"   
  
Goku raised his hand, but quickly pulled it down. He couldn't hit her every time she said something rude like that. "Usagi! What the HELL is wrong with you?! You're acting like an ass! Worse than Vejita! You aren't grown! You're just a child! You have no right to act like that! You have no RIGHT to speak to your mother or treat her the way you did, let alone me!  
  
"I don't know what's gotten into you! First you lie to me, then you don't tell me about it when I give you the chance to, then you come home late AFTER you used FULL strength against someone who was weaker than you, and NOW THIS! Let me make a guess, YOU were the one who challenged Mamoru!"   
  
Tatsuo clapped his hands together. "Bravo, bravo. Congratulations, Goku, you've guessed correctly. You may collect your complementary price in HELL!"   
  
Goku tightened his grip on his daughter's shoulder, almost as tight as he could. After that, he didn't even care if he hurt her. "You know what, Usagi, fine! You wanna move out, FINE! You wanna leave us, FINE! I don't care anymore! BUT...!" He paused to recollect his thoughts. He didn't know what he was saying anymore. He was too blinded by his anger. In fact he did care, dearly. He didn't know what was up with his daughter, but he knew that when this entire ordeal was over it was time to get her some 'help'. "ONLY if you beat me in a fight can you leave and move somewhere else!" He stopped with a smirk. He knew that would never happen. He held too much power in his body for her to be able to beat him.  
  
Tatsuo rubbed his hands together. That was a wonderful way to bring in the fight. Now, he would be able to beat Goku without getting his true form completely beaten into a bloody pulp. He would use this fake body. He knew Goku was too chicken to actually do some real damage to his daughter, which only meant the best for him. His desired outcome would soon come out. "Ok, FATHER... let's go at it. I win, I leave and you freaks never harass me again, you win, and I guess I'll put up with you a little longer."  
  
Goku nodded. He wasn't sure what he was getting himself into, but he knew, whatever it was, he would win. "Fine!"   
  
Tatsuo spread his feet and crouched into a fighting stance. He then proceeded to power up to his fullest, Super Saiyan.  
  
Goku frowned. "Oh, so you want to go all out?"  
  
Tatsuo smirked. "And what else would I want to do?"  
  
Goku growled as he lowered himself into his own fighting position. It wasn't long before his hair shot up in gold and he was at the state of Super Saiyan two. "I can play dirty too, you know."  
  
Tatsuo frowned. What was going on? He didn't know. Goku wasn't supposed to power up more than him, but his Super Saiyan two was just slightly stronger than Usagi's level one. What was the deal? Usagi's body didn't have any more power in it than this. He decided not to worry about it. With the damage he could do at level one Goku would be easily disposed of later when he started his real plan. "You call that power?! You won't even lay a single hand on me!"  
  
Goku growled loudly at that. In fact he WOULD lay a hand on her, which was what scared him. If only he had known that this wasn't really his daughter, all would be quelled. He would have nothing to worry about. But since he didn't, he truly thought he would have to hurt his youngest.  
  
  
  
( DONE!!!! Ha! Record time! Only took me about two hours to write! ^_^ happiness! Ok, well, As you can see, I have finished for the day. Now it's time for me to get some homework done... sigh... Well, wha'd you think? I'll CYA later!! ) 


	139. Part 13

~*~*~*~  
  
Goku stared into the wide, blue eyes of his daughter with nothing but fear pumping throughout his body. He had absolutely no idea what was going on, but he was sure of one thing, he was going to have to fight, even if he'd rather not. It was the only way to calm his daughter, whom he was sure had gone insane throughout the course of the day. She had been an average, normal girl when he had left her at school, but now she was maniac. All that was wrong that morning was the fact that she had been lying to him, and knew very well that he knew, which only made things worse. But this, this was completely out of proportion. She had NEVER expressed a wish to want to leave because they, as her parents, held too much control over her, which was an absurd idea in itself. They had given her a lot more freedom, even at a younger age, that most kids her age had. Of course, there was always the possibility that she was faking being crazy just to get out of a punishment. But then again, she had never thrown such a tantrum when she didn't get her way. She had always been pretty good about that.   
  
It hurt him to think that she might be telling the truth. That maybe she really did want to break free because of something he may have done. Maybe she had been angry with him for trying to make her feel guilty earlier that morning. But then again, he knew she was mature enough to bring this about like a normal, human being. Not like a rabid animal.   
  
Still, the reasoning didn't matter. The fight would still have to take place. For once, he would have to dish out a physical punishment to his daughter, something he hadn't normally done but once the year before on pure accident. Every hit would probably hurt him more than the receiver, which only made his anxiety last longer. He would try to make this go fast, but he wouldn't use the power of Super Saiyan three against her. He wanted to give her a fair chance to do some damage on him. He wanted her to rid herself of the anger bottled up inside of her. Maybe then she would calm down if she felt as if she were doing something. But he knew, he would beat her no matter what. He would take her home and THEN consider what to do with her. Until then, he would have to focus on the Fight which would be soon to ensue.   
  
Tatsuo wore a deep smirk on his girlish face as he prepared himself. He had never dreamed that he would start such a fight between this family. In fact all that he had ever planned on doing was challenging Goku to a spar and then right when he wasn't really watching, he would kill him off and act like it had been an accident in defense. Then, he wouldn't ever be allowed to be brought back since he had already died too many times before as the man had put it. But now, Tatsuo rather liked his progress and his actions. He had never expected this as an outcome.  
  
Tatsuo chuckled under his breath, though it was still audible enough for Goku's sensitive ears to pick up. The idiot was actually buying this disguise and believed Usagi was turning against him out of the blue. That was the funniest part. Here was Tatsuo, able to do anything to ruin Usagi's life, and no one knew the difference. Of course, his disguise was pretty good, hell, it was great. He really WAS Usagi with her power and all. His energy was masked by that of Usagi and his body was molded to her form thanks to her DNA.   
  
He lowered himself even further and pulled his arms to his side with his fists slightly perking out. He would enjoy taking this fool out, though he did wonder if he would seriously try to harm him. He did see pretty angry right about now. But why shouldn't he? If this was really Usagi, nothing would have changed, except, things wouldn't have gotten this far in the first place. "Let's go, pops."   
  
Goku too the time out to rub his face, which was already beginning to sweat with anticipation of what he would have to do next. The fight hadn't even started and his limbs were beginning to grow numb. He tried to shake the nervousness away, but it wasn't working. He couldn't believe he was doing this and the more he thought about it, the worse his anxiety became. "Usagi, you can still back out of this, you know. We don't have to fight. We can just forget about this and go home. We can talk things through..." He knew he was probably wasting his breath, but it was worth a try. If there was any part of his daughter left in that little body of hers then maybe, hopefully she would have the sense to drop this right here and now before things got out of hand.   
  
Tatsuo smirked to himself as he lowered his head. "Don't make me laugh, Goku."  
  
Goku frowned even harder as he too lowered his head. He would make his move soon if things didn't calm down. "Goku? So what, are you disowning me as your father now?"   
  
Tatsuo made no movement. He was set into his comfortable fighting position. He would have his last few words with his opponent and that would be it. Goku would be done for. "Naturally. You wouldn't expect for me to have YOU as my father, would you? No, I want someone whose actually got an education to be MY father. Someone who isn't a muscle-bound JERK!"   
  
Goku could feel his heart literally falling apart within his chest. He didn't know how much longer he could stand there and listen to his daughter spout out insults like this. "Jerk? Now just what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Never in his life had he sworn so much in front of his daughter before. There had only been two other occasions, and even then she didn't even truly hear him. He had always tried to protect her ears from such vulgarity, but it obviously didn't matter at this point. She herself had resorted to such language.  
  
Tatsuo grinned. "Wouldn't you like to know."  
  
Goku scowled at his daughter as he pushed his power up even further to the limits of Super Saiyan level two. "Now you look here, little girl! I know you're probably mad for me trying to make you feel guilty about lying to me this morning, because I know you knew, BUT, that doesn't mean you can act like this. That crap about your mother and I treating you wrong is crap, complete and utter CRAP! Now, if you don't get your act together and act like a civilized human being then I'm going to have to teach you a lesson by force. Now, do you want that?" Goku couldn't believe what had just come out of his mouth. Had he actually said that? Had he actually just acted like a normal parent... like Chi-Chi? This was just getting way too out of hand for him at this point.  
  
Tatsuo only continued to grin as he pushed his power to his limits like Goku had, but it was no use, the Power of Super Saiyan two far exceeded his own at this point. "Damnit, Usagi, why can't your power be higher!?" He whispered to himself.  
  
Goku found it interesting that she would be talking to herself after what he just laid out on the table for her. Maybe she had become schizophrenic. She referred to herself in third person, something people don't normally do. Of course, this could all be part of her game. "Excuse me?"  
  
Tatsuo looked up without a flinch or jerk. "Shut up, Goku! I don't care what you have to say anymore! My mind is made up! I win, I leave you and Chi-Chi to move out on my own. However, if you win, I'll stay on my own. Now stop blabbering and let's get this thing started. I don't have all day."  
  
Goku was fine with that. His daughter obviously had gone past the point of caring about his feelings, or even her mother's. This was why he had teleported the two of them away to this place. This way, he could take care of things without Chi-Chi going ballistic and falling into a tangle of emotions that would only end up in tears.   
  
As he thought out his plan of attack, his thoughts just sort of wandered into the state of wondering what he would do with Usagi after this was over. Naturally, she would be angry that she lost and would have to go back home with him. She would be a danger to Chi-Chi in the home, and everyone else in the world. She was too strong to be let wild and on her own. But there wasn't a way to stop that, was there? Only through counseling, or worse, intimidation would she be calmed. But intimidation wasn't a step he was willing to take. He didn't want to make his daughter live in fear, and he didn't want to be on that level with her, the level that she feared HIM.   
  
He dug his feet into the ground to get extra footing for his attack. This was it. He would actually have to go through with this. He couldn't say he didn't try to talk the child out of this. It was all up to her now. He would stop whenever she wanted, or by her submission. Under no other circumstances would this fight end.   
  
It was almost as if the two fighters knew precisely when the other was going to attack. Goku, though, had noticed the slightest movement of his daughter, which triggered his. Both darted out for each other and in less than a second, faster than any normal eye could pick up, the two were locking arms with one another. Both stared into the other's eyes with pure anger, though Goku's lacked something that was abundant in Tatsuo's, hatred. Yet, Tatsuo lacked reasoning for this fight, the love for one's family member.   
  
The two, still locked in arms, pushed against the other's strength with all of their own. But Goku, even though he was powered up more than Tatsuo, held back. He didn't want to have a total blowout of a win. Even though she had said such harsh words to him, he still didn't want her to feel powerless. It would only cause her more anger.   
  
Tatsuo pushed for more power. He hoped that he might be able to expand on his new body's potential, but it wasn't working. It must have been the chemistry of the Moon power that had originally been in her body. Even though it wasn't there, the block it had put on expansion was still there. It could only be overcome by extreme emotions, something of which he surely didn't posses. If he were to add some of his OWN power to this body, it may explode from lack of capacity.  
  
But this didn't much matter when Goku fell to one knee, causing the ground from beneath to cave in a ways. Tatsuo rolled his eyes in disgust. 'If he thinks he can fool me like this, he's mistaken. I know what he's capable of. But maybe... just maybe... this will work. I'll still be able to deal out damage this way.' Chuckling too quiet for even Goku to hear over the noise of the growing power, Tatsuo pulled his arms back, causing the unsuspecting Goku to begin to fall forward. But Tatsuo had already made a plan inside his head.  
  
Tatsuo reached out and grabbed Goku by the front of his GI. Slowly, and quite easily, he lifted the Saiyan up and looked up into his eyes. He gave a quick wink and grin and readied his other fist to deal out some serious damage.   
  
Goku was all to ready for this. He had been fighting long enough to know basic fighting moves, but something was odd about this. His daughter had never fought like this. She always went for the unconventional moves. Moves that were obviously made by a child.   
  
Without thought, Goku reacted just like he would have any other time. He quickly lifted up his leg, which then took the punch from Tatsuo's fist. A sharp pain surged through the contact zone, but it wasn't enough to do any damage. The damage point wouldn't be coming for a while. At least, not for him, and hopefully not for Usagi.   
  
With his leg to block the punch, he then proceeded to lift it even higher to hit his daughter across the stomach with. Needless to say his force ripped her grip from him and threw her flying backwards. His feet were allowed to fall back onto the ground, not that they had been far off in the first place. He performed a quick teleportation and ended up behind Tatsuo just in time to catch him.   
  
Goku wrapped his arms around his daughter and squeezed as tightly as he could, which didn't produce a comforting sound. It was the horrid sound of Usagi screaming out in pain, in agony. A pain which had been created only by her father. But Goku had tried this move on her many a times and knew almost exactly what she would do. He had expected for her to start kicking her legs backward for his knees or for an even worse zone in talks of comfort. She learned from a very early age that this was the only way to get out of a hold like this when she was fighting him.   
  
But surprisingly, she did nothing of the sort. No, this time the girl had something different in mind. Tatsuo dropped his power level substantially, almost to the point of dropping back into the power of a normal Saiyan. And then, out from nowhere it rapidly rose. It rose so high, and so fast that the body had to discharge the excess out of the body. Being so close to the blast, Goku was in the direct line of fire.  
  
A huge wave of Silver Energy came flushing out of Tatsuo's body, something that Goku had never in his life expected. This was an entirely new attack to him in regards to coming from his daughter. Goku was forced to release his daughter, thrown back by the blast, and went skidding into the ground, much like Goten had done the day before when Usagi was thrown into him.  
  
Tatsuo, feeling mighty proud of himself, just laughed as he watched the spectacle. "Looks like first blood is mine." He rose into the air to get a better look at the Saiyan without actually having to get closer.  
  
Once stopped, Goku felt like crap. He felt like he had just received the biggest rug-burn in his entire life, his arms getting the worst of it. Though, his neck was feeling pretty limp as well. He slowly lifted his arms and moved the up and down to gain the feeling back in them. He had been through worse. This was nothing compared to the long, drawn out battle with Frieza.   
  
He lifted his head and looked down at the front of his GI. It was completely tattered from the impact. And why wouldn't it be? With an attack from the close, one would expect for something like that to happen. He quickly jumped to his feet, his back now beginning to ache. A warm, moisture could be felt dripping down his cheek. The wound from the kick he had received from Tatsuo in the house had just been torn open even further, but nothing else had been opened. At that moment, he was glad for his tough skin.   
  
Goku looked up into the sky at his daughter. She was just sitting there with a sly little smirk on her face. Laughter wasn't too far behind. With his heavy breathing, he wondered where she had learned such a move. He had never seen something like that come from her before, in fact, he hadn't seen it come from anyone who was on the side of good. "I don't remember teaching you something like that."  
  
It was at that moment that it occurred to Tatsuo that, even though he wasn't as strong as Goku was, he still had a bit of an upper hand. Goku would be expecting the same old attacks out of his this fight that he had always seen from Usagi. "You were always a bit of a crappy teacher. I learned it from someone more qualified."   
  
Goku grinned, causing Tatsuo to become taken over by fear. That definitely wasn't a good thing. If Goku, the father in this situation, could find humor in this situation, then maybe he wasn't in such a good position. Goku, not saying anything, launched himself into the air. Tatsuo, who had expected the man to retort with something wittingly stupid, was unable to do anything in the short amount of time it took Goku to get from the ground to the air.   
  
Goku seemed to have taken no offence to his daughter's insult this time around. He seemed fully cocked and was ready to start this for real. If he didn't watch out, Usagi would get the best of him. He couldn't under estimate her anymore. He had gone through too many fights to ignore what had just happened. Usagi had obviously learned a new move, which meant there was no telling if she knew anymore.   
  
Once in the air, he acted quickly. He made a single fist with two and dug it into the back of Usagi, or, Tatsuo. Tatsuo went spiraling down to the hard surface of the earth, his face digging in just as Goku had moments earlier. "You should know, Usagi," He cut himself off just long enough to meet his daughter before she had a chance to stop. He reached down and grabbed the girl by the back of her school uniform and threw her back into the air, back first. He gave himself a boost of power and he was off into the air, trailing his daughter's path. He quickly powered up his fist, and immediately, it became engulfed within a golden aura. He wasted even less time inserting the fist directly into his opponent's stomach, causing a loud squeal of pain to come fourth. "I don't mess around when I'm fighting, which means petty insults won't affect me anymore." He sped up even further and grabbed his daughter by the bow of the school Uniform and brought her close to his face so he could look into her blue eyes. "You've lost your chance!"   
  
Tatsuo growled as he raised his fist and punched Goku square in the lip, the same spot which he had been kicked in. Goku's head jerked to the side, but barely. Tatsuo then mustered the strength to kick the still Goku in the neck, but not even a flinch was gained off of that. Tatsuo glared even harder now. What was going on? Why wasn't Goku showing his pain? It wasn't like Goku was ALL that much stronger than him at this point. Was he just bluffing or what? Was he hurting at all? Tatsuo wasn't liking this one bit. "Damn you!"   
  
Goku grinned even wider. "Give up?"  
  
Tatsuo lifted his newly formed tail and wrapped it around Goku's throat. "Never!"  
  
Goku sighed as he closed his eyes. With his free hand, he grasped Tatsuo's tail and ripped it off with a force that only caused the boy even more pain than before. With the slightest grip a serious pain had been sent throughout his body, causing him to yell out uncontrollably.   
  
Once the tail was away from his neck and throat, Goku let go of the tail with much curiosity and confusion. "Stop faking! I told you I'm not going to fool around anymore! You wanted this and now you've got it unless you give up!!"   
  
Tatsuo closed his eyes and pulled the tail back to his waist. "I'm not faking you idiot! That really hurt! What the hell is wrong with you!?"  
  
Goku said nothing in response. Instead, he pondered over why her tail would hurt again all of a sudden. Hadn't she and Hotaru learned how to stop the pain already? Why would it come back? In anyway it didn't matter. He just wouldn't grab her tail again. Even though they were in a fight, he would still fight fair. He knew how badly it hurt when a Saiyan's tail was pulled, and he didn't care how angry he was with her, he would never intentionally put Usagi through such pain.   
  
He let go of Tatsuo and backed away while preparing himself for yet another round. Tatsuo held himself in the air as he tried to regain his composure back. Having his tail pulled after so many attacks had really taken a lot out of him, more than he was willing to admit. His stomach felt as raw as cookie dough at that point, but he would continue. He had barely hurt Goku so far, and he planned on getting SOME sort of damage done by the time he was through here.   
  
Once Goku was satisfied with his position, he raced back for Tatsuo. He wasn't even going to give him the time of day to prepare himself. He had already given Usagi a chance to get even for anything she might be upset about with that one major blast of energy, and now it was time to end this. Chi-Chi would be expecting them home soon, and if they weren't to return, she would worry even more than needed.   
  
Tatsuo hastily fell into a position of defense, paying close attention to the location of his tail. Goku had already proven that he would hit his daughter without hesitation when he said 'I told you I'm not going to fool around anymore!'. There was no telling what this maniac would do anymore, which meant he might go after the tail.   
  
Goku met up with Tatsuo with a huge clash of power which created a shock-wave. Upon impact, Tatsuo was pulled out of his defensive position and into an intense hand-to-hand combat situation with Goku. Both went at it with full force, each dodging some, and making some at the same time. They were all over the air faster than the eye could detect. At first it was strictly an aerial attack, but it soon fell short to the ground.  
  
Frustrated that not every hit was making its target, Tatsuo found a chance to fire a quick energy ball at his opponent. Reacting rather quickly, Goku raised his arm and deflected the attack while making one of his own. Needless to say it made its target.  
  
Tatsuo was pushed back, but slightly. He swiftly caught his footing and darted back for Goku, where the two engaged in more hand-to-hand combating. Both fought their hardest and eventually flew back into the air to get some leg action.   
  
Goku too a swing at Tatsuo, who, in return, ducked for cover and performed a quick roundhouse kick, causing Goku to lose his balance and begin falling back to the ground. But Tatsuo wasn't finished. He quickly dove beneath the falling fighter and pushed him back up only to shoot another Energy blast, this time making its target.   
  
Goku's back arched on impact as he was thrown even higher into the air. But that soon stopped. He stopped himself short and narrowed his eyes at his approaching daughter. She didn't seem to be wanting to give up yet and it was already getting late, so late that Chi-Chi was probably worrying by now. He would have to end this soon.   
  
Thinking of nothing else, Goku quickly brought his hands to his side. He hoped Usagi would forgive him for what he was about to do later, but now it seemed inevitable. This fight could go on forever if he didn't do something soon. "Ka..."  
  
Tatsuo stopped immediately when he heard that. He remembered that opening from the attack that had been demonstrated to him to other day when he visited Usagi at her house. And now he was trying it on him. The power of that attack was like no other. It made the user slightly stronger than their limits, and now he was going to use it on him, who he thought was his daughter, who was already weaker than him. "You've gotta be kidding me..." He said with wide eyes.  
  
"Me...Ha..."  
  
Tatsuo didn't know what to do. He hadn't really done too much damage on Goku in this form. He was too weak. He wasn't expecting Goku to fight with such a force against his daughter. But he had been wrong. He had done little damage, but not enough. This had been pointless, but at least he got Usagi's parents turned against her. Maybe that would work for something. Without being united, a group of people is nothing. At least Goku and Usagi would be emotionally torn when he fought the real Tatsuo. But then again, there was still the next wave of attack. Maybe that would do some good.  
  
Not knowing how to perform the Kamehameha wave, and without the time to move out of the way, Tatsuo did the only thing he COULD do. He pulled his hands to his side and began building up his strongest Energy Wave.   
  
"Ha!" Goku was able to give full power to his Kamehameha by telling himself over and over that Usagi could be healed, though he still felt horrible. He had to keep reminding himself that this was what she wanted. It was either this, or go through a big argument and make her unhappy. At least this way, she knows she lost fair and square. But then again, she would probably complain that he was stronger than her at the time of defeat. But that's just technicalities. She knew what she was getting herself into when she made the deal.  
  
The large, golden ball of energy made its way down to the smaller, younger Saiyan. Goku watched in fear, hoping that he hadn't given too much power. He didn't want to hurt her THAT badly. Just enough to cause her to want to quit this masquerade. He could feel her trying to counter it with an attack of her own, but he wasn't sure how long she would hold up. Her attack was substantially lower than his. He wondered why she hadn't tried to counter it with a Kamehameha wave of her own. Of course, he should have guessed that she would try something like that. She had been acting strange ever since she got home. She had even been fighting strangely. Why would a counter attack be any different. It was like she was an entirely different person. But that wasn't possible. This really was HIS Usagi, the girl whom he had loved from the very beginning and decided to turn her back on him.   
  
Tatsuo screamed loudly at the blast as if it would push it away. His strength, Usagi's strength was no use for this attack. It was almost as strong as that of a Super Saiyan three. Goku had pushed his power up THAT much further than his own. What was wrong with him? Did he not care he would seriously be hurting his daughter... had it really been her.   
  
It didn't really matter at this point anyway. He was in a horrible predicament. He was about to be beaten by Goku and there was no telling when Usagi would be waking up. She had been out for about an hour and a half already. She should have been waking up anytime, which meant he would have to leave soon so when she DID wake up, he wouldn't be around. And that's when he made his decision. He ceased his power stream and allowed the attack to push him, full force, down to the ground. It exploded on impact and pushed him deep into the ground. He could feel his back snapping in two from the strength that he was being pushed by. "Shit! I gotta get rid of this damn body!"   
  
Goku gulped. He didn't know the cause for his daughter to just STOP her power, but he was sure he wasn't going to like the outcome. His wife was sure to yell at him for sure. The explosion that had come from that was not a favorable outcome for him, which meant it surely wouldn't be for his daughter. He quickly dropped all his thoughts of anger and raced down to be by his daughter's side. He knew it wasn't wise to think such a thing, but he was hoping that his attack had somehow knocked some sense into her.   
  
Tatsuo groaned as he tried to sit up, but it was no use, his back was broken. He couldn't feel anything beneath his chest area. This body had been completely paralyzed. "Damnit!" He cried out.  
  
Goku landed next to his daughter and wanted to cry out himself. If he thought Usagi hated him before, he feared what she would think of him now. Her body had been completely mangled from that attack. He would be required to give her Senzu bean after something like that. Little did he know, however, that the back had been completely shattered. "Usagi!" He knelt down to her side and placed his hand on her forehead.  
  
Tatsuo frowned through the pain. He didn't mind. It wouldn't be long before he was out of there. "Get away from me you sick bastard!"   
  
Goku didn't frown, nor did he flinch. He deserved that, he truly did. "Usagi, sweetie, I'm sorry."  
  
Tatsuo closed his eyes. "I hate you! I hate you! Get away from me! I never wanna see you again!"   
  
Goku's heart fell to the pit of his stomach. He hadn't expected her to just give up like. "I know you hate me, but let me get you..." He paused as he lay his eyes on the broach that still sat on the torn bow of what was left of her uniform. "Usagi..."  
  
Tatsuo frowned. "No! Leave it there!"   
  
Goku gulped. He didn't know what to do. Take it and risk even more hatred, or leave it and put the earth at risk of more attacks. "Usagi, if it can help save the earth then tell me what it is."  
  
"You don't touch it! It's mine, you here?! MINE!"   
  
Goku frowned. He couldn't let the world suffer another attack. "If it's something that can get that guy off our backs then I'll give it to him, alright?" He reached out and gently ripped the item of the bow.  
  
Tatsuo yelled out in anger. "GET YOUR GRUBBY LITTLE HANDS OFF IF IT YOU FILTHY ARACHNID!" Tatsuo began to do what seemed like hyperventilating at that point. He had finally retrieved the broach just to have it stolen away from him again. And he couldn't even get it back with his broken back without changing into his form, which would completely blow his cover.   
  
Completely amazed by the intricacy of the design of the item, which looked to be an antique, Goku ignored his daughter for a moment and stood up. He had never seen an item quite like it before. It always looked like a toy when Usagi wore it, but close up it looked really important.  
  
Noticing that Goku was too involved in examining the broach, Tatsuo decided to take his chance to leave, with or without the broach. He would just have to come back and get it later. So, in amazingly fast speed, Tatsuo quickly returned to his normal body form, only to whisk himself away into nothingness.   
  
Goku hadn't seen a thing of it. Tatsuo had done it in less than a second. Thinking about his daughter's safety, Goku put the broach in his pocket for safe keeping and turned his eyes back down to where his daughter had been previously lying, only to see nothing but dirt. "What?!" He furiously looked up and around in search of his daughter, but found nothing. He then searched out for her energy level, but again, there was nothing. "Usagi?!"   
  
He let out a sharp growl of anger. "She tricked me! She wasn't hurt at all!"  
  
(Sorry, I really am! I didn't get anything out yesterday, and to tell the truth, I shouldn't be getting anything out today cause I'm so backed up with homework... but it's late start tomorrow which means we start an hour and a half later tomorrow, which is the ONLY reason why I got anything out tonight... ^_^ wha'd ya think. I would have added another scene, but it's already so late. Sorry... CYA! ) 


	140. Part 14

~*~*~*~  
  
After realizing that Usagi had only faked being hurt by his Kamehameha wave, that she had only planned to run away, Goku rushed directly home. He would have to regroup his thoughts there, where he could break the news to Chi-Chi. He would not have gone home first had it not been for the fact that he couldn't feel his daughter's energy level anywhere. It had just suddenly disappeared, or more realistically, she had lowered it so much that it could no longer be detectable. In anyway it didn't matter. He was angry just the same. He had won the battle fair and square, and she had cheated him out of his win.   
  
With the broach in his possession, he teleported himself home. Arriving in the family room, he could hear the soft sobs of his wife in the neighboring room. He wasn't sure how he wanted to tell her what happened, but he knew the result no matter how it would be done so it didn't matter, really. She would get angry and cry at the same time, causing herself to be in a fret of confusion. She wouldn't know whether to feel angry or sad. She would most likely be hysterical until the child was brought back home, and then her mood would chance. Usagi would be home, safe in the arms of her parents, which meant there would be no need to worry, only punish.  
  
Goku had already stuffed the broach into his pocket before he left the woods and kept his hand gripped firmly around it to make sure it wouldn't be lost. He hadn't time to examine it too much in the woods, but once he found Usagi he would take a better look at it and see if Dende knew anything about it.   
  
"Chi-Chi?" He called for his wife as he turned to the kitchen. There, he found her with her head plastered to the table.   
  
Chi-Chi slowly lifted up her head. Had it not been for the fact that she wanted to see how much damage the two Saiyans had caused each other she would have had no will to even look at them. She was angry with both of them at the moment. Usagi for her attitude and Goku for leaving to fight. During their entire fight she had felt their power levels. She knew how hard they were fighting. But then again, she also knew a fight was almost inevitable with the way Usagi was talking.   
  
With her eyes completely red and her face soaked with tears, she looked at her husband. His cloths were completely destroyed and what was left of them were stained with blood. She looked up to his face only to notice that the cut on his mouth had been torn open even further and was already beginning to form a bruise. "Where is she?"   
  
Goku sighed as he dropped his head and slowly began to enter the room. He hated to have to tell her that Usagi had left, and was missing, that he couldn't detect any of her energy. It would be hard to locate her now, especially since she didn't want to be found. She had already made that quite clear.   
  
He walked to the table and pulled out a chair so he could sit directly in front of his wife. He kept silent until he finally decided to look back into her eyes. "Chi-Chi, we have to talk..."  
  
Chi-Chi's heart began to race in anticipation of what he might say. As she looked toward the doorway of the kitchen, she had a feeling of what he was going to say. Usagi had not come into the room with Goku dragging her along. She hadn't even heard him telling her to go to her room, which meant she was either knocked out, or too hurt to do anything, or she wasn't there. "Goku..." Like a drone, she cautiously turned back to her husband. "I'm going to ask you this once, and I want a straight forward answer. Where...Is...My... Daughter?"   
  
Goku gulped as he lowered his head again, but still looked her in the eyes. He didn't like the sound of her coarse tone. He knew her habits of flying off the ball at the slightest thing wrong, and this was more than something small. This was huge. Not only would Usagi get it for leaving and acting the way she had, but he would surely hear it for "allowing" her too. "That's what we need to talk about."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. She set aside her stress for just a moment and suddenly became enraged at the thought of what Goku may have done to Usagi. "I'm listening."  
  
Goku nervously put his arms up on the tabletop. "We fought a bet."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded as if she were interested. She wasn't sure she was going to like what he was going to say next. And she wasn't even sure she wanted to ask what was on her mind for she was afraid of what kind of answer she would receive. "What kind of bet?"  
  
Goku didn't take his eyes away from Chi-Chi, although he wanted to. "If I won, she would come back home, but if she did, she would leave and we wouldn't try to stop her."  
  
Well, that just about did it for Chi-Chi. Before she knew it, she was on her feet and leaning over the table with her fists waving in front of Goku's bruised face. "WHAT?! What the HELL were you thinking? How could you go along with such a stupid bet?! You would have had to let her LEAVE if she won! What's WRONG with you?!"  
  
Goku backed his head back to get away from his wife, who was already raising her power level. He knew it was a stupid bet, but it had been the only way that he knew of to get her to shut up for a while and deal with her current living position. "Hey! It was the only thing I could think of!"  
  
Chi-Chi growled as she crawled up onto the table and pressed her forehead against her husband's. She knew he wouldn't let her win, which meant he would have had to have used more power than she did, and from what she felt, he did. "I'm warning you, if you DARE hurt MY child...."  
  
Goku frowned as he pulled away from his wife and stood up. "Watch it, Chi-Chi! I would NEVER do anything that would hurt Usagi THAT bad. I only hurt her enough to keep her in line. It was the only thing that would shut her up from her rants. You should have heard some of the crap that was coming out of her mouth!"  
  
Chi-Chi growled louder as she sat up, now on her knees on top of the table and glaring into the eyes of Goku. "Don't you think you can fool me, mister!"   
  
Goku narrowed his eyes and let out a loud growl. "What the hell are you talking about, Chi-Chi?"  
  
Chi-Chi swung her legs over the edge of the table and hoped off. She walked to Goku and continued to glare up at him. "I felt you! You used too much power on her! You probably broke all the bones in her little body, didn't you... DIDN'T YOU!?"  
  
Goku violently pushed Chi-Chi away with growing anger. It was true, he had used too much power against her. Her comments actually WERE getting to him, especially the one about how she didn't want him for a father. But the comments that were meant to hurt him and tear him down, had only fed his want to beat her and take her home for Chi-Chi to deal with.   
  
He had nothing further to say to his wife except what actually happened. "I would NEVER intentionally do that to her and you know that!"   
  
Chi-Chi arrogantly smirked. She had been proven right, in her eyes at least. "Ah-ha! So you DID break her!"  
  
Out of pure anger, Goku slammed his fist into the wall. He didn't understand Chi-Chi at all. Here he was, trying to explain what happened and he was getting yelled out. She should have been angry with Usagi, not him. "I DID NOT! For your information, YOUR daughter ..."  
  
Chi-Chi actually dropped her frown for a split second and replaced it with a look of confusion. Where had that come from? Why had he referred to Usagi as only HER daughter, and not his? "MY daughter? So she's ONLY my daughter now?"  
  
Goku pulled his fist out of the wall, which now had a nice indentation in it. "Oh didn't I tell you? The little brat has disowned me as her father. I have no daughter..." He replied sarcastically.   
  
Chi-Chi once again found herself frowning at the answer she received from her husband. This time, it wasn't at him. This time, she was angry with her daughter. She had gone too far this time. "Oh really?" She asked with a hint of her own sarcasm.   
  
Goku nodded. He was glad that Chi-Chi had calmed down again, somewhat. "There's more."  
  
Chi-Chi groaned as she walked closer to her husband. Her initial anger had already subsided, now she was being driven by her secondary anger systems. She was still angry that Goku would have actually fought with their daughter and hurt her, but after hearing what Usagi said to him, she knew she would have done the same thing. "...Go on..."  
  
Goku, again, nodded and complied. "After I beat her, I took the broach from her." He explained as he reached into his pocket and pulled out Usagi's stolen treasure. "I took a moment to look at it, and the next thing I knew, she was gone."  
  
Chi-Chi's eyes widened and were filled with rage at once. "What?! You let Usagi go!?"   
  
Goku grinned. How had he known that she would react like that? "Hey! I didn't know she was going to leave."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Well you took your eyes off her! What did you think she was going to do? Just sit there and wait for you to drag her back here where she would be punished?"  
  
Goku sighed. He knew that was why Usagi had tricked him in the first place. He knew that she knew that he was going to win, and so she took off. "She had already lost. She gave up on my last attack. She was on the ground and looked pretty bad. I didn't think she could move at all." He paused as he thought back to when he first saw her after his attack. Her body looked so limp, so helpless. The first thing that ran through his mind was the worry that had had damaged her too much. But, what added more to his stress was the fact that she had told him that she hated him over and over again. That had made his heart feel as if it were being mercilessly ripped out of his chest by the grim-reaper himself. That was probably the worst thing that a father could ever hear from his daughter. "She left, and now I can't feel her."  
  
Chi-Chi sighed as she turned away from her husband. Now, her anger was leaving her body and she all of a sudden felt overcome by stress and grief. She slowly walked to the table and sat down in the sat Goku had previously been sitting in. "She's gone..." She whispered to herself, unable to believe her own words.  
  
Goku dropped his frown and walked behind his wife. His own eyes were drooping with sadness. "We'll find her. She'll show up." He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently began to rub them. "I promise I'll find her."  
  
Chi-Chi sniffled as she closed her eyes. She thought back to that morning. Everything had been normal. Usagi had been a happy, loving daughter. But now, she was a rebel who hated her parents. What had happened to her? "I want my baby back."  
  
Goku sighed. As mad at her as he was, he wanted her back too. "I know."  
  
Chi-Chi shook her head with tears in her eyes. "No, that's not it. I don't just want HER back, I want MY baby back, mentally. I don't want a Usagi who hates us."  
  
Goku said nothing. He knew that, at that point, it was impossible to get THEIR Usagi back. She had made it all to clear that she had no desire to live with them, or even look at them. What had gone wrong? Were they really THAT bad of parents? This had been the first child that they both raised together without having any interruption. With Gohan, he had left early, and with Goten, he hadn't been there for the first years of his life. But Usagi, he had been there the entire time, and he had enjoyed it. But having both himself and Chi-Chi there to raise her, and both with contrasting ideas on raising children, had they really messed her up that badly? No. He refused to believe that. Usagi loved her parents, or so she appeared to over the past twelve years.   
  
Chi-Chi wiped the tears away from her eyes. "Go find her, Goku."   
  
Goku lowered his head even further as he looked at the back of his wife's head. Her hair was a mess from the night's uproar. "I can't."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. She wouldn't take that for an answer. "Go and find her. Please, Goku. Just look. Search. I don't care where you go, just FIND her."  
  
Goku kept silent. He knew that the chances of finding Usagi were low. She had always had a lower power level than everyone else when she wasn't trying to raise it or be felt. Of course, even then he would still be able to feel her, slightly. Now, it was as if she wasn't even moving or doing anything. She had all of a sudden just disappeared.   
  
He didn't know what to tell her. Of course he knew he wouldn't be able to find her, but that answer wasn't good enough for a worried mother. He would have to try anyway. But, what would happen if he did find her? He would have to carry her home kicking and screaming. And even then she would probably try to use her power to get away from him and he would have to power up just to keep her in line. Then, when she came home, Chi-Chi would be in danger of being hurt, not just mentally but physically as well. He wondered if there was anything he could do to stop her from using her power, but realistically, there wasn't.   
  
As he stood there, Goku knew that there was really only one thing he could do. He would have to comply with his wife's wishes. To keep her from going insane, he would have to go and search for Usagi. "Alright, Chi-Chi, I'll go." He shifted his eyes up to the clock, which read that it was already a quarter to eight. He wondered what Usagi was doing at the moment.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Back Alley~~  
  
It was already eight thirty at night and Usagi, still, was nowhere to be found. The sun had already set long ago, but the night was still young in the eyes of the rowdy teenagers downtown. Clubs were beginning to open, which drew young people down. The business men and women had long since vacated the area as it was growing too loud and crowded.   
  
A combination of loud music from the building nearby and a lone gunshot nearby caused a loud thump to arise from inside a large, metal garbage bin. Though it went unheard by the people who were chasing one another down the narrow sidewalk.   
  
Usagi grabbed her head where she had just hit it. She opened her eyes, only to see nothing. She was surrounded by complete and utter dark. But she could hear plenty. The loud music from the building next door seemed to be amplified by the metal walls that surrounded her.   
  
It was safe to say her head throb with immense pain, not to mention her back was completely stiff from falling on the hard concrete. That added with the beating she had received the day before completely topped off her pain factor. She didn't know if it was possible to feel anymore pain than she already was.   
  
Without saying a word, she put her hands to her sides and slowly began to try and push herself up. But things didn't go according to plan. She found that her hands only pushed throw whatever she was sitting on. It felt gooey, but could have had some sticky paper added into it as well. She took a quick sniff only to react by plugging her nose from a rancid smell. It was at that moment that she realized exactly where she had been put.   
  
Usagi leaned onto her back and brought her feet up into the air to kick the lid open with. Much to her dislike, the lid was heavier than she had planed on it being. No bother though. She could handle it. She pulled her legs back for another kick, this time adding in some extra energy with it. The lid flew wide open and hit against the brick building behind it. Usagi then proceeded to hop out, only to feel a huge crack in her back. "Ouch!" She cried out in an excess of pain. She hadn't expected that to hurt so badly.   
  
Usagi grabbed her back and hunched over to try and make the pain disappear. Her thoughts were soon diverted to the color of the sky, though. It was pitch black, the color of night. Only the artificial lighting of electricity lit up the area. She was going to be late getting home. Her mother would freak for sure. "Where am I?" She curiously, and nervously, looked around. Her eyes made their way up to a pink neon sign that spelled out the word "Beer". She figured it was a bar, a place she had always been told to stay away from because there were always so many drunk people hanging out at them.   
  
Her attention was soon diverted to the opening of a back door. She watched as a scruffy looking man with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth emptied a bucket of liquid into a stack of boxes next to the door. She took a step back when he looked up at her with a frown.   
  
The man took the cigarette out of his mouth and stood tall. "Hey kid! What are you doin back here! Scat!"   
  
Usagi took no time to argue. She had no problem with getting out of there. Forgetting all about her pain, she moved her legs fast enough to run out of the alley at the speed of a normal child. Now, she found herself on the sidewalk of a main street of downtown. There were people everywhere, mostly young. There were signs everywhere lit with bright colors. This was the district where two of the major clubs in town were, which only added to attracting more people.   
  
Usagi was actually intrigued by the activity around her. She had never seen downtown at night. Her parents had never taken her and her mother never allowed her to go alone. But now, seeing it for the first time, she was amazed at the action. Across the street there were two men fighting, a lady wearing almost no clothing at all was standing nearby. At that point, Usagi didn't understand what they were fighting over, though to everyone else, it was quite obvious. Usagi was almost drawn to this fight. She had heard it from Makoto that men do this at night, though she had never been able to witness it until now. And to tell the truth, she found it rather humorous.   
  
She soon grew tired of the spectacle, though. All it was, was two men throwing each other onto the ground with no real tactics. There wasn't even much punching. Usagi never could understand how people could be so amazed by such boring fights. She turned away from the fight and began to make her way down the street. Although she knew that she was meant to be home, it didn't really matter anymore. She had already been so late, even though she didn't know exactly what time it was. It was dark, that's all she knew. And she was supposed to be home before dark, at the latest. She would just have to explain to her parents what happened. She was attacked again.   
  
Usagi kept herself on alert as she made her way down the street. She didn't want to offend anyone with any strange looks, but she also wanted to see all the action. She was in complete awe. At the end of the block, she saw a group of motorcycles parked in front of a building. Curious, she decided to inspect them. So, she bobbed down to the end of the block and did just that.   
  
The light that bounced off of them caused them to shine brightly in her eyes. "Awesome..." She rubbed her hands over the smooth, shining metal with a wide grin. For a second or two, she wondered what it would be like to ride one of these. Probably not as thrilling as flying yourself to places. She looked up only to be faced with a group of angry men, all of whom were dressed in black.   
  
One of the men stepped out from the group. He was the oldest, and looked to be the leader of the group with the way he held himself compared to the rest of the men in the group. "Well now what do we have here?" The man chuckled when Usagi turned her head from side to side to see if there was anyone else that he could have been talking to besides her. "Kid, there ain't no one else around."  
  
Usagi gulped as she stopped looking around and looked up into the face of the stranger. The biker crossed his arms as he stepped down from the curb, keeping his eye on Usagi, and especially on her hand which just happened to be on HIS bike. "Shouldn't you be in bed, kid?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. She wished she hadn't come here. She hadn't wanted to start trouble. She wasn't afraid of these guys, but yet again, she didn't want to have to do anything to them if they tried something. "No."  
  
The biker frowned as he reached out and grabbed Usagi by the arm and threw her back to his buddies. "Ain't nobody gonna touch MY bike 'cept me."   
  
Usagi said nothing in reply. She didn't really care what this guy said, nor did she care how he said it. He was a nobody, and she would be on her way now. But, as soon as she took a step forward, one of the men reached out and grabbed her by the shoulder. With a frown, she looked back. "Hey!"   
  
The young man who had grabbed her looked at her with a very perverse expression. "Where do you think you're going, girl?"   
  
The leader of the pack laughed as he sat on his bike. "Looks like you picked yourself a good one, bud."   
  
The young man eyed Usagi with a smile. He picked her up and put her over his shoulder. "Nice and young, jes' the way I like em'."  
  
Usagi, not knowing what in the hell is the guy was thinking, pounded her fists into the man's back. But her stiffening muscles pulsated with pain, causing her fists to do no damage. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!? Let me go! You'll be sorry if you don't!"   
  
The main biker laughed even harder as he looked back to his comrade. "She's a frisky one."  
  
The younger man mounted his bike, while keeping a firm hold on Usagi. She had a pretty hard hit for being so young, but he could take it. He was tough enough. "The friskier, the better." He replied with an evil laugh.  
  
Usagi was about to raise her power level when she was stopped by a familiar and comforting voice. "Let her go, NOW!"   
  
The two men, along with the rest of the group who were mounting their own bikes, turned their heads back to the man who had just called out to them. Two other men pulled out a pair of metal bats, ready for combat. This girl was theirs, and nobody else's.   
  
The main biker pulled off his glasses which he had just put on and dismounted his bike. He glared at the newcomer, who was dressed in an outrageously orange outfit. "And who the hell are you?"  
  
"Goku, Son Goku."  
  
Usagi, who was facing the wrong way to see her father, smiled with joy. She couldn't remember any other time she had been so happy to hear his voice. "Daddy!"   
  
Goku frowned even harder. So NOW she wanted to acknowledge him as her father. Only when in need of help. She was only lucky that he wasn't full of resentment toward her instead of love otherwise he would have just walked away and let her deal with these thugs herself. "Let the girl go."   
  
The young man who held Usagi over his shoulder frowned. "So, you're the kid's father?" He glanced back at the struggling Usagi with a frown. He hadn't expected the girl's father to be so near. This would really put a hamper on his fun for the night. He looked back up at Goku with a frown. "You can't have her. She's ours now."  
  
Goku growled as he stepped closer, only to be met with the two thugs with bats. He looked at them as if they meant nothing, which they really didn't. "Give...her..."  
  
The older man stepped closer to Goku as if he had something to protect. "Look old man, you want her, come and get her."  
  
Goku grinned. This guy didn't know what he was getting himself into. You should never say something like that to an angry father, let alone a Saiyan. Goku knew full well what would happen if Usagi let herself be taken away by these guys. He knew what these kind of people did to young girls. That was why he and Chi-Chi didn't really want her downtown alone, even though she could defend herself. They didn't want her exposed to this kind of crap. "Gladly." With that, he ran to the two men with the bats and jumped up on them to use them as boosts. Once past them, he was face to face with the man who held his daughter. But he wasn't through with the men with the bats. They came back to more, and Goku was more than ready. He turned around in a flash and performed a quick roundhouse kick that took not just the two men with bats out, but the man with his daughter as well.   
  
Usagi fell to the ground once again with a thud. But she didn't much care. She was freed without having to hurt herself by raising her power again. She pushed herself away from the fallen biker and kicked him in the shoulder to get her revenge as well. But her main concern was her father. She looked up to him with a wide smile of thanks, only to receive a hateful glare.   
  
The two Saiyans' attentions were quickly diverted to the rest of the gang. The leader took one look at Goku and became frightened. He hadn't expected Goku to be so strong, nor did he expect him to be so fast. "Shit! Let's get outta here boys!"   
  
Goku allowed the group to leave. He was too tired to do anything. He had been emotionally worn and had no desire to chase them down and bring justice to them. He had too many other things on his mind. For one thing, he had to get the broach to Dende's, but he couldn't leave Usagi alone at home with her mother. She would either leave again, or she would hurt her mother and THEN leave. He couldn't have that. He would have to watch her every move.   
  
He walked to his daughter and held out his hand for her to grab. Although he was angry with her, he wouldn't treat her like crap. He didn't want to show her that it was ok to treat others badly when they were mad at each other, even though she had said some pretty harsh things to him when they were fighting and he could have easily treated her badly.   
  
Usagi, fearing that her father was angry at her for being downtown alone at such an hour, reached up and allowed herself to be helped up by him. "Daddy I'm sorr..."  
  
Goku put his hand up to hush his daughter. No apology would penetrate his head at that point. He didn't even want to talk about it with her at the moment. "Shut up."  
  
Usagi did just that, though with tears in her eyes. She didn't understand what brought about that sudden anger. Whenever she had broken the rules before, he had always listened to her apologies and accepted them. But now, he told her to 'shut up'?  
  
Goku glared down at his daughter. She was playing stupid again, like she had before things had really gotten ugly at home. Well, this time he wouldn't fall for it. She was only trying to get out of trouble by being cute, but he wouldn't have it. He knew better than to believe her. He didn't let go of her hand once she was up to her feet. Instead, he pulled her closer to him.   
  
Usagi looked up to him in confusion as she tried to rip her hand free from his grip. He was acting strange, and glaring at her, which was something that made her feel truly uncomfortable. With his free hand, Goku hit his daughter in the back of the neck with a strong force, causing her eyes to roll into their sockets as she lost all consciousness.   
  
Goku picked up his daughter and threw her over his shoulder. He took a look around to make sure no one had seen what he had just done, which no one had. Everyone was too busy with what they were doing, with their own lives, to worry about what some other person was doing with their children. Satisfied that no one had seen what had just happened, he teleported away to Dende's.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Dende was standing on the edge of his lookout when Goku arrived. He had been there almost all day, well, ever since Goku had come to him and asked about the broach. Nothing strange had happened, as far as he could see. Nothing was really attacked. There hadn't really been any uproar of people getting hurt by attacks. Everything seemed to be normal up until about three in the after noon when he all of a sudden got the feeling that something was off. Something wasn't normal. But he couldn't justify his feeling. There was NOTHING wrong with the Earth. There was no one strange lurking about. And so he stayed there all night and watched over the Earth like a good little God.  
  
It wasn't long before Goku arrived with Usagi over his shoulder. He appeared at the side of Dende, for he teleported to Dende's power. Dende didn't even flinch at the surprise of the warrior appearing. He had watched the battle between the girl and her father. He knew that there was trouble between them, he just didn't know what. He didn't hear any of what they were saying, but, for Goku to have used so much power against Usagi, it must have been something bad.   
  
Dende turned up to Goku and noticed the child draped over his shoulders. "Goku, what in the world happened down there?"   
  
Remembering back to his fight that day with a frown, Goku pulled Usagi down from his shoulder and placed her gently on the ground to lie there by herself. "Usagi's gone mad?"  
  
Dende opened his eyes wider. "Literally?"  
  
Goku shrugged. "I don't know what I mean by that, but just know, she's gone mad. She's a fireball of hatred all of a sudden. She's already disowned me."  
  
Dende frowned. "That's awful."  
  
Goku nodded as he looked down at his daughter, who he had his foot on. If she woke up in the near future, he didn't want her trying to escape. If she were to teleport, she would take him with her. If she were to just try to get up in general, he would stop her. She would stay on the ground until HE was finished here. "Her mother and I are pretty angry with her alright." He looked back up as he dug into his pocket. "But that's not why I'm here." He pulled out his daughter's broach and held it out for Dende to look at. "Here's the broach."  
  
Dende smiled as he reached out and grabbed the item. He had been waiting all day for Goku to bring it to him so he could look at it. "Great." He brought it up to his face for examination. "It looks really old, maybe hundreds of years old."  
  
Goku frowned. "It's an antique?"  
  
Dende nodded. "Definitely. Where did she get it?"  
  
Goku shrugged with a growing frown. Maybe Usagi wasn't the perfect daughter all along. Maybe she was just tricking him and Chi-Chi all along. Maybe she was starting to turn sour the year before, or maybe earlier. Who could tell? "She said it was a gift from someone, but she would say who exactly. But I doubt it now. With her attitude today, I doubt she even got permission to take it."   
  
Dende looked up to Goku in shock. "Are you saying she stole it?"  
  
Goku, again, found himself shrugging. "I don't know, really. But she wouldn't let me see it, and then she wouldn't tell me what it was. She may have thought that I would know who it belonged to and would yell at her for having it..." Goku couldn't imagine that being so. He wasn't even sure if Usagi would actually be dumb enough to steal something, of course, he also thought he'd never see the day when she challenged him to a fight and tried to hurt him.   
  
Dende frowned. He had never seen anyone that Goku knew holding a broach like this, of course, maybe it was something precious to Videl, or even Bulma. "Well, Goku, I've never seen it before, nor have I seen anything like it, and it doesn't seem to open." He explained as he tried to pry it open. "It's quite old, and it may have belonged to Videl after being passed down by her mother, or Bulma. They both come from well established families." He held out the broach out for Goku.  
  
Goku reached out and grabbed the broach from the young Namek. "Thanks, Dende. I'll ask Piccolo tomorrow if he knows anything about it. If he doesn't, then I'll ask Bulma and Videl." He stuffed the broach back into his pocket as he looked back down at Usagi. "I just don't know what I'm going to do with her. I can't leave her home with Chi-Chi alone. Heck, I can't leave her alone at all."  
  
Dende, too, turned his attention down to the unconscious child. "Afraid she'll run away again."  
  
Goku nodded. "It's rough. She's got all this power, and I can't stop her from using it. I can only monitor her and make sure she doesn't try anything funny."  
  
Dende slowly looked up to Goku. He could tell that the man was too stressed for this. "Would you like me to put a block on her power?"  
  
Goku froze in speech at the sound of that. He slowly and cautiously looked up to Dende with widened eyes. "What?"  
  
Dende sighed. "I should have known you wouldn't want me to..."  
  
Goku gulped. He wasn't sure if he knew what he was just about to say. "No, no, wait... you can do that?"  
  
Dende nodded. "Yes. All Nameks with my kind of power can. But only when the power level is at its lowest. It would only be temporary, unless you kept bringing her in and having me redo it for you. She won't be able to use any power. Her strength will still be there, but she won't be able to call fourth any extra energy."  
  
Concerned, Goku looked back down at his daughter. "How long would one last?"  
  
Dende shrugged. "About a month... I don't know, I've never really tried it. Guru taught me how when I was little. Its just like bringing out someone's hidden energy in reverse."  
  
Goku gave a slight nod of consent. That sounded like the best deal for now until they could get everything sorted out. Usagi wouldn't be a threat to her mother and there wouldn't be a chance of her trying to run away. As soon as she started acting like a normal person again, he would have it lifted. "I hate to do this, but you can go ahead and try it..."   
  
Dende nodded as he kneeled down. "I just want you to know, once it's done, I can't reverse it. You'll have to let her live through this, even if you patch things up soon than you thought."   
  
Goku nodded. It was better than nothing. At least everything would be safe for a while. "She won't have to re-learn everything, will she?"  
  
Dende shook his head. "No. I'm just putting a block on all power, that's all. Like I said, she can't call fourth any extra energy." He placed his hands over Usagi's back as Goku lifted his foot away. He looked up to Goku just to get one more ok. "You still want me to do this?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Yes."  
  
Dende sighed as he looked down at Usagi. He had never expected for Usagi to have such trouble. She had always seemed like such a good girl. And now, here he was putting a block on her powers. As he concentrated, a green energy traveled from his arms and to Usagi's body.   
  
Goku could barely watch. He knew he had reasons for what he was doing, but he couldn't help but think he was taking something away form his daughter. But, after what she showed him today, he knew it was for the best.   
  
Dende worked fast, and before long, he was finished. "Done."  
  
Goku scratched his head. "That fast?"  
  
Dende nodded as he stood up. "Yep."  
  
Goku bent over and picked up Usagi, throwing her over his shoulder once again. Now, when she woke up, she could be hostile, but not dangerous. "Thanks, Dende."  
  
Dende smiled. "No problem. I'm just sorry I couldn't be of help with that broach."  
  
Goku wasn't capable of returning the smile at that point. He was much too tired. "Maybe Piccolo will know something."  
  
(DONE! I know, three days, I'm NOT Falling behind though... at least... I hope I'm not. Anyway, another chapter down. Wha'd you think? Gotta go! CYA!) 


	141. Part 15

~*~*~*~  
  
After his meeting with Dende and Usagi in hand, Goku teleported directly home. He didn't even want to worry about flying home and having Usagi waking up on the way. He didn't know how long she would be out of it and he wanted to tell Chi-Chi what Dende had done to her power before the girl woke up, not to mention that he wanted Usagi to be home when she found out. He knew for sure that she would have a fit and most likely try to challenge him to yet another fight. A fight which he would surely turn down. He had already given her a fight, granted it wasn't a fair fight, but a fight nonetheless. He would permit no rematches, especially since she would be unable to protect herself from anything he through at her. His desire was not to harm his daughter, but to keep her safe instead.   
  
~*~*~  
  
When Goku arrived home, Chi-Chi had already vacated the kitchen. He could hear her weeping at the back of the house in the living room. He had grown used to the sound of his wife crying over the last couple of days. After trying to calm her, he now knew why she had objected so much to fighting, why it had taken her so long to accept Usagi's fighting habits. He had actually learned something about his wife, something he should have taken the time to do long ago when Gohan had been born, but he had been young and reckless and had thought of nothing but his own pleasure, and to save his family in the process. The times that he had actually been home he had spent training. He hadn't spent nearly enough time getting to know the woman he had married. But now all that had changed. He was older now, and was more aware of what was going on around him.   
  
Goku stepped into his home, still with Usagi over his shoulder. Until she woke up, he wouldn't leave her side. He wanted to be there when she did wake. He wanted Chi-Chi to be there when she woke. And when she did finally wake up, he wanted to discuss the day's events calmly and maturely, although he knew that wouldn't happen. Usagi was a child, and would act like one. Whatever she wanted she would surely voice for all to hear. And what she wanted, he didn't want to hear. He knew exactly what his daughter desired. She wanted nothing more than to be away from himself and Chi-Chi.   
  
Remembering his earlier conversation with his daughter with a frown, he began walking forward, careful not to jog Usagi around too much. He kept quiet until he walked down the hallway and entered into the living room. It was mostly dark with only the dim light of the moon to fill it with light. He looked down at Chi-Chi, who had her face buried it back of the sofa. "Chi-Chi." He whispered quietly so as not to disturb the sleeping girl on his shoulder.   
  
Chi-Chi wiped away her current tears as she looked up at her husband. Her face was more than red from all the crying she had done while Goku was away looking for her baby. She lay her eyes directly upon Usagi, who was still in her father's arms. She was able to say nothing. Instead, she let out a quiet shrill of happiness. Her daughter was now safe at home. For now, there would be peace. Peace, that is, until she awoke from her slumber. Then, the fighting would start all over and the quiet and calm house would become full of anger once again.   
  
Goku walked around the sofa and pulled Usagi down from his shoulder. With care, he gently placed her next to her mother, making sure that he didn't touch any of her wounds. Even though she had skipped out on him earlier, he knew she had to be hurting from their fight, and not to mention the fight she had been involved in the day before. She had had it rough the past couple of days, half of it being brought upon herself.   
  
Chi-Chi rubbed her hand through her daughter's long, golden hair with fresh tears forming in her eyes. She couldn't believe that this was happening. It couldn't be possible. All she had ever wanted in life was a daughter, and now that she finally had one, she was hated. Usagi had already disowned her father, which meant she was next. "It's all my fault..." She said with great remorse.   
  
Goku sighed as he grabbed his wife by her arms and pulled her to her feet. He couldn't remember a time when he had heard such a lie. "No, it's not."  
  
Chi-Chi wiped away the tears on her cheek as she looked up to her husband. "Isn't it, though?" She looked back down to her sleeping daughter, a small smile appearing on her lips. "She's so peaceful right now, isn't she?" She paused only but for a second, not even giving Goku a chance to reply. "But when she wakes up, she'll see us and become angry. She'll tell use how she hates us, like she did earlier." She looked up to her husband, quickly digging her face into his chest for comfort. "If we cause her so much pain, why are we even bringing her back to us? I don't want her to be unhappy, yet I make her unhappy every day! I've set too many rules, I don't give her enough freedom...  
  
Goku gently squeezed Chi-Chi's waist as if to tell her to stop scolding herself. "Stop it! You didn't do anything. Usagi has no reason to be acting like this." He turned his attention down to his daughter with a frown. She truly had no reason to say what she had. He could take it, yes, but Chi-Chi had been through two children before who, although they cared about and loved their mother, never really took the time to show it. They had always been more interested in fighting. While Usagi, who was equally interested in fighting, also showed that she loved and cared about her mother. After raising Gohan and Goten both, Goku could hardly blame Chi-Chi for her emotional distress over Usagi.   
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she dug her nails into Goku's arms. "She does, Goku." She pulled her face away from him chest to look into his eyes. "She has every reason to be angry at me. You've heard the way she gets annoyed whenever I yell at her. You think I don't hear what she says under her breath? I've been trying, Goku, I really have. I try not to get as angry, and I try not to yell and scream whenever something goes wrong."  
  
Goku pulled his wife further away from the sofa and sat her down on the coffee table. He too, then proceeded to sit next to her, still with an arm wrapped around her shoulder. This had been the drill over the past two days. "Chi-Chi, come on, you're losing it. It's ok to yell, but not to the degree that you were for all those years. You've been doing a lot better the last couple of years. And no, Usagi has no right to be mad at you. I was thinking earlier, about all this. At first, I thought the same thing as you, that it must have been something we did. But then I realized, nothing we could have done could have called for Usagi's attitude."  
  
Chi-Chi couldn't disagree with that. Usagi had been out of hand. "That's true." She said with a nod.  
  
Goku couldn't help but smile at that. "Exactly. Usagi was in the wrong here. And then, she ran off against our deal. All she's doing is digging herself in a whole deeper than she can jump out of."  
  
Chi-Chi sniffled as she turned her head to look at her daughter. Even though what Goku was telling her made sense, she still couldn't help but thing that it was something that she had done or said. "I'm glad one of us was thinking while you were gone. I was too upset to."  
  
Goku pulled his wife closer. "Don't worry, Chi-Chi, I think I'm starting to understand what you've been going through all these years, you know, thinking that your kid hates your guts."  
  
Chi-Chi sighed as she leaned her head on Goku's shoulder. "Welcome to my world, Goku, welcome to my world."   
  
The room grew silent as the two parents just sat and watched their child. There was no telling when she would finally wake up, nor what she would do when she did. They both feared that something horrible would happen, that Usagi would end up getting herself hurt again. But the anxiety of this was worse for Goku as he knew what he had done to her. He knew that she was powerless.   
  
Feeling somewhat cleansed of her stress, and becoming more angry than upset, Chi-Chi couldn't help but wonder where Goku had found Usagi. After all, he was out for nearly an hour looking for her. "Goku, where did you find her?"  
  
Goku looked down at his wife. He wore and expression on his face that told Chi-Chi that he didn't really want to tell her, for she would be angry. But he knew he had to. She had a right to know. She especially had a right to know what he had Dende do. "Downtown."  
  
Chi-Chi's eyes widened at the sound of that. She had always warned Usagi against the dangers of downtown at night. Usagi knew better than to go down there, but of course, Usagi was a rebel now, why would she listen to her mother? "What?! Downtown?! What in the world was she doing downtown?"  
  
Goku frowned as he remembered the situation that he had found his daughter in. He didn't know what would have happened if he hadn't shown up to retrieve her. Either her attackers would have been killed in an instant, or she would have allowed herself to become spoiled, and that was something he didn't even want to think about. "Just getting herself into some trouble, what else?" He knew he should have told Chi-Chi what really happened, but she had already been through too much. That was a weight he would have to bear alone.   
  
Chi-Chi sighed from her stress as she stood up. "My baby is a rebel." She turned back to Goku with a look of concern. "What are we going to do with her? She's violent, and can't be trusted right now. She's got all that power, and too much anger, not a good combination."  
  
Goku frowned to himself as he too stood up and towered over his daughter, who was still knocked out and lying on the sofa. He still wasn't too happy with his actions, but it was the only thing he could think of at the time. "Don't worry about that."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Have you gone crazy, Goku? I WILL worry about it. She's dangerous." She yelled as she pointed down to the girl.  
  
Goku cleared his throat with a rising anger. "I realize that. But, as I was talking to Dende, and yes, I went to Dende's after I found Usagi to ask about the broach, he offered to put a temporary block on her power."  
  
Chi-Chi crossed her arms across her chest, though not in anger. More in fascination than anything. "A block? What kind?"  
  
"Nothing too big. All it does is keep her from using her power so she won't hurt anyone. This means she can't challenge me to another fight, which in turn means I won't have to hurt her again. And she won't be able to hurt anyone anymore, well, not too badly."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled as she looked down at her daughter once again. That sounded like an ok deal to her. That was the one major thing she had thought of when she was waiting for Goku to return home. She had been thrown around by Usagi earlier, which had sparked the thought. She didn't want Usagi running loose with that kind of power, the power to hurt others. "No, now she'll just be like Haruka was before she was trained in the art of Ki."  
  
Goku groaned as he threw his head back. He hadn't thought of that, but there really wasn't any way to stop that. Her friends would keep her in mind. Hopefully they hadn't gone nuts too. "I wonder if the others know about this."  
  
Chi-Chi shook her head with a shrug of the shoulders. "I don't know. I hope they do, yet, I hope they don't. I would like to think that they would tell us about any strange and rude behavior, then again, they could be this way too..." Goku and Chi-Chi were surprised to hear a groan of pain arise from their daughter at that moment. Both immediately stopped their conversation and looked down at Usagi for the last time.   
  
Usagi groaned yet again as she lifted her arm and placed her hand up by her face in order to push herself up from her sleeping position. She felt horrible, and after being dropped by Tatsuo and knocked out by both Tatsuo and Goku, who wouldn't be?   
  
Next to move were her eyes, which opened to see virtually nothing. It was too dark to really see anything. The only thing her eyes picked up were shadows, and those were to her side. With blurred vision, she looked to her side to see what exactly she was noticing, only to find it was the shadow of her parents.   
  
Goku pushed Chi-Chi slightly behind him as if to cover her from an attack. He didn't want Usagi to lash out in anger and hit Chi-Chi. If anyone would be hit, it would be him. He would be able to deal with her quick and easy, whereas Chi-Chi would go through an emotional surge before she did anything.   
  
Chi-Chi's breathing increased by the second. She watched Usagi push herself into a sitting position as she tried to push against Goku's force, but he wouldn't allow her to move any closer. Her own pain and stress had long since passed and now she was ready to dig into her daughter, which probably wasn't the safest thing in the world, but she didn't much care at that moment. The more she thought over what Goku had said, the more she believed him. I was true, Usagi had no right to act the way she had and should be punished for it, even though she was already grounded by Goku's orders, which Chi-Chi still couldn't believe.   
  
Usagi said nothing at first. She was fully aware of who knocked her out last, which naturally made her a little weary of her father as he stood there before her. Instead of bursting out with words, she rubbed her neck, which was the sorest area of body at the moment. That was where both Tatsuo and her father had knocked her out at. She was certain her father had a reason for doin what he had, and she was interested in finding out what the reasoning was. It may have been her punishment for staying out so late and being downtown, but then again, he had told her to shut up with giving her a chance to explain. In anyway, her father's actions were strange and she must have been in the wrong or else he wouldn't have hit her.   
  
Goku stood still as he continued to watch his daughter. She didn't seem to be reacting the way he had expected. She was acting more like a normal person, but he knew it had to be fake. She had already tricked him once earlier that day and now he wouldn't fall for it again. It would take time for her to gain his trust again.   
  
Usagi rubbed her neck as she watched her father carefully. He and her mother just seemed to be starring down at her as they were not moving. Since the room was darker than usual, she couldn't quite make out the frowns they wore, which was probably better for her own sanity.   
  
She slowly let go of her neck and dropped her arm to her side, her muscles aching with every movement. Her back ached the most after her neck, so sitting up only caused more pain. In response to her growing pain, Usagi moved to the side of the sofa and leaned into the cushioned arm. With a sigh, and still looking up at her parents, she decided it was time to speak. "What was all that about?" She whined to her father.  
  
Goku gritted his teeth as he pulled Chi-Chi to the opposite end of the sofa. He wanted to keep his distance from Usagi for a while to show her he still wasn't all buddy-buddy with her. Not that she would care, she had already disowned him as her father. "Why don't you tell me?"  
  
Usagi turned her head on its side in confusion. "Huh? What are you talking about, daddy? You're the one who hit me."  
  
Goku frowned as he let go of Chi-Chi's wrist, but still held his arm out to prevent her from coming forward. "Oh so NOW you want to acknowledge me as your father now that you've lost?" He lifted one of his feet and rested it on the coffee table as he leaned his upper body forward toward Usagi. "I've got news for you, little girl, it ain't gonna work."  
  
Usagi gasped with a shock. That definitely wasn't the response she had been expecting to come from him. He acted as if knocking her out wasn't even important. "What? I always knew you were my dad, and have always acknowledged it."  
  
Goku rested his free arm on his knee to become more comfortable. "Bull Crap!"  
  
Usagi flinched as she closed her eyes in fear. Never in her life had her father swore at her. Her heart sped up at that point. She didn't know what her father was going to do, but she knew one thing, she was afraid of him at that point. He had already knocked her out once, she knew he wouldn't hesitate again. "Daddy..."  
  
"Shut up!" He growled as he pulled his leg down to the floor and walked to stand before his daughter. He looked directly down at her, this time with the light in his face. Usagi was able to read his expression quite easily now. "You may be able to prance around and tell people who love you that you hate them without a second thought, but you better be able to deal with the consequences! According to you, I am NOT your father, or are you changing that too?!" His voice was all sarcasm as he lowered his face down to be level with Usagi's. He knew he was scaring her, and that was the point. After her display of attitude she almost deserved it. But, what he didn't know was that she didn't understand.  
  
Usagi shook her head with tears forming in her eyes. She pulled herself as far into the corner of her seat as she could with her legs pressed up against her chest. She had never been talked to like this in her entire life by any of her family, even Gohan hadn't spoken to her quite like this. "I don't know what you're talking about..."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she clenched her fists with anger. Goku wasn't able to stop her from coming fourth anymore now that he had left her side. "Son Usagi," She began to scold, "Or have you disowned that name too?"  
  
Usagi wiped away her tears as her attention was taken away from her father and put on her mother. "What are you talking about? I never disowned anyone..."  
  
Chi-Chi growled loudly as she turned up to her husband, who was preparing for another verbal attack. "You hear that? She's denying what happened." She looked back down at her daughter, who was pushing herself even further into the corner of the sofa. "First you come home LATE and then you tell us how you hate us! Then you hit your father!" She reached up and grabbed Goku by the face and brought him even further into the light to show Usagi the large gash on his face. "You, yes YOU did this! You can't deny it, young lady!"  
  
Usagi looked at the gash in horror. She had no recollection of hitting her father, probably because she hadn't. She had been knocked out the entire afternoon. She could remember it well. She had come out of school with her friends and had been kidnapped by Tatsuo.   
  
Usagi plugged her ears and lowered her face into her knees. "I didn't do anything! It wasn't me! I was knocked out!" She lifted her face again, this time with a trail of tears running down her cheeks. She felt no single trace of anger in her mind. How could she? Her parents hated her. It was obvious they did, otherwise they wouldn't be yelling at her like this.   
  
Goku glared at his daughter as he placed one hand on the arm of the sofa and his other hand on the back. He then proceeded to lean in toward his daughter who was sliding herself even further down. But Goku didn't stop until he was face to face with Usagi, their foreheads almost touching. "All you're doing is digging yourself deeper and deeper into trouble with every lie you tell."  
  
The tears flowed out faster at that point as Usagi's heart raced within her chest. This was getting too weird for her. She was too emotionally weak when it came to her parents. They had always been her support, her guidance, and now they were turning on her for an unknown reason. "I'm not lying daddy, I promise."  
  
Goku growled as he pressed his forehead against Usagi's. "Bull!"  
  
Usagi rolled into a ball to the best of her ability. "Why would I lie?!"  
  
Goku dug his finger tips into the sofa to keep from flying off the handle completely. "Because you lost! You took off, were found, and now you're trying to act innocent so you won't get in trouble. Well I've got some news for you, it's not gonna work! You may have tricked me once, but it WON'T happen again, I guarantee it!" He glanced back at his wife who didn't seem to care about his actions. "If you EVER try this crap again, I can promise you that you won't be able to walk away without help."   
  
Usagi truly had no idea what her father was talking about. She couldn't remember anything that had been mentioned, which meant she either had amnesia, or it hadn't happen. And she knew she didn't have the first list because she could remember who she was and who she was talking to. She gulped at the threat, something she had never had to deal with before from him. "I didn't do anything! I swear! Tatsuo knocked me out today. Ask my friends! They saw me get kidnapped by him. Or, at least, they saw me get taken away."  
  
Chi-Chi gazed down at her hysterical daughter, and for a moment felt sorry for the child. But her sympathy was soon drawn away by the thought of what took place earlier. "Tatsuo? Tatsuo is just a kid. He has nothing to do with this. Don't bring others into this, young lady! You know what you've done wrong and now it's time to take responsibility for your actions! Your father beat you in the fight today, which means you have to continue living here under our rules! We may have been lax on our rules lately, but that won't EVER happen again! From now on it's our way or punishment!"  
  
"But it was Tatsuo!" Usagi yelled back, still face to face with her now intimidating father.   
  
Goku pulled back and slapped his daughter, though not hard enough to cause any real damage. It was meant to serve more as a warning than to hurt. "I'm sick of all your damn lies! You can't try to play this off, kid! We all three know what happened today! You were completely out of line!"   
  
Usagi raised her hand to her stinging cheek while she kept her eyes planted firmly on her father. She had no idea what he was talking about. "I'm not lying. I know I was lying about..."  
  
Goku cut his daughter short. "I know you were lying too, young lady! And I thought that was bad enough! Then you come running in here, LATE, and going off on how you HATE us!" Goku stuck his hand into his pocket.  
  
Usagi looked up at her mother, who was staring at her with an equal frown. It was official. Both of her parents hated her. Her father hand swore at her, AND hit her. Her mother, well, her mother always had a habit of yelling but Usually when her father yelled, her mother calmed him down. But not now. Now they were both against her. "I don't hate you."  
  
Chi-Chi pushed her husband aside and glared at her crying daughter. But Goku cut her off before she said anything. "That's not what you said earlier. You said, and I quote, 'I hate you, I hate you, Goku, I hate you!'."  
  
Chi-Chi crossed her arms over her chest. "You SAID that to your FATHER?!"  
  
Goku grinned. Time to play a little hardball. Usagi would learn what it meant to go against one's family. "No, Chi-Chi, she said it to me. Her father wasn't around." He added sarcastically.  
  
Usagi was speechless. Now she knew for sure she hadn't said anything of the sort. She had never called her father Goku, she had never disowned him, and she had never said she hated him. Where was this coming from? Had she somehow tripped into an alternate dimension where Usagi was evil?   
  
She once again dug her nose into her knees with tears flowing faster than ever. Her heart rate had sped up tremendously along with her breathing. "Why are you guys being so mean to me?"   
  
Goku looked down at Chi-Chi, who looked up at him. "Well, Chi-Chi? What do you think? We bein mean to her? Cause I don't think we're bein mean to her?"  
  
Chi-Chi shook her head. "Nah. Not in the least, Goku. We're just telling the truth." She glared back down at her daughter. "Don't give us a reason to be mean to you. Don't think that just because you're our daughter that we're going to take it easy on you after the way you treated us today. Fair is fair."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes. "I thought I wasn't your daughter." She said sarcastically. And at that point, she was truly beginning to think that she had no parents, that they had turned their back on her.   
  
Goku frowned. "Watch it! You're the one who appointed that."  
  
Usagi looked up into her father's eyes, which had been brought away from the lighting again. "No I didn't!" Nothing was said as she looked down at the floor. Silence reigned the room as she remembered back to all the fights that had taken place in this room, in this house even. There had been so many that she had lost count, but she did know for sure that none of them compared to the magnitude of this one. And in all of the fights preceding this, at least one of her parents had been on her side.  
  
Sighing in confusion, she looked back up at her father. "I'm sorry I lied to you about the broach. But I'm not lying about this. I really didn't do anything you say I did."   
  
Goku crossed his arms. "You give me no reason to believe you. One, because you DID lie about the broach, and two, because I SAW YOU, I FOUGHT YOU. I was THERE!"   
  
Usagi flinched back at the harshness of his reply. She had nothing left to say in her defense. It was obvious that her parents were going to believe what they wanted. They say they were there, but she knew she was knocked out. She knew she had seen Tatsuo knock her out and steal her broach. Speaking of which, he must have had it. Her heart sped up even further than before as she began panicking even more. As if it wasn't bad enough that her parents hated her, now she had to deal Tatsuo owning her broach.   
  
Goku and Chi-Chi shared a nod, resulting in Goku pulling a small item out of his pocket. Usagi perked her head in interest at the silver shine that the broach made in the dim light of the moon. Could that have been it? Could her father have gotten her broach back? She leaned even closer to her father, something she wasn't comfortable doing at that point, but if it meant getting back what was hers, she was it.   
  
Chi-Chi watched her daughter closely and examined that she was seeming too interested in what Goku was holding. By the expression on Usagi's face it HAD to have been something of GREAT value to her, and maybe the new enemy too.   
  
Usagi got one quick glance at the entire item and immediately knew what it was. "MY BROACH! HOW DID YOU GET THAT" She yelled out. And before she knew it, her excitement had gotten the best of her. She jumped up from her seat and lunged for her father and the broach.   
  
Goku, thinking that Usagi was ready to attack, reached out and pushed Usagi to the ground. "Hold it!"   
  
Usagi failed to listen to her father. Her will to retrieve what was hers was too great to be contained. She jumped for her father again. "Give it!"   
  
Seeing that Usagi was more after the broach than an attack, he held it up high above his head where Usagi couldn't get to it. "Get down!" He scolded as Usagi ran into him trying to get a hold of it.   
  
Usagi didn't listen to her father yet again. Instead, she jumped up over and over to try and grab the item out of his hand, but, for some reason, her bounce just wasn't there. "It's mine! Give it to me!"   
  
Goku ignored his daughter for a moment and looked up at his wife. He didn't know what to do. And he didn't know what Chi-Chi wanted to do. He didn't know if he should ask his child what it was now, or wait until later. In any way it would have to be asked. Better sooner than later. He looked back down to the little rabbit like girl with a frown. He once again pushed her away. "Stop it! First you have to answer my questions."  
  
Usagi fell backwards onto her butt and glared up at her father. She let out a loud groan. She knew for sure this wouldn't be good. "What?"  
  
Goku smiled at his daughter sarcastically. "What is this thing and where did you get it?"  
  
Usagi frowned. "I told you where I got it. It was a gift. Now give it to me!"   
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "You're not in a position to be making demands right now, little lady!"   
  
Goku brought the broach down to his face with a slight frown. "Dende says it could be at least a few hundred years old." He looked down at his daughter. "Now who would give you, a mere child, such an item?"  
  
Usagi didn't like the sound of that question. What was more, she didn't like the fact that he had consulted Dende. That could have ruined her cover as Sailor Moon, what with him being god of the earth and all. "I don't know."  
  
Chi-Chi snorted as she sat on the edge of the sofa. "Well wouldn't you? You're the one who received it..."  
  
Goku was in a full frown again. "Unless you stole it."   
  
Usagi gasped at her father's accusation. "I don't need to be sitting here and listening to this. I may be a liar, but I'm NOT a thief and you KNOW it."  
  
Goku smirked. "Well, I thought I knew you before today but with your recent, and outrageous behavior, I guess I don't. Now tell me what this is? I know the enemy wants it. It's got to be something important."   
  
Usagi had had enough of this. Her parents can turn against her and hate her all they like, but they do NOT mess with Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon was the only thing that could destroy Beryl, who knew what other kind of enemies would show up. If only she could have told them... "I can't say! I won't say!"  
  
Goku frowned as he put the broach back into his pocket. "Fine then. It'll just stay with me until you decide when you WILL tell me."  
  
Usagi jumped to her feet with an angry frown. "Give it to me!" Goku crossed his arms as he shook his head, but said nothing. This only caused Usagi to become angrier. "IT'S MINE!" She cried out as she jumped for her father while trying to raise her power level for a power hit. But her power fell short of being something magnificent. Instead of hurting her father, she barely tickled him.  
  
At that point, Goku was happy that he had gotten rid of Usagi's ability to use her power. She was still dangerous, no matter how you looked at it. "Your act of innocence has just been erased by your violent actions, kid."  
  
Chi-Chi sarcastically shook her head. "Bad, bad, bad."  
  
Usagi dropped to one knee in even more confusion. She looked at her hands not knowing what to say or how to act. "What... what happened?" She lowered her head in distress. This entire situation was taking too much out of her.   
  
Goku, too, kneeled and looked Usagi in the eye. "We didn't want what happened earlier to happen again so I had Dende block your power for a while, and I will continue to keep it blocked until you act like a normal human being."  
  
Usagi slowly raised her head. And where Goku had expected anger was nothing but a little girl in pain. She had broken down for the night. Her parents hated her, they took away all sources of power, even Sailor Moon. What was she to do now? How would she defend herself if Tatsuo attacked her now? How would she explain this to her friends? She still needed them to explain where she was during the earlier part of the day. "Daddy..."  
  
Goku frowned. "Don't 'boo-hoo daddy' me, young lady. You've dug yourself too deep to get that to work on me. I'm not going to be tricked again, I told you that already." Looking down at his daughter, Goku had to force himself not to break down and pulled her close to him. He had a feeling that that she would just lash out at him like she had earlier. He had to constantly remind himself of what she had done and why she deserved this.   
  
Usagi stopped looking at her father and lay down on the floor. She was too unhappy to go on any further. She just wanted to curl up and be erased from all existence. Her life had been lived in vain so far.   
  
Goku sighed as he stood up and picked up Usagi. She was like a dead weight, not even struggling to free herself from his hold. In all truth, she was just happy to have some kind of contact with him, even if it wasn't loving contact. It was all the same to her. He walked her to her room and dropped her on her bed as softly as he could. She didn't seem to move at all. If he had been anyone else, he would have been fooled by her performance, but he wasn't. He knew what was going on. Before he walked out of her room, he turned back to look at her. "You're still grounded until I say otherwise." With that, he turned around and walked away from her for the night. He left the door open to make sure she didn't try anything funny like jumping out the window or anything.   
  
Usagi only half heard her father's words, but she didn't really care. Her life as she knew it was over. Something had happened while she was away. Although she wasn't sure what exactly, she knew it was something horrible. But now, it didn't matter. She was to live with the consequences. She was left to cry about it all night.   
  
( DONE! Ok, no more chapters until Sunday or Monday. I didn't know I'd be so busy this week, but I'm preparing for a small quartet performance for Saturday for band and I've been staying after school till six every night, except tonight, to get ready for it. Sorry. Anyway, so what did you think? Well, See ya Sunday or Monday! ) 


	142. Part 16

~*~*~*~  
  
Usagi had a hard time getting to sleep that night. It was already about ten by the time she had been put in her room by her father and she was anything but tired. In fact, she didn't even think she would be able to sleep after a night like that. That entire day had been weird. She hadn't started out on good terms with her parents, which had really started it all. If she only would have told her father what the broach was that morning when she had the chance none of this would have happened. Or would it have? Really, they had no reason to be so mean to her. She didn't understand what was going on. She didn't understand her wrong doings. Her parents spoke of all these things she had done, yet she had no memory of them. She knew them too well to know her parents wouldn't just come up with a reason to hate her all of a sudden. They loved her, and she loved them back. Well, actually, not anymore. That was apparent. Her love was no longer mutual with her parents. It was obvious they still loved each other, but hated her.   
  
As Usagi thought more and more about what just took place, more and more tears spilled out of her eyes. She tried to stop herself, to be strong, but it just wasn't happening. She hadn't felt this bad since her first days of school when virtually everyone in her class hated her. She had learned to cope with the pain though. She had learned a valuable lesson from her family. If she didn't care about the person who was making fun of her, then it didn't matter what they thought. But there was a major problem here. She couldn't dismiss her parents for she loved them too much for that. She couldn't stop replaying what had just happened in her head over and over again. Time after time she could only see their frowning faces, and her father's face directly in hers with nothing but hate written in his eyes.   
  
Usagi buried her face into her pillow and let her tears spill out. She held nothing back for she was all alone with no one to support her but her friends. That was it. Her friends knew what happened. They had seen her just vanish in the middle of a sentence. Surely they had worried about her. She would talk to them the next day at school. They would tell her parents what had happened. Her parents would surely believe their word. They had to. Otherwise she knew of nothing she could do to make them accept her again and not hate her.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Her thoughts went on and on for the rest of that night. Her mind was much too confused and worried to truly rest. All she was able to do that night was cry. Buy the time she had three hours left before she was meant to get up and go to school she hadn't slept a bit. She had spent the entire night crying softly to herself.   
  
Her parents had long since gone to sleep, but not before they talked about what they were going to do with her. Something in which they still had yet to decipher. Listening to them had only caused to upset the young Saiyan child even further.   
  
About two and a half hours Usagi finally drifted to sleep without realizing it. Her body and emotions had finally had enough. She was long over due for a rest, but she knew she would be waking up any time by the sound of her alarm. When that happened, she would have to face her parents yet again and tramp off to yet another day of school. She considered herself quite lucky to be going to school instead of having to stay home with her parents, but it wouldn't be that way the next day for it would be Saturday, a day in which school was not in session. But there was still the journey to school. Her father would have to take her himself, now that she was powerless and all. She still couldn't believe he did that. He took away the very thing that had established her as a person in her school. Everyone had started to respect her because of her power, without it, she felt like a nobody, like something was missing. But this all obviously didn't matter to her parents. They seemed to take no care in the fact that they were tearing her emotions apart from the very center of her being.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku was the first to wake that morning. His thoughts wouldn't allow him to sleep past six A.M. Much like Usagi, he had had a hard time getting to sleep the night before. He replayed the day's events over and over in his head remembering every detail, especially when Usagi claimed to hate him over and over. That was the most vivid of his memories. But now that he was awake all he could think about was what would happen later, when Usagi would be awake. To tell the truth, he hadn't really thought of that at all. He had been more worried about finding Usagi and trying to find out what was going on that he hadn't the time to think of what he would do today. He didn't even know how he would discipline Usagi for her behavior. Surely a good grounding wasn't nearly enough for what she had done. But now as the tension was beginning to calm, he didn't want to be too harsh, yet he still didn't want to be too lenient. It would probably be a few days before he actually came up with something. But he did know one thing for sure, he would be paying a visit to Bulma, Videl, and then Piccolo if nothing came up with the two girls. He wanted to know exactly what was up with Usagi's broach, even if the child wasn't willing to spill the truth.   
  
Goku slowly lifted himself out of bed and quietly crept to the door so as to not wake his wife. She too had found it hard to get to sleep and he didn't want to wake her up earlier than she had to. Upon leaving his room, he crossed the living room and made his way across the room directly to his daughter's. He was certain she had had a hard time calming down and falling asleep. When she had woken up from being knocked out the night before she had been quite hysterical. All he could remember was the tears in her eyes and her cries of denial. Because of that his heart had been torn even further yet, but he didn't believe her, he couldn't believe her, not after what she pulled. It would take a while for him to begin to believe her again, something he desperately wanted to be able to do again. All he wanted was for things to return back to the way they had been the morning before. He wanted Usagi back to the way she was before, a caring, loving daughter. He knew this had to be a recent change, not something that had been going on long term. She would have shown signs long before this of her hate. No, something truly horrible had to have happened, and Goku hoped and wished that there wasn't something mentally wrong with his daughter.   
  
He quietly opened the door to his daughter's room and peered in at the sleeping girl. She seemed so happy and carefree now, but that would all change when she would wake. The house would turn from peaceful to chaotic once again. He wasn't sure how they were going to get through this, but he would do anything to get his daughter back, anything to make her see that he and Chi-Chi loved her.   
  
He made his way to Usagi in her bed and gently placed his hand on her head. He remembered watching her sleep as a toddler like this. He was always able to tell what she was dreaming by the movements and sounds she would make every so often, weather it was happy dream, or a nightmare. He smiled to himself. Those days seemed so far away now. Lately, there seemed to be so much drama that real peace would never be achieved. It seemed as though there was always trouble with Mamoru, school, or a new invading enemy. Now with this new threat things seemed even more out of hand. With Usagi's recent up-stir Goku hadn't even been able to think of a plan of attack when an attack took place, something he had planned to do that night after he pried the truth out of his daughter. So much for that. Usagi had sure chosen a good time to do this.   
  
As his thought progressed, he was taken back to how this could have all come about. At first the thought maybe amnesia. And why not? It was perfectly plausible. But then again, not, at the same time. Usagi wouldn't have remembered anything if she had had amnesia. If she had somehow gotten it before she came home the first time, she wouldn't have even known who she was, let alone who her parents were. If she had gotten it after that, she STILL wouldn't have known anything. She wouldn't have known that he was her father when he first came to take her home. She wouldn't have known that Chi-Chi was her mother when she woke up from being knocked out.   
  
Amnesia obviously wasn't the answer. Maybe he would have to look at this from another point. Maybe the enemy somehow did something to her to make her turn against all those she loved, but how? He had been able to track her power ever since the school day had ended. First he felt her power almost all the way up and at sanctuary, and then again when she fought with Mamoru and totally defeated him at top power. Then he remembered how Usagi had told him that Tatsuo had knocked her out and she hadn't been awake until that night. He knew for a fact that that wasn't true. First, why would Tatsuo knock her out? Tatsuo had nothing to do with this situation. Second, she had been home, there was no denying that. It wasn't anyone else. It WAS Usagi. He felt her power specifically. There was no difference between appearance or power, only attitude. He HAD found something strange about the attitude change, but that didn't matter. Attitude can change, power and appearance can't. He was certain it was Usagi who had had the falling out with him.  
  
Goku pulled his hand away from his daughter with a sigh. He hated having to be in this situation. He slightly perked his head up at the sound of a soft footstep behind him. "Chi-Chi?" He asked as he turned away from his daughter to stand facing his wife.  
  
Chi-Chi glanced down at her daughter only but for a second. "Having regrets?"  
  
Goku pulled completely away from his daughter's bed to approach his wife. He figured she was awake for the same reasons she was. "Why would I?"  
  
Chi-Chi shrugged. She actually hadn't expected such a vague answer from him. She had expected more of an answer along the lines of 'yes'. "Because, you're Goku."  
  
Goku frowned. "What's that got to do with anything?"  
  
Again, the woman shrugged. She didn't really like the responses she was getting from her husband. Although, she couldn't really blame him. She could sense his stress. This entire situation was taking a toll on him. She hadn't seen him truly angry in... well... ever actually. He had always been a loving husband and father never to raise his voice and actually stay angry for more than about half a day or more. And when he slept, he was usually completely over things. "Come on, Goku." She replied as she wrapped her arms around his waist. "You know exactly what I mean. You've always been kind, and extra forgiving. That's the only reason why Gohan and Goten ever survived childhood, and even Usagi. They've all had their fair share of mischief, and whose always there to protect them from my wrath, as it's called? You are. This is what I've been complaining about all along. You never get angry at the kids. I just expected you to want to go easy on her now that you've had time to think."   
  
Goku continued to frown as he looked into his wife's eyes. He wasn't necessarily mad at her, it was more like he was angry about everything. He was angry that there was an attack, he was worried that the Black Star Dragon Balls would be used to do some real damage on the Earth, he was angry with and worried about his daughter. "Are you saying you want me to go easy on her?"  
  
Chi-Chi shook her head. That wasn't what she had been trying to get at, at all. In fact, if it were up to her, which it would probably end up being, she would really dig into her daughter in the morning. First she would revoke the child's privileges of going to a public school with her friends. She would then teach her daughter herself, just as she had with Gohan and Goten. "No, Goku. I don't want you to go easy on her. Be as tough as you want. After what she pulled, she deserves it. I'm just not used to seeing you take the initiative as a parent. I'm usually the one to have to do it."  
  
Goku sighed as he looked back down at his slumbering daughter. He didn't like the sound of that last sentence. He didn't want the job of taking the initiative, but he didn't want Usagi to think she could walk all over him and treat him like crap. Although he had always been more like a friend then a father when it came to discipline, he was still just that, her father. She had to know her boundaries. "Don't get used to it."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled softly up at him. "Good. I don't want you to change. I love you just the way you are."  
  
Goku couldn't help but smile back at that one. "Come on." He said as he pulled out of his wife's grip and began walking toward the door to leave.   
  
"Just a minute." Chi-Chi hopped over to her daughter's alarm clock and turned it off. "Let her sleep. She's had a long night."  
  
Goku smiled even wider. He too had thought of letting the girl sleep in later, letting her skip school. But he was certain that Chi-Chi would have a fit and go on about how school is too important to be missed. "What's the sudden change?"  
  
Chi-Chi shrugged. "She may be in trouble, but I still love her, she's my baby. Making her get up and go to school would just put more stress on her. I'll let her skip today..." She grinned. "But ONLY today. Don't you be getting any funny ideas about keeping her from her studies."  
  
Goku smirked as he wrapped his arm around Chi-Chi's shoulders, who was just joining. He knew better than to try and take Usagi out of school without Chi-Chi's permission unless it was an emergency. That was just NOT something that he wanted to cross. "Got it."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Around Eleven that morning, Usagi woke from her slumber with a splitting headache. She opened her eyes at the sound of a bird pecking its tiny beak on her window, creating a loud clanking sound, well, loud to a Saiyan with acute hearing abilities. With a single yawn, she realized how bright her room was, which wasn't usual for the time of morning she had to wake up. Normally, her room would be pitch black, but not on this particular morning. Worried that she had slept right through her alarm, something she deemed almost impossible, she quickly darted a glance at her clock, which read a quarter to Eleven. She HAD overslept. Her alarm wasn't even on. Had she forgotten to turn it on? No. Impossible. She distinctly remembered turning it back on after turning it off the day before like she always had so she wouldn't forget to turn it on before she went to bed. Someone had to have turned it off, but who? Her parents? No. Couldn't be. Her mother would never allow her to stay home.  
  
Letting her thoughts get diverted to her parents, Usagi sat up and swung her legs over the edge of her bed only to be greeted with a high pressure pain running from the bottom over her back all the way up to the base of her head. She let out a whimper, though trying to stay quiet as not to wake her parents. Those were two people she didn't want to deal with right at the moment. She wanted time to herself to think about what had just taken place the night before, even though she had done plenty of it before she drifted off to sleep. Truthfully, it wasn't that she wanted to keep away from them, it was more that she was afraid to face them. She didn't understand at all what she had done to deserve such a mental beating. She had never said that she hated her parents. She had never even thought such a thing. She always loved her parents, and they always loved her. Furthermore, she would have NEVER disowned her father. How could they think she would? She didn't have a death wish. If she had, she would have straight up disowned him right there and then last night when she had the chance. With the way he was acting out she was certain that he was going to haul off and hit her more than the one time he had. Last night, she had truly been afraid of her parents. None of that seemed to matter right now though. Usagi wanted to cleanse her mind of yesterday's happenings.  
  
Wanting to cry, Usagi forced herself to stand to her feet. She wondered if her parents were already awake. She hoped they weren't. That would only work to cause more problems. With her aches and pains, Usagi slowly made her way to her door. She couldn't hear any sounds coming from the other room, which was a good sign. Maybe her parents weren't awake yet. Maybe they had been kept up so late that they were too tired to wake up. She could only hope as she slowly began to open the door.   
  
Usagi let out an almost silent gasp as she peered out and quickly pulled her head back in her room. To her horror, she had seen her father lying out on the sofa, asleep. That was something she surely hadn't expected. Why was he there, she had wondered. He never slept out in the living room. Was he expecting her to try and escape? That was nonsense if he was. She would never try to leave. If she had only known that this wasn't the real reason for her father's presence in the living room. Once he and Chi-Chi left their daughter's room earlier he was unable to sleep, so he slipped out into the living room to do some more thinking, but found himself asleep in less than an hour.   
  
Usagi breathed heavily as she attempted to leave her room once again. She knew her father was easily awakened, which meant she would have to tiptoe her way out of the living room. She wouldn't let his presence keep her from going about her business. Her main goal was to make it to the kitchen for she hadn't eaten since the day before at lunch. She was starving, and after a night like she had had, why wouldn't she be?   
  
Usagi slowly crept across the room as quietly as she could. She didn't have the luxury of being able to float over the ground anymore now that her power had been taken away, which she still couldn't believe. But it didn't much matter now. It would be futile to try and get it back. It wouldn't return until a month from now. She stopped at the opening of the hallway and turned back to look at her sleeping father. She felt not the slightest bit of anger toward him. She was too confused to be angry. She hoped that this whole ordeal would pass over soon so things could go back to normal.   
  
Turning back to make be on her way, she accidentally hit the wall with her arm, causing a loud thud to come about. She paused rather quickly and turned back to her father. He still seemed to be sleeping. With a sigh of relief she turned back on her way, this time being more careful. But it was too late. She was stopped by the voice of her father.  
  
"Usagi..." Goku slowly sat up with a groggy yawn. He looked at his daughter, expecting to see her packed and ready to leave. But, to his surprise, she wasn't even dressed in regular cloths. She was dressed in her pajamas, which he guessed she had gotten into after he had already gone to bed that night. She had most likely been too shaken up by their most recent conflict after he had laid out the rules for her. It was at that moment upon seeing that she wasn't trying to leave that he relaxed a bit. But he was still curious as to what she was doing. "Where are you going?"  
  
Usagi turned back to her father, afraid that he might lash out at her again. She wanted avoid another episode like last night at all costs. "I'm hungry." Goku gave a slight nod of approval, but still stood up and approached Usagi. Usagi stepped away from her father, afraid of what he might do. "I'm ... I'm not trying to ... to leave."  
  
Goku stopped mid-step. He wasn't even worried about her leaving. And even if she had, she wouldn't be able to get too far before he would get her. "I'm not saying you are." He said abruptly, causing Usagi to bounce back even further. He lowered his head and rubbed his forehead. She seemed to be much more jittery now than before. She was quite calm and much more civil now than she was the day before. He almost felt sorry for her, almost. How could he really? Feeling sorry for her would be giving into her temper tantrum. "Get something to eat and then get yourself dressed."  
  
Usagi cocked her head to the side in confusion. "Where are we going? School?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "No. Just get dressed. We have a few things we have to do." And that was all he said. He turned away from Usagi and walked into his room to get himself ready.   
  
Usagi gulped as she to went about what she was originally going to do. That hadn't gone as she planned, but that was a good thing. At first, she had expected her father to tear into her, but he hadn't. His compassion had proven to still be around, which was a good thing. If her father was anything like her mother, like he had been the night before, she would have never survived the coming days, mentally. But her father seemed to have calmed down and was now acting like every other time she had been punished by him.   
  
With a fast beating heart, she slowly made her way for the kitchen, but her appetite was suddenly gone. She didn't know if she could eat when she was this upset. With a shrug and a sigh, she continued to make her way to get food. She needed SOMETHING to eat, no matter how small. She knew how important it was to eat, even if she wasn't feeling up to it.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi woke up to the sound of drawers being slammed closed and ripped open. "What's going on?" She slowly propped herself upward into a sitting position and looked up at Goku, who was already dressed.   
  
It had only been ten minutes since he had told Usagi to get ready, and he was already chomping at the bit to leave. He didn't want to wait for her to finish eating and get dressed. He wanted to leave now. He wanted to get to the bottom of things so he could once again concentrate on what was going on with the new enemy. He wanted that to be his main focus point. "I'm taking Usagi."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she wrapped her blankets around her shoulders with a shiver. The room had been colder this morning than usual, especially since Goku had not been there to keep her warm like usual. "Where?!"   
  
Goku sat down on the foot of his bed and slipped his weighted shoes on. "Dende said that Usagi's broach could be hundreds of years old."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned even harder as she leaned forward. "And this is relevant because...?"   
  
"He thinks it might have been something passed down from a family member to another family member. Maybe Bulma or Videl know something about it." He frowned at the thought that Usagi, his daughter, would have stolen such a valuable item, but she had been acting strange lately so there's no telling what she's done without his knowing.   
  
Chi-Chi sighed as she flopped back down. "So now my daughter is a thief?" She covered her face with her hands. She didn't want to be hearing this. She didn't want to be discussing this. She had NEVER dealt with anything quite like this. Sure she had been able to deal with many problems her children had caused, but this was just over the line. She didn't know what to do at all. She was glad Goku was here to help her along. She wasn't sure she could do it without him. Of course, there were always Gohan and Goten, but she couldn't expect them to solve her problems for her. "She denied having stole it last night, though."   
  
Goku nodded. That was true. "I know. But I don't know if I can believe her."  
  
"True." She sat up again, her frown having disappeared. "I know you too well to believe those are the only places you're going."   
  
Goku grinned. He had been around so long that Chi-Chi was actually able to predict his decisions. "I'm not sure. It depends on what kind of answers I get."   
  
Chi-Chi threw down her blankets and slid off the bed. "I'm going with you."  
  
Goku shook his head as he looked up in the general direction of his wife. "No you aren't."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she crossed her arms over her chest. "And just why not?"  
  
Goku too stood to join his wife. "Just let me do this alone, alright?"  
  
Chi-Chi narrowed her frown into a tight little glare as she dropped her hands to her side. "I have just as much of a right to be there as you do, Goku! If you don't let me go I'll..."  
  
"You'll what?"  
  
Chi-Chi growled. She knew she was in a state of defeat before she even said anything. Goku had obviously made up his mind, and she knew as well as the next person that no one could change that. And although she wanted to be there when Usagi was asked about the broach, she knew it was just as well that she not. Knowing her temper she would start yelling at Usagi and only work to make things worse. "What are you planning?"  
  
Goku lowered his head as he scratched his neck. "Nothing. I just want to do this alone."  
  
Chi-Chi slammed her hand into the wall, though not creating a hole. "She's my daughter to you know."  
  
Goku nodded. "I know. I need time to think. I don't need another person along."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded as she lowered her head. "You're lucky that I'm not in the mood to argue with you, Goku." She brought back her hand with a sigh. She actually didn't mind that she wasn't going to be able to go. She was tired of always being the one in charge. It was a nice change to be the carefree one, though she would still worry about what was going on.   
  
Goku smiled. "Thanks for understanding." He knew Chi-Chi wasn't too upset about his decision. She was too mentally worn out to deal with this, which was one of the reasons why he wouldn't let her go. He wanted her to have a rest and he wanted time alone with his daughter. "I better go round up Usagi."   
  
At that moment the two parents' attentions were brought to their door, which was being opened. Shortly after, they noticed a foot step in, which was followed by the rest of their daughter, who was fully clothed and ready to leave. Once she had gotten into the kitchen, she had tried to eat, but it just wasn't happening. Instead, she went back to her room and got dressed to leave as her father had instructed. Usagi looked at both of her parents, who obviously hadn't expected her to come in at that moment as they just started at her with curiosity. "Did you guys know there's a hole in one of the walls in the kitchen?"   
  
Goku and Chi-Chi both shared a look of remembrance, though only Chi-Chi chose to act upon it. "Yes, Usagi, we did. Your father did that after you ran off!"   
  
Usagi flinched back a bit. Obviously her mother wasn't going to be as soft on her as her father was. She knew for a fact that she didn't run off, but it was useless to ague with her parents. It would only cause them to become angry again, which was something she wanted to avoid. She knew she would get no where with her mother, she never had. If she was going to get anywhere with anyone, it would be her father. So, she just lowered her head with no response.   
  
Goku looked back at his wife with a nod. "Let's go." He turned back to his daughter and grabbed her by the wrist, careful not to be too rough with her as her body had taken quite a beating in the last couple of days. Usagi only had a chance to look up to her father in question of their whereabouts, though she was unable to say anything before she had been teleported away with him.   
  
Chi-Chi was once again left at home alone to wonder what was going on. But she didn't mind this time. This would give her a chance to collect her thoughts. Deciding to take a bubble bath, she turned to the bathroom with absolutely no expression on her face.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku's first destination was Bulma's, Capsule Corporation. He teleported directly to the front door of the residential area, but he didn't knock on the door or ring the bell right away. There were still a few things he wanted to clear up. If he could get Usagi to say something about the broach, he wouldn't have to worry about disrupting other's lives to ask them about it.  
  
Turning to his daughter, he gripped her shoulders and knelt before her. His face told no anger, yet no happiness at the same time. "You know why we're here?"  
  
Usagi nodded. She knew exactly why she was here. She could remember very clearly how her father accused her of stealing the broach from Bulma or Videl. She didn't mind being here either for she knew nothing would happen. Bulma and Videl knew nothing of the broach. But, she did wish that she could talk to Luna. She wanted badly to tell her parents the truth. But it was her sworn duty not to tell. She had promised Luna, as well as her other mother, the Queen of the Moon that she would not tell a single soul, and she planned to keep to that agreement until she got permission otherwise. This was one thing she wouldn't budge about. "Yes, daddy, I know."  
  
Goku gritted his teeth. "Why don't you tell me what's up with this broach and then we don't have to go through this. Just make it easier on yourself."  
  
Usagi grinned. "I'm not having a hard time with this because I know I didn't steal it from anyone. I already told you that."  
  
Goku frowned. That wasn't exactly the reply he had been looking for. "I don't care if you didn't steal it or not. The point is that you're not telling me everything. I know that your broach has some importance to the enemy. Until you tell me what it is I'm going to ask everyone." He sighed as he lowered his head. Usagi said nothing, she just stared at her father, perfectly content. Goku looked back up before long. "Look, I know you're in a lot of trouble, and you're just trying to keep yourself out of even more trouble. If you tell me now, I won't be mad."  
  
Usagi frowned as she tried to pull away from her father, but his grip was too strong. "You're already mad at me."  
  
"I won't lie to you. I AM mad at you, but it's your own fault." Without allowing his daughter to say another word, he stood up and let go of her shoulders. "Now, are you going to tell me or not?"  
  
Usagi clenched her hands into two fists as she looked down at the ground. It hurt her to lie outright like this to him. She never thought she would be lying to him again, but she couldn't help it. A promise was a promise and she would have to honor it until otherwise specified. She knew if she told him most of her stress would be gone as she would have backup from her friends, as well as the Moon to get her out of this mess, but she wouldn't back out of her promise. Her father would understand in due time. "No."   
  
Goku frowned harder with a growl as he grabbed her by the arm and yanked her forward. "Fine!" Goku led Usagi to the door and knocked on it as hard as he could, well, as hard as he could without knocking it in.   
  
An angry thump was heard from behind it, which was followed by the door itself being ripped open. There stood an angry Saiyan prince with sweat running down his entire body. It was obviously that he had been training hard and was on a break. "What the hell do you want, Kakarotto?" Goku said nothing as he guided Usagi in and then pushed his own way in. Vejita frowned as he slammed the door shut and glared at the small brat next to his rival. "Shouldn't the kid be in school?"  
  
Goku frowned as he turned back to Vejita. "Where's Bulma?"  
  
Vejita growled as he rushed forward and grabbed Goku by the front of the shirt and pulled him down to be face to face with the taller saiyan. "You don't just walk into MY house and start demanding my woman's presence! Now what the hell do you want?!"   
  
Goku, for once, reacted to Vejita. He let go of Usagi and placed his hand on Vejita's arm. "Can it, Vejita!" He pulled Vejita's hand away from his shirt and pushed him away.  
  
That was all that was needed to cause Vejita to become enraged. "You bastard!" He stopped himself short of going onto his normal rants and looked down at Usagi who held her head unusually low as if she were in trouble. "What's wrong with the brat?"   
  
Goku glanced down at his daughter with a frown. Her refusal to tell him the truth about the broach had only caused him to become even angrier with her. "She's gotten herself into some trouble."   
  
Vejita grinned. "So that's what that fight was all about yesterday."  
  
Usagi looked up with a red nose. She was ready to cry already and nothing had even really happened. The thoughts of the day before were already wearing on her emotions again. "We didn't fight."  
  
Vejita smirked. This would be too much fun. "Oh? Then what were those power levels I felt yesterday? You and that bratty boy were fighting, and then it was you and Kakarotto. Did you finally realize that he's an idiot?"   
  
Usagi frowned. "My daddy isn't an idiot! You're the idiot!"  
  
Goku glared at his daughter. "Usagi! You can't deny that we fought! Even Vejita felt it!"   
  
Usagi lowered her head with clenched fists. "We didn't, I know we didn't."  
  
Vejita chuckled. He was enjoying this all too much. He had been mad to stand by and listen to how perfect Usagi was from Bulma for the past twelve years, but finally she had done something to get herself into trouble with even her father who was never angry with her. "I told you the brat was a trouble maker, didn't I?"   
  
Goku rubbed his teeth together as he looked away from Vejita. "Where's Bulma?"   
  
"Right here." Replied a woman's voice from behind.  
  
Goku turned around to the sound of the voice, his frown slowly disappearing. He was only angry with Usagi, no one else. "Great."  
  
Bulma, who had grease all over her shirt looked at Goku, but soon let her eyes travel down to the upset child at his side. "Hi, Usagi." It was obvious at her first look that Usagi was in a heap of trouble. The last time she had seen her look like that was when she had returned from the past and her mother laid into her. She looked back up at Goku in confusion. "What's up?"   
  
Goku ignored his daughter, as well as Vejita who was making snickers toward her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the broach he had confiscated from Usagi the night before. "Have you ever seen this?"  
  
Bulma reached out and grabbed the item Goku held for her and grabbed it out of his hand. She had indeed seen it before, but no where other than in Usagi's possession. "Nope. Why?"  
  
Goku sighed with great relief. Although he was asking around, he hoped with all his heart that no one had seen it before. He didn't want his daughter to be a thief. He would pick liar over a thief any day. But it still troubled him that she wouldn't tell him when he asked, and he wouldn't threaten her to make her talk. He would just keep asking until she finally told him the truth behind the broach. "No reason."  
  
Bulma looked back down at Usagi. Feeling bad, and not knowing the problem, she knelt down. "What's wrong, Usagi?"  
  
Usagi didn't lift her view from the ground. "Nothing."   
  
Vejita snorted. "Nothing?"  
  
Bulma looked up to her husband. "Shut up, Vejita."  
  
Vejita frowned. "The brat got herself into some major trouble. She tried to kill Kakarotto last night."  
  
Usagi frowned as she lifted her head. That was the one thing that would get her lively. "No I didn't!"   
  
Vejita grinned. "Then what was that fight you had last night? Just a little way to show your father you care?" He looked up at Goku. "I don't know how you're raisin the kid, but keep doing whatever it is you're doing. She's a killer, a true Saiyan at heart."  
  
Usagi growled as she jumped for Vejita. "I am NOT!" She latched herself around his back and dug her nails into his chest. "I didn't try to kill him! I didn't do anything! Stop saying so!"   
  
Bulma jumped away from the action with a gasp. "Usagi... no...."  
  
Acting fast, Goku ripped his daughter off of the shorter Saiyan's back, though it was a struggle. Usagi had wrapped herself around him pretty tightly. Even without power of her Ki aiding her she was pretty strong. "Usagi! Get off NOW!"   
  
Upon hearing her father's voice, Usagi unlatched herself from Vejita, though not before drawing blood with her nails. She wouldn't put up with being slandered by him, or anyone else for that matter. She only stopped because she didn't want to cause more tension between herself and father. Not that it mattered. Her actions were already done. "I'm not a killer! I'm not a killer! I'm not ..."  
  
Goku put his hand over his daughter's mouth to calm her down. He had to admit, he didn't much blame her actions. He didn't agree with Vejita at all. Usagi wasn't a killer, she was just troubled, well, from what he could tell. "We know you're not a killer."  
  
Bulma ran to her husband and punched him in the face. "No, Usagi ISN'T a killer! YOU are!"   
  
Goku didn't set Usagi down. There was no real reason to. "Vejita, Usagi may be in trouble, but that doesn't mean I've gone completely against her! You may be heartless enough to go against one of your children when they make a mistake, but I'm not!" He looked down at his daughter, still with a frown. "But don't think I'm going easy on you either."  
  
Usagi gulped as she looked up at Vejita, who was glaring back at her. It was nice to hear from her father that he wasn't against her, but she still didn't understand what was going on. It was like one of those stories where the main character falls asleep and doesn't remember anything. That's exactly what she felt like at that moment. She knew of nothing that these people spoke of.  
  
  
  
(Done! Less than I was going to put in this chapter. I guess I got a little carried away with detailing feelings, but oh well. It's still about ten pages long. Hope you liked it. See ya later! Hopefully tomorrow! ^_~ ) 


	143. Part 17

~*~*~*~  
  
After her fallout with Vejita, Usagi was feeling even worse. Not only were her parents angry with her for who knows why, as if that wasn't bad enough, but Vejita thought of her as a killer. Though, her father defending her against the Saiyan Prince like he had had actually worked to set her at ease, but barely. All she wanted to do was go home where she could stay safe from anyone yelling at her any further, well, anyone other than her parents. She would still be vulnerable to their reprimanding. But she knew her father already had other things planned before she could go home, before this could all be over. He was too interested in finding out the truth of her broach, which in itself was a major problem. She didn't need this right now, but she would have to somehow find a way to deal with it. Until her father was satisfied, he wouldn't rest.   
  
~*~*~  
  
After the small fallout with Vejita, Goku got himself and Usagi out of Capsule Corp. as soon as he could. He didn't have time to argue with Vejita. He had other things on his mind, and his eldest son's house was his next stop. From Capsule Corp. he teleported to Gohan's.   
  
Goku and Usagi appeared in a small, quiet neighborhood in the city. There wasn't much activity around, which was how Gohan and Videl had always liked it since they were always so busy with their work. They had needed an environment that wouldn't be disturbing.   
  
Goku took the lead into his son's yard, making sure Usagi stayed close behind. He didn't want her getting any funny ideas now that they were out in the open, not that she could get anywhere. Usagi, who was lagging behind her father, kept her eyes on the ground. She could already feel more tears filling in them as she walked forward, careful to keep step with her father and not to fall behind. The two hadn't really said much to each other after Vejita had finally calmed down enough to stop yelling at the top of his lungs, which only worried Usagi even further. Her father seemed to have been watching closely, as if to make sure she didn't try attacking Vejita again. Although, he hadn't really scolded her for doing so in the first place. She wasn't sure if she was going to get it later, or if he excused it as defense, and she wasn't about to ask for fear of causing more trouble.   
  
Goku stopped before the front door of his son's home. He hoped the boy was home considering the fact that he hadn't warned him he was coming over. But Gohan usually did his work at home so he was certain he would be in. He took a quick glance back at his daughter to make sure she was behaving herself. He couldn't help but notice the look of sadness engraved deep in her eyes. He found it somewhat strange that after what she had done the day before that she be sad again. She was acting as if nothing had happened. Maybe she really didn't remember. But how could she not? She had no reason to not remember. Maybe this was all part of her plan to fake him out. She had always known how to get exactly what she wanted from him, and many times, even though he saw through it, he gave in. Well, not this time. "Let's try not to attack your brother." He said with a slight chuckle as if to try and lighten up the mood.  
  
Usagi didn't react quite expected. In fact, she took that little remark as a sarcastic attempt to make her feel worse than she already was, something her father had never really done when he was angry with her. "I'm sorry..."  
  
Goku sighed as he turned back to the door and raised his hand for a quick knock. He didn't really want to press his daughter for laughter at that moment, especially since he was still a little mad at her for not telling him what he wanted and needed to know. "It's ok. I understand why you did it." He muttered under his breath.   
  
It wasn't before long that the door was opened with Videl standing on the inside. She looked at the two in confusion, wondering what in the world they could have been doing at her home at such an hour of the day. She knew Usagi was meant to be in school, and Goku, the days that he and Gohan didn't spar, this day being one of them, usually spent the day doing things that a young boy would do. "What brings you two here?" She asked, looking down at Usagi, who was obviously upset about something. From the story that Gohan had told her about Usagi's attacks, she guessed that it had happened again.   
  
Videl backed away from the door and opened it wider and motioned for the two to come in. "Come on in you guys." Allowing Usagi to follow inside behind her father, Videl proceeded to close the door. "I'm guessing you're here to talk to Gohan?"  
  
Goku made himself comfortable, as he always had in his son's house. He looked down at his daughter to make sure she had gotten in ok, and then back up at Videl. He shook his head softly to give her his answer. "Actually, no, we aren't. We're here to talk to you, Videl."   
  
Videl didn't exactly know what to say. She hadn't expected that at all. Usually when Goku came he would be wanting to know if Gohan wanted to go spar, never to talk with her. She would usually have to wait when Chi-Chi or Bulma came over to really do anything. "Well that's a change. What's the occasion?"   
  
Goku frowned as he reached into his pocket once again. This time, there would be no Vejita to strike at his daughter's feelings. Things would stay calm and his daughter wouldn't have a reason to go ballistic, he hoped. "We want to ask you something." He glanced down at his daughter, who cringed at the sound of the 'We'. There was no 'we' in this. It was all him.   
  
Videl put her hands in her pockets with a big smile. She had no idea what this was, but she surely didn't expect anything bad out of it. "Shoot."   
  
At that moment, Gohan walked into the room with his arms full of books. When searching through his study material in his study room, he had overheard the deep voice of his father and had become curious. Like everyone else who could feel power levels, he too had felt the fight between his little sister and father. He hadn't really thought it of anything until his father raised his power level far beyond the capacities of his sister's. That had been when he realized that this was no friendly spar between the two. They meant business, and for what reason, he knew not. But he did know one thing, his father had to have been extra angry to go as far as to use more power than his foe, especially since it was his own daughter. Now his curiosity was sparked even higher as to what had happened between the two of them, and why they had come to his home. "Father!"   
  
Goku forced a smile as he looked at his son, who was in the process of setting down his load of books onto the ground so that he may be free. "Hey, Gohan. What's new?"  
  
Gohan shrugged. "Not much. But I guess there's a lot going on with you."  
  
Goku groaned. Did everyone know? Of course they did. Everyone could feel his power when it was up that high for long periods of time. "I guess you could say that." He pulled out Usagi's broach from his pocket as he turned back to Videl. "I just wanted to know if you've ever seen this before."  
  
Videl reached out with dazzled eyes and grabbed the pendant from her father-in-law's hand. "Wow. It's beautiful." She held it up in the light, causing it to sparkle brightly.   
  
Gohan leaned over his wife's shoulder and took his own peek at the treasure. He recognized it quite well. It was the same broach that Usagi wore all the time. "Isn't this Usagi's?" Gohan questioned his father.  
  
Goku nodded as he glanced down at his daughter. "So she says."   
  
Videl looked up with a slight frown. "What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
Usagi lifted her head for the first time since arriving at her brother's. "Dad thinks I stole it."  
  
Videl looked down at the child, but back up at Goku with the most shocked expression. "Excuse me?"   
  
Gohan too looked down to his sister and knelt before her. "Come on Usagi." He said playfully as he rubbed his hand on her head. "You've gotta be exaggerating. Dad has better ways of getting you to talk than taking you around and asking specific people..." He stopped in his reasoning for just a moment and thought of the situation he was currently in. Had his father not just asked his wife if she had seen the broach anywhere?   
  
Gohan looked up at his father and pushed himself to a standing point. "Uh, Dad?"   
  
Goku sighed as he dropped his face toward the ground. "Usagi has elected not to tell me who gave it to her. I have reason to believe that the enemy may want it, which means it has to have some sort of special power in it." Although it was true that he had at first guessed that she may have stolen it, the more the thought about it, the more he realized that it was nonsense. Usagi had never been one to steal anything in her life. And her sudden outburst yesterday had been directed toward them, and not just a random rebellion.   
  
Usagi frowned. She had to defend herself. "Either that or he thinks it's just really pretty."  
  
Videl nodded. "Could be, but doubtful. Bad guys always have a reason for their actions."   
  
"Highly doubtful." Gohan looked down at his sister. "So, what is it?"  
  
Usagi pretended to zip her mouth shut with her hand and turned her head away. Goku frowned with a quiet growl. "See what a mean? She's not talking. I have to find out who gave it to her. I need to know what's so special about."  
  
Videl looked down at the item in her hand. "Looks like noting but an antique to me." She found the front of the broach and pushed in on a button, but nothing happened. "It's busted."   
  
Usagi grinned as she turned back to the crowd that was composed only of family. "See? It's nothing. It doesn't even open up. So can I have it back now?"  
  
Goku frowned as he gently pushed his daughter to the side and took the broach back from Videl. "Not so fast, kiddo. I'm not through with it yet."  
  
Videl looked down at Usagi and put her hands on her waist. From what she could tell, Usagi seemed to be in some sort of trouble, but she wasn't about to ask. That wasn't really any of her business. "In answer to your question, I haven't seen it, and I wasn't the one who gave it to her."   
  
By Videl's initial reaction, Goku had guessed that, which only made his guess even stronger. Usagi hadn't stolen it. Now it would just be a matter of finding out who actually gave it to her. Why didn't she just learn to realize how important it was that he knew. There was a being running around with Evil Dragon Balls who could use them at any second. He needed to know if there was something he could do to stop it. "Ok, thanks." He glanced down at Usagi, still with a frown. "Let's go, we still have stuff we have to do."   
  
Gohan tugged on his father's shoulder in order to hold him back. "Wait, father, I want to ask you something."  
  
Goku paused mid-step. He was pretty sure he knew what this was about. "Ok..."Gohan nodded his head to the side toward Usagi. Goku got the picture. "Videl, would you mind taking Usagi into the other room for a little while."  
  
Videl smiled up at her father-in-law. "Sure." She held out her hand for her sister-in-law to hold. "Come on!"   
  
Usagi half smiled up at Videl as she took her hand. She was happy that at least one person was being nice to her. Although her father had been somewhat nice to her that morning, it was still obvious that he was angry with her, which made her feel quite uneasy. But with Videl, she felt completely at ease.   
  
Goku watched his daughter being taken out of the room, only to find himself being left with his oldest. He sighed as he threw his hands behind his head in a very stressed fashion. He didn't even give Gohan a chance to ask any questions before he started in. "I don't know what I'm going to do." He said as if Gohan knew the whole story.  
  
Gohan, being completely unknowing of his family's current situation, couldn't stop wondering exactly what was going on. He understood that Usagi was in trouble. But he figured it was about the broach, and the broach alone. But watching his father's stressed figure he could tell that it was more, much more, for he had never see his father acting in such a fashion. "Mind telling me what happened yesterday?"  
  
Goku had planned on that from the start. He had never been in a situation quite like this before, and Chi-Chi wasn't the best candidate to discuss something like this with. Even though he was angry with Usagi, he still didn't like the way he had to treat her. He felt as if it was for his own emotional defense. Even though she was calling him her father again, he was still hurt that she had ever 'disowned' him in the first place. After she said that, he felt his control over the situation fly out the window. He didn't know what to do, and the situation was deteriorating fast with the way Usagi was acting now. She wasn't reacting to him quite like he had at first expected. According to his first inferences, he had figured Usagi was just trying to play him stupid, that she was just trying to get him into a position where he believed her 'pain' and then she would quickly turn on him once again. She had done it before the first fight started, and he didn't want it to happen again. But to his surprise, she hadn't yet turned on him. She was forever staying in her mood of innocence. "She started acting different yesterday." He paused, but only long enough to clear his throat. "She came home in a fit about how we never let her do anything, that we try to keep too much control over her. She went on about how she was old enough to move out..."  
  
Gohan crossed his arms with a frown. Now he had a little bit more of an understanding of where his father was coming from, and he didn't like it. Usagi had no right to say something like that. He couldn't believe his sweet little sister would do something like that. "She's not old enough to move out. She's barely twelve."  
  
Goku frowned. "I know that. But for some reason she's not acting like that anymore. She's acting normal again, and I'm beginning to think she's actually hurting."  
  
Gohan nodded. He could tell that just by taking one looking at her that morning that she was hurting over something. And it wasn't a forced hurt either, it was genuine. "I know what you mean, but I don't know what to tell you." He decided not to ask about the fight now that he knew a little more about the situation. He could tell that his father was having a hard time with this, and he didn't want to make things worse by asking about it.   
  
Goku sighed as he lowered his head. "I don't know what to do either, to tell you the truth. I know she deserves to be punished, yet I think she's been punished enough." He shifted his weight and crossed one leg over the other. "Now she claims none of it ever happened, that she doesn't remember any of it, and I want to believe her, but I just don't know if I can."   
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, in the living room, Usagi sat completely quiet with Videl on her side. She knew her sister-in-law was worried about her. It was obvious by the worried looks she was receiving. But she wasn't really in the mood to be talking. She had other things on her mind. Like her father for example. Some of what he was saying carried into the room she was in. She didn't know what to make of it. If he hated treating her like this, then why would he? Hadn't he always said that he would love her no matter what? Well, she wasn't feeling very loved right now. What was even stranger though, was what he was telling Gohan what happened. Still, she had no memory of these events. Was it possible for two people to remember the same time differently? Right now she wanted to be talking to him, instead of sitting there listening to him talk to her brother.   
  
Usagi looked up at Videl with tears forming in her eyes. "Videl..., I need help..."  
  
Videl could have cried sitting there while she looked down at the pleading child. She couldn't remember another time when Usagi had been so upset. Well, there were all those times when people made fun of her, but this was different. She had a different look in her eyes. It was a certain twinkle of lost hope that resided in her very heart that powered that look in her eyes.  
  
Videl placed her hand on Usagi's. "Spill it."  
  
Usagi nodded as she took a deep breath. She wasn't sure how she wanted to say this. Truthfully, she wasn't even sure she could sort it all out in her thoughts enough to tell someone else. Even she didn't fully understand what she was feeling. That was one of the main reasons why she needed help. She needed advise from an older, more mature woman. She knew her friends wouldn't be able to help her out this time. None of them had ever come close to a situation like this. Of course, Videl probably hadn't either, but it didn't matter. The point was that she was older and knew a lot more. "I think my mom and dad hate me..." She said as she lowered her eyes.   
  
Videl let out a near silent gasp upon hearing that. To her, that statement sounded utterly ridiculous. But, obviously, to Usagi, it was reality. "Oh, baby, your parents don't hate you." She raised her hand to Usagi's face and gently rubbed it across her cheek. "They love you. They always have, and always will."   
  
Usagi shook her head, tears now flowing down her face. "No they don't. Not anymore."   
  
Videl, seeing Usagi's tears, wanted to cry herself. This was worse than she had expected. The poor child felt as if she was hated by the two people she had always loved most. "Why, Usagi? Why do you think they hate you?"  
  
Usagi hiccuped with a sniffle. "Because." She lifted her arm and wiped her face dry. "They were really mean to me. I don't mean 'you're in trouble because you did this' kind of mean. I mean REALLY mean. They yelled at me for something I don't even remember doing. They said I was a liar. They said I told daddy he wasn't my dad anymore. And I didn't. I love my dad, and my mom. I would never do that. I know I wouldn't."  
  
Videl groaned as she rubbed the child's back. She couldn't exactly emphasize on this one. She herself had never been through something like this. Her father had always lived his life in the spotlight, she never had a chance to go through something like this. "Then why would they say you did?"  
  
Usagi shook her head in confusion. "I don't know." She paused as she looked up at Videl. "You don't think I would say that, do you?"  
  
Videl didn't know what to say. She knew Usagi well enough to know that she loved her parents as much as they loved her. But she also knew Goku well enough to know that he wouldn't just fly off the handle like this without a reason. Chi-Chi was a little different, but she knew Chi-Chi loved her children, and would never want to give them the feeling that they were hated. "Usagi, no, I don't think you would say something like that. But obviously your parents have a real memory of you doing it, whether you do or not. I don't know why you don't remember it, and they do, and I don't know what to tell you. But, I can tell you, if you ever need someone to talk to, just tell me. I'll be more than happy to try to make things better."  
  
Usagi looked at the ground. She hadn't expected that. She wanted to hear from someone that she would never do that. She wanted to hear That she wasn't in the wrong. She wanted someone to be able to tell her parents that she wasn't there when any of this happened. But who was? And why did her parents and herself remember things differently? All she remembered was Tatsuo taking her away and knocking her out in the alley. Was Tatsuo behind this? How could he be? Her parents didn't remember anything about Tatsuo. They only talked about stuff she did, which she knew she didn't do, and would never do.   
  
"Thanks Videl." She whispered. Even though she hadn't really gotten the counseling that she had hoped for, it was still nice to talk to someone about it. She looked up to her right, only to see her father and brother standing in the doorway. Looking at her father in particular, she noticed that his facial expression, once that of anger, had become somewhat softer and kinder. After hearing his conversation with her brother, and seeing his face, Usagi felt a little more at ease, but she was still in the thought that her father hated her, regardless of what Videl had told her.   
  
Goku motioned for Usagi to rise. "Let's go."  
  
Usagi nodded softly as she pushed herself up. She had already gotten used to the aches and pains of her body, though she felt small flashes in her body every so often. She said nothing as she walked to him, but wondered where they would be going next. She hoped it was home. She just wanted to go to sleep. She wanted to forget about this entire situation. What she wanted most was for things to go back to normal.   
  
Goku held out his hand for Usagi to grab on to, which she did. He looked up and around the room to his son and daughter-in-law. "Thanks."  
  
Gohan faked a smile. He hoped that everything would turn out alright between the two, well, the three counting his mother. "No prob." He looked down at Usagi and winked, but before long, the duo was gone.   
  
Videl stood up from the sofa and wrapped her arms around Gohan. "I feel so sorry for her."  
  
Gohan nodded. "For all three of them. Dad thinks Usagi hates him."  
  
Videl froze in thoughts. "But Usagi thinks your mom and dad hate her."   
  
Gohan frowned. "That doesn't make any sense."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku, according to his plan, teleported to Piccolo's next. He knew the broach wouldn't have come from him, but, Piccolo, being old God of Earth must have known something about the power of this broach. He let go of Usagi's hand and began approaching the fighter's home, only to realize Usagi wasn't following. He turned around, noticing that Usagi hadn't taken a single step forward. She just stood there with her face turned to the ground. Goku could easily sense what she was feeling, and it was at that point that he realized the extent of her pain.   
  
Forgetting momentarily about Piccolo, Goku traced his steps back to his daughter and knelt before her. He put all anger aside, coming to the conclusion that she really didn't understand, she really didn't know what was going on. "Usagi." He raised his hand to brush away the hair from Usagi's face, only to find her jolting away from him.   
  
Usagi wrapped her arms together and hid her face from her father. She didn't want him to see her tears. She figured he would probably yell at her for trying to fake him out.   
  
Goku gulped. His stomach felt like a lead weight. He stood up and frowned, though not at his daughter. He frowned at himself for being so stupid. He knew that he had over reacted the night before. And he was certain that his overreaction had gotten more than through to his daughter. He had plowed a hole right through her. But what else could he have done? He had been verbally, mentally, and physically attacked by his daughter. He expected her to do the same when she had wakened up. He didn't want to give her the chance to again. "You really don't remember what happened yesterday, do you?"   
  
Usagi shook her head, still not lifting it. "Nothing happened."  
  
Goku groaned as he threw his head a ways back. "Yes, Usagi, something did."   
  
Usagi frowned as she pulled her hands up and wrapped them around the back of her neck. "No it didn't, daddy. I didn't do anything."   
  
Goku sighed. It was obvious that he wasn't going to get anywhere with this. All that would happen was Usagi would just keep denying it. "Ok. Obviously you and I remember things a bit differently. Why don't we tell each other what we remember about yesterday and go from there?"  
  
Usagi nodded. She liked the sound of that, not that her father would believe her. "Ok..." She lowered one of her arms and wiped away her tears.   
  
Goku smiled, slightly. "Alright. I'll go first. You came home late yesterday, very late. You started out with a bad attitude, and things got pretty heated. You hit your mother aside, which set me off. You said over and over how you wanted to leave, that we were horrible parents. So I said if you beat me in a fight, you could leave. But if I beat you, you would come home with me."  
  
Usagi lifted her head just enough to look into her father's eyes without him really being able to see hers. "That..."  
  
Goku shushed his daughter. "Let me finish." Usagi stayed quiet after that. "That's when you said you'd rather have someone else for a father. As things turned out, I won. I took the broach from you out of curiosity, and the next thing I knew you were gone... after telling me three times that you hated me..." Goku was still hurting inside from that one. "Your turn."  
  
Usagi's stomach turned inside. "I never said I hated you, daddy. None of that ever happened."  
  
Goku raised Usagi's head just enough to see her face. He suddenly felt queasy. Her eyes were completely red from crying so much. He hated to be the one to cause such pain. "Go ahead and tell me what you remember then."  
  
Usagi nodded with a deep breath. "After you left me at school Tatsuo scratched my arm. I punched him out... but..." She dropped her head once again. She realized she should have left that detail out. That only made her look like an even worse person than she was already being made out to be. "I'm sorry..."  
  
Goku frowned. "He attacked you first."  
  
Usagi looked up with a half smile. At least he didn't yell at her for that. "Ok..." She wasn't sure how to react to that, to any of this for that matter. Her father was acting different than before, like there was no anger left in his body, but she knew there was, there just had to be. "After school, I was talking with the girls and ready to come home, but I was taken away. The next thing I knew I was in an alley and face to face with Tatsuo. It wasn't before long that he knocked me out. Next I knew it was night and I was downtown. That's pretty much when you came in."   
  
Goku looked up. He wasn't sure what to believe. Tatsuo attacking her like that didn't seem very believable. He was a pretty strange kid, but he didn't have any special powers. He had been completely amazed by the power he and Usagi had produced the other day.   
  
Usagi sighed as she pulled even further away from her father. "You don't believe me, do you?"  
  
Goku groaned at the question. He didn't know what he believed. "I don't know, Usagi. I mean, I don't see how you could have been knocked out AND be fighting me at the same time."  
  
Usagi frowned. "But I didn't FIGHT you!"   
  
Goku didn't react harshly to that, as he had the night before. Before, he had been too angry and upset to even really see five feet in front of himself. Now he was calmer, much calmer. He could handle 'back talk' now, even though he didn't really consider it as such. "Yes, you did. How do you think I got this nice cut on my lip?" He asked as he pointed to bruised cut that had been formed by a kick to the face.  
  
Usagi shrugged. She had wondered about that earlier, but she hadn't known where he had gotten it. "I don't know, daddy. But I swear I wasn't the one who did it. I wouldn't take my anger out on you. Not unless you turned evil..."  
  
Goku didn't know what to say there. That had been the precise reason why he had hit Usagi. He could have sworn she was turning evil, well, evil enough to act the way she had. "The person who fought me had YOUR body, and YOUR power, EXACTLY."  
  
Usagi sighed as she wiped away the tears from her eyes again. "But it wasn't, daddy. I know it wasn't. Please! Believe me! I love you! I don't hate you!"  
  
Goku reached down and wrapped his hand around the girl's head. This time, she was too upset to pull away. He couldn't express how good it felt to hear her say those words. "I love you too, kiddo." He gave her a quick kiss on her forehead to reinforce his words. "Always have, always will."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father. That had been exactly what Videl had told her. "Really?"  
  
Goku frowned. "Of course. You didn't think I actually hated you, did you?"  
  
Usagi blushed as she looked down at her feet. "Well..."  
  
Goku wrapped his arm around his daughter's shoulders. "I will never hate you. Neither will your mother."  
  
Usagi smiled slightly. She still wasn't completely convinced, but she was getting there. At least she had heard it from his voice that he loved her, that he didn't hate her. She could hear the sincerity in his voice, but something still told her to be wary of her parents. She wanted to make sure this wasn't just a trick. After the emotional stress they had put her through the night before, who wouldn't be wary? "Promise?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Always."  
  
Usagi sighed. "I really didn't fight you, at least, I don't remember..."  
  
"It's ok. We'll figure out what happened soon enough. My main concern right now is to find out what this broach is."  
  
Usagi held her breath. She knew her father would be asking her about it yet again. And, as usual, she would have to tell him nothing. "I can't tell you."  
  
Goku frowned. "Why not?"  
  
Usagi frowned as well. "Because I can't."  
  
"I know you know what it is."  
  
"I know you know that I know what it is."  
  
Goku stood up and brushed his knees off. "Usagi, whatever's in here, I WILL find out whether you tell me or not. Piccolo should know something about it."  
  
Usagi crossed her arms. "Then ask Piccolo about it."  
  
Goku sighed. "I will. But I'd rather hear it from you."  
  
( DONE! Hungry! Gonna make this short before my concert! Matta Ashita! ) 


	144. Part 18

~*~*~*~  
  
Goku and Usagi seemed to have reached an understanding of sorts, although the hard feelings haven't totally disappeared on both sides. They are both still very wary of one another, both thinking that other is only out for betrayal. Both want things back to the way things were before any of this happened, but both don't know how to get it to that point. There have been some hard words said, mostly by the parental side, words and statements that will be hard to overcome. But, Usagi knows, with time and proof that her parents truly love her, things will return to normal. She wouldn't hold this against them forever. For some reason, she had a feeling that what she and her parents remember happening is all very true. She wasn't sure how, but she knew it had to have been true. Her parents wouldn't ever just up and act like this. Goku, too, felt that something strange was going on.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku stood up and gently placed his hand on Usagi's back. Things were finally starting to settle between the two of them. At least now he wouldn't have to be so mean to her, something he hated to do with all his heart. Now he understood that Usagi truly didn't remember what she had done yesterday, if she had even really done it. It still couldn't understand why Usagi remembered one thing, and everyone else remembered another. Everyone had felt her fighting with him, so he knew it wasn't just in his imagination. But what could have caused this then?   
  
Walking up to Piccolo's, Goku glanced down at his daughter. She was still crying, but who could blame her? He had put her through such grief. He wouldn't hold it against her if she never wanted to talk to him again. Now he deserved to be put through the same kind of pain he had put her through, although, she had made him think she hated him. But it didn't matter. His actions were uncalled for. And now, with an unclouded mind, he could see that. "Usagi... I'm sorry I thought you stole the broach. It's just, with everything happening I guess I got a little carried away, but you really had me thinking you were going to lash out."  
  
Usagi said nothing, but her heart was screaming for joy. Finally, some sense was being made of this entire situation. "But I didn't..."  
  
Goku shushed his daughter once again. "I know, I know." He frowned as he looked straight forward. He couldn't understand why she wouldn't remember her little outburst. Everyone knew about it, well, all except for her, that is. But it wasn't like he didn't believe her anymore. Something HAD to have happened. He knew she was sincere, if not for the look in her eyes, but by sensing her strong feelings. He truly believed her that she didn't know what he was talking about, and that's what worried him most.   
  
Usagi continued to look forward. She made sure to keep a small distance between herself and her father from then on. Even though he was proving to be nice again, she STILL wanted to make sure he wasn't just putting her on. "I'm sorry."  
  
Goku looked down at his daughter, half in confusion over her reply. "For what?"  
  
Usagi, too, looked up to face her father. "For not remembering." She knew exactly why she didn't remember. She knew for what reason why Tatsuo had attacked her, and if she could only tell her father, he would understand to. Tatsuo was the blue creature who had attacked her the other day, he had to be. But something still didn't make sense. Her broach was missing after she had been attacked, whereas before, she had had it on her person. Then her father had somehow gotten a hold of it. How? He had just told her that he took it from her, but how could he have if she were knocked out. Tatsuo must have stolen it from her. But still, how could her father have gotten his hands on it if that had happened? She knew her side of the story was true, but then...   
  
Without going any further, Usagi stopped short of all her thoughts. The Saiyan duo had reached Piccolo's house, and was now ready to enter. Usagi had a million things running through her head, things she wanted to ask her father, things she wanted to point out to him. But she couldn't. She would have to wait until this meeting was over. And to tell the truth, she was a little worried that Piccolo would in fact know something about the broach. As her father pointed out, he was, after all, former God of the Earth. He of all people would know something about the Silver Millennium Moon Kingdom. Her father would surely find out who she was, and what she had been keeping from him. But then again, wasn't that what she wanted in the first place? She had wanted to tell her parents from the start that she was Sailor Moon, that she was a Princess. But it had been her promise to Luna that had kept her from spilling it. If her father found out from Piccolo, it wouldn't matter. At least SHE wouldn't have been the one to say anything.   
  
Goku was still thinking of how Usagi had just apologized for not remembering. Once again, he found himself down on one knee before his daughter. "Usagi, don't be upset that you don't remember, ok? Something must have happened. Alright?"  
  
Usagi frowned. "You're still talking like I really did it though."  
  
Goku sighed. "What else can I do? None of this adds up according to your story. You were the one who fought me, I know it. It was YOU. I'm willing to drop that, now that you've forgotten."  
  
Usagi pulled away from her father even further. "Daddy, that's not fair. You're acting like I have a disability. I know what I remember! I DIDN'T attack you! I didn't even come home until after you knocked me out."  
  
Goku stood up with a frown of his own. "Then how do you explain the fact that I have your broach."  
  
Usagi found herself wordless. She really had no idea how that could have happened, nor did she have any sort of explanation as to why. But she did know one thing, she wasn't wanting to get into this right now. "Maybe Tatsuo... I mean the little blue guy did something to your head to make you THINK I was there. Maybe he had some sort of chemical or something."  
  
Goku crossed his arms. That didn't seem all that far fetched. In all his time of dealing with forces of evil he was ready to expect almost anything. "True, but how do we know he didn't do something with your head?"  
  
Again, Usagi was unable to find the words to answer. She hadn't thought of that before. Tatsuo had some pretty good tricks up his sleeve. The first, he was smart enough to evaluate his enemies before he actually attacked. Maybe after he had knocked her out he did something to her head, as her father had just suggested. But that still wouldn't make sense. She distinctly remembered finding herself in a trash bin by the bar in the alley. 'That couldn't have happened...'  
  
Goku, thinking of what he just said, had also started thinking the same things that his daughter had. It sounded quite plausible to him, and would explain a few things. "Maybe that's why you went ballistic there for a while. Maybe he had you under some kind of trance that made you think you hated us."  
  
Usagi shrugged. She wasn't sure about that, but how could she be? She had, after all, been knocked out. And her father DID have her broach, which he only could have gotten from her, or Tatsuo. "But..."  
  
Goku nodded. "I know. He could have done the same to us too, but you see, OTHERS, such as Vejita, your brother, and most likely everyone else who can sense power levels FELT us fighting. Dende watched it from the lookout. That's the only problem with US being tinkered with. He couldn't have done it to all of us just to make you look bad."  
  
Usagi shook her head. "I guess not, but I still don't think he did that anyway." She looked down to the ground in wonder. 'But then, how did daddy get my broach without me being there?'  
  
Goku shrugged. "Suit yourself. All we're doing is coming up with possible theories here, we're not making any final decisions."  
  
Usagi nodded. "I know." She looked up at the door. She could see her father's hand reaching out to knock on it. "Daddy...?" Goku paused his movements and turned back to the girl. Usagi looked up. "If I DID really do all that stuff you said I did, I'm sorry."  
  
Goku smiled as he rubbed her head. "Don't worry about it. All I care about is that you're ok, and that YOU don't hate ME."   
  
Usagi let out a soft giggle as she moved closer to her father. "I don't hate you." She whispered.  
  
Goku said nothing in reply as he reached out and knocked on the door of Piccolo's home. He didn't want to risk getting into a near fight again. He knew things still weren't completely back to normal, and they wouldn't be until they found out what really happened, and who knows if they ever would.   
  
The two stood there, silent, until the door opened ever so slowly. Both Saiyans perked up at the movement, both preparing themselves for the truth to be revealed.   
  
Piccolo took one look at Goku and said nothing. He then proceeded to glare down at the child at his side with more hate than ever before. Both Goku and Usagi were certain as to why. It was fairly obvious that everyone would think poorly of her now. Piccolo quickly shot his attention back up to the girl's father, still with a glare. "Why'd you bring the kid?" He asked rather harshly.  
  
Goku sighed as he dropped his head as if he had taken Piccolo's words as a personal attack. "We all need to talk."  
  
Piccolo's glare turned into a cold-hearted frown. "Damn straight we do! What's up with the kid attacking Mamoru at full power?! Aren't you the ones always complaining about HIM?!" He turned back down to Usagi, who was staring back at him with a confused frown. "You! You're just lucky you have your father to protect you!"   
  
Usagi jumped back at Piccolo's snap. She wasn't sure exactly what he was talking about, but she had a pretty good idea that it was just another thing that everyone remembered her doing. Maybe she really had been messed with in the head. It was the only logical explanation for all of this. Especially how her father had the broach. She didn't remember it, but everyone else sure did. "What are you talking about?"   
  
Goku brought his attention back down to his daughter. "You fought Mamoru yesterday after school before coming home."  
  
"She didn't just fight him, she completely went against what she's always complaining about!" Piccolo grabbed Usagi by the arm and made her look him in the eyes. "Don't bitch about others' faults and make them completely change unless you're willing to act the same!"  
  
Usagi turned up to her father with a shocked expression on her face, completely ignoring Piccolo. "What?!" She didn't even begin to fathom what Piccolo was ranting about this time.   
  
Goku slapped his forehead with a groan. "You fought Mamoru at full power."   
  
Usagi gasped. "I would NEVER!" She yelled.   
  
Piccolo yanked Usagi's attention back. "You did! All we've listened to ever since you two met was how unfair Mamoru is, and how you wish he'd be a fighter of good instead of evil and blah, blah, blah. All your whining we put up with and how that he's changed you turn into a hypocrite."  
  
Usagi frowned as she pulled her arm away from Piccolo's grasp, though she did it gently. Closing her eyes like a prissy little lady and brushing herself off, she turned her head to the side. "Well I'm sorry I just don't remember doing such a thing..." Usagi frowned as she opened her eyes and turned back to face Piccolo while crossing her arms. Her mood was suddenly more abrupt than before. "Probably because I wouldn't do something that stupid!"   
  
"Yeah, whatever, I don't even care. Just make sure you don't complain when you get what's coming to you."   
  
Goku frowned as he glared at Piccolo. "She doesn't remember what happened, Piccolo. I'm not so sure we should be yelling at her."  
  
Usagi grinned up at the jolly green giant. "Yeah." She taunted as she stuck out her tongue. "I was attacked and something happened, so don't yell at me!"   
  
Goku sighed. "We don't know that for sure, Usagi. It's only a theory, remember that."  
  
Usagi dropped her smirk. "Fine." She continued to glare up at Piccolo with a grin, though now for a different reason. Without her father even knowing her actions, she latched onto the green man's arm. "So, Piccolo, daddy has a question for you." Putting aside all that had previously happened, Usagi happily turned up to her father as if to beg him to ask. She knew exactly what she was doing by speeding things along. She wanted her father to find out about her other identity. She wanted to be able to tell him everything. It was that stupid promise that was holding her up. But, if her father found out by other means all would be solved.   
  
Shocked, Goku stared at his daughter in confusion. Why was she all of a sudden so eager to do this? Then it hit him. She had never said that she didn't want to tell him, she had always insisted that she couldn't. And whenever she said THAT, her voice had always sounded sad, like it was hurting her to not tell him. He didn't know what she was up to, but he all of a sudden got the picture that she wanted him to know.   
  
Reaching into his pocket, he stared back up at Piccolo. "Do you know anything about lockets?" He asked as he pulled out Usagi's broach. He held it out for his fellow fighter to get a good look at. "I have a hunch that this holds some sort of power since the guy who attacked Usagi the other day came back looking for it. But..." He started, diverting his attention down to his daughter, "Usagi won't tell me."  
  
Usagi just shrugged with a smile of joy. Finally, Piccolo would know what kind of power it held and her burdensome secret would be released. She would be free once again. "Sorry. My lips are sealed."  
  
Goku grinned. "Sure." He looked back up at Piccolo, who had just taken the item out of his hand.  
  
Piccolo ran his fingers over the top of the broach, his eyes glowing with wonder. "Where'd you get this." He asked, looking up at Usagi.   
  
Hearing that caused Goku to become half excited. Piccolo's voice had a certain quality to it that told of his knowledge. Usagi too found herself becoming excited. "Can't say."  
  
Piccolo frowned as he stared back down at the small item at hand. "I know I've seen this before, but I don't know from where. I know it has some sort of power, but I'm not even sure of what that could be either." He flipped it around and pressed a small button on the edge, which should have opened it, but it didn't. The broach remained closed. "Every God keeps record of what happens in Earth's history during his term of service. This way, we all know basically what's happened in the past. Needless to say my term has had the most written in it, but I do remember reading once about a fight taking place here, and somewhere else in space. I couldn't make it out, really, most of it destroyed. But I do remember seeing a picture of this."  
  
Goku wasn't too shocked by hearing that. He had expected something like that to be said. "When was it dated?"  
  
Piccolo shrugged. "I have no idea, fairly old. Maybe a thousand or so years old."  
  
"Wow! THAT old!? Dende thought maybe a few hundred, but no a thousand..." He looked down at his daughter again. Now more than ever he wondered what it was. "Come on Usagi, can't you just tell us?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. She wasn't all completely happy about the way things had turned out. She had expected Piccolo to know everything about it, to be able to tell her father exactly what it was, and why she had it. "I can't, daddy. I really can't."  
  
Goku sighed. He would have to leave it at that. It was obvious that she wouldn't tell him, no matter what. "Alright."  
  
Piccolo studied to broach even further. He wished he had more knowledge, but that was all he knew. "I can try to find the information again, though I'm betting they were completely destroyed when my lookout was destroyed the first time, when Garlic Jr. was destroyed."  
  
Goku frowned. "That's probably why Dende didn't know about it when I asked him."  
  
Piccolo nodded. "Most likely. I'm betting everything I documented was destroyed when Buu showed up and destroyed the place again. Now there's nothing left."  
  
Usagi; "Not true, we can't forget the Guardian of Time. She knows everything. She knows everything that happened on Earth."  
  
It was at that moment that the front door opened and in popped two teenagers by the name of Haruka and Mamoru. Both burst into the room in a fit of laughter, only to become quiet at the sight of Usagi. Haruka had been told of what Usagi had done, but she didn't need words to know. She too could feel everything that had happened. After all that crap that Usagi had put them through, she turns around and does this. "YOU!"   
  
Mamoru raised his power level and jumped into a fighting stance. "Come on! Let's go! BRAT!" Usagi didn't nothing but keep her normal stance and scowl at the two, which only worked to anger them even further. "Payback's mine!" He pulled his upper arms back and held them close to his ribs. He would enjoy kicking the crap out of Usagi. He had felt Goku do the same the day before and was certain Goku would let him have a whap at her. Well, maybe not of his own will, but Mamoru WOULD Have his revenge.  
  
Usagi did nothing but hold her ground. At least this time, she had the upper hand of knowing what was going on before any of this happened. Had she and her father not come to some sort of understanding she was certain she would have gone insane by now. Piccolo AND Mamoru seemed to be against her all of a sudden, and she could tell that Piccolo didn't buy the excuse that she didn't remember anything as a reason not to yell at her. But what did she care? It wasn't her problem. "I'm not doing anything but standing here."  
  
Mamoru frowned as he clenched his fists. "You can't say no. I've already decided for you. I want an even, fair payback."   
  
Haruka chuckled. "Maybe she's scared... little chicken-wuss."   
  
Mamoru grinned. "Don't you mean MONKEY-Wuss?"   
  
Haruka deviously smirked. "Oh, of course! How could I forget? MONKEY!" With an evil laughter, Haruka looked down at the Saiyan, who was beginning to grow red with anger. "Oh I'm sorry, did we hurt the little baby's feelings?"   
  
Usagi glared at Haruka with hate filled eyes. Monkey had been something she hadn't been called in years and she didn't plan on having the name make a come back any time soon. "Shut up!" She bounced back into a fighting position of her own. "No one calls me that!"  
  
Mamoru and Haruka exchanged a smirk with one another while letting out a sarcastic gasp. Mamoru was the first to reply, however. "Oh I'm so scared! She's going to hurt me now!" He laughed loudly and soon came to the most serious of expressions. "You can't do anything, not now that daddy's here with you!" He mocked. "You're already in trouble, you wouldn't want to make it worse, would you?"  
  
Usagi didn't relax. She knew something that Mamoru didn't. She wasn't really in trouble anymore, well, not entirely. Her situation had been put almost on pause until the truth was found out. Then, and only then would she know if she was truly in trouble or not. But that didn't matter right now.  
  
Goku glanced over his shoulder to his daughter, who was angrier than ever, though not as bad as she was when Vejita accused her of being a killer. He could tell she was getting ready for another attack. Being called Monkey was yet another of her major pet peeves. "Don't do it, Usagi."  
  
Usagi frowned, but continued to stare at Mamoru and Haruka. She knew she shouldn't have been starting this. She knew she hadn't done anything to Mamoru, at least, she didn't remember if she had or not. Because of that, she knew she shouldn't have been trying to fight Mamoru now. She had no reason to other than to defend herself from such harsh words. "Take it back!" She cried out.  
  
Goku groaned as he backed away from the kids. He hoped that Usagi wouldn't be brazen enough to actually start something. If she attacked them for petty words, words that didn't even slander her characteristics like Vejita had, then there were problems.   
  
Staring at Mamoru, he felt somewhat sorry for the boy. He had no idea of everything that had gone on in the past couple of days. The boy, nearly a man, had been ruthlessly attacked by Usagi the day before, for what reason Goku didn't know, but it didn't matter. What did was that she DID attack him, as she had her own father. Although she argued that she didn't, everyone knew the truth. But Goku, as he made clear moments earlier, wouldn't hold anything against her. She was sincere in her explanation of what she remembered, as well as her apologies.   
  
"Mamoru, don't do this." Goku glanced back at his daughter, who was bracing herself for an attacking. "Come on... You're better than this, I know you are."  
  
Piccolo didn't say one word or another. He didn't really care what happened one way or the other. The only thing he worried about was Usagi's complaining, something she had become very good at in her short life. It seemed like every time he saw her she was complaining about his son, which he took personally.   
  
He wasn't even completely in the state of believing what Usagi had said. He had felt all that happened the day before. How she attacked his son, and how she fought with her father. No matter what she said, she couldn't be trusted until she proved herself again. He would have to watch her extra carefully until everything blew over. But until then, he would keep his mouth shut.   
  
Usagi took her father's words into account as she thought of her current position. She knew she had no business fighting Mamoru, or even Haruka for that matter. They were supposed to be on good terms, no longer fighting one another for reasons of hate. This totally went against their terms of rivalry. But then again, they had called her Monkey, something she had grown to loath. "I said take it back, Mamoru."  
  
Haruka chuckled as she crossed her arms and stood rather arrogantly. "Make us."  
  
Usagi growled as she tightened all her muscles. She had no desire to fight them, physically, but mentally and verbally she had no problem with. Not being able to raise her power level really put a damper on the mental portion of her plan, though. She hated that she would have to wait an entire month just to get her power back. "Just do it!"   
  
Mamoru glared at Usagi as he raised his power level slightly once again. The fact that she was remaining at her normal power hadn't escaped him. "What's the matter, Odango? Can't use your power now that daddy's here to monitor you? Afraid he's gonna kick your butt again like he did yesterday?"   
  
Goku shot a quick look back at his daughter, ready to grab her and pull her aside if she were to try and jump at him, which he expected she would after a comment like that. But to his surprise, halfway through her first step, she pulled herself back and stopped from doing anything stupid. She must have known that it was useless. She was power less and would get herself beaten horribly, which was why he would have stopped her in the first place. He didn't want a replay of what had happened to her the first time the two met. 'Good, Usagi, think smart.'  
  
Usagi growled as she stiffened her tail behind her legs, something she only did when she was angry enough to attack without being attacked first. But she remembered all that she had ever been taught about self control. She didn't want to make her father think that she was still a ticking time bomb waiting to go off at the slightest brushing of her feelings. "Why would I lower myself to your level?"  
  
Mamoru dropped his smirk, his face taking the expression of nothingness. He found that neither funny, nor angering in any way. "Sorry, kid. You already did that yesterday, you know, when you fought me at highest level... and when you treated Hotaru, who looks up to you most might I add, like crap."  
  
Usagi froze upon hearing what her rival had just spit out. It had been bad enough when Mamoru and Haruka thought she was against them, but now Hotaru? Much like her mother and father, she never would have treated Hotaru badly. "What..." She asked, her face turning pale at the thought of hurting Hotaru even further than Kaori and the kids at her school were already doing.  
  
Mamoru frowned. "Idiot. You should remember, you were there. You're the one who said she's not allowed to come near you anymore."  
  
Usagi shook her head in disbelief. "No..." She whispered.  
  
Mamoru nodded. "Yes! You were acting just like me, the kind of person you HATE!"   
  
Haruka snorted arrogantly. "Some friend she turned out to be."   
  
Usagi brought her hands up over her cheeks. "I wouldn't... I couldn't have..." She looked up at her father, who looked down at her. He had no words to offer her.  
  
Goku had no idea what to tell his fear stricken daughter. He hadn't known that Hotaru was involved in yesterday's events. That made all the more things worse. Hotaru had always been more fragile, mentally. She had always been easier to hurt and confuse than Usagi. Especially now that she was going through such a hard time with her memories, which had somehow been brought about by some unknown means. This would have only worked to make things worse, to make her feel worse than before. "I...Usagi...."  
  
Usagi's eyes began watering up with tears as she neared her father. A situation bad just turned worse. She could handle her parents, she could somewhat handle Piccolo, Mamoru, and Haruka, but Hotaru was a different story. Hotaru had been through such emotional pain in the past year with finding out about her mother's true death, and Kaori trying to take her place as the motherly figure, as well as the kids at school, a most recent change. Hotaru didn't need this stacked upon it. "Dad... I didn't..."  
  
Goku nodded softly. He knew she was thinking this would set him off again, but in fact in only went to prove the point that something fishy was going on here, yet it didn't show exactly what was going on. He hoped they would find out soon. He hated this with all his heart. "I know. Don't worry."   
  
Usagi frowned as she wiped away her tears. Somehow, though she didn't know how, she would have to make things up with Hotaru. She hoped her friends hadn't been turned against her too. "I have to worry. Now Hotaru thinks I hate her."  
  
Mamoru, now more confused than ever, turned to his own father. "What the hell is she talking about?"  
  
Haruka nodded to show that she too agreed with Mamoru in wanting answers. "Really, Monkey, it's your own fault."  
  
Usagi shot a quick glare in the direction of the older girl. "No! It's not! I really didn't do ANY of the things you guys say I did." Pausing but for a moment, Usagi hunched over. "Well, I hope I didn't. I don't think I did..."  
  
Goku sighed as he looked around the room. "We don't know what's gone on, but somehow, we, as in everyone BUT Usagi, remember things differently than she does. For some reason, she has no memory of what happened after school other than coming home AFTER I brought her there."  
  
Mamoru, more concerned than in a humorous mood, looked down at Usagi. "Wow, temporary memory loss, or are you just trying to get out of trouble."  
  
Usagi mustered up a growl as she glared up at the teenager. "Would I go through all this trouble just to TRICK you?! I think NOT! I REALLY don't remember."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Alright, alright. Just checking." He looked around the room, especially at his father, who hadn't really said much of anything since this entire thing started. "What do you think?"  
  
Piccolo frowned. "About what?"  
  
Mamoru groaned. "What do you mean 'About what?'? Odango! You know, what happened to her?"  
  
"How the hell should I know?! You think I was there when whatever happened, happened?"  
  
Mamoru flinched away from his father. "Well I don't know. You used to be God and all. Thought maybe you'd have an idea or something."  
  
Piccolo crossed his arms. "I don't."   
  
Usagi stared at her father. She didn't know what to say, she didn't know what to do. She was at a loss for words. She wanted to go visit Hotaru now, but she knew the girl would be too upset to speak right now. That's the way she worked. She would get so upset that she COULD'T speak. That's how it was when she found out that her mother died. She just recently started talking now. This could have thrown her back into her state of pure quietness.   
  
But Usagi couldn't worry about patching that up quite yet. She still felt as if she needed to get herself out of the red with her own parents. Just because she had finally convinced her father that she wasn't evil doesn't mane her mother will be convinced as well, and her mother was a harder person to convince than her father. "Daddy, can we go home? Please?"  
  
Goku didn't have to ask why she was so eager to go home to know why. She had sort of patched things up with him, and he was sure she wanted to patch things up with Chi-Chi as well. And he didn't blame her. Now that he knew she truly didn't remember, he felt horrible. He could see and FEEL what Usagi was going through, and he didn't want her to have to suffer any longer. With a slight shake of his head, he gave her his answer. "Yes."  
  
Usagi smiled as she turned back down to Mamoru. Having heard his outburst, as well as Piccolo's, she was beginning to believe that Tatsuo really had done something to her head and made her go a bit crazy. Maybe after she had run off like her father explained, she had somehow ended up in the trash can while in hiding. Maybe she passed out, and when she woke up again, she hadn't remembered a thing. Maybe that was the plan to turn her away from her father. Body morphing hadn't really crossed her mind at all. And why would it? It wasn't the most obvious solution. "I don't know what happened yesterday, but it wasn't me."  
  
Mamoru snorted with a quick roll of his eyes. "Could have fooled me."  
  
Usagi frowned. "Please, Mamoru. I'm serious."  
  
Mamoru sighed, his sarcastic facial expressions dropping. "Fine. You don't remember, I got it."   
  
Usagi's smile slowly faded away. "Thanks." She whispered. She looked back up to her father. "Can we go home now?"  
  
Goku nodded as he placed his hand on her shoulder. He looked up to Piccolo, his eyes telling of his now serious mood. "Don't forget to look into what we talked about."   
  
Piccolo nodded. "I'm on it."   
  
Goku smiled and gave Piccolo a friendly nod. And, without another word to any one, he pressed his fingers to his forehead and teleported away, leaving only Mamoru, Piccolo, and Haruka left.   
  
Mamoru immediately turned to his father in a flash. "I really hope you didn't buy that."   
  
Piccolo frowned with a sigh. "Why shouldn't I?"   
  
Haruka; "Because she's a conniving little brat, that's why. You can't believe anything she says after what she pulled. God, she's like we used to be."  
  
Piccolo smirked. "Ah, so now the tables have turned. Is that what you're saying?"  
  
Mamoru growled as he turned away from his father. "Give me a break, I'm still as bad as I used to be."  
  
Piccolo's smirk only grew more devious by the second. "Oh? So protecting little girls from their schoolmates is what you've been dong all these days?"   
  
Mamoru's frown grew. "That's not the point."  
  
Haruka grinned. She had to get a piece of this. "Isn't it though?"  
  
"You be quiet! It's NOT the point. The point is that Usagi attacked me for no reason, verbally and mentally attacked Hotaru, and most likely Goku. That's not just something you can forget just like that, you know."  
  
Piccolo nodded. His son had a bit of a point. "But what you have to understand is that we've all been through some pretty strange stuff before, long before any of you were born. We know when we smell something fishy going on. Now, I'm not saying I completely believe what the girl says, but I was watching her very carefully just now, and she seems sincere about what she says. Usagi's not the type of person to just go off on people for the hell of it. She has to be provoked, and only on certain subjects. She doesn't get mad for just any reason." 


	145. Part 19

~*~*~*~  
  
That day, after school had already gotten out and she had been picked up and driven home, Hotaru sat in her room in the dark, all alone and feeling as if she had no one to turn to right now. Usagi had turned her back away, she felt as if she had been betrayed by the only person who ever understood her, and what she was going through. All she could remember from the day before was Usagi on her rampage, how she had been told never to go near her BEST friend ever again. Usagi had made it all too clear that she wanted nothing to do with Hotaru anymore, leaving Hotaru to feel like she had done something truly horrible, that she deserved the 'punishment' Usagi dished out to her. Mamoru had tried to explain to her that Usagi was the one in the wrong, But Hotaru knew Usagi. She knew Usagi would never just burst out in a fit like she had without a reason.   
  
So now she was left alone with the feeling of betrayal. She was mentally alone. Kaori and her father were acting stranger and stranger by the day, her father spending more time in his basement lab than ever. She couldn't even go to him. Sure she had her other friends, Rei, Makoto, Ami, and Minako, but none of them knew exactly what she was going through. Usagi had always known what it was like to get picked on at the extreme she was. She had been through it first hand, whereas the others hadn't. They could only sympathize and not even come close to empathizing.   
  
Sitting at her desk with two lamps lit nearby, Hotaru burred her face in her arms, wanting to cry. She couldn't get what happened the day before out of her head. That was all she could think about, all she could see when she closed her eyes. She had been so happy when she had met Usagi. She was the first person who had ever been nice to her, the first person who had ever called her a friend. She wished she knew what she had done to upset her Saiyan friend.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, Tatsuo lurked around the city with a rather devious smirked planted on his face. Today he would begin the rest of his plan, a plan that he had put into action long before this day. It had started when he had first met Ami on the first day of the girls' Junior High School Career. That was when he had begun his information gathering phase. Those stupid brats had been dumb enough to spill their entire history and their weaknesses thinking that he was just a harmless boy with a huge amount of curiosity. How stupid they were. They ended up feeding him everything he needed to know in less than a week. Now he knew how to destroy Goku, who was actually stronger than him right now. He knew how to take out Usagi, which he had already pretty much done. Finding out Usagi and Goku's bond had helped out quite a bit there. Turning them against one another was his favorite part about his plan, but that was over and it was time to move on to greater things.  
  
He reached into his subspace pocket at his side and pulled out a single Dragon Ball and brought it to his face. "Stupid Saiyans. Stupid Sailor Moon... Stupid Goku! I WILL have that broach whether you like it or not." With a frightening cackle, he tossed the precious ball up into the air. "My power combined with the sweet energy of the Moon will make me the ultimate being in the universe. Never again will I have to fear idiots like Goku!" He placed the Dragon Ball back into his pocket with a smirk. He could remember back to when he had first felt the power of the Moon. It was about eight months ago. He had in the eastern Universe looking to stir up trouble when he had felt it. All of a sudden out of no where he had felt the power of the Moon. He knew immediately that it had a massive potential. It was then that he made his way to the Earth.   
  
Once here, he began his search. He wanted to find the owner of this broach. He infiltrated schools and businesses all over the world, killing random people and morphing himself into their bodies in order to take their place in society. That was how he had gotten his current body. He searched for eight months with no luck. He had to find the owner of such a great power, but it was useless. His search had come up empty. Maybe it was lucky that Usagi hadn't been in school until the following year. She had been at home and tutored by her mother, unable to be detected by Tatsuo.   
  
Tatsuo escaped the eye of everyone. No one suspected that he was an alien, and outside force come to retrieve what he claimed to be his. Almost giving up hope as he had not found a single thing in nearly a year, Tatsuo had stumbled across a history textbook one night in the home of one of his victims. He had taken the body of a successful lawyer in Europe. The man had had three kids, and one had been the age of Usagi. Curious if the earthlings would put in "Super heroes" into their books, something that might aid his search, he flipped through the pages. In it, there had been a picture of Mr. Satan. It had explained that he had saved the earth from a monster named Cell. Buu had not been added into this textbook as the worlds' memories had been erased of Buu. But that didn't matter to Tatsuo. The man was said to be the strongest in the world, maybe even the entire universe. That was when Tatsuo realized he was in the wrong place. He needed to be in Japan. He needed to meet this Mr. Satan fellow. That had been about four days ago.   
  
Tatsuo ditched his lawyer body and raced to Japan. It was evening when he arrived, and he took the first person he could find. He didn't care what age, or what gender. As it turned out, it was the body of a thirteen year old boy. So, the next day, he attended the same school as Usagi, Minako, Rei, Makoto, and Ami. And that was how it all started. There, he found out everything he needed to know.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son Household~~  
  
Goku arrived home with Usagi about three hours after they had left, and they had left at noon. They appeared in the living room where Chi-Chi had been sitting almost all day. She was sitting on the sofa and facing the TV, though not watching anything but a black screen. She hadn't been able to think of anything but what had previously taken place in her house. She wished she would have gone with Goku earlier. She wanted so badly to know what was going on. She hated to be left in the dark.   
  
Once the Saiyan duo had returned, Chi-Chi was able to sense their presence. Without a word, she turned around to face them. "So?" She asked, staring up at her husband for answers. Her eyes were quickly brought back down to the girl at his side. She didn't look nearly as upset as she had before she left.  
  
Goku too looked down at his daughter, but with more of a smile than his wife had. "Well..." He began as he looked back up to his wife who anxiously awaited his reply. "A lot." He motioned for Usagi to go forward and sit by her mother. Usagi hesitantly walked forward, as directed. She wanted to make sure her mother didn't lash out at her.  
  
Chi-Chi waited for her husband and daughter to sit down before she asked her next question. "That doesn't tell me anything. Wha'd you find out?"  
  
Goku let out a sigh of relief as he leaned his head into the back cushion of the sofa. "Piccolo's seen the broach, but doesn't know what kind of power it holds. Videl and Bulma have never seen it."  
  
That was good news to Chi-Chi. She didn't think her daughter would have stolen the broach, but one could never tell. Usagi had acted exceptionally strange the day before. She turned her head to her daughter, a frown slightly forming. "I expect you were on your best behavior, young lady..."  
  
Usagi gulped as she slowly turned her attention onto her mother. She could see her father just past her mother, and hoped that he would back her up and not completely turn his back on her. This was it. The moment to find out if her father had been truly sincere in believing her, or just tricking her. "Mama, I have something to tell you." She said with a deep breath.   
  
Chi-Chi crossed her arms while glancing over her shoulder back to her husband. She wondered if he knew what this was about. "Go on."  
  
Usagi nodded while taking in an even deeper breath. "Me and dad talked. He told me everything you guys remember and I told him everything I remembered. None of it matched up." She looked down at her hands, which were gripping her tail harder than ever. "I don't remember anything you guys do. But everyone else does."   
  
Chi-Chi didn't know what to make of what was being told to her. But she could tell one thing, her daughter wasn't fooling around. "What are you saying?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "I don't know."  
  
Goku placed his hand on his wife's shoulder in order to gain her attention. "We think she might have had something done to make her go a little crazy, temporarily."  
  
Chi-Chi gasped quietly at the thought. She couldn't imagine that happening, but it wasn't like it didn't make sense. Usagi HAD been acting strange, stranger than usual. She had found herself wondering 'Why the sudden change?' It wasn't just a little change either, which was what had gotten her wondering in the first place when Usagi had first wakened up from being brought back home.   
  
She turned back to face her daughter, who looked as if she wanted to cry again. "Are you sure you don't remember anything?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry!" She threw herself upon her mother and buried her face into her shoulder. She didn't even care about what had been said and done the night before at that point. All that mattered to her now was that her mother didn't lash out at her, even after everything was explained. Her mother didn't doubt her. Of course, she really didn't have much of a chance to yet, but it was all the same. "Please don't hate me."   
  
Chi-Chi gasped. "I never hated you, dear. Angry with you, yes, hate, no." Chi-Chi wrapped her arms around her daughter with a smile. She didn't even have to ask twice if Usagi remembered anything. It was apparent she didn't. It was also obvious that this wasn't just a trick. The night before, she had seemed upset, but one could not tell if it was real or fake. But, if it was fake, Usagi wouldn't have been carrying on like this for twenty-four hours. She would have given up. "I'm sorry for what I, We, said last night. I didn't know what to do."  
  
Usagi lifted her face up just enough to let her eyes rest on her father's. She hadn't expected them to believe her so easily. They had sounded pretty set in their anger before. "I didn't mean anything I said last night, I promise."  
  
Goku raised his hand and placed it on Usagi's head. "Don't worry, I WILL find whoever did this to you. I'll make him wish he never touched you!"  
  
Chi-Chi smiled. "Make him pay."  
  
Usagi closed her eyes and adjusted her head so it would be resting sideways on her mother's shoulder. Finally, what had been chaotic had turned into a calm. She wasn't even upset with her parents anymore. How could she be? They hadn't meant to be mean to her. They were only going off what they thought was really happening. And who knows. Maybe she did deserve everything she got. No one could be sure at this point. The point was that her parents were obviously feeling as if they had to defend themselves mentally. If everything they were saying was true, then she had said some pretty awful things to them as well. They were all in the wrong, both sides. It wouldn't be fair for her to be angry with them, while they put everything in the past where it belonged. "I love you guys."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled. Usagi would never know how good it felt to hear that coming from one of her children. Gohan and Goten had never really been all that vocal when it came to expressing their feelings in times of peace. It was probably because they were boys, but nonetheless, Chi-Chi loved to hear it. "I love you too."  
  
Usagi opened her eyes and placed them on the figure of her father once again. "Daddy, do you think I could have my broach back now?" She asked him with the most innocent puppy-dog eyes.  
  
Goku shifted himself to lean on the arm of the sofa. "Do you think you could tell me what it is and why it's important?"   
  
Usagi sighed as she closed her eyes once again and relaxed into her mother. "No."  
  
Goku rested his head in his hand with a slight frown. "Then I can't give it back to you. If Piccolo gives me the ok on giving it to this guy when he finds out what kind of power it holds, I will."  
  
Usagi's eyes flew wide open. That would be absolutely awful. She would definitely have to tell him then. She would rather it come from the mouth of Piccolo. That way she wouldn't be breaking her promise. "Ok." She replied, trying act as calm as possible.  
  
Chi-Chi pushed her daughter forward a bit and looked her in the eyes. "Why can't you just tell your father? We know there's something to it. The only thing you're hiding is what it does."  
  
Usagi gulped. "I know." She looked down at the ground. She could hear her father's breathing becoming deeper, which was not a good sign. It meant he was becoming angry, slowly, but still angry nonetheless. She knew why too. She had always confided in him, and told him everything. Keeping this secret from him was obviously upsetting him, but if and when the truth came out, he would understand. He would have to.   
  
"Don't be mad." She looked back up. "Please?"  
  
Goku pushed himself up and stretched his arms up. "I don't know, Usagi. You're keeping something from me. How can I not?" With that being said and done, he walked forward a few steps and disappeared into his room.   
  
Usagi sighed as she stared at her mother. "He's mad, isn't he?"  
  
Chi-Chi wasn't sure what to say. She didn't want to hurt Usagi's feelings by telling the truth as they had just made up and everything, but she also didn't want to mislead her. "Not exactly mad, Usagi, more disappointed than anything."  
  
Usagi leaned into the back of the sofa and slouched down. "I can't say anything. I swear I can't."  
  
Chi-Chi took a deep breath and stood up. "Nobody's forcing you to tell, Usagi. We just thought you'd be mature enough to tell us something when we asked you, especially when it could mean saving the earth." Letting her words sink into her daughter's mind, she turned away and began making her way into the hall.  
  
Usagi was left alone with a very big decision to make, and she wasn't sure what she wanted to do. This wasn't your average decision, however. It was one of the biggest ones she would ever have to make. She had made her promise to Luna, and her Moon mother, which meant it wasn't just any old promise. She couldn't exactly break it. It was her duty as Sailor Moon to uphold her promises. She was the Senshi of Justice, if she broke her promise, she had no right having such a title. But what could be the harm in letting her family know. It would patch everything up. Everyone would know exactly why Tatsuo has arrived.   
  
She stood up, very slowly and made her way across the living room, stopping in front of the door leading into her parents' room. She took a deep breath as she thought about the consequences of what she was about to do. She raised her hand and knocked on the door, but no answer came fourth. Taking a deep breath, she slowly pushed in on the door to open it.   
  
Usagi peered into the darkened room expecting to see her father, but to her surprise, he was no where to be found, but she could hear him moving about in the bathroom and preparing to take a shower. She hesitantly entered, her heart beat racing faster than she could remember it ever going. She closed the door behind her and was ready to spill her guts. She didn't want her father to be disappointed in her. She hated it when he was disappointed in her. "D..." She cut herself short as she made her way to the bathroom door, which was slightly opened. Her father already had the water running in the bathtub. Gulping, she gently pushed in on the door, only to quickly pull it back as an image of Queen Serenity passed through her mind. Seeing that image in her head had given her a second thought. She couldn't betray the queen. She had given her word that she wouldn't tell. Things weren't getting so bad that she had to tell him just yet. She would have only been telling him to rid herself of her own guilt. She couldn't do that. No one ever said the life of a Senshi would be easy. Until her father was about to get rid of the broach, she would have to keep quiet.  
  
Goku had sensed Usagi's presence from the moment she entered the room. He could sense her feelings of confusion, as if she were having an internal battle. He wondered why she hadn't come into where he was yet, though. "Usagi? That you?"  
  
Usagi froze in the middle of turning around to leave. "Ye...yeah..."  
  
Goku walked to the door and walked out to be standing face to face with Usagi. "What can I do for you?"  
  
Usagi gulped as she looked at the floor. This wasn't exactly a time to be looking him in the eyes. She didn't want him to put any more guilt into her. "Nothing. I was going to ask you something... but... I..." She looked back up with a forced smile. She was going for the natural look, but she fell short of that. "Forgot."  
  
Goku grinned. He knew that was a flat out lie. "Must not have been that important then."  
  
Usagi nodded, still with her forced smile. She wouldn't exactly have said not important, for it was very important. It just wasn't vital for him to know yet. There was still a chance that Piccolo would find something to tell Goku about. "Nope. I guess not. Sorry to bother you, daddy." Wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible, Usagi made a dashing run for the door and slammed it behind her.  
  
Goku scratched the back of his head as he made his way back into the bathroom. "Almost told me. Why doesn't she just tell me already? I know she wants to."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi didn't stop running once she got out of her parents' room until she made it into her own room. She didn't want to have any more confrontation with either of her parents at that moment, not after what she had just done. She had almost told her father what her broach was for. How could she have been so stupid? She knew that if she was close enough to almost tell him just now, there was no telling what she would tell them if she got into the same room as them again. That could turn out to be disastrous.   
  
Usagi plopped herself down on her bed and lay herself down with her legs hanging over the edge. Her heart was still racing faster than normal. That had much too close of a call for her liking. She had almost just betrayed the Queen of the Moon. She had almost just betrayed her role as the Senshi of the Moon. She would have to be sure to be more careful.   
  
Usagi closed her eyes with a sigh. She hated to have to be in this situation in the first place. Why did this all have to happen to her? Why did she have to have the burdensome role of being Sailor Moon, the heir to the Moon Kingdom? She wasn't completely complaining, it was nice to be royalty, but she would rather it all just go away until she was older. She didn't want to have to put up with all of this right now, not if it meant deceiving her family. She wished things would just go back to normal, the way things were before Beryl attacked, before she became Sailor Moon. If she had known all of this would have happened if she accepted her role as Sailor Moon, she would have told Luna 'no'. She wouldn't have taken it. She would have rather found another way to defeat Beryl than to have to go through all of this right now.   
  
Usagi rolled over onto her stomach and grabbed a stuffed rabbit from the top of her bed near her pillow, bringing it close to her face. She would have a lot of thinking to do that night. She would have to figure out how exactly she would tell her father if the time came. Showing him would be the only way, really. But then she was sure to get some sort of parental lecture about how she should have just told everyone from her mother. Mother's never seem to fail to give that speech at all the wrong times.   
  
Usagi soon put aside her thoughts of Sailor Moon and moved onto something much more important, something that would hinder her in this next fight. She had no more power, at least for a month anyway. How was she meant to defend herself if Tatsuo attacked her again? She was still a bit miffed that her father had taken her power away from her, but she understood why he had done it. If she had been in his place, thinking that her daughter would wake up and attack everyone in sight, she probably would have done the same. She understood that he had done it to protect everyone, including herself. She just wished there was a way to reverse the entire process. Now she was powerless against Tatsuo, or anyone else that showed up for that matter. If and when she got her broach back she would only be able to deal physical attacks since she found out the day before that Moon power just bounces off of him like it was nothing. Not that she would be able to really do anything against Tatsuo anyway with her normal power. He was too powerful for her, which only gave her more motivation to get stronger like everyone else.   
  
With a sigh of confusion, Usagi rolled back over and sat up. The clock across the room read to be 3:30 already. School had been over for about an hour already. She wondered how her friends were doing, if they were worried about her. They knew that she had been kidnapped, but not by who. They also probably knew of her fight with her father like everyone else had. She still couldn't understand why she couldn't remember and everyone else could. The more she thought about it, the more she believed that she had been drugged, or gassed, or something to that degree. She knew her parents wouldn't lie. They wouldn't get everyone she ever knew to turn against her. They loved her. So she really must have done what they said, and for that, she felt queasy.   
  
Now all that stood in her path to making everything alright was Hotaru. She had always been fragile when it came to emotions. Usagi was certain she had only made things worse by treating Hotaru poorly. She hoped the younger Saiyan would accept her apology. She had already been through so much with her mother and Kaori, it was almost frightening to think of the mental damage done when Usagi turned against her. Usagi would just have to sit her down and explain that none of it was true, that they were still friends. But who knew if that would work. Hotaru had already been through so many mental beatings she may not even believe what Usagi had to say.  
  
~*~*~  
  
After finishing his shower, Goku walked out of his room while rubbing a towel in his hair to dry it off. No one was in the living room, but across the room he could see his daughter sitting in her room doing who knows what. He could never keep track of all the different types of games girls played. They were much more complex than what his boys used to do, which was studying, playing some type of war game, or sparring. Sighing with disappointment, he turned down the hallway and made his way into the family room, and then into the kitchen where he found his wife just now beginning dinner. "Hi."  
  
Chi-Chi, with what seemed like an eternal smile on her face, turned to face her husband as she pulled out a pan from the cupboard. "Hi, Goku."   
  
Goku smiled as he sat down at the end of the table closest to the door. "You're in a good mood."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded as she grabbed her apron and put it on to make sure she didn't spill anything on her cloths. "Why shouldn't I be?"  
  
Goku shrugged as he rolled the towel up and wrapped it around his neck. "It's just a change from last night, that's all."  
  
"Well, there IS a different mood in this house than yesterday, you know." She turned on the stove and filled a pan with water.  
  
Goku leaned back in the chair and put his hands behind his head in order to become comfortable. "I don't believe you." He said with a grin.  
  
Chi-Chi slightly frowned at that. She wasn't sure if that was meant to be rude or what. "What?"  
  
Goku chuckled. "Forty years ago you wouldn't even care that Usagi forgot everything. You still would have been freaking out that she did it in the first place. Your emotions would have gotten the best of you."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled softly. "I'm trying hard not to do that, believe me. I don't want to make Usagi miserable, or feel like I hate her. That's why I'm trying to not get so angry at the little things. And no, Goku, I wouldn't have yelled at her for forgetting."  
  
Goku smirked. "Oh really?"  
  
Chi-Chi playfully frowned. "Really."  
  
"Then why was it you had a fit when I wanted to train Gohan before the Androids came? What was it you said when I asked you? Oh yes..." He cleared his throat and prepared to speak in a high pitched voice. " 'Goku! Gohan's studies are more important than fighting!' And when I asked you if it was more important than saving the earth you said 'Yes! Gohan's studies are more important than anything.' " He stared at his wife with a large, goofy grin planted on his face.   
  
Chi-Chi smiled while slightly frowning. "Alright. You've made your point." She rested her elbows on the counter and leaned forward. "So maybe I have changed a bit. It's not like it's for the worse." She glanced over her shoulder with a prideful smile. "But you've changed a lot too."  
  
Goku all of a sudden became serious again. "What? What are you talking about. I haven't changed a bit." Chi-Chi burst out in a fit of laughter, causing Goku to frown. "Ok. Then why don't you explain to me how I've changed so much."  
  
Chi-Chi's laughter died down, but only to enable to her to speak. "Gladly." She walked away from her cooking and sat down in the chair adjacent to his. "For starters, you aren't nearly as air-headed as you used to be."  
  
Goku frowned. "Air-headed?"  
  
Chi-Chi nodded with a wide grin. "Oh yeah. Goku, you used to act like such a child whenever there wasn't a fight. It seemed like the only time you were ever serious during a time of calm was when you were training, and even then you would goof off. You don't do that as often anymore. It's nice."   
  
Goku had never really realized he goofed off a lot. He still felt like the same person he was when Gohan had been born, only older. "Ok... and is this all?"  
  
Chi-Chi nodded. "Pretty much. You've grown up finally, mentally."  
  
Goku grinned. "So you married me for my childish attitude?"  
  
"No, I married you for your looks. You were the cutest guy I'd ever met. Your childish attitude was just a perk." Chi-Chi pulled her face down. She could feel her face turning red.   
  
Goku, too, found himself blushing. He reached over the table and placed his hand on his wife's. "And tell me, and I still this hunk of a guy you married even though I've 'grown up'?"  
  
Chi-Chi's face turned even redder as she looked up. "More than ever."   
  
The sky suddenly turned black from that moment on as the two, husband and wife, stared into one another's eyes. Chi-Chi was the first to notice the change in sky colors as she was the only one facing the window. She blinked her eyes a few times, wondering what in the world could be causing this. She knew that the Dragon Balls weren't yet revived. What was up? "Goku!" She screamed?  
  
Goku jumped out of his seat, causing it to fly backward. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he powered up anyway. "What?! What is it?!"   
  
Chi-Chi couldn't say anything. She was too scared to.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi, hearing the uproar, curiously popped her head up from what she was doing. Just as she was looking up she noticed that the sky was oddly black as if it were night, when it was purple from the sunset just a moment ago. There could have only been one explanation for this, but it didn't really make sense. Her father had said that the Dragon Balls weren't revived, yet the sky had just turned black out of nowhere just like when the Dragon is summoned.   
  
Knowing something was definitely wrong, Usagi jumped up from her bed and raced out of her room. "Daddy! Daddy!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku, not quite at the power of Super Saiyan, ran out of the kitchen upon hearing his daughter. She knew something was wrong too. He hadn't yet looked outside, as he had been trying to get words out of his fear stricken wife. "Usagi?" Just as Goku came out of the kitchen, he felt something smash into him. He looked down, only to see that his daughter was just turning into the room as he was turning out. "What's wrong?!" He demanded.  
  
Usagi pulled away from her father and said nothing. She only grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him to the front door. "Look!" She quickly opened the door and pushed her father out.  
  
Goku's jaw dropped wide open at what he saw. It was happening. The enemy had already begun summoning the Dragon. "Holy crap!"   
  
Usagi crossed her arms and scolded her father. "Daddy!"   
  
Goku looked down at Usagi with a cringe. He knew she didn't like to hear people swearing, and since she didn't remember anything of yesterday, she technically hadn't heard him swear until now. But that wasn't his main concern. "Sorry, dear." He pushed her back inside and slammed the door. "Chi-Chi!" He pushed Usagi away and ran into the kitchen. This wasn't good. The Black Star Dragon Balls were being activated. That could only mean a certain doom for the planet. "Chi-Chi get up!" He screamed as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to her feet. "I want you to take Usagi and get to Bulma's. I don't have time to explain, but Earth is in danger."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she pushed her husband away. "What are you talking about?! I'm not going anywhere without you! You're not abandoning me this time mister!"   
  
Usagi raced into the room with a pulse of fear running through her body. "What's going on? You said the Dragon Balls weren't revived!"   
  
Goku looked down at his daughter and grabbed her by the arm as well. "Come on. Both of you. You have to get off this planet." He pulled the two of them out of the living room and let go of them. "Take Nimbus if you don't feel comfortable flying, Chi-Chi. But you have to get out of here."  
  
Usagi tugged on her father's arm with a frown. It was obvious he was keeping something from her like she was keeping something from him. "Out wit it, dad. You know something."  
  
Goku groaned as he glared down at Usagi. It was obvious he couldn't get out of this without an explanation. The two of them deserved it anyway. "Alright. Alright. There were other Dragon Balls made. They were made by Piccolo and Kami before they split, and were made only for evil deeds by an evil heart. That's all I can explain right now. All I know is that this planet is in danger right now with those Dragon Balls around. Now would be a good time to explain what this broach is, Usagi."  
  
Usagi quickly turned away from her father, not knowing what to do. If she had known that there was another set of Dragon Balls just lying around she would have told him what it was. They could have acted sooner. "Why didn't you tell me!?" She growled as she turned around to her father.   
  
Chi-Chi grabbed her daughter. "Please, Usagi. Don't start this right now. We have to get out of here." She paused to glare up at her husband. "And you're coming with us. You aren't leaving us."  
  
Goku shook his head. "I have to fight whatever this is."  
  
Usagi frowned. "Daddy, you didn't answer my question."  
  
Goku frowned as he looked down to Usagi. "I promised Piccolo I wouldn't tell anyone."  
  
Usagi's frown disappeared. That was an answer she would accept. It was the same reason why she wouldn't tell him. "Let me come with you then. I want to fight too."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Are you crazy? You can't fight that thing? Your father isn't even fighting it."   
  
Goku sighed. "Yes, I am." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the broach. "Here, hold onto this. I don't want to have it on me when I fight this guy." He looked down to his daughter, who didn't even seem concerned with the broach at that point. "Your mom's right. You can't come with me this time. You have to stay here and protect your mom." He held the broach out for Chi-Chi to take, but she refused it. "Take it!"  
  
Chi-Chi shook her head. "If I take it, then you're leaving."  
  
Goku frowned. "I'm leaving anyway."  
  
Tears began to build up in the woman's eyes. "Please, don't go."  
  
It broke Goku's heart to see his wife in tears again, but he couldn't help what he had to do. "I have to, Chi-Chi. Don't worry, I'll come back. I promise."  
  
Usagi latched onto her father's leg. "I can help yo. Please let me come with you!"   
  
Goku pulled Usagi off his leg and knelt down before her. "I can't, Usagi. You know I can't. You would be power less against him. That would be like me delivering you to your death. Please just cooperate this once."  
  
Usagi looked down. "But..."  
  
"Please, Usagi."  
  
Usagi sighed as she relaxed herself. She knew he was right. And she knew why she wouldn't let her go. He was only trying to keep her safe from harms way. And just because she couldn't go now, doesn't mean she couldn't go at all. "Come back soon."   
  
Goku smiled. "I promise."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Forest~~  
  
Tatsuo's eyes glimmered with hope at the sight of the massive Dragon Lingering over the Earth. He had never seen anything so massive in his life. But the Dragon's power still didn't amount to the power he held in his body, or better yet, what he would have when he got a hold of the broach. But there was still one very important factor keeping him from achieving his goal, and that was Goku. He could pose to be a very large problem. And that was the point to these Dragon Balls.  
  
He raised his hands to the sky and gained a huge, triumphant smile on his face. "Dragon! Grant me my wish!"   
  
"Say it, and it shall be done."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son House~~  
  
Goku had just given his wife a goodbye kiss after making sure the broach was safely in her hands. He knew what he was putting her through, but it had to be done. It was for her own safety. "I'll be back soon, Chi-Chi. Just make sure you guys get to Bulma's and off this planet."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded with a face wet from her own tears. "You better be back or you're really gonna get it."  
  
Usagi stayed behind her father. She too was having her own trouble with allowing him to go alone. She wanted to fight with him, to know everything that was happening and when it was happening. She had never been on the sidelines before, and now she was beginning to know what her mother felt all those years before anything has even happened. "Don't forget to stay safe."  
  
Goku smiled as he turned back to his daughter. "Don't I always?"  
  
Usagi smiled. "Just making sure."  
  
It was at that moment that the two Saiyans covered their ears due to the high pitched screaming of Chi-Chi. Goku turned around in a flash, fearing the worst that maybe something had come and attacked his wife, that their newest enemy had the same kind of non-detectable power that the Dark Kingdom had. But she was just standing there pointing at him with a face as white as freshly fallen snow. "What's wrong?!"  
  
Usagi looked at her father and had her fair share of screams as well. "DAD!"   
  
Goku turned back to his daughter with fear. "WHAT?!"   
  
Chi-Chi ran to her husband and reached down, grabbing onto something that hadn't been there ten minutes ago. "Goku!" She squeezed as hard as she could to make sure it was real, only to gain a loud yelp from her husband.   
  
Usagi gulped as she ran back to her mother. "Is it real?" She asked, poking at it.  
  
Goku frowned as he turned around and swiped the newly formed tail from his wife. "YES!" He looked down at his new tail in confusion. "A tail?"   
  
Chi-Chi looked out the window only to notice that the sky was starting to clear up again. "Oh no."   
  
"What?" Usagi asked as she turned around, only to be faced with a purple sky once again. "THAT was his wish?"  
  
Goku grinned as he turned to face the window, only to see the same thing his wife and child had. "Great. A tail is what he gave me." He looked down at Usagi. "Did you happen to tell our dear ol' pal anything about a Saiyan's tail?"  
  
Usagi lowered her head. "I might have..."   
  
Goku sighed. "Great." A large power surged through the area at that very moment, catching Goku's senses. "He's finally come out to play." 


	146. Part 20

~*~*~*~  
  
It seemed as though everyone had been able to detect the usage of the Black Star Dragon Balls, if not for the sudden dark becoming of the sky, but the evil power they emitted as well. It wasn't long after the powerful Dragon's arrival that the fighters of Earth felt the power who summoned it. All had been informed of Tatsuo's arrival the first day he attacked, though Usagi was the only one who knew it WAS Tatsuo who had started everything. But they didn't need to know who it was, they just needed to be pointed in his direction and they would be off for an attack, which was exactly what they were preparing to do at this very moment.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Dende walked along the edges of his Lookout with worry written all over his face. He had been the first to realize what was going on. He had been the first to feel the surging power of the Black Star Dragon Balls. They had been so powerful that they had turned the entire Earth Dark with lighting only generating from the Dragon itself, unlike the regular Dragon Balls which only darkened the immediate vicinity they're in.   
  
The moment the Dragon was summoned Dende knew the earth was doomed. They were obviously being used for an evil wish since they could only be used for such. He had expected for something tragic to take place on Earth as a result of their summoning. He had expected for what happened to the Earth when Buu came to happen again. But to his relief and surprise, nothing had happened. The dark sky had disappeared almost as soon as it had arrived, and he still didn't know what exactly was wished for. From the looks of things, everything seemed fine. Nothing tragic had happened, yet something could have been wished on the way to Earth, maybe a certain doom if Goku were to refuse giving up the broach.  
  
Speaking of the broach, he still wondered what happened after Usagi had been brought home after he had temporarily blocked her power. He felt bad to had to have done it, but Goku seemed pretty certain that she would have attacked someone, or just plain gone on a rage. Dende had to admit that Usagi seemed as if she would be upset when she awoke, judging by her behavior earlier in the day. He hadn't seen any reason for the change. Nothing too out of the ordinary happened with her, otherwise he wouldn't have been so surprised when she had her little outburst.   
  
Looking up from the side of the lookout, Dende took a few steps back to his palace, wondering what in the world was going on, and how the Fighters would handle it. As he had with all other major fights that took place on earth, he would most likely end up staying at the Lookout and overlooking everything that happened. But this time, it would be almost for nothing. In previous fights, he had watched to see if they needed to use the Dragon Balls to revive anyone, whether it be the life of an innocent civilian, or a fighter, but now they were in a real pinch. There were no Dragon Balls to call their own, good Dragon with. People who died now would have to stay that way until the other Dragon Balls were revived in four months, revived, that is, if there's an Earth left to house them.   
  
Dende sighed as he slowly made his way back to his palace. He wasn't sure how things would turn out, but with Goku and the others fighting for Earth's safety he had little worry about losing the planet. Whoever and whatever had been attacking and had now summoned fourth the Dark Dragon would be eradicated without a further thought.   
  
Pausing in his steps for a moment, he bobbed his head up. A cold draft had flown by just behind. Not knowing what to expect as he hadn't been able to read power levels like the others, he spun around in a fret of worry, hoping that he wasn't being attacked. To his relief, he sighed. It had only been Piccolo. He had seen much of this Namek in the past couple of days, ever since the Dragon Balls had been stolen. He knew why he was here now. "Piccolo."  
  
Piccolo gave a small nod of acknowledgement and dove right into his point, the reason why he had come. "You know what's going on already."  
  
Dende gave a small nod of his own. Sadly, he did know of the recent events. "Yes."  
  
Piccolo didn't look unhappy at the younger Namek's response. In fact, he looked more pleased than everything. "Good. So far we aren't in any danger that we can tell, except I can feel that guy's power level. It's huge, and fast."  
  
Dende nodded with fascination. Being God he could detect that there was an evil disturbance on the Earth, but he couldn't exactly figure out how deadly it was like his friends had always been able to. "Right. I'm not sure what he used the Dragon Balls for, but I'm sure the others will go out and fight."  
  
"It's inevitable, unless..."  
  
"We find out what's in Usagi's broach." Dende interrupted. He already knew of the entire situation with Usagi and Goku. "Goku came here and asked me about it last night, but I don't know anything about it."  
  
Piccolo nodded as he crossed his arms and looked up into the sky as if to make sure it stayed its purplish orange color. "I know." He turned back down to Dende with a sly smirk. "He asked me too. I remember reading about it in all the old files. I hoped to find them again."  
  
Dende glanced over his shoulder at the palace. "I'm not sure they've survived Buu." He turned back to Piccolo, expecting him to be angry as usual.  
  
Piccolo stayed calm, to Dende's surprise. "I was afraid of that. But I'm going to take a look anyway. We need to know what that broach does. It could be fatal if we don't. Usagi won't tell Goku, which is really putting a jam on progress."  
  
Dende definitely agreed with that one. And since he didn't know that things had been partially patched up between the family, he believed that she wasn't telling Goku because of her bratty attitude. "You better hurry up and look. There's no telling when something will happen."  
  
Piccolo nodded with a grin. "I'm on top of it." He raced past Dende and back into the Palace. He couldn't waste any time searching. It was imperative that he find the file pertaining to the broach. He wasn't sure of all that he remembered from reading about it the first, but he knew it had to do with some major power, that it belonged to one of the most powerful kingdoms in the universe, a kingdom that had fallen over a thousand years ago, which was what worried him. He had been reluctant to tell this to Goku, especially since he hadn't really known if he was remembering right. But hopefully he would find out soon.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru was out to roam by himself after his father left, not that Piccolo would have cared anyway. He never did anymore. Mamoru was old enough and strong enough to make his own decisions and take care of himself. In a couple years time he would be out on his own anyway. Maybe he would get an apartment with Haruka and Michiru. Or maybe some of his other friends.   
  
Even though it had been something on his mind lately, none of this was of importance at the moment. He wasn't dumb. He could feel the power level being emitted by Earth's strange new enemy. He knew it was his duty to protect the Earth in times like this, and that was precisely what he would do. He had been raised to protect, and besides, he was Earth's prince. He wouldn't let someone just waltz right in and take it over without a fight.   
  
On his way to meet up with his friends and drag them along to the fight, he wondered if Usagi would be there. He still didn't really believe what she said. She had to have remembered what she had done. How could she have not? Of course, what his father had said was true. Usagi wasn't one to just go off on people for no reason, especially for no reason. He could understand her going off at him, that had been done many times in the past. But, he couldn't understand her being so brazen that she would use full power against him. She had always been stuck on fair fights, even though they were rivals. She had always forgiven him, even when Haruka and Michiru ripped her arm off she forgave them, which still amazed him. If that had been him, he would have tried to kill them, but not Usagi. She had enough room in her heart for forgiveness. He sighed at his memories. He would never understand that girl. Maybe, just maybe she was telling the truth. Maybe her theory was correct. Maybe she had been brainwashed. If so, he would kick the person's butt who did it to her, and he was pretty sure he knew who would have. She spoke of how Tatsuo was her knew rival, which gave him the idea that maybe he was the one who had messed with her head. But, how could he. He may have been a strange little boy, but from Mamoru could tell when they had met was that he was just a weakling.   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son House~~  
  
Goku walked to the front door with a smile of excitement. He couldn't wait to dig into this guy. If not for just attacking Earth, but attacking Usagi two days before. Once at school, and once in his own home. This guy would pay.   
  
Chi-Chi grabbed her husband by the shoulder with a frown, the broach now within her grasp. "Goku, if you don't come back I'll..."  
  
Goku became calm at once as he turned around to Chi-Chi and cupped his hands over hers. "Don't worry. I'll come back before you even know I was gone."  
  
Chi-Chi tried to hide her smile and cover it up with a frown. She was actually soothed by his words. She knew he wouldn't intentionally die, or leave for a long period of time, and she hoped that neither of those things would happen. But what made her the happiest was that she was actually able to talk to him before he shoved off. "I'll be waiting."  
  
"So will I." Peeped Usagi, who wasn't all completely happy about staying home. But given her mother's current mental stature, she didn't have much of a desire to put up a fuss. She knew it was probably better that she stay home... for a while, that is.   
  
Goku smiled as he looked down at his child. "Be good." He warned, though playfully. With a fading smile, he turned back to the door and opened it. Before stepping out, he wrapped his new tail around his waist. "This has got to go." He said, looking down at his tail. He knew the dangers of having it. Just because his daughter and Hotaru were mysteriously not affected by the Moon doesn't mean he wouldn't be. It was also a fighting hazard. Anyone could just up and grab it from him, which could end an entire battle with one hit.  
  
Chi-Chi giggled. "I don't know. I think it looks cute on you, Goku, just like old times."  
  
Usagi curled her nose. "I don't like it. It's not normal."  
  
Chi-Chi peered down at her daughter. "That's just because you've never seen your father with a tail before."  
  
Goku frowned. "Don't get used to it. It's not staying. I'm going to see Piccolo right now to have him take it off, and then I'm going to find the guy who did this to me."  
  
Usagi smirked. She knew who her father was after. She couldn't wait until Tatsuo got what was coming to him. He had to ruin her life by screwing with her head, and how his life would end completely, Earth's fighters would see to that. "Good luck."  
  
Goku smiled. "Cya." With that, he dashed out the door and jumped into the air. Now the real fun would begin.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Tatsuo had successfully summoned the Dragon, and had his wish successfully granted. He had remembered what Usagi had said about Saiyans turning into giant apes at the sight of the full moon, but only if they had a tail, and he knew of no other way than to get Goku's tail back other than using the Dragon Balls. Tatsuo only had to wait, now, for the full moon to take shape, whenever that would be. He hadn't been on the planet long enough to memorize when there would be a full moon, probably because he hadn't taken the time out to notice. He didn't care when it came out, just that it did and Goku made the mistake of looking into it.   
  
Now there was only one thing left to do before his plan would be complete, and that was to safely retrieve the broach from Goku, whom had taken it from him the day before. And there was only one way to do that without being caught as himself, the person who threatened the planet.   
  
Remembering back to his fight with Usagi as Sailor Moon, their first encounter, he grinned. He had left rather abruptly, but that had been the plan. He never really intended on fighting with the girl, more like steal her identity. He hadn't expected her to turn into Sailor Moon, but it had been a plus. Because of that, however, he hadn't been able to secure a sample of her DNA as Usagi, but he had been able to while she was Sailor Moon, which only gave him more of a jump over Goku and the others.   
  
With Sailor Moon's DNA, he could mimic her power, but not truly. It wouldn't be true moon power, for only the one born with it, or in possession of the broach, the Silver Crystal, would hold true moon power. But what he could produce was enough to fool Goku into thinking he was Sailor Moon. That way, he could get the broach back from him, something he believed to be his already.   
  
With a single snap of his fingers, his body morphed into the form of Sailor Moon, though his power was almost non-existent. Much like the real Sailor Moon's, it was masked from anyone feeling it, all except for the Senshi. His power currently replicated the FEEL of Moon energy.   
  
With a smirk, he set off into the air. Now was his chance to take care of his most vital business.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Much like Tatsuo, Goku too had set off into the air, leaving his wife and daughter at home to wonder what was happening. Though, his destination had been much different than Tatsuo's. He hadn't started out for Tatsuo's power in order to fight. His main worry was to get the nuisance of a tail removed, and Then he would go and find Tatsuo. But, halfway to the lookout, he had lost track of the newly formed power level, a power level in which he had only felt momentarily days ago. This only worked to disappoint him. Now that the Dragon Balls had been activated and wished upon, and used for a stupid reason, he had wished that the guy would stick around long enough for a fight. But no, it wasn't like that at all. This guy was tricky, trickier than anything Goku had gone up against. He was actually somewhat smart. Instead of fighting head on, he took the time to gather his thoughts and create a plan. And since he didn't yet know and believe that Tatsuo was behind all of this, he didn't know exactly how morbid the boy was, morbid enough to become friends with his enemy before hand just to find their weaknesses.   
  
Sighing to himself over his loss, he pushed on for the lookout. His main worry now was getting rid of the tail. He would search for the enemy later when he had more of a though process.   
  
He had actually started to worry about leaving Chi-Chi and Usagi home alone as he went on. If the enemy were to attack his home again, they would be in some serious trouble. He wouldn't be there to protect them. The enemy had tried it once before, there was no stopping him from doing it again. And this time, he wouldn't be stopped from taking the broach from them. Cringing at the thought, Goku sped up. He wanted to get this done and over with as soon as possible.  
  
~*~*~  
  
By this time, every one of Earth's fighters knew of the unwanted visitor, all of them knowing that a set of Dragon Balls were used from the way the sky had just acted, but none of them knew exactly which ones. None of them even knew of the existence of another set, none of them even guessed that there could have been. Yet, there was.   
  
Having felt Tatsuo's energy pulse through the area as Goku had, they acted quite quickly, even the weakest and most coward of the group, Krillin. All of them prepared themselves for the upcoming battle, and, having decided that Kame island was an appropriate place for meeting years ago, flew themselves out to meet and decide on a plan of action.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Tatsuo raced for his destination as fast as he could, which wasn't very fast considering the given energy of Sailor Moon's true potential. Sailor Moon, without the burst of Usagi's Saiyan power was virtually powerless without her power of the Moon, which really put him in a bind. If he were to get into a confrontation with Goku all would be over. He would have to turn around and leave. But, he wouldn't let that happen. He was the king of tricksters. He would have nothing to worry about if he stuck to plan. The broach would soon be in his hands.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru had spent the remainder of that evening crying to herself in the solitude of her own room. No one had come in to disturb her yet, not even her father, who usually did at least one checkup on her a night for the past year ever since she had heard the true news of her mother's fate. But lately, they had began to become more and more scarce, until today. Now they were non-existent. Her father seemed to have grown cold for some reason. And she had a hunch as to why the sudden change in her father's attitude. It was all Kaori. She could sense that there was something strange about her, something she had told her father about but had been told on many occasions not to worry about it.  
  
But Kaori wasn't the reason why Hotaru was upset on this particular night. She was still worried that Usagi would hate her forever, that she had lost the first friend she had ever gotten. Now, sitting there in her room, she could sense Sailor Moon flying at an unreasonably low power level, but out nonetheless. Why, She wondered. She had felt a brief fluctuation of an unknown power, but it had quickly disappeared, leaving on Sailor Moon. And then there was Goku who seemed to be flying up toward Kami's Lookout.   
  
Standing up from her desk, she stared at the ground with a blank expression. She didn't know what to make of the situation. It was obvious that some sort of attack had just taken place. She hadn't really known about the summoning of the Dragon Balls as the only window in her room had been completely covered to keep out the light, giving her room a feeling of complete isolation, just the way she had grown to like it. But now she couldn't help but wonder what she was missing while she was just sitting here in her room.   
  
Interested in what might be going on, she walked to her window and pulled away the black shade that was covering it. Outside the sky was already beginning to darken for evening hours. She had already wasted the afternoon away worrying about Usagi. Everything looked normal, nothing unusual. No attacks could be seen. No fires, no disasters like had been from the last major fight. But she knew that Something was happening. Everyone was gathering at Kame island.   
  
Sighing to herself, she turned away, letting the black cloth once again close her off from the rest of the world. Even though there was something happening, she knew better than to go and pursue it. It would be pointless. She wasn't cut out for the fighting world. It was fun, but only as a recreation, and even that was getting old. As fun as the tournament had been, the spotlight wasn't for her. She liked keeping to herself. The less popular you are, and the less people you hang with, the less people there are to hurt you in the end. The other kids hadn't even given her a chance before they made fun of her for having a tail. No, fighting wasn't for her. It only made you stand in the spotlight. And besides, fighting was what had gotten her mother killed.   
  
She looked up just as her door was opening. Seeing a long, slender hand, she knew immediately who it was. Kaori poked her head into the girls room, still with her scowl on her face as usual. "Your dinner's ready, kid." Looking around the girl's room, she frowned even harder. "Honestly. You'd think you worship the devil with a room like this."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Coming upon his destination with a smirk, Tatsuo slowly began to slow himself down. He didn't want to catch the man of guard and cause him to attack in thinking he was being attacked. No, that would be saved for later. Right now would be a time of deceiving and receiving. "Goku." He called out softly in the voice of Sailor Moon, which sounded exactly like Usagi's. Luckily his power had been masked.   
  
Goku stopped himself short of flying further with a halt. He knew that voice, but not from his daughter. You see, the Moon's magic makes the Senshi look and sound entirely different from their normal selves, thus, they are not detected through power, appearance, or voice. He spun around in a flash, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Senshi leader before she ran off like she normally did. It seemed as though the Senshi would do their work, and never be seen again until the next fight. "Sailor Moon." He acknowledged calmly. He knew why she was here. It was obvious. She had seen and felt the same thing he had.  
  
Tatsuo nodded his head softly. He wanted to act as feminine as possible around Goku. He didn't want him to suspect a thing, not that he would. He dropped his eyes down to Goku's waist, trying hard to conceal his laughter. "A tail?"   
  
Goku looked down at his own waist and bobbed his tail up and down twice. "Yeah." He looked back up to Sailor Moon with a frown. "Some idiot used the Dragon Balls against me and wished me to have a tail."  
  
Tatsuo, trying desperately to act surprised, gasped. "What? Why?"  
  
Goku continued to frown. "My daughter told the bozo who did this to me about a Saiyan and his tail. I happen to fall under the Saiyan category. And now he obviously wants me to look into the moon when it's full next."   
  
Tatsuo softly shook his head, trying to convey his 'disbelief'. "That's awful." He crossed his arms, as well as his ankles. "So, that's who I felt out here just now..."  
  
Goku nodded. He really didn't have time for this right now. He needed to be getting his tail removed, but this had been the first of Sailor Moon he had for nearly a year. He wasn't going to pass up this opportunity just yet. There were still things he needed to ask her. "Yes. It was. But now his power has disappeared. I was going up to Kami's to get my tail cut off just now."   
  
Tatsuo frowned. He didn't like the sound of that. He hadn't expected Goku to get it cut off. That would have been a wasted wish if he had done that. This called for action. "I'll help you fight this new demon, but, I need something from you. It's mine, and I think you have it."   
  
Goku calmly crossed his arms over his chest. "And this would be..."  
  
Tatsuo grinned rather evilly while he rubbed his hands together. This would be all too easy from here on out. Once he got his hands on the broach he would kill Goku and Usagi tortuously after the trouble they had put him through. Then he would take his time with the rest... "I'm not sure if you've seen it, but I entrusted a broach with your daughter about eight months ago."   
  
Goku's jaw dropped at hearing that. "What?! It's yours!?" He brought his hand to his head, slowly brushing up his hair. "Oh god. I never saw that coming." He nervously stared up at Sailor Moon. "That's why she wouldn't tell me what it was. You didn't want us to know, did you?"  
  
Tatsuo nodded, his grin turning into a smirk. "I asked her for it back, but now she wants to be like me and won't give it back."   
  
Goku frowned. "What?"  
  
Tatsuo nodded. He wasn't through with Usagi just yet. "Yes."  
  
Goku gave a growl of disappointment as he looked down at the ground. He wouldn't yell at Usagi for this, but he did wonder why she had chosen to keep it. What use did she have in it? "The enemy wants it." He explained, looking back up to Sailor Moon.  
  
Tatsuo frowned, trying to show Goku that he was disappointed and upset. "Not another one of those."   
  
Goku grinned. "Get a lot of people wanting it? Mind if I ask what it does?"  
  
Tatsuo grinned yet again as he thought of the sweet energy that would soon be his. Goku had totally fallen for it without a doubt. It was good that the two groups, the Senshi and Earth's Martial Arts Warriors were on good terms. "With it, I can destroy anyone of any power. It is the ultimate power."  
  
Goku frowned. "And you gave it to Usagi to hold on to? You should have entrusted it with Dende, Earth's God."  
  
Tatsuo gulped. He hoped that Goku wouldn't start getting suspicious now. "She was the only one around at the time." He looked around, desperately trying to come up with an explanation to get himself out of this mess. "She was... uh... supposed to give it to you."   
  
Goku didn't react to that. He wasn't sure how he took that. Usagi was supposed to give it to him, yet she hadn't. He didn't quite believe that one. Maybe Sailor Moon was under a spell by the enemy too. She seemed to be acting a little strange for some reason. She was talking differently than she had a year before. He wasn't sure what it was about her, but it was different. After his run in with Usagi, he looked for anything and everything that may be even just a little strange. "Ah."   
  
Tatsuo frowned. "So where is it?" He asked rather harshly.  
  
Goku too frowned. "I don't have it. Someone else does."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Let's wait for the others to get here first, and then we'll talk." Goku turned around and allowed himself to drop for a landing.  
  
Tatsuo followed the Saiyan, though not happy. He hadn't expected Goku to basically say forget it. "It's mine. It belongs to me. Just hand it over."  
  
Goku glanced back at the girl with a frown. "Patience is a virtue. Prove to me you are who you say you are." The more he listened to her, the more he believed she wasn't exactly Sailor Moon. And if she was, then she was obviously under the control of the enemy. The broach probably didn't even belong to her.   
  
Tatsuo growled as he crossed his arms. "Fine."  
  
Goku kept his eye on the girl, making a note to himself that, strangely, she was about the same age and height as Usagi. This being the first time she had actually stayed in one place long enough for him to examine her, he thought it odd that they both have odangos as well. He had always thought it was a rare hairstyle, but now two girls he knew had them.   
  
Shrugging off his curiosity, he raised his power level quickly, and then dropped it again to let his comrades know where he was, and that he was in need of their assistance. Before he actually handed over the broach, he wanted to talk it over with the others. He wanted them to know of his tail, and of everything that Sailor Moon had just told him, the vagueness in her answers.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi paced her room in a fret of fear, as well as anger. She was in fear that something would happen to everyone else, that they would lose, and angry that any of this had to happen. She was powerless now. She had no way to raise her energy, and no way to transform into Sailor Moon, as of yet, not that Sailor Moon would be able to do any good in a time like this. Sailor Moon's power did nothing to Tatsuo. But at least, as Sailor Moon she would be able to be at the fight and see exactly what's going on.   
  
She looked up and stopped pacing when she heard that her mother had begun a shower for herself. She had been waiting for something like this to happen ever since her father left a half hour earlier. She waited for her chance for her mother to be alone, and away from HER broach.   
  
She pranced to her door as quietly as she could and slowly opened the door so as to make no sound. She sped across the living room and arrived at her mother's door, which was wide open. This would be a risky operation, but it was something she was willing to do. Getting out of there and warning her father of the dangers of fighting Tatsuo was of top priority.   
  
She quietly tiptoed into her mother's room. There was nothing around to indicate that the broach was around. Nothing was out of place, and no stray piece of clothing had been lying out. 'Must be in the bath room with mom then.' With a pale face, she proceeded into the bathroom, slowly opening the door. She bit her lower lip, hoping that her mother wouldn't see the movement. 'Gees.'   
  
She stepped in and left the door open. She wanted as little movement as possible. If she were to get caught, it would all be over. She would just tell her mother the truth. At this point, it was a matter of a fight, and not her own feelings, even though they would be playing heavily into her decision. She performed a quick scan of the area, noticing the trinket just lying out on the counter next to the sink. With a sigh, she brought her hand to her forehead. 'Mom, you idiot. You don't just leave something like this lying out.' With a slight frown, she reached out and snatched what was rightfully hers.   
  
( I guess I'm done for now. Sorry I haven't posted since Monday. I've been busy, and when I did get a chance to write I had writer's block in the sense of structuring. I knew what I wanted to write, it was just how I wanted to write it, which meant I didn't get much written when I actually got to sit down and do something. Sorry, but here it is now. Cya later! ) 


	147. Part 21

~*~*~*~  
  
Once again the Moon broach was in the hands of its rightful owner. It had been passed back and fourth and the past two days, causing Usagi to wonder if she would ever get it back without having to tell her parents. Now that she had it in hand, there was no chance that her parents would find out. Once this whole ordeal blew over she would have Luna work her magic to make her parents forget that any of this ever happened. Then she wouldn't have any guilt hanging over head about her parents knowing something... that is... unless they found out on their own, which it was obvious they weren't without Piccolo's help. And by the way Piccolo made the file situation sound, he wouldn't be finding anything.  
  
Sighing with her broach now back in her possession, Usagi escaped the bathroom as quietly as she had come in. Her job here was finished. Now it was time to join her father in all the action. But something seemed strange now that she was in a setting of surroundings. She felt a very familiar power with her father's, and five more approaching. Who could it have been that she felt. It felt almost like Sailor Moon, but that was a preposterous thought. SHE was Sailor Moon. There could have been none other.  
  
She walked out of her parents' room into the dark living room. This would be a more than appropriate time and place to transform. Her mother was in the shower and would know nothing. Granted, she would be gone by the time her mother came out, but it was a chance she was more than willing to take. She wanted to confront her attacker face to face. She wanted to see her father beat the tar out of him what he had done to her.   
  
She held out her broach without a second thought of the kind of stress this would put on her mother. Her mother would just have to understand on this one. Usagi knew what she had to do. As a Sailor Senshi, it was her duty to help protect the Earth. It was what she had been raised to do ever since she had started training under her father. "Moon Crystal Power... Make-Up!"   
  
The dark room lit up in an aura silver. The girl, once Usagi, was covered in pink ribbons, only to be wearing a Sailor Suit of the Moon seconds later. She carefully wrapped her tail underneath her skirt so as to make sure her father wouldn't see it once she met up with him. Had he seen it, all would be lost. He would know exactly who she truly was.   
  
Knowing that she had no way to get to her father other than to fly, she ran into her room, slamming the door shut behind her. "Time to get serious!" She darted to her window and pushed it open, climbing onto the ledge just outside. "Nimbus!" She called at the top of her lungs.   
  
Sailor Moon waited for nearly thirty seconds before her father's yellow cloud came zooming toward her. "Yes!" She quickly hopped on, making sure her window was closed behind her. "Let's go Nimbus! Take me to dad!" With a wide smile, she and Nimbus set out. It was slower than what she could have flown at, but at least she was getting somewhere.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei had been following the movements of the night ever since the sky had turned black nearly a forty-five minutes ago. She knew exactly what was causing it. It had to have been Earth's new enemy. But what he was doing exactly, she didn't know. Shortly after the first strange occurrence, she had called for her friends to come by just in case they were needed. All came, except for Usagi, whom she hadn't even bothered calling. She knew Usagi was in deep this time, after what she had pulled the night before. Her parents hadn't even let her go to school, which meant something awful. Although she had wondered exactly what had gotten into Usagi. She seemed fine just before she left the treehouse.   
  
But that wasn't the main problem right now. What was, was that there were now two Sailor Moon's on earth, or so it seemed. Rei turned to her friends, who were tracking everything as well. "Feel that?"   
  
Minako closed her eyes and let her senses take over. She felt a number of things happening. Currently, there was a Sailor Moon stopped in the middle of nowhere with Goku. Then there was Vejita, Trunks, Goten, Gohan, and Krillin who were on their way to Goku. And third, there was yet another Sailor Moon travelling fast from Usagi's house in the mountains. "What do you it is?"   
  
Rei shook her head in confusion. "I have no idea, but I've got a really bad feeling about this."  
  
Artimas, who sat in Minako's lap, looked up to her in confusion. "What is it? What do you feel?"  
  
Makoto frowned as she clenched her fists. "Two Sailor Moon's."   
  
Luna jumped to her feet with a gasp. "What? Impossible!" She looked to Rei, who seemed to be taking over as leader of the group on this particular night. "They can't both be authentic."  
  
Rei stood to her feet with a frown much like Makoto's. "I know they can't. But there really are two of them. At first there was only one, but now another one's appeared out of no where. I don't get it."   
  
Ami flipped out her Mercury computer and began analyzing both Sailor Moons' energy levels. Two steady lines appeared on the screen with words to explain the data. "They both appear to be the same people."  
  
Artimas jumped down from Minako's lap and joined Luna by the window. "One of them has to be an imposter."  
  
Ami nodded as she closed her computer. "No doubt. But we don't know which one. Either of them could be the real thing. The Sailor Moon with Goku could be Usagi who, shortly after the disruption with the sky, transformed and tagged along with him, playing as the heroine wanting to help. But the other one could be the real thing. Goku could have left Usagi at home, and now that she's alone, she's transformed and joining up with him."   
  
Rei sighed as she leaned against the wall. She was tired of this already, and nothing really had happened. "You're right, Ami. Either one is believable. And I'll bet I know who's behind this." She looked down at Makoto, both nodding at one another.  
  
"Tatsuo." Makoto pushed herself up and glared at nothing in particular. "I knew that guy was weird from the beginning."  
  
Ami frowned at Makoto, the most hot-headed of the group. "Now guys, we can't just make accusations like this because we need someone to blame. Tatsuo may be a little strange... ok... really strange, but that doesn't mean he's the one behind this. I don't really see how he could be the one behind this, considering that the thing that attacked Usagi was a little blue guy and Tatsuo is clearly a human."  
  
Rei looked up and stared blankly at Ami. "I don't know, Ami. I was getting some really strong vibes from him whenever we were around him. It's just my hunch."  
  
Makoto nodded her agreement. "Mine too."  
  
Minako was the last to stand and stretch her legs. "I have to admit, he got a little scary there, but I doubt someone like him is our enemy. He doesn't seem like the type."  
  
"Girls!" Luna scolded. "That isn't important right now! What is, is Sailor Moon and Usagi! We don't know which one she is, or why there are even two!"  
  
Artimas looked up at the girls. "Luna's right. We need to do some research."  
  
Minako groaned. "Research...?"   
  
Ami grinned a little. "I'll get right on it."   
  
Artimas shook his head at Ami. "This isn't something you can look up in a book. You have to actually go out there and talk to each of these Sailor Moon's to find out which one is the right one. I want you out there with Goku and the rest of the gang. It's your duty as Sailor Senshi to uphold peace. You can't leave it to Ki fighters anymore."  
  
Ami, who had already started pulling out her computer, quickly shoved it back into her storage. "Usagi already made it clear that Senshi powers won't do any good against this guy."  
  
Luan frowned. "Then fight like this!" The group of four jumped back a bit with a quick nod. "And find out exactly what happened with Usagi yesterday too. I refuse to believe she would have attacked Mamoru and her father in such a manner."   
  
The girls lowered their heads in embarrassment. They hated to be scolded by a mere cat, although she was their advisor and mentor as Senshi.   
  
Ami, getting an idea, looked up at Luna with a smile. She had spent the entire day wondering what in the world had gotten into Usagi. But now with their current information she was beginning to get an idea as to why Usagi had done what she did. "I don't think it was really Usagi."   
  
Makoto, already on her way out the door, looked back at Ami. "Huh?"  
  
Ami nodded, her smile growing. "Yeah. There's two Sailor Moon's, one of them obviously being an imposter. Well, whose to say there weren't two Usagi's yesterday? We all know Usagi would never have done something so stupid and crazy in all her life."  
  
Minako smiled. "Now that's something I can believe. I DO know Usagi would never go against Mamoru and Goku like that. It's just not like her." Her smile faded as she lowered her eyes to the ground. "Too bad we can't tell Goku all this."  
  
Rei frowned. "Huh? Why not?"  
  
Minako sighed. "Because we only know because there are two Sailor Moon's. If they both don't meet while Goku's around, then we can't tell him, otherwise he'll know who we are."  
  
Rei grinned. The problem would be easily taken care of. "Then we'll just tell him as the Senshi."   
  
Makoto banged her head against the wall lightly in frustration. "I hope you're right."   
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru, along with the rest of the gang who had felt Goku's power, flew out into the middle of no where. He too felt the disturbance of two Sailor Moon's, something he found very odd. He knew exactly who was the Senshi of the Moon, it was the girl whom he was destined to marry, yet would refuse. He himself didn't know which one was the real Sailor Moon, but he planned to find out as soon as he arrived at the scene with Goku and Sailor Moon.   
  
Knowing now that there were two Sailor Moon's, which was utterly impossible, he knew that this same thing probably happened with Usagi the day before. It was the only explanation. Why he didn't feel two Usagi's at the same time, he didn't know. But, two Sailor Moon's must equal two Usagi's... she had to have been cloned. Frowning at the thought, Mamoru sped up.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku looked up into the sky when he felt the power signatures of his comrades nearing. It had only been about ten minutes since he called for them with the quick rising and lowering of his own power. He crossed his arms as he glared down at Sailor Moon. He could sense something different about her. She wasn't her normal, caring self that he had grown to know in the few times he had met her. She seemed to be much more demanding, and impatient as well. If this had been any other time, had his daughter not shown the same abnormalities the day before, he might have guessed that she was stressed, which still may have been the case. But since Usagi had acted so strangely, and not of her own fault, this seemed to be too fishy as well.   
  
Tatsuo growled, not looking at Goku. He couldn't believe that the man had made suspicions so quickly. Maybe it was too soon after what he had done with Usagi. That had to be it. Or maybe, just maybe he was acting completely different than the real Sailor Moon. "I really don't think this is necessary."  
  
Goku frowned as he looked back into the sky. The others would arrive any second now. "I do."  
  
Tatsuo stared down at the ground, trying to keep his cool. "It's mine. What's the deal? You know I'm not going to do anything but fight evil with it."  
  
Goku glanced quickly back at the girl. "What about the rest of the Senshi."  
  
Tatsuo groaned as he threw his head back. "What about them? They're off fighting that creature as we speak."   
  
Not even answering back, Goku's attention was quickly diverted back up to the sky, where there others were landing from. "Great, you're here." He said as he dropped his look of anger and approached his youngest son. "Looks like we have to get our hands dirty tonight."   
  
Vejita frowned as he crossed his arms, refusing to look at Goku. "I don't intend on fighting at your side, Kakarotto. I can take care of it on my own."  
  
Goku grinned. "Yeah, right."  
  
Vejita, his scowl growing larger than before, turned to the taller Saiyan. He would have retorted with a witty insult, but his eye soon caught Sailor Moon, who looked to be eagerly awaiting something. "What's with her?" He asked rather harshly as he pointed to her.   
  
Goku looked over his shoulder at Sailor Moon. "She wants 'her' broach."  
  
Gohan, remembering his earlier talk with his father, looked up in shock. "HER broach?" He leaned past his father and stared at Sailor Moon. "If it's yours, then why does Usagi have it?"  
  
Tatsuo frowned. These people were much too curious. "I gave it to her for safe-keeping. She was meant to hand it over to Goku, but didn't."   
  
Krillin walked past Goku with a frown. He hadn't actually ever met Sailor Moon before, but already he was getting the impression that she was careless. "Can't you take care of it yourself? I mean, you ARE meant to be the Moon Princess from what your friends told Piccolo and Goku last year."   
  
Tatsuo quickly diverted his attention upon the ground. He didn't want any of these guys reading into his emotions through his eyes. "If something like this were to happen, I would have rather it not be with me..."  
  
Goten frowned. "So then it would be with someone weaker so THEY would be attacked? Is that how you Senshi work? I thought you were for protecting others, not endangering them."   
  
Goku grinned. Those were two thoughts that had crossed his mind, though he wasn't going to bring them up until he knew for sure that Sailor Moon had been corrupted. But right now, he wasn't sure if she WAS corrupt, or just plain stupid by the answers they were getting. "If you really wanted me to have it, you would have given it to me the day we used the Dragon Balls to resurrect everyone, not my daughter."   
  
Trunks, still not understanding what this entire thing was about, looked to Goku in question. "So what, she wants it back now?"  
  
Tatsuo pushed Goku aside and glared up at Trunks with hate as if he had said something that could get him caught. "That's exactly what I want. It's mine. With it, I can destroy this enemy easily."   
  
Goku brought his hand up and rested it behind his head. He was stumped as to what to do. She was acting somewhat strange, and her reasoning was rather far-fetched. "We'll think about it. I think we'll wait a few hours before we make our decision."  
  
Tatsuo gasped with a shocked frown. "WHAT? By that time the entire world could have blown up! Do you really want that?!"   
  
Goten smirked, taking the place of his father. "Hey now. We've protected earth many a time before, we can do it again." Confused and curious, he then turned up to his father. "So WHY are we waiting so long?"  
  
Goku sighed. "Because, I don't have time to go into detail, but it took Usagi a while to come out of her 'trance' last night too."  
  
Tatsuo turned away from Goku with a look of worry. They knew that it wasn't really Usagi. Maybe he HAD gone a little overboard, but it just felt so good to ruin her life and attack Goku so freely. He should have just run with the broach while he could have. But he just couldn't pass up the opportunity for mischief. And now they knew it wasn't really Usagi who they had encountered.  
  
Goten quirked a brow, falling further into confusion. "Trance?"   
  
Goku nodded. "Yeah. She was attacked and put into a trance to make her think she hated us and do things she wouldn't normally do."   
  
Gohan momentarily glance at his younger brother. "Which is why she attacked dad last night."  
  
Goten's look of confusion was traded in for a frown. He had in fact felt the fight between his kid sister and their father. He remembered wondering what in the world had gotten into the both of them, and more importantly, if either of them were severely hurt. "Is she alright?" He asked, noticing that she wasn't around trailing close behind their father like she usually was.   
  
Goku nodded, thinking it was an appropriate time to bring up Usagi's situation. "She's fine. A few scratches added here and there, but nothing too serious. Don't forget, she IS a Saiyan. She's a tough kid. But..." He trailed off, looking down at the ground, not wanting to reveal his shameful actions. "I had Dende block her power for about a month, which is why she won't be able to fight right now."  
  
Tatsuo perked up upon hearing those simple words. Now Usagi would be unable to fight him. She wouldn't be able to stand in his way when he went to take over the Universe. Rubbing his hands together with a grin, he slowly pulled away from the group in order to re-plan his course of attack for that evening. He had expected to get the broach by just asking for it, but it would look like he would have to take it by brute force.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Moon was soon to arrive close to her family's location. The closer she came, the more her stomach ached. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. The other Sailor Moon's power level, which she had felt earlier, was beginning to seem more and more real. But she knew not how that could be. There was only supposed to be one Sailor Moon, one person with the power of the Moon running through her veins, HER. Not knowing what to expect, she urged for Nimbus to fly faster in hopes to intercept this new Sailor Moon, whoever she was.   
  
Leaning over the edge of Nimbus, she could sort of make out the outline of her brother, Goten, who she could see yet another person standing from behind, though no one she could make out. It was too dark to truly know who had gathered, and being unable to feel their power levels made it even worse. All she could feel was herself, though it wasn't her ... as well as the other Senshi, all of whom seemed to be on their way to this place as well.  
  
With a sigh, Sailor Moon leaned back and closed her eyes. Maybe now she could start piecing this all together and go back to living her life as a normal pre-teen.   
  
~*~*~  
  
Tatsuo's eyes flashed blue with anger as he turned up to the sky where he felt the real Sailor Moon coming from. A morbid grin was to accompany his growing frown, for, the only way Usagi transform was if she had the Broach. Maybe this night wouldn't go so horribly. After all, the idiot girl was practically delivering him her power.   
  
Turning to Goku, he quickly dropped his frown and put on a look of concern, though not worried at all. "Better be on the lookout for any possible attack."   
  
Goku, not knowing how to take the girl's words of caution, nodded. "You feel something coming?"  
  
Tatsuo turned back up to the sky, his evil grin reappearing. "I have a feeling."  
  
Vejita crossed his arms as he frowned at the girl. He still didn't like the idea of Earth being protected and saved by a group of little girls. It had been bad enough when Usagi and her friends had decided to join the world of fighting, now he would have to compete with the Senshi as well. "We know what we're doing, girl!"   
  
Tatsuo snorted. "I bet..."   
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son House~~  
  
Chi-Chi wrapped her dripping wet hair in a towel with a sigh, though not out of stress. It was as if she was finally calming down after the week's events. Things finally seemed to be coming together for a grand closing. Goku would soon be back and she would have her family back to normal, the way it should be.   
  
Unconsciously smiling to herself, Chi-Chi reached down toward the counter and curled her fingers in, though not being filled with anything. Not thinking anything of it, she moved her hand around, feeling around for a very special item which had been entrusted to her to keep safe.   
  
Not finding what she was looking for, Chi-Chi let out a soft grunting-growl. "Where are you?" She asked, rather playfully to herself. She looked down at the counter expecting to find the broach almost immediately. But to her surprise, it was no longer where she thought she had left it. "Well..." She turned around and let her eyes travel to the counter on the other side of the sink, hoping that she had put it there and just somehow forgotten temporarily. But again, it wasn't there.   
  
With a grunt, she walked out of the bathroom. She knew she couldn't have left it far from the bathroom. Goku had told her to make sure it was safe, and that was what she had intended to do. But now it was missing. "Where is it?!" She ran to her bed and sifted through the pile of blankets, only to come up short of the one thing she was looking for.   
  
She sat down, trying to think of where she could have possibly placed it. She remembered going into the bathroom and placing it on the counter next to the shower, where could it have gone? It couldn't have just gotten up and walked away, nor could anyone have stolen it. There was only one other person in the house.   
  
With an idea glimmering in her eye, Chi-Chi stood up and walked out of her room. "Usagi?" Not getting an answer, she walked further out into the living room and approached her daughter's. "Usagi? There wasn't anyone else in the house while I was in the shower, was there?" She stopped at Usagi's door and knocked, not wanting to invade her privacy. "Honey?"   
  
Where there was still no answer, Chi-Chi began to worry. It wasn't like Usagi to stay silent ... unless she was asleep. Maybe that was it. Maybe Usagi was just asleep. She had, after all, had a rough couple of days. And, as much as Chi-Chi wanted to let her daughter rest, she needed to find the broach. So, she quietly proceeded to open the door of her daughter's room, only to find it empty. Now things were starting to smell fishy. First the broach was missing, and now her daughter, who WANTED the broach back in the first place. Chi-Chi's once calm disposition was suddenly turned back into a rage of anger. Usagi had failed to obey her parents' words yet again and snuck out of the house, this time putting herself in danger of being attacked. "Usagi!"   
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Moon's heart began to race as she came closer and closer to the group; not only from being nervous, but from fearing the outcome of this meeting. Her friends were quite a ways from arriving, and she would be all alone with HER... the OTHER Sailor Moon, whom she could see quite clearly from where she was. The girl looked like herself in every aspect. The looks, the power, everything. What was going on? This girl clearly wasn't another Sailor Moon. It was an exact replica of herself ... and she was conversing with the other fighters of earth!   
  
Sailor Moon growled as she stood up and motioned for Nimbus to stop. "She's going to wish she never came here!" She slightly bent her knees to give herself power for a hop. Fearing that she might have already tricked them into thinking that she was the actual Sailor Moon, the real Sailor Moon jumped off Nimbus, aiming her land for the imposter. 'Prepare yourself!'  
  
~*~*~  
  
With an impish grin, Tatsuo looked directly up only to see Usagi after him. He quickly glanced at Vejita, and then to Goku. Both of them had their backs turned away. 'Perfect!' Looking back up to Usagi, he decided not to dodge or call attention to her.   
  
  
  
(Ok, I realize This is way shorter than usual, by about two or three pages, but I really don't have time to write right now. Sorry. I also know it's been a week since I last posted. Bad me, I understand. But it's the end of the quarter and I have a crapload of projects, one of which was due today, and two of which are due on Friday, meaning I don't think I'll be able to post anything more this weekend, and if I do, it'll most likely be on Thursday or Friday. And, just in case I don't get to post anything again before next week... next week is spring break, and I'm going on tour for band, which means, no chapter for all of next week! Sorry... well, I guess I'll Cya later! ) 


	148. Part 22

(Before I start this chapter, I would like to apologize. I realize it has been two weeks since my spring break since I got something out and I'm sorry. When I got back my teachers had no mercy in assigning more work. It has been especially treacherous since AP tests are this week, which only means one thing for the rest of the year. After this week things in regards to homework should be MAJORLY slowing down. ^_^ Anyway, along with homework and a momentary loss in interest of writing kind of held me back from "inspiration". But I feel like writing again, yay. Cya! )  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Moon landed on Tatsuo with a thud, her force causing the ground beneath to cave in slightly. "YOU!" She hollered at the top of her lungs, not even paying attention to everyone else. They weren't her main concern at the moment. The imposter was the only thing she could think of.  
  
Tatsuo was unable to truly prepare himself for impact, as Sailor Moon was falling too fast to allow him to try anything. But he didn't mind. She would be overthrown with ease. And with the use of his powers he would be able to convince Goku and the others that he was in fact the true Sailor Moon. Narrowing his eyes, he did the only thing he could which was to brace himself.  
  
Sailor Moon smashed the heels of her feet into her counterpart's face, causing him to fall back into the ground with a loud thud.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The Sailor Senshi were on their way to Tatsuo's Sailor Moon when they felt the collision of the Sailor Moons. All four stopped in both confusion and fear. No words were exchanged, but they weren't needed. They all knew what was going down. The real Sailor Moon was fighting the imposter, obviously the same guy who had disguised himself as Usagi the day before. She would be all alone, technically. Although there were other fighters around her, none would know who the real Sailor Moon was, which could pose a major problem for their friend.  
  
Sailor Venus, taking charge as leader, turned to her fellow Senshi, more in fear now than ever now that the realization had finally taken place. "Come on girls! Usagi needs us!"  
  
Jupiter nodded with an honorable frown. "Let's go!"  
  
The four knew their duty. They would protect Usagi, and it wasn't because she was the Princess of the Moon. They knew much deeper duty, and that was one of friendship. They wouldn't let her down. All four increased their powers to the max and headed toward the fight.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Those who were around turned almost immediately upon hearing the sounds of their comrade being attacked. All were ready to launch attacks of their own to help the girl, but stopped suddenly. No words were exchanged, but all knew something was terribly wrong, for here there were two of what appeared to be the same girl fighting each other.  
  
Tatsuo was continually punched into the ground by Sailor Moon without mercy, none of which he felt. But just to appear to be in distress, he cried out for help. Everything was going according to plan now. Sailor Moon had fallen into his trap. Once he made the others see that he was the real Sailor Moon, Usagi would be put out of commission for good, and he would now be the holder of the broach.  
  
Tatsuo failed to fight back against the raging Senshi. "Help! Somebody, help!" He cried out. No one made a move. Instead, they just stood around and gawked in awe. None could comprehend the actions being played out before their eyes.  
  
Gohan, with his mouth hanging open, looked up to his father for answers, who had always seemed to have them in the past. But now, his father seemed to be just as confused as the rest of the guys.  
  
Goku scratched his head in frustration. In all his encounters in the past he had never once seen anything like this. He wanted to help, but not the wrong one, and not being able to feel their power levels really hindered his effort to see who was true and who wasn't. Had he been able to feel their individual powers all of this would have been so much easier, but then again, it wouldn't be nearly as fun now would it? "Well.?"  
  
Vejita crossed his arms and frowned. He wasn't up for these shenanigans. He wouldn't tolerate it from his kids and he sure as hell wouldn't tolerate it from these brats. "Blast them both!"  
  
Trunks groaned as he glared down to his father. "We can't just "blast" them both! One of them is innocent!"  
  
Vejita frowned even harder, but said nothing. He knew his son was right, but he didn't have to like it.  
  
Sailor Moon, still ignoring her family and friends, paused her assault on the imposter. She slowly pulled back her right fist as far as she could and tightened it as tightly as possible. "Say goodnight!"  
  
Tatsuo frowned up at Goku, who was standing almost directly overhead. Why weren't any of them helping, he wondered. Had they not had an alliance between the Senshi? Couldn't they tell that the girl who was hitting him was obviously the evil Sailor Moon? She wasn't even giving him a chance to retaliate, not that he was really trying, but that wasn't the point. The point was to make them attack her FOR him. "You fools! Don't just stand there and WATCH! Help me!"  
  
Sailor Moon narrowed her eyes. She still didn't know exactly what was happening, but she didn't want to wait to find out either. She wasn't going to make the same mistake she had made with Cell and the Dark Kingdom. This time SHE would make the finishing move. "No one wants to help a low life like you." She slowly began to lower her fist toward her target, Tatsuo's face. It wouldn't have done anything too much to him except maybe knock him out. But at that point, she only needed a moment to explain herself to her father, a moment without Tatsuo the imposter to get in the way.  
  
Goten darted a glance up at Goku only to receive a quick nod. He knew exactly what to do at that point. Looking back down at the girl on top, he reached down, and, with one hand, he grabbed onto the arm that was going in for the attack.  
  
Caught off guard and confused, Sailor Moon turned around to be face to face with her angered brother. "Let go!" She cried out.  
  
Goten frowned as he looked past the attacker down to her victim whose face was covered in blood from the attacks. "This has stop now." He let his eyes drift back to Sailor Moon, his eyes forming an angrier frown.  
  
Sailor Moon growled as she looked back down at Tatsuo and tried desperately to break free from her brother. "Let go! Let go! You don't understand! I'M the REAL Sailor Moon! She's an imposter!"  
  
Tatsuo, through his pain, managed to give a frown of his own. "No, I'M the real Sailor Moon. She's the enemy."  
  
Goten ignored the two girls and wrapped his other arm around Sailor Moon's stomach and pulled her away from Tatsuo. "I don't care. Tell it to somebody who does." He looked up to his father, basically asking him what to do.  
  
Goku motioned for his son to continue holding the girl. He would have to figure this out before any actions were implemented. He looked down at the other girl, at her tattered clothing and torn face. At that point, any and all thoughts flew out of his mind. This was one situation he truly did not know what to do. He didn't want to hurt an innocent girl, yet again, he didn't want the imposter going free. He didn't know this girl well enough to just KNOW who the real one was either. "We obviously aren't going to get anywhere just by asking you two. You both claim to be the same person."  
  
Krillin knelt down to the hurt Tatsuo and put his arm under his neck to help brace him into a sitting position. "You ok?"  
  
Sailor Moon frowned as she began to squirm. "Who cares about her?! She's an imposter!"  
  
Tatsuo grinned as he leaned into Krillin's arm. "There's only one way to find out."  
  
Vejita smirked. "Blast you both and see which on survives. The real Sailor Moon should be immune to our Ki attacks from what Kakaratto says."  
  
Goku frowned as he crossed his arms and turned back to the Saiyan Prince. "That's not very practical, Vejita." Vejita glared at Goku, but said nothing.  
  
Sailor Moon frowned up at her brother with a quiet growl. "Let me go. I AM the real Sailor Moon. You should know that! What's wrong with you?"  
  
Growing tired of this already, Tatsuo yawned. "I know how we can settle this."  
  
Sailor Moon stopped fidgeting and looked down in interest. "I'm listening."  
  
Tatsuo cracked his knuckles with a chuckle. This would be too easy. With Usagi powerless except for Moon power she would be nothing against him. "I challenge you."  
  
Sailor Moon's eyes shot open with fear. She knew she couldn't handle a fight in her current condition. She was taking a risk when she attacked the imposter as it was. Who knows what kind of power she held. "What? Are you nuts? We can't fight right now!"  
  
Goku walked past Tatsuo and began studying the girl in Goten's hands. He found it strange that she become tense at the mention of equal fighting instead of an ambush. "You seemed pretty eager to fight just a minute ago."  
  
Sailor Moon froze, not knowing what to say to that. Sometimes, if her father wasn't on her side, he could be a real pain. "Well, its just that, there are more important things to be worrying about right now, that's all." She closed her eyes and berated herself inside her head. She knew that was a stupid excuse, and excuse her father would see right through, but she wasn't good at this. There was too much riding on this entire situation for her to be thinking straight.  
  
Goku frowned. This wasn't good for convincing him that she was the real Sailor Moon. "Ok, I'm going to be blunt here. First you come and beat the hell outta that Sailor Moon and NOW you don't want to fight anymore. And you come up with a stupid excuse as to WHY you can't fight right now? Do you really think that we're going to buy this?"  
  
Vejita grinned rather evilly as he approached Goten and the girl. "YOU'RE the imposter!"  
  
Sailor Moon's body suddenly became extremely warm as her head began dizzy. This wasn't happening. They weren't supposed to be accusing her of being the imposter. Maybe she would have to tell them the truth after all, but that would come only as a last resort. She could feel her friends coming. 'Maybe if I can last until they get here to clear this up. They'll know that I'M the true Sailor Moon.'  
  
Sailor Moon looked up to her father, and then to Vejita who was eagerly awaiting his chance to "blast" her. "I'll."  
  
Tatsuo forced himself to his feet, giving himself extra power to compensate for his wounds. "Give up?!"  
  
Sailor Moon frowned. "No! I'll do it! I'll fight you! But I'm warning you. you'll be sorry when I'm through with you!"  
  
Tatsuo lightheartedly laughed as he shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know about all that."  
  
Goten loosened his grip on Sailor Moon and gently dropped her to her feet. He was close to believing that Tatsuo was the real Sailor Moon after Usagi's performance. "This is nuts." He said as he turned to his older brother.  
  
Gohan nodded in agreement. "I know. Who ever heard of two of the same people who weren't twins?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son House~~  
  
Chi-Chi dressed herself as quickly as she could. There was no way she would just let her daughter waltz out of the house just like that without permission. No. Goku would hear about this before things got out of hand. Who knew when Usagi would be coming back home. She had been acting so weird in the last couple of days. She was already skating on thin ice as it was.  
  
Chi-Chi stomped outside and felt around for her daughter before doing anything else, but came up with nothing. "So you wanna play it that way? Go ahead and hide it, little girl. When you come home your fun will be over. AND YOU BETTER HAVE THAT BROACH WITH YOU!" Frowning to herself, she felt out for her husband's power level. He seemed to be stationary, but not where she had thought he would be. 'Did he get his tail removed already?' Shrugging, she let herself float into the air. It didn't matter to her one way or the other. All she knew was that her husband was surrounded by everyone else, which wasn't necessarily something to be happy over. That usually only meant that they were about to make their move. Chi-Chi grinned to herself. This time, it wouldn't be without her. "Here I go.!"  
  
Raising her power level, Chi-Chi started out for her husband's position. A little voice in the back of her mind hoped that there was a chance that her daughter had gone to meet Goku there was well. Then she wouldn't have to worry about where the girl was. Maybe she had decided to come clean about the broach to him before something awful happened.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Moon and Tatsuo stood face to face, both in their own fighting stances. There was something familiar to the men about one Sailor Moon's stance in particular, like it was a variation of Usagi's, but this was the Sailor Moon who had dealt the damage to the other. This was the Sailor Moon they didn't exactly trust yet.  
  
Tatsuo licked away some blood that had dripped down the side of his mouth. He would enjoy pounding Usagi into a pulp in front of everyone and then revealing the truth to them. "Prepare to die."  
  
Sailor Moon paid no attention to the imposter's taunts. She had been taught long before not to let a foe's words sink in too deeply for all they would do is throw her concentration off. She didn't even bother to say anything in reply. She wanted to stay completely focused during this battle, if one could even call it that. This would be a very one-sided fight, with her on the receiving end. "Let's just go."  
  
Tatsuo nodded. He didn't have any problem with that. He wanted to see Usagi in pain. "Let's."  
  
Sailor Moon thanked her lucky stars that her mother had forced her to learn how to fight without relying on her Ki. She wouldn't stand a chance right now if she hadn't.  
  
Goku watched only halfheartedly as the two girls raced out toward each other in full force, both with the same speed. His heart was really in his thoughts, rather than what was going on around him. And his thoughts were with the cloning of Sailor Moon. There were two of her, who's to say that there weren't two Usagi's? That would explain the odd behavior. That would also explain why Usagi didn't remember any of what had happened.  
  
Goku smiled as he crossed his arms. That would mean that his Usagi hadn't attacked him at all, in any mind set. It was only a clone. His thoughts froze as he remembered one very interesting detail from his daughter's explanation of what she remembered, something that scared him to death. She had told him that Tatsuo was the one to have knocked her out. But he didn't believe her. How could he have? Tatsuo had seemed like a nice, average boy. Her story wasn't sounding all that far-fetched anymore now that he thought about it. It made perfect sense now that he saw two of the same people fighting one another for their identity.  
  
Goku's face turned pure white as he turned his eyes downward in shame. He had treated his daughter horribly, and relentlessly too. He called her a liar, and even after she told him her story he still didn't fully believe her. But how could he have? It didn't add up. That would all change now. He had to make sure that he picked the right Sailor Moon as the true Sailor Moon. He wouldn't let this silly fight determine it. He would have to watch both of them carefully. He knew that the real Sailor Moon was a righteous fighter and wouldn't try anything stupid.  
  
Meanwhile, the fight had already started and Tatsuo already seemed to have the upper hand. He had one major advantage over Sailor Moon, which was all he needed to win the fight. He had the advantage of being able to boost his Ki to give him more power. He wasn't physically stronger, but he was more powerful.  
  
Tatsuo curled his fingers in enough to leave only his palm exposed and pulled it down to his side to keep it hidden enough so Sailor Moon wouldn't see it. He used his other hand to grab the girl by the back of the neck and lift her up into the air. He laughed wickedly as he proceeded to raise his palm and smash it into the girl's face, causing a shrill of pain to arise. "Give up yet!?"  
  
Sailor Moon muffled her cries as fast as she could. She wanted to show as little pain as possible. She had learned the hard way that showing pain only worked to give the enemy confidence. "Never!" She picked herself up off the ground and jumped away from Tatsuo. Lifting her hand up, she wiped away some blood that had trickled down her forehead. She didn't take her eyes off of her opponent. "I haven't even gotten warmed up yet."  
  
Tatsuo smirked. He knew that was a bluff, but Sailor Moon didn't know that he knew. "Then show me what you've got."  
  
Sailor Moon lowered herself into yet another fighting stance. She didn't have much to show, in fact, she had already done everything she could, which was practically nothing. A few hits had actually made it to her opponent, only one of which had actually hurt him. She could feel her friends getting closer and closer. They would be there any minute now. But they were all she could feel because of their planetary powers. Her mother she could not feel.  
  
Goku, on the other hand, could very easily feel his wife approaching with great speed, which worried him. This was no place for her, especially since she was supposed to be protecting two things: the broach and their daughter. "Shit!"  
  
Krillin looked up at his best friend in curiosity. "What is it Goku?" He didn't even have to wait for an answer before he too realized exactly what was going down. "She's crazy!"  
  
Goku frowned as he prepared to teleport. "She's dead! Usagi's not with her!"  
  
Krillin's eyes widened in shock. He had never once in his life heard Goku talk in such a way about anyone who was peaceful. He had always had such a carefree outlook on life. ".uh."  
  
Sailor Moon froze in place and turned her head to her father. Her acute hearing had picked up exactly what was said. She didn't need to know the entire story to know her mother was on her way. "What?!" Tatsuo took this opportunity to strike his opponent in the abdomen. Sailor Moon grabbed her stomach and doubled over in pain.  
  
With no further words Goku teleported for his wife. Sailor Moon winced as yet another blow came upon her body, but the pain seemed to take a backseat to her worries; things weren't going to plan. She hadn't expected her mother to come and look for her. What was the woman thinking?  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi wasn't paying any attention to what was going on where her husband was. In fact, after locating him she had almost completely forgotten him. She had focused more of her attention to the search for her daughter, whose energy pattern was nowhere to be found, which only worried her more than anything. Was this what Goku went through every time he tried to find her? He had always said that when she wasn't in a state of being powered up that she was almost impossible to find. But this was unusual. He had always been able to locate her relatively soon.  
  
Goku found himself at the side of his wife, frowning. "What are you doing?" He called out to her rather sternly.  
  
Chi-Chi stopped herself cold at the sound of Goku's words. "Goku?" She turned her head to her husband, wondering what was going on.  
  
Goku didn't wait for his wife to say anything before he started in. "Where's Usagi? Why aren't you home with her? You know she's helpless right now."  
  
Those words brought no comfort to the woman. She had hoped that maybe Usagi would have gone to him, but it was obvious she wasn't. "Your daughter decided to run off. I don't know where she is. I thought you might know, or rather, want to know." Her words tingled with spite. "She hasn't learned her lesson yet."  
  
Goku's heart quickened at the sound that his daughter was gone. He didn't have time to go and find her. He needed to be back at the fight between the Sailor Moons. If something more than their fight broke out he wanted to be there to fight it back. But now it seemed as though he would have to search for his child instead. He didn't want any more danger to come to her. "Great. She sure picked a fine time."  
  
"She took the broach with her."  
  
Goku frowned even harder as he angrily clenched his fists. "What?!"  
  
Chi-Chi solemnly nodded with her eyes turned down to the ground in shame. "She stole it while I was showering."  
  
Goku growled as he approached his wife and wrapped his arm around her waist. "Come on."  
  
Chi-Chi flinched in surprise. "Do you feel her?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "No. But you're staying with me. I want to be able to keep an eye on you, for now."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she gently pushed her husband away. "Now just what in the world do you think you're talking about? I don't need to be watched. I'm not a child! YOU of all people should know that!"  
  
Goku sighed as he lowered his head; his stress was building up faster than he could think. "Listen! I know! But whoever's come to this world has the ability to clone. I think. Right now there are two Sailor Moon's fighting each other. I'm pretty sure that's what happened with Usagi. I'm not sure what this thing has planned, but, while I think, I want to know where everyone is, leaving no one alone for this clone to become. It's already trying to trick us about who the real Sailor Moon is."  
  
Chi-Chi continued to frown, though her anger was subsiding. "Alright. I'll buy that. But if you think for one minute that I'm going to sit around and watch two people fight while my baby is missing you've got another thing coming."  
  
Goku smiled softly. "Don't worry. Once we get back to the others we'll send Goten and Trunks to go and look for her, and you can go with them." He reached out and re-wrapped his arm around his wife's waist once again. "Now let's get outta here, k?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
The Senshi were approaching the fallout between the two Sailor Moons rapidly and could now see everything that was going on with ease. All were horrified at what they saw, and felt. Both girls looked exactly alike and FELT exactly alike.  
  
They stopped simultaneously just behind the other fighters so their presence wouldn't be detected. Jupiter's mouth hung open as her eyes bulged out at what she saw. Both Sailor Moon's were going at it, though one seemed to be taking more hits than the other, both being equally torn apart from one another. ".ahh."  
  
Venus slightly nodded as if she fully understood the words not spoken by her comrade. "How awful."  
  
Mercury too found herself frozen from the actions taking place before her. "One of them is our friend."  
  
Mars slowly turned toward Mercury, her face white with fear. "How do we know which one is OUR Sailor Moon?"  
  
"I was hoping you guys would have known." Came a male's voice from behind. The Senshi jumped as they turned around. If they had not recognized the voice they would have immediately prepared for an attack. Luckily, it was only Goku, which Chi-Chi at his side.  
  
Mercury was the first to become calm, being the one who always kept her cool in rough situations. "Well. they both have the same power so it's hard to tell." She let her eyes travel downward as she began to slip into a deep though, but was caught off guard by a slender, brown item at Goku's waist. 'A tail?!'  
  
Goku frowned as he looked past the girls at the fight. Sailor Moon had just delivered a powerful kick to Tatsuo's face, causing him to fall to his knees. 'Of course. it's just like Usagi. Both girls have the same power. that's why it was Usagi's power I felt. The clone is identical in every possible way, both appearance AND power. Bastards!'  
  
Mars studied Goku's face very carefully. She could sense confusion and frustration coming from him, more so than when the Dark Kingdom kidnapped Usagi. 'What's he thinking about?' "We'll try to figure out who the real Sailor Moon is, sir. Don't worry."  
  
Goku nodded with a little relief. He was grateful that someone who could actually feel power levels was actually here. "Great." He turned to his wife, still mostly concerned with the safety of his daughter. "Let's get Goten and Trunks searching."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded with a smile. "The sooner the better."  
  
Jupiter frowned. "Searching for what?"  
  
Goku looked up to the green Senshi with an emotionless face. "My daughter is missing and she has a key that may stop this mess."  
  
Mercury snapped her head up. "What kind of key?" She asked with suspicion.  
  
Goku shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's some kind of broach. Some guy came and attacked her the other night. He wanted the broach." Mercury and Mars quickly exchanged worried glares with one another. Goku found their reaction rather suspicious. "Do you girls know anything about it?"  
  
Mercury shot a glance back at Goku, her eyes full of fear. "N.no. All we know is that it's the Moon Princess' "  
  
Goku frowned. It was obvious by their reaction that they knew more. "Alright." He reached out and gently grabbed his wife's hand. "We'll let you guys go to work then."  
  
Venus nodded as the Saiyan led his wife past the group. She sighed as she turned back to her fellow Senshi. "Guys! This is NOT good!"  
  
Jupiter frowned as she got into a cross-legged position. "It's that same guy who wants the broach Usagi told us about. That means right now Sailor Moon is fighting that guy." She paused and looked over her shoulder just as Sailor Moon was being tossed into the air, only to be knocked down again. "But why is she loosing so bad?"  
  
Venus frowned with a deep growl. "Let's get this guy. Mercury, do you think you can try to work your computer into telling us who the real Sailor Moon is?"  
  
Mercury shrugged. "I really don't know. If we can't tell who she is just by sensing her power on our own, then the computer surely can't. They both seem to have the same power energy."  
  
Jupiter groaned. "Can't you do a DNA check?"  
  
"That's not realistic at this point. They are both the same exact person, meaning their DNA configuration would be the same. The only way we can tell is by who has the broach, well, the true broach that is. And the only way to do that would be to get our hands on both of their broaches, which doesn't look like it's going to happen at this point of the game."  
  
Venus; "That's obvious."  
  
Mars sighed. "I guess the only way to. wait a minute, let's open the link! We'll tell the real Sailor Moon to get over here through the link! That way the fake one won't hear us and the real one will be found out!"  
  
Venus smiled with a high-pitched squeal of excitement. "That's a GREAT idea Mars!"  
  
Mars smiled. "Let's go! I'll do it!" Before waiting for an agreement from her friends, Mars closed her eyes and raised her power level as she proceeded to open a link between herself and the true Sailor Moon.  
  
Jupiter crossed her fingers, hoping that this would actually work. Not that she really doubted it, but she had a bad feeling that it couldn't all be this easy.  
  
Mars' smile turned into a frown as she opened her eyes. "Dang it!"  
  
Jupiter's face nearly shattered. "What?"  
  
Mars ignored Jupiter and closed her eyes again as she tried to open the link again. 'Usagi, do you hear me? Get over here if you do? Come on!' She opened her eyes to see if anything was happening, but the two Sailor Moon's were still taking pieces out of one another. "She's not answering! I don't think I'm getting through to her."  
  
Venus frowned. "What? Of course you have to be getting through to her. Maybe she can't hear you through all that noise. Of course, it IS inside her head. WHY ISN'T SHE ANSWERING?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
"SHE WHAT!?" Vejita growled. Goku and Chi-Chi had just told the rest of the gang their current situation with the youngest member of the group. Vejita, obviously, wasn't too keen on her decision to run off. "How could she possibly be so STUPID!?"  
  
Chi-Chi pushed past her husband and put her index finger in Vejita's face. "Listen, Mister! Watch your mouth! She may not have made the smartest decision, but she's not stupid!"  
  
Vejita glared at the woman before him. "Haven't you ever noticed that your daughter is always the reason situations are heightened like this? Now she's gone and made more or a problem than needed."  
  
Gohan pulled his mother aside, hoping to quell the argument before it really started. "Mom, he does have a point. She's known for getting herself in trouble." He paused as he frowned down at the Saiyan Prince. "But she isn't stupid. She's just a kid. a very impulsive kid, but a kid nonetheless."  
  
Vejita frowned with a quiet growl. "So the brat got herself into more trouble. I don't care. I want to know what you're going to do about these two. I'm getting pissed off just standing here and watching this child's play."  
  
Goku ignored Vejita and looked at his youngest son. "Goten, you and Trunks take your mother to look for your sister. When you have, stay with her and don't let her out of your sight. Gohan's right about her being impulsive. She's powerless right now, and I want her to stay safe."  
  
Goten nodded. "Understood."  
  
Tatsuo grinned widely as he jumped away from Sailor Moon, completely stopping his assault on her. "That won't be necessary."  
  
The shocked group of people turned their attention from each other to the dominating Sailor Moon. Goku pushed Krillin aside to stand as the leader of the group. "What are you talking about?"  
  
Sailor Moon fell to a knee, though not ready to give up. This was her chance to regain her strength. She watched Tatsuo approach her family even closer, her attention soon being taken up by taking notice that her friends weren't far behind. "Guys." She whispered.  
  
Tatsuo grinned even more deviously. "You see, I know where your daughter is."  
  
Sailor Moon's attention was soon diverted away from her friends and back to Tatsuo. "No." She tried to yell out, but it came out as nothing more than a quiet whisper.  
  
Chi-Chi cocked her head to the side in confusion. "How can you know that? Her power can't be traced by any of us."  
  
Tatsuo upped his power to give himself more strength. "As Sailor Moon I know these things. Now, your daughter is right."  
  
"Moon Tiara ACTION!"  
  
Sailor Moon's Tiara lit up in a bright golden color as it spun toward Tatsuo, but he wasn't going to be taken so easy. He spun around and retaliated with his own version of Sailor Moon's attack. As the two disks collided with one another, they ricocheted off one another and lost power.  
  
Tatsuo frowned, his attention suddenly being diverted back to Sailor Moon. "You shouldn't have done that, little girl." His eyes suddenly flared blue with anger as he glared as Sailor Moon with pure hatred. "No one attacks me from behind and gets away with it."  
  
  
  
(Ok, So there it is. I'll try to get another chapter out tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, hopefully Thursday. Until school ends in June, don't expect one everyday, most likely every other day. Although, homework should be low for the next week. ^_^ Well, I'll be seein ya then. Bye! ) 


	149. Part 23

(Ok, so here's the story. I got bored. REALLY bored, so I stopped writing for a while. I was only going to stop for a few weeks, but then a few weeks turned into a few months without me really taking notice. Getting bored with something and then trying to pick it up again isn't the easiest thing to do, but I can honestly say I'm back again. I already have this entire "book" finished, although I'm only going to be posting once a day. As you're reading this I have already begun my next "book", which will come out either once a day, or every other day depending on how much writing I'll be able to get done in one day. Well, happy reading!)  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Everyone just stood by and gawked at the two fighters. What had the dominant one meant by saying "I know where your daughter is"? Why had the other one stopped her from going any further?  
  
Sailor Moon stood her ground as she glared back into the imposter's eyes. She wasn't about to let herself be backed down by her just because he was stronger. She knew she was in the right. If she backed down, who knows what would happen to her, or more importantly, the earth. She would have to somehow find a way to get her family and friends to believe that she was the real Sailor Moon.  
  
Sailor Moon tensed her muscles, preparing herself for another go at it with Tatsuo. But something called to her in the back of her mind. Those eyes, they had flashed blue just moments after the other Sailor Moon glared at her. Where had she seen them before? No one else was coming to her aid. Did that mean that no one had seen them flash with such evil intentions? Not much time was given to the Senshi before Tatsuo jumped high into the air with an evil grin, accompanied by a bone-chilling cackle. She immediately stopped thinking and became alert for any and everything that could possibly happen at this point.  
  
Goku, having known the Senshi of the Moon best out of the rest of the group, found Tatsuo's behavior rather odd. Never once had he heard Sailor Moon laugh in such a way. He remembered her always to fight with honor for herself, as well as her foe. The way she had snapped at the other Sailor Moon HAD seemed rather unlike her.  
  
With his suspicions growing, Goku focused his attention back to the girl on the ground. He wondered why she hadn't followed the other into the air. Until this point, she had been following every move that her foe had made.  
  
The Senshi, fearing that they wouldn't be able to figure out which of the two fighters was their Sailor Moon, dropped themselves to the ground next to the other fighters. Looking up at the fighter in the air, and then back to the one on the ground, their faces were filled with worry.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, Mamoru was just arriving at Haruka's house, where he felt Michiru's energy as well. Those two were always spending time together. They were completely inseparable. He landed in front of the house, finding that the door was wide open. "Haruka! Michiru!" Not wasting any time, he rushed through the doorway, finding the two sitting in front of the TV on the sofa. He frowned as he watched them for a few minutes, hoping that they would notice him standing there. But they were too wound into their own little world to notice him. "You Guys!"  
  
Haruka immediately snapped her attention upward toward the angry Mamoru standing in her living room. "Oh, hey Mamoru. When'd you get here?"  
  
Michiru smiled as she waved hello up to the boy. "How's it goin?"  
  
Mamoru clenched his fists as he walked in front of the TV and turned it off, causing Haruka to burst into hysteria. "What's wrong with you? We were watching that!"  
  
Mamoru growled as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Hello?! Don't you feel that? Something big's going down out there!"  
  
Haruka frowned back at her friend, though not because she was upset over a menial disturbance. "Yeah, I feel it."  
  
Mamoru, ready to pound some sense into his friends, growled even louder. "Then why are you both just SITTING here like two lumps on a log?"  
  
Haruka closed her eyes as she laughed softly. "Look, Mamoru, it's not our problem. There are plenty of people who can fight besides us. When we're needed, we'll fight. But right now, it seems like a Senshi problem, rather than OUR problem."  
  
Michiru just nodded and smiled. This was actually one subject that she agreed on with Haruka. She could remember quite clearly what had happened last time they tried to interfere with a Senshi fight. It wasn't their place to interfere again.  
  
Haruka opened her eyes with a frown. "I don't see why you're so concerned. Are you going soft on us?"  
  
Mamoru frowned. "I'm not concerned." He said rather conceitedly. "I couldn't care less about the Senshi." He clenched his fists at what he was saying. He did in fact care a little about the Senshi. He knew who they were and what they stood for. He had saved their leader in the Dark Kingdom. He felt it his duty to do so again here on earth.  
  
Michiru could tell he wasn't being truthful about his last statement. She could see it in his eyes that he truly did care, for what reason she didn't know, but he DID care. "Don't lie, Mamoru."  
  
Haruka turned to her friend, half in confusion. "Huh?"  
  
Michiru ignored Haruka and kept her eyes on Mamoru. "Don't let us hold you back. I can tell you want to go."  
  
Mamoru dropped his frown, his face now full of surprise. "Is it that obvious?"  
  
Michiru giggled. "I am a woman, aren't I?" With a soft smile, she waved for him to leave. "Go help them."  
  
Mamoru was speechless. Michiru had never called him out like that before. Without thinking another thought or saying another word, he turned around and ran out the door. He wasted not time getting himself up into the air and flying himself directly toward the fight that was taking place between the two Sailor Moons.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Piccolo worked fast, going through the old Palace he knew so well as he searched for any traces of information he might be able to find about the broach. But things weren't going to plan. He wasn't finding anything, but nevertheless, he wouldn't give up. Only half of the palace had been searched, and he planned on going through it all before he called it quits. He WOULD find the secret of the broach, why the intruder could have any interest in it. Maybe then they would be able to sort this whole thing out.  
  
Meanwhile, there was still the issue of the fight that was brewing. Things had already gotten pretty heated down on earth. Piccolo was sure that things would only be getting worse before they got better, it always happened that way, and now his son was heading in that direction.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru could feel the disturbances just as much as the next guy, but there wasn't much she could do about it. Kaori was watching her like a hawk, as if she expected her to do something. "What?" She asked abruptly as she sat at the table with a fork in her hand.  
  
Kaori frowned at the girl's rudeness. "Eat your food."  
  
Hotaru, who had been dawdling through her dinner, looked down at her food. How could she eat at a time like this? Her friend was in a crisis. SHE was in a crisis. She didn't even know if Usagi was still her friend after the day before. "I'm not hungry."  
  
Kaori became very cross with the child as she stood up, causing her chair to fly out from behind. "Excuse me young lady! You monkey-brats are always hungry. Your mother was, and you are!"  
  
Hotaru wrinkled her nose with a frown as she threw down her fork, saying nothing. She knew better than to talk back to Kaori, her caretaker, but this was too much. The woman didn't know what she was struggling through, not that she would care anyway. She was sick and tired of being treated like an animal. She was tired of Kaori. Everything was building up, the hatred from school, Kaori, and now Usagi. Who knew if they were friends anymore, and who cared? It was all hopeless. No one cared about her, no one ever cared. Well, there was ONE person.  
  
Suddenly, something snapped in her. She didn't feel like herself anymore. Something was happing to her. It was if something else was taking over her body. "I'm.not.hungry!" She said very coarsely. She slowly stood up, her eyes giving off a purple glow. "I have to go."  
  
Kaori calmly walked around the table and grabbed the child's arm, slightly weary of her now. "You're not going anywhere. You don't want me to get your father, do you?"  
  
Hotaru's actions were swift as she ripped her arm away from Kaori. A throbbing sensation began to overtake her as she backed away. "I said, I have to GO!" And with no further thought, the girl turned away to run out of the room, her speed so great that Kaori could not follow.  
  
Kaori sighed as she rubbed her temples. She wasn't cut out for watching this child. If only she wasn't the one. "The Professor isn't going to like this."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, the fight between the two Sailor Moon's was really beginning to pick up. Tatsuo shot continual Ki attacks at the severely wounded Sailor Moon, who was barely able to block them. Sailor Moon tried her best to fight back with her own attacks, but her Moon energy just wasn't cutting it. She had found that out the other day in the park. It only worked to help this guy, not hurt him. But she couldn't give up.  
  
Goku focused more on the Senshi in the air now, than the Senshi on the ground. There was something about the airborne girl. Something not right with her intentions, as if there was an evil aura around her being. Something was fishy alright, especially the way she was fighting; dirty. The grounded Senshi seemed not to be fighting as well, nor did she seem to be able to fly, which WAS something that the Senshi he met the year before could do. "What's going on?"  
  
Krillin turned up to his best friend with the same confusion. "This is crazy."  
  
Chi-Chi moved in closer to her husband to listen to what was being said. Goku rubbed his head without a single thought of how to resolve this. "I've never seen anything like this before. We're dealing with a sophisticated enemy, obviously. To be able to sneak into our world and Clone people."  
  
Gohan, overhearing his father, turned from the fight to enter the conversation. "Didn't Usagi accuse someone of knocking her out yesterday?"  
  
Not even thinking about what her son had just asked, Chi-Chi became frantic about something more important. She pushed Krillin and Gohan away and clasped her fingers into her husband's arms. "Goku! Usagi. We have to find her! She's out there all alone. with the broach! She's in danger!"  
  
Goku closed his eyes with a quiet growl. He hated this. He wanted desperately to go and search for his daughter, but he knew his place was here just in case something big happened. "I know!"  
  
Sailor Moon looked away from her fight for just a moment and turned to her mother and father. She wished so much that she could tell them that she was right there, that she was in no danger at all, and from the looks of things, she wasn't far off from that decision. 'Mom.'  
  
Soft tears began to form in the base of Chi-Chi's eyes. "Please, Goku, we have to find her."  
  
Goku turned his attention upward toward the sky once again to watch the fighters. The fight seemed to have paused for just a moment. It seemed as though everyone was listening to their conversation. "We can send the boys out with you."  
  
Tatsuo let out an evil chuckled as he built up a large Ki ball in his hands. "Goku, Goku, Goku. I already told you that's not needed."  
  
Goku frowned as he continued to glare upward. The Senshi all shared the same look of concern. Why was she saying that? Was Usagi really going to give herself in like that? Or was that really the clone? Mercury turned to her friends, who had already stepped back from the group. "Well?"  
  
Venus, as acting leader, hadn't the slightest idea of what to do in order to handle this. So, she just shrugged. "One of em's the real Sailor Moon, and if she wants to tell, then she'll tell. And if she doesn't, then she'll attack or something."  
  
Mars clenched her fists, feeling as if there was nothing she could do at that point. Venus was right. "Maybe it'll be better if they knew. Then we wouldn't have to watch this anymore."  
  
Jupiter softly nodded. "Then we could start the real fight."  
  
Chi-Chi pulled away from her husband, placing her hands on her hips with a frown. "Now you listen here! I'm sick of this. Tell me where my daughter is!"  
  
Trunks quickly grabbed the woman and pulled her aside. He could still remember what happened last time she tried standing up to the enemy. "Mrs. Son, please."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she kicked Trunks in the knee, causing him to drop his grip. "Where is she! I demand to know! Did you kidnap her!?"  
  
Sailor Moon covered her face in embarrassment. 'Mom, why do you always make a big deal outta everything?'  
  
Tatsuo closed his eyes with a chuckle. "Yesterday." The Ki ball that he had been building up in his hands was now complete. It was blue like the color of his skin, not silver. The Senshi were the only ones who could feel the power that it held because of the Moon power masking it.  
  
Sailor Moon gulped at the realization of what she had to do. There was no way that she would be able to live through something like that in her current state. 'Well.'  
  
Tatsuo evilly smirked as he pulled back to attack, but his target wasn't what everyone had expected. Instead of going for Sailor Moon, he aimed for the rest of the group. It was the perfect plan, no one would expect it, and Goku wouldn't have the time to transform in time to stop it. So that's what he did. He fired it at the group of Sailor Moon's family and friends. "Your brat is."  
  
Sailor Moon watched in horror as the attack got closer and closer to her family and friends. "NO!" Within a split second a blinding silver light stood in front of the group of fighters, blocking them from impact. The blue attack was immediately deflected up toward Tatsuo, who absorbed it back into his body.  
  
Chi-Chi found herself Vejita's arms up in the air. "Wha." She looked down to the ground and screamed. "WHAT?! Who is that!?" She demanded. On the ground stood a girl in a beautiful white dress, with long golden hair flying back from the force of the wind being created. She raised her Ki and floated out of Vejita's arms.  
  
Goku stared down at the girl in awe. He had never seen anything like it before, nor had he felt anything like it. The power was magnificent, more than he had ever imagined. That must have been what Moon power was.with something else mixed in. "It can't be." He whispered.  
  
Krillin stared at his friend. "You feel it too?"  
  
Goku nodded softly. He couldn't believe what he was feeling. It had to have been a coincidence. "That's." He couldn't even bring himself to finish that sentence. It was too much to believe. How could she hold so much power?  
  
Chi-Chi continued to stare down at the girl. She was a little slower to realize what was going on than everyone else, but eventually it hit her. "Usagi!"  
  
The Senshi immediately flew to the ground now that they knew who the real Sailor Moon was, or should they say, their Princess. "Serenity!" They all cried out. The rest of the gang was soon to follow.  
  
Taking his defeat, Tatsuo only frowned and flew where no one could see him. His plan was ruined now. He hadn't expected Usagi to be able to come back so fast after the beating she had taken. Her family was supposed to die, not live. Now he would have to take care of things the hard way. Of course, there was still Goku and his tail, his last hope.  
  
Serenity wearily watched her friends and family land before her with a smile on her face. "You're all safe."  
  
Mercury; "So are you."  
  
Goku pushed through the group, and past the Senshi with no regard to their thoughts. He had more important things on his mind, like why this girl felt almost exactly like Usagi. Serenity took one look at his angry face, and the angry woman behind him and gulped. They knew, she could tell by the looks on their faces that they knew. Her true energy signature was revealed through her true form.  
  
Goku stopped two feet in front of the girl and crossed his arms. "Who are you?" He asked, calmly.  
  
Serenity looked down at the ground, and thought to herself. Why should she be ashamed? Why should she feel in any way guilty about her actions? After all, she hadn't asked to be the Princess. If it were up to her she wouldn't be a Princess at all. But that wasn't a choice, so she was forced to go with what she knew. And she knew that she had promised Luna that she wouldn't tell anyone about her identity. And she hadn't. Her parents had found out while she was protecting them. No harm done there.  
  
Serenity stood tall with a majestic smile. Finally, her burden would be shared. "I am Son Usagi. Princess Serenity of the Silver Millennium Moon Kingdom." She quieted down rather quickly, hoping that her parents would respond faster. But they didn't, they just stared at her, letting the new information sink in.  
  
Chi-Chi covered her mouth, wanting to cry at what she saw. That girl.she looked like her daughter, but she also looked like the woman she encountered four years before that day; like the angel from her dream. She was too shocked to say anything. All she could do was stand and stare.  
  
Serenity wanted so badly to rush to her parents and skip this part, but she knew she couldn't. She could tell that they were in shock. And who wouldn't be? This was some pretty big news to take in. So instead of running to them, she did the next thing she knew. "I'msorryIdidn'ttellyousoonerbutIpromisedLunaIwouldn't. Pleasedon'tbemad. Idon'tlikebreakingmypromises. I'mthemoonprincessand." She blurted it all out so fast that not even her friends could understand a word she said.  
  
Before she could even finish her sentence, Goku had wrapped his arms around her to reassure her that he wasn't angry, which was the only part of her explanation he had caught. But appeasing her happiness wasn't exactly on the top of his mind. He wanted to know what was going on. Why was his daughter a Princess? It just didn't make any sense. Serenity powered down, back to Usagi, and Goku knew right then that she had been telling the truth all along. And now he knew why she wouldn't tell him about the broach, and now, he understood everything.  
  
Vejita nearly went ballistic coming out of his shock. "What?! Kakarotto's brat?! A Princess!? IMPOSSIBLE! SHE'S LYING!"  
  
"SHUTUP!" Chi-Chi turned around and punched Vejita, causing him to trip over his feet.  
  
Usagi closed her eyes as she began to cry. "Daddy I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you, I really did."  
  
Goku let go, but she didn't. She kept hugging him, which was understandable. They had been through so much in the past couple of days. This was just the icing on the cake, and it wasn't even over yet. Tatsuo was still running loose. "I was just worried."  
  
Usagi tried to smile. "I know. It's your job."  
  
Chi-Chi turned back to her husband and youngest. "Usagi, what's going on?" Usagi opened her mouth to speak, when all of a sudden a silver ball of energy hit her from behind. "Usagi!"  
  
The impact was too much for the wounded girl. She had already gone through too much without any power, and now she had been knocked out. Goku powered up to Super Saiyan Level two and picked up the girl. "Where are you?!" He shouted. He handed Usagi over to Goten. "Get the girls outta here."  
  
Jupiter got into a fighting stance. "We're staying."  
  
Goku turned down to look at the girl in green, who stood next to him. "No. This is my fight now. This guy's messed with my business one too many times."  
  
Jupiter frowned. "Usagi is OUR business. She's our friend, ya know."  
  
Goku returned the frown, though looking back up. He didn't want to take his eyes off the surroundings for too long. He couldn't detect the attacker, which meant he was still in the form of Sailor Moon. "I don't care. This is MY fight."  
  
Mercury placed her hand on Jupiter's shoulder. She could empathize with the feelings of wanting revenge, and wanting to be the ones to deliver it, but Goku was right in his want to be the one to do the job. Usagi WAS his daughter, and he and Chi-Chi had been affected by this more. "Makoto, come on. He's right. Usagi already told us that this guy's too strong for her anyway, which means we won't be able to handle him."  
  
Mars nodded. "Right. This guy isn't even affected by our planetary powers."  
  
Tatsuo, still as Sailor Moon, appeared out nowhere before the group with his teleportation skills. "So where's the moon? Is it going to come out anytime soon?"  
  
Goku jumped into his fighting stance. "Who are you!? Show your true self!"  
  
Vejita frowned. "Don't waste time on formalities! Just pound the little freak!"  
  
Tatsuo frowned as he fired a swift blast at the shorter Saiyan, who was easily able to dodge. Vejita built up his own Ki attacks in both hands, but was stopped by Goku. "Don't Vejita. I already said this is my fight."  
  
"I'm not going to let you have all the fun."  
  
Trunks frowned. "Father, please."  
  
Vejita punched his son in the stomach. "Shutup!"  
  
Goku ignored the bickering and fighting behind him and glared directly into Tatsuo's eyes. To think, this form, Sailor Moon, was another form of his daughter. How could that be? He had just sat by and watched her be mutilated by this monster without even knowing it. "You monster!"  
  
Tatsuo smirked. "You know what I want. the broach. The brat has it, I want it."  
  
Goku glanced back to his daughter, and then quickly back to Tatsuo. "You'll have to fight me first."  
  
Gohan; "And me."  
  
Goten handed his sister off to his mother, who took her away from the crowd. "Me too."  
  
Goku frowned. He thought he had already mad himself clear about this. "No."  
  
Goten frowned equally as hard. "Dad, no. She's our sister too, ya know. You think we're not mad about this?"  
  
Tatsuo chuckled as he turned back into his own, blue self. It was time he prepared himself for a real fight instead of the games he had started. The Moon wasn't coming out, that was obvious. So there was only one way to beat these guys. His last trick. They would wish they never opposed him. "Aw, how cute. You all want revenge. First you'll have to catch me!" With that, he jumped into the air and flew off.  
  
The three Son men didn't waste any time following close behind the blue creature. It was no longer a game. This was for real, and they couldn't lose him again. There was no telling what kind of insane tricks he would pull if they lost him again. But he wasn't easily caught either. He seemed to be skipping through air, being in one spot at one moment, and another spot the next moment. Goku didn't even bother using teleportation, he was too angry for that. He just kept his eye on the target and went for it  
  
~*~*~  
  
Chi-Chi was left with the Senshi, her daughter, Vejita, Trunks, and Krillin, with tears in her eyes over what all had taken place. She had no say in what just took place. She wanted to go with her family, she wanted to beat the crap outta that guy for what he had done to her family, but she couldn't. She had to stay with her daughter, which she didn't really have much of a problem with. "Usagi." She whispered as she knelt down.  
  
The Senshi de-transformed and walked to Chi-Chi, keeling down as well. Ami began examining her friend immediately, first by checking her heart rate. Chi-Chi just watched in awe as the four of them sat down as if nothing had just happened. "So?" She questioned as the three men left came up from behind.  
  
Makoto looked up from Usagi. " 'so' what?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Aren't you going to tell me what's going on? Why you five are the Senshi?"  
  
Minako, knowing the heart better than her friends, spoke first. "No."  
  
"Excuse me? After all this I think you girls owe me an explanation! I know who you are now! It's not a big secret anymore!"  
  
Minako did nothing but smile. She wasn't going to get angry. "I think Usagi would want to tell you. Wouldn't you rather hear it from her?" Chi-Chi couldn't argue with that. She WOULD have rather heard it from Usagi, but she was out cold at the moment and she wanted answers now.  
  
Rei nodded. "Yeah. She's really been struggling with it a lot lately. She really wants to tell you, but her promise to Luna, AND the Queen made that difficult."  
  
Ami pressed her ear against Usagi's chest to check her breathing. "Everything looks normal to me. She's really exhausted though. I fear the wound that might be on her back, though."  
  
Chi-Chi looked down at her daughter and wanted to cry. The poor girl had been through so much, so many fights. Her body was so beaten up. "I'm sorry you had to go through this, Usagi." She held back her tears as she lovingly rubbed her hand over her daughter's forehead.  
  
Krillin placed his hand on the woman's shoulder. "Don't worry Chi-Chi. She'll be fine in no time. She's a strong little kid."  
  
Vejita gave a quiet 'hmph' as he crossed his arms. "I still don't know how that brat ever became a Princess!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru had felt the entire chain of events. From the fight between the Sailor Moons, to Serenity, and now the chase. Luckily for him, he was coming upon the site of the Senshi fight. "Hey!" He cried out. He could see everyone but Usagi. Where had she gone?  
  
Minako looked up into the sky and waved for Mamoru. "Mamoru's here you guys!" The group turned their attention upward onto Mamoru as he approached closer and closer.  
  
As he came closer, Mamoru finally noticed Usagi lying on the ground, unconscious. "What the.!" He increased his speed in order to land faster.  
  
Vejita frowned. "Great, more brats!"  
  
Mamoru landed next to Chi-Chi, immediately kneeling at her side. "What the hell happened to her!?"  
  
Trunks; "She was beaten up."  
  
Mamoru frowned. "Well that's obvious! But how did this happen!? I mean, she was Serenity before she became unconscious. I felt it. Then she turned back into Usagi, which means she was hit AFTER." He paused when he saw the frown on Chi-Chi's face. "What?"  
  
"You knew." She poked his chest rather roughly.  
  
Mamoru backed up. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"You knew that my baby was the Moon Princess before I did! How can YOU know before me!"  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Because I'm Earth's Prince."  
  
Vejita's eyes widened at hearing that. "What!? That's just too much! I will NOT stand for this!"  
  
Mamoru grinned up to Vejita. "No one said you had to stay here, you know. You CAN leave."  
  
Vejita crossed his arms. "Brats! You should all be shot!" And with that, he burst into the air with heightened jealousy. Here there were two kids, a prince and a princess. One of them a low-class Saiyan, one a human. How can that be possible? Well, it can't be. It had to be a mistake. He's the only Prince around. 'If that female brat thinks she's above me she's got another thing comin'!'  
  
Chi-Chi's face was absolutely white. This was way too much information to take in at once. "You're a prince? There are actually people who TRUST you to be in such a position!? WHO APPOINTED YOU!?"  
  
Minako wrapped her arms around the woman. "Please, Chi-Chi, calm down. It's all right. Usagi will tell you everything when she wakes up."  
  
Chi-Chi wrapped her arms around her daughter and picked her up. "No, it's not all right. My daughter is a Princess. I have no royalty in my family past my father, who is in no way related to anyone on the moon. Goku definitely has no royalty in him. how does my daughter become a Princess without me knowing!? There's something seriously wrong here! They've got the wrong girl! My baby is normal!"  
  
"Yes, she is normal.but."  
  
Chi-Chi jumped to her feet. "NO! She's not normal if she's a Princess!" She didn't have the mental capacity at that moment to take in so much news. She had a hard time coping with the fact that Usagi had kept such a big secret from her, but now, to find out that even Mamoru was a Prince, that was insane. Chi-Chi couldn't deal with it anymore. She raised her power level and flew into the air toward her home.  
  
Krillin shot up after the woman, knowing that she would probably do something stupid if she were left on her own. "Chi-Chi! Wait up!"  
  
Mamoru stood up. He couldn't help but feel responsible for Chi-Chi's sudden outburst. He shouldn't have said anything. He should have just asked what happened and waited for them to say everything that happened instead of mentioning Serenity. "This could be bad."  
  
Trunks nodded. "Oh yeah." He sarcastically agreed.  
  
Ami stood up next to Mamoru. "She's in denial." 


	150. Part 24

~*~*~*~  
  
Steady and tall is how Piccolo stood as he watched the earth from the lookout, his hands trembling at what he had just witnessed. He had felt Princess Serenity's power stronger than anyone, for he knew the power best. Yes, that power had definitely been in the files. He had read about that power in the history of Earth. It belonged to the Queen of the Moon over a thousand years ago. He had read about it, but had never felt it. And now, standing there, witnessing it, he tried to figure out how the empire could have fallen. With such a great power the Kingdom of the Moon should still reign. But that question wasn't at the top of the Namek's mind. The most mind boggling point to be asked was 'why?'. Why was Usagi chosen to be the heir to the power? And more importantly, what was a Princess doing in the hands of Goku and Chi-Chi. She could have been born to a family of royalty, and brought up like a Princess.  
  
His thoughts were put on hold when he noticed Dende standing beside him in an awe of equal amount. "Well?"  
  
Dende glanced up at his predecessor and shrugged. "Well what?"  
  
Piccolo sighed as he rested his face in his hands. "You're God. What do you suggest we do next?"  
  
Dende stared back down at Earth, not knowing what to do. "We wait. Goku's already on top of this one."  
  
Piccolo looked down upon Goku, who was chasing Tatsuo at full speed at the level of Super Saiyan Two. The anger he was sensing was new to Goku, more so than when Usagi had been kidnapped the year before. "I'm worried about him."  
  
Dende kept his eyes on the swerving Saiyans as they chased the blue creature. "What? Why? He'll drive that guy into the ground before he can wreak any more havoc."  
  
Piccolo closed his eyes as he turned his back to the Earth. "That's what I'm afraid of." He slowly opened his eyes and locked them on the younger Namek. "Saiyans are dangerous when they're angry. This guy, whoever he is, has caused so much trouble for Goku and Chi-Chi concerning Usagi." Dende said nothing, but just nodded to show that he knew very well what had happened. "I know you've seen how protective Goku is over the girl, you just don't mess with her and try to get away with it."  
  
Dende quickly shot his attention down to Earth, fearing the worst. "You don't think he'll pull anything stupid, like get himself killed."  
  
Piccolo stared straight up into the darkening sky. "I know Goku, and I know his feelings for the kid, he'll stay alive to the best to his ability. That's not what I'm worried about."  
  
Silence took over as neither Piccolo, nor Dende had anything else to say in reply. Although, something still troubled the younger Namek. "Piccolo, what about the broach?"  
  
"I've stopped searching. I think I know what it is. It must be what allows Usagi to turn into Sailor Moon, what allows her Moon power to come fourth. Now, what I want to know is WHY she's got that power."  
  
Dende unconsciously nodded, showing his agreement. "How did she get it, even?"  
  
Piccolo frowned with a sigh. He didn't like not knowing what was going on in the world. "I guess we'll have to wait and ask her when she wakes up. Until then, we're going to have to hope Goku does the job, which he should be able to. Gohan and Goten are with him."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku was the lead of the pack in the race to catch Tatsuo, with Gohan and Goten on his rear sides, though he didn't even notice they were there. He was much too angry to pay attention to anything but his target. He would make the little guy pay for what he had done, no doubt about it. It was just a matter of how brutal would it be. "You're not getting away from me!"  
  
Tatsuo zoomed a zig-zag between trees as he escaped deeper and deeper into the forest. His evil cackles echoed throughout the forest, causing Goku to become even more furious. "Looks like I already am, old man!"  
  
Goten turned his head to the side and stared at his brother, who was looking back to him. Both of them looked up toward their father in front, and then back at one another. Something was wrong with their father. He was too angry, which to say in the least was not normal. It was something Goten had never felt before, but Gohan on the other hand had. It was the same need for blood that had arisen from his father on Namek when Krillin had been killed, right before he transformed into a Super Saiyan for the first time. That was something he had hoped to never feel again. Gohan motioned to his brother with his hand to turn away. Getting a nod of 'ok' from Goten, the two separated from their father and landed on the ground.  
  
Goku hardly noticed the two leaving his side, not that he cared. He'd rather have done this on his own without the help of others. But his sons were the only ones he would have allowed to help. He powered up to his fullest before penetrating the power of Level Three Super Saiyan. He didn't want to waste all of his power on the chase; Level Three would be reserved for the actual fight. Just thinking about it brought a smirk to his face, something that was best known done by Vejita.  
  
Saying nothing in response to the blue intruder, Goku pulled his arms back to his right side to prepare for an attack. "Kamehameha!" A golden beam of light exited his hands as they were thrust forward and traveled straight. Tatsuo was ready for something like that from the Saiyan. He quickly dodged to the right, but Goku had learned long before how to control his Ki in terms of direction. Tatsuo never had a chance.  
  
Gohan and Goten had just landed on the forest floor when their father's attack made contact with the little blue alien. All that was heard was a huge blast, which was followed by a high-pitched cry of pain. Goten turned to his brother in fear of his father's action. "What the hell's going on?"  
  
Gohan shook his head with a frown as he turned up to watch his father dive down for Tatsuo. "I never thought I'd see the day when he acted like this again."  
  
"Huh?!" Goten asked in confusion as he turned to look at his father. "What are you talking about?"  
  
Gohan looked back to his brother. "You've heard the story of how dad first turned Super Saiyan. He was angry, just like this. He didn't even realize how the power had gotten to his head. I think it's happening again."  
  
Goten frowned. He still didn't follow his brother. "What? What's happening again? Is he gonna go ballistic and blow everything up?"  
  
Gohan shook his head. "No, nothing like that. But when a Saiyan gets angry enough, their power goes to their head. They lose sight of everything accept for their goal. Dad's goal is to teach this guy a lesson. but considering his power, I'm worried that he'll go too far."  
  
Goten grinned. "Isn't that what we want him to do?"  
  
Gohan once again found himself shaking his head 'no'. "Dad isn't like that, you know that. He isn't like you and Trunks. He'll feel awful if he finds out had brash he acted. He's always prided himself on giving others fair fights. I mean, he let Freiza power up completely so he would be at full power when he was defeated."  
  
"So? What are you suggesting we do?"  
  
Gohan frowned. "Make sure he doesn't do something he wouldn't normally do."  
  
Goten nodded. That was definitely something he could handle. "Right. Let's go." He and Gohan raised their power and started out for the showdown.  
  
Goku glared down at the grounded Tatsuo. "Looks like I caught you."  
  
Tatsuo opened his eyes and glared up at Goku, not putting any effort into standing back up. "You may have caught me, but you're far from defeating me."  
  
Goku frowned as he circled the creature, completely ignoring the statement. "You're Tatsuo, right?"  
  
Tatsuo smirked. "You catch on fast."  
  
Goku stopped. So he really was Tatsuo, the boy whom Usagi had brought home; the boy whom had HURT his daughter. Growling loudly, he placed his foot atop the boy's stomach. "Why did you come here?"  
  
Tatsuo closed his eyes with a sigh. "I thought you might have already guessed, considering that it's the only thing anyone's been able to talk about lately. You know, it's also the reason why you had the falling out with your daughter." He paused to laugh, ". who was innocent the entire time!"  
  
Goku growled louder as he began putting pressure onto the boy's stomach, causing his laughter to become like a soft wheezing. "Leave her out of this now. I'm your fight now."  
  
Tatsuo frowned. "Give me what I want and I'll leave."  
  
Goku bent over and rested on his knee, causing his foot to dig deeper into the being's stomach, which dipped in further. "The broach has some sort of power, I know that now. It belongs to Sailor Moon, who happens to be Usagi." He paused to think about his words. His daughter was Sailor Moon. too weird.  
  
Tatsuo grabbed onto Goku's leg. "You'll regret this!" He cried out to change the subject. And with that, he sent a surge of power through Goku's leg.  
  
Goku quickly jumped back to find himself joined back with his sons. He said nothing to Tatsuo as he glared with infuriating anger. "I was beginning to wonder where you two went."  
  
Gohan grinned. "I thought you wanted the battle to yourself."  
  
"Like you said, you have every right to be out here." He backed away from Tatsuo, who was just beginning to get up. "I don't want anything going wrong. This ends right here. You two distract him while I go in for the defeat."  
  
Before either Gohan or Goten had a chance to comply, Tatsuo was back on his feet and ready for action. "You may be stronger than me."  
  
Goten laughed. "That's an understatement."  
  
Goku frowned back at his son. "Goten."  
  
Tatsuo turned around with laughter. ".And the Moon may not be showing."  
  
Goku; "YOU wished my tail back!"  
  
Tatsuo grinned and turned around to face Goku. "Oh? Didn't I tell you? You were supposed to look at the full moon and become a giant monkey so I could kill you while you were a stupid monkey, but this damned planet isn't cooperating."  
  
"Boo-hoo. Looks like we'll just have to teach you a lesson about messing in our business."  
  
Tatsuo snickered. "Lesson one, always have a backup plan!" And with that, he dashed for Goku and clasped himself around the man's legs. Almost immediately the two began to disappear, but not before Gohan and Goten latched themselves onto their father. In a split second, before anyone could do anything, they were no long on earth.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, back at the original fight zone, Mamoru and the girls grouped together and talked about what they would do next. So far, there were no ideas. Everything was happening so fast. They had never come up with a plan on what they would do if their identities were ever found out; they never saw the need. But obviously there was. Not only would they have to confess everything, they still had to problem of Tatsuo. They knew that Goku wanted this fight alone, or at least kept within family, but they too felt somewhat responsible to the cause as well. After all, it was their duty as Senshi to protect their Princess; it was their duty as friends to protect Usagi. But then again, wasn't it Goku's duty as the father of the girl to protect her.  
  
Trunks looked off into the distance where he had been sensing his friends' power levels after their halt. He had seen the light created by Goku's Kamehamea wave, but nothing after that. He wondered what could have been happening. But now they were gone, all four of them. Where could they have gone? "They're gone."  
  
Mamoru turned up from the girls to Trunks, who had been keeping a look out for any strange activities that may have come up. "What?"  
  
Minako stood up and walked next to the purple-haired Saiyan. "What do you mean, Trunks?"  
  
Trunks shrugged. "Just what I said. They're gone. Goku, Gohan, Goten, and the other guy, they've all left earth somehow. Their power levels are gone."  
  
Mamoru; "Well, maybe they all killed each other."  
  
Trunks frowned as he turned toward the idiotic teenager. "Did YOU feel a big fallout between them?"  
  
Mamoru frowned back. "It was just a guess, gees."  
  
"Well use your head. They've obviously been taken into space or something. Or maybe even another dimension. That's been known to happen a lot with Goku."  
  
"He can handle himself. He's strong." Mamoru said care freely.  
  
Trunks sighed. "That's not the point. We all know he can handle himself. I just wonder where he's been taken. Gohan and Goten are with him, so it should be all right. I hope."  
  
Amy walked forward to stand next to Trunks. "Maybe we should ask Dende if he saw what happened."  
  
Trunks smiled. "Good idea. You guys go check on Usagi. Mamoru and I'll go to the Lookout. Piccolo should be up there too."  
  
Mamoru frowned. "Now just hold on a minute. I'm goin to Usagi's too. I want to make sure she's all right."  
  
Trunks froze in place after hearing that. "What did you just say?" He turned to Mamoru with a smirk. "Did you just say you wanted to make sure Usagi's all right?" Walking over to the boy, he wrapped his arm around his neck. "Out with it."  
  
Mamoru frowned. That was the wrong choice of words. "What're you talking about?"  
  
Trunks chuckled. "You're getting soft, man. One day you hate the girl, the next, you're worried about her. What's the world come to?" He asked with a grin.  
  
Mamoru pushed Trunks away with a slight blush. "Oh come on! She's a Princess. It's my duty to worry about her!"  
  
Trunks' face became more serious as he faced the sky. "Yeah, yeah. Come on." Just at that moment as the two men were about to set out, a small, dark figure flew overhead. Trunks looked up, hoping to see who it was, but it was too dark. "What the. is that Hotaru up there?"  
  
Mamoru looked up and frowned. "It sure is. What's she doin out here?"  
  
Makoto smiled up at the girl. "She's probably heading out to see Usagi. After what happened I'm sure she's worried."  
  
Mamoru frowned harder. "Yeah right. Not after the way Usagi's little clone treated her yesterday." Hotaru stopped short and glared down at her friends. Her eyes still had their low, purple glow. "Whoa."  
  
Rei; "That's odd. Since when do her eyes glow purple?"  
  
Minako giggled. "They're the color of Trunks' hair."  
  
"Hey! Be serious Minako!" Trunks scolded. He looked up at Hotaru, who just glared back down at the group. "Hotaru!" He yelled up to the girl. "Someone go up there and see what's wrong with her."  
  
Minako, feeling bad about her 'behavior' volunteered herself. "I'll do it." Not waiting for an 'ok' from Trunks, she flew up into the air. Hotaru frowned at the blonde and flew off with amazingly fast speed. Minako frowned back at the girl and shot out for her, but it was no use. Hotaru, for some reason, was faster than normal. 'What's wrong with her?' Minako flew back down to her friends in confusion. Hotaru had never reacted that way to anyone before.  
  
Rei continued to look up in the air where Hotaru had been, hoping that she would come back. "What's eating her? We didn't do anything to her?"  
  
Trunks sighed as he began to hover into the air. "She's heading for Goku's. Follow her there; make sure she doesn't try anything funny. She could be a clone."  
  
Makoto nodded. "That's true."  
  
Amy shook her head in contradiction of her friend. "I'm not sure about that. We've only contradicted one strange guy."  
  
Minako nodded. "So you're saying it's Tatsuo?"  
  
Trunks frowned at the girls. "Who cares?! Just follow her!" He looked up toward Mamoru. "Come on! You're with me!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son Household~~  
  
Chi-Chi arrived home in uncontrollable tears. She didn't even really know what she was crying over. Maybe it was the fact that her husband was fighting again. Or maybe it was the fact that she had just sat by and watched her daughter get torn apart. Or maybe it was the fact that she realized she knew very little about her daughter. If Usagi could keep such a big secret like this, there was no telling what else she was keeping from them. Or maybe she wasn't keeping anything from them at all. But that was the part that upset her, she didn't know one way or another. Chi-Chi kicked the front door in and rushed into her home and placed Usagi face first onto the nearest sofa. She immediately ran down the hall and into the bathroom to gather medical materials.  
  
Krillin, who had chased Chi-Chi all the way back to the house, poked his head inside the door to make sure it was safe to come inside. He knew Chi- Chi and her rage, and that something he planned to stay out of the way of. "Chi-Chi?" He whispered. Before entering, he looked around the room once again, noticing the child that lay on the sofa. 'Usagi!' Not even taking a second thought as to where Chi-Chi was, Krillin walked to Usagi and knelt beside her.  
  
Chi-Chi walked in from the hall carrying a bowl of water and rubbing alcohol to clean out her daughter's wounds. "Hello Krillin." She said calmly.  
  
Krillin flinched with surprise; not because she was there, but because of how calm she had become all of a sudden. He knew it was better to be calm as well, and not act nervous. But he knew himself, that was almost impossible. "He.hello Chi-Chi."  
  
"Don't be afraid Krillin." She replied as she began walking closer to her daughter. "I'm not mad at you. In fact, I'm not mad at anyone."  
  
Krillin stood up and backed away from Usagi to allow Chi-Chi more room. "Oh? You seemed pretty upset before."  
  
Chi-Chi tried to force a smile. "That was before, this is now." She couldn't believe what she was saying. Of course she was angry. She was angry at whoever had appointed her daughter Princess. She was angry that Mamoru of all people knew that Usagi was a Princess before she did. She was angry at the intruder for hurting her daughter so badly. She was just angry, period. But, she had promised to try harder to not get so upset, and so that's what she would do. Not be upset.  
  
Krillin knew Chi-Chi was lying, but he would go with it, instead of make things worse by calling her bluff. "Is there anything I can do to help?"  
  
Chi-Chi smiled as she threw Krillin a hand rag, which she had gotten out especially for him. She had felt him following her, which was another reason why she hadn't lashed out at him. She had had time to prepare herself mentally for dealing with another person. "Help me wash her off. She's filthy."  
  
Krillin smiled as he grabbed the washrag and knelt down beside the worried woman. And it was because she was worried that he decided to try and talk to her, as scary as it would be. "Chi-Chi?"  
  
Chi-Chi pulled out a pair of scissors and began to cut at the back of Usagi's shirt in order to get at the wound that had been created when Tatsuo fired upon the girl's back. "Yes?"  
  
Krillin dipped his rag into the metal bowl of water Chi-Chi had prepared and began washing off Usagi's left arm, which was not only covered in dirt, but blood as well. A long scratch was revealed running down the length of her arm. "What are you going to do now?"  
  
Chi-Chi ripped away the material from her daughter's lower back to reveal a more serious wound. This one covered almost her entire back, leaving much of the skin charred or ripped open. "Look at this." She complained as she gently placed her hand on the skin. It was warm to the touch, meaning it was still burning deep inside. She dipped her own towel into the water and began dabbing her daughter's skin in order to cool it off.  
  
Krillin set his rag down and went for the rubbing alcohol to clean out the cut on the girl's arm. "Are you sure you're alright?"  
  
Chi-Chi stretched the towel out and placed it on top of Usagi's back, completely covering the burn. She turned to Krillin with a sigh. "I never said I was alright, Krillin." She turned her eyes down at her daughter. She got to thinking about the past. The angel she had met four years ago, she looked like Usagi did, with the Odango's and everything. What did it mean? "What if I'm not really her mother?"  
  
Krillin was taken a bit off guard by the question, which he deemed silly. "Don't be ridiculous. Of course you're her mother. Why wouldn't you be? You gave carried her for nine months, you gave birth to her. you conceived her.. Didn't you?!"  
  
Chi-Chi gave a small smile. "Yes, Krillin. WE did. But, there's something that happened four years ago that I've never told anyone, not even Goku."  
  
"Care to share?"  
  
Chi-Chi wasn't sure if she wanted to. Talking about it may make things worse. She was already doing all that she could to keep from balling her head off. But, maybe it was for the best. After all, it seemed like a pretty important time to bring it up. "One night while I was napping, when Usagi was missing, I found myself in a strange land. I mean, literally. I found my past self. It was strange. An angel talked with us. She told us how important it was for Usagi to continue fighting and convinced us to let her train."  
  
"What's wrong with that?"  
  
Chi-Chi looked down at the floor with more tears forming. "She looked almost exactly like Usagi did when she was in her dress today. What if that Angel is Usagi's real mother, the Queen of the Moon?"  
  
Krillin turned from Chi-Chi and looked back down toward Usagi. He didn't know what to say to that. But he had to do something to ease Chi-Chi's pain until Usagi were to wake. "Chi-Chi." He looked back up at his friend. "You conceived her, you carried her inside you, you gave birth, you RAISED her. She's YOUR daughter no doubt about it. And who knows, Usagi may have no relation to this woman. Usagi may have just been chosen out of a group of children to be the Princess."  
  
Chi-Chi looked down at her daughter, a slight smile appearing on her face. "Come on. Let's get her cleaned up." Although she didn't try to argue with Krillin, the thought that she may not be this girl's mother still ate at her heart. She wanted to believe him, but until she knew the truth, she couldn't.  
  
Just as she was preparing to lift the wet cloth off of her daughter's back, Chi-Chi heard a large crash just outside her home. "What in the." She stood up and walked to the open door. "Whose out here?!"  
  
Krillin stood up and blocked the way to Usagi. If any other clones decided that they wanted her, well, it was just too bad for them. He wouldn't let anyone get near her. "Be.C.careful. Chi-Chi."  
  
"I know." Chi-Chi slowly poked her head outside the door expecting to see another little blue creature, but it wasn't like that. It was only Hotaru, who had made a crash landing just outside the house. Her fast beating heart was soon returned to its normal speed. "Why, hello, Hotaru." She said, trying hard to put aside her feelings.  
  
Hotaru stood with a frown as she dusted herself off. "Is Usagi home?" She asked.  
  
The first thing that Chi-Chi noticed when Hotaru looked up were her glowing eyes. "Are you alright, dear?" Hotaru ignored the question and walked right past the woman and into the house, where she found Krillin. Chi-Chi followed her in. "She's been hurt. I don't think she can play with you right now."  
  
Hotaru walked forward toward Krillin, who was weary about stepping by for fear that the girl might be a clone. Her eyes were after all acting up just as Tatsuo's had when Usagi had attacked him. "How do we know that you're the real Hotaru?"  
  
Hotaru paused with a frown. "What are you talking about? Of course I'm the real Hotaru. Who else would I be?"  
  
Chi-Chi walked behind Hotaru and placed her hands on the girl's shoulders. "There have been clones running about. One already took the shape of Usagi, and then Sailor Moon."  
  
Hotaru froze for a moment, becoming quite confused. "Sailor Moon?" She asked as if she hadn't known what, or who she was. "Oh wait, those idiots in short skirts. Yes, I've seen them."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned down at the child. "Hotaru! That's no way for you to talk. Sailor Moon is your friend. She's Usagi!" She could hardly believe what she was saying.  
  
Hotaru frowned. "I know, for some reason."  
  
Chi-Chi looked up to Krillin, who was looking quite strangely back to her. Hotaru was acting weird. "Hotaru, why don't you heal Usagi?"  
  
"Why would I want to do that?"  
  
Krillin frowned as he backed up to protect Usagi. He wasn't sure what was going on, but Hotaru wasn't acting like she usually did. She was almost clueless as to what was going on around her. "She's one of your best friends."  
  
"No she's not. She was mean to me yesterday. We're not friends, she already said that."  
  
Krillin; "It was a clone who was mean to you. Go ahead, heal her." He wasn't really expecting her to heal the wounded girl. He was more calling her bluff, certain that she was a clone.  
  
Hotaru frowned. "Fine. I will." And with that, she walked closer to Usagi and pushed Krillin out of the way. Kneeling beside the sofa, she placed her hands over Usagi's body. She had no idea why she was doing this, maybe to ask the girl questions, or maybe prove herself to these people. Or maybe there was another reason, she couldn't be sure of her feelings. But in anyway, she closed her glowing eyes and began focusing her power on healing the other Saiyan.  
  
Usagi's body began to glow soft lavender. Her body began to heal with her back wound soon only a pinkish color instead of black with being burnt. But, Hotaru wasn't able to hold her healing powers long before her head began to throb with pain. It was if someone or something was pulling at her brain. Soon, the pain traveled to the rest of her body. It got so bad that she had to discontinue the usage of her power for Usagi. The pain in her head was bad enough, but now she felt as if she had lost all of her energy. Suddenly, Usagi's body turned back to its normal color and Hotaru fell over into Krillin.  
  
"Hotaru!" Krillin cried out. "Hotaru!"  
  
Chi-Chi ran to his side and shook the child. "Hotaru what's wrong!?"  
  
Hotaru closed her eyes at the pain and began grumbling. "Nnnn.owe.."  
  
Just then, another group plowed into the house, this time without such a big welcome as Hotaru received. Rei was the first into the house. She was also the first to detect something going on in the house. She took one look at Hotaru and immediately became worried. "What's going on? What's wrong with her?!"  
  
Minako ran into Rei from behind. "What?!"  
  
Amy pushed her way into the house. "Hotaru?!"  
  
Chi-Chi looked up to the girls and smiled. "Great! I need you guys to take Hotaru home. Something's wrong with her." She turned around to pick Hotaru up out of Krillin's arms and handed her to Makoto, who had come in last. "Hurry."  
  
Makoto accepted the small girl, but was still very much confused. "What happened?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Don't worry about that. I think she's in a lot of pain. Her father might know what's wrong with her, I hope."  
  
Amy; "I'll go home and get my mom to check her out."  
  
Just as Makoto was turning away, Hotaru reached up and grabbed at Chi-Chi's arm. She slowly opened her eyes to reveal that the glow had disappeared. "Thanks." She whispered.  
  
Chi-Chi wasn't sure exactly what she was getting thanked for, but she smiled back to play along with the child. "Move fast, girls." 


	151. Part 25

(This would have been out sooner had ff.net not disabled the document manager for repairs. grrr!)  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Goku, Gohan, and Goten found themselves in a strange land. There was no light other than what was being given off from the ground they were standing on, which was the same metallic blue texture that Tatsuo's skin was made of. The sky was non-existent in color. It was completely clear; the blackness of space and the yellow of stars being the only colors seen from the planet.  
  
Gohan and Goku stood back to back as they scanned the new land for their foe, finding nothing. Goten on the other hand wasn't as cautious. He walked a ways away from his father and brother in complete awe. Nothing he had ever encountered could ever compare to this place. The ground seemed to be made up of some sort of energy. His foot dipped into it with every step, causing the "land" to stick to his foot like electricity would to a hand would when placed on an electricity ball. "Cool."  
  
Gohan noticed his younger brother wandering away and frowned. "Don't go too far. We're on someone else's turf."  
  
Goten returned a frown of his own. "I'm not a kid."  
  
Goku pulled away from his son and knelt down to examine the land. He reached out and softly dabbed his finger down, but quickly pulled it back when he was shocked. "Nobody touch the ground."  
  
Goten turned back to his father with a puzzled expression. "Huh? Why?" Being the impulsive thinker that he is, he reached down and placed his entire hand on the ground, causing an electrical shock to rush throughout his body.  
  
Gohan rolled his eyes with a chuckle. "That's why, Einstein."  
  
Goku stood up, ignoring his sons, especially Goten, which was something he had learned to do long ago. The guy may have been strong, but because he had only been through one major battle in his life he didn't really have a chance to learn proper fighting etiquette. And even in that one battle he hadn't exactly fought as he should have. "This stuff is pure energy. If our skin touches it."  
  
Goten stood up, rubbing his arm in pain. "We're toast."  
  
Goku nodded. "Exactly." He turned back to face his sons, both of which were on alert now. "Try to keep to the air when we find Tatsuo."  
  
Gohan turned to his father and studied him carefully. He seemed to have calmed down a bit, which was for the better. A person with as much power as his father being as angry as he was couldn't have been a good thing. He had seen the results once before, and seeing them again wasn't something he wished to see again. "Speaking of the little devil, where do you think he is?"  
  
Goku frowned as he darted a glance all around himself. "Feels like he's all around us."  
  
"That's exactly what I was just thinking." Gohan looked downward at his feet and hoped up and down. "Think it's got something to do with the stuff we're standing on?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Most likely." Goku glared back at his younger, more naïve son. "It's best to stay alert and not do anything foolish while we're here. We're on HIS turf now, not our own. As far as we're concerned, he's capable of doing anything."  
  
Gohan nodded as he looked back toward his younger brother. "You'd do well to keep that in mind little bro."  
  
Goten glared back as his brother, a little confused. "What? You're both acting like I'm gonna go off and do something really stupid to jeopardize the entire thing."  
  
Goku grinned. He remembered very well what happened when the boy was fighting Buu. "Let's not forget how you and your buddy Trunks dropped the ball with Gotenks."  
  
Goten frowned. "I was seven! I think I've grown up just a little bit since then." He declared sarcastically.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, back on earth, Chi-Chi was torn to shreds inside. So much was happening too fast, she didn't even know what to think anymore. Here was her daughter knocked out, her husband and sons were off who knows where fighting the same creature who had tried to turn everyone against Usagi, and now Hotaru. "Krillin." She asked solemnly as she placed her hands over her chest. "What's going on?"  
  
Krillin wasn't exactly sure how he was meant to answer that. He wasn't even sure himself what was going on. All he knew was that there was a hurt girl on the sofa of his best friend's living room who needed medical attention immediately. "Chi-Chi, come on." He coaxed her over to his position, which was still at Usagi's side. "She looks a little better now." He explained as he gazed down at the child.  
  
Chi-Chi painfully sighed as she slowly turned away from the door. She clenched her hands into two fists out of frustration. "I can't." She started.  
  
"Huh?" Krillin looked up not knowing what to expect from the woman. He could see her pain deep within her eyes. There was no getting around it. She had already been weak from Usagi supposedly turning against everybody. Everything else was just the icing on the cake. "Chi-Chi." He stood up, careful not to bump into the girl next to him. "Are you alright? Do you need to sit down. need any water or anything?"  
  
Chi-Chi hunched her shoulders over and looked down at the ground. "I can't take it anymore! This has been going on for too long! There are just too many surprises! All I want is a NORMAL family with NORMAL children who aren't anymore special than the other kids. well maybe smarter but that's it! I don't want all this fighting! I don't want the special powers! I just want NORMALCY! IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK!?" Her breathing increase immensely as she glared down at Krillin. She hadn't meant to blow up like that, but trying to keep it in for the sake of her daughter wasn't working either. It was bound to come out anyway.  
  
Chi-Chi's glare soon turned into a look of shame as she slightly lowered her head. "I'm sorry, Krillin. I shouldn't have lashed out at you. But God I just get so upset sometimes, you know? It seems like everyone else can deal with this CRAP just fine, but I can't. I've tried and tried for Usagi, but it's not happening. Somehow it just comes piling out."  
  
"You seemed to be doing fine right up until Hotaru came here." Krillin said as he began to relax. He hadn't known what to think about Chi-Chi's little outburst, but luckily she had calmed herself down, a sure sign of 'reform'.  
  
Chi-Chi sighed as she rubbed her forehead. She was beginning to shake from all the stress. "It's too much. way too much. I think I liked things better when I didn't know what happened until everyone was fixed." She looked back at the door, worried about Hotaru once again. "I'm not sure what to do anymore. It seems like everything's being taken out of my hands. I mean, Usagi's a Princess. Goku's off fighting. and now something's up with Hotaru. It's like I'm just a useless character in this game."  
  
"Come on Chi-Chi, this isn't like you at all. What happened to that spunk you used to have? You're still needed here. Usagi needs you now."  
  
A slight smile cracked upon the woman's lips, but inside she still felt useless. Even though Krillin had told her that Usagi was more her child than any old Queen's, she felt as though she wasn't. But even through these feelings, she also felt that her time for crying over her loses was up. Krillin was right. Usagi did need her now. So, she rolled up her sleeves and went back to cleaning the girl up. "No use wasting anymore time."  
  
Krillin smiled as he grabbed his cloth and dipped it in the bowl of water. "So now you're cheery again." He mumbled under his breath.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Trunks and Mamoru made their way to Dende's as fast as they could, well, as fast as Mamoru could. Trunks had to slow himself down in order for Mamoru to keep up with him, but it didn't matter anyway. They hadn't started out too far from the lookout considering that Goku had originally been on his way to the same place. He hadn't been stopped but maybe about twenty miles away.  
  
Trunks, feeling a bit on the mischievous side, turned back to his fellow fighter. "So tell me, Mamoru, buddy, what do you think of Usagi?"  
  
Mamoru growled, as he looked downward, careful not to make any eye contact with the lavender haired fighter. "I don't."  
  
Trunks grinned. "Oh really? I still say you're getting soft. Could it be that you're starting to think of Usagi as a friend? . or maybe even more than that?!"  
  
Mamoru shot a hateful glare at Trunks, ready to lunge at him. "What the hell are you talking about!? I hate the brat! I only put up with her because I have to!" Blushing, he turned his face back down. The truth of the matter he was beginning to think of Usagi as his friend, but being the "tough" person that he was, he was a little embarrassed to admit it, especially after all that he had been through with her. "I already told you I was a little worried because of her being the Princess and all. But that's it. Otherwise I can't stand her."  
  
Trunks chuckled. "You only need to say you don't like her once, bud. Otherwise you sound suspicious."  
  
Mamoru found himself giving off a growl again as the two approached the lookout. "Just drop it." He could feel his father there and Usagi wasn't exactly the subject he wanted to talk about at the moment, especially what Trunks was implying.  
  
The two did just that, dropped the subject. As soon as they landed they were more concerned with what they had set out to do, and that was to find out where Goku had gone, and if he was safe. Trunks immediately took over and did all the talking. He felt it was more of his duty as being the older of the two. He spotted Dende and Piccolo just staring off into space and figured that they were tracking Goku and the others' power. "Dende, Piccolo!"  
  
The two Namekians quickly broke out of their "trance" and turned toward the calling voice to see Trunks and Mamoru running for them. Piccolo motioned for Dende to take the lead. "Trunks, Mamoru. what are you doing here? You should be down on earth, protecting it."  
  
Mamoru; "There's no more danger now that Goku, Gohan, and Goten are gone."  
  
Trunks nodded in agreement with his younger comrade. "That's actually what we came up here for. Where exactly did they go?"  
  
Dende shrugged. "We have no idea. I can barely feel them as it is. They've been taken somewhere far away from here, and I'm sure that Tatsuo guy is behind it."  
  
Mamoru snickered. "No doubt." Piccolo said nothing, but his glare he gave his son was deadly. Mamoru knew right then to tone it down. This was something serious, not to be taken lightly.  
  
Dende; "Wherever they are I can feel a large buildup of whatever Tatsuo was made up of."  
  
Trunks scratched his head on confusion. "What? If they're in a place that is the same energy as Tatsuo is made up of, then wouldn't that mean he could regenerate easily."  
  
Piccolo frowned. "Damn. That's absolutely true. I hope he's already figured that out. This is like nothing we've fought before."  
  
Trunks shook his head in contradiction of Piccolo. "It's sort of like Majin Buu."  
  
Piccolo nodded, glancing at his son, who had no idea what was being talked about. He was still clueless as to who exactly his son was at this point. "True, but if this is the same energy as Tatsuo is and uses then it can also hurt them."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Tatsuo's World~~  
  
Goku led the way through the darkened world, completely alert to anything that may happen. The only thing protecting him from the ground were his shoes. And the energy even seemed to be creeping up around the metal areas, which he was well aware of. But he was paying little attention to that. He kept his eye out for Tatsuo. His senses were pretty much useless at this point. All of the energy around him were fooling them, which meant he would have to rely on his eyes.  
  
Goten was the last in line, and most vulnerable to an attack, but he knew that if anything happened he would be safe with his father and brother there with him. "See anything yet?" No answer came from either two of the other Saiyan fighters. They just kept their vision facing forward, not wanting to take their attention away from the suspended fight.  
  
Little did the three men know that they were being followed, but by the conventional walking or flying ways. No. With this supposed planet of energy came special perks for Tatsuo. In his true form he could become one with the planet, and therefore traveled directly beneath the feet of his foes, watching their every step and for any weakness. So far he found that the youngest one was a bit naïve, perfect bait for his first kill. He would get back at Goku for not cooperating by killing off his sons first, making him watch. It didn't even matter that Goku was stronger than him now. Nothing mattered. There was absolutely nothing that he could do. "That's it. keep walking. you'll never find me until I want you to." He would be sure to savor the moment he went in for the kill, it would have to be absolutely perfect.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru's condition didn't seem to be getting much better as the girls flew her home. She seemed to be getting weaker and weaker, not even Amy could figure out what was wrong with the girl. Her temperature seemed normal to the touch, her heart rate seemed fine. But her breathing was much faster than normal, which worried her most. She wished that Chi-Chi would have told her what had happened before they had left. Maybe she would have known what was wrong with Hotaru that way. But maybe Chi-Chi was right. Hotaru needed to get home as soon as possible, especially since her condition was worsening. "Hurry you guys."  
  
Makoto carried the child in her arms. "I'm going as fast as I can, Amy."  
  
Rei looked down at the girl, who seemed to be struggling for breaths between moans of pain. "Hang on, Hotaru. We're almost at your house."  
  
Minako rolled her eyes with a sigh. "Why don't we just teleport? We ARE allowed to do that, you know."  
  
Makoto stopped short, feeling pretty stupid. "Duh! Why am I so stupid."  
  
Minako grinned. "I was always the brains of the outfit."  
  
Makoto frowned. "I was just worried, that's all."  
  
Minako widened her grin. "Sure you were."  
  
Rei frowned as she slapped Minako in the back of the head. "Come on. We all lost our thoughts back there. But lets just hurry up now, alright?" The rest of the group nodded as the prepared themselves for a teleport, and then they were off.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The girls teleported directly into Hotaru's front living room. They didn't want to waste any time with the door. They hadn't expected the Professor to be there. They had actually expected him to be out searching for her. But to their surprise, there he was, just sitting there reading the newspaper as if nothing had happened. Needless to say they all found this a little odd, but they were more concerned with the welfare of their friend rather than what her father was doing at the moment.  
  
Makoto ran to Professor Tomoe and knelt before him in order to slide Hotaru out of her arms and into his lap. He seemed a little disgruntled with the fact that his reading was being interrupted. "Professor!" She shouted, not taking any notice to his reaction.  
  
The Professor cocked his head to the side as he wrapped his arms around the gasping girl. He paid no attention to the girls, but did notice Kaori standing in the shadows. He motioned for her to follow him as he turned away, still ignoring the girls who had brought his daughter back. Kaori followed closely behind him as he began walking down the nearest hallway, which lead down into his lab.  
  
Makoto couldn't believe what had just happened. Not even a single word of thanks had been muttered from that man's mouth. She turned back to her friend with a frown of anger. "What the heck was that?"  
  
Amy observed the man and his assistant carefully, letting her friends to battle over the way they had just been treated. Something didn't seem right about them. They all seemed a bit different, including Hotaru. Could it have been that there was more than just one clone on earth? "Come on you guys."  
  
Rei turned to the quietest of the group, shocked that she wouldn't have thought that the way they had been treated was just a little on the rude side. "Amy? Aren't you concerned about this?"  
  
Amy turned to one of two of her hotheaded friends and nodded. "Yeah, but talking about it isn't going to solve anything. Maybe we're looking too much into this. Maybe he was just so worried about her that he forgot to thank us."  
  
Makoto gave a quick hmph with her answer to that. "Yeah right."  
  
Amy frowned. "Being pessimistic again, I see."  
  
Makoto frowned back as she took one more look down the hallway. "Let's just go."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Professor Tomoe's Lab~~  
  
Professor Tomoe carefully led Kaori Knight into the basement laboratory with Hotaru in his arms. "You nearly blew it, Kaori."  
  
Kaori followed the Professor to a small metal table, where he lay Hotaru down. "I'm sorry Professor. She was too fast for me to catch. These damn powers of hers."  
  
"Silence!" He shouted as he put his hand back to hush the woman. He paid full attention to the child on the table, she seemed in such pain, but he knew exactly how to cure that. "You've been a bad girl today, Hotaru." He said with a cackle.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The girls left the mansion not knowing what to think. They had never encountered anything quite like that before in their lives. But none of that really mattered once they remembered everything that had happened just before going to Usagi's. Goku, Gohan, and Goten were missing, and Chi-Chi was probably going nuts.  
  
Minako started out for her destination before even confirming it with the others. But confirmation wasn't needed. They all knew where she was headed, where they needed to be heading as well. They needed to see how Usagi was doing, as well as Chi-Chi. They knew she had taken a big blow to her emotions that day.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Tatsuo's World~~  
  
The fighters were still in their line, still on alert, and still unknowing of the danger that lie at their feet. Tatsuo couldn't help but let out his laughter, causing the Saiyans to go into a frenzy. Goten jumped backward, while his father and brother both jumped into the air. "What was that?!"  
  
Goku scanned his surroundings carefully, paying special attention to the ground where he thought the laughter had come from. "Goten, get off the ground."  
  
Goten looked down at his feet, confused. "Huh?" He looked back up at his father. "What are you talking about? We already figured out that this stuff doesn't hurt us unless our skin touches it."  
  
Tatsuo quickly made his way to Goten, letting his laughter be heard loud and clear. "Your boy isn't very smart, is he Goku?"  
  
Goten's eyes widened as he stared down at the ground, only to see a lump forming in front of his feet. In this lump were two eyes, the same dark metallic blue eyes of Tatsuo. "Holy shit man!" He tried to jump up, but Tatsuo was too fast. He emerged only enough to let his upper body be seen, but it was enough for what he wanted to do. He reached up and grabbed a hold of Goten's leg, causing him to yelp in pain.  
  
Goku acted quickly as he powered up to Super Saiyan and rushed down, grabbing his younger son by the shoulders and ripping him away from Tatsuo's hold. He glared down at Tatsuo with a raging hatred. "THAT'S why you needed to get off the ground."  
  
Goten stared down at Tatsuo, who submerged himself back into the ground to his head. "What the."  
  
Once safely in the air where he knew it was safe, Goku let go of his son while he continued to glare down at the ground, where he found Tatsuo glaring back at him. "We're not going down that easily."  
  
Tatsuo chuckled. "Your son's inexperience shows. It makes him weak."  
  
Goku grinned. "He's anything BUT weak."  
  
Goten nodded, feeling rather conceited. "Yeah! And there's no better way to get battle experience than to be in an actual battle."  
  
Tatsuo smiled. "So welcome to my world."  
  
Gohan frowned. "What?"  
  
"Don't be stupid. You heard me. This is my planet, well, it's more like a ball of energy. MY energy. I made it myself. Do you like it?" Tatsuo asked like a small child. "If you touch it, you get hurt, but I see you've already figured that out. This energy. my energy. is like your electricity down on earth, sort of. It reacts with the water moisture in your skin, making for a most un-pleasurable jolt throughout your body. This is where we're having our little battle."  
  
Goku glared down at the head of his enemy. "Enough talking already! Let's start this!."  
  
Tatsuo smirked as he let his shoulders surface. "I'll be happy to start, but I must warn you. Now that we're on my little ball of energy." He paused to laugh for a moment. "Wait. make that my big ball of energy. anyway, now that we're here there's no way you'll beat me. It doesn't matter if you're stronger than me, I'll beat you no matter what."  
  
Goku wasn't sure about that, but he wasn't going to disregard it as nothing. That had always been Vejita's mistake whenever he fought. He always figured that he was the stronger fighter no matter what. Goku had never fought that way. He had always believed that the other fighter was as stronger, or stronger than himself. The only reason why he had won was because of his motivation. He had a real reason to win, like he had a real reason to win this time. "Are you just going to keep running your mouth or are you going to fight?"  
  
Tatsuo rose to his waist with a chuckle of confidence. "If you're so eager to die, I'll grant you your wish." He took his time rising out completely only to keep Goku waiting, which he hoped would cause him to become impatient and dive down. He knew that Goku wouldn't come down toward the energy unless he had to, the man was smart.  
  
Goku didn't fall for Tatsuo's trick, if it could even be called that. He had been through enough fights to know that one needs patients in order to win. Facing Tatsuo, he turned his eyes to Goten. "Get back a bit."  
  
Before Goten had any chance to say a word, Gohan interrupted. "What? You're not thinking of doing this alone, are you?"  
  
Goku turned his vision back to Tatsuo, who was approaching his altitude. "Let me go first, alone."  
  
Gohan wasn't exactly sure what his father had planned, but he knew better than to argue his decision. He had known his father long enough to know that the man usually had pretty good judgment about these things, especially during the Cell games. "Don't do anything stupid, dad."  
  
Goku grinned. "Don't worry." He took one look at Tatsuo and thought about Usagi, what she had said the first time she told him about her encounter with him. He had been stronger. much stronger than her, and she was nearly as strong as a level two Super Saiyan. Keeping this in mind, he only powered up to as far as level two would take him, stopping just before reaching level three power. He wanted to make sure he knew exactly what he was up against before fighting at full power.  
  
Tatsuo crossed his arms with a grin. "Is that all you're giving it, Goku? I would have expected more from you, seeing how angry you were when you tracked me down on earth."  
  
Goku said nothing as he crouched into his fighting stance. He already knew a little how Tatsuo fought after the fight with him in the forest as his daughter. This time he wouldn't hold anything back. but the again, neither would Tatsuo. He was slightly worried that his foe was stronger, but his sons were there to watch his back if anything really bad were to happen. "Let's just go."  
  
Tatsuo failed to prepare himself for the fight, causing Goku to become agitated. Tatsuo just chuckled with his arms crossed. "Who would you like to make the first move?"  
  
Goku gave an angry grunt, though not letting his attack stance drop. "Who cares?"  
  
Tatsuo could tell that he was getting to the Saiyan already, but he was enjoying himself. This was a game to him now. "I'd rather fight one of your boys."  
  
Goku frowned as he glanced over his shoulder toward his sons, who were also prepared for a fight just in case they were needed. He looked back at Tatsuo, his eyes raging with hatred for the creature of energy. He had nothing to say as he glared forward.  
  
Tatsuo uncrossed his arms and frowned that no one had responded to his request. He had expected the younger fighters to jump at the chance to try and tear him apart, but the only one that would have dealt out the punishment would have been him. He directed his attention away from Goku and back at Gohan and Goten. "Unless you two are scared." He paused as he stared back into Goku's eyes, "I can always go back to earth and finish off the younger brat. "  
  
Goku's eyes widened with a greater fury as he concentrated a huge ball of energy around his fist. Before he knew what he was doing, he dashed for Tatsuo, planting his fist in the creature's face, causing him to fall to the ground and dip back into the energy. Goku cold feel himself breathing heavily from being so outraged. He knew he needed to calm himself down before he actually did do something stupid. Luckily he still had enough of his senses to know not to follow Tatsuo down to the ground. He rubbed his fist, which throbbed with a slight pain. Whatever Tatsuo was, his body was the same texture as what was on the ground, which meant physical attacks were only to be used where skin was not openly exposed to the power.  
  
It was only a matter of seconds before Tatsuo came back out of the planet of energy, and he was still wearing his smirk. He totally disregarded Goku's attack and continued with what he was saying. "Then I would steal her broach and destroy your little planet and everyone on it. but very slowly for that little undeclared punch of yours, Goku."  
  
Goten couldn't stand this anymore. His father wasn't acting quickly enough. If he had been in his father's place he would have already shown Tatsuo what's what. But he knew that only being able to power up to Super Saiyan one wouldn't allow him to get very far, even Usagi was stronger than him at full power. But there was one way he could become stronger than even his father at Super Saiyan three. "Dad, take me back to earth. I'll get Trunks. we can fuse to Gotenks and power up more than you."  
  
Goku was caught off guard a bit by his son's request. That hadn't really crossed his mind yet, but it was a good idea. But leaving this planet would mean Tatsuo would go back to earth looking for trouble. most likely with Usagi and her broach. Tatsuo certainly wouldn't wait for him to get back, that would mean his demise. Endangering the people of earth as well as the planet was not something Goku wanted to do. "I'm not leaving Tatsuo alone."  
  
"But dad." Goten pleaded, "We could win this."  
  
Gohan frowned. "Dad's got a point."  
  
Tatsuo smiled as he put his hands on the back of his head. "Ah. a family argument. under normal circumstances I'd love to observe, but I am on a time schedule here. You see, I'm supposed to have your asses kicked in about two hours. and then I have an appointment with a certain Moon Princess. So if we could get the show on the road I'd be much obliged."  
  
Goku turned his head up toward his son with a certain mischievous look in his eyes, a look that Gohan knew very well from his childhood. Goten knew by his brothers reaction that they were planing something, and he had a very good feeling what that certain something was. Goku initiated the attack with a nod of his head. In a split second Goten and Gohan had powered up completely.  
  
As soon as Goku turned around the three commenced with their attack, giving it their all. Tatsuo shot out a beam of energy to counter the attacks, but with their combined strength, the three Saiyans easily overpowered anything that Tatsuo had to offer in return. But the creature of energy didn't seem to be at all worried. He knew that together they were much stronger than him. His body was forced down into the energy once again. This time he took his time coming back out. He repositioned himself directly under Goku, who had carefully watched the movement of the energy.  
  
Tatsuo popped out faster than the eye could pick up. But Goku was ready for him. He dodged just as Tatsuo was about to make contact with his lethal touch. Goten and Gohan were on the defensive side of things as they both fired a Kamehameha at Tatsuo.  
  
Tatsuo's attention was pulled away from Goku as he turned to bat the stronger Kamehameha wave back to its owner with his arm, allowing the other to hit at full force. But the weaker attack had almost no effect on him. His arm, however, had remnants from Goku's attack in it, turning his dark, metallic blue skin slightly lighter to the shade of Gohan's attack. His eyes flared as he glared up at Gohan.  
  
Goku stared down at Tatsuo in amazement. Tatsuo was hurt by Gohan's attack, which was stronger than the energy he was made of, but that wasn't the first attack that Gohan had hit him with. Why was it now that he was affected by it and not before?  
  
Tatsuo growled as he fired his own energy attack back at Gohan, who put up his arms to block. The attack didn't seem strong enough to be of any concern to him. But Goku knew otherwise. There wasn't time to warn Gohan of the dangers. One attack could do even a little bit of damage even though Gohan was stronger. The type of energy was like no other they had seen before.  
  
Goku flew for the energy attack and kicked it away, but some of it came back and hugged his metal boot like a magnet. Tatsuo narrowed his eyes and jumped up for Goku but found himself meeting thin air, for Goku had teleported away to trick Tatsuo. Tatsuo stopped himself short and turned up to Goku with a grin. "You're fast. but not fast enough."  
  
"Huh?" Before Goku even knew that Tatsuo had disappeared he was being grabbed from behind. Tatsuo had his arms wrapped around the Saiyan fighter. Goku's body fell almost numb as the jolting energy surged through his body. He refused to let his pain be heard, so instead of yelling out he bit his lower lip.  
  
Tatsuo smirked. "Didn't I tell you? Being almost completely energy has its pluses. I can teleport faster than you could ever wish."  
  
Tatsuo was so preoccupied with holding Goku that he hadn't even realized that Gohan was creeping up from behind with a ball of energy of his own. "Watch out, Tatsuo!" And with that he fired his attack upon Tatsuo. But he was too close for Tatsuo to be able to do anything to try and get dodge. His attack hit full force, causing him to release his grip on Goku and fall back first into the pool of energy below. 


	152. Part 26

~*~*~*~  
  
Goku's arms were coated with Tatsuo's energy like wax, which only made the pain last longer. There was nothing he could do but wait for the electric energy to wear thinner and thinner as it sent surges of pain up and down his body, eventually wearing its own power out. He looked to his older son in confusion. He still didn't completely understand what was happening. Again, Gohan's attack had worked when their combined strength had failed.  
  
Breathing slightly heavier than normal, Gohan looked to his father to make sure he was all right. "You ok?"  
  
Goku nodded. "A little shaken, but nothing too serious." He glared back down to the ball of energy but saw nothing. No strange movement to indicate Tatsuo's movement or anything else out of the ordinary. "Crap, we've lost him."  
  
Goten stared hard at the ground hoping to be able to spot Tatsuo beneath the surface, but much like his father, he failed to see even the slightest movement. "This'll give us time to figure how what we're going to do." He looked up to see his father staring right at him. "Right?"  
  
Goku took one look back down to make sure Tatsuo hadn't tried anything after he took his eyes away, and then turned up to Gohan. "He seems to be hurt when you hit him with Ki blasts."  
  
Gohan nodded. "I've noticed. We had no effect on him when we all went for it at the same time."  
  
Goten grinned. "We'll then, me and dad can distract him while you attack."  
  
The Saiyans' were interrupted by a malicious laughter from underneath the surface of energy, causing the three of them to be put on high alert once again. "You idiots still don't get it."  
  
Goku shot his attention downward once again and search the surface for any signs of Tatsuo, but he hadn't popped up quite yet. "Show yourself!"  
  
Another spiteful laugh shot upward at the fighter. "I'll come out soon enough."  
  
Goten smirked. "Maybe you're chicken. You know Gohan can easily beat you and now you're running."  
  
That was all that was needed for Tatsuo to show himself. He used his ability to transfer his energy to appear directly in front of Goten, wasting no time punching him down to the ground. "Idiot!" He dove down for in pursuit of the falling fighter. Gohan and Goku acted quickly by firing a set of Ki balls at the blue enemy. Tatsuo stopped short and turned around to fire a set of his own energy at the oncoming attacks. Goku's Ki ball was easily diverted away from himself, but Gohan's dissolved the blue energy and smashed right into Tatsuo's chest. Tatsuo let out an angered snarl as he lost his balance for a short moment. His chest was now the color of Gohan's attack. "Damn you!" He turned around and dove into the giant ball of energy, where Goten was now lying and wailing in pain.  
  
Gohan stared down at his brother as his father dove down to collect him. "Goten!"  
  
Tatsuo lifted his arms up and wrapped them around Goten's struggling body. "You were always going to be first." Just as Goku landed on the surface he began to pull with all his might, causing Goten to be sucked into the energy head first.  
  
"Goten!" Goku yelled out as he bent over and grabbed his son by the legs. He pulled against Tatsuo, but he couldn't get much leverage. The ground curved in with his weight, causing him to slip back.  
  
Gohan saw the struggle his father was going through and dove down to help. "You're not strong enough!" He landed next to his father and grabbed onto his brother, who was probably unconscious from the pain.  
  
Goku knew what his son said was true, so he summoned fourth the rest of his power. His hair grew long as his muscle mass increased, giving him more strength to pull against Tatsuo. "Pull from the air."  
  
Gohan nodded as he let himself rise into the air. He could tell just by watching his father that standing on the surface only caused more problems than help. Even with Goku's extra strength Tatsuo still had the upper hand, he was still able to pull Goten in more than they were able to pull him out. "He's too strong!"  
  
Goku gritted his teeth together as he put all of his back into pulling back. "Just pull!"  
  
Tatsuo cackled from beneath the surface as he raised all of his strength and snatched Goten away, completely pulling him down under with him. "One down."  
  
"Shit!" Gohan yelled as he flew back.  
  
Goku went flying back with Gohan, his anger rising even further. That was two of his kids that Tatsuo had messed with. He wouldn't let it happen anymore. He was going to take this fight back into his own hands. "Com'on."  
  
Gohan looked up to his father. "How are we supposed to get him back?" His attention was diverted down to the ground where he noticed Tatsuo emerging once again. His chest seemed to be back to its normal color. "Huh?"  
  
Tatsuo smirked as he stared into Goku's eyes, who glared back. "Don't worry about your son, Goku. He's not dead. yet. I'm saving that for the finale." Goku pulled his hands down to his sides and made two tight fists with them. He was in no mood to mess around anymore. But Tatsuo wasn't ready to begin again. "You look slightly stressed, Goku. Why don't you relax for a while, come up with your next strategy? I'll see you in a little while." With that, he dove back down into his pool of energy.  
  
Gohan wanted to chase after Tatsuo, but he knew the consequences of making contact with the "land". "He thinks this is a game."  
  
Goku narrowed his glare. "Goten's still alive down there somewhere. We have to find him."  
  
Gohan looked to his father in surprise. "What? Are you crazy? You want to go down there and find him?"  
  
Goku knew that wasn't impossible. The intensity of the power that they were up against was enough to kill them if they were exposed to it long enough. "No, at least. not like this."  
  
Gohan became even more confused by his father's reply. Goku had always been full of surprises, something Gohan had always just learned to live with, but at this point he didn't understand how they could find his brother under that mess of power. "Come again."  
  
Goku loosened one of his fists and fired a quick Ki attack down at it. The place that he had fired upon turned its color from a Metallic blue into a bright golden color. "Ha!"  
  
Gohan smiled. "Alright! A way to penetrate it!" He quickly lowered himself to be just above the surface and began firing down at the planet with his father. "We'll have Goten outta here in no time." Everything seemed to be flowing well, that is, until the liquid-like energy began to flow over Goku and Gohan's, destroying all of their work. "Oh no. no, no, no."  
  
Goku stopped his flow of energy and stared down at the surface. There was too much energy. "Damn it!"  
  
Tatsuo was soon to arise close-by. "It's not worth trying, Goku. All you're doing is wasting your time. Why don't you just give up now so you don't waste anymore energy?"  
  
Goku growled as he pulled his hands to one side. "Kamehameha!" Tatsuo sat by and waited for the Kamehameha wave to make a direct hit to his body, causing him to once again become submerged deep within the liquid energy. Not seeing Tatsuo anywhere, he relaxed a bit. "Wait a minute." He fired upon the surface again, causing a small portion of it to become gold again. But, as before, the surrounding energy absorbed it and made it its own. "Now I get it."  
  
Gohan kept searching the surface for Tatsuo. "What?"  
  
Goku frowned. "Why he brought us here."  
  
Gohan couldn't help but turn up to his father in curiosity. "What do you mean?" He hadn't watched his father's experiment, which left him clueless as to what the man could have been talking about.  
  
"That stuff is a part of Tatsuo. Almost every time we've attacked him he's fallen in there. But twice you've been able to hit him, and twice his body has turned into a different color where you've hit him. Your power was stronger than his, therefore yours began to absorb his."  
  
Gohan smiled with a bit more of an understanding of where his father was coming from. "But when he fell in there so was much of his energy built up that it was too much for my energy. so his absorbed mine."  
  
Goku nodded. "Exactly. We may be stronger than him, but no matter what we throw at him, he'll always be able to replenish his energy here. And he knows we can't touch him without getting hurt."  
  
Gohan frowned. "His energy also seems to be stronger here too."  
  
Goku nodded again. "We've gotta find a way to keep him from diving in there every time we hit him." Goku looked down at the ground with wonder. He wasn't sure how he was going to keep Tatsuo from replenishing himself every time without getting himself hurt in the process. "We think of how we'll do that while we wait for Tatsuo to show back up."  
  
Gohan nodded. "Right."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Earth: Son House~~  
  
Even though Hotaru had somewhat healed Usagi, it hadn't been enough to bring her back into consciousness, but some of her more major wounds had been healed a bit, while her minor wounds had been almost completely healed, which Chi-Chi was thankful for. Just by looking at her daughter, Chi-Chi could tell that she was more peaceful now that she had been healed for she had a smile on her face. Little did she know exactly what it was from.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Usagi's DreamWorld~~  
  
"Serenity. Serenity wake up, dear." A soft yet majestic voice called to a young child, who had fallen asleep in a field of flowers. "It is time to return home."  
  
The child slowly opened her eyes and looked upward, but her eyes were cloudy. Yawning, she raised her hands to rub her eyes. A tall woman wearing a long, white dress with long, silver hair was revealed with the clearing of her eyes. A smile formed in the child's lips as she stood up. "Mommy!" She cried out happily.  
  
The woman smiled as she patted the child's head. "You've fallen asleep in the flower field again, my daughter."  
  
The child held her head down, her smile disappearing. "I'm sorry."  
  
Her mother smiled as she turned away and began walking back to her home. "Let us return to the castle. It's getting late."  
  
The child happily skipped ahead of her mother as she hummed a happy tune. This was true happiness. She hadn't a care in the world. Everything was perfect. until she returned to the castle, that is. The once bright, blue sky turned black, being illuminated by fire. The main hall was full of screaming people running from something, something evil.  
  
Once a small child before, she was no longer that anymore. She was now a teenager, sixteen to be exact, and this was her birthday ball. The girl was confused, what had happened? Why were all of these people running around in a frenzy of fear? She looked desperately for her mother, noticing the Sailor Senshi running out of the palace. Her mother was not to far from the main entrance. "Mother!" She cried out.  
  
Her mother twirled around to see her daughter at the other end of the room, scared like a child. "Run, my daughter! Get out of here!"  
  
The girl did as she was told and ran up the stairway to escape the mayhem. Even though she was scared and confused, she would never question her mother's judgment. She heard the sound of a sword clanking against the floor not too far from the top of stairs, as if it were just outside in the balcony. She turned toward the sound, fearing that it would be someone to kill her, but to her surprise it was the Prince of Earth. He was battling the enemy. She gasped when he was thrown back into the palace, against the wall. "Endiymon!"  
  
The Prince quickly turned to see the girl trembling. He said nothing to her as he grabbed for his sword and ran back outside. The girl followed him outside in hopes to stop him from being killed. He was just standing there, doing nothing. His sword was no longer drawn. The fiery illumination in the sky had disappeared. Had he defeated the enemy that quickly?  
  
The Prince turned to the girl with a smile. In his hand he held a small, pink item. "Princess."  
  
The girl smiled as she forgot of the dangers and walked to her Prince. "Endiymon." She looked down into his hands, curious as to what he had brought her. She looked up to him, her eyes looking inquisitive.  
  
The Prince smiled down at his Princess and opened up the locket. It played a beautiful song, like the song her mother had always sang to her when she was little. "It's the song of the royal family."  
  
The girl smiled wide as she took the locket from his hands and held it close to her heart. She closed her eyes for only a moment, but when she reopened them, the sky was filled with fire once again, and Endiymon had drawn his sword again. Her locket was around her neck now.  
  
Prince Endiymon didn't ignore the Princess, but he didn't look at her either. He was too busy with the attacking enemy. "What are you doing here! It's not safe!"  
  
The Princess' eyes filled with fear again as she grabbed Endyimon's arm. "Stop! You'll be killed!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Real World~~  
  
When Rei passed over her house on the way to Usagi's she stopped, causing her friends to become curious. "You guys go ahead, I have to get something." Her friends nodded their agreement to go on ahead and took of again.  
  
Rei landed in front of the dojo, completely ignoring her grandfather, who sweeping up the grounds. He was completely oblivious to the fact that the Earth was in danger, which is how she wished she was at that point.  
  
She ran into her room, where Luna and Artimas were awaiting an update on what was happening. "Luna! Artimas! Usagi's been hurt! Goku, Gohan, and Goten were taken away from Earth. and Usagi had to reveal herself in front of everyone."  
  
Luna jumped to her feet. "What?! I told her to keep it a secret."  
  
Artimas frowned. "Hold on, Luna. Don' get upset just yet. Usagi wouldn't have done something like that without a reason."  
  
Rei nodded. "Exactly. If I were in her place I would have done the same thing. She's had her power stripped from her for a while. She was cloned, obviously. The other Sailor Moon was really giving her a beating. The other guy was going to give away Usagi's secret, and I guess she figured that if it was going to be done she was going to do it for herself. So she transformed into Serenity right there and then."  
  
Luna still didn't know if she liked the idea of everyone knowing, but it wasn't an option to keep it a secret anymore. It was done, and there was no way that Usagi would want to erase their memories of the events. She hated keeping the secret from them anyway. "Well, it's done and I suppose there's nothing we can do to change that. Where is Usagi now?"  
  
"At her house. I came by to get you guys and then we can go there."  
  
Luna nodded. "Very well."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi's eyes popped wide open as she sat up. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her breathing had quickened quite a bit. "Wha." Confused as to what she had just experienced, she looked at her surroundings to make sure she wasn't just in another portion of her dream. To her relief, she was in the family room of her house, and her mother and Krillin were standing right next to her. It wasn't long before she was feeling the beating that Tatsuo had given her. She let out a moan of pain and lay back down.  
  
Chi-Chi was quick to kneel down next to her daughter and wrap her hands around her face. "Usagi? Are you all right?"  
  
Usagi closed her eyes with another moan as she turned her head away from her mother. She didn't want to have to tell her what she just dreamt. She didn't really want to tell her anything at that point. She wanted to be alone to figure out what she just saw. The people in her dream. they were all the people she knew and loved. Her friends, Mamoru, Serenity. and the Princess was her. Could it have been that these were Serenity's memories?  
  
Krillin stretched his arms with a smile. "You gave us quite a scare, kiddo. You really started freaking out all of a sudden."  
  
Usagi's eyes shot wide open. Had she spoken in her sleep? Did they hear everything she had just said in her dream? "Huh?" She groaned as she rolled over on her side to face her mother and Krillin.  
  
Chi-Chi smiled down at her daughter. "You told someone to 'stop!'; that they'd 'be killed'. Were you dreaming about your father fighting Tatsuo?"  
  
Usagi closed her eyes with another groan. She didn't want to tell her the truth, that she had been dreaming about another life time. She wasn't even sure how her mother was taking this entire Princess thing in the first place. Not wanting to risk any hard feelings at the moment, she decided to protect her mother's feelings for the time being. "Yeah."  
  
Chi-Chi wasn't sure how Goku was faring out there with Tatsuo, but she knew for a fact that he wasn't dead. It was too early into the fight for him to be hurt yet. "Don't worry about your dad, he's all right." Usagi said nothing in reply, but Chi-Chi wasn't too upset about that. She still had something she wanted to ask her daughter. without Goku around to meddle with the conversation. "Usagi, why?"  
  
Usagi opened her eyes just as a surge of pain bolted through her body. "Why what?" She asked, but it didn't take long for her to realize exactly what her mother was asking. "Oh. I'm sorry, mom. I wanted to tell you, honest. But I promised Luna that I wouldn't. I also promised the Queen."  
  
Chi-Chi didn't approve of her daughter keeping something so big away from her, but she also respected the fact that she would keep up a promise, even if it meant getting in trouble with her parents. "It's alright. But." Her voice tapered off.  
  
Usagi forced herself to sit up against the pain. "Mom, I know what you're thinking."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she looked up at her daughter. "No, Usagi, I'm not mad at you."  
  
Usagi slightly smiled at that. The one time she wasn't going to accuse her mother of being angry and she had to go and bring it up. "You're thinking the same thing I thought when I first found out, I bet."  
  
Chi-Chi looked strangely at her daughter. "And just what is that."  
  
Usagi knew no other way to say it than to just come out with it without trying to protect her mother's feelings. "You think I'm not your daughter because I'm a Princess. You think that the only way I can be a Princess is if I'm someone else's daughter."  
  
Chi-Chi didn't know what to say. That was exactly true. But, that would mean Usagi felt that way once too. It just crushed Chi-Chi to think her daughter would have been living with these thoughts, never understanding exactly who she belonged to. "Usagi."  
  
Usagi shushed her mother. She couldn't bear to think of what she was feeling inside. "It's all right, mom. Luna told me that you ARE my mom, and dad IS my dad. The Queen said that I'm her daughter because I have some of the DNA from her daughter mixed in with yours and dad's, which is how I'm able to be the Moon Princess. So you see, I AM your daughter."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled as she wrapped her arm around her daughter's shoulder. "That doesn't matter, sweetie. You're my daughter because I carried you for nine months.and then I raised you."  
  
Usagi grinned. "But so did the Queen."  
  
Chi-Chi playfully frowned. "Don't spoil my fun, kid."  
  
Usagi giggled as she hugged her mother. "I'm still sorry I couldn't tell you. Me being a Princess doesn't change anything, though. It just means that I have to stop evil that may come to earth and threaten the Moon Kingdom legacy."  
  
Chi-Chi sighed. Just the thought of her daughter having to leave to fight for a kingdom that doesn't even exist anymore made her feel uneasy. "Well, I guess you have to, being the Moon Princess and all."  
  
Usagi was a bit surprised. Her Mother seemed to be taking this a bit more calmly than she had expected. "Thanks for understanding." She pulled away from her mother's hug and looked at Krillin, who had a big, corny smile on his face. She giggled as she looked back at her mother. "Are you sure you're alright with this?"  
  
Chi-Chi shook her head. "No, not really. But I don't have much of a choice."  
  
That didn't ease Usagi's worries, but at least her mother was trying to be calm. "It's alright mom, I'm not really into this entire Princess thing anyway." She looked around, seeing that her mother and Krillin were the only ones in the room. "Where's daddy?"  
  
Chi-Chi looked back to Krillin for support. Taking a deep breath, she stood up and turned away from her daughter. "We don't know."  
  
Usagi swung her legs over the edge of the sofa she was lying on. "What? What do you mean?" She looked at Krillin. "What does she mean, Krillin? Where's my dad?"  
  
Krillin didn't know what to say. He didn't exactly what himself to be pulled into answering that he didn't know. He didn't want to crush the girl. He looked to Chi-Chi for help. Usagi did the same and looked back up to her mother. "Where is he? Is he off fighting still?" She glared back at Krillin. "Can't you feel him fighting or anything? You know I can't!"  
  
Krillin sighed as he stood up. "Usagi, we don't know where he, Gohan, or Goten are at the moment. He was teleported away, and no one can feel their power signatures."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened as she jumped up to her feet. "What? They're what?!" She looked stared up at her mother, worried that her father and brothers were in some serious danger. "They don't know how Tatsuo fights! He fights really dirty."  
  
Krillin chuckled. "Don't worry about your dad. He knows what he's doing. He's fought against some of the dirtiest fighters in the Universe and has only died twice."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "That's comforting, Krillin. Why don't you just tell her Goku's as good as dead right now."  
  
Usagi whimpered as she glared up at her mother. "Mom! Daddy could be in real trouble. I need to help him!"  
  
Chi-Chi glared back at her daughter. "Don't you even think it, young lady! Your father followed right after Tatsuo right after he knocked you out. He's not going to want you there. He'd try to protect you more than fight Tatsuo. You're better of here."  
  
"But." Usagi argued.  
  
Chi-Chi shook her head, cutting her daughter off. "Just stay here where it's safe." Chi-Chi couldn't believe what she was saying. She had always hated sitting back on Earth, not knowing what was happening. while her husband was having all the fun fighting for the safety of the planet. Could it be that she was starting to realize why she always had to stay behind? Maybe she should have listened to her own advice years ago.  
  
Usagi crossed her arms and glared at her mother. She knew her advice was true, her father wouldn't want her wherever she was, but still, she at least wanted to watch and make sure he didn't die or something. "Fine."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Tatsuo's World~~  
  
Goku and Gohan had been kept waiting for about ten minutes before Tatsuo finally decided to show his face again. This time the two fighters would be prepared for him. They had come up with a plan and he would finally be put to rest. But if only things could be that easy. Goku knew better than anyone that nothing ever worked out the way they're planned. But nevertheless, he would push on and fight until his things were set right again.  
  
Tatsuo wore a quaint grin as he let himself rise to Goku and Gohan's altitude once again. "I figure you're thirsty for battle again."  
  
Goku didn't give Tatsuo the satisfaction of a real reaction. "Where's Goten?"  
  
Tatsuo chuckled as he glanced down at the surface. "In there." He looked back up at Goku. "Resting until I decide to pull the plug on his pathetic life."  
  
Gohan grinned. "No, no. I think you're the one who's going to get the plug pulled on."  
  
Tatsuo frowned. "So sure of ourselves, are we? You forget, I'm unbeatable."  
  
Gohan frowned back at the strange little creature. "Yeah, that's what you might think." Gohan gave no chance of a retort as he opened fire upon Tatsuo, who didn't even bother blocking.  
  
Goku dove underneath Tatsuo. Tatsuo turned his head around and laughed as he began to fall backward from the impact of the black. "Seriously Goku, what ARE you doing?"  
  
Goku wrapped his arms around the falling Tatsuo, who was heading straight for the energy pool again. His arms immediately began to sting with electricity, but he ignored the pain. "Gohan! NOW!"  
  
Gohan fired a series of Ki attacks at the little blue monster, who was being kept from entering the energy pool by Goku. He was hoping that these attacks would finish him off once and for all. But Tatsuo was too fast for him. He quickly transferred himself from Goku's arms away from danger. Having little time, Goku acted quick and teleported himself out of the path of his son's energy balls.  
  
Tatsuo growled as he clasped his hands together to make one fist. He transferred his energy to just behind Goku and punched him down to the ground by the head. "You could have hurt me there. if I wasn't so fast!"  
  
Goku had been too close to the surface to be able to react. He fell face first into the electrical energy, causing him to cry out in excruciating pain. But he wasn't about to give up. Fighting against he intense pain, he pushed himself up and away from danger.  
  
Gohan went in for his attack. With Tatsuo's attention being diverted by Goku's smoking body, he snuck up from behind him and fired another series of Ki attacks. This time, as Tatsuo fell, he'd be coming right into more attacks.  
  
Goku shook off the pain to the best of his ability and joined his son's attacks from the front. "You barked up the wrong tree this time, Tatsuo."  
  
As soon as Goku began attacking, Tatsuo's body color was no longer its on. From behind it was the color of Gohan's Ki energy. And in front, it was the color of Goku's Golden Ki energy. He had barely any of his own energy left, definitely not enough to teleport. Although he had enough to move out of the way of their attacks, which was precisely what he did. He waited until he sensed both powers nearly hitting one another to move out of the way. Just as he did, the two powers collided, causing a huge explosion of power. All three fighters were pushed down toward the ground, Tatsuo going through the energy and replenishing his strength.  
  
As for Goku and Gohan, they were shoved into the energy. Their weight made the liquid-like energy cave in and flow on top of their bodies. It seeped through their cloths and singed their entire bodies, both of them trying not to let their pain be heard.  
  
It took some more struggling than before, but Goku managed to break himself free, though this time he was in a much worse condition. His skin was severely burned from contact with the surface. He winced at the thought of what condition Goten would be in when he was found. "Gohan.?" He called out as he tried catch his breath. As he tried to stand up he stumbled over his feet. It took all of his energy just to keep himself up enough to keep from touching the ground.  
  
Gohan was struggling to keep his head above ground. Tatsuo was working his magic once again by pulling Gohan in from down under. "Dad.!"  
  
"Gohan!" Goku winced as he gathered his energy so he could lift off. "Tatsuo!" He growled. He wasn't sure what good his next actions would do, but he didn't care. He couldn't lose another son to Tatsuo. He shifted his energy to a full force attack. Not sure where exactly to fire it, he just let it loose at the ground. He crossed his fingers, hoping for a successful attack on Tatsuo.  
  
As soon as his energy made contact, it immediately began spreading itself all around Gohan due to all of the commotion pushing it around. This worked in the favor of Goku as it momentarily stunned Tatsuo, allowing him time to swoop down and rescue his son.  
  
"CURSE YOU!" Tatsuo screamed from below the surface.  
  
Gohan was in no condition to fight anymore. He had been under the surface even longer than Goku had, which meant his wounds were even worse. That meant Goku was on his own at low power. It was much too dangerous to fight here anymore, but there was no where else to go without leading Tatsuo back to earth. And there was still Goten to think about. How was he going to get him out? "Looks like we've ruined your plans again."  
  
Tatsuo rose up again, this time with no sly smirk. He was in no mood to play around anymore. "I'm at full power, you don't even have enough power to reach your third stage anymore." He said as he pointed out that Goku had gone back to level one. "You can't even reach your second stage. You pitiful weakling. You may have been stronger, buy you weren't smarter. You fell right into my last resort plan."  
  
Goku grinned. "You wouldn't have had to use this if I hadn't stopped you all those other times. Maybe you're the one who's not so smart."  
  
Tatsuo growled as he threw an energy attack up at Goku, who dodge out of the way just in time. "I'm not the one who's skin is burned to shreds!"  
  
Goku looked down at Gohan, who he held by the shoulders. He seemed to be completely unconscious. 'Crap Gohan! I need you!' He looked up at Tatsuo. "Why don't we make this a little more fair then?"  
  
Tatsuo crossed his arms. "And what does your simple mind propose?"  
  
"We fight somewhere else. You're right, I can't transform to any stronger right now, which means I'm weaker than you are. You're at full power, which means I pose no threat to you. We'll go somewhere where you CAN'T replenish your power."  
  
Tatsuo looked as if he was deliberating over the proposal, but in the end, he came up with a most unfavorable answer. "How about. NOT! You've made my mission difficult this far, now it's my job to finally make you suffer." With that, he teleported himself behind Goku and punched him from behind.  
  
Goku feared that this would happen. Being on this planet meant that he couldn't set Gohan down unless he wanted him to die. "Crap!" He gathered his strength and stopped himself just before he and Gohan hit ground. He turned around and glared at Tatsuo with fiery hatred, something he wasn't usually known to do.  
  
Tatsuo laughed aloud. "Looks like you've got a bit of a dilemma. Since you two were so stupid and got yourselves thrown into my deadly energy, your son is knocked out. Now you have no where to put him. Choices, choices. Set your son down and let him die. or protect him and die yourself. But I must warn you, any choice you pick, your son will die, and so will the younger one." 


	153. Part 27

(Sorry it's a day late. I had to go out of state yesterday and didn't get home until late. I was too tired to get on and post this.)  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
~~Earth: Son House~~  
  
Usagi lay on the sofa as her mother began to put medicine into her open wounds. She elected not to tell her daughter of what happened to Hotaru until after Goku returned. She didn't want to put more stress on Usagi at that point. She already seemed to have enough of it. Chi-Chi knew that her daughter would feel more relaxed once she knew that everyone she loved was all right.  
  
Usagi flinched as the medicine touched her body, but the pain of it working its magic was nowhere near as painful as taking the beating she had received from Tatsuo. She knew that it wouldn't have been nearly as bad if she had been able to fight back at least part of the time. She didn't exactly blame her father for what happened, but if he hadn't gotten her ability to use her Ki blocked she wouldn't be in as much pain right now. She wished that he wouldn't have reacted so quickly. but then again, Tatsuo probably made him think that he HAD to do it in order to keep her from doing something to hurt others. It wasn't often that Usagi could honestly say she hated very many people anymore, in fact, she couldn't say that about anyone. But Tatsuo was another case. The more she thought about how much damage he had caused between her and everyone she loved, the more her feelings of hate for him increase. "I hope daddy beats the tar outta Tatsuo!" She yelled out of no where as she stared up at her mother.  
  
Chi-Chi didn't approve of what her daughter had just said, but she didn't really show it. Little things like that didn't really cause her to lash out anymore, which was a great sign of improvement. "Usagi, you know your father would never 'beat the tar outta' anyone."  
  
Usagi sighed. "I know. I just wish Tatsuo could get what's coming to him. He's messed everything up!"  
  
Chi-Chi smiled as she dabbed some of the liquid medicine into a gash running down the length of her daughter's left arm. "Everyone who loved you before still loves you. He hasn't ruined anything for you."  
  
Usagi smiled back at her mother with a wince. "But he still tried, mom. You and dad hated me for like, a day."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she stopped cleaning up her daughter. She didn't ever remember hating her daughter. "I never hated you, Usagi. Your father never hated you. No one HATED you."  
  
Usagi blinked twice up at her mother. She could have sworn that, by the way they were treating her they hated her. "But you guys."  
  
Chi-Chi placed her finger over her daughter's mouth to shush her. "We never hated you, Usagi. We thought you hated us, we thought you had really turned bad. Tatsuo DID attack your father, after all. We were thinking that you had turned completely against us. We acted like that with you so you would realize that we meant business."  
  
Usagi looked away from her mother, her anger rising for Tatsuo even more. "I hate Tatsuo! I told you he messed everything up."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled softly as she continued to care for her daughter. "Don't worry. No matter what happens, we will never hate you. Even if you HAD turned bad we wouldn't have hated you, a little angry with you yes, but nothing as strong as hate."  
  
Usagi looked away from her mother to Krillin, who was sitting in the chair next to the doorway that led into the hall. He hadn't really said anything since she had wakened up, and she knew why. He wanted to give her time to get reacquainted with her mother, which she appreciated. Ignoring him, she looked back up at her mother. "Where's everybody else?"  
  
Chi-Chi sat her rag down next to the bowl of water and grabbed a hold of Usagi's arms to help her sit up. "Vejita decided to throw a fit over the fact that you and Mamoru are. well." She paused, not wanting to admit that her daughter was of royalty, "Well you know."  
  
Usagi nodded to show that she understood. "He doesn't like that we're a Prince and Princess."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded back. "Exactly. I'm not sure where Trunks and Mamoru ran off to. Your friends had an errand that they needed to run. I'm not sure if they'll be back."  
  
Usagi looked somewhat disappointed at that last bit of news. She wanted desperately to discuss the day's happenings with her friends. They were the only ones who could understand what she was going through. Her mother wasn't the best person to open up to about this kind of thing. She especially wanted to talk to Rei about her dream. It seemed too real to be a figment of her imagination. "Oh." She looked back at Krillin, who was still only staring. "Are they back yet?"  
  
Krillin shook his head, wishing that he could have said yes. "I'm afraid not. Give it some time though. They'll be back soon enough."  
  
Usagi sighed as she stared down at her hands. "I don't like not knowing what's happening."  
  
Chi-Chi softly smiled. "Now you know how I feel."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei caught up with the others pretty quick after picking up Luna and Artimas. "Guys, wait up!" She called once she spotted Ami.  
  
The three stopped short and turned around to see Rei gasping for breath as she sped toward them. Minako noticed the two cats in the girl's arms. "Oh my gosh! I totally forgot about them!"  
  
Artimas frowned and turned his head away from Minako. "It's times like these when you find out who your real friends are."  
  
Minako giggled. "You know I didn't' mean it like that, Artimas. We just got caught up in all the commotion that I."  
  
Artimas chuckled back at the girl. "You don't have to explain, Minako. Rei told us everything that happened."  
  
Luna smiled and nodded. "Right, and we understand why she did it."  
  
Makoto; "Really? She told you about Hotaru too?"  
  
Luna's smile faded as she looked up to Rei in confusion. "What's wrong with Hotaru? Did she get caught up in the fight?"  
  
Rei frowned at Makoto, giving her the 'why'd you have to bring that up' look. She looked back down at the glaring cat, wishing that her friend hadn't opened her big mouth. "Not really. She was at Usagi's when we got there. Her mom told us to get Hotaru home and that's what we did. She looked like she had gotten hurt off of something, but nothing big."  
  
Minako had failed to see the look Rei had given Makoto, and therefore opened her big mouth too. "Nothing big? If you call THAT nothing big, I don't want to see what you DO consider big. Hotaru was in a lot of pain, couldn't you tell?"  
  
Now Rei was frowning at Minako. "I was TRYING to keep the stress levels down. you know, concentrate on one thing at a time. But obviously you two can't handle that."  
  
Luna growled at the girls. "Quiet! This is no time for you three to be arguing. Let's just get to Usagi's and find out what happened for ourselves. We need to find out if the Princess is all right." Seeing that the girls had quieted down, Luna relaxed. "Alright, let's teleport directly there. I don't want to run into anymore trouble before we get there." The girls nodded. That seemed logical. Flying there could have proven to be full of obstacles. Minako took her cat from Rei and then they were off.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The three girls and two cats found themselves standing behind Chi-Chi, who was still kneeling in front of Usagi, making sure she was ok. Luna jumped out of Rei's arms and jumped onto the coffee table next to Chi-Chi, who hadn't noticed her. "Usagi!"  
  
Chi-Chi screamed in fright as she jumped off the table and grabbed the cat, bringing it to her face. Luna reacted back by scratching at the woman's face, thinking that she had to protect herself. Chi-Chi wasn't exactly her favorite person after what had happened the year before with being ruthlessly thrown out of the house by the woman.  
  
Usagi was a little freak out by the events, but she knew that her mother wouldn't hurt Luna anymore, not now that she knew what was going on. She let out a quiet giggle as she forced herself to stand up against the aches in her body. "Luna, it's all right! You scared mom, that's all."  
  
Krillin had rushed to Chi-Chi's side, ready for battle if needed. "Are you sure, Usagi?"  
  
Usagi reached out and took the cat from her mother's possession. "Positive." She knelt down and set Luna back down on the table. "Are you all right mom?" She asked, turning up to see if her mother had been scratched badly.  
  
Chi-Chi bit her lower lip. She tried not to think about lashing back out at the cat but after that, how could she not? But nevertheless, she forced herself not to do anything to it. After all, this cat meant something to her daughter. "I'm fine." She said, holding her breath. Her face hadn't been scratched much, just a little on the side, but there was no blood.  
  
Usagi stood up and smiled at her friends. "You guys came back."  
  
Minako winked with a smile. "Of course! You don't think we would just leave you here without finding out if you're alright, would you?"  
  
Usagi smiled even wider. "Of course not."  
  
Ami walked to the young Saiyan's side and began looking her over. "You seem to be doing better than when we last saw you."  
  
Usagi continued to smile as she looked up to her mother. "That's because mom and Krillin helped me get better."  
  
Luna looked up to the girl's mother, still skeptical of the Queens choice to allow such an impulsive, easy-to-anger woman be the Princess' mother. "Your mother?"  
  
"Yep!" Usagi chirped. Usagi knew that Luna didn't really care for her mother, she had always known that. It was obvious too, the way she would always be surprised when she found out that Chi-Chi had dome something to help Usagi.  
  
Luna continued to stare up at Chi-Chi, who stared back as if she had seen a ghost. "So Chi-Chi."  
  
Chi-Chi said nothing to the cat. She only backed away, shaking. "She.she CAN talk."  
  
Luna frowned. "Of course I can talk! You can't have a non-talking cat for a royal advisor, now can you? Did you expect me to perform a mind meld on the girl to talk to her?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she lashed out at the feline. "Watch it! You're still in MY house! I would appreciate you talking with some more respect!" She paused to grin. "After all, I AM the Princess' mother. I think I deserve a little more respect."  
  
Usagi giggled as Amy stepped in. "She's got a point, Luna. She IS Usagi's mother. She's not bad." Luna frowned as she ducked her head and turned her head away from Chi-Chi in embarrassment.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Tatsuo's World~~  
  
Goku was in more or a bind now than he had ever been. He knew Tatsuo was right. He wouldn't be able to fight while trying to protect Gohan, but that would mean his defeat. Even after that he wouldn't be able to protect Gohan, he'd be too warn out. What could he do? There seemed to be only one thing. It would be a tricky thing to pull off with Tatsuo's speed, but he'd have to try if he wanted to come out victorious. He wouldn't allow anyone to die, not to someone who was much weaker.  
  
With no notice at all, Goku rushed for Tatsuo, who just sat by and laughed. "So you've decided to protect him AND fight me at the same time. I expected better from you."  
  
Goku gave no emotional reaction. Instead, he threw Gohan at Tatsuo. He then pressed himself into Gohan, whose body was becoming engulfed by Tatsuo's electrical energy. Goku hated to do this to his son, but there was no other way. "Damn you!" He yelled out in a rage of fury as he teleported himself away with Tatsuo and his oldest son, leaving Goten behind.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Earth: Son House~~  
  
Krillin was the first to feel it out of all the fighters in the house. While the girls were engaging in fun and laughter, he had been tracking Goku's energy to the best of his ability, many times being unable to feel him at all, especially when his power had been dropped to Super Saiyan one. But now he could fully feel his best friend's power with ease. "GOKU!"  
  
Usagi and Chi-Chi both jumped up in surprise expecting to see Goku walk through the door. But he never did. The both put on a frown and turned to the short man ready to lash out at him for getting their hopes up like that.  
  
Usagi jumped past her mother, falling to her knees from the pain it caused her. "Where's dad?! Is he alright?"  
  
Chi-Chi; "This better not be anything bad, Krillin!"  
  
Makoto smiled wide as soon as she felt it too. It WAS Goku's power level. He wasn't too far away. "He's alright!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Kami's Lookout~~  
  
Piccolo wore half a smirk on his face as he looked toward his son and Trunks, who too had felt it. "I knew he'd survive."  
  
Dende turned up to the taller Namek. He wasn't celebrating just yet. Tatsuo was with him, but Goten wasn't. Gohan seemed to be drained of power. "It's not over yet, guys."  
  
Trunks grinned. "If anyone can do it, Goku can."  
  
Piccolo looked up toward the sky. He was slightly confused as to why Goku had picked THAT place of all to be fighting at. Especially after he had just found out what his daughter was. "I sure hope this doesn't get the moon blown up."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son House~~  
  
Usagi jumped to her feet in surprise. "THE MOON!?" She yelled out toward Krillin, who had just told her where her father had gone.  
  
Chi-Chi pushed her daughter aside and rammed her face into Krillin's. "What's he doing on the Moon?! He can't fight on the Moon!"  
  
Krillin covered his head from Chi-Chi, hoping that she wouldn't be too rough on him. "I don't know. take it easy."  
  
Chi-Chi looked down at her daughter, who stared back up at her. Usagi then looked down at Luna for answers. "Is he allowed to do that? Will the Queen be upset?"  
  
Luna gave a kitty shrug. "I assume that she wouldn't be too upset. After all, he IS your father and he IS fighting for the good of the earth. as well as you."  
  
Usagi smiled with happiness as she deviously stared at her friends. Chi-Chi knew that look all too well. She knew it meant trouble for everyone, especially Usagi. "Don't you even think about it, Usagi! You are NOT going to the moon."  
  
Usagi dipped her head in embarrassment. She hated it when her mother did that in front of everyone, especially her friends. "Mom, common. This is the MOON we're talking about. I really need to go and. uh . protect it."  
  
Chi-Chi grinned. As well as she knew that look of her daughter, she also knew that there was a way around every one of her reasons to do something. "Your father can handle it."  
  
Usagi crossed her arms and gave her mother a pouty lip. She knew it was true, her father COULD handle it. But she really wanted to see him. Maybe she could help him as Sailor Moon. "But mom, I'm the Princess. I need to be there."  
  
Luna looked up at Chi-Chi rather strangely. She didn't know what she was thinking, but she actually agreed with what the woman had to say. "Your mother is right, Usagi. It's far to dangerous for you to be meddled up in such an affair without being able to utilize your Ki." She turned up to see the Senshi with a grin. "But you four, on the other hand, are more than able to teleport yourself there to aid him."  
  
Makoto happily nodded for the entire group. "Gotcha!" She had wanted to tear Tatsuo apart the first time around, but Goku hadn't let her. This was her chance to get her payback.  
  
Chi-Chi stepped away from her daughter and started out for the kitchen. "You should eat something before you leave, girls. You need to replenish your strength."  
  
Minako's eyes nearly jumped out of her head at the mention of food. "Ooooh!"  
  
Chi-Chi laughed at the girl's reaction as she continued on in through the kitchen door. Krillin darted up and followed her in. "Got anything for a hungry old man?"  
  
Artimas lifted his nose into the air, immediately smelling the food in the fridge when Chi-Chi opened it. "Mmm."  
  
Luna rolled her eyes with a sigh as she too turned around to make sure her partner didn't try anything stupid. "Artimas she didn't offer you anything. Get back here!"  
  
Usagi waited until Luna was completely out of the room to make her move. She jumped down to the ground and rested her elbows on the table as she stared up at her suspicious friends. "Take me with you!"  
  
Ami flinched with surprise. "What?! No way. Your mom and Luna just said 'no'. We can't take you now."  
  
Usagi frowned. "Come on! You guys are supposed to be my friends. I don't want to disobey mom and Luna, but I gotta go! I have a bad feeling."  
  
Makoto; "That's where we come in. We're going to help your dad and your brothers."  
  
Usagi frowned harder. "No! I need to be there! I would be there right now if I had my own power. I can go as Sailor Moon, just PLEASE take me with you!?"  
  
Ami shook her head. "Not by me."  
  
Makoto frowned back at Usagi as she crossed her arms. "Me either."  
  
Usagi growled at her friends as she turned her attention to Rei and Minako. "Rei? Minako?"  
  
Rei shook her head. "I think you better listen to your mom this time. This could get dangerous. You're already weak from Tatsuo's attack."  
  
Minako smiled. Her thoughts were a bit different than her friends. "I'll help ya out, Usagi. If you say the Princess should be there, then, I'll get you there!"  
  
Rei slapped Minako in the back of the head, unable to believe what had just come out of the girl's mouth. "What did you just say?! You can't take her! Her mother said 'no'! Do you know how much trouble you two will be in when we get back."  
  
Usagi smiled as she bounced up to her feet. "We're used to it, right Minako?" She asked quite bubbly.  
  
Minako nodded. "Let's go!" She looked back at the kitchen where the adults and cats were in the middle of one of their boring conversations. "The food can wait.. I can't believe I just said that."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku wasn't sure if taking Tatsuo to the moon was such a good idea, but he HAD to get off that planet of energy before he got himself and his sons killed. It was true that he wasn't able to reach full power anymore, but here he could at least hit the ground without having more of his strength being lost. He quickly jumped back away from Tatsuo and set his son down. He would have to worry about getting Goten back later, after Tatsuo was finally defeated.  
  
Goku glared at Tatsuo, who glared back. "Now we're on MY turf."  
  
Tatsuo bounced around on the ground a bit, realizing that there was no gravity. But why was Goku able to breathe with no air? Was it because the Moon Princess had been reborn? Did the power make the Moon inhabitable once again? He needed to get his hands on that Crystal. "Funny, this doesn't look like earth."  
  
Goku smirked. "That's because it's not. This is the Moon."  
  
Tatsuo frowned. "Why aren't you turning into a big, giant, ugly, Monkey then? You have your damn tail!"  
  
Goku's smirk turned into a sly grin. "The light isn't bright enough here." He crouched down and prepared himself for battle. "Now, let's get this fight over with so I can go home."  
  
Tatsuo mimicked Goku's movements, even the grin. "Yes, let's get this fight finished. But I must warn you, I'm the only one who will be leaving this rock.!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
At that moment, Sailor Moon on the Moon, just behind Goku, with her four friends. Ami took one look at the two fighters up ahead and realized that Tatsuo was facing them. They would be easy to spot if they stayed standing up. She grabbed Minako and Sailor Moon and pushed them downward. It wasn't long before Rei and Makoto copied their actions.  
  
Sailor Moon poked her head over a Moon rock to see what was going on. Tatsuo and her father seemed to be talking, but there was really no wind to carry the sound so all she could make out were murmurs. What they were saying didn't seem nearly as important as the fact that her father was only in Super Saiyan One form. "What's he thinking?! He's not going to be able to beat Tatsuo like that!"  
  
Rei grabbed Sailor Moon's tail and pulled her back down. "Shh. they'll hear you!"  
  
Sailor Moon frowned. "Isn't that why we're here!? We have to help him." She poked her head back over the rock. "Why isn't he powered up more?"  
  
Ami joined her friend over the rock and scanned his power level. "He's taken a lot of damage."  
  
Sailor Moon's eyes widened. "Are you saying that he's not able to power up anymore?"  
  
Makoto popped up next to Sailor Moon. "What? That's as strong as he can get? Man, we're toast. We can't even reach that kind of power unless we're powered up as Senshi."  
  
Sailor Moon frowned. "But our kind of power doesn't work on him. unless." Her friends turned to her in curiosity. "I have an idea!" She jumped up, and before her friends could hold her back, she darted out for her father.  
  
Tatsuo's eyes lit up in curiosity as he turned his attention away from Goku and onto the little Senshi making her way for him. "Oh, look whose decided to join us! Now I won't even have to go back to earth!"  
  
"What?!" Goku turned around and gasped at what he saw. It was Sailor Moon. but now he knew exactly WHO Sailor Moon was. "USAGI! What are you doing here!? You need to get home!"  
  
Tatsuo laughed. "Daddy's right, little girl. You could get killed." He fired a Ki attack at the small Senshi.  
  
Goku jumped for his daughter, barely able to get her out of her the path of the attack before it hit her. She leaned into her father, happy that the monster hadn't killed him. "I came to help you." She said with a smile as she looked up to her father.  
  
Goku glared down at his daughter with a frown. He wasn't at all happy to see here put her life in such danger when he had everything under control. "There's no way you can help me now; not in your current condition. You shouldn't have come here." He looked back down at Tatsuo, who seemed to be just standing there and staring up at him. "Where are your friends."  
  
Sailor Moon pointed downward toward the rock they were hiding under. "There." She looked back up to her father. "But I CAN help you. Watch." She leaned back from his hold a bit so she could place her hands flat on his chest. She remembered from her encounter from the other Sailor Moon how to transfer her Moon energy into something else. Her hands began to glow with Silver energy, which was soon transferred into her father.  
  
Tatsuo laughed even harder than before once he realized what she was doing. "What?! That won't help! Now none of his attacks will hurt me! That Moon energy only makes me stronger! Stupid girl!"  
  
Sailor Moon grinned as she looked down at Tatsuo. "That's what you think!" She stuck her tongue out at him and went back to transferring all the energy she could spare.  
  
Goku was curious. If what he said was true, why was Usagi giving him her energy? What had she meant by 'that's what you think'? "Usagi.?"  
  
Usagi grinned up at her father. "Last year, I tried to make my attacks stronger by going Super Saiyan. But going Super Saiyan cancelled out any of the Moon energy that I had and just made one giant. REALLY powerful attack."  
  
"What? It cancelled it?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Pluto said it was because Super Saiyan power is sort of evil. and Moon energy is pure. The Evil, normal power stamps out the Moon power when they're added together since my Super Saiyan power is stronger than my Moon energy. So if you stay Super Saiyan, your power should be increased enough to beat Tatsuo." Once most of her energy had been used up she began to feel short of breath and lightheaded. She pulled her hands away from her father and leaned her head back into him for support.  
  
Goku lowered himself back down to the ground and gently placed Sailor Moon down on her feet, but she could barely hold herself up. He looked over toward the rock where he saw Minako emerging from. She quickly made her way over to the two Saiyans and grabbed Sailor Moon and began taking her back to safety.  
  
Goku turned his head to Tatsuo, who hadn't yet realized the power Goku now held. Goku could feel the change in power. This power was warm and soothing. Compared to this, his own power felt so dark. just as Usagi had said. "You've caused enough trouble. It's time for you to leave."  
  
Tatsuo grinned as he fired a quick blast at Goku, who in return fired one of his new and improved attacks. With two powers combined, the ball of energy spun Silver and Gold together as it raced for Tatsuo. He crossed his fingers, hoping that he was strong enough to defeat Tatsuo now. If he couldn't, then no one could. Gohan was knocked out. Goten was gone now and unable to fuse with Trunks.  
  
Tatsuo hadn't any time to dodge. Once the attack was out of Goku's body it moved almost as fast as he could. "What?!" He yelled out. The blast tore directly through his stomach, leaving the energy of his body a Golden- Silver color.  
  
Goku grinned deviously back at his daughter. He could tell he was going to like this new power. It was just a shame that it would ware off before he got a chance to really use it against someone stronger. He could have used it back on Tatsuo's planet of energy.  
  
Tatsuo looked down at his stomach and immediately freaked out. "What's going on!?" He looked back up at Goku like a monster.  
  
Goku just laughed and hurled himself into the air for an aerial attack. He began to build up for a Kamehameha. Tatsuo realized this and jumped up into the air. He could feel himself weakening. "You'll never defeat me!"  
  
Goku ignored Tatsuo's claim and continued with his attack. "Ka-me-ha-me- HA!" He pushed his hands forward and fired his attack. Tatsuo was barely able to dodge the spiraling attack, his feet being the only victims.  
  
Goku laughed again at the sight. Now the creature's feet were completely Golden-Yellow, with a little of his calves beginning to turn colors. "Looks like you're outta luck. You have no where to regenerate your power. It's only a matter of time."  
  
Sailor Moon watched with a glimmer of amazement in her eyes. "Way to beat him down, dad!"  
  
Goku smirked as he fired a series of attacks at Tatsuo. "You're cut off!" He took one last shot at Tatsuo through the smoke that had been created to finish him off.  
  
Tatsuo was unable to block the powerful attacks. He had been pretty much taken out by the numerous attacks by Goku. But the last attack had finished him off. It hit his body and exploded on contact, forcing Goku to take cover on the ground. Tatsuo's entire body was covered in Goku's energy. Not a single bit of his own was left, which meant his demise. Tatsuo's body exploded in the air, causing a huge power wave to be sent over the Moon.  
  
Goku covered his eyes as he looked up to make sure the threat had been defeated. "We won't be seein him for a while." He turned around to see all five of the girls staring at him with wide eyes from afar. "He's gone." He was just about to retrieve Gohan when he felt something far off in space. ".Goten!" Without saying a single word to the girls he teleported away.  
  
Sailor Moon, now Usagi, jumped up and nearly flew off the Moon, but her friends brought her back down. "Where'd he go!?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku appeared in the middle of space. He had teleported himself directly to Goten's power. But there was nothing there anymore. No planet of raging energy, although there were floating blobs of the stuff everywhere. Had defeating Tatsuo caused the energy to be dispersed? One of the blobs attached itself to Goku's back and began spreading itself completely over his entire body. He struggled to break free, but the energy had a good hold on him, but surprisingly, this energy didn't hurt him like Tatsuo's had. In fact, it seemed rejuvenate his strength. Could it be that that entire ball of energy had been energy that Tatsuo had stolen from people in the past and put together in one big mass? Tatsuo must have elected to put it into a big ball so it would never go away in battle. And in the process, any one who landed on it would be sucked dry of their own energy, thus gaining more for Tatsuo. That must have been why he was after Usagi's power. He wanted to add it to his collection.  
  
With all of his strength returned to him, Goku soon found that he was unable to breath, which meant he would have to find Goten fast and get back to the Moon. He spotted something orange floating not too far away. 'Goten.' He teleported to the item so as not to waste time. Sure enough, it was Goten. All of his energy had been returned as well. He was conscious and feeling fine. Goku grabbed a hold of his son and teleported back to the Moon. There was no telling how long Goten had been out there with no oxygen so he wanted to get him back as soon as possible.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Moon~~  
  
Goku appeared back on the Moon almost as quickly as he left. Usagi ran out from the rock that she had been hiding behind and jumped for her father, but stopped herself short when she noticed who he was holding. "Goten!" She paused in front of her father and looked at him. He didn't seem to be hurt at all.  
  
Goten smiled at his little sister and stood on his own away from his father. "Yo." Not too far from the rock, which Usagi had just jumped away from, he noticed his brother getting up. "Gohan?" He turned to his father. "What happened?"  
  
Goku grinned. "It's a long story."  
  
Usagi smiled. "I helped daddy!"  
  
Goku smiled down at his daughter and put his hand on her head. "Yes, you did. But now you have to help me again."  
  
Usagi became curious. "With what?"  
  
Goku noticed the other girls coming out from behind the rock as he knelt down. He looked directly into Usagi's eyes. "Help me understand what's going on with you."  
  
Usagi looked downward with a sigh. "I guess I'll have to explain it all like I did with mom." She looked back up to see her two brothers now staring down at her. She hadn't even noticed that Gohan had joined them. "Well. you know I'm the Moon Princess. and Sailor Moon. and all that good stuff. But don't worry. I'm still your daughter even if I DO have some of the DNA of the Moon Princess."  
  
Goku laughed. "I know that, silly."  
  
Usagi smiled. "Can we go home now?" Goku nodded. "Can you tell mom that if I hadn't come to help you that the world would be doomed?"  
  
Gohan chuckled. "You snuck away, didn't you?"  
  
Usagi giggled. "Yeah."  
  
Ami; "We tried to tell her not to, but she wouldn't listen."  
  
Goku; "I'm glad she did. It's true that she helped me, a lot. I don't think the world would be doomed, but I do think I would have had a much harder time winning without her." He looked down at Usagi again. "I'll tell your mother that. Alright?"  
  
Usagi nodded with a big grin. "Thanks dad! Let's go home!"  
  
Goku nodded in agreement. It was time to go home. "But first we have to stop off at the Lookout so I can get this tail removed."  
  
Usagi had almost completely forgotten about her father's tail. He kept it well hidden. But he was right, it did need to come off. He was in danger of being affected by the Moon. "I'll tell you all about the Moon thing when we get home, k?"  
  
Goku nodded with a smile. "Deal."  
  
(Alright! I am DONE with this "book". Onto the next one! Cya!) 


	154. Awakenings Part 1

(Hi all! I'm going to make this short! This book is going to be a bit different than from what you've seen before. But don't worry. It's not a bad different. Trust me. ^_~ Happy reading!)  
  
Things settled down quite a bit after Tatsuo had been defeated. Chi-Chi still wasn't completely sure she liked the idea that her daughter was a Princess. All she had ever wanted for her 'baby' was a normal life, something her sons had never really gotten. With being a Princess would come major responsibility, but she still wanted her daughter to live a life of a child. Usagi and Goku had to calm her fears that Usagi would never be a normal child, they had tried to tell her that being a Princess meant nothing. Usagi was still and always would be plain, old Usagi. But still, knowing that her daughter's future was pre-destined was not a settling thought.  
  
But still, the Son family trucked on just like they would any other time. Usagi acted just as normal as ever, as if her family didn't know a thing, which was just how she liked it. She didn't want her other identity to get in the way of her own life, which her mother sure appreciated.  
  
She had taken to being more careful around strangers so as to not let anything like Tatsuo happen again. She knew that part of the problem had been her fault. If only she hadn't told him about her Saiyan heritage. Maybe he wouldn't have been able to cause so much trouble. She and her father had decided not to tell everyone she brought home about their ability to use Ki. From now on they would act just as normal as everyone else around people they weren't familiar with like Gohan had when he went to public school.  
  
After returning to earth, Goku had gotten his tail removed just as he had planned. Chi-Chi hadn't gone as ballistic as Usagi had expected. She gave Usagi her famous "look of guilt" and gave her a small spiel about disobeying her parents to put herself in danger, but nothing as big as what Usagi had been expecting. She had half-expected World War III. For once, Goku was able to calm her down almost right away. She seemed especially proud that Usagi had given up her own power to help her father. Usagi had been able to be a big help after all.  
  
Everything went smooth from then on. No enemy attacks were detected from the Z fighter perspective or the Senshi perspective. Life was great. The Seventh grade was a great new experience for the girls. It was a time of relaxation for these Senshi.  
  
~*~*~  
  
It was huge, bigger than they had ever imagined it would be. People were roaming every inch of grounds, most of them older than twenty. But they weren't too far off from that age either. They stood face to face with their first adversary as adults. The tall, 5-story building would house their intellect for the next four to six years, peeling their minds every second it could.  
  
The taller, more butch one stared at its foe, fearing what would become of it in there. This was nothing like she had ever experienced before. This would actually be hard. A groan was murmured for her lips. "How did I let you talk me into this?"  
  
The shorter, more feminine one latched onto the taller one's arm with a giggle. "Come on. It'll be fun. I couldn't bare to do this without you by my side."  
  
A smirk appeared on the taller one's lips. "Of course not. You've always needed me." She took a deep breath as she set out, joining the thousands of others milling toward a common entrance. She stepped up onto the stairway, which led up to the big, glass doorway. She could see a huge fountain inside where a group of preppy girls had decided to congregate. "College, huh?" She asked her partner as she looked down.  
  
The shorter one nodded as she looked up into her lover's eyes. "Don't back out on me now, Haruka."  
  
The two slowly made their way up the stairway. "At least we have the same classes. This would totally suck otherwise. You owe me big time, Michiru."  
  
Michiru lowered her face to the ground. "Well, actually."  
  
Haruka paused and turned her eyes back to Michiru with a playful glare. "Don't tell me we don't have the same classes. Did you go and switch yours?!"  
  
Michiru giggled as she looked back up. She could see the group of girls eagerly staring at them. She got that look a lot from people. She had learned long ago to just ignore people who didn't appreciate her ways. She looked up into Haruka's eyes with a smile. "Don't worry. We only don't have one class together. I signed up for the Orchestra and auditioned. They took me without question."  
  
Haruka erased her glare and resumed her half-smile. "Alright then. It'll be just like High School. What do I have when you're in the orchestra class?"  
  
Michiru smiled even wider. She knew Haruka would appreciate what she had done for her. "Nothing. You have that period off to relax. I know you used to always talk about how nice it would be to have a period to yourself, so I worked your schedule to have just that."  
  
Haruka grinned as she pushed Michiru to continue on into the Giant College Section of the Mugen School. "But it won't be the same without you to hang out with. I'll have to hang out with all these preps." She sneered as she walked past the girls in the main hall. They all had their compacts out, trying to act as if they were fixing their make-up. But Haruka knew better than that. She knew they were being watched, but much like Haruka, she didn't care. "Too bad Mamoru isn't here with us. Then it would REALLY be like High School."  
  
"Yeah, I know. But he said he wanted to take some time off before he went back to school. We'll still hang out all the time though. We're best buds." Michiru detached herself from Haruka's arm and looked upward at the spiraling staircase that led all the way to the fifth floor. "People from all over the world come here. This school has the best educational system."  
  
Haruka grinned. "They got a track team?"  
  
Michiru looked down with a nod. "How did I know? Yes, I made sure there was a good track team. Tryouts are being held at the end of the week after school."  
  
Haruka smiled. "Alright! Maybe this school won't be so bad after all. No one can beat me."  
  
Michiru slightly frowned at that. "Now don't you be using your extra strength to beat everyone. It has to be a fair race, otherwise you didn't actually win, alright?"  
  
Haruka smirked. "Anything for you." She moved her face in for Michiru, but something small and short caught her eye. Her playful smirk went away as she slowly lifted her head back up. "Hey, short stuff. What are you doing here?"  
  
Hotaru smiled, but stayed careful not to get too excited over seeing a familiar face. Lately she had been becoming weak after doing almost anything. Most of the time she was in bed, resting. She rarely ever saw Usagi and the gang anymore. Kaori never let her have visitors. The only times she saw her friends were when she snuck away, but that usually ended up in becoming weak and feeble. "Daddy was right. You guys are going to this school."  
  
Michiru turned around to greet the little visitor. She was just as tall, or rather short, as Usagi had been when she was eight years old. Ah, the good old days when life was simple. Usagi had been such a little pipsqueak, but now that she was thirteen she was beginning to look big like the other kids, though she was still somewhat shorter than everyone else was. "What brings you here? Shouldn't you be in your own part of the school? Your father might not approve of you just leaving like that."  
  
Hotaru smiled wider. "My daddy's one of the head researchers here. He doesn't care." That wasn't her only reasoning for leaving either. She knew her father wouldn't care for another reason. He seemed to have taken more of an interest in his work rather than her in the past year. And when he did pay attention to her, he didn't really notice anything that she was doing, or had done. He was acting very peculiar, but she didn't mind. yet. She figured he was just stressed out about something. "I'll be back in time for my school to start."  
  
Haruka looked down at her watch and noted the time. "You have about ten minutes."  
  
Hotaru's eyes widened in surprise. "Whoa! I better get going! Cya guys later!" She yelled as she turned around and quickly walked away. Before she had a chance to get too far she could already feel herself losing breath. She slowly turned her head over her shoulder to make sure Haruka and Michiru hadn't seen her fall weak. Grabbing her chest, she began to walk slower toward the main doors.  
  
A young, female student with bright, blue hair noticed Hotaru just after setting foot out of the elevator. "Oh no." She quickly dropped her books and ran for the child. "Hotaru!" She called out.  
  
Hotaru dropped to her knees as a pain began to form in her head. "Viluy." She whispered. She looked up, expecting to see the woman, but she could only see a group of people surrounding her, worried about what was happening to her.  
  
Viluy pushed through the girls whom had been staring at Haruka and Michiru. She knelt down on the floor next to Hotaru. "Hotaru, are you alright? What are you doing here?"  
  
Hotaru looked up to see the girl's face staring worriedly back at her. Viluy had been hired by Professor Tomoe not too long ago. He needed the extra help in his lab and found the best computer genius in his school. "I wanted to see." She gave a moan of pain as she bent over.  
  
Viluy acted fast and picked the child up and stood up. "Move!" She commanded to all of the students. Everyone quickly moved out of the way to allow Viluy a path out of the building. She ran down the front stairs and made a quick dash for her car.  
  
Hotaru couldn't help but notice that they weren't heading back to her class. "Where're we going."  
  
Viluy frowned as she shoved Hotaru into the back seat. "Stay quiet. You'll waste your energy. We have to get you back home." She slammed the door shut and proceeded to the drivers seat. "We'll get you feeling better in no time." She grinned as she turned on the car and stepped on the gas.  
  
Haruka and Michiru exchanged looks of confusion with one another. Michiru being the most concerned for the child's safety. "I've never seen that woman before."  
  
Haruka nodded. "She's always with that Kaori chick." Shrugging, she turned back toward the hall in which they had first begun traveling down. "Anyway, what's our schedule?"  
  
Michiru flipped out a piece of paper and began reading it off. "We have three classes a day."  
  
Haruka turned back to Michiru with a huge smile. "Really?! I think I may actually end up liking this college thing."  
  
Michiru grinned. "But they're two hours long."  
  
Haruka hunched over in disappointment. "Damn. Still a six hour day."  
  
"Well, one day you only have two classes. You see, College is different than high school. You can pretty much pick which classes you have and when. I knew you wouldn't want to have classes all in one string. We have about an hour in-between all of our classes. We'll have different classes every other day. Today we have three, and tomorrow you have two while I have three."  
  
Haruka smiled wide once again. "I think I could get used to this."  
  
Michiru grinned even wider. "And we don't even have any classes on Fridays."  
  
"Now I KNOW I'm going to like this!" Haruka wrapped her arm around Michiru's shoulders. She couldn't have loved her anymore at that moment. "So what's our first class?"  
  
"Writing 101. It's just down this hall." She pointed down the hallway as she began leading the way.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Viluy drove to the Tomoe residence as fast as she could, completely ignoring the traffic signals. Getting the girl home was much more important than waiting in traffic. She looked in the rearview mirror. Hotaru had passed out. "Crap!" She pushed down on the gas pedal as hard as she could. She wasn't too far from the mansion. It wouldn't be long before help could be acquired. She decided to call Kaori for a heads up.  
  
Viluy reached down to the passenger seat and grabbed her cell phone. She placed the phone in a position that she could dial and drive at the same time. She dialed the number to the lab and brought the phone up to her ear.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kaori growled at the now ringing phone that had interrupted her research. She angrily grabbed the phone to answer it. "Hello?!" She growled even louder. She knew it wasn't Tomoe who was calling. He never called the lab specifically. It was usually one of his little assistants that he had hired just a few months back. She hated them all. She didn't know what he would ever use them for. All he would ever need was her. No matter, he would find that out himself.  
  
"Kaori!?" Viluy yelled from the other side of the line.  
  
Kaori narrowed her eyes into a quaint glare. It was Viluy, the youngest of the group, the one whom she despised most. "Viluy." She muttered angrily. "What is it?! Shouldn't you be doing your job? You know the professor wants you to do some scouting."  
  
Viluy knew that Kaori didn't care for her. Kaori didn't particularly like anyone but the Professor himself. The younger a person was, the more Kaori hated them, which was why Hotaru had it so rough all the time. "Hotaru's gone into one of her spells again."  
  
Kaori rolled her eyes with a growl of annoyance. She hated Hotaru. She was always the cause of her own weakness. "Wha'd the little twerp do this time?!"  
  
Viluy pulled into the driveway and stopped the car. She turned off the ignition and proceeded to let herself out of the car. "I don't know. But you better do something before it's too late. She's already passed out. There should be a list of possible candidates in my computer's database. I've got to go." And with that, she disconnected with Kaori and reached into the back seat for the unconscious girl.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kaori slide her wheel chair to Viluy's workstation and accessed her computer's database. Sure enough there was a list of possible 'cures' for Hotaru's weakness. "You HAVE been a busy girl, Viluy. This list will do nicely." An evil smirk crossed her face as she stood up and proceeded out the underground entrance of the lab. Behind the door was a long tunnel, which led from the home lab to the lab at the Mugen School, where Professor Tomoe could be found. He had all the equipment in the school lab for the 'cure'.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Viluy carried Hotaru into the very back of the Mansion into a dimly lit room that had a chair in the center of it. She carefully placed the child down and backed away. Hotaru was too weak to even sit straight in the chair. Her body lay over the edge. "Don't worry. Your cure will come quick enough."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Mugen School: Research Lab~~  
  
Professor Tomoe was working on one of his latest assignments, which had been given to him by the lead of Capsule Corp., Bulma, when he got a call on his private phone. "You'll have to excuse me, gentlemen." He walked away from his work and went to his phone, closing the door to his office behind him. "Yes?" He answered.  
  
"Professor?"  
  
Tomoe knew exactly who was calling and why. She only called his private line when something went wrong at the house, which had been happening a lot lately. "Is something the matter?"  
  
"The girl is in need of another cure. Do you have something ready?"  
  
Tomoe glanced out the window into the lab to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Satisfied that no one was, he turned his back to the door. "Just tell me who and it's done. It should be ready by the time you get here."  
  
"Great. It won't be long now." She laughed evilly as she turned off her cell phone. It wouldn't be long now before Hotaru was returned to normal once again, although they would have to have another encounter with 'her'.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Michiru and Haruka were already a half-hour into their first class. As usual, Haruka had begun falling asleep. She hadn't meant to, but the droning sound of the Professor's voice was just too much to listen to and stay awake at the same time. Michiru, on the other hand, was wide awake. In her earlier years she had hated school just as much as Haruka, but once she hit High School she really started getting into the lectures. But something felt wrong to her. Something wasn't right. She figured it was just the new feeling of excelling to the next level of education. There were new people everywhere, people who were nothing like what she had dealt with in her public education. These people were aspiring to become some of society's top businessmen and women. These people were all here of their own choice, and not being forced by adults. These people WERE adults. The atmosphere was definitely a lot different. Maybe that was why she didn't really pay attention to the strange feeling she was getting in her gut.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kaori reached the lab soon after she had called the Professor. He had quietly slipped away from the main research lab and gone to the lab that had been abandoned shortly after the school had opened. It was perfect to put his own, hidden lab; one that only he had the key to. He found Kaori standing next to an odd looking machine that looked as if it would open up like an oven.  
  
"Is it ready?" Kaori inquired.  
  
Tomoe nodded as he walked to a huge control panel and pressed a big, blue button. "I just put the finishing touches in. This one should be in and out in no time."  
  
Kaori smirked as she grabbed a silver box from the floor and slowly walked to the main entrance of the lab, which led into the research wing. "Great. The brat should be cured in no time."  
  
Kaori was just about to leave the room when she was stopped by Tomoe's voice again. "And please tell her not to be so rambunctious anymore. She's causing a lot of problems. We haven't even begun our search yet. It's only a matter of time before someone will find out about our operations."  
  
Kaori nodded, but said nothing. She turned out the door and into the research wing. No one was around to see her suspicious character roaming the corridors. "Perfect." She quickly scampered up the hall, which turned into stairs at the end, which led all the way to the top floor, which was her destination. "I hope you're ready for this." She laughed to herself, slowly making he way to the top.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Hotaru's Home~~  
  
Hotaru moaned in pain. She didn't know what was happening to her. Something felt wrong, her body felt as if it were being taken away from her control. What was going on? "Power. I need power."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kaori reached the top floor, he smirk growing even wider. "I'm coming for you!" She hollered aloud in the empty hallway. She spotted the room in which the victim would be found in. She had no time to be discrete about her job. Hotaru was in danger of dying. Her body was too weak to stay even remotely stable.  
  
She burst into the room. The inhabitants were startled, but they had nothing to be frightened about. yet. The professor just stared very calmly at the woman. "Can I help you?"  
  
Kaori walked to podium at the front of the class and set her box down next to her feet. "Yes, I'm looking for a student of yours." She looked up into the mass of students. She immediately spotted her target. "There you are." She bent down and pressed the tiny black button on the top of the box, releasing the monster that resided inside. The Professor tapped Kaori on the back, curious as to what the woman was doing, only to be met with a fist. "Quiet down you old windbag." She turned back down the box. Smoke seemed to be the only thing flowing out. "Hey! Get out here!"  
  
Slowly, a slithering creature crawled out of the box. The room was suddenly filled with screaming students, who jumped from their seats and made a flying dash for the door. Kaori commanded the creature to do its job. The student they were after was having a hard time getting to the door because of all the students herding in front of her, which made Kaori's job all the more easy. "HAHAHAHA! You won't escape him! No one ever does!"  
  
The slimy, slug-looking creature tightened what muscle it had until it was long with a pointy edge. It hurled itself into the air and spiraled straight through its victim's chest. The girl looked down at her chest in excruciating pain. Her chest was still whole, but she still felt like her soul had been ripped from her chest. Her skin was turning a pale grayish blue color as she fell face forward. No one around noticed what had just happened. They were all too busy running from the carnage.  
  
Kaori had acted as if nothing but the ordinary was taking place. She grabbed her box and calmly walked toward the fallen girl, by now there were only a few people left in the room. She knelt down next to her creature and grabbed the Heart Crystal. She set the box in front of the creature and encouraged it to go back in so she could take it back to the lab.  
  
Once the slimy creature was in, she closed the box back up and stood up. She softly whistled as she left the now empty room. All that was left was the teacher and a lifeless body. "Hmf! No one knows how to put up a good fight anymore." She left the room, only to be faced with the fearful faces of the students that she had terrorized. "Mention this to anyone and I'll come back for you too." The hall filled with laughter as she made her way back to the stairway.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kaori moved rather quickly back to the lab. There was no telling how much the little pipsqueak had before she would really start to freak out. It had never gotten to that point before, and she didn't plan on letting it get that far ever. She may have hated the host, but it was the person inside that she was worried about.  
  
Once in the lab, she threw the box to Tomoe, keeping the Heart Crystal in her hand. "Job's finished."  
  
Tomoe smirked. "That was fast."  
  
"You expected it to take longer?"  
  
Tomoe set the creature's box back into the oven-looking machine that allowed him to program who the next victim into the creature that was inside. "Not with you on the job. But now you have to get that where it belongs."  
  
Kaori nodded. "Yes, Professor." She walked to yet another underground passage, which let into the original passage.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Mugen School~~  
  
Haruka opened her eyes and looked out the window. She had expected to see groups of people strolling about, but she saw an ambulance parked outside instead. She tapped Michiru on the arm and pointed outside. "Something happened."  
  
Michiru took one look at the ambulance and gasped. She turned to Haruka with her eyes full of worry. "There wasn't an attack. I didn't feel anything."  
  
Haruka relaxed a bit. "Yeah. Someone probably got hurt on their own. Besides, if and when something happens we'll let everyone else deal with it. We don't have to get ourselves tied into protecting the Earth like Mamoru did."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Hotaru's Home~~  
  
Kaori burst into the room where Hotaru had been taken. She took one look at Viluy and sneered. "You don't have to stay here, you know. I've got everything under control. Besides, you should go and make sure none of those idiots back at the school say anything to the reporters."  
  
Viluy frowned at Kaori with a growl. She hated the woman and everything she stood for. But what could she say? She was only in charge of intelligence. "Fine."  
  
Kaori paused just before giving Hotaru the Heart Crystal. "Oh yeah. And from now on I'LL be scouting out good candidates."  
  
Viluy jumped with surprise. "What?! The Professor put me in charge of that department!"  
  
Kaori grinned. "Too bad. He also put me in charge of everything in general, especially the girl. These Crystal determine the future of the girl, and I want to make sure you don't try anything stupid."  
  
Viluy glared at Kaori with hatred. "I would never."  
  
Kaori; "Just leave. I'll make sure she gets what she needs from now on. I'll call you if I need you. You just go do your job at the school now. Make sure no one talks whenever I do MY job." Viluy turned around, cursing Kaori under her breath. Kaori turned back to Hotaru and held out the Crystal. "Here you are."  
  
Hotaru could feel the power being generated from the Crystal without even holding it. This one was strong; stronger than the ones she had already received. "The power." Her voice was much different now; more like an adult's now. "Give it to me." She feebly reached out and grabbed the Crystal and greedily pushed it into her chest. "Yes!" She looked up to Kaori with here eyes glowing purple. "You have revived my strength. for now."  
  
Seeing that she was no longer Hotaru, Kaori knelt down before the girl. "Yes."  
  
Hotaru stood up. "This will only hold me over for a short while. I must have more power if I wish to open the portal. You must find the three Pure Heart Crystals."  
  
Kaori looked up at the girl in shock. This was the first time she had even mentioned the Crystals. "We hadn't planned on searching for the Crystals until your host was older so she would enable you to be stronger."  
  
"With the Pure Heart Crystals, strength will not be a concern to me. This body is getting weaker and weaker the longer I stay in it. We can not share it any longer. Find me the Crystals. Speak to the Professor about what I have told you. He will know what to do."  
  
Kaori nodded as she bowed her head. "Yes. The Professor has asked me to tell you to try and control the girl a little more."  
  
"I can as long as I have a steady amount of power. As time goes on I will lose the power you have given me, and the girl will have more control over this body then I do. Don't let that happen."  
  
"I will put Viluy on it right away. I'll search for the three Pure Heart Crystals in the mean time."  
  
"Go now!"  
  
Kaori did as she was told and left the room, only to be greeted by Viluy once again. "You can have your job back. I have something more important to do. Keep your search within the school for now. There are plenty of victims."  
  
Viluy crossed her arms with a frown. "And what are you doing?"  
  
Kaori smirked. "Searching for the Pure Heart Crystals."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Mugen School~~  
  
Their first class of their college career had finally ended. Michiru was enjoying herself quite well, but Haruka seemed more concerned with sleeping and watching Michiru than paying attention to the lecture. "So how long until our next class, Michiru?"  
  
"About an hour. You wanna go to the campus coffee shop?"  
  
Haruka grinned. "You know I'll follow you wherever you go."  
  
Michiru blushed. "Stop. You're making me blush."  
  
"I can make you do a lot more than blush." Haruka replied.  
  
Michiru giggled as she led the way to the coffee shop. It had always been her dream to attend one AS an actual College student. "This'll be fun." As they were passing through the main hall she noticed that a news crew had arrived on campus. "Must have been something really bad." She noticed a group of students huddling not to far from the main doors. "Come on." She grabbed onto Haruka's arm and led her to the group of students. "Excuse me." She began.  
  
One of the older, male students turned around to the freshman. "What is it?"  
  
Haruka glared at the man, who looked to be in his Junior year. "What's going on?"  
  
"Didn't you hear? Some chick died on class today." 


	155. Part 2

~*~*~*~  
  
Michiru just stared at the older student in shock. She wasn't sure if she had heard him right through all the noise being generated by the news crew. "Excuse me. did you just say that someone died?"  
  
The male student snorted with a quick rolling of his eyes. "What're you, dense? That's what I just said. Someone kicked the bucket during class today. She just fell dead. No one knows why."  
  
Michiru looked to Haruka in fright. THAT was why the ambulance had come during their first class. No one had attacked. yet it was still odd that someone would just drop dead just like that. Neither of two knew how to explain the event, nor did they really care to. They backed away from the chaotic crowd and slowly began making their way to the coffee shop.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The rest of the day was relatively uneventful for the duo. They attended their other classes, keeping mostly to themselves. They hadn't really ever been ones to be really open with others. The older they grew, the more loner-like they had become without meaning to. They just became less and less dependent of others. It seemed as though the only other person they really hung out with was Mamoru, and occasionally the four Americans that were training under Yamcha, but even they had begun keeping to themselves.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Not only was this day the first day for college, but the first day of eighth grade for Usagi and her friends as well. Nothing nearly as interesting as what happened at Mugen School had happened to the girls on their first day. It was just another normal first day for them. There was no strange loner-kid who seemed extra interested in earth. No one wanted to see Usagi's broach, which she still wore on the front of her uniform. Things were finally getting back to normal for the protectors of Earth.  
  
The last bell of the school day filled the building with noise, but only for a moment. It was followed by the its students shifting around the room to gather their things. It wasn't long before the halls filled with laughter.  
  
Usagi and the rest of the girls were one of the last groups out of their classroom, for once. Their faces were long and disappointed as they slowly eased their way out into the hall. None of them said a word until they reached the stairway, which led to the first floor. Usagi, being the most bummed out, leaned against the wall and dropped her bag with a sigh. "What's the world coming to anyway?"  
  
Makoto sat down on the top stair and rested her head in her palms and her elbows on her knees. "No kidding. Things sure do change when you reach the eighth grade."  
  
Minako joined her friend on the stair, placing her bag on the step below. "And we thought we had it bad before. This is horrible."  
  
Sighing, Rei looked down at her feet. She never thought she'd see this day. this horrible day. "It's just not fair. First we have to come back to school and now this."  
  
Ami playfully frowned at her friends. She didn't find their situation all that horrible. "Come on you guys. It isn't that bad."  
  
The other four slowly turned their attention onto Ami, looking at her as if she were an idiot. She was talking crazy now. How could she not think THIS of all things wasn't bad? Minako took the liberty of replying first since no one else seemed to want to. "How can you say that? Homework on the FIRST day back?! That's ludicrous!"  
  
Usagi stood away from the wall with a nod. "Yeah. Now I have to go home and get it done before I can do anything else. This totally sucks!"  
  
Makoto curiously looked straight up at Usagi. "I thought you didn't have to be home until later."  
  
Everyone had expected Usagi to be upset when she gave her answer, but strangely enough, she seemed somewhat cheery. She grinned as she gave her answer. "Nope. Not anymore. With age comes benefits. Mom said that now that I'm a thirteen I can have a later curfew. but only if I get my homework done first."  
  
Rei smiled wide. Her grandfather had also begun to give her a later curfew as well now that she had become a teenager. "That's great. So what's the deal?"  
  
Usagi grin turned into a smile. She could remember exactly what her mother had told her. "I have to come right home when I have homework and do it. If I'm done in time before dinner's done, then I can go out again, but I have to be back for dinner. If I finish too close to dinner I have to stay home and eat. but then I can go back out again afterwards, until. get this. NINE O'CLOCK! But only as long as mom knows where I am, otherwise she'll worry. But hey, it's a lot better than what I was getting before!"  
  
Makoto smiled. "Wow, that's a big step for your mom. She's letting you go back out after dinner, and until nine no less."  
  
Usagi smiled even wider. "Yep. And I don't even have to go to bed until ten! I'm so happy! I didn't even have to ask her for any of this either. Neither did dad! She just came up with it on her own about a week ago! Isn't that SO cool!? My mom is so cool!"  
  
None of the girls ever thought they would hear those words come out of Usagi's mouth in one sentence. Usagi had always hated the rules her mother had put on her, but now it had all paid off. She was older now, and therefore deserved more freedom, which is exactly what she had gotten.  
  
Usagi bent down and picked up her bag. "I'll see you guys later!" With that, she raced down the stairs, completely disregarding the 'no running in the halls' rule.  
  
Minako stood up and brushed her skirt off. "Chi-Chi's really changing."  
  
Makoto stood up next. "That's not a bad thing. That woman really did need to lighten up."  
  
Ami grabbed Minako's bag and handed it to her friend. "She was only worried about her. My mother was the same way. she still is a little. But she isn't nearly as stubborn as Chi-Chi. That's why she's worse than my mom."  
  
Makoto grabbed her own bag and started down the stairs before her friends. "I have to get home for a little bit too. My parents wanted to tell me something but there wasn't time this morning. I'll try to catch up with you all later."  
  
The three remaining friends waved goodbye. Rei turned to Minako and Ami with a grin. "So there's only the three of us."  
  
Minako grinned wide as an idea started brewing in her head. "Anyone wanna go to the arcade with me?!" She happily chirped.  
  
Rei laughed as she wrapped her arm around the blonde's shoulder. "Sure. We can have a race tournament or something."  
  
Ami shook her head with a playful smile. "Count me out. Whenever any of you people get together for a innocent race tournament you always end up making it a war. I don't particularly wish to be a part of it this time. However I WILL watch. I always love to be entertained by my friends' antics."  
  
Rei and Minako exchanged looks with each other, quickly turning back to Ami. Rei patted the blue haired on the back with a sigh. "Thanks for making us sound like monkeys. We sure do appreciate it."  
  
Ami giggled. "Come on you guys. You know exactly what I mean."  
  
Minako smirked. "Do we? Do we really?"  
  
"Come on you two monkeys, let's get down the arcade. Mamoru should be working the shift now. He told me that he's going to work a little bit instead of going straight to college last time I saw him."  
  
Minako stared blankly at Ami as the three made their way down the stairs. "What? Mamoru. working?! That's impossible! He's got no work ethic. The man is a bum."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi still couldn't believe that she had gotten homework on the first day of school. The first day had always been laid back in the past, why change it? Sure she was getting older and the work was more involved than before, but was that really a reason to get an early start? Just the day before she had been on vacation, and now she was jumping right into things without being eased in first. At least she had a couple of the teachers this year that she had had the year before, they had been easy. But all the other four assigned work to be ready and turned in by the next day.  
  
She raced home as fast as she could so she would be able to finish her work as fast as possible. The faster it was done, the more time she got to hang out with her friends. Once home, she dashed in the front door, allowing it to slam shut on its own. It had taken her twenty minutes to get home, twenty valuable minutes she could have been spending with her friends had her teachers not given her homework. "Mom, I'm home!" She called out to let her mother know she was there. She slipped her shoes off and walked by the kitchen, which was empty. She proceeded into the hall and then on into the living room where she found her mother sitting alone, reading a magazine. "Hi, mom." She said happily.  
  
Chi-Chi hadn't expected her daughter home so soon on this day. She didn't think that she would have had any homework on the first day. "Hi, dear. Aren't you going to hang out with the girls today?"  
  
Usagi frowned as she slid her book bag off of her back and set it next to the chair her mother was in. "I would, but I have to uphold my end of our deal, right?"  
  
Chi-Chi sympathized with her daughter's obvious disappointment. She put her finger on the page she was reading and carefully closed her magazine so as to not lose her place. "Homework on the first day? Really?"  
  
Usagi nodded with a frown. "It totally sucks! But I know I told you I'd come home and do my homework before I do anything else from now on so I can have the entire night to have fun. So I came home!" She happily replied.  
  
Chi-Chi smiled at her daughter as she picked up her magazine and re-opened to her page. "Good girl, Usagi. You're growing up to be very responsible young lady. If you prove to me now that you can uphold this deal, I may be apt to change it in the future."  
  
Usagi smiled wide. She loved hearing comments from her mother like that. It was a lot better than being reprimanded for being irresponsible. She was beginning to understand her mother more and more. You give the woman what she wants and she begins to give you what you want. It was perfect. If only she had figured this out when she was younger. She could have gotten away with a lot more than she had. "Well, I gotta go do my homework. and then I'm off. But don't worry, I'll be back in time for dinner!" And with that, she grabbed her bag and made a run for it into her room.  
  
~*~*~  
  
While Usagi raced home, Makoto took her sweet time getting to hers. She had no idea what her parents wanted to discuss with her, nor did she really wish to. Whenever they both tried to talk to her it was usually bad. They probably had a reason to discipline her, and her father was probably the one to be behind the entire idea of doing so. Nevertheless, she couldn't put them off forever. She would have to see them sooner or later. She didn't even bother stalling when she got to her house. She just went straight in and tried to act as casual as possible. She didn't want to let on that she knew she was going to be punished for something. That would only make her look weak, and knowing her father, he would probably take that as another opportunity to yell at her, which would lead to her mother yelling at him, and he would yell back, which would induce yet another argument between the two adults; something Makoto definitely didn't want to see again.  
  
Sighing to herself, she walked to the front door and reached out for the knob. This was it, she would finally find out exactly what they wanted to speak with her about. Taking a deep breath, she turned the knob and firmly pushed in. "Mom? Dad?" She called out as she tossed her shoes off of her feet. She dropped her bag next to the door and stepped up into the house. "Mom?" She called out a second time.  
  
"In the dinning room, dear." Her mother called back.  
  
Makoto slowly walked through the kitchen and into the dinning room to see her parents both sitting at the table with smiles on their face. She was caught a little off guard at the sight. Her father never smiled, at least, not at her. He had always resented her for being a 'weak little girl'. But this was different. The last time she could remember him smiling like that was the first time she had won a karate tournament when she had just turned five years old, before she had even met Usagi and Minako that day in the park. It had been the last tournament she had ever entered under the training of her father. She was completely speechless as she stared at them.  
  
Mrs. Kino patted the chair next to her as she continued to smile warmly at her daughter. "Come dear, sit with us. We have something we'd like to tell you."  
  
Makoto was a little weirded out by her parents' behavior. She had never seen any parent act like this before, not even Minako's, and they were the most in-love parents she had ever met. "Alright." She said calmly and quietly. She walked to the chair next to her mother and sat down, careful not to stare at her father too much for fear that he may become angry with her. Instead, she looked at her mother. She didn't need to ask anything, her eyes did all the talking for her.  
  
"Makoto, honey, your father and I have been growing apart over the past few years and."  
  
Makoto's eyes widened to their fullest. She had heard so many conversations start like this and end in divorce. She had never even imagined her parents splitting up. Even though she didn't really care for her father all that much, she still couldn't ever wish a divorce on him. "You're getting a divorce?!" She cried out, not wanting her mother to say it.  
  
Mrs. Kino turned around to her husband wanting to burst out in laughter, but she didn't. She just looked at him with a crooked smile and turned back to her daughter. "No, no. It's nothing like that. We've just decided that we need to get to know each other a little more, that's all. But that means we're going to have to take time off of work to do it. Now, we've planned a little trip for ourselves for a couple of months."  
  
"Without you." Mr. Kino finished with ease. He stared at his daughter, who glared back at him. He didn't exactly hate his daughter, but he didn't completely like her either. And it wasn't because of something she had ever done to him. He had been raised with the mentality that the first child of any man should be a boy, but he had Makoto, a girl, something he had never really been forgiven for within his family. And for that, he had never really learned to appreciate her.  
  
Makoto decided to ignore her father's rude comments. She didn't care what he had to say any other time, why care now? "What about me?"  
  
Mrs. Kino grabbed her daughter's hands and brought them into her lap. "You know I hate to leave you here like this while we go have fun, but we need some alone time. You understand, right?"  
  
Makoto looked down at her knees. She wasn't sure if she understood. She had a feeling this had to do with her. Her parents had grown apart because of her. Her father had always been down on her for doing things wrong and being weak and it had always been her mother to defend her. Now they needed to be 'alone'? To do what? "I guess." She lied just so she wouldn't hurt her mother's feelings. "But where am I supposed to stay?"  
  
Mrs. Kino smiled as she dropped her daughter's hands. "I knew you would understand. You're such a good girl. You always have been." She stood up, her smile widening. "Why don't you ask some of your friends if you can stay with them for a while?"  
  
Mr. Kino intervened here. He had never really been too fond of his daughter's friends either. "I don't want you staying with that tailed girl. Her family's weird."  
  
Makoto frowned. He barely knew Usagi, and he knew her family even less. "What are you talking about? Usagi's normal and so is her family."  
  
Mr. Kino slammed his fist onto table. "Don't contradict me, Makoto! You're not staying with her. You're not staying with that blue headed girl either. She's too weak. No daughter of mine will spend any extended time with someone like her!"  
  
Mrs. Kino slapped her husband in the back of his head. "Stop it! Ami is a very nice girl! She and Makoto spend an extensive amount of time together!"  
  
Makoto nodded with a glaring frown. "She's not weak! She's been trained by Goku! The same person I trained under!"  
  
Mr. Kino slammed both fists into the table this time. "I said don't contradict me, girl! I mean it! The other blonde is too ditzy!"  
  
Makoto couldn't believe what she was hearing. For seven and a half years she had known Usagi and Minako. She had known Ami for five and a half. Her father had always ignored her friends, never saying anything. And NOW he just starts brining up supposed faults in them. She wasn't going to stand for it, but what could she do? He was her father and there was nothing she could do about it. She would have to live with him until she was eighteen and ready to move out of the house. Then she could back-talk him anytime she pleased without worrying about having to face him again. "That only leaves Rei."  
  
Mr. Kino chuckled. "You mean that brunette?" Makoto said nothing. She was waiting for him to find a fault with her too. "I guess I wouldn't care if you stayed with her. She's the only normal person you hang out with."  
  
Makoto wanted so badly to lash out at her father, but she knew she couldn't. Maybe this trip would change him a bit. Maybe he would be more refreshed and willing to accept her when he returned. "Fine. I'll ask her when I see her. Can I go now?" She asked, her teeth clenched.  
  
Mr. Kino waved her off. "Go." Makoto angrily stood up, causing the seat to fly out from behind her. Mr. Kino growled at his daughter. "Watch that attitude, young lady!" Makoto ignored her father and stormed out the door. She didn't even bother with saying goodbye to her mother.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Crown Arcade~~  
  
Usagi and Mamoru hadn't really done anything all that big with the Crown Arcade like they originally had planned when they bought it after winning the bet with Piccolo and Vejita. They had never really gotten the time. They were either busy fighting off new threats, or going to school. They just kept it the same as when they had bought it, which was actually how they liked it. It would have been too strange to change it.  
  
Minako burst through the doors at a quarter to four. She, Rei, and Ami had stopped along the way for the ice-cream and had been sidetracked by a group of high school guys, whom Minako just HAD to gawk at. They had become her new hobby over the past year. "Hi guys!" She yelled out as she entered the arcade. She wasn't surprised to see Mamoru behind the counter, yet she was surprised to see Motoki standing in front of it. That was a sight she never in her life imagined she would see. Motoki was back. After his parents sold the arcade, he had decided not to continue working in it. He didn't like the idea of working under someone else, even if it had been one of his best friends, Mamoru. "Hey, Motoki! Long time no see!" She shouted.  
  
Rei and Ami walked in from behind and froze when they saw Motoki. "Motoki! You're back!" They cried out in unison.  
  
Motoki turned to the girls. His eyes nearly jumped out of his socket when he saw them. "Oh my god! Look at you guys! You've grown so much!" He stepped away from the counter and walked to stand next to the three girls whom he had known since they were just little fourth graders. "You guys aren't little pipsqueaks anymore. You're big pipsqueaks."  
  
Mamoru chuckled. "No. Odango's still a little pipsqueak."  
  
Motoki laughed at his friend's comment. As he recalled, Usagi always had been a bit smaller than the rest of the gang, but he was sure she had grown quite a bit too. for a Saiyan. "I haven't seen you in so long."  
  
Minako giggled. "Neither have we. But I see you've grown into quite a hunk."  
  
Rei grabbed Minako from behind and covered her mouth. "She's a little boy- crazy at the moment. You'll have to excuse her."  
  
Motoki chuckled. "Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later."  
  
Mamoru came out from behind the counter with a smile. "Guess what guys? I'm giving Motoki my half of the arcade."  
  
"WHAT?!" The three yelled at once. They all knew how Mamoru had loved being in charge of something, it gave him a sense of purpose.  
  
Minako; "You just GAVE it away to him? You didn't make him buy it or anything?" Mamoru crossed his arms and shook his head. Minako couldn't believe it. Mamoru had openly given something to someone without being an ass about it. "Mamoru. that's so. unlike you."  
  
Mamoru frowned. "He's my friend. I knew how crushed he was when his parents sold the place to us. I figure it's the only thing I can give back to the guy for letting me fun with it for a while. But I'm not a kid anymore. I should start thinking about college, and getting married, you know?"  
  
Rei grinned. "Wow, Mamoru. Moving fast, aren't we? I think you actually have to have a heart to get married. Love IS a prerequisite."  
  
Mamoru rolled his eyes. "Very funny, KIDS. You don't know me nearly as well as you think you do. I have feelings, I just don't show you any because little kids like you don't need any love."  
  
Minako growled. "We're not little kids. We're teenagers now!" She stuck her tongue out and crossed her arms to pout.  
  
Motoki laughed. "Very graceful, Minako." Minako turned her face around as she blushed. Maybe she was still a kid at heart. "So where's my business partner?"  
  
Ami; "At home, doing her homework."  
  
Mamoru walked to the door. "That's good to know. I need to tell her about the new situation. She and Motoki are running this place together now, not that she even tried doing anything with it. She was always too busy." He pushed the door open, only to be stopped by a firm hand on his arm. He turned around to see Motoki staring at him. "Yeah?"  
  
"Thanks for keeping this place alive while I was gone. And thanks for giving it back."  
  
Mamoru smiled. "No prob., anything for a friend. Just make sure YOU keep it alive now. I'll see ya around."  
  
Motoki nodded. "Yeah, see ya." He let go of Mamoru and turned back to the girls. "Alright! Let's get this show on the road!" He rubbed his hands together with excitement. Finally, he was back where he belonged. He had practically grown up here. Nothing could keep him away now.  
  
Minako waddled to the snack bar and sat on one of the stools. "We sure did miss you while you were gone, Motoki. It wasn't the same without you here, running everything."  
  
Ami sat next to her friend and rested her arms on the counter. "Yeah. It always seemed like it was missing."  
  
Motoki leaned on the other side of the counter and stared into his little friends' eyes. "Well don't worry cause I'm back and I'm NOT going anywhere anytime soon. Mamoru may not be satisfied here, but I sure am. I missed this place so much." He said, looking up into the eaves of the ceiling.  
  
Rei stood next to Minako. "I just can't believe Mamoru gave you his half without expecting pay."  
  
Motoki grabbed a wet rag and began wiping up the counter. "You guys are too hard on the guy. He's not really all that bad once you get to know him. He's a pretty good guy."  
  
Minako frowned. "You weren't picked on by him for the past seven years! You weren't beaten up over and over by his friends like Usagi was. I was even beaten up a few times by them. It wasn't fun at all."  
  
"How is Usagi anyway? She still got troubles with people picking on her?"  
  
Rei; "Not really. People have grown past that, thank god. They used to give her such a hard time. It was so horrible. I think she's gotten over it too."  
  
"That's good. Kids were giving her such a hard time for a while there."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru went straight to Usagi's after leaving the Arcade. He didn't want to wait too long to tell her of the change in ownership of the Arcade. What he said had been true. He WAS older, and he DID need to think about going to college, but first he wanted to live a little. He was finally getting ready to move into his own apartment, where he dad couldn't control him. His financial system was great, even after buying the Arcade with Usagi. He wouldn't have to worry about begging his father for money. Now all that was left to do would be living life as his own person, learning a bit about himself and the rest of the world before he really had to settle down and go back to school.  
  
Landing not too far from the Son house, he noticed that Goku and Krillin had just arrived as well. Those two had really been going at it with one another ever since the incident with Tatsuo. And even though Goku was the better fighter and would always be able to pound Krillin at any time he wanted, he would always hold back. That was a concept he had never really understood. His father had never held back on him, and he had never held back on his victims, especially Usagi.  
  
Goku was just about to enter his home with his best friend when he noticed someone approaching. He wasn't alarmed though. He could sense that it was only Mamoru. "What brings you here?" He asked sarcastically as if he expected for the boy never to show up of his free will. Even though he and Usagi had sort of patched things up, he didn't care one bit for the man. He still saw Mamoru as the kid who ruthlessly beat up his little girl, and that's how it would always be. Whenever he saw them together he always watched closely to make sure he wasn't giving Usagi a hard time. He knew Usagi wouldn't stand up for it, but being her father, he wanted to know if she was being harassed.  
  
Mamoru knew the feelings Goku held for him. He had a perfectly good reason to. He had always been horrible Usagi in the past, something that a father wouldn't easily let go. "I need to talk to Usagi about the arcade, is she home."  
  
Goku grinned as he glanced down at Krillin. "Can't you feel her inside?" He asked again, just as equally sarcastically as had before.  
  
Mamoru ignored the sarcastic remark and stepped forward, only to be met by a stern father blocking the door and smiling down at him. "May I see her?"  
  
Goku grinned even wider as he stepped to the side. "Go right ahead, young man." He answered. He turned around and opened the door, rudely taking the first step inside and allowing Krillin in second.  
  
Mamoru knew Goku was only trying to get at him, which was exactly why he didn't show any anger. "Thanks." He said under his breath. He proceeded through the family room and down the hall into the living room, where he saw Chi-Chi standing up to go fix dinner. "Hi, Chi-Chi."  
  
Chi-Chi smiled at the young man. She wasn't too fond of him either, but she still tried to put on a happy face. She had been trying so hard not to be such a sourpuss anymore, and it was finally paying off. "Are you here for Usagi?" Mamoru nodded. "You can talk to her when she finishes her homework. Go ahead and poke your head in there, but if she's not done then don't bother her."  
  
Mamoru nodded with the full intention of respecting the woman's requests. He knew better than to mess with Usagi's schooling when Chi-Chi was around. No matter how reformed she would ever get she was still a maniac when it came to messing with her child's education. "Ok." He took notice that Goku and Krillin were coming into the room just as he turned to enter Usagi's bedroom.  
  
Chi-Chi looked at Krillin, and then her husband with a stern frown. "We're feeding another person tonight?"  
  
Goku gulped as he looked into his wife's eyes. He knew better than to bring people over without telling his wife first. He knew how angry she became when she wasn't told of these things. "Well.?"  
  
Chi-Chi sighed. "You're lucky I didn't start dinner yet."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Usagi's Room~~  
  
Mamoru quietly entered Usagi's room, hoping not to disturb her. But it didn't do much good. Usagi could hear anything that walked through that door. "Who is it?" She called out, not sensing his power signature to find out who it was. She was hunched over her desk, finishing the last of her math homework up.  
  
Mamoru closed the door behind him and leaned against it. "Got a minute?"  
  
Usagi threw her pencil down and quickly turned around in her chair, surprised to hear his voice in HER room. "Mamoru! What are you doing here? I didn't tell you to come over?"  
  
Mamoru frowned as he crossed his arms. "Well gee. I guess I'll just be leaving if I can't be here without the princess' permission."  
  
Usagi frowned back. She absolutely hated it when he called her that. She didn't want to be reminded that she was the princess. That wasn't who she really was inside. "Why do you have to be so rude all the time?"  
  
"Me? You're the one who can't even welcome a guest right!"  
  
Usagi stood up from her chair, becoming angry. "You're the one who came here, uninvited! I don't have to welcome anybody! Now if you have something to say to me, say it! Either that or leave!"  
  
Mamoru growled as he glared at the girl. He couldn't believe she had gotten so upset over nothing. "I just wanted to tell you I gave my half of the arcade to Motoki! You don't have to have a cow. God, I'll leave now!" He turned around to the door and prepared to leave.  
  
Usagi's frown slightly faded at the news. "What? Motoki's back?." She paused to think harder about what he had just said. "Wait a minute. you GAVE him your half? You loved owning an arcade."  
  
Mamoru turned back around to Usagi with a nod. "I DID love owning it. But I'm not a kid anymore. I need to move on. But don't worry, Motoki knows what he's doing."  
  
Usagi smirked as she crossed her arms and leaned into her desk. "It's ok as long as Motoki's going to be running it. I never have anytime to do anything with it. School and mom always keep me busy. I WAS going to give it to you, but then I wouldn't get free games."  
  
Mamoru grinned. "Got that right. There's no way I'd ever give YOU anything free. You want it, you pay. It's a good thing Motoki isn't like that. Because I gave him my part of the arcade, I don't have to pay for any future games I want to play." He turned back to the door, pausing just before opening. "I gotta go. I have an for an apartment." With that, he pushed the door open and left the girl's room. 


	156. Part 3

~*~*~*~  
  
Usagi was just finishing up with her homework when Mamoru had come in and interrupted her. She hadn't really bothered going back to it when he had turned to leave. Instead, she followed him out of her room, still curious as to WHY Mamoru would just give away the arcade. Sure he gave her the reason that he had grown up a little, but there had to be more to it. Mamoru wasn't the type of guy to just do something nice for someone else when it involved giving up something, or even sharing for that matter.  
  
The first thing she noticed after leaving her room was Mamoru staring at her father, who had just entered the room with Krillin. They looked beat, like they had just gotten back from a session of hardcore sparring. She was a little worried about how her father and Mamoru were glaring at one another. She knew neither one of them were fond of each other. During times of peace they tried to keep their distance so as to not get on each other's nerves. It was only in times of a crisis that the two put aside their differences and got along. She didn't really hold it against the two for not liking each other either. She knew how her father felt about what had happened the first time she had met Mamoru. She liked what happened just as much as her father did, but still, she couldn't find it in her heart to hold it against the guy. She had grown up around him, and had watched him mature. Heck, the guy even saved her life, and was the only person who had stuck up for her in the fight against Cell. But even though she saw the good in him, she knew her father would always have a hard time seeing Mamoru as something more, instead of just the boy who had tried to kill his little girl on several accounts.  
  
Sighing, she walked between the two and looked up at her father. She knew he wouldn't really do anything to Mamoru, he would never have done anything, ever. She knew that he just liked to intimidate the boy, which she found humorous. It was a perfect example of how males always have to act "manly" when their territory is being breached. "Dad. come on. He's not doing anything."  
  
Goku looked down at his daughter with a smirk. "Nothing's going on here, is it Krillin?" He asked over his shoulder.  
  
Krillin knew just as much as the next guy how Goku felt about the whole Mamoru situation, so he added his own grin, which was followed by a chuckle. "Everything's smooth."  
  
Usagi silently sighed as she turned her eyes downward. She patted her father's chest with a half smiled. "Let's try to keep things calm around here for a while, daddy. You know how mom gets when we start rough-housing in the house."  
  
Mamoru decided to ignore the three and just leave on his way. He knew that Goku was just testing him, that it was nothing more. Goku waited until the boy was just about to enter the hallway before he turned around. "See ya round', Sport."  
  
Mamoru cringed at the name he had just been called. He was very tempted to turn around and tell Goku off. The way he saw it, now that he was out of High School, he was a man, NOT to be called 'sport' by anyone. He couldn't believe that Goku would go THAT low. But still, he decided to ignore it and just get out of there as fast as he could. He walked down the hall, quickly making his way to the front door in the family room.  
  
Usagi giggled as she walked around the sofa and plopped down on it. "You give him such a hard time, dad. He's not that bad anymore. He can be a jerk a lot of times, but he's sort of nice part of the time too."  
  
Goku eyed his daughter rather strangely. He had noticed that she wasn't so angry toward Mamoru anymore, well, at least not as much as she had been in earlier years. He walked around to the front of the sofa and sat next to her. "You just wait until you have children of your own. When someone tries to kill one of them we'll see how you feel. and if you ever really forgive them."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father, frowning playfully. "Come on daddy. You forgive everyone. You ALMOST forgave Frieza even after everything he did."  
  
Goku frowned. He remembered that time of his life very well. "I was a lot younger then, Usagi. I'm not so quick to forgive people who try to destroy everything I know and love."  
  
"No, Goku, you were just naive." Krillin added as he leaned over the back of the sofa.  
  
Goku impishly glared at his shorter friend. "Watch it there, Krillin. I didn't think he'd have any more power to try and kill me like that. And besides, if I really wanted to forgive him, as you both accuse, I would have tried to save him from dying along with the planet."  
  
Usagi giggled as she latched onto her father's arm. "Give it up, daddy. You know you forgive everyone and that's all that's to it."  
  
Krillin grinned. "She's got ya there, Goku. You do have a habit of forgiving others easily, but like you said, not so much anymore. Especially when it comes to Mamoru."  
  
Goku pulled his arm away from Usagi and rested it on the back of the sofa. "What are you doing home anyway? Shouldn't you be out with your friends having fun?"  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes in disgust. "Homework." She still couldn't believe she had been assigned homework on the first day. It was outrageous. What were her teachers thinking?  
  
By the way his eyes widened, anyone could tell that Goku couldn't believe the news either. "What?! On the first day? That's horrible!"  
  
Krillin nodded, interrupting Usagi, who was about to reply to her father. "It gets worse as the years go on from here now that you're older. And the work only gets harder."  
  
Usagi groaned as she leaned back into the sofa. "My life as I know it is officially over."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Crown Arcade: One hour Later~~  
  
Haruka and Michiru retired to the arcade for the evening, expecting to see Mamoru behind the counter working away they way he had all summer. The place hadn't been open for business since Mamoru and Usagi bought it three years earlier. Neither of the two knew how to run a business, not that they were legally allowed to. Neither of them had been old enough to run their own business without their parents cosigning. Chi-Chi, of course, didn't want to be any part of it. She didn't want anything to interfere with her daughter's studies, which would have meant that Chi-Chi would have ended up running the place. Piccolo just didn't want to get into the situation. He had been a little spiteful about the entire subject after losing so much money to "brats".  
  
For three years the arcade had only been accessible to the immediate friends of the owners and no one else. But now, as Haruka and Michiru entered the store, which Mamoru had scheduled to be reopened in just a few weeks, they saw Motoki cleaning out the food area instead of Mamoru.  
  
Haruka noticed three of Usagi's friends enjoying the newest games, which Usagi and Mamoru had ordered nearly a month before. She ignored them and made her way over to the counter. She leaned over, peering back at Motoki, who had yet to notice the new arrivals. "So what brings you here?" She asked rather sternly.  
  
Motoki turned around, leaving his wash rag on the malt machine, which he had just started cleaning. "Whoa." He said, startled at the new face.  
  
Michiru walked up from behind Haruka and stood next to her. "Hi, Motoki."  
  
Motoki smiled at the two. He hadn't seen them since his parents had sold the arcade. "Why if it isn't Haruka and Michiru. I haven't seen you in a while."  
  
Haruka sat down on one of the stools, motioning for Michiru to follow. "I believe it's been about three years. You just kind of disappeared."  
  
Motoki leaned against the counter with a sigh. "I guess I didn't want to be a part of this place if it couldn't be mine. I actually came back to ask Mamoru for a job, but then he ended up giving his half to me like it was nothing. I offered to pay, he said it was a good opportunity for him to get away from this place. He wanted to get rid of his half, but he didn't want to give it to just anyone for Usagi's sake. He didn't want to leave her with, as he put it, 'any old asshole'."  
  
For once Haruka wasn't appalled at Mamoru's actions. She could very easily tell that he had "grown up" in the last few years. And in doing so, he had actually begun to think of Usagi as a friend. As much as he had tried to hide it, and as much as she had tried to deny it, there was no getting around that fact. "So he gave it to you, just like that? The idiot didn't make you pay?"  
  
Motoki chuckled with a quick shake of his head. "No, I didn't have to pay. But everything he does here will be free, if he still comes around."  
  
Haruka frowned. "What do you mean 'if he still comes around'? Why wouldn't he?"  
  
Motoki shrugged. "He said he wanted to do some living before he decided to settle down and go to college, whatever that means."  
  
Michiru; "Well, I do know that he's getting his own place soon. He probably wants to experience life without being tied down to co-owning and running this place."  
  
Motoki nodded. "Sounds reasonable. Whatever makes him happy. All I know is I'm working here again and that's all that really counts right now. I'll have this place up and running again in no time."  
  
Haruka smirked with a sarcastic sigh. "Great, I guess I'll have to start paying for my games and food again."  
  
Motoki grinned. "Tell you what, I'll give you discounts sometimes, but that's it. Unless Usagi wants to give you free stuff." His attention was taken away from the two girls to the door, which he had just noticed moving. He figured it was just another one of Mamoru or Usagi's friends. His eyes lit up when he realized exactly who it was. "Well I'll be."  
  
Usagi walked through the door and immediately turned her eyes upward toward the counter. A huge smiled formed across her face as a feeling of joy entered her body. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was true what Mamoru had said. "You ARE back!" She cried out as she ran for Motoki.  
  
Minako momentarily turned her eyes away from her game with Rei. "Usagi! You're here!" Taking her eyes off the screen for a split second was all she needed to crash into a road sign, which gave Rei a chance to pass her. "Dang it!"  
  
Usagi wrapped herself around Motoki and held on tight. She hadn't expected to ever see him again after buying the arcade. But here he was, standing in front of her. He wouldn't be going anywhere anymore now. "I missed you so much!"  
  
Motoki was taken off guard and was caused to step back upon impact of the girl latching onto him. He laughed as he grabbed a hold of her shoulders. "Usagi? Is that really you?"  
  
Usagi looked up with a glimmering smile. "Of course it's me, silly! Don't you remember what I look like?!"  
  
Motoki laughed. "You've grown up quite a bit. I almost didn't recognize you for a minute." He lifted one of his hands and placed it on top of the girl's head. "It's good to see you again, Usagi. I've missed your little race wars with Minako."  
  
Usagi giggled as she detached herself from Motoki. "Don't worry. Now that you're back you'll see plenty of race wars." She turned to Haruka, who was glaring back at her. "What?"  
  
Haruka snorted half in disgust. "You're an idiot sometimes."  
  
Usagi frowned. "Whatever." She knew better than to get into it with Haruka anymore. It would only end up in a pointless argument. She knew Haruka only said things like that to get on her nerves anyway. It didn't really matter to Usagi anymore. "You're just mad that Mamoru gave his half of the arcade to Motoki. And now, if Motoki doesn't give you free stuff, you don't get anything free for that little remark." Her smile turned into a grin.  
  
Haruka frowned at the girl. "Brat!"  
  
"Retard!" Usagi retorted. "Now I'm NEVER going to change my mind." She crossed her arms and turned her back to Haruka.  
  
Motoki couldn't help but laugh at the spectacle. "You're still going at it? I thought you all patched up your differences before I left."  
  
Usagi let up on her frown a bit as she looked up to Motoki. "Well. we don't try to kill each other anymore, if that's what you mean. But Haruka has always been, and always will be a big jerk."  
  
Haruka shrugged with a near silent laugh. "What can I say? She's fun to mess with."  
  
Michiru rolled her eyes. She never really did understand why Haruka had always been so mean to Usagi, even after the summer from three years ago. Of course, she knew that Haruka, much like Mamoru, would never forgive Usagi for that. Being shown up by a ten-year-old had really hurt their pride. However, Haruka was having more of a problem getting over it than Mamoru. "Haruka doesn't mean half the stuff she says."  
  
Haruka looked down at the girl next to her. "Excuse me? Do you decide for me what I mean and don't mean?"  
  
Michiru giggled as she reached for Haruka's hand. "I didn't mean it like that, silly."  
  
"Then how did you mean it?" She asked sternly.  
  
Michiru leaned her head into Haruka's chest. "You'll never know." She said, softly.  
  
Motoki smiled. Michiru and Haruka's relationship was the one thing he had heard about before he left. He hadn't really been all that surprised when Mamoru had told him the news. It was actually something he had seen coming for quite a while. Neither of the two girls had really ever showed a real interest in boys when he had known them. They seemed to be more interested in, well, themselves. They had been so attached, so close to each other. It was only a matter of time. "Those two sure hit it off well, didn't they?" He asked, turning down to Usagi.  
  
Usagi couldn't help but smile every time she saw the two together like that. It was true, they were perfect together. Ever since she had known them they were always together. One never went somewhere without the other. It was like they were attached at the hip. "They're so cute."  
  
Minako, Rei, and Ami made their way to the snack counter, each taking a seat. Minako was fuming at her mistakes. Taking her eyes of the screen has caused her the entire race, but she had blamed it on Rei. She had never lost to anyone but Usagi, and even then it was rare for her to lose. She was practically unbeatable. "I can't believe you cheated!" She accused Rei.  
  
Rei, who sat to Minako's left, glared at Minako. She couldn't believe the accusations she was coming up with. "How could I have cheated?! You're the one who took your eyes off the stupid thing! I took my opportunity to pass you while I could. It's not my fault you couldn't. beat me!"  
  
Ami covered her face in embarrassment. This was the exact reason why she would never play any type of game with Minako. Whenever it was all done and over the girl would usually gloat over her win, or be a poor loser and accuse the other person of cheating.  
  
Minako narrowed her eyes at the brunet. "Excuse me?! I could beat you anytime. anywhere!"  
  
Rei knew exactly what this was coming to. Minako was working her way up to another challenge. "Well, obviously you couldn't today. You must be losing 'it'."  
  
Minako looked offended at the girl's comment. "How dare you!"  
  
Ami turned her head away from her two bickering friends. "How embarrassing."  
  
Motoki chuckled. This was really reminding him of the old days. These girls would always come in here in the best of moods, but would always leave fighting with one another. "Come on you guys. Calm down."  
  
From watching the blonde for nearly three years, Haruka knew that she would never calm down until she won again, or at least lost to someone she figured was better than her. "Come on, shorty." She began as she stepped up from her chair. She walked to Minako and grabbed her by the arm. "You're going to race me." She pulled Minako off of her chair and dragged her across the room.  
  
Minako didn't put up a fight. She needed to see if she still had 'it'. "This isn't over yet, Rei!" She was thrown into one of the chairs. She put her hands on the wheel and waited for Haruka to get situated.  
  
Ami glanced over her shoulder, her face bright red. "Why did I agree to even come here and watch."  
  
Rei slammed her fists on the counter. "She makes me so mad sometimes. How can she accuse ME of cheating?!"  
  
Michiru looked down at the smaller girl and giggled. "Don't let it get to you, Rei. She probably doesn't mean. She never could. You guys have been friends too long for her to truly mean something like that."  
  
Usagi bounced behind Rei. "Yeah, Rei. You know Minako. She gets a little excited over these things."  
  
Rei grinned. "SHE gets a little excited? Have you ever listened to yourself when YOU play video games? You're just as bad."  
  
Usagi blushed in embarrassment, wanting to change the subject. "Yeah, yeah." She quickly looked up to Motoki. "So, I guess we're business partners now."  
  
Motoki smiled down at the young teenager. "That's what I hear. I know you're busy, so I won't really expect you to do much work around here. I'll watch after the place and make sure everything runs smoothly. You need to concentrate on your schooling. I know how crazy your mom gets when something interferes."  
  
Usagi rolled her us in frustration. "Ain't that the truth. But, actually, I was thinking about all this on my way here. I don't really want to be tied down to this place. When I first bought it, I had all these great ideas about what I was going to do with it, but I never really found the time to do it. I was always busy with one thing or another.."  
  
Ami turned toward Usagi. "And now with the entrance exams for High School coming up this year you have even less time."  
  
Usagi groaned at the mention of the infamous High School entrance exams. She had been dreading this year for as long as she could remember, since she had first heard about them back in the first grade. This was the year that her mother would be putting even more pressure on her to do her homework now. Not that the thought of being unable to attend the same high school as the other girls wasn't enough stress. "Don't remind me."  
  
Motoki nodded, knowing exactly how much stress could be put on a student in he position, especially one with Chi-Chi for a mother. "So you want to be a completely silent partner until the exams are over?"  
  
Usagi slightly nodded. "Sort of, but not really."  
  
Motoki cocked his head to the side. He didn't know why she didn't just come out with what she wanted to say. "Well, then, what do you propose we do about this?"  
  
Usagi decided to sit down on the stool that Minako had previously been sitting on. "Well, I was thinking about giving you my half too. That way you don't need me to sign on any changes you want to make. I hated it when Mamoru would try to hassle me about buying something new for the arcade; the companies would want BOTH of our signatures in order to do it."  
  
Rei nearly flipped out of her seat at what had just popped out of Usagi's mouth. She couldn't believe her ears. "Are you nuts!? We won't get any more free games if you do that! You can't just give away your half!"  
  
Usagi looked down at the counter. "I know, but. I don't know. You guys already know how my mom feels about this place. She doesn't want me wasting my time working to 'restore' it. She wants me to study. I don't want her to get mad at me. She's actually starting to trust me with being responsible, I don't want to lose that. I've been thinking of selling to Mamoru for a while now anyway with all the stuff he's been talking about doing."  
  
Motoki could see that this was a problem for Usagi. There WAS quite a bit of stuff that he wanted to do with the place now that he was a co-owner, and that WOULD cause a lot of hassle for Usagi. "So you want to sign over to me? Is that what you're saying?"  
  
"Come on, Usagi. Think about what you're throwing away. free games and food!" Rei whined.  
  
Michiru frowned at the brunet. "I think Usagi's already made up her mind."  
  
Motoki didn't take his eyes off the smallest of the four girls. "Are you completely sure this is what you want to do?" Usagi took a deep breath as she nodded. "Alright. I can always let you back in on the co-ownership if you ever want back in."  
  
Usagi looked up to Motoki with a smile. "Thanks, Motoki. You're a real pal." She slid off the stool. Her feet barely touched the floor before she turned back around with a huge grin. "Say, Motoki. do I still get free games?"  
  
Motoki chuckled with a nod. "Of course. That's my payback to you. But you're friends are gonna have to start paying again."  
  
Rei; "Great. No more free games, Usagi. Minako's really not going to like this."  
  
Motoki sighed. "You guys are gonna try to get me with the guilt trip, aren't you."  
  
Ami grinned. "Either that or Minako's going to be lurking around your house at night looking for a way in to smother you with your pillow while you sleep. I'd keep an eye out for a crazy blonde that just happens to be strolling about."  
  
Everyone turned to look at Ami as if she was the one who had gone crazy. None of them would have ever expected something like THAT to come out of her mouth. Rei mischievously smirked. "I have to admit, Ami. I'm impressed."  
  
Out of all the time he had known the blue-haired girl, Motoki had always thought of Ami as the sensible one of the group, but now he wasn't so sure. "Wow, Ami."  
  
Ami blushed as she turned her head slightly away so no one could see her embarrassment. "I'm sorry. That just kind of slipped out."  
  
Usagi giggled as she wrapped her arm around Ami's neck. "There's no need to be embarrassed. We all know Minako's a maniac when it comes to video games."  
  
Rei; "Don't you mean boys?"  
  
Motoki chuckled. "I'll say. The first thing she said to me when she walked in here was that I had grown into a 'hunk'. Not that I'm not flattered, but she could really get herself in trouble talking like that, especially next year when she gets into high school. It's a shame that she's only thirteen and already boy-crazy."  
  
Usagi peered over Ami's shoulder with a huge, impish grin. "What about Ami?"  
  
Ami frowned as she quickly lifted her head. "Just what are you talking about?!" She snapped.  
  
Rei tapped Usagi on the back and prepared a grin of her own for Usagi to see when she turned around. "And just what about you, missy?"  
  
Usagi spun around on the stool, her face seeming as if it couldn't comprehend what Rei was accusing her of. "Now wait just a minute! I don't." She paused to think for a moment, becoming angrier at the moment. "Just who are you saying I."  
  
Rei frowned. "Who do you think?"  
  
Usagi's face began to turn red with anger. "I can't believe you!"  
  
Motoki could honestly say that he was confused at this point. He had lost the girls somewhere back when they had started talking about being boy- crazy. which somehow branched into something he didn't understand. He turned to Michiru, hoping that he wasn't the only one the girls had lost. "Are you following all of this?"  
  
Michiru slowly nodded with a soft smile. "Naturally."  
  
Motoki scratched his head and looked back at the bickering teens. "Uh.?" He had no idea what they were talking about.  
  
Michiru giggled. "You can't understand them, silly. You're a male."  
  
Motoki glanced back to Michiru. A cocked half a smile. "Oh, it's one of those female things." He stared at the three teens and scratched his head again. "Thirteen-year-olds, I didn't even understand them when I was one."  
  
Michiru excused herself from the counter and walked to the other side of the room, where Haruka and Minako were just finishing up their game. "So who's winning?" She asked as she rested her arms on the back of Haruka's chair. "Are you slammin' her yet?"  
  
Haruka stepped on the break pedal and spun the wheel around as fast as she could. "You know it." She could see an exasperated Minako out of the corner of her eye. Minako had never been able to beat her. She was the only person Minako would accept losing to. The car on the screen spun around just as it was crossing the finish line as a result of Haruka's actions. She always did like a fancy win.  
  
Minako let her face drop into the wheel with a groan. "I can't believe I lost."  
  
Haruka leaned over and patted the girl on the back. "You didn't think you'd actually be able to beat me, did you?" She grinned as she sat up to push herself out of the chair. "What a loser." She looked at Michiru and motioned to her to start making her way to the door.  
  
Minako slowly lifted her face from the plastic wheel and turned around in her seat, letting her eyes fall upon Rei. Suddenly she didn't feel like arguing with her anymore. "Man, I got beat bad."  
  
Rei, Ami, and Usagi stopped their bickering and turned toward the blonde. She got bummed out every time she lost to Haruka. None of them knew why she even bothered accepting the girl's challenges anymore. Rei stood up first and made her way across the room to comfort her friend. "Poor, poor Minako."  
  
Minako pathetically looked up at Rei with her eyes becoming droopy. "Why o' why does SHE have to beat me every time."  
  
Overhearing the girl's question, Haruka stopped on her way to the door and turned around. "Simply because I'm a much better racer than you are, little girl." She turned back to the door and raised her hand into the air. "See ya round', Motoki."  
  
Motoki ran out from behind the counter in hopes to stop the two. "Wait. There's something I still wanted to ask you."  
  
Michiru grabbed Haruka's wrist and turned around. She smiled at Motoki, knowing that Haruka wasn't. "Ask away." Haruka frowned at Michiru as she ripped her wrist out of the girl's hand.  
  
Motoki ignored Haruka, taking no offense to her actions. "Mamoru and Usagi just recently bought the upstairs portion of this building. They were going to expand the arcade, but my sister's been dying to run or at least work in a coffee shop." Usagi looked up at Motoki, though not saying anything. She was interested in where he was going with this. "I was thinking about turning the upper floor into a coffee shop instead of using it for more games. It may bring in more revenue, plus it would be a way for my sister to learn more about running a business. What I was wondering is if either of you would be interested in working part time as a waitress. I know you have college to pay for now and I'm sure you want to start thinking about getting your own place away from your parents."  
  
Haruka sneered at the offer. "Waitressing is for girls."  
  
Motoki laughed softly at the reply he got from Haruka. He hadn't really expected her to jump at the chance to work in a coffee shop. "You are a girl."  
  
Haruka shook her head. "I mean prissy girls."  
  
"I'd love to.." Michiru interrupted. "I think it's a cute idea. I'd be happy to work for you."  
  
Haruka tipped her head back with a long sigh. "How did I know."  
  
Motoki grinned. "Great." He turned down to Usagi and her friends. "Are you alright with this?"  
  
Usagi nodded with a smile. "I think it's a great idea!"  
  
Ami nodded. "It's better than putting more mindless machines in." 


	157. Part 4

~*~*~*~  
  
~~Tomoe House~~  
  
That night, Professor Tomoe rushed his way home from the school. There wasn't a moment to lose now that a certain special lady had surfaced once again. Every time she came about her stay was shorter and shorter as a result of a sever loss of energy. Putting her inside a small child hadn't been the best of ideas. The girl was too rambunctious, and those friends of hers weren't making things any better. They only encouraged her to be even more rowdy than she would normally be. That was where Kaori had come into play. It was her job to keep Hotaru calm and quiet, and now more than ever, away from her friends. Keeping her away from them was of the utmost importance at the moment.  
  
Once home, he threw down his briefcase and made a running dash to the back of the house. He hoped that she wasn't too angry. Whenever she went through one of these 'episodes', he was usually there to give her the heart crystal since she was so temperamental.  
  
Coming upon the door, he reached out for the knob and slowly pressed down on it, which caused it to become unlatched. He gently pushed forward on the door and peered into the dimly lit room. 'She' was sitting at the very back of the room with her head hung low.  
  
Hotaru gracefully lifted her head to look upon the Professor with her purple, glowing eyes. "You're late, Tomoe."  
  
The Professor put his right arm over his stomach and bowed down, making sure that he kept his head below Hotaru's. "I'm sorry. If I had left the school early people may have gotten suspicious. We want to keep this on the down low. I hope Kaori wasn't too brash with you."  
  
Hotaru put her arms on the arms of the chair and pushed herself to her feet. "Quite frankly, Professor, I despise the woman. She gives me nothing but trouble. But I'll respect your judgment, for now. You can go now." She said, shooing him off with a flick of her hand. Standing up, Tomoe turned around to be on his way. "Oh by the way, Professor," She began, causing him to pause and turn back to face her, "I've asked Kaori to begin searching the school for the Pure Heart Crystals. Someone is sure to have one in a school for the gifted."  
  
Tomoe had nothing to say in reply, as he found no reason why they shouldn't begin their search. He turned back around toward the door and made his way out into the hallway, where he found Kaori waiting for him. "What?"  
  
"Did she tell you?" Kaori asked rather calmly. She had been standing outside the room the entire time, listening in on the conversation, but she didn't tell the Professor that. Tomoe firmly nodded, knowing what had to be done next. Saying nothing to the redhead, he turned down the hall and began making his way to the laboratory. "What do you think about it?" She asked rather angrily. She hated it when he ignored her like that.  
  
He didn't even bother to turn around address the woman properly. "It was bound to happen sooner or later. Have you found a possible candidate for a Pure Heart Crystal?"  
  
Kaori smiled, taking her opportunity to join Tomoe at his side down into the basement laboratory. "Not yet. I was planning on doing that right now."  
  
Tomoe frowned as he grabbed for his lab coat. "Well hurry up, we don't have all the time in the world. She's ready for them now. I expect Viluy is still working on finding good Heart Crystals to keep Hotaru from taking over again."  
  
Kaori grinned at the sound of that young brat's name. "She's on it. I don't know why you hired all these other girls."  
  
The Professor put his coat on and walked down small stairway into his lab, still with his back turned to the woman he was holding a conversation with. "I hired the girls of Witches Five to just in case you weren't performing right. Like I said, we don't have all the time in the world. If you screw this up," He paused as he turned around to Kaori, who was directly behind him.  
  
Kaori didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence before she jumped right in. "I won't screw this up. Have you no faith me in?"  
  
Tomoe smirked as he walked to a rather large machine, which looked exactly like the one that he had stashed away in the old, broken down lab at the Mugen School. " 'She' doesn't."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto hadn't really felt like talking to anyone after her conversation with her parents, not even her friends. Instead of meeting up with them like she had planned, she had decided to stay home in the solitude of her own room for the remainder of the night. She wanted time alone to think. Things really had gotten out of hand with her parents; her father mostly. She never really understood why he didn't like her. She had always gotten the feeling that he hated her because she was a girl, but she knew it wasn't that. He wasn't a sexist man. She always saw him treating her mother well, which was the only reason why she had put up with most of his crap anyway. She knew her mother was happy with the man, and that's all that mattered to her. Now if he were beating them, that would have been another story. She would have told him what's what long ago.  
  
Makoto also knew that her father didn't hate children, which was another thing that had crossed her mind in the past. He was great with other people's children. Whenever her cousins would come over he would always play with them as if they were his own children, but he would always leave her out of the fun. Because of that, the other kids had tended to tease her. As if that wasn't bad enough, once they learned that she was a fighter, they made fun of her even harder for being a tomboy, which was something her father had wanted in the first place. She had learned to blame her father for their taunts; their laughter at her expense.  
  
The earliest memory of her father that Makoto held was when she was about three years old. She could still see it perfectly in her mind. She remembered sitting on the floor of her grandparents' house on a hot, summer day. She was looking up for some reason. All she could remember at that point was feeling distressed as she cried for her mother. Out of the corner of her eye she could see two, male figures standing to her side. They were laughing for some reason. She didn't understand why they weren't coming to help her. She had fallen, that was it. She remembered that much. She had tripped and hurt herself on a chair that had been set out for guests. Shortly after falling she began to cry as she looked upward. Seeing that her mother was no where in sight, she had turned around, looking for anyone else that might help her up. The only people in sight were her father and grandfather. All she remembered after that point was her father walking to her and yelling at her to get up just after exchanging words with her grandfather. She hadn't heard what was said, but she sure heard her father yelling at her for crying. In the background of all the commotion she could hear her grandfather essentially yelling at his son for her actions. He was yelling at his son because SHE was crying. All she remembered after that was being taken away from that entire mess by the hands of her grandmother. In the background she could barely make out her father yelling at her mother for something.  
  
Makoto never really did figure out why that day turned into turmoil, but she did know that that was the first day she began to dislike her father. It all sort of went downhill from there. It was bad before, but nothing like that. Her father began to distance himself more and more from her. He started taunting her for being weak, even though she was still very young. It wasn't long ago after the "incident", as it was referred to by Makoto and her mother, that her father had enrolled her into Mr. Satan's martial arts courses. She was the youngest in the class' history after Pan. Makoto had begged her father not to make her enroll, but he wouldn't have it anyway. He had always told her that he wouldn't be having a weakling for a daughter. That was when she started to realize that he resented her for being a girl. It obviously wasn't ONLY because she was a girl, but she was positive that the fact played a bit of a role in his near hatred for her.  
  
The only times her father had ever taken a real interest in her was when she was training, or when she was sparring with him. He too had trained under Mr. Satan, which was why he worshiped the ground the imbecile of a man walked on. The only times Makoto could even remember her father being proud of her was when she won her competitions, or at least when she came close. He must have figured she wasn't such a weakling after she started learning to fight. But the glory of fighting didn't last long. Once she began training under Goku the contests stopped. Goku had always found them to be a waste of time. He had always said they didn't require much skill. It was mostly used as entertainment for the masses. The only contests he had ever let her enter in were the Tenkai-ichi Budaki tournaments that were held once a year, and the occasional children's only version of it. Her father never came to support her in these tournaments and her mother had no interest in watching her only child take part in such a violent sport.  
  
Any part of her life other than fighting was of no concern to her father, as he had said many times in the past. He paid hardly any attention to the girl, and when he did it was usually when she was doing something bad and needed disciplining. Her feeling never mattered to him, it was just what he wanted and nothing more. It was because of his behavior towards Makoto that her father and mother grew so far apart over the last few years and she knew it. Her mother had always told her that their fights had nothing to do with her, but deep down inside, Makoto knew otherwise. She had always heard their fights after she had been yelled at, and she had always heard her mother standing up for her. But along with the defense came attacks from her father to her mother. He would just scream at her for no reason, and then seconds later, want to make up again.  
  
Makoto didn't know what to think anymore. All she knew was that her father hated her, and the feeling was almost completely mutual. She couldn't stand him anymore. She couldn't stand his attitude toward herself or her mother. She didn't want to have to put up with it anymore. Her entire life had been a joke to him. He never cared about her. He never cared about anything that had to do with her. He hated her friends, he hated the fact that she would sometimes want to do things other girls would do.  
  
There she sat, on her bed in the dark with her knees pulled tightly against her chest. She didn't know what to do anymore. Her life had already been ruined before she got a real chance to live it; her father had personally made sure of it.  
  
Sighing in the dark, she rested her head against her knees and closed her eyes. Things seemed to be spiraling out of hand faster than she could keep up. She hoped that this trip her parents were to take would help their relationship. Maybe if they were happier together things wouldn't be so rough on her anymore. Of course, knowing her father, that was just wishful thinking never to come true.  
  
She gently lifted her head and stretched out on the bed, leaning her head against the soft pillow. Closing her eyes again, she wanted to cry, but she didn't. She wouldn't give her father another reason to accuse her of being weak. It had been nearly ten years since she last cried. Her father had made it more than clear to her that she wasn't to cry once she started training, and she hadn't once.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The Next Day:  
  
A twinkling light made its into Makoto's room the next morning, causing her to flinch awake. The light hit her eyes just right enough to wake her. She sat up with a long yawn. "Huh?" Looking down, she realized that she was still in her school uniform. "I must have fallen asleep." She stretched out her arms and legs with a groan of satisfaction. Waking up without the alarm was always a good feeling to have. She lifted her hands to rub her eyes and jumped out of bed, barely taking notice of the time. She walked to her closet and pulled out a fresh uniform for school.  
  
Getting dressed rather quickly, she rushed herself out of her room. She could hear her father snoring from down the hall in her parents' room, as usual. He never got up until late in the day on his days off. He must have already called in for vacation time. "Lazy fool." She made her way into the kitchen, where she found her mother happily humming away as she worked on making breakfast for her daughter. "Hi, mom."  
  
Mrs. Kino stopped what she was doing to look at her daughter. "Well good morning, sleepy head. I was wondering when you were going to wake up. I was about to come and get you."  
  
Makoto scratched her head. "What? What time is it?" She looked down at the clock on the microwave. According to the time she had twenty minutes to get to school when she normally allowed herself thirty minutes to get ready for school. She usually liked to be out of the house by this time so she could get there in time to hang out with her friends before school. "Oh no. I must have forgotten to set my alarm." Becoming panicked, she rushed to the front door and grabbed her shoes.  
  
Mrs. Kino giggled as she left the kitchen and joined her daughter in the living room. "Calm down, dear. There's no need to rush."  
  
Makoto struggled with her shoes as she stared up at her mother. "Why didn't you wake me up sooner?"  
  
"You seemed so tired last night at dinner, I wanted you to get as much sleep as you could." Mrs. Kino grabbed her daughter by the hand and helped her up. "I hope you don't mind."  
  
Makoto smiled at her mother. She would have rather been waken up, but her mother's intentions were pure so she didn't really let it bug her. "No prob, mom. But I hope you have breakfast ready cause I really gotta get going."  
  
Mrs. Kino ran into the kitchen, but it wasn't long before she was back out again with a brown sack. "I made it to go. I knew you'd want to be heading out as soon as you got up." She handed her daughter the sack and wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulder. "Now promise me you won't take anything your father said last night to heart. I know he didn't mean what he said about you're friends."  
  
Makoto frowned. She didn't want to be reminded of her father at the moment. He wasn't exactly at the top of her buddy list. "I never do." She clenched the breakfast her mother had made for her tightly. "Thanks again, mom. I'll see you after school." With that, she started out for school.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~10th Street Middle School~~  
  
Makoto took her time getting to school, even though she had left her house in a hurry. She still wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, but there wasn't a really much of a choice. It was either go to school or stay home, with her father. In times like this school was pretty much a refuge from her father, however, she was also a bit more on edge whenever she had a run in with her father, which mean trouble for her.  
  
Coming upon the front entrance, she paused to look upon a group of lower- classmen. They seemed so full of themselves now that they weren't in elementary school anymore. It was pitiful, really. They pranced around as if they owned the world, but they were nothing. The upper-classmen would show them that they weren't as hot as they thought they were. The same thing had happened to her class the year before. They would learn soon enough.  
  
Grinning at the stupidity of these students, she made her way for the door and let herself inside. The halls were filled with the laughter of her fellow classmates. Ignoring them as she always had, she turned the corner to her right and ran up the stairs, but was soon stopped by a teacher. "Excuse me." She said to the male teacher. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she knew she had seen this man somewhere before. He looked like someone she knew, but not at the same time.  
  
The teacher frowned down at the girl. "There's absolutely no running in the hallway, young lady." He replied, harshly.  
  
Makoto frowned back at the teacher. She didn't think she deserved that. "I said excuse me, what else did you want? An apology?"  
  
The teacher didn't appreciate they way he had been spoken to by such an insolent brat. It reminded him too much of another student he had once taught. "Watch your mouth, girl. You're the student here. Haven't you ever heard of a little thing called respect?!"  
  
Angry, Makoto decided not to press the matter any further. She wasn't in the mood to argue with him in her current mood. Knowing her temper she would end up in the principal's office for some sort of assault. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again." She mumbled softly under her breath.  
  
The teacher reached out and grabbed Makoto by the arm as she tried to pass by him. "I'm sorry, young lady. That didn't sound very sincere."  
  
Makoto became angry at the contact this man was making with her. Where did he get off thinking he could just grab her arm like that? He wasn't her father. She brashly ripped her arm away from his grip, fighting herself NOT to punch him. "Don't you EVER touch me again!"  
  
Becoming angry, the teacher bent down and got right into the teen's face. "Look, little girl, I'm the teacher and you WILL do as I say. Now apologize the correct way and nothing will happen to you. If you refuse any longer there WILL be consequences."  
  
Makoto couldn't believe it. Why was this guy so stuck on such a small offense? So she was running in the hallway, who cares? "Excuse me? Consequences for running up stairs? You're wasting my time. I have to get to class." And with that, she started on her way again. Once again, she didn't make it very far before the brazen man had grabbed her arm. "What is with you? I told you not to touch me!" She was suddenly pulled closer to him, with her face right by hers. It was that point, being at that close of a proximity that she realized exactly WHO she as dealing with you. "It's you!" She yelled out, causing an echo to travel down the hall for all to hear.  
  
Surprised, the teacher released the student with a stern frown. "Excuse me?"  
  
Makoto stared hard into the teacher's eyes as she slowly backed down the stairs. She knew for a fact that this guy was just crazy enough to give her detention for running in the hallway and then brushing it off as nothing. "Mr. Koch! It's you, isn't it?"  
  
The teacher stood up straight and glared down at the girl. He had no idea who she was, yet she knew him. How could that be? He had just transferred from the elementary school to this school. "How do you know who I am?"  
  
Grinning, Makoto casually leaned against the wall just to anger the man even further. "You're the only one stupid enough to try to get someone in trouble over such a trivial event." She could tell that the man was still confused, so she decided to help clear things up for him. "Remember about, oh, let's say six years ago? There was a little girl in your first-grade class, her name was Usagi."  
  
She didn't even need to go any further before he knew what she was talking about. Usagi was one student he would never forget. She was the one student who had given him the most trouble in his entire career with the way she talked back to him in front of all his students. He had never met a more frustrating child. How her parents could ever put up with her mouth, he didn't know. But he did know one thing for sure, he was glad to rid himself of her when the year was over. "I remember. She was a mouthy little brat."  
  
Makoto frowned as she stood straight without leaning on the wall. "I can't believe you. She only acted the way she did because you were pissing her off with all your rants. You called her stupid numerous times, what did you expect?!"  
  
Mr. Koch cocked a brow in fascination. "What a mouth you've gotten, what was your name again?"  
  
Makoto rested a hand on her hip. "Makoto. And what I say is MY business. I'm exceptionally angry at the moment, which means bad news for you. So if you don't mind I'm going to leave now. I don't want to see you just as much as you don't want to see us. "  
  
"Ah, right. The other mouthy one." He rested his hand against the wall, blocking Makoto's way up the stairs. "The only place you're going is the principal's office."  
  
Makoto sighed. She didn't have time for this. "You haven't changed a bit. You're still just a rude, old man. But I've got news for you, I HAVE changed. I'm not seven years old anymore. And because of that, I'm just going to ignore you and be on my way. You aren't my teacher, so don't act like it!" Before he could react, she teleported directly behind him. "Have a nice day."  
  
Mr. Koch turned around in awe. "How did you do that?" Makoto said nothing, she just continued on her way. "I'm not through with you, Makoto! Get back here!" He knew it was no use to try and call her back. The girl was stubborn; she always had been and always would be. He wondered where Usagi was, and how she was doing. Sighing to himself, he slowly turned back toward the stairs. He would have to do nothing more than report Makoto's behavior to the office since she refused to go with him. He would let them deal with her. Like she had said, he wasn't her teacher so he couldn't do anything to her.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Tomoe's Lab: Four Hours Later~~  
  
Kaori stared at the computer screen with a wide grin. She had been working all night to find a possible carrier of the first Pure Heart Crystal, and had so far come up with nothing. It had been nearly sixteen hours since she first began her search. The day was already half wasted and she had already gotten five phone calls from the Professor wanting to know why she hadn't come by with the name of a candidate. Each time he called, his voice had become more and more angry.  
  
Now, as she sat at the screen at this very moment, she was hardly worried anymore. She had searched the database and found the perfect student to target. She had achieved a straight A average throughout her entire High School career, and now that she was coming upon her third year of college she still managed to maintain her high average. She was the perfect candidate. Anyone THAT dedicated to school just had to have a pure heart.  
  
Reaching for the receiver, Kaori dialed the Professor's private phone line at the school. It was a matter of seconds before someone picked up. "Professor Tomoe?"  
  
"Yes?" Tomoe asked rather sternly.  
  
"I think I found someone that might work out for us. She's a student at the school, and should be there in about three hours, three o' clock. I'll be there around that time." She didn't even wait for a reply before she slammed the phone down on its base. "We'll see who can't get the job done." She briskly stood to her feet, causing the chair to fall on its side. "That stupid girl better be ready to swallow her words."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~10th Street Middle School~~  
  
It was already noon and the girls had been at school for about hours already and were eagerly awaiting the lunch bell to ring. On this day, Makoto was a little more eager than usual. Because of her run in with her former teacher she hadn't been able to ask Rei if she could stay at her house will her parents were gone. She knew that if she came home and told her father that she hadn't been able to ask that he would totally flip. It wasn't about being afraid of him or trying to please him anymore, it was ultimately about doing anything to keep from listening to his bitching.  
  
The five girls all stared up at the clock as they counted down the last ten seconds until lunch in their heads. When the bell rang they were the first to dart out of the room, as always. Since the year before, Usagi and Minako had made it their business to be in the very front of the lunch line so they had time to go back and get seconds before lunch ended. Rei, Ami, and Makoto, on the other hand, had always taken it slow on their way to lunch. They had no reason to rush for they knew they would be getting food either way.  
  
Rei noticed that Makoto had been particularly quiet that day, which definitely wasn't like her at all. She was usually quite talkative at school, something must have happened the night before. She hadn't even come to hang out with them like she had originally planned. "Are you all right?"  
  
Makoto kept her eyes downward, not knowing exactly how to ask Rei her question. She honestly didn't want to ask in front of the rest of her friends. She didn't want to have to tell them about what her father said about all of them.  
  
Rei looked up to Ami, who seemed a little concerned. "Makoto?" She inquired again.  
  
Makoto popped her head up and turned up to Rei. "Oh. Were you talking to me?" Rei nodded, causing Makoto to sigh. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm just a little preoccupied."  
  
Ami could definitely tell that something wasn't right with her friend, and she was pretty sure what the root of the problem was. It was the same thing every time. Whenever Makoto was upset about something it was usually caused by one, single person each and every time. "Is it your father again?"  
  
Makoto nodded with a deep sigh. "He's so stupid."  
  
Ami wrapped her arm around Makoto's shoulders to comfort her. "What did he do this time?"  
  
Makoto frowned as she looked down the hallway, which was almost completely empty. Their pace had slowed down dramatically, which allowed everyone else to go on ahead of them. She quickly glanced out the windows to her right. "Well," She started. She decided just to go on ahead and tell them what her father had said. Keeping the truth from them would only be protecting her father in essence, "my parents are going on a trip without me."  
  
Rei; "What? Really?" She put her hands on her hips. "Wait, what about you?"  
  
Makoto looked to Rei. "Well, they want me to stay with a friend. But my dad was really picky about who it would be. He said Usagi was weird because she had a tail. He said Minako was too ditzy, and," She paused as she turned back to Ami, "He said you were too weak." She turned back to Rei. "But he had nothing to say about you."  
  
Pulling her arm away from Makoto, Ami balled up her hands into fists. "Where does he get off calling me weak!?" She flinched in shock as she turned to look at her friends. "Did I just say that out loud?"  
  
Makoto growled at the thought of her father lounging around the house, not even thinking about how he might have hurt her with his words. "I'm really sorry, Ami. You know my dad, he's. well."  
  
"An idiot!" Rei shouted in anger. She couldn't believe the things he had said about HER friends.  
  
Makoto grinned. "To put it bluntly, yes."  
  
Rei patted her friend on the back with a warm smile. "Well don't worry, I gotcha covered. You can stay at my house during your vacation from your father."  
  
Makoto cocked her head to the side. She hadn't thought of it as a vacation for herself. But now that she thought about it, it seemed plausible. She would be getting away from him for a long while. She wouldn't have to put up with his moans and groans about petty things. "Are you sure? You haven't asked your grandfather yet."  
  
Rei smirked. "Don't worry about him. You know grandpa. He loves all my friends. I'm sure he won't mind."  
  
"Thanks, Rei." Makoto turned back down to Ami, who still seemed to be fuming over what her father had said. "Ami, if it's any consolation."  
  
Ami dropped her frown and put on a smile. "No, no. It's all right. After all, it IS your dad we're talking about. I just wish he'd get to know a person before he starts making accusations."  
  
"Believe me, I know exactly what you mean." Makoto put her arms around the two girls' shoulders and sped up the pace to the lunchroom. "Please don't tell Usagi and Minako what my dad said. I didn't even really want to tell you guys. I know it'll crush them, especially Usagi."  
  
Rei and Ami nodded, knowing that it was in the best interest of their friend's feelings. "Agreed."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Lunch Room~~  
  
Usagi and Minako had already gotten their food and sat down when the others finally arrived. Stuffing her face with a spoonful of food, Minako looked at Usagi, who was preparing to do the same thing. "Where were they?" Usagi just shrugged as she began her own feeding-fest. Minako looked back down to her own food, deciding to ask them herself when they got seated.  
  
Usagi threw down her spork and picked up her napkin to wipe her face off before she took a drink of her soda. Noticing someone pass just outside the lunchroom, she turned her head in curiosity to see who it was. Normally, the administrators didn't allow students outside the lunchroom because of a vandalism incident that had happened the year before. "Oh my god!" She yelled without even thinking about what she was saying.  
  
Flinching in surprise over her friend's outburst, Minako glared around the room for anything that may have caught Usagi's attention so abruptly. Seeing nothing, she turned back to Usagi. "What? What is it?" Noticing that Usagi seemed to be staring out the window, she too looked outside to see an older looking man walking away from the building. "Looks like a new teacher."  
  
Keeping her eye on the man, Usagi smirked as she slowly pushed herself up. "You've gotta be kidding me. This is way too good!"" She walked to the door that led outside and gently nudged it open.  
  
Minako jumped out of her seat and raced to Usagi's side. "Are you nuts!?" She grabbed a hold of Usagi's arms and tried to pull he away. "We're gonna get in trouble! You know we aren't allowed to wander around at lunch anymore!"  
  
Usagi wasn't thinking about that. She had something else on her mind, something she deemed more important than following that little rule at the moment. "Come on!" She grabbed Minako by the wrist and pulled the girl out of the building. "Hey!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. He didn't stop, but that didn't keep her from perusing him.  
  
"Usagi! What are you thinking!?" Minako tried to pry her wrist away from Usagi, but she was being jostled around so much that she couldn't get a good enough grip.  
  
The teacher stopped short upon hearing that name, the name he had learned to hate in his earlier years of teaching. Fearing what would happen after his next actions, he slowly turned toward the noisy girls behind him. He didn't have to think about what the girl looked like before he realized that he knew her. He would be able to pick out her hairstyle anywhere, seeming as she was one of the only people he had met who constantly wore it that way. The tail bouncing behind her legs was also a dead giveaway. Smirking, he put his hands behind his back and casually began walking towards the duo. "Son Usagi."  
  
Minako lifted her head in curiosity. "Huh?" Now that she had seen his face, she knew exactly who he was. "Mr. Koch! It's you!"  
  
Releasing her grip on Minako, Usagi grinned. "I knew it. I can spot a rat five miles away."  
  
Mr. Koch frowned at the girl. "I see you still have an attitude problem. I would have thought your parents would have done something about it."  
  
"You're the only problem here, not my attitude. We've been over this a million times." Usagi mimicked her old teacher's actions and put her hands behind her back.  
  
Mr. Koch narrowed his eyes into a stern glare. "And you still have no respect!"  
  
Usagi frowned. "I have plenty of respect, just none for you! I thought YOU would have changed, Mr. Koch. But I see you're still the same snake you always were!"  
  
Minako grinned. "Yeah!" Mr. Koch glared down at Minako, which had no effect on her like it used to. "You're just a rude old man!" Mr. Koch knew this was a battle he wouldn't win against these two. He had learned that long ago. No punishment was too great for them, they would always come back with more insults.  
  
Inside, Makoto, Ami, and Rei stood in the salad line, waiting to pay for their food. Rei was the first to notice their friends standing outside talking to a strange man. "Who's that Minako and Usagi talking to?"  
  
Makoto and Ami looked just outside at the man Rei was pointing to. Ami shrugged for she had never been in his class, but Makoto knew exactly who he was. "That's our first grade teacher. He tried messing with me this morning, but I told him what's what."  
  
Ami frowned. "You mean that's the one who gave you guys such a hard time?"  
  
Makoto nodded. "He's so mean to all of his students, especially Usagi. She didn't get the best of grades, but that only because she couldn't really concentrate on what she was doing."  
  
Ami grinned. "I'll say. You should have tried to tutor her."  
  
Rei frowned at the man. "So that's the guy, huh?" She hadn't had the 'pleasure' of being in his class since her grandfather hadn't let her attend public school until second grade, but she had heard plenty of stories about him.  
  
The three watched as their two friends turned around to walk back inside. Makoto motioned for them to come over. Complying, Usagi and Minako made their food was still there, and then made their way over to their friends. "You saw, didn't you?" Usagi asked with a huge grin of excitement.  
  
Makoto nodded with a smirk. "So he got to you too, didn't he?"  
  
Minako shook her head. "Actually, we went to him. Usagi just HAD to go talk to him."  
  
Usagi smiled. "What? I wanted to see if was really him. You can't blame a girl for curiosity, can you?"  
  
Makoto; "Not when it comes to you and that man. You two HATE each other." Makoto reached for a plate as she came upon the front of the line. She dug into her pocket and pulled out her money.  
  
Usagi sighed. "Well, I can say one thing, he's still a huge pain."  
  
"Don't I know. He tried yelling at me for running in the hallway this morning, but I wouldn't take it. I think I confused him when I teleported out of his reach." She slapped her money down on the counter for the lunch lady and continued onto the salad bar, with her friends close behind.  
  
Minako crossed her arms. "I can't believe he didn't learn anything from having us in his class."  
  
Ami; "Well, you know what they say, ' you can't teach an old dog new tricks'. And that applies directly to teachers. Once they've set their teaching methods, they rarely ever change."  
  
Minako; "At least we don't have to worry about him for a teacher anymore. That would have totally sucked."  
  
Usagi and Makoto nodded as they exchanged a look of relief. "Agreed."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Mugen School: Hidden Lab~~  
  
Three hours after she had called the Professor, Kaori arrived at the hidden lab. Tomoe had already been there for nearly thirty minutes in order to prepare the creature she was to use in order to steal the supposed Pure Heart Crystal. She walked to the center of the room, where the Professor was at the moment. "Is it ready?"  
  
Tomoe pressed a large, white button. "As ready as it'll ever be."  
  
Kaori grinned as she reached into a giant machine, coming out with the same briefcase she had used before. "Perfect." She tucked it tightly under her arm and began making her way to the door.  
  
Tomoe frowned at the woman. "Do try to make sure no one's around when you do the job this time. There were too many witnesses yesterday." Kaori didn't turn around to address the Professor, nor did she stop. She just continued on her way with a quick nod of compliance. 


	158. Part 5

( I'm sorry this storyline is going kinda slow right now, this just goes back to that THING I have with properly setting something up before I dive into it. ^_^ I think I'm nearly done though. keep in mind I only THINK. lol. Cya. )  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
~~Mugen School~~  
  
Michiru walked into her third class of the day, which happened to be her favorite out of her entire schedule. With her violin at hand, she walked into the large warm-up room, where classes would be held for a Advanced Orchestra. Most of her classmates had already arrived and were getting prepared. Saying nothing to anyone, she walked to the violin section in-between two fellow musicians, one male and one female, both of whom looked to be much older than herself. In fact, looking around the room, Michiru noticed that most of these players were older than her. She was probably the only freshman student in that entire room, but considering that this was the Advanced Orchestra course, she wasn't really surprised. Looking forward, she noticed the door that led into the auditorium where concerts were held.  
  
Placing her violin case upon her lap, she gently unfastened the silver latches and flipped the top open. She reached in and pulled the instrument away from its hold. Noticing that the class professor was approaching the podium in the front of the room, she quickly closed her case and slid it off her knees to onto the ground.  
  
Seeing the girl's quick movements, the male student next to Michiru chuckled. "Don't worry about working fast in this class, Miss."  
  
Caught off guard, Michiru slightly jumped. She turned her head toward the student at her fight, not knowing what to respond to first, his statement or his politeness. She cleared the throat as she rested her Violin upon her lap. "I'm sorry?"  
  
The student chuckled again as he rested his bow on the stand before him. "You seemed a little apprehensive when the director took the podium. You don't have to worry about time, he's always quite frazzled at the beginning of class. If you get here on time, you'll usually have about ten minutes before we actually play something."  
  
Michiru looked up at the director's podium only to see that the professor had disappeared. Feeling somewhat silly, she turned back up to the more experienced student at her right. "It's going to take a while for me to get used to not being kept on such a tight leash anymore."  
  
The student cocked his head to the side in confusion as if he didn't understand what his fellow musician had just said. "A 'tight leash'?"  
  
Beginning to relax, Michiru giggled as she leaned over her Violin. "I mean High School."  
  
Lifting a brow in disbelief, the student leaned back in his chair with a smirk. "You mean, High School as in you just came from one?" Michiru nodded, causing him to look around the room and examine all of his classmates. He knew for a fact that no other student in that room were Freshmen. He turned back to Michiru, still with a smirk flat on his face. "You've got to be kidding me."  
  
Michiru laughed as she shook her head back and fourth. "I'm not. I'm fresh out of High School." She wondered if he would be so polite now that he knew what he was dealing with.  
  
Thinking for a moment before he acted, the student dropped his smirk and replaced it with a smile as he extended his hand. "Well congratulations! It's not every day someone right out of High School gets accepted into the Advanced Performance Orchestra."  
  
Michiru looked down at his hand as if it were a joke. Just a minute ago that's the way he had looked at her, a joke, and now here he was congratulating her for her accomplishment. She had seen Haruka pull this same trick on lower-classmen many times in he day, but was this guy really anything like her? Maybe he wasn't trying to pull anything on her. Maybe he was being sincere. Taking a small chance of embarrassment, she reached out to make contact with his hand. Surprisingly, he didn't move it away like Haruka always had, which mean he was being serious. "Thank you. My name is Michiru."  
  
The student smiled. "The name's Taro." He looked back up to the podium and took notice that the director had returned to the podium. "I think we're finally ready." He exclaimed as he glanced up at the clock.  
  
Tapping his baton against the podium, the professor gathered his class' attention. "We will be starting class now. Before we do anything I want us to play something out of the warm-up book so I can get a feel for how this group plays together. Let's try page thirty-eight selection four."  
  
It was at that moment that the girl next to Michiru placed her bow on the stand in front of her and stood up. She calmly looked into the Professor's eyes. "My bow has broken, Professor."  
  
The Director nodded back at the girl. "Do what you need." The nodded back and carefully set her instrument down on her chair.  
  
Michiru was absolutely amazed. She had never seen such an event take place in any classroom environment. The teachers had always demanded that students first ask permission before leaving, but here it were as if students could just get up and leave whenever they please.  
  
She turned her eyes back upon the director, who was ready to begin. Suddenly, she realized she had been so amazed that she hadn't opened up her warm-up book to the correct page, but Taro had her covered. He quickly moved his stand between the two of them in order to share.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kaori walked into the dimly lit Arts Wing with her silver box. Just as she was entering, she noticed someone leaving one of the rooms. She continued on her way down the hall, carefully watching the mystery student who had just left. She paused once the student walked into the sunlight that shone through a huge, glass window. Recognizing the girl, she smirked. "Just the person I was looking for!" She called out.  
  
The student didn't stop on her way to the music locker room where she kept her extra bows. She hadn't realized that she was the only one in the hall. Becoming disgruntled, Kaori quickened her pace. "Excuse me, young lady!"  
  
The girl turned her head from side to side, realizing that there was no one else in the hallway. Turning around, she addressed Kaori. "Were you talking to me?!"  
  
Setting her box down, Kaori nodded. "I was wondering if you could help me with something?"  
  
Curious, the girl began making her way back the way she had come in order to help the woman. "Sure, what do you need? If you're lost I can direct you to the nearest office."  
  
Kaori chuckled. "It's nothing like that. You see, I have this mission."  
  
"Mission?" The girl interrupted.  
  
Kaori nodded. "Yes. I need to find three items, three very special items. I believe you have one?!" She knelt down and began unlatching the latches on the box.  
  
The girl seemed to be confused at Kaori's statement. "I think you have the wrong person, I don't have anything out of the ordinary." She began backing away, fearing what the woman was doing.  
  
Kaori laughed aloud as she pulled open the box, which sent a cloud of smoke into the air. Nothing more out, which cause Kaori to growl with anger. "Come out you stupid thing!" She kicked the box twice.  
  
The long, slithering creature that she had used the day before emerged from hiding. The female student screamed when she lay her eyes upon it. "What do you want?!" She watched in horror as it neared her.  
  
Kaori frowned as she stood up. "Your Heart Crystal! Get her now!" She screamed at her creature.  
  
The slimy, slug-like creature completely erected itself, making sure to make its head as pointy as possible. It chased the fleeing student, hurling itself into the air when it got close enough for contact. Kaori watched impatiently as the creature did its job as it cut through the girl's chest, causing her to fall lifelessly to the ground. "That's how it's done." She casually walked to her creature to retrieve the Heart Crystal. She turned her nose up the moment she saw it. "This isn't a Pure Heart Crystal!" She kicked the lifeless body in anger. "What the hell are you trying to pull!?" She bent down and prepared to give the Crystal back its rightful owner, but stopped herself short. "Well, it never hurts to stock up for the future." Smirking, she herded her creature back into its little box and latched it back shut. She calmly whistled to herself as if nothing had happened as she picked up the body and began making her way back down the hall. She didn't want anyone to come down the hall and it just lying there. It would need to be properly disposed of.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~10th Street Middle School~~  
  
A screaming bell filled the 10th Street Middle School as its students piled out into the hallway. It was because on this day that Usagi and the gang were happily one of the first groups out of class. While their teachers had mercilessly assigned homework on the first day, they had been merciful and not given home.  
  
Usagi was more than thankful to her teachers. She happily skipped her way down the stairs with her friends close behind, not caring about the rules. No one really ever yelled at her when she ran in the hall or skipped down the stairs. Occasionally she would get a stern warning about safety. With Mr. Koch around now, it was sure to be different, but she didn't care. He couldn't really do anything to her, that is, unless he really wanted to take matters up with the office. Then she would definitely get into trouble with the principal for breaking school rules, in which her mother would be notified about. She wouldn't have cared when she was younger, but now her mother was beginning to trust in her and she would do anything to keep things that way.  
  
She paused when she got to the bottom of the stairs, turning back up to see her friends walking at a normal pace. "Come on, you guys!" She turned back around and ran a bit further, only to stop once again and check the status of her friends. They were just reaching the bottom of the stairs. "You guys are so slow!"  
  
"What's with you?" Rei asked with a slight giggle.  
  
Usagi shrugged as she walked back to her friends. "I dunno. I'm bored. I wanna do something. I need to get rid of some of this energy."  
  
Rei grinned. "Alright, let's run to my place. I've got something to ask my grandfather." She said, turning over to Makoto. "Right?"  
  
Makoto nodded. "Let's get going."  
  
The five girls pushed their way through the crowd in order to make it outside. Again, they were faced with groups of people congregating all over the place. "Why do these people insist on staying here longer than they need to?" Minako asked as she secured her book bag tightly on her back.  
  
Usagi shrugged. "All I know is I try not to be here any longer than I have to, so in saying that, LET'S GO!" She didn't even bother waiting for a response before she shot out in a burst of yellow. It wasn't long before she was joined by her friends.  
  
The students in the courtyard dropped their jaws in awe. Many of them had never seen these girls nor had they seen anything like their power. Most of them just stood there, dumbfounded, as if they were waiting for some sort of explanation for what they had just seen.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Mugen School: Student CoffeeHouse~~  
  
Haruka was lost without Michiru. Sure she enjoyed having only two classes every other day, but she soon found it was boring with out Michiru. She didn't know what to do with herself for two hours without anyone to talk to, not anyone that was worth the trouble anyway. All there was to do was and watch all the preppy students come in and out for the next two hours while she waited for Michiru to get out of class.  
  
"Don't you look bored?" Mamoru casually strolled up from behind Haruka and sat in the chair next to her. He remembered talking to Michiru early in the summer about their schedule, as he was curious when he would be able to hang out with them. She had mentioned something about a two-hour period where Michiru would be in class while Haruka wasn't. He knew right then that a schedule like that was going to cause trouble. Haruka had grown very attached to Michiru over the course of their friendship. He had long ago noticed that whenever the two were separated for long periods of times, Haruka usually became very bored, which had always resulted in bullying of anyone weaker or younger. So instead of having her run a rampage through the school, he decided to keep her company until Michiru got out of class, not that he had anything better to do anyway. With those two at college he was finding life very boring. He had no one to hang out with anymore.  
  
Haruka wasn't at all surprised to see Mamoru's face. The guy always did have a habit of showing up out of no where. "Why if it isn't Mamoru, the man who caused me to lose my free games at the arcade. You could have at least asked what I thought before just going out on a whim and giving the place away."  
  
Mamoru cupped his hands together on the table before him. "I didn't know I needed your permission. Next time I'll be sure to ask." He smirked at the girl, only to gain a sharp glare from her. "Come on, it's not that big of a deal."  
  
Haruka grinned as she motioned for the waitress to come by the table. "Yeah, yeah. You know I just like givin you a hard time. The tailed brat gave her half away to, at least that was my understanding. Michiru said there was an agreement to let her resign into ownership if she wanted to once she got out of school."  
  
"Odango gave her half away too?" Mamoru paused to grin. "I guess my good charm is finally starting to rub off on her. She's finally decided to follow in my footsteps."  
  
Haruka rolled her eyes as she snickered at her friend's conceited comment. "Good charm," She snickered, "that's a good one."  
  
Mamoru deviously frowned at Haruka as he picked up the glass of water on the table and dumped it over her head. "What was that you were saying?" He laughed as he scooted his chair away from her.  
  
Haruka frowned as she shot a piercing glare at him. "You're in for it now. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, it may not be in the next few days, but believe me, there WILL be some SERIOUS payback for this." She reached out and grabbed the entire pile of napkins out of the dispenser and began wiping herself dry, or at least trying to. "You're such an ass."  
  
"I try." Mamoru chuckled as he moved his chair back to the table. He would have to watch his back for a while until Haruka got her revenge, but he would be ready for her. This had been going on for years, and would probably never stop. "So why're you just sitting here alone?"  
  
Haruka ran her fingers through her wet hair as she reached for Mamoru's jacket, which sat on the back of his chair. "I'm waiting for Michiru to get out of class so we can go hang out." She quickly snatched the item off of Mamoru's chair and began wiping herself dry with it, seeing as the napkins weren't of much help. She wrapped it around her head to soak up all the water in her hair.  
  
Mamoru's eyes grew wide at her actions. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" He reached out for his jacket, but was met with nothing but thin air. Haruka had evaded his reach by moving to the next seat over, out of his reach. "Get that thing off your damn head!" He yelled, not caring if anyone around heard. "Do you know how expensive that jacket was?!"  
  
Haruka took the item of clothing off the top her head and carefully examined. "Well," She squeezed it, causing water to drip to the floor, "it doesn't look like it's worth very much anymore." She innocently looked up at her friend as if she hadn't done anything and handed him back his jacket.  
  
Mamoru quietly growled as he violently snatched his jacket back from Haruka. "That was really screwed up."  
  
Proud of herself, Haruka smirked. "It wouldn't have happened if you hadn't dumped water all over my head, but don't worry, the worst is yet to come. I'm not through yet."  
  
Mamoru was up for a challenge, which he knew he would come out on top of. No one had ever been able to beat him when it came to getting revenge. "We'll just wait and see who gets the last laugh."  
  
~*~*~  
  
It didn't take long for the girls to arrive at the Haiwaka shrine. Once they were out of school grounds, they headed straight for the back roads and raced all the way to Rei's. Rei led her friends up the main steps, pausing at the top. She noticed her grandfather talking with a strange young man with black, ragged hair that went down to his shoulders. He wore slightly baggy jeans and a black, leather jacket. He didn't look like the average visitor of the shrine. He looked more like a punk street kid.  
  
Usagi stepped to Rei's side, taking note of the young man as well. "Hey, Rei, who's that guy your grandpa's talking to?"  
  
Rei frowned at the young man, having no idea why he was there. He couldn't possibly be there for educational or prayer purposes. He didn't look the type. "I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about this."  
  
Minako knelt down on the side of the stairs. "You mean a feeling that he's an enemy?"  
  
Usagi groaned at the mentioning of yet another enemy. She was getting to the point where she wanted a break from it all. Sure she enjoyed fighting, but not when it was to save the world. There was too much at stake when it was in defense of the world. She didn't like the feeling knowing that if she made even the smallest mistake the entire world could come crashing down. "I so hope he's not an enemy."  
  
Makoto frowned. "But what if he is? Why would he be coming here?"  
  
Rei knelt down and crawled a bit further away from the stairs, hoping to hear what they were talking about. "Maybe he's going to try to take over all the shrines, you know, get into people's heart and start spouting out all sorts of dogma to get them under his control." She crawled out even further, but suddenly stopped short.  
  
Usagi squatted down. "What? What is it?" She whispered.  
  
Rei frowned at herself as she made a quick dive back for the stairs. "Why am I going out there? You have the better hearing, Usagi. You get out there."  
  
Usagi nodded as she got on all fours and began crawling forward. She wasn't out there very long before Rei's grandfather shook hands with the young man as if some sort of an agreement had been met. "That doesn't look good." She turned back to the girls. "They just shook on something."  
  
"Well what was it about?!" Minako asked rather impatiently.  
  
Usagi shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't get a chance to hear what they were talking about before they shook hands." Suddenly, she heard footsteps coming closer and closer to their position. "Oh no, here he comes! Act natural!"  
  
The girls acted natural just as Usagi had commanded, well, as natural as five girls sitting rather suspiciously on a stairway could act. The strange, young man began jogging down the stairs, but was caught off guard when his peripheral vision picked up the image of the five friends who just happened to be lounging around. He looked at them in fascination, especially Rei.  
  
Rei began to feel uneasy at the way he was staring at her. She leaned into Ami, who leaned into Makoto, who leaned into Minako, who then leaned into Usagi, who did nothing but stare up at the man in a daze. Rei frowned as she barked at the girl. "Move!" All at once the other four jumped to their feet and high-tailed it outta there.  
  
"Grandpa!" Rei called out as she ran for the old man. She looked over her shoulder to make sure the young man wasn't following her. He was no where in sight, which made her feel a little better.  
  
"Mr. Hino!" Usagi waved her hand in the air to grab the man's attention. She too was guilty of looking back to make sure that boy hadn't tried to come back for them. He HAD been staring at them awfully strangely.  
  
Mr. Hino calmly turned around to face his granddaughter and her friends. "Hello, girls." He put his hands behind his back and looked toward Rei, who was now at his side.  
  
"Grandpa, who was that man?" She asked, pointing back to the steps where he had last been seen.  
  
Mr. Hino smiled as he turned around and slowly began walking for the house. "That was our new help, Yuuichirou."  
  
Rei's eyes widened. "THAT was our new help?! He can't be our new help. He's too," Rei paused, she didn't know how to put it.  
  
"Scruffy?" Minako asked.  
  
Rei rolled her eyes. "Could you possibly have any less tact?"  
  
Minako grinned with a giggle. "Probably not." She sarcastically chirped.  
  
Mr. Hino chuckled at the girls with a slight frown. "It's not about the way a person looks, it's about what you think. It's who you are inside that determines whether or not you're a good person. You five, of all people, should know this. That boy came to me as a street beggar, but he wants to change, so I've given him a job."  
  
"Phew." Usagi sighed in relief as she wiped her forehead.  
  
Rei shot a glare at Usagi. She didn't want her grandfather to hear anything about what they truly thought of the boy. "Grandpa, would it be alright if Makoto stayed with us for a while?"  
  
Mr. Hino turned back around to look upon his granddaughter. "How long?" Rei shrugged as she looked over to Makoto for the answer. Makoto shrugged back. "Am I correct in assuming that it's going to be for a while?"  
  
Makoto nodded. "My parents are getting away a little alone time. If it's too much of a bother for me to be here I can always find another place. I realize this is somewhat of a burden."  
  
Mr. Hino smiled widely. "No, it's no trouble at all. You tell your parents we'd be happy to have you for as long as they're gone."  
  
Excited over his answer, Makoto smiled. "Really? You wouldn't mind?"  
  
Mr. Hino shook his head. "Not at all."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Two Hours Later~~  
  
Two hours had passed and the girl who had left the advanced Orchestra class hadn't returned. No one had really taken notice until the class session was over, when it was time to pack up. Michiru was the first to realize the girl hadn't returned. "Hey," She started as she turned over to Taro, who was almost completely packed away. "Didn't that girl leave to get a new bow?"  
  
"Who, Michiko?" Taro leaned back in his chair in order to see past Michiru. He had been too busy with the class to notice that she hadn't come back yet, but now that Michiru mentioned it, he found it odd that she hadn't returned yet. "That's strange."  
  
Michiru closed up her case, wondering where the girl could have gone. She stood up and pushed the stand to the side so she could walk out from her chair. Taro did the same and joined Michiru at her side. "So how long have you been playing the Violin?"  
  
Michiru pushed her way to the door, pushing it open when she arrived. "Since I was very little. I hated it at first, but now I love it."  
  
Taro grabbed the door on his way out and made sure it didn't slam shut like it always had a habit of doing. "Are you into any other art, by any chance?"  
  
Michiru nodded as she turned down the hall. "Recently I've started enjoying what the world of art has to offer. I've even begun a few paintings of my own."  
  
Taro seemed extra interested now. "Really? If they're anything like your Violin playing they ought to be excellent."  
  
Michiru blushed as she lowered her head. She wasn't used to being praised like this. She wasn't even used to talking about art to anyone else. Haruka never really took an interest in the subject. She had always said that art took Michiru away, which had always flattered the aqua-haired girl. The only thing Haruka had ever liked was her Violin playing. "I don't know."  
  
Taro grinned as he pushed the door open at the end of the Arts wing, which led into the main hallway of the second floor. He chuckled at the girls' shyness. "Your playing is beautiful, and I'm sure anything else you do is as well. What kind of paintings do you do?"  
  
Michiru didn't have to think long to answer that question. "The ocean."  
  
"Ah, the ocean is a lovely thing. There are so many moods to capture, from calm and serene to a raging monster." He paused his movement forward, causing Michiru to do the same. "Do you have any plans for tomorrow night?"  
  
Michiru wasn't quite sure how to go about answering that. She wasn't sure if this man was coming onto her, nor did she know how to tell him she as already seeing someone if he was. "I don't believe so."  
  
Taro smiled wide. "Great, because my father is opening his museum of art tomorrow night. There's going to be a ceremony for it, but it's invite only. If you're interested I'll put you on the list, and anyone you might want to bring with you."  
  
Michiru didn't know what to do first, count her blessings that he hadn't asked her out, or shower him with gratitude. Smiling at the man, she nodded. "I would love to attend."  
  
Taro smiled even wider. "Great, then I'll see you there. Would you like me to put someone else on the list with you as well?"  
  
Michiru thought for a moment. She didn't think Haruka would mind going if it meant spending time together. "Could you please reserve a spot for my friend Haruka too?"  
  
Taro nodded as he took a step back. "It's done. I'll see you tomorrow night then." He turned around and began walking away to his next class, only to stop short in his tracks. "Oh, Michiru?" He turned back around to see the girl still staring at him. "Don't forget to bring some of your work. I'm interested in seeing what you can do."  
  
Michiru nodded with a giggle. She couldn't believe she was actually going to a ceremonial opening of an art museum. "Sure."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~CoffeeHouse~~  
  
Haruka shifted around in her chair and threw her arm over the back in order to become comfortable. She reached down and grabbed her cup of soda she had ordered and took a quick sip. "So how's the apartment search coming along?"  
  
Mamoru leaned his elbow onto the table with a sigh. "It's slow. Most places I've visited aren't interested in taking such a young tenant, especially one who has no job."  
  
Interested, Haruka nodded. "But you have plenty of money for now."  
  
"Exactly! I've tried arguing with them, but they all say the same thing. They think if I don't have a job I won't be able to pay rent." Frowning, Mamoru took a big gulp of his own soda. "These landlords are asses."  
  
Haruka chuckled at her friend's comment. "You got that right. It's all about money these days. They could care less if you're homeless and living on the streets. If they don't get their pay, you're shit outta luck." Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Michiru approaching the table. Leaning forward, she smirked. "Finally. I thought you'd never get outta there."  
  
Michiru smiled down at Haruka and Mamoru. "What a nice surprise. I didn't expect to see you here, Mamoru."  
  
With a smile that showed how full of himself he is, Mamoru pushed himself out of the chair. "Yeah, well what can I say? I'm just a nice guy."  
  
Michiru giggled at the glare Haruka shot at their male friend. "You didn't have to wait for me, you know?"  
  
Haruka shrugged. "I had nothin better to do." She wrapped her arm around the girl with a smile. "So how was it?"  
  
"I'm happy to report that it was nothing like High School Orchestra, which was huge relief. I met a very nice boy whose invited me to attend his father's ceremonial opening for the new museum of art."  
  
Michiru reached out to help Haruka to her feet, but the other girl didn't respond. She only glared up at Michiru as if she were some sort of scoundrel, which caused Michiru to giggle again. "I know what you're thinking."  
  
Haruka quirked an eyebrow in interest. "Oh you do, do you?"  
  
Michiru knelt down next to Haruka and looked into her eyes. "Yes, silly. Don't worry, you're the only person I want to be with."  
  
Haruka growled as she glanced up at Mamoru, who was laughing hysterically. "Mamoru!" 


	159. Part 6

(For those of you who I didn't get a chance to E-mail, I'm having trouble uploading on FF.Net, so chapters might be out a little late. This chapter being late is actually my fault this time. I took a day out to write the last chapter of another one of my stories for the people who've been waiting for it, and then I took another day out to work on a Senior Project so I don't have to do it when school rolls around. I'm sorry for the delay.)  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
After leaving the shrine, Makoto went straight home to tell her parents the news. She wondered how her father would react. There were a number of different ways he could react. There was a large chance that he would take the route of sarcasm and insult her by saying that it was about time she started doing what she was told, even though she always had. Along with being a complete ass, her liked to make things up in his mind. He had always seen and heard only the things he wanted, never what was really placed before him. He had always somehow seen the things she did wrong, and come down on her hard for them, but he never seemed to see the things she did right; her accomplishments. She had always gotten the feeling that he treated her like to compensate for something. It had really bothered her when she was younger, but as she grew older, she learned to ignore those feelings like she had so many other times.  
  
Turning down her street, she noticed her father shutting the door to his car. He looked at her, but didn't acknowledge her presence before he turned to go inside the house. She hadn't expected him to. He never really paid attention to her. She would have been surprised if he even recognized her as his own daughter from that far away, even though she was only two houses down. Sighing to herself, Makoto picked up her pace so she could report the news. She wanted to get it done quickly and get out of the house just as quick. The less time she spent in the same house as her father the better.  
  
"Mom! I'm home!" She yelled as she kicked off her shoes after entering the house. She didn't even bother greeting her father. She threw her bag next to the sofa and walked down the hall where she could hear her mother's voice originating from. "Mom?" She called out just as she was coming upon her parents' room. She could hear her father's voice in there now, which warded her away from the room. She knew better than to go in there when her father was home. He always had to get an attitude and scream at her for breaching his privacy. "Mom?" She called out again, not knowing if her mother had heard her the first two times.  
  
"Wha'do you want?" Her father angrily returned the call.  
  
Makoto frowned. She didn't remember ever asking for him. Why did he feel the need to ask what she wanted? It was none of his concern. "I need to talk to mom."  
  
"Your mother's busy!"  
  
"Stop it!" Mrs. Kino emerged from her room, momentarily poking her head back to look upon her husband who was frowning. "Honestly! I don't know what your problem is sometimes." With that being said, she looked back out on her daughter, who wore a hateful scowl. It hurt her to see her daughter looking that way. She knew exactly where that look came from. It was from all the years of mental abuse the child had received from her father. She never really understood why the man felt it was his duty to treat their only child like she was a bum off the street. Makoto had never done anything to deserve that sort of treatment. She wished that Makoto and her father had more of a relationship like Minako and her father, or Usagi and her father. But that was something of a distant dream anymore.  
  
Trying not to dwell on the moment, Mrs. Kino smiled at her daughter. "What can I do for you, dear?" She asked softly.  
  
It wasn't hard for Makoto to shove aside her anger as she looked up at her mother. "Rei's grandfather said it would be alright for me to stay with them while you're gone."  
  
Mrs. Kino smiled wider with excitement. "Oh that's wonderful! I'm so glad you've found someone to stay with!" She poked her head back into her room. "Did you hear that?" She got no answer from her husband as she pulled her head back out and looked down at her daughter, who didn't seem to be all that happy. Her look of excitement disappeared. "What's the wrong?"  
  
Makoto sighed as she lowered her head. She didn't know why, but for some reason she didn't want them to leave. Well, not her mother. She didn't care that her father was leaving. "Nothing, I guess." She turned back down the hall and started making her way back to front door, only to stop once again. "When are you guys leaving?"  
  
"Friday night."  
  
Makoto said nothing as she started on her way again. 'Two days from now.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi arrived home just in time for dinner that night as she had promised her mother in their agreement. She dashed in the door and flipped her shoes off into the middle of the living room, making sure her bag was thrown in the same manner. "Hi!" She chirped as she ran into the kitchen where she found her mother finishing up dinner.  
  
Smiling, Chi-Chi looked over at her teenage daughter. "Hi, sweetie. No homework today?"  
  
Usagi grinned as she sat down at the table. "I'm happy to report that as a negative!" She looked in the far right corner to see Lucky sleeping soundly.  
  
Chi-Chi looked back to what she was doing. "Dinner's almost ready."  
  
Usagi leaned against the table as she stared back up at her mother. "Great! I'm starved!" Turning her head toward the door, she noticed her father walking by. "Hi, dad!" Goku, who had been on his way out the door, stopped and turned to his daughter with a grim expression. Usagi wasn't sure whether or not to be alarmed. He didn't usually look that way unless he was worried or concerned about something. She couldn't help but wonder that maybe something had happened while she was away at school, maybe something leading to a new enemy. She had grown very accustomed to having to defend earth against threats in the past few years that she was always on alert, just as she had always been taught. "What's wrong?"  
  
Goku changed his direction and walked into the kitchen. Ignoring his wife, he sat next to his daughter. "Nothing much, really."  
  
Usagi knew better than that. She could read her father just as easily as he could read her. "Daddy." She scolded.  
  
Chi-Chi smashed a pan onto the stove. "Goku you've been moping around for an hour now. What's wrong with you?"  
  
Goku rested his arms on the tabletop and leaned inward. "Usagi, I have something very difficult to tell you, and I know you're not going to like it."  
  
Unknowingly, Usagi's heart began to race with fear. Her father was NEVER so solemn with her before, well, not unless she disobeyed him big time, like when she had gone into the past. She had to wonder if she had done something to upset him, but what could she have done that could have been SO bad. "Am I in trouble?"  
  
Goku was stunned by his daughter's question. Where would she ever come up with such a thought? Chuckling, he gave a half smile. "Of course not." He chuckled again when Usagi gave a quick sigh of relief. "Actually, I saw something very interesting on the news a while ago."  
  
Usagi wasn't sure how to react. What did he mean by 'interesting'? "Uhm, ok." She looked up at her mother, who still had her attention on dinner.  
  
Goku wasn't quite expecting such a laid back reaction. After living with the girl for so long he had expected her to become excited with wonder. "A girl was found to be missing at the Mugen School for the Gifted today."  
  
That caught Chi-Chi's attention. "You mean the school Hotaru goes to?"  
  
Goku nodded, but didn't give his wife the respect of turning and facing her. "Sure is." He continued looking at his daughter, a little upset that his wife wouldn't let him tell what he had seen. "Anyway, she was missing for about four hours, no one had seen her since three this afternoon. Guess who her mother was?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "I bet you're going to tell me, aren't you?"  
  
Goku nodded. "Your math teacher."  
  
"Really?!" Usagi leaned further into the table, as she was more interested now.  
  
Once again, Goku nodded. "Yeah. Now comes the painful part." He cleared his throat, wanting to give his daughter enough time to ease into his horrible news. "She was found dead about an hour ago in one of the old research labs by Hotaru's father."  
  
Chi-Chi threw down a knife and turned around to face her husband and daughter with a gasp. "How horrible!" Usagi nodded to agree with her mother, but was too shocked to say anything. "Did someone kill her!?"  
  
Goku shook his head. "No, it looks like she died of natural causes. Her mother, your math teacher, is taking time off from work to get over the shock, which means bad news for you."  
  
Usagi leaned back in her chair at the mention of bad news. It meant a substitute, definitely, but who was it? It had to be someone bad otherwise her father wouldn't have been so serious. "Do I want to know?"  
  
Goku hated the fact that he had to tell her the next part. "They said the replacement for the period of math she taught you guys for was going to be a new teacher at the school, known none other than Mr. Koch to us."  
  
Chi-Chi became furious at the mentioning of that idiot's name. "What!? You mean that devil of a teacher that taught MY baby in first grade!?"  
  
Usagi's eyes grew large with fear. "No! This can't be happening!"  
  
Chi-Chi grabbed her husband by the throat as if he were the problem. "I will NOT allow this to happen! That bastard will NOT teach my little girl!" She tugged him back and fourth, not even realizing what she was doing.  
  
Goku frowned as he reached up and grabbed a hold of his wife's wrist, trying desperately to pry her hands away from his throat without hurting her. "What're you doing!?"  
  
Usagi temporarily forgot about the new teacher situation and laughed at her parents. She remembered the last time this had happened. It was shortly after Kiro and his gang had been uncovered as the beings causing the Saiyans to become sick. She remembered what had happened when Mr. Koch had tried to pull his crap on Chi-Chi. One thing Usagi had learned early was no one, and that meant NO ONE ever called her mother's children stupid without having a death wish. Things had gotten so bad that a parent-student-teacher meeting had to be called. Mr. Koch had made the mistake of telling Chi-Chi that her daughter wasn't performing as well as the other students, which Chi-Chi took as an insult to her child's intelligence. Things had pretty much gone downhill for the man after that. Chi-Chi ended up chewing him out and threatening to send Goku out to 'hurt' him. After seeing the woman's reaction, Mr. Koch had backed off a bit, for a while that is. It wasn't long before he was back at his old antics and picking on Usagi for everything, which she just KNEW was a result of the meeting, there was no doubt about it. This same incident had happened every time there was a meeting between the Son family and Mr. Koch. Chi-Chi would always work herself up into a frenzy and end up choking Goku JUST because he was a man.  
  
Usagi laughed hysterically at her father, who was turning red. "Mom's gotcha good this time, dad." She hoped down out of her chair and calmly approached her angry mother. "Mom?" She poked her mother.  
  
Moving her attention to her daughter, Chi-Chi slightly let up her hold on Goku. "What?!" Her words unintentionally came out harsh.  
  
Usagi didn't take any notice to the way her mother had addressed her. She knew better than to take it personally. "I think you're making daddy suffocate." She pointed to his bright red face.  
  
Chi-Chi turned back down toward her husband and noticed his pink colored face for the first time. Gasping at her own power, she released him at once and backed away. "Look at what that man makes me do!"  
  
Goku gasped for breath as he lightly wrapped his hands around his throat to protect it from any more irrational moves his wife might decide to make. He had once made the mistake of not protecting himself and mentioning Mr. Koch's name, which earned him more punishment from the angry mother. "Get a hold of yourself." He ducked his head and raised his hand, hoping that he hadn't set her off again.  
  
Chi-Chi had to stop herself from lashing out at him. Even though she knew he had nothing to do with Mr. Koch being her daughter's new math teacher, she still felt the urge to beat up on someone, and Goku was the only one she would trust herself with. She knew that she couldn't truly hurt him, which she figured why he always seemed to let her get away with lashing out like that without yelling at her. "Oh God I'm sorry."  
  
Usagi tugged at her mother's elbow, still with a slight giggle. "Mom, that's not Mr. Koch, it's dad." She looked at her gasping father whose face was returning to its normal color. She knew he wasn't too hurt, just a little winded.  
  
Seeing that there wasn't really anymore of a threat, Goku smirked as he leaned his arms on the table as he tried to catch his breath. "Gees, it's just like old times."  
  
Usagi's face turned white with fear. She didn't want things to be just like they used to. That would mean Mr. Koch would be the true jackass he always was. "I hope not."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she took her place back at the counter. She figured that if she stood away from her husband that the chances of her just lashing out from no where would disappear. "I don't want a replay of what happened in first grade this year, am I understood, Usagi?"  
  
Usagi didn't know how well that would work out. She had barely spoken for five minutes with the man and he had already started the same old Crap with her. Being in a class situation wouldn't be any different. Things were sure to be the way they used to. That would only mean trouble for Usagi. She hadn't really been in the office for challenging a teacher SINCE Mr. Koch. He absolutely hated her; there was no doubt about it. "Well," She began, not knowing what to say.  
  
Chi-Chi didn't like the uncertainty in her daughter's voice, and Goku liked it even less. "Usagi, this is one time I'm going to have to agree with your mother. You're too old to be getting in trouble with your teachers. It's fine when you're in elementary school, but once you start getting to be your age it really reflects on your permanent record."  
  
Chi-Chi eyed her husband with a glare. "No, it wasn't ok for her to get into trouble in elementary school."  
  
Goku sighed. He hated it when she totally missed his point. "You know what I meant."  
  
Usagi looked back and fourth as her parents argued with one another. Education seemed to be one of the keys to pretty much all of their arguments, and quite frankly it was getting tiring. She figured she had a say in what happened to her in school.  
  
Chi-Chi decided to leave Goku alone about the entire getting into trouble in elementary school. It didn't seem that important now that it was in the past. Usagi was past elementary school, and soon to be past middle school. "Your father is right, young lady."  
  
Shocked, Usagi shot a quick glance at her mother in confusion. She couldn't remember any other time when her mother had said that her father was right. "Are you feeling alright, mom?"  
  
Chi-Chi frowned as she spun around to face her husband and daughter. "Don't sound so surprised. Your father was onto something when he said it reflects your permanent record."  
  
Goku lifted his hand behind his head. "I was?"  
  
Chi-Chi chuckled. "Yes. Usagi now is the time you have to start thinking about your future, and more importantly, what school you want to attend next year. You have to make sure it's a good one because.. ."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes as she took a seat next to her father and dropped her head upon the table. "I know, I know. Because whatever school I go to will determine what kind of job I get and who'll hire me. I know the drill."  
  
Sighing, Chi-Chi was once again pulled away from dinner duty as she pulled up a chair next to her daughter's side. "Usagi you have to understand how important it is for you to get into a school with a good reputation. If you have a reputation for having an attitude problem it could seriously hurt your chances of getting into a good school." She looked up to Goku for some support since it was his comment that brought this entire subject about, but he didn't seem to want to get his hands dirty with the subject. He had acted the same way when Goten was trying to pick out a High School.  
  
Usagi turned her head on its side and looked at the corner where Lucky was still fast asleep, even through all the commotion. It was at times like this when she wished she led a life as simple as a dog's. Then she wouldn't have to worry about going to school and keeping her grades up just to make her mother happy. She could live a life as carefree as she wanted. "Can we not talk about this right now?"  
  
Brushing a strand of hair from the girl's eyes, Chi-Chi slightly frowned. "You can't keep putting it off. It's going to come up sooner than later! Quite frankly I thought you'd be more concerned about your future!"  
  
Goku crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. He could tell there was something else bothering the girl, something other than school. He had a feeling it wasn't really about Mr. Koch either. She didn't start getting 'down' until her future was mentioned. "Chi-Chi," He started as he looked up at his wife, "why don't you let her wash up and get changed while you finish dinner before it gets burned?"  
  
Chi-Chi couldn't argue with Goku on that one, she DID need to get back to her meal, but she knew he had other intentions for asking her to leave their daughter alone. He always seemed to stop their conversations right at the most vital point. "Fine. Usagi go do as your father just said."  
  
Usagi lifted her head and stood up with pleasure. She was more than thankful to her father for stopping that nonsense right there and then. She made her way out of the kitchen, only to see Luna staring up at her, who had been allowed back into the house after the incident with Tatsuo. Chi- Chi had swallowed her pride, and after realizing that the cat had been the only reason why her daughter was able to escape from the Dark Kingdom, she allowed the cat to stay. "What?" Usagi didn't wait for an answer before she began making her way down the hall. She figured Luna would just talk while they walked.  
  
The wide-eyed cat said nothing as she stood on all fours and began following her Princess down the hall. Luna jumped up on the back of the sofa in the living room and watched Usagi go into her room to get a change of clothes. "As much as it pains me to say this, your mother is right."  
  
Usagi ignored the cat and continued on with what she was told to do. She opened her closet and pulled out the only clean outfit in there. 'Guess I gotta do more wash tonight.' She proceeded to close her door, but not before Luna darted in.  
  
Usagi glared down at that cat that sat at her feet. "You eavesdropped."  
  
Luna frowned as she jumped up onto Usagi's bed and lay down in a streak of light. "I was passing by when I heard your mother talking about High Schools. She's entirely right. You DO need to start thinking about the entrance exams. They're only nine months away."  
  
Usagi frowned back at the pesky feline as she began to change her cloths. "Exactly! It's NINE months away. I don't know why you both have to worry so much."  
  
"You need to study!"  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes as she threw the shirt to her school uniform into a white laundry basket that held the rest of her cloths. "Don't try to preach to me what I need to do. You're only my advisor. Isn't there some sort of rule that states the advisor isn't supposed to eavesdrop on the Princess?"  
  
Luna wasn't quite sure how to take Usagi at that point. She seemed a little disturbed about something all of a sudden. The girl had never been so brash with her before. "As your advisor I need to ADVISE you on what to do, thus the name ADVISOR. I need to know what's going on in your life to do my job." She stood up and walked to the foot of the bed just as Usagi was making her way out of the room. "What's with your attitude today, Usagi? You were fine until your mother mentioned High Schools."  
  
Usagi stopped short on her way to the bathroom and shot a piercing glare back at the cat, the same glare that her mother had given her many times in the past. "I can't believe you, Luna! You were listening the entire time!"  
  
Luna ducked her head in. She hadn't meant for that to slip out. "I'm sorry, Usagi."  
  
Usagi frowned at the feline. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You didn't have to lie to me, Luna! Last time I looked you were supposed to be teaching me good morals, not bad ones." She crossed her arms and turned her back to the cat as she angrily marched into the bathroom.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Luna decided to follow her Princess inside. This was such unusual behavior for her, which was beginning to worry Luna. "Are you all right, Usagi? It isn't that time of the month for you or anything, is it?"  
  
That did it for the young Saiyan. She had had it with nagging for one day. She tried hold in her anger, but it wasn't really working at this point. "Why is it that a guy can get upset whenever he feels like it, but when a girl gets the slightest bit upset she's automatically on P.M.S.!?"  
  
Luna knew something was up after seeing that display of anger. She made a hasty escape from the bathroom while she still had a head on her shoulders, hoping that she hadn't upset the girl too terribly much.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi was relatively easy to set off for the rest of the night. She had decided not to go out after dinner like she had originally planned. After her talk with her parents and Luna she didn't much feel like it anymore. She had other things to do, like think about her future, as much as it pained her to do. The truth was that she hadn't thought anything about the dreaded entrance exams past the fact that she needed to take them. She hadn't really thought of them in depth like her mother had wanted. She actually tried to avoid the thought as much as possible. But now it was apparent as the time ticked closer and closer to the terrible test taking day her mother would stress the matter more and more.  
  
Sitting on her bed, she stared at her six-star Dragon Ball, which she had found as soon as all seven balls turned back into their original form. She could remember staring at that thing for hours on end when she was just a little kid. Sighing to herself, she wished she could teleport herself back in time, back to when things were simple, back when she still had eight years before the entrance exams. She knew that there was no chance in hell of that ever happening. Pluto would never allow that to happen. The keeper of Time wouldn't want her Princess chickening out over such a trivial thing.  
  
Just as she was about to get up and prepare a bubble bath for herself, she heard a knock on her door. Judging by the energy signature she knew that it was her father standing just outside. "Come in." She sat up just in time to watch the door be opened slightly, which was just enough to allow an excited dog run into her room and jump onto her bed. "Hey girl!" She whispered as she reached out and scratched the dog behind the ears. It responded with a slight kicking of its hind leg, causing Usagi to giggle.  
  
Following Lucky was Goku with his patented goofy smile. "Someone really wanted to see you."  
  
Usagi didn't look up at her father. Instead just nudged her face together with Lucky's. She hadn't been spending nearly enough time with the dog lately. She was usually too busy with school or hanging out with her friends.  
  
Goku took the liberty of sitting on the corner of his daughter's bed as he pet the dog on her back. "She sure is lively tonight." Usagi smiled as she nodded, still saying nothing. "Not like someone else I know."  
  
Usagi's smile slightly faded as she backed away from the dog. She refused to look at her father. "I suppose mom probably made you come in here so you can try talking to me about school?"  
  
Goku looked offended. "Of course not." He used the bed as a brace while he pushed himself back up to his feet. "I was just letting Lucky in. She's been sitting outside your door all night."  
  
Usagi watched her father as he turned around to leave. She was a little confused. Usually when he came in like that he either wanted to talk, or her mother sent him in. It didn't feel right for him to just leave like that without saying a word more to her about her strange behavior. "Dad?" She called to him, not knowing exactly what she was doing. Goku paused, but remained silent. "Wanna talk?"  
  
Goku made his way back to her bed and sat down next to Lucky once again. "Sure. What about? Sports? Tournaments? Or the latest thing Mr. Satan's done to make himself look like an idiot in front of everyone."  
  
Usagi couldn't help but giggle at that last suggestion. "As interesting as those topics would make for a conversation, I kind of want to talk about something a little more important."  
  
"Oh?" Goku quirked a brow. "And my hobbies aren't important to you anymore?"  
  
Usagi playfully glared at her father with a muffled giggle. "Daddy."  
  
Goku chuckled as leaned against the wall in order to get comfortable. "Wha'do you wanna talk about then?" He put his hands behind his head and crossed his legs, somewhat.  
  
Usagi turned her eyes downward and grabbed for her tail. She wasn't sure how to bring up what was actually bothering her. She had never really had a problem before, but for some reason, this felt a little different. Sighing, she decided to just dive right into it. "I'm scared."  
  
Goku's happy disposition dropped only to be replaced by concern. "Excuse me?" Did she know something he didn't? Was there someone at school like Tatsuo? Both of these questions and more raced through his head as he tried to figure out what in the world she was talking about. Maybe it was Mr. Koch.  
  
Two seconds after she had said that Usagi knew that wasn't exactly the best way to just come out with it. But it was what she had started with so she might as well go with it. "I mean, I'm scared about the entrance exams."  
  
Goku's heart felt a little more at ease after hearing that. He placed his hand over his heart as he stared at his daughter. "God, girl. You almost gave me a heart attack. I thought someone was trying to kill you or something."  
  
A slight smile cracked upon Usagi's face, but nothing much. "I'm sorry. I guess I wasn't thinking." She fiddled with her tail as Lucky nipped softly at her hands.  
  
Goku reached out and rubbed her knee. "Don't worry." He pulled his arm back and started to sit up. "Don't you think your mother would be a better person to talk to about the exams?"  
  
Usagi literally threw herself over her father's lap at the mentioning of talking this over with her mother. That was NOT something she could imagine herself doing. "Daddy, no!" She quickly realized how childish she was acting and pulled away from his lap in embarrassment. "I mean, no." She said more calmly this time.  
  
Goku was convinced. Chi-Chi was obviously someone this child did NOT want to talk to at the moment. "I'm listening."  
  
Usagi sat on her knees as she pushed the excited Lucky to the side. Looking back into her father's caring eyes, she asked her first question. "Daddy what if me and the girls don't get into the same school? What if they all get in the same school but I'm in a different one? What if we start growing apart?"  
  
Goku's eyes widened at the mouthful he had just received from his daughter. He hadn't expected a game of twenty questions. "What if, what if, what if? Don't you ever ask why anymore?"  
  
Usagi frowned. "Daddy this is serious. What if I don't.. ."  
  
Goku put his hand over her mouth to quiet the girl down. "I heard you the first time, Usagi." He sat up and pulled his legs close enough to his chest so he could cross his feet and still be able to rest his arms on his knees. "I think you're worrying about nothing, really."  
  
That wasn't exactly the answer Usagi had been looking for. "But what if I'm not and we really DO get split up? Then we won't see each other every day."  
  
Goku frowned at his daughter. "Do you really think you guys have to go to the same school to be friends?"  
  
Usagi lowered her head. "No. But I've seen it happen."  
  
Goku chuckled. "You five are attached at the hip. With as close as you are I really don't think you're going to have that problem, sweetie."  
  
Usagi didn't really seem to like the answer she got, but she knew it was true. In all honesty she wasn't even really worried about going to different schools. There was really something more bothering her. "Dad?"  
  
Goku patted his leg to get Lucky's attention. "Hmm?"  
  
Usagi gulped as she tried to find the words to her next question. "Do you think mom will be mad if I don't get accepted into a good school?"  
  
Goku dropped his playful attitude about the entire situation right then and there. He ignored Lucky, who now sat on his lap, and looked directly into his daughter's bright, blue eyes. He KNEW something had been bothering her the moment the subject was mentioned earlier. "Your mother would never get mad at you for something like that. I know she comes off strong sometimes, but you know how she is. She wants the best for you."  
  
Usagi looked down at her bed, not so sure of his answer. "No, I think you're wrong. Mom's been stuck on education from the start. She's always yelling at me when I don't bring home good grades. Why would this be any different? In fact, it'd be worse. You heard her today. What school I get accepted into really impacts my future." She let her words taper off as she backed off even further.  
  
It was then that Goku knew something even greater was bothering his daughter. "Usagi, look at me." Usagi didn't react. "Look at me." This time Usagi looked up in silence. "Your mother will NOT be mad if you don't get into your first choice. As long as you try your hardest she'll be happy. That's all she's ever really asked."  
  
Usagi sighed. "I'm just tired of disappointing her."  
  
Goku didn't know how to respond to that. It wasn't exactly his area. He didn't really want to meddle with his wife's territory. "You won't disappoint her."  
  
Usagi looked up with a slight smile. "I hope you're right."  
  
Goku wished he could help her more, but education wasn't exactly his forte. After all, he himself had never gone to school. Everything he knew he picked up from other people or looking through all of Gohan's old textbooks. There was only one piece of advice he could give her at that point. "Think of the exam this way. The test is your foe, and it's your job to train for the big fight."  
  
Usagi liked the sound of that. She had been training for enemy attacks all her life, why should this be any different. "That makes a lot of sense."  
  
Goku smiled. "Of course it does."  
  
Usagi smirked. "I'm gonna train for this just as hard as I did for Cell."  
  
Goku patted his daughter on the leg with an even greater smile. "That's my girl."  
  
"Thanks dad."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Next Night: Museum of Art~~  
  
Haruka restlessly fidgeted in her suit as she and Michiru made their way up the front walkway of the Art Museum, which was lined with tiny, white lights. Michiru giggled as she latched onto the other girl's arm. "Stop fidgeting." In her free hand she held a small portfolio of her work as Taro had requested.  
  
"I can't help it. I'm not used to getting all dressed up." Haruka whined as she adjusted her tie. "I can't believe you're making me do this. She brushed down her jacket to make sure it was sitting flat.  
  
"Don't you want to take an interest in me and my hobbies?"  
  
Haruka gave a sly grin. "Well I don't really mind taking an interest in you.. ."  
  
As the two came upon the front door, Michiru blushed. She was cut off by the doorman before she had a chance to reply. "Names please."  
  
Haruka tilted her head back with a groan. 'This place is really gonna be somethin else if they have a list.' She looked back down just after Michiru gave her name. "The names Haruka."  
  
The doorman began searching his list, finding them near the bottom. "Go on ahead." He stepped aside, allowing the two to go on inside. Another woman was quick to approach the doorman, this one not nearly as dressed up as the rest of the folk inside. "Can I help you?" He noticed that she too, like Michiru, was holding something in her hand, but this looked like some sort of silver suitcase.  
  
The woman was quick to glare at the nuisance. "Move aside." She lifted up her silver box and knocked the man out. Stepping over him, she entered the party.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Haruka pulled her arm out from Michiru's grasp. "You didn't tell me this was going to be 'list' kind of place."  
  
Michiru frowned. "Did I have to? I knew you wouldn't have come if I had."  
  
"Damn right I wouldn't. You know these kind of people give me the chills."  
  
Michiru frowned even harder as she put her hands around her hips. "And just WHAT are you implying."  
  
Had Haruka been given the chance to reply, she would have. But she noticed a boy about their age approaching with a huge smile. "You know him?"  
  
"Huh?" Michiru turned around and was suddenly standing face to face with Taro.  
  
"Hello, Michiru." He said calmly, his smile quickly disappearing. He looked up to the girl behind her and held out his hand. "Hello. My name is Taro."  
  
The only reason why Haruka reached out and shook the boy's hand was because Michiru would have completely gone of if she hadn't. "Haruka."  
  
Taro turned his eyes away from the blonde and looked toward Michiru. "Did you bring those paintings?" Michiru lifted up her portfolio. "Great. Why don't you two follow me and we can get set up in one of the studios. Then I'll let you guys look around a bit since you're probably dying of excitement."  
  
"Yeah, I'm really dying." Haruka mumbled. "You go on ahead." She turned her head to the right, noticing something that would much more fun than the artsy stuff. "I'll be there in a minute."  
  
Michiru turned her attention in the direction that Haruka's eyes were facing with a silent giggle. She knew exactly what her partner was after. "All right." She turned back to Taro with a smile. "Let's go.  
  
Taro nodded as he put his hand on her shoulder and began directing her through the crowd of people. "It's upstairs. We'll have completely privacy up there. That way you won't have to show anyone else if you don't want to."  
  
The uninvited woman spotted the duo making their way upstairs. "Perfect." She pushed her way through the crowd.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"So, Michiru, was that guy your boyfriend?"  
  
Michiru blushed as she looked down. "You could kind of say that. Actually, SHE'S my girlfriend."  
  
"I'm sorry!" Taro brought his hand behind his head and scratched it. "I had no idea she was a, well, you know, a girl." His face turned a bright shade of red.  
  
Michiru giggled. "It's all right. She's not exactly the female-looking type. It's understandable."  
  
Taro grinned. "She's a very lucky girl." Michiru's face turned even brighter as she was directed into a small, but brightly-lit studio. "Well, here we are."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, the uninvited woman snuck upstairs. She found herself met with a hallway of darkness. "What kind of idiot runs a Museum without lights upstairs?" Shrugging to herself, she began on he way down the hall. Not far from he position she could see a light being emitted from underneath one of the doors. "Perfect. How convenient that my next victim just take himself away from the crowd and put himself in a secluded place. That girl will be the only witness. I guess I can take her Heart Crystal too. It never hurts to stock up." Laughing to herself, she made a quick dash down the hall and pressed herself against the wall just outside the only occupied room on the floor. She could hear voices, which meant they were actually in there. "Time to get my first Pure Heart Crystal!" 


	160. Part 7

~*~*~*~  
  
Michiru sat down in chair that was placed in the center of the art studio. She placed her portfolio on her lap as she began to take out a few of her paintings to show Taro. "This one was my first."  
  
The door behind the pair slowly creaked open to allow Kaori inside. "And it'll be your last."  
  
Taro and Michiru gasped in surprise as their heads turned in the direction of the interruption. "Who are you?!" Taro demanded. He didn't recognize the woman as one of his father's colleagues, which were the only people who had been invited to the ceremony other than Haruka and Michiru. "How did you get in here?!" Michiru jumped out of her seat not knowing to expect from this woman. She grabbed her paintings and quickly shoved them back into her portfolio so they wouldn't be seen by the stranger.  
  
Kaori set her little silver box down while she ignored the boy's demands. She knelt down beside it and began unlatching it as she had many times before.  
  
Taro took a step forward, curious as to what the strange looking red head had. Maybe she was just a fan and wanted to show him some of her art, but she didn't seem the type. Michiru stood her ground. After training with Mamoru under the supervision of Piccolo for most of her life she had learned how to sense when something was up. She could tell that this woman was bad news. "This isn't good."  
  
Kaori sneered at the aqua-haired girl. "Watch as I make your friend disappear, or rather, die."  
  
Taro jumped away and glanced over his shoulder. "Michiru, run!" Stumbling over his feet, he spun around and ran to the back of the room.  
  
Kaori just laughed as she pulled the cover off of the silver box, which let out a cloud of dust. Michiru knew right then and there that this wasn't just anybody. This woman was definitely up to something. Acting fast, she grabbed Taro from behind and threw him to the side. She crouched down and began calling fourth her Ki.  
  
Losing his footing, Taro rolled down to the ground into a corner. He wasted no time turning his attention back up to the two women in shock, especially Michiru. She didn't seemed to be scared at all like he would have thought. She even seemed to be challenging the woman. "Michiru don't try anything stupid. She might have a gun!" Using the floor as his leverage, he pushed himself back onto his feet.  
  
Kaori laughed even louder as she looked upon her next victim. She really had no interest in Michiru. It was Taro she was after. His love for the Arts made him a perfect candidate for a Pure Heart Crystal. Kicking her little box, she commanded her creature to do its job. "Get his Pure Heart Crystal!"  
  
Michiru's eye widened as she prepared herself for whatever the woman was talking to. "Taro get out of here! It's you she's after!"  
  
Taro frowned as he grabbed Michiru from behind and tried to pull her aside, but she wouldn't budge. "I'm not leaving you alone with that crazy woman!" He looked down at the box and noticed a long, slimly object making its way out. "Huh?"  
  
Michiru pushed Taro back. "Don't worry about me! I can hold up against this thing! Go find Haruka!" She kept her eyes planted on Kaori as she tightened her fists. She squatted to the ground to create a quick diversion to gain the slug's attention. She noticed that Taro hadn't moved. He was too stunned. "Get outta here!"  
  
Taro blinked with a quick shake of his head to snap himself out of his trance. "What's going on?!" Without waiting for an answer he dove for the door.  
  
Kaori, who wasn't too far from the door herself, took one step to the side with a grin. She clothes-lined Taro and pushed him back into the room. "Where do you think you're going, little man?"  
  
Taro looked up at Kaori with genuine fear in his eyes. He had no idea who this woman was or what she wanted. Michiru noticed that the slug was beginning to turn back toward Taro. 'Crap!' Not knowing what else to do, she extended her leg toward the slug-like creature and kicked it into the wall. She could hear Kaori laughing at the top of her lungs as the creature slowly began to erect itself into its attacking form. "What the?" She stood up and went in for another attack. She knew this could only go on for so long, so she bent down and grabbed the slimly thing with her hands, hoping that she could use her strength to stop it from moving.  
  
Taro backed into a wall as he just watched the girl wrestle with the oversized bug. He was thoroughly confused at that point. "Be careful!"  
  
Michiru struggled to keep her hold on the creature, which wriggled around in her grasp. She wasn't able to hold it long before her hands just became too slippery to really keep a good grip on it. Her hands covered in slim, the creature shot out of her hands and directly for the boy on the other side of the room. Taro tried to make a hasty run for it. Michiru looked down at her hands with a groan. They were covered with a greenish-brown gel substance.  
  
Kaori chuckled at the girl. "Looks like you're a little pre-occupied there."  
  
Michiru glared at the woman as she wiped her hands on the ground, but by then it was too late. Taro was already lying on the ground as lifeless as a fallen tree. "Taro!" Both fear and anger occupied her voice as a feeling of loss hope entered her body. Taro was gone, the one time someone was actually counting on her skills as a fighter and she had to blow it.  
  
Kaori laughed even louder as she neared Tatsuo and her creature and knelt down to see if she had won her most anticipated prize. Michiru slowly stepped toward Kaori, making sure that her feet made as little noise as possible on the linoleum flooring. She clasped her hands together to create one, large fist and brought it up to the side of her head as she would have with a baseball bat.  
  
The unsuspecting Kaori was too busy checking her catch to notice the fighter slowly approaching from behind. She held the glowing Crystal in her hand, but this one was no better than all the others she had caught before. "Stupid boy!" She yelled as she punched Taro's limp body. "Can't even have a Pure Heart Crystal!" She put the Crystal into a little pouch on her side just as she was standing up.  
  
Michiru took her chance while she had it. In one swift movement she brought threw her fist into Kaori's neck, causing the woman to fall face flat with a thud. Michiru narrowed her glare at the practically harmless woman, taking special notice at the glow her side was emitting. "Is that what you were after? He had some sort of jewel you wanted? You had to KILL him for that?!"  
  
Kaori had no real intention of replying to the brat as she tried to regain her composure. Patting her pouch, she made sure her treasure was secure in its place. "You're one of the brat's friends."  
  
"What?!" Michiru had never really seen Kaori hanging around Hotaru's. Not that she or Haruka had ever gone into the child's house.  
  
Kaori grinned, happy that this girl didn't know who she was. Had she, the entire plan would have been ruined. Her identity would have been revealed to the Saiyans, which would have meant bad news. She knew they weren't ready to meet with the Saiyans and their friends. Only when the Mistress truly appeared would they be ready to rid the earth of all threats to 'him'. "Right.. ." She glared down at her creature. "Finish her off."  
  
Michiru frowned as she powered up enough to surround herself with a blue aura. "You're not getting away that easily!"  
  
Kaori scowled back at the girl. "If I stay here any longer I'm going to have to take your Heart Crystal like I did with that idiot." She pointed down to Taro's body, causing Michiru to turn her gaze downward.  
  
Michiru quickly shot her glare back up at the woman to make sure she wasn't going to try anything. But Kaori wasn't the person she should have been worried about at that point, and she soon realized when that slimy, gooey monster was headed right for her in the same position that it had killed Taro with. She reacted the way Piccolo and Mamoru had taught her when she was first learning. Firing a quick Ki ball, she jumped into the air, barely dodging death. The ball of energy tore through the slimy surface of her foe and crashed into the floor beneath it. She thought it was defeated when it fell to the ground, but it was only a matter of seconds before the hole in its stomach was filled in with slimy skin once again. "Huh?"  
  
Kaori had expected that from the girl, but she knew it wouldn't do any good. Professor Tomoe had created that particular creature to resist attacks from the energy using kind of folk. Seeing that Michiru had her hands full, Kaori left the room and started whistling to herself, proud that she at least got a Heart Crystal to keep the Mistress in control of Hotaru's body. Sure it wasn't a pure Heart Crystal, but there were so many candidates and only three Pure Heart Crystals. They would have to weed through all of them to find them all. As long as they could stay hidden they would be fine. It didn't even bother her that one of the friends of Hotaru's friends knew now. Michiru didn't know who the Heart Snatchers were, so she didn't really pose a threat, yet.  
  
While Kaori made a quick escape, Michiru we left back in the studio to battle the slimly slug all alone. She wished she could speak to Haruka through her mind like Usagi and her friends could. She could really have used the help right about now.  
  
The slug-like monster erected itself once again and made a flying dash for the eighteen-year-old. Michiru prepared another blast as she backed herself into the wall. She hoped that by raising her power Haruka would think something was up, but why hadn't she come running now? Raising power levels was NOT exactly proper party etiquette.  
  
Just as Michiru was about to release her power upon her foe, she lost her hold on the Ki ball and her energy was absorbed back into her body. "Oh no! What's happening!?" She looked around the room in a frenzy. Why had her power just disappeared like that? The enemy was coming right for her and she had nothing to protect herself with but her physical attacks.  
  
Just as the two were about to make impact with one another, Michiru dropped to the ground, causing her attacker to fly straight into the wall. Before it had a chance to fall, she kicked it further up into the air in hopes that she would be able to pull of a Ki attack, but it was no go. "Why can't I do it?!" She cried out in distress. She felt like she had no control over her body.  
  
"It's time." A voice whispered.  
  
Her heart racing faster and faster, she looked up only to see no one. "Who's there?!" She crawled away from her current spot, eventually scrambling to her feet. Fearing for her own life now, she ran to the door and ripped it off its hinges in an attempt to get it open. She didn't care at that point. Even though she had her chance to escape and find Haruka, she felt as if she needed to stay there and fight the creature.  
  
"It's your time." The same voice whispered once again.  
  
Michiru frowned as she turned back and faced the inside of the room. The slug was preparing for yet another attack on her. "Crap!" This time she was going to prepare for an all-out physical attack on the creature, instead of just hitting it a few times here and there. Just as she was tensing her muscles, she noticed an aqua-blue light being emitted from her arm as she extended it. "What?!" She pulled her arm back, only to realize her entire body was emitting the strange aura. "What's happening to me?" Her body felt tingly all over as she crouched to the ground, thinking that this thing had some sort of curse on her. She didn't feel weak from the strange light, in fact, she felt more refreshed, like some sort of strange power was building up within her. Looking up at her foe, which was flying back for her, she noticed a strange blue ball of energy forming in front of her nose. "Huh?" Now she was completely confused. A strange voice was talking to her, and now she was glowing a strange color. She didn't need something else to happen too.  
  
"Now choose your destiny!" The strange voice was no longer just a whisper.  
  
Michiru squinted her eyes and stared into the ball of energy as the light intensified with every second that passed by. Inside, she could see a small wand with a golden star at the top. "What is that?" She reached out, but fell short of even touching the energy.  
  
"You don't have much time! Choose now!"  
  
Michiru looked up, feeling as if time had been slowed down. "And what if I refuse?!"  
  
"The gift will pass you by."  
  
Michiru quirked a brow in interest as she looked back upon the ball of energy with the 'stick' inside it. She didn't have a clue what the voice was talking about. What 'gift' was it that she was speaking of? And what did she mean by choosing her destiny? The thought of this being a trick crossed her mind, but judging by the short distance she was from being hit by the slug, she didn't give it much thought past the fact that it could be one. "What IS the gift?"  
  
"There's no time!" Cried the voice.  
  
Michiru tried to think about what Haruka would do in this situation. Knowing that girl she would take the chance and just grab the stupid thing. She was always one for taking chances. But Michiru never was. She had always just followed Haruka and what she wanted to do. Frowning to herself, she decided to take the chance. She knew there would come a time when she would have to take a chance, Haruka wouldn't always be the one to make the decisions for her. "Alright!" She reached out let her hand penetrate the strange energy as she wrapped her fingers around the base of the tiny wand. Immediately a serge of energy shot out of her body in all directions, causing her foe to be thrown back against the wall once again. This time it didn't get right back up as it had all the other times.  
  
" Now it is time to activate your powers."  
  
Michiru looked up, still trying to find the voice. "Powers? What're you talking about!?"  
  
"Call out the words, 'Neptune Planet Power, Make-up'! Only then will your true powers be awakened! You will become Sailor Neptune."  
  
Michiru looked down at the item in her hands. Her body was still covered in the strange energy. "Here it goes." She took a deep breath as she looked at the other side of the room to make sure there was no immediate threat. Everything checked out all right as the attacking creature seemed to have been paralyzed. Holding the strange wand out, she did as the voice told her. "Neptune Planet Power, Make-Up!" Her body seemed to be taken over as the strange energy intensified, causing her to take a few steps back. "Whoa!" She hadn't expected that to happen. Her energy pattern was starting to change, as was her outfit. The attire she had arrived in disappeared, only to be replaced rather quickly by her own Sailor GI. "A Sailor Senshi?! ME?!" She extended her arm and flattened out her hand, taking notice that the glowing energy had disappeared.  
  
Looking up, she didn't know what to do next. She didn't really feel like herself anymore. Her energy was completely different now, like she was a whole new person. She wasn't sure if she liked the feeling. "What am I supposed to do now?"  
  
"Activate your attack to kill the beast with the words 'Deep Submerge'."  
  
Sailor Neptune didn't question the voice this time. It hadn't lied to her yet, so she had no reason not to believe it. Holding her hands together like she would for a Ki blast, she chanted the words as told. "Deep Submerge!" A large, basketball size ball of blue energy formed between her hands. She threw it forward and watched it as it spiraled down at its target, the stunned bug. On impact, the energy merged with the creature, but not for long. It soon exploded after burrowing deep enough within the creature's flesh. Neptune just watched in amazement. Her own Ki attack hadn't worked against that thing, but this power seemed to chomp right through it.  
  
Neptune raised her hands to eye level and looked at them in disbelief. "How? What is this?"  
  
"You're not finished. That woman is getting away with that boy's Heart Crystal!"  
  
The Senshi of the ocean looked up, still with confusion written all over her face. "Heart Crystal? Is that what she put in her pouch?!"  
  
"There's no time! You have to find her! Find out where their operations are!"  
  
Neptune didn't exactly know what she was doing, but she nodded anyway. If this so-called Heart Crystal was what was taken from Taro, then that's what probably killed him too. Maybe if she got the Heart Crystal back she could some how get it back into his body, and then maybe he would come back to life. It was worth a try. She ran out the door, completely ignoring the monster she just obliterated.  
  
"Don't go to the other one."  
  
Neptune raced down the hallway as fast as she could. "Who?"  
  
"The one you call Haruka."  
  
The Senshi frowned. She had never kept anything this big from her friend before, and didn't plan on starting now. "I have to tell her. She can help me find the woman who stole Taro's heart crystal!"  
  
"No! She is not to know!" She voice shouted angrily.  
  
Neptune stopped short as she came upon the stairway that led to the lower level. "She can probably feel me already anyway!"  
  
"She couldn't feel a thing all night!" Neptune didn't understand. She and Haruka had been taught how to sense each other, and everyone else around Why would tonight be any different. She just stood silent, trying to make sense of everything that was happening. "You're a special kind of Senshi. You're not like Usagi and the others. You protect the Princess silently; therefore your power cannot be detected by anyone. Your power is needed, which is why you've been summoned. Your power has been coming fourth all night. And now you've finally wakened up as the Senshi of the Ocean, Sailor Neptune."  
  
Knowing that she didn't have any time to waste, she quickly started down the stairway. She couldn't help but think about what the female voice had just told her. She still wasn't sure about this whole Senshi business. She had freaked when she heard that Usagi and her friends were the infamous Sailor Senshi that had popped up out of no where two years before. She wasn't sure if she deserved the job of protecting Usagi after everything she had pulled in the past. Of course, she wasn't sure if Mamoru even deserved the role of being Earth's Prince. "So I'm not to tell Usagi?"  
  
"Right."  
  
Neptune wasn't sure what she thought of that, but she didn't have much time to think about it. She had her mind set on greater things. She had to find the strange woman who had attacked Taro and get his Heart Crystal back. She would ask for details later.  
  
The party was still going strong downstairs. The first place Neptune laid her eyes on was Haruka laughing it up with what looked like two confused young artists. Neptune couldn't help but giggle at the site. Haruka always had a way of making a joke out of everything, even if it wasn't funny to the other party. Shaking her head, she remembered that she had a job to do. She pushed her way through the crowd as fast as she could to get to the front door. She couldn't help but notice everyone staring at her as if she were an idiot that didn't belong to the party, but she didn't care. She just kept on her way to the door.  
  
Haruka noticed the strange girl running for the door and became amused. "What do we have hear?" She noticed that the outfit the girl had on was exactly like the one the Senshi wore. "A new Sailor Senshi?" Becoming more interested in the girl, she set her drink down and began following her.  
  
Neptune made a quick dash out the door, seeing no one but the knocked out doorman herself. "She was definitely here." Figuring she could get better land coverage in the air, she let herself rise off the ground. She sighed with relief over the fact that she could actually use her Ki again.  
  
Haruka followed the Senshi out the door, only to be face with nothing but the blackness of the night. "What? Where'd she go?" She looked all around, even up in the sky. But she still saw nothing. "Why couldn't I feel her?" Shrugging to herself, she decided to go back inside and check on Michiru. She had been upstairs with that Taro guy for quite a long time now. She turned around and walked back inside, taking close notice to the fact that the doorman was out cold on the ground. "Damn, even the doormen get smashed at these parties."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Neptune flew at top speed, hoping that Kaori hadn't gone too far. Hopefully she was on foot, but the chances of her luck being THAT good were pretty bad. Chances were that the woman had just hoped in her car and driven off. And if that was the case she would probably be traveling in the back roads, but then again, she probably wasn't expecting anyone to follow her so maybe there was a chance that she was on the main road. But the next question was where she would be heading and what type of car she was in. There were dozens of people on the street, with no telling which one she'd be in. And it wasn't even certain that she was even in a car yet.  
  
Sighing to herself, Neptune gave herself a quick boost of energy. She decided not to follow one straight road in her search. Instead she decided to fly from back and fourth over a series of roads that were side by side within a five-mile radius in hopes to see something suspicious.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Haruka found herself standing face to face with a rather largely built guard as she reached the stairway that led to Michiru. "Excuse me." She said as she tried to push past.  
  
The Guard held his arm out with a frown. "No guests are to go upstairs at this time."  
  
Haruka frowned back as she once again tried pushing her way past him, but the guy wouldn't have it. "Let me up there. My friend went up there with some guy named Taro."  
  
"Taro is the son of the Museum owner, and is therefore allowed upstairs. If he didn't take you up there himself then you obviously weren't meant to be up there."  
  
Haruka growled at the man. She was ready to haul off and hit the guy, but that would only result in getting kicked out of the party, which would more than likely upset Michiru. "Look, the only reason why I stayed down here is so I could get some food. Now that I'm full I want to go see them."  
  
"You won't be seeing them until they decide to come down."  
  
Haruka tensed her muscles in anger. "This is insane! Just let me the hell up there!" The guard shook his head, this time saying nothing.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Neptune had almost reached her limit on how far she was going to go and she still hadn't seen anything. There were no crazy drivers on the road nor were there any suspicious looking pedestrians. "Crap!" She didn't know what to do now. She had failed to find the Heart Crystal thief before it was too late. Who knows where that woman had gone to now? If she had had a power level to detect things would have been much easier, but the dang woman was normal, and therefore had barely any power level at all.  
  
Just as she was getting ready to head back and re-search, she caught a bright light reflecting into the side of her eye. "Huh?" Swiftly turning toward the light, she noticed what looked to be a fleeing character making a quick dash into the City Park. "What's this?"  
  
Neptune followed the person into the park. The place was darker than the street, with no real lights around, which made it hard to spot anyone. She could hear a few whispering voices, but everyone showed up as nothing more than shadows. "Great.. ." Walking cautiously, she began her search for the woman with the sliver case. 'Could this be where their operations are?' Walking through the park, she didn't really notice anything too out of the ordinary. The person whom she had chased in here was gone, and so was the glare from her silver case.  
  
Everything seemed calm until a harsh slamming of a door filled the area with a 'bang'. Neptune jump-turned toward the sound and found herself facing small janitor's building. "What have we here?" Thinking that she had found the culprit, she raced to the rusty door and wrapped her hands around the knob. She immediately began tugging on the door, but it didn't seem to want to open. "Come on!" She yelled, drawing the eyes of many passerby's. The door wouldn't budge, which obviously meant one thing. It had been locked, but by who? She hadn't seen anyone walking away. But then again, it WAS dark outside.  
  
Sighing to herself, Neptune was beginning to think that she had been outsmarted by the enemy. Kaori was no where in sight. She seemed to have just disappeared.  
  
With one last attempt to help her friend, Neptune kicked the Janitor's door in, thinking that the woman had been the one to cause it to slam shut. She heard a group of people screaming in the background, but at that point she didn't care what anyone else thought. Her number one goal at that point was finding Taro's Heart Crystal. Looking inside, she was disappointed to see that there was nothing out of the ordinary in there. It was just a janitor's closet.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kaori jumped in surprise at the crash that had been created when Neptune kicked the door in. She hadn't expected anyone to follow her in there, especially not Michiru. She hadn't expected the girl to live past the wrath of her monster, but she had and now she was going to spread the word around. No matter though. The girl didn't know who was doing the attacks. They would just have to be more careful from then on.  
  
Smirking to herself, she continued on her way down the secret tunnel that led from the park to the lab beneath Tomoe's house. They had created tunnels like this all over the city for easy travelling, and it looked like it was going to pay off now that their existence was going to be known.  
  
Kaori stuck a small remote into her pocket as she continued on her way with her night's catch. The professor had that ahead to the fact that someone may find out about their operations and had created 3D projectors that, when activated, would make it appear as if a wall were in a place where it wasn't really, which had been the only reason why her chaser hadn't followed her down into the tunnel. It was the perfect plan to keep meddlers out.  
  
~*~*~  
  
After searching the park and the surrounding area thoroughly for Kaori, Neptune finally decided to return back to the party. She would just have to swallow her defeat. It was obvious that Kaori had gotten the better of her this time, but that would never happen again. Next time she would be able to take out the monster before Kaori got the Heart Crystal.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Ten Minutes Later~~  
  
Kaori literally fell into the underground lab. "Professor!" She pushed herself off the ground and ran to the table in the center of the lab, where Tomoe seemed to be researching a new kind of creature for her to use.  
  
Tomoe didn't take his eyes of his work. "What is it?" Kaori calmly walked to the table and set the Heart Crystal down before him. The Professor briefly brought his eyes up with a frown. "What the hell is that?"  
  
"A Heart Crystal, Professor." She didn't know if he was pleased or not.  
  
Tomoe put what he was working on down on the table and completely turned around to face Kaori. "I thought I told you to get the damn Pure Heart Crystals!"  
  
Kaori gulped at the Professor's rage. "The boy didn't have one."  
  
Tomoe growled as he stood up and grabbed the case from her grip. "This is the second time you've screwed up!"  
  
Kaori frowned. "They'll come up." She walked along side the Professor. "We've been found out."  
  
Tomoe dropped the case as he turned to the woman with rage in his eyes. "What?! Who found out!?"  
  
"One of Hotaru's friends' friend. She killed my Heart Snatcher and then started coming after me. I barely escaped into the tunnel before she kicked down the door in the park. Luckily I had the projector turned on."  
  
Tomoe picked up the case once again, only to slam it down on the nearest counter. "There's NOTHING lucky about being found out." He eyed Kaori very carefully with a frown.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Neptune landed at the front door, but not before making sure the area was secure and free of anyone who could possibly see her de-transform. The doorman had been taken inside already, which took away any threat of her identity being blown on the first night. Taking her opportunity while she had it, she quickly de-transformed herself back into Michiru.  
  
Walking back inside to find Haruka, she wondered if Taro's body was still there, or if it had been found. She felt horrible. She hadn't been able to save him, and now he was dead.  
  
Haruka was already standing by the door, completely alone, and completely bored without Michiru. It had already been a half-hour since she had gone upstairs with that boy. She wondered what they could be doing up there. She knew it didn't take that long to show a few paintings.  
  
Haruka was just about ready to go and force her way upstairs when she noticed her aqua-haired friend walk through the front door, throwing her into a blitz of confusion. "What the? Weren't you just upstairs?"  
  
Michiru looked up into the girl's eyes with a blank expression. "I came out the back way."  
  
Haruka, not knowing what was chewing at the other girl's conscience, smiled widely. "Well it's about damn time. I'm bored outta my mind."  
  
Michiru grabbed a hold of Haruka's arm and started leading her out of the building. "I wanna go home."  
  
"Huh?" She took a quick look inside, and then in the quad area outside. "Where's that Taro guy?"  
  
Michiru gulped. "Sleeping." 


	161. Part 8

(It's out a little late. heh. I got sidetracked by an N64 Emulator. )  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Michiru had been silent all the way to her home, which worried Haruka. She knew that Michiru loved the arts more than anything, yet the girl had wanted to leave only a half-hour after being at the Museum. She didn't know anything that would ever cause Michiru to want to leave her 'love', not even Haruka had been able to pull the girl away from art. She wondered if maybe Taro was the cause of all this. Michiru HAD looked pretty upset standing there in the doorway. Maybe he had tried something upstairs.  
  
Looking over to her companion, Haruka frowned. Michiru was never this silent. The last thing she had said was the word 'sleeping', which was referring to Taro. That only made Haruka think that they boy DID try something with her girl, like maybe Michiru had to knock him out or something. And if that were the case, Haruka would have to have a little 'chat' with him. "You ok?"  
  
Michiru didn't respond to the question. Her mind wasn't really in this world, more rather a world of her own. The more distance she put between herself and the Museum, the worse she felt. She couldn't help but feel responsible for Taro's death. She hadn't been able to save him. What kind of a Senshi would she make if she couldn't even save the people she was trying to protect? And more, What kind of Senshi would she make if she couldn't stop the enemy from getting what they needed to fulfill their evil plans? The world was doomed if she was the one who was supposed to stop everything.  
  
She wondered why couldn't she just tell Usagi? Why was it so important that the Princess not know about this particular enemy? She and her Senshi would be great assets to the fight. Of course, if she could find what the Heart Snatchers were after before they did, then there probably wouldn't be a fight. But then again, Michiru didn't know exactly what they were after. She had heard Kaori say something about a Pure Heart Crystal, whatever that was. She wouldn't know what a Pure Heart Crystal was if her life had depended on it. Hell, she had no idea what a Heart Crystal looked like let alone a Pure Heart Crystal,. but her life wasn't the only thing on the line at this point.  
  
Now she had the duty of protecting the Moon Princess, which had somehow just become HER Princess. She wasn't sure if she liked the idea of that. Much like Haruka, she hated the thought of being under anyone's command. She had always been a bit of a loner, only hanging out with Haruka and Mamoru, and occasionally the Americans. Now she had to be a part of a bigger group, though silently. That was yet another thing that worried her. She had absolutely no help from anyone else with this. Everything depended on her, and her alone. What frightened her more was the fact that she had no one to consult with. She had to keep everything to herself, including the loss of Taro.  
  
Haruka had been trying to get Michiru's attention for nearly five minutes. The girl just stared off into the night. Haruka knew then that there WAS something wrong. Michiru wasn't one to daydream like this. "Michiru!"  
  
Michiru jumped in surprise, her heart beating faster at the wake-up call. She glanced all around the area, alert and ready for an attack. "What?!" She reached into her jacket pocket and grabbed for her transformation pen.  
  
For once Haruka wasn't critical of the girl. She knew something was stressing her friend out, which concerned her more than anything. Michiru was really the only person she 'cared' about. "Hey, hey, calm down." She reached around Michiru's shoulder and pulled her close. "Something's bothering you."  
  
Michiru released her grasp on her transformation pen, letting it fall to the bottom of her pocket. She shook her head, trying desperately to think of an explanation for her behavior. "No, no. Nothing's bothering me." She tried to yawn. "I'm just a little sleepy, that's all."  
  
After knowing the girl for nearly her entire life, Haruka knew better than that. "Come on. I'll bet that asshole did something to you, didn't he?" She pressed her fingers into Michiru's arm as she pulled her even closer. "Did he try to make you do something you didn't want to?"  
  
Michiru wasn't really phased by Haruka's questions, in fact, she had actually expected something like that. Haruka had a habit of jumping to conclusions like that. Michiru didn't really mind, it showed her that Haruka really did love her. "No, he didn't try anything. You don't have to worry about that."  
  
Haruka wasn't satisfied. She knew she could trust Michiru, it was just the hormones of young men that couldn't be trusted. "Well was there a fight?"  
  
Michiru took a deep breath. She wasn't sure she liked being asked all these questions at a time like this. She wanted to be alone to recollect her thoughts. Looking down the street, she could vaguely make out her house. "You could say that."  
  
Haruka stopped her questioning right there. She didn't need the entire story now to understand why Michiru was upset. That idiot Taro must have said something to her, which in turn, upset her. But what could he have said, or even done? "That idiot! When I get my hands on him he's gonna wish he never wanted to see your paintings. Pausing with a thought, she looked down at Michiru's hands, which were cupped together. "Wait a minute, where's your artwork?" She stopped short in her footsteps, pulling Michiru back with her.  
  
Michiru lowered her attention to the ground, not wanting Haruka to see the hurt in her eyes. "I guess, I left them there." She had completely forgotten about her work after what had happened, but she didn't really care anymore. Her paintings didn't seem all that important in light of becoming a Sailor Senshi.  
  
Haruka frowned at the girl's reply. That wasn't like her at all. She had always taken pride in her work, which caused her to freak out whenever something happened to even one painting. Then it hit her. It was about the paintings. "He shot em' down, didn't he?" Michiru slightly rose her head, but said nothing. She wasn't sure if she understood. "He didn't like your paintings. That bastard caused an argument, and you lost your temper and knocked him out, didn't you?"  
  
Michiru sighed. She wished it had been that simple. "Uh, yeah." She hated lying to Haruka, but it seemed like it would be the only way that she could stop the questions from coming in. Not wanting to continue this conversation any further, Michiru pulled away from Haruka's grasp and started walking toward her house once again. "I want to be alone for a while." And with that, she left Haruka standing on the curb, alone.  
  
Haruka didn't try to pursue her friend, now that she knew what was bothering her. She knew Michiru would probably be ok by morning after she had a night to think.  
  
Turning her view into the sky, Michiru stopped after checking to make sure Haruka was no longer in sight. She had no idea what she was supposed to do. How was she supposed to fight these enemies single handedly, unless there were others that were going to be awakened soon, but until then, she was on her own as Sailor Neptune.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Next day: Friday~~  
  
The next day was quite chaotic at the college. The news of Taro's death had spread throughout the school like a brushfire. That had been the third death in three days. All three 'victims' all seemed to have died in the same manner. To the untrained eye it looked to be a completely natural death. Doctors were stumped on the causes, but all signs were pointing to complete body failure with every organ stopping at once. No virus had been detected anywhere in the body, but doctors had only been researching for three days, going on their fourth. All three bodies were found with their skin clammy and green.  
  
Michiru was the only person who knew that this was no epidemic. It was in fact the doing of the Heart Snatchers. As long as she was able to defeat the monsters BEFORE their female master took off with the Heart Crystal she would be fine. But if she got a chance to take off with it like the night before, the Crystal would never be recovered.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~10th Street Middle School~~  
  
While the students at Mugen School were stressing over the new 'virus', things at the Middle School were going a lot smoother. They were going smoother until fourth period, that is, for the girls' fourth period class happened to be their most dreaded. The four anticipated the worst as they finished up their ten-minute break from the last class.  
  
Minako was the first of the five to notice their new math teacher walk through the door. "Don't look now guys, but a freak just walked through the door."  
  
The other four popped their heads up to see Mr. Koch walked to the front desk with an armful of books. This was his second day as their teacher, and luckily he had been relatively calm the day before. But the three who had had him as a teacher in the past knew that wouldn't last for long. He had been the same way on their first day of the first grade, but as soon as that second day hit he turned into a nightmare.  
  
Usagi placed her hands flat out on the desk and leaned on her arms. She knew this was going to be bad. This was probably the most important year in her education and HE was going to be coaching her through math, her most troubled subject. "The bug has infiltrated the room."  
  
Ami looked at Usagi, and then at the teacher. She didn't really see anything wrong with him, yet. She knew how badly he treated his students in the past, but he had acted quite professional in class the day before. "He didn't seem that bad yesterday. Maybe he's changed his attitude in a classroom atmosphere."  
  
Makoto rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. "Oh yeah, and my dad isn't a complete asshole."  
  
Mr. Koch slammed his books on his desk and glared up at Makoto. "There will be no swearing in my classroom, Ms. Kino." He ignored the scowl that he received from the teen and went on to start his class. "Sit down, everyone!" The classroom quickly quieted down, leaving only the sound of the students' shoes beating against the floor as they scurried to their seats.  
  
He walked around the front of his desk, holding a piece of paper. Mr. Koch looked around the room, which was completely silent now that his students had all taken their seats. "We have some business to take care of before we can go any further into this year. As you all know, you're going to have to take the entrance exam at the end of the year to determine what High School you will attend. It will probably be the hardest thing you will ever have to do as a student." He looked down at Usagi, who sat behind Ami. "You have to understand that these tests are extremely hard, and most of you won't get into your first choice school. In fact, most of you won't even get into your second choice."  
  
Usagi squirmed in her chair, wanting desperately to completely go off on the man. She didn't appreciate the way he seemed to be singling her out with his eyes. The only thing that kept her from saying something to him was the little conversation she and her parents had had about the exams the other night. She knew her chances of getting into a good school with her friends would be drastically lowered if she had a bad reputation. And so yet another aspect of her training was added in preparation for the exams. She would have to learn to hold her tongue.  
  
Mr. Koch sat down on an empty space on his desk. "As one of your Eighth grade teachers I am supposed to prepare you for the exam. Most teachers don't start prepping their students until after December some time. But I'm going to start you out today so you don't have as much homework to cram in at the end of the year."  
  
Usagi smiled wide, and before she knew what she was about to do, she acted impulsively. "Now that's the first cool thing I've ever heard you say." Her eyes widening, she quickly covered her mouth with her hands. Feeling the eyes of her classmates, she slouched down into her chair in embarrassment.  
  
Mr. Koch jumped off his desk and walked to the Saiyan's desk. He put his hand on the surface and glared down into the girl's eyes. "Excuse me, young lady, did you have something you wanted to share about the entrance exams?"  
  
Usagi's cheeks turned red as she struggled to bring her eyes up to meet with her teacher's. She knew for sure she was going to get it from him this time, not that she didn't deserve it. "No?"  
  
Mr. Koch growled softly as he narrowed his glare at the girl. He would have expected her to act a little more professional now that she was in eighth, especially with the entrance exams coming up so soon. "All right." He turned around and began walking to his desk. "Since you feel the need to have little outbursts in class, we'll take you out and put you into a different, and hopefully more comforting environment. I would hate to leave you in class if you're uncomfortable."  
  
Usagi cocked her head to the side. "Huh?"  
  
Mr. Koch walked behind his desk and pulled out to metal buckets. He slammed them on his desk with a grin. This was the first time he would actually be able to punish Usagi for her behavior, well, other than slapping her across the face that is. "We'll see if we can't change that attitude yet."  
  
Usagi gulped as she looked up at Ami, who was looking back at her with sympathetic eyes. She knew what was coming up next. She had seen this same thing happen to other students in her seventh grade year. She would pass by students who acted out in class, who had been sent out in the hall to hold buckets full of water for the remainder of the period.  
  
His grin still very apparent, Mr. Koch placed the two buckets on the student's desk. "Fill these up with water in the nearest bathroom and then stand on the other side of the hall in front of the door so I can see you."  
  
Usagi groaned as she pushed herself out of her desk. She never thought of herself as one of those people out in the hallway with the buckets. She reluctantly looked up at Mr. Koch. She noticed nothing other than a twinkle of sick pleasure in his eyes. For once his actions were actually justified, and there was nothing she could do about it. He was finally getting back at her for all the grief she had caused him.  
  
She reached out and grabbed both buckets by their wire handle. She could hear all the little snickers from her classmates, which brought her even further back into the mindset of the earlier days, back to a time when her classmates talked and whispered about her nonstop. With her tail violently waving behind her legs, Usagi complied with her punishment and practically ran out the door to escape the embarrassment.  
  
Mr. Koch laughed beneath his breath at the girl. He may have waited a long time for his revenge, but it was still sweet. "Right, now that that's over, let's continue."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi grumbled all the way down to the bathroom. She couldn't believe this. She knew she deserved what she got, but did the man really have to show that he was enjoying dishing out the punishment? He could have had some respect; after all, he knew how hard of a time she had earning the respect of her classmates. Was he purposely TRYING to make her look bad?  
  
She threw her first bucket under a faucet once she arrived at the bathroom and turned it on. "Who does he think he is; making me look bad in front of everyone!? What kind of a teacher is he anyway?" Once the first bucket was full, she pulled it out, making sure no water spilled out. She then went on to putting the second bucket under the faucet. "He's not supposed to be happy when he punishes one of us! He's supposed to be disappointed in us!"  
  
She pulled out the second bucket when it was finished and turned off the faucet. She picked up one bucket in each hand and laughed. "What was he thinking anyway? This isn't even gonna hurt me." Laughing even louder, she pushed the door open with her back and made her way back to her class. "What an idiot." It didn't take her too long to get back to class since she practically ran. Holding buckets full of water was nothing. Her father had trained her with buckets of water to build up her strength when she was first starting out, and once she got a hang of just walking around with them, she had to run with them, making sure no water spilled out.  
  
She stood on the other side of the hall in front of the door, just like Mr. Koch had told her to. Her initial shock of getting this particular punishment was gone, and now all that was left to fell was spite. She noticed Mr. Koch looking at her from inside the room. She stuck out her tongue with a grin as she lifted up the buckets as if they were nothing. She wouldn't let him think he got the best of her. 'Idiot.'  
  
Mr. Koch frowned at the teen. She always had to find a way to best him. 'You keep acting like that, Usagi. It'll come back to you one of these days.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~One Hour Later~~  
  
Usagi stood out in the hall for the remainder of the period. She knew Mr. Koch was testing her strength, as well as her mind. She could read him. He was trying to make her crack under the pressure of the punishment and completely go off, and if she were back in his first grade class she probably would have, but now that she was older she knew better.  
  
When the Lunch Bell rang, Usagi walked to the side of the hall in which her class was on and waited for the room to fill out. All the students stared at her on their way out, causing Usagi to feel somewhat uncomfortable. Listening to their snickers, she couldn't help but sneer back at them. The bulk of them passed her by, with Rei, Ami, Makoto, and Minako at the end of the line. "I'll meet you guys in the cafeteria."  
  
Getting nods of agreement from the four of girls, Usagi made her way inside the classroom and set the buckets down in the doorway. Mr. Koch looked up from his desk at the clanking noise that was created. "Empty them in the sink." He directed her to the sink on the other side of the room.  
  
Usagi frowned at his reaction as she picked up the buckets once again. As she was passing by his desk, she stopped and glared down at him. Breathing heavily and angrily, Mr. Koch calmly stood up, making sure that he glared back down at the girl. "Didn't I tell you to empty those buckets out?"  
  
Usagi dropped the buckets onto the floor, causing some of the water to splash out onto her feet. Without saying a word, she took her attention away from the idiotic teacher and looked down at her now wet feet. "Would you look at that." She said carelessly.  
  
Mr. Koch walked out from behind his desk and grabbed the girl by her shoulder. "Now you look here! I KNOW we've had plenty of discussions about respect!"  
  
Usagi innocently looked back up into her teacher's eyes. She wanted so desperately to deck him, but since she couldn't, she would do the next best thing. "You're right." Mr. Koch had himself all prepared for sass from his student, and had therefore prepared himself to react in kind. Her reply had completely thrown him off track, which put him into a state of silence. "I shouldn't have disobeyed you."  
  
Mr. Koch looked suspiciously down at the child. She was up to something. He couldn't have tamed her wild attitude THAT easily. Just moments ago she was glaring at him like he was the devil, and now she was falling under his authority. No, this wasn't the Son Usagi he knew. "Excuse me?"  
  
"You were right all along. I shouldn't be so disrespectful. And furthermore, I shouldn't have added my little outburst today. I'm sorry and I won't do it again." She bent down to pick up the water-filled buckets, but was stopped by Mr. Koch pulling her back up by her shoulder. "Yes?" She asked innocently.  
  
"Look, I don't know what you're trying to pull here, but I don't like it. Either you start behaving or you go to the office." Mr. Koch watched her carefully, making sure she didn't try to pull anything stupid.  
  
Usagi frowned. "Wha'do you take me for, a fool? I'm not going to pull anything and get myself in trouble just before the exams! I'm truly sorry for what I did. It was wrong of me. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to empty out these buckets like you told me to." She reached down for the buckets once again, this time with no interference. Slowly lifting the buckets up, she quickly spun around to face the opposite direction of her teacher. Grinning wide, she carelessly flipped the buckets backward, causing the water to fly out. "Uh-oh!" Hearing two separate splashes beat against the ground, she spun back to face Mr. Koch, who was now drenched. "Oh my Gosh! I'm sorry!" Trying to conceal her grin, she dropped the buckets back on the ground and started patting the man's jacket to make it appear as if she were trying to dry him off. "You know, sometimes I just don't know my own strength anymore. How could I possibly be so clumsy?"  
  
Mr. Koch growled as he pushed away the Saiyan. "GET OUT!"  
  
Usagi stopped herself from laughing. "Hey, I said I was sorry. That was truly an accident, man."  
  
Mr. Koch grabbed the child by her arm and pulled her to the door. "I said, 'GET OUT'!" He pushed her out of the room and slammed the door shut.  
  
Usagi allowed her laughter to fill the hall. "Sometimes I just crack myself up!" She staggered down the hall, barely able to hold her composure up. "Man, that was priceless!" She grabbed her side, which was beginning to ache from laughter pains. That was better than yelling at the man, heck, that was worth getting the punishment. She absolutely couldn't wait to tell the girls about this. They would freak when they heard.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Mugen School: Two Hours Later~~  
  
Mamoru was waiting for Haruka and Michiru when their second class got out at two in the afternoon. He had pretty much decided on hanging out with Haruka while Michiru was in her Orchestra class. The truth was that he was bored stiff without them. He had no one to hang out with while they were in College. Although he wanted to live a little before going to College, he wasn't too fond of doing it on his own. He missed hanging out with them during the day.  
  
Haruka came out of the classroom with a scowl planted on her face, while Michiru came out laughing. Mamoru saw this and lit right up. "Hey guys."  
  
Haruka ignored Mamoru and went straight for the main hall, leaving Michiru behind as well. "Come on, Haruka, it wasn't that bad." Michiru giggled. "I thought it was kinda cute."  
  
Haruka scowled even harder as she put her hands in her pockets. "I don't do cute."  
  
Mamoru smirked. Cute wasn't a usual word someone would use in reference to the blonde. "Someone wanna tell me what's going on?"  
  
Pouting, Haruka turned around. "That damn class Michiru signed us up for, it's run by the devil Himself, or more the point, Herself!"  
  
Michiru latched onto her companion's arm with a smile. "There's nothing wrong with learning how to act."  
  
"What the hell kind of class is that anyway?" Haruka sneered.  
  
Mamoru crossed his arms with interest. Now they were getting somewhere. Haruka was CUTE in an acting class. This HAD to be good. "So anyone care to explain."  
  
Michiru nodded as she turned up to her male friend. "Haruka had to act out the part of a woman in her monologue, which means she had to get all dolled up to fit the roll."  
  
Haruka gagged. "God it was horrible."  
  
Mamoru pouted as he crossed his arms. "Aw man! And I missed it? Damn!"  
  
Haruka rolled her eyes. She should have expected something like that outta him. "Trust me, it wasn't pretty."  
  
Mamoru smirked. "I bet not."  
  
Haruka growled. "Hey!" She pulled her arm away from Michiru. She wanted to change the subject, and fast. "I have to be at Track Tryouts in a few minutes."  
  
Mamoru decided to let the subject slip just this once. He wasn't really in any mood to argue with Haruka anyway. "Alright! You're goin out for the team?"  
  
Michiru frowned. "No cheating, remember?"  
  
Haruka grinned. "I don't need to cheat to make the team. I'm good without using any extra power." She motioned for the two to follow her. "Come on, you can cheer me on before you have to go to class, Michiru."  
  
Michiru nodded as she reached for Haruka's hand, who didn't refuse the contact. "Sounds like fun."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~10th Street Middle School~~  
  
School was dismissed for the day at precisely two in the afternoon, which caused the crowd of wild students to fill the halls as they would every other day of the week. However, Friday's were particularly chaotic since it marked the last day of a school week to be followed by two days of freedom.  
  
As always, Usagi and the gang were part of the first group out to welcome the weekend. Unfortunately, Eighth Grade teachers were ruthless about homework, and decided that students should have a Seven-day week.  
  
Stepping outside, Usagi ran out ahead of the group. "I gotta go home and get all this homework done."  
  
Ami smiled at her friend. "I'm so proud of you, Usagi. I've never seen you so quick to do your homework."  
  
Usagi grinned. "Well, my mom drives a hard bargain. This was the only way I could get her to extend my curfew."  
  
Minako giggled. "I'm surprised you even got her to agree to those terms."  
  
Usagi laughed back. "Yeah, I know. But what'cha gonna do?" She waved back to them. "Later!" Giving herself a running start, she jumped into the air and started on her way home.  
  
Minako sighed as she too started out ahead of the group. "Too bad I had to open my big mouth again. I told my mom about Usagi's deal with her mom, you know, just to tell her how cool Chi-Chi's been acting lately and thought it was a good idea! So now I have to get my homework done before I do anything."  
  
Makoto; "Bummer."  
  
Minako. "Totally. So, I gotta go too. I'll try to get this stuff done before too late so we can go the arcade or something."  
  
Makoto grabbed a hold of the straps on her bag that lay upon her shoulders. "I don't know. I was thinking about getting some training done. I'm kind of in the mood for a spar."  
  
Ami looked sideways to Makoto. "This thing with your dad is taking more of an effect on you than you thought, isn't it?"  
  
Makoto sighed. "Is it that obvious?"  
  
Ami nodded. "Yes."  
  
Rei tugged on Makoto's shoulders. "Speaking of your dad, we have to go to your house so you can pack in time to see them off tonight."  
  
Makoto groaned. "That's right. I almost forgot." She looked down at Ami. "Wanna come?"  
  
Ami shrugged. "Sure, why not? I can finish this homework pretty quick."  
  
Minako hated the fact that she couldn't go with her friends to Makoto's. Maybe this would teach her not to open her big mouth all the time. "I'll catch you guys later then."  
  
Rei; "To Makoto's!"  
  
Ami nodded. "Right!"  
  
Makoto rolled her eyes. "Yippee." She sarcastically added.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Mugen School: RaceTrack~~  
  
Mamoru and Michiru eagerly awaited Haruka's arrival on the track in the stands. There were many other students gathered there as well, but most of them were students in the range of High School and younger. Most of the students who attended the school for the College were either preparing to tryout, or were in class.  
  
"Yo." Mamoru looked down to Michiru as he poked her in the arm. "Wanna go get us some sodas or somethin? It's so damn hot out here." He looked up into the sky while shading his eyes with his hand. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky to prevent the sun from beating down into the metal stands.  
  
Michiru rolled her eyes with a chuckled. "Alright, alright."  
  
Mamoru smiled. "Great." He reached into his pocket and pulled out two one's and handed it to the girl. "Here's two bucks. That should be enough for each of us."  
  
Michiru grabbed the money from her friend and began making her way for the edge of the stands. The closest soda machine was in the locker room, so that's where she started heading. She hadn't gotten too far from the stands when she heard a scream from inside the locker rooms. "Uh-oh!" Forgetting about the sodas, she hightailed it into the building.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kaori had struck again, this time with a new creature. Her victim was the School's Track Star for the female division on the College level team. The student had been pinned up against the wall by the Heart Snatcher, who had been made to look like a mutant human.  
  
"You have something I want!" Kaori yelled. "Now take her Pure Heart Crystal!"  
  
Her creature responded by shoving its hand into the girl's chest. It quickly retracted its arm, pulling out a Heart Crystal with it. Kaori's eyes lit up as she went to retrieve her prize, hoping that it would be what she was looking for. "Give it here!" She didn't even pay attention to the girl, who had just fallen lifelessly to the ground. The only thing she had her eye on was the Heart Crystal her Creature had stolen.  
  
Kaori reached out for it, but her path was suddenly blocked by a blue ball of energy that had come out of no where. "What?!" She looked up in the direction where the Ki ball had come from, expecting to see the same bratty girl she had dealt with the night before, but instead she saw another girl. This one was dressed in one STRANGE outfit. "Who the hell are you?" She asked the girl, who was looking down at her from the steps that led upstairs into the racetrack area.  
  
"The one who's going to defeat you! Sailor Neptune!" Neptune didn't waste anytime wiping the smirk off of Kaori's face. She wanted to show the woman that she was dead serious about this.  
  
"GET HER!" Kaori pushed her creature forward to attack, but there was one problem. She had forgotten to retrieve the Heart Crystal. "Crap! Get back here!" Her creature didn't respond. It continued its pursuit of the Sailor Senshi.  
  
Sailor Neptune had the advantage this time. She was on the high ground and it didn't look like this new creature was very agile. 'These idiots don't plan for anything.' Raising her hands up in the air, she prepared for her attack. "Deep Submerge!" A large, blue ball of her planetary energy was formed, only to be thrown down at her foe shortly after.  
  
Kaori jumped back with a gasp. She hadn't expected this girl to be able to attack like that. "The Heart Crystal! It's going to be destroyed!"  
  
Neptune's eyes went wide at hearing that. "What!?" She squinted down at the Heart Snatcher, which appeared to be holding a glimmering item. "Crap!" Having no time to think, she acted on impulse. She flew straight for the creature in a flash. She swiped the Heart Crystal out of its hands and used its shoulders to push herself away from danger.  
  
Kaori grabbed her cheeks in fear. "Oh no!" Not wanting to face the fighter, she turned around and fled the scene.  
  
Michiru was too busy with the Heart Crystal to chase after Kaori. She wasn't sure how long she had to save the victim before she would be gone for good. But first she had to determine one thing, was it or was it not a Pure Heart Crystal? She brought it up to be level with her eyes so she could examine it closely, but it was tough to know if this was one or not considering she had no idea what exactly she was looking for. "Well is it or isn't it?" She asked herself.  
  
"You will Know a Pure Heart Crystal when you see one. You will be able to feel it, as well as see its brightness."  
  
Michiru gasped as she looked up and around. "It's you! Who are you!? Where are you!?"  
  
"You will know when the time comes. For now, just return the Heart Crystal to its owner."  
  
Michiru complied with the wishes of the mystery woman as she knelt down next to the body of the fallen victim. "I hope this works." She whispered. She held out the Crystal with care. The closer the Crystal came to the body, the more it started pulling away from her grip. "Whoa." She gently let go of the Crystal, ready to catch it if it were to fall. Luckily, it hadn't fallen away from her grip. It slowly started to fall back into its body as if a certain force were guiding it in. "Weird." As soon as the Crystal had re-entered the body, the girl's skin color started turning back to normal. "I did it." She whispered. "I really did it."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kaori practically ran all the way back to the old run down lab where the Professor was waiting for her. She couldn't believe she was going to be returning without any type of Crystal. "Well she's done it, she's really done it! Now we're going to make a defense system for the Heart Snatchers!" 


	162. Part 9

~*~*~*~  
  
Kaori made her way back to the abandoned lab where Professor Tomoe awaited her arrival. This would be the first time she actually returned without anything to show for her efforts, which wasn't good. Tomoe was already becoming angry with her for bringing back regular Heart Crystals. She wondered how he, or even the Mistress, would react if she were to return with nothing.  
  
Upon returning to the lab, she walked right in without hesitation. Professor Tomoe was just sitting there, waiting for her. "We have a problem." She said as she walked into the middle of the room and stopped.  
  
It didn't take long for the Professor to notice that Kaori hadn't brought anything back with her. "Where the hell is the Heart Crystal?" He frowned as he pushed himself of the chair he was sitting in.  
  
Kaori held her ground without budging the slightest bit. "That's the problem."  
  
Tomoe frowned even harder as he crossed his arms. He eyes traveled down to the woman's hands, which were empty when they should have been filled with her Heart Snatcher in its case. "Where's the new Heart Snatcher I made you?"  
  
Kaori looked down at her empty hands, and then back up at the Professor. "I encountered someone who can take them out with ease."  
  
Th Professor widened his eyes in surprise as his frown slowly disappeared. "What? I made those Heart Snatchers to resist Ki. At most they will be stunned if they're attacked." He turned away from the woman as he dropped his arms back down to his side.  
  
Kaori crossed her arms. "It was some girl in a Sailor outfit. She chanted something and then, bam; my Heart Snatcher was obliterated."  
  
Raising a hand to his lip, Tomoe wondered how he could counter the power. He had had the benefit of being able to manipulate his creatures' resistance to Ki power by using Hotaru. But, without a sample to go off of he wouldn't be able to make any more of the Heart Snatchers with a resistance. "I'm going to have to research a defense system, but I'll need more information about the fighter you encountered today." He turned back to Kaori, who hadn't yet moved. "For the time being, I'll program them to have basic physical defenses."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto grabbed two bags off of her bed while Rei grabbed another two, which had just been packed. "Come on." Makoto turned to look around her room with a sigh. She had no idea when she would be able to access it again, as her parents hadn't yet decided on when they would be returning. "Let's go." Looking down at her two friends, she motioned for them to begin making their way out of the room.  
  
Ami, who was closest to the door, stepped out first. She hadn't overlooked the fact that there had been virtually no sound since they had arrived. "Where're your parents?"  
  
Makoto turned off her light and hurried Rei out of the room so she could close the door. "At the airport. You know my dad, he never wants to be late, even if it means getting to his destination at least three hours in advance."  
  
Rei chuckled. "My grandfather's the other way around. We're always late to things."  
  
Makoto smiled. "Anyway, I'm supposed to meat them there so I can say goodbye to my mother, and good riddance to my father."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Noticing her father in the hall, Usagi walked into her house with a huge grin. She slammed the door shut and threw her bag down the ground, hardly able to contain her laughter. "Guess what!?" She chirped as she flipped her shoes off before walking in any further.  
  
Goku stopped in his tracks upon hearing his daughter's voice. He turned around to see Usagi approaching him. She grin on her face told him that she was in a good mood. "What?" He asked, rather enthused.  
  
Usagi stopped at the opening of the hallway and leaned against the wall. "I SO got Mr. Koch back for everything today."  
  
Chi-Chi, who had been in the kitchen grabbing a soda, slammed the refrigerator door shut with a frown. "Excuse me!?" Not even giving Goku or Usagi a chance to respond, she raced into the living room. "What did we talk about the other day, young lady?"  
  
Usagi grinned wider as she put her hands behind her back. "Oh don't worry, mom. I won't get in trouble for this." She snickered as she pulled away from the wall. "I got sent into the hall today for an 'outburst'," She paused as she looked up to her mother, who was already giving her a look of disapproval, "which I know was really wrong but it just kinda slid out. Anyway, when I came in from my 'punishment'," She made the quote symbol with her fingers, "I 'accidentally' flipped the buckets over onto Mr. Koch. You should have seen him! He was completely drenched from head to toe. The funny thing is he can't get me in trouble for acting outta spite. I blamed it on my strength." She burst out with laughter just thinking about it again.  
  
Chi-Chi glared hard down at her daughter, trying to look as serious as possible. But it wasn't happening. She put her hands together and applauded her daughter as her frown turned into a smile. Laughing, she walked to her daughter and wrapped her hands around her face. "That's great! That man finally got what's coming to him."  
  
Both Goku and Usagi looked at the woman in shock. Both of them had expected her to flip out. Usagi wrapped her hands around her mother's wrist and continued her own laughter. "I know! He SO deserved it."  
  
Chi-Chi seemed to overlook the fact that Usagi had gotten in trouble in the first place. She was too ecstatic over the fact Mr. Koch had finally gotten what he had coming to him. The man had been asking for it ever since the first day of Usagi's first-grade year. "I'm so proud of you, Usagi. You found a way to get your revenge without getting into trouble." Laughing even harder as a picture of a drenched Mr. Koch popped into her mind, she pulled her hands away from her daughter's face and turned up to her dumbfounded husband. "I've always wanted to see the man suffer." Her words, said very 'evilly', caused chills to run down her family's spines.  
  
Goku scratched his head in confusion as he watched the two girls. Never in a million years had he expected Chi-Chi to react the way she had. He expected her to go off on Usagi like she always had in the past. This was a complete and unexpected change. "Chi-Chi, are you sure we should be encouraging this?"  
  
Usagi cocked her head, half in confusion, as she turned up to look at her father. "What's wrong, dad? You don't think it's funny?"  
  
Chi-Chi momentarily quieted down. "What's wrong with her having a little fun? That man deserves everything he gets." She looked down at her daughter with that 'motherly' look. "Granted what you did was wrong, I'm not going to get angry. I know how he treats you, and as long as long as this won't affect your chances of getting into a good High School, I'll let it slide this once."  
  
Usagi smiled up at her mother. She was actually being 'cool' lately. "Thanks mom."  
  
Goku sighed deeply as he crossed his arms. It was true that the man finally got what he had coming, but he wasn't sure if he approved of the way it was done. "Usagi, I realize you don't like him. And while I realize you won't get in trouble with the school, I'd rather you not use your strength as a scapegoat."  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes with a grin. "Yes dad." She should have known he would say something like that. He was always exceptionally serious when it came to abusing fighting abilities.  
  
Goku smirked with a chuckle. "But you still got him pretty good."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Mugen School~~  
  
After her encounter with the Heart Snatchers, Michiru decided to play things safe and patrol the area for any activities that seemed out of the ordinary. This had been the fourth attack in the past four days, and she could only assume that the numbers would grow before things died down. She was relieved that she had at least stopped the most recent attack from actually working, but there was no telling when and where the Heart Snatchers would strike next. Obviously she wouldn't be able to stop every single attack due to there being only one of her and millions of targets, but she would try her best not to let what happened to Taro, happen to anyone else.  
  
After scouting out the locker-room-building, Michiru made her way back out into the track area, where she noticed Haruka running laps with the other students that were going out for the team. Just as she had decided to make her way to the main building, she caught a glance of Mamoru approaching from the stands. "Oh God." She slightly threw her head back with a half- smile. "I completely forgot about the soda's." She tried act casual in order to fool Mamoru into believing that she was just absent minded.  
  
Mamoru crossed his arms with a playful glare. "Well you took long enough, it's no wonder that you forgot."  
  
Michiru turned completely toward Mamoru, while trying to keep most of her attention on the School. "I got sidetracked." Turning her attention fully onto Mamoru, she reached into her pocket. "Here." She said as she handed her friend the money. "You wouldn't mind getting the soda's, would you?" Before receiving a response, she spun around and began walking away.  
  
Mamoru stared blankly at the cash in his hand for a second or two, and then glanced back up at Michiru's back. He had never seen her act quite so abrupt before, which only caused him to become curious. "What's she up to?" Shrugging, he mashed the cash into his pants pocket and started out for the girl, only to stop suddenly to turn back toward the track. Haruka was at the far end, which meant she wasn't able to see him. Grabbing his opportunity while he had the chance, he ducked into the School to follow Michiru.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto and the girls arrived at the airport just on time to see the Kino's off on their trip. After dropping Makoto's bags off at Rei's, the three high-tailed it airport, where they were met with a the faces of a large crowd of people, all of whom were waiting for planes of their own. The three pushed their way through the masses, hoping to spot a pair of familiar faces. The crowds responded in kind, and pushed the youngsters to the side.  
  
Rei glared at every passing traveler that walked by. "What's wrong with these people!?" Suddenly, what looked to be a senior tour group filled the vicinity, with one younger lady in the lead. "Watch out, guys. Crowd alert."  
  
Makoto pushed herself up against the nearest wall with her friends. She looked down at her watch, realizing that it was only a matter of minutes before her parents' plane would leave. 'Crap!' She looked up at the large, yet slow group of roaming people. "We're never gonna get to my parents in time this way."  
  
Ami sympathetically sighed. "They won't leave without saying goodbye to you, will they?"  
  
Makoto rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. "Do you have to ask? Of course they will. My dad always says, 'You have to learn the hard way'. He'll leave just to teach me about time management." Looking on into the rest of the masses, she became angry. She didn't want her mother to leave without being able to say goodbye first.  
  
Even though she had known Makoto for nearly seven years, she still couldn't believe how unreasonable her father was. "I can't believe your dad sometimes."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mr. Kino brought his wrist up in order to check his watch. Seeing the time, he frowned with a little growl. "She's late. She should have been here by now."  
  
Looking over her shoulder to see if her daughter had come in yet, Mrs. Kino picked up her carry-on's. "I hope she gets here in time."  
  
"That's it." Mr. Kino reached for his own bags. "We're boarding. We've already waited as long as we can." Without a second thought, he turned toward the gate.  
  
Mrs. Kino flinched at her husband's words. She couldn't understand how he could possibly be so uncompassionate at a time like this. Neither of them knew when they would be returning so you would think the man would want to say goodbye to his only child. "Let's wait a little longer. I don't want to leave without saying goodbye to Makoto."  
  
Mr. Kino frowned as he reached over his shoulder for his wife. "There's no time. They just called for any last minute boarders. We'll miss our plane if we don't leave now. She has to learn. I'm not letting her screw my vacation up." With his free hand, he grasped his hand upon his wife's shoulder and guided her back. "You can call her tonight or something."  
  
With tears forming in her eyes, Mrs. Kino took a deep breath. She hated this. If it were up to her, she would stay behind and catch the next plane. But she knew how her husband was. He wouldn't have it, and it would probably end up the entire repair process. "I guess."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto watched the senior tour group hoping that they would move out of the way soon. She didn't want to be rude and just push them aside; but then again, they were being rude by clogging up the entire corridor. Some of them were moving, but a good portion of them were just standing around and gawking. She unfolded her arms with a snarl. "That's it!" She reached down and grabbed Ami by the hand. Darting out, she yanked Ami by the arm and began pulling her into the group. Ami, in return, reached out and barely grabbed the unsuspecting Rei by the arm. "I'm not letting them leave without me!"  
  
Makoto acted like a football player. She held out her free hand in order to make room for herself, as well as her following chain. "Comin' through!" She dove in any and every crack between people, many times pushing against all obstacles with her body like a rampaging bull.  
  
"What're you doing!?" Rei called out from the back of the line as she was being jostled around. She was thrown into a feeble-looking man, which in turn fell into three other people. "Sorry!" She called out, but it was too late. Makoto had pulled her through to many people down the line for the man to hear her words.  
  
Ami had the worst of the situation as she was in the middle. She had Makoto tugging from one end, and Rei on from the other. "You guys are going to rip me apart!"  
  
Makoto ignored her two friends. Her only goal at that point was to meet her parents in time. "Don't whine!" Narrowing her eyesight, she noticed an opening not too far from her position. "Yes!" She took her opportunity and dove under the legs of an awfully cheery woman, who at the moment was laughing hysterically.  
  
Ami widened her eyes as it was her turn. Although Makoto had gotten through rather smoothly, things didn't work as well for her. "Watch out!" She called out. By then, it was already too late. Bother arms didn't make it through the legs of the woman. Hers and Rei's arm worked together to clothesline the poor woman from below, causing her to fall to her butt.  
  
Rei covered her face as she dragged down. As a last ditch effort to stay balanced, she grabbed a hold of the nearest thing, which happened to be the bag of yet another woman. Needless to say the two came crashing down as a result. "Whoa!"  
  
It was at that point that the domino effect took place. Once Rei slammed against the marble floor, so did everyone else. The corridor was filled with the cries of frantic travelers.  
  
Makoto released Ami's hand, and quickly scurried to her feet. "Come on guys! We gotta split!"  
  
Ami's face was planted in the cheery woman's hip, which wasn't a pleasant experience for the girl. She quickly pulled her head away with a look of disgust. "Makoto!" She cried out as she glared up at the brunette.  
  
Rei was a little more headstrong about the whole situation. She knew it was best to just get out of there before security came, which was what she figured Makoto was thinking too. She quickly reached down for Ami and pulled her up.  
  
Looking at the floor, Makoto burst out into a fit of laughter. No one seemed to even care that they were the ones who had caused the chaos. They were more concerned with getting back to their feet, which didn't look to be an easy task. Many of them were looking for things to push themselves up with, but there wasn't really anything around for them to use. Others were fumbling over one another as they tried to use each other as a brace. "This is classic!"  
  
Ami frowned as she quickly and easily jumped to her feet. She brushed some dirt of her school uniform as she hoped over a heap of luggage. "Don't be stupid! These people can't get up!" She turned around and noticed that Rei was directly behind her, but more importantly, she saw the struggling elders. "This is horrible." She tried to hold back a smile, but it somehow cracked through the seriousness, well, until the leader of the group noticed them.  
  
"You three!" The three friends jumped in fear of getting in trouble as they backed away, causing the tour coordinator to become enraged. "Get back here! You did a bad thing!" Starting out for the girls, she tripped over her own tour group and fell flat on her face.  
  
Makoto, Ami, and Rei high-tailed it out of the area after that, though not without their fair share of laughter. Even Ami giggled, but only slightly. She knew it was wrong, but something about a group of people on the floor tripping over one another did seem rather amusing at the moment.  
  
"Shh, be quiet, you guys." Rei put her finger over her lips as she noticed an airport personnel approaching. Makoto quieted down her laughter, but couldn't completely halt it. "Don't let on that we were the ones who did it."  
  
Ami knew for sure that she would give it away if he were to question them. She hated high-pressure situations with authority, and usually found herself cracking under them. So she turned her head to the side to make it appear as if she were just looking outside toward the runway. No sooner had she looked outside did she notice a plane taking off from the ground. Suddenly, all traces of laughter and happiness disappeared, only to be replaced by seriousness. "Makoto, look." She wandered away from her own little group and walked to the window.  
  
Still smiling, Makoto turned to look at what Ami was looking at. At first, nothing clicked. She didn't realize exactly what she was looking at. But it didn't take long for the rumbling of the plane to reach her senses. Realizing exactly what she was looking at, her skin turned white as her heart fell to the pit of her stomach. "Oh no." She whispered.  
  
Rei walked up to stand next to the girl. "That wasn't your parents' flight, was it?"  
  
Makoto swallowed heavily as she gave a slight nod. "Theirs was the only plane that left from this runway at this time of day." She lowered her eyes to the ground as she slowly began to turn away from the window. "I didn't get to say goodbye. I was too late." She let her shoulders slump as a feeling of disappointment took over her body.  
  
Ami turned sympathetically down to her downhearted friend. "Your mom is sure to call, Makoto." She said, trying to cheer the girl up. She lifted her arm and wrapped it around Makoto's shoulders to comfort her.  
  
Makoto hung her head low. "I know, but I still wanted to say goodbye." Just as she was looking back up, a huge explosion rumbled throughout the airport. "Huh?!"  
  
Rei watched with wide eyes out the window. "Oh my God!" Taking a step back in fear, she gasped. "Makoto!"  
  
Makoto shot her head up from its down position, fearing what she would see. Ami ripped herself from Makoto and pressed her body against the window. "No!"  
  
Makoto mimicked Ami's movements. Standing there, looking outside, she saw a huge cloud of black smoke with bits of orange peeking through, which was following her parents' plane. "Mom! Dad!" Makoto didn't know what to do other than just stand there. She was frozen stiff in horror.  
  
All eyes in the terminal were turned outside as the plane began failing. Fire shot out from beneath the plane down to the ground. "It's going down!" Cried a man from the forming crowd as he pointed to the plane, which was losing control and heading for the ground.  
  
Makoto slapped herself in the face to snap herself out of her trance. "We've gotta help them!"  
  
Movement on the ground below the plane caught Rei's attention. Emergency vehicles were already making their way out to the runway to help survivors. "How?!"  
  
Makoto looked down at the ground with a frown. "I don't know!" She growled back. She had no idea how they were supposed to help a crashing plane, but she had to try to think of something. Her parents were on that plane. She didn't know what she would do with herself if they were to die in the crash; that wasn't even something she wanted to think about. "We've gotta try though!"  
  
Rei nodded. "I'm with you all the way!" She looked back up at the plane, which was closer to the ground by now. "We've got to act fast!"  
  
Ami nodded. "I'm with you too!"  
  
Makoto smiled. She knew she could always count on her friends. "Let's go!" Turning around, she noticed that she and her friends were enclosed by a group of people who were gawking at the spectacle. "We're never gonna get anywhere this way!" She stiffened her legs and arms and began powering up. Ami and Rei responded in kind. She slightly bent her legs and lowered her body in order to get into position. "Don't question, just follow!" She said, looking side to side at her friends, who nodded back. She quickly looked back out at the runway. Saying not another word, she lowered her head and covered it with her arms. Creating a small Ki shield around her body, she gave herself a quick serge of energy and bolted out through the glass, which shattered upon impact. Ami and Rei were close to follow.  
  
The crowd that was left behind was no longer concerned with the falling plane, but with the girls' actions. They filled in the space where the three had been standing and stared into the sky, but they were flying too fast to be seen without using senses.  
  
Makoto dropped her shield after departing from the terminal as she dropped a portion of her energy. "First we have to stop if from crashing!" She yelled out to her friends who were trailing behind.  
  
Ami sped up and flew beneath Makoto. "One of us take the nose of the plane, while the other two go for the middle!"  
  
Makoto and Rei nodded. "Right!" With that, the three separated, with Makoto going for the nose and Ami and Rei going back to balance the middle.  
  
For once, Makoto felt a feeling for her father, which surprised her. She was scared that the flames would consume him before she got a chance to get him out. She dove beneath the plane and lifted her hands up so she could grab a hold of it.  
  
Rei and Ami found it a bit harder to get a good grip. The entire bottom was engulfed in flames. "We're having a bit of trouble here!" Rei looked at Ami. "Let's go for the tail!" Ami had barely been able to make out Rei's words due to all of the nose, but she noticed that the girl was making her way further back, so she followed.  
  
Makoto raised her energy back up to its full strength once again as the plane was too heavy without it. "I hope this works." Looking further down the bottom of the plane, she noticed the flames were travelling upward toward her position.  
  
Rei and Ami found an opening at the tail where they could grab. It wouldn't be perfectly balanced this way, but at least they would be able to save the plane, hopefully.  
  
The emergency crews watched from below in astonishment. They all crossed their fingers, hoping that the girls could save the plane and its passengers.  
  
Seeing that Rei and Ami were in position, Makoto bent her elbows and began pushing against the weight of the plane with her shoulders. When Rei and Ami did the same, she immediately felt a change in the plane's falling speed. All they would have to do now is guide it down to the ground before the flames spread too much further. But that wasn't the hard part. Then they would have to put out the flames before they reached inside the plane, if they weren't already there. 'Come on, come on. We can do this.' Makoto looked down to see how far off the ground they were, and noticed that they only had a few feet left. If they had gotten there any later the plane would have crashed for sure. 'Oh god.. ."  
  
Rei and Ami made sure to keep the tail level with the nose so as to not harm anyone inside. Looking down, the safely guided the plane back down to the ground, making sure the wheels were stable enough for the plane to stand on their own.  
  
Seeing that the plan was safely on the ground, Makoto let go and dropped to the ground. She could hear the people on the runway clapping and cheering as the emergency vehicles drove to their position. She also noticed Rei and Ami making a mad dash from the flames with their heads covered, but she wasn't quite ready to leave yet.  
  
Rei ran wide around the plane to find Makoto, only to see her still standing under the nose of the plane. "Makoto!" She waved for the girl to come toward her. "Come out here!"  
  
Makoto turned to stare at Rei. She shook her head, which place a look of fear into the other girl's eyes. "I have to get my parents outta there!" Looking back up to the nose, she concentrated all of her energy into her next move. She quickly located the faint Ki of her father and teleported to it.  
  
Rei's eyes widened as she took a step away from the plane. "She's insane!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto found herself in the midst of chaos. She could barely see anything as the entire plane was filled with an orange tinted smoke. She could somewhat make out the shadows of frantic passengers running back and fourth from the plane, and could easily hear the screams of all those around her. "Mom? Dad?" She called out, hoping they weren't too far. For some reason, she could only feel her father's Ki.  
  
"Makoto?" A familiar voice called back as a darkened figure stood up.  
  
Makoto gasped as she turned around in the aisle. "Dad!?" She squinted, hoping she could see his face, but the smoke was too thick. "Where's mom?"  
  
Mr. Kino put his hands out and grabbed onto his daughter's shoulders. "How the hell did you get here?!" He glanced over his shoulders to look out the window, only to see that they were stationary. "How the hell did we even get on the ground without crashing?!"  
  
Makoto reached up to grabbed her father by the arms. For the first time, she would try to reason with the man. "Dad! Where's mom!?"  
  
Mr. Kino turned back down to the shadow of his daughter. For once, he wasn't angry with her. He was more concerned with other things. "You're mother's hurt." He looked down on the floor, where he had been tending to his wife when his daughter had arrived. "She hit her head, and was in the way of one of the explosions."  
  
Makoto gulped as pulled herself away from her father and knelt down. "Where is she?!" She felt around the ground with her hands and eventually came across her mother's body, which was sticky with sweat, as well as blood. "Mom!"  
  
Mr. Kino turned down to his daughter as he coughed. "We've got to get out of here!" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small cloth to cover his nose and mouth with.  
  
Makoto struggled to sit her unconscious mother up. She wrapped an arm around her mother to brace her up as she reached her other hand out and grasped her father's leg with it. "I've got it covered." Concentrating her energy once again, she teleported off the plane to safety.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Outside the plane, fire crews were doing everything they could to extinguish the fire. Even Rei and Ami were trying to help by using their power to blow the fire into the water, and keep it from spreading. The fire would have to be put out before they could start going in and getting the passengers out.  
  
Makoto appeared with her parents just outside the plane next to Rei. "Rei, Ami!" She cried out as she let go of her father, who was officially confused at that point. She ignored him and concentrated more on her mother.  
  
Mr. Kino scratched his head and looked up at the plane, and then at the fire crews. "How'd we get out here?!" He looked down at his daughter, who was preoccupied with his wife. "Makoto!"  
  
Makoto gently lay her mother down on the asphalt as Rei and Ami stopped what they were doing. "Somebody get help!" She looked up, noticing Rei turning away for the paramedics.  
  
Mr. Kino took one look at his wife and wanted to scream. He couldn't help but feel like this was somehow his fault. He was the one who had wanted to go away on a trip and get away from Makoto and her friends for a while, he was the one who had insisted that they get on this plane instead of waiting for Makoto. Kneeling down, he examined his wife carefully.  
  
Makoto looked up at her father and wondered what exactly he was thinking. Was he being an ass like usual and just blowing it off inside his head, or was he truly worried? "What happened on the plane?"  
  
Mr. Kino frowned as he looked up at his daughter. "What the hell do you think?! The engines failed and blew up as soon as we got off the runway!"  
  
Makoto frowned as she glared at the idiot man. She was in no mood for his crap at the moment. "No! Really?!"  
  
Under any other circumstances, Mr. Kino would have hauled off and slapped the girl for being so brazen, but he didn't think that this was any time to be starting that business. "Watch how you talk to me!"  
  
Makoto stood up and continued to glare down at her father. She couldn't believe him. Her mother was lying nearly dead on the ground, and he was worried about the way she spoke to him. It was outrageous. He should have known that he would receive a response like that after being such an ass. "You asked for it! In fact, you've BEEN asking for it!" She was too angry to put up with any of his crap anymore. This wasn't any time or place to being pulling this. "You'd think that you'd be more worried about mom than the way I talk to you! You really ARE a heartless old man! You don't care about your responsibilities, primarily me! You live your entire life to make me feel like an inferior! And then you completely blow off your wife when she needs you most!"  
  
Mr. Kino tightened his fists as he glared up at his daughter. "Where do you get off talking to me like that!? What's wrong with you!?"  
  
Makoto narrowed her glare. "I might ask you the same question!" Fuming, Makoto turned away and stomped off. She knew if she stayed there any longer that she would end up losing control of herself.  
  
  
  
(Woooo, it's been a week. Sorry about that. I had my wisdom teeth taken out last Thursday. I'm tellin you, the operation was a breeze. But, just when you think everything's getting better, they tell ya you gotta take some medication to: 1) Keep infection from occurring & 2) Keep the pain down. Well, that just screwed my entire system up as BOTH medications had the side effect of nausea. In short, for the past week I've felt as if I just got finished spinning around in circles over and over. Anyway, I'm off the meds now so I can write again. And what's even cooler is that, although I've started school again, I have easy classes, only one of which I'll get homework from. So we wont have to worry about what happened last year happening again. But I must warn you, even though it shouldn't take me more than two days to write a chapter, it may take three in the beginning. I'm still trying to adjust back to getting up early, so I'm pretty tired when I get home, and very prone to falling asleep, which eats up a lot of my night. Anyway, I'll try not to let that happen.) 


	163. Part 10

~*~*~*~  
  
When Makoto ran off that day after rescuing her parents from the blazing plane, she never bothered coming back. Sure she felt horrible about her mother, there was even an aching call to go back to the scene of the near- crash and see how the woman was doing, but Makoto knew it would be better to stay away from "him" for a while. She was easily prone to going off on him again at any remark. She hadn't actually meant to fly off the handle like that, but she just couldn't stand that idiot's incompetence any longer. Whenever that man opened his mouth, and insult was usually the first thing that flew out, and quite frankly, Makoto couldn't handle it any more, and would therefore no longer allow herself to be subject to it. Why he decided to be so assholish, she didn't know, but she did know that he was in the wrong. There was nothing that she could have done to deserve that treatment. He always had to act like she was the scum of the Universe; that everyone else was better than she was. And he always seemed to make it a point to tell her that every time they saw each other.  
  
Makoto knew she had blown it when she hadn't met them at the airport like she was supposed to. And she knew her father was probably a little angry, well, a lot angry with her after missing the appointment, but she would have thought that he'd be a bit more concerned with his wife than something so trivial. Well, obviously she was wrong. Apparently, making his daughter look like an idiot was much more important to him than the safety of his wife, someone whom Makoto held very close to her heart. She hadn't blown up at the man because of his attitude toward her, she knew better than that. In fact she had blown up at him for his disrespect to her mother.  
  
Mrs. Kino, along with the rest of the passengers on the plane, was rushed directly to the hospital for medical treatment. Mr. Kino, although angry with Makoto's actions, went with them to be at his wife's side. Ami and Rei insisted that they go with them to make sure Mrs. Kino was all right since they figured Mr. Kino had no intention of doing so. They knew that Makoto would want that.  
  
On the ambulance, Rei and Ami finally got a good look at the woman. She was in pretty bad shape, with blood gushing out of severe gash that looked to have been created by a serious blow to the head. Her face and upper body were burned from the intense heat that had been caused by the explosion, which was caused by unknown reasons.  
  
Mr. Kino sat near the door next to the two girls. The paramedics didn't want anything to disrupt their patients, and made any extra passenger sit as far away from the wounded as possible, which was fine with everyone.  
  
Gritting his teeth, Mr. Kino looked down to the girls next to him. Even though he was worried about his wife, something still played on his mind. "How did Makoto get on the plane?" Shaking his head, and grabbed the bridge of his nose. "No, wait, how the hell did she get us off so quickly?"  
  
Not knowing quite how to take the question, Rei looked over to Ami. She thought all of their parents knew about what kind of power they held. Of course, this WAS Makoto's father they were talking to. Like every other time, he probably didn't care to know anything about his daughter's training past the fact that she was doing it. He never really cared about training her anyway. He just didn't want a girl, and pushing her into a life of fighting was the closest possible way to getting a boy.  
  
Ami nodded with a slight nudging motion of her head, telling her friend to go ahead and tell him. Rei nodded as she bit her lower lip and turned to her friend's father. Frowning at him as he was the cause of a lot of Makoto's hardships in life, she put her hands on her hips. "If you must know, that was one of our exercises in our earlier years of training. We had to learn to transport our energy from one place to another. We call it teleportation."  
  
Mr. Kino curled his nose up at the girl. There was no way a person could do something like that, especially since Mr. Satan couldn't. "You lying little brat!"  
  
Rei frowned as she tensed her muscles. "Excuse me! How would you know!?"  
  
The paramedics looked up from monitoring their patients. "Hey shut up. You're gonna wake these guys up."  
  
Rei nodded with a slight blush. She hadn't meant to let her voice rise, but she couldn't help it. She could barely stand to look at this guy, let alone talk to him. Mr. Kino, on the other hand, scoffed at the man like he didn't know what he was talking about. "Look, little girl, there is no way in the world that a person can transport their 'energy' from one place to another."  
  
Ami butted in. "Actually, it is possible. We do it all the time when we're training. In fact, we do a lot of other things with our energy."  
  
Mr. Kino glared at the girls. "You're just like Makoto."  
  
Rei rolled her eyes. Who did this guy think he was? And what exactly did he mean by saying they're just like Makoto? "You know what your problem is? You're just too close-minded for your own good. You were close-minded to the idea of having a girl child, and you're close-minded to things you don't understand." Narrowing her eyes, she glared at the man. "You make me sick."  
  
Appalled, Mr. Kino gasped at the accusations. "What the hell are you talking about? Maybe if Makoto hadn't been such a baby all her life I wouldn't have to treat her like one."  
  
Rei was about to open her mouth, but Ami stopped her. "Let me." Rei nodded, allowing the girl to speak her mind. "If that were the case you would have made more of an effort to train her otherwise, and not just goad her into acting like a boy. The reason why you thought she was acting like a baby in the first place was because she was a girl. Girls tend to act differently than boys, which was something you obviously weren't prepared for when she was born. You wanted a boy, which is only natural for a first-time-father. But, unlike other fathers, you acted upon these desires and forced her to toughen up at an early age."  
  
Becoming even angrier at the 'smart one', Mr. Kino clenched his fists. "And tell me, brain, how would you know?"  
  
Ami grinned, completely ignoring the would-be insult. "You're a very easy person to read."  
  
Mr. Kino turned his head away from the girls. "How absurd. You're not a psychologist; you're just a child." He couldn't believe how bold these kids were being in the way they spoke to him.  
  
Rei grinned, seeing that the man was actually falling apart in reasoning as they spoke. "At least she has a reason for acting like one."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru snuck around behind Michiru as quietly as he could. He knew something was up with her. She didn't just blow people off like that without a reason. She was up to something. What, he didn't know, but he was sure to find out before the day ended.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Michiru had absolutely no idea what she was searching for other than the mysterious woman who had gotten away for the second time in a row. She knew that this woman was the reason why all the other students had died, and not some stupid disease. She had seen it happen with Taro.  
  
Running into the main hall, she anxiously looked from side to side hoping to see anything suspicious. Maybe if she was lucky the culprit would be stupid enough to try another attack. "Come on, where are you?" She whispered.  
  
Mamoru poked his head out from behind the corner and watched Michiru as she continued on into the main hall. She seemed to be searching for something, but what? Something must have happened while she was away getting a soda, and it was his job to find out what.  
  
Seeing that there was no one to be seen or heard, she decided to take a moment and think of possible places the woman could have run to. If they were working out of the school they would need to be able to see their next victims, but they would also need advanced technology to create their monsters. "I've got it!" Grinning to herself, she darted off to the first place she thought of, the Security room. There had to be lots of cameras in there so they could find their next victims. Plus, it was a secluded are where not very many people entered. If she was going to run something like that out of a school that's the first place she would be.  
  
Even more intrigued, Mamoru started out for the aqua-haired girl, but tripped over the corner of the wall, causing him to crash against the linoleum flooring.  
  
Gasping, Michiru spun around. "Mamoru!" She nervously yelled out.  
  
Mamoru quickly jumped back up to his feet and looked from side to side, trying to look at natural as possible. But it was kind of hard to act natural wandering around a school he wasn't enrolled in. "Oh, I was.. . uh, just wondering what was wrong." He said, trying to fake a huge smile.  
  
Michiru rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. She could see right through his lie. He knew something was up. She would have to do a better job of keeping herself concealed from now on, especially since Mamoru was the Prince. He was someone she definitely didn't want knowing. She had to come up with a cover up, and fast. "Right, well, I was just looking for a lab rat which seems to have gotten loose somewhere around here. That's why I had to leave so abruptly. It's imperative that we find it."  
  
Mamoru wasn't sure if he believed her or not, but he would have to take her story. He didn't want to let on that he knew something was going on. "Want some help looking?"  
  
Michiru was prompt with shaking her head 'no'. "That's ok. I have to get to class soon anyway. You go watch Haruka. I'm sure she's already upset with use leaving."  
  
Mamoru scratched his head as he watched the girl turn around and walk away without saying anymore.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Two Hours Later~~  
  
After cooling off a bit, Makoto decided that she had better make her way to the hospital. She wanted to be there for her mother. Who cares what her father would say to her? She would just ignore him like she always had, well, unless he was actually being nice. But what were the chances of that happening? Once a jerk, always a jerk.  
  
Once arriving, she didn't bother asking what room her mother could be located in. She just followed the energy signatures of her friends. She found them sitting in the waiting room that was located just outside the recovery room, which only worried her more. She walked in there a wreck. After leaving her father, she flew off to calm herself down, but in the process, she started thinking about her poor mother. She was so helpless. It scared Makoto to think that her mother may not pull out of this if her condition was bad enough. She couldn't help but blame her father for this. If he hadn't been such an ass to her in the past, then his marriage never would have fallen apart. If he had just WAITED for her to arrive then they would have missed their plane, and never been on it. But could he do something so simple? No. He had to do things the complicated way. He just HAD to teach her that being late meant missing out on things. Well, look where it had gotten him this time.  
  
Being in a tight emotional situation with no one to really turn to, Makoto did the only thing she could think of. She wanted to rid her body of her fear and anger. She needed something to calm her spirit. There was only one thing that would suffice her emotions at this point. She decided upon sparing with herself, and eventually found herself taking her anger out on nature itself.  
  
Seeing her friends in the recovery room waiting room, Makoto's face turned a lighter shade of white than it was when she walked in. Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach as she ran to them. "Girls!" She cried out, not caring whether or not she was disrupting anyone. The secretary at the desk nearby looked up, but did nothing more. There was a lot of shouting from excited or worried family and friends in this wing.  
  
The once silent Rei and Ami looked up to see Makoto, who was covered in dirt from head to toe. "Makoto?!" Exchanging a glance of surprise, they jumped up from their seats and ran to meet the girl.  
  
Makoto's heart raced as she grabbed a hold of Ami's hands. "Well?! What's the news? Is she all right?!" Her eyes quickly darted back and fourth between each of the girls'.  
  
"She'll be fine." Came a familiar, yet unwanted voice from behind a semi- wall.  
  
Gasping, Makoto looked up to lock eyes with her father. A firm frowned on her face as she released Ami's hands and backed away. That wasn't exactly the person she wanted to see at the moment.  
  
Mr. Kino frowned back at the girl. "I've been waiting for you. You're late. Don't care about your mother!?"  
  
Rei and Ami rolled their eyes with a sigh as the departed from the duo. They knew things were only going to get worse before they got any better, which was really a shame. While Mrs. Kino was at the hospital, Makoto would have no one to talk to, she would have no one she could count on. Her father sure as hell wasn't going to do anything but sit on his lazy butt like he always did.  
  
Shocked that her father would even dream of saying something like that to her, Makoto crossed her arms, and stopped to stand her ground. She wasn't going to back down from him anymore. "You're the one that doesn't care about mom! You're always more worried about my mistakes than anything else! Mom could have been DEAD and you still would have made it your point to make me feel stupid. Well, now YOU'RE the one in the wrong, not me!"  
  
Mr. Kino didn't respond with as much haste as he usually did. "Well."  
  
Makoto sneered, seeing that her father's response was a little below normal time. " 'well' nothing. Why don't you and I just NOT talk and leave it at that. It's obvious that you don't want to talk to me outside of insults, and I sure as hell don't want to talk to you anytime. So let's just leave it as that."  
  
Mr. Kino frowned as he straightened his back. "Now you listen here! I don't always insult you, and when I do, you deserve it. You don't use your head!"  
  
Makoto growled as she threw her arms out to the side. "Well there you have it folks! A genuine insult coming from the king of insults, my supposed father!"  
  
Mr. Kino closed his mouth as he let his words sink in. Turning his head to the side so he didn't have to look into his daughter's eyes, he closed his eyes. She was actually right. That was truly an insult, and he hadn't even realized it. Was he really always doing that to her? He knew things weren't all peachy-keen between them, but he didn't think that they were this bad.  
  
Opening his eyes, he looked back up at his daughter. "I didn't mean it like that."  
  
Makoto snorted as she brought her hands back down to her side. "Oh, I'm sorry, sir. Was that meant to be a compliment!?" Looking down at the ground, she clenched her firsts together. "I know what this is all about anyway. And you know what I say to it?" Looking up, she noticed that her father didn't seem to be the least bit phased by her assumptions. "If you didn't want a girl, you shouldn't have stuck around all these years! If I was such a pain in the ass all these years you could have taken the easy way and left. You fit every other aspect of the asshole father!"  
  
Ami leaned over to Rei and put her hand up over her mouth. "She's swearing a lot more than usual."  
  
Mr. Kino threw his hands up in the air. "If that's what you think, fine! But let it be known that you're completely wrong!"  
  
Makoto sarcastically nodded. "Yes! That IS what I think, and what I will continue to think until you clean up your act and treat me like a real human being, because that's what I am. I'm not some dog that you can treat like this, and neither is mom! You're the only reason why she's here in the first place! If you hadn't treated me and her like this all the time you wouldn't have had to gone on the trip to 'revitalize' your marriage!" Giving a quick nodded of refreshment, she stepped away from her father without waiting for a reply and grabbed the arms of her friends. "Come on. Let's wait for the doctor in more desirable settings." Pulling the two forward in search of the next nearest waiting room, she turned her head back to say one more thing to her father. "I'll be at Rei's until mom gets back. Don't bother trying to make me come back."  
  
Mr. Kino just stood there, saying nothing. He didn't have anything to say to her at the moment as he couldn't think of anything. Truthfully, he was perfectly happy that she would be staying with a friend for a while. It would give him time to re-think he priorities. He didn't know that his relationship with his only child had deteriorated so bad over the years, well, actually, in the back of his mind he had a feeling that things were like this, but he never really paid any attention to it. Maybe now was a good time to give that feeling a little wake-up call and think over his entire life, or rather, his life with Makoto.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei and Ami were silent as they made their way into the next waiting room down. They didn't want to upset their friend even more, but they couldn't help but wonder what finally made her blow. Sure her father was a jerk, but she had never let it get to her that much before. Maybe the whole near- crash was too much for her. After all, her parents did almost meet their death. If it weren't for them, Makoto's parents would have died, and Makoto would have had to have either lived on her own, or find a friend to live with. That would have absolutely devastated the girl. They saw how losing a mother affected Hotaru; they didn't want to go through that with yet another one of their friends.  
  
Makoto's breathing had increased substantially since her outburst with her father, which was understandable. She hadn't gone in their prepared to give him a piece of her mind. Of course, she had expected to be able to talk to her friends a bit before having to see his ugly face again. Then he had to start in again with the bitching, which completely set her off. "I'm sorry you guys. I didn't mean to lose it."  
  
In a comforting voice, Ami spoke first. "It's alright. We understand, that man is horrible." She and Rei led the girl to the couch in the waiting room at sat her down. Her skin color hadn't yet returned to its normal color. "You just need a chance to relax."  
  
Rei nodded as she sat next to Makoto. "Totally. You've been really stressed today."  
  
Makoto leaned her head back and rested it on the back of the chair. "God, you don't need to tell me twice." She closed her eyes with a sigh. She didn't know what she was doing anymore. She needed to talk to her mother and relieve some stress, but that was obviously impossible. There was always, of course, her friends. But they just weren't the same as a mother. "I don't know what I'm going to do, you guys." With a groan, she covered her face with her hands.  
  
Rei reached up and grabbed onto Makoto's arm to guide it down. "Take it in as slowly as you need to. You can still stay with us while your mom's in the hospital like you told your dad you'd be."  
  
Makoto cracked a slight smile. "I know. I'm just worried about my mom." She brought her head down and looked from side to side. "I don't know what I'd do without her, especially now."  
  
Ami smiled softly. "Don't worry about that happening, Rei. My mom's looked at her and said she'd be healed in no time. We just have to give it some time."  
  
Makoto nodded. She appreciated the reassurance of knowing that Ami's mother was her own mother's doctor. "Have you been able to go in and see her yet?"  
  
Ami shook her head. "They said we could go in there soon, though."  
  
Makoto nodded as she stared blankly down at her feet. "Why did this have to happen?"  
  
Rei wrapped her arm around Makoto. "Hey, cheer up, at least we saved the plane."  
  
Makoto widened her eyes. "Definitely a good thing. I'm actually glad we were where we were when it happened. If we got there in time to say goodbye, I don't think the outcome would have been so good."  
  
Ami looked up at Rei, who stared back. "Your mom is in good hands."  
  
Makoto smiled as she looked up at the ever-caring Ami. "I know. Your mom's a wonderful doctor."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Three Hours Later~~  
  
Mr. Kino decided to stay at the hospital after Mrs. Mizuno had allowed them inside Mrs. Kino's room. He really had no reason to go home. Makoto had gone to Rei's without saying a word to him, which actually hurt him. Sitting there as he waited for the doctor to give him the go ahead to go on inside and see how his wife was doing, he was given plenty of time to think; not about his wife for he knew she was in good hands, but about his daughter. He got to thinking mostly of the words exchanged between himself and Makoto's friends. Something they had said on the ambulance ride to the hospital had really stuck with him. Ami had said that he was forcing her to do things that a boy would be interested, which she blamed on his dire desire to have a boy child. At first he thought the very idea of being sexist was absurd, but after his fallout with Makoto, who thought practically the same thing, he started to open his mind up to the idea that maybe, just maybe there might have been some truth behind their accusations.  
  
Ami had been completely right when she said that he wanted a boy, and not a girl. But he didn't think that Makoto's being a girl had anything to do with his spitefulness toward her. But then again, he didn't exactly have another reason why he would have been so hateful toward her.  
  
Trying to figure out the root of the problem, he thought back to when Makoto was born, a time he had blocked out of his mind some time ago. He only remembered bits and parts, and even then, he tried to forget them. It wasn't that he didn't want to remember such an important date, it were the events that took place moments after Makoto had been born that made the day miserable.  
  
He remembered everyone being excited about the birth. Even he was excited. His first child was about to born. He would be taking a major leap forward in life with starting a new family. It wasn't until Makoto was born that the mood started to darken on his side of the family.  
  
Before Makoto was born, all he could remember was his father talking big about how he was going to have all sorts of fun with his grandson when the boy got older. When Makoto was born, she turned out to be a girl, which her grandfather didn't take too lightly.  
  
Looking down at his wife, Mr. Kino halted his thoughts. He didn't want to think back any further for his thoughts weren't very comforting. He pulled up a chair next to his wife's bed and proceeded to sit. Looking at her, his insides were turned upside down. He felt horrible knowing that this could have been avoided if he wasn't so stubborn all the time. Things were really going downhill for him and his family now. Hell, they weren't any kind of a family in the first place. From the moment Makoto was born it seemed like his family was ripping him apart.  
  
Shortly after Makoto was born, she was revealed to the family as a female. Mr. Kino was slightly disappointed that his first child was a girl, but he didn't care. He was still overjoyed. His father, on the other hand, wasn't exactly a happy camper at that point. He pulled his son aside, and for no reason at all, let out on him.  
  
Squinting at the memories, Mr. Kino became restless and stood up. He let out a loud groan as he walked to the window and looked down at all the people coming and going. He remembered doing almost the exact same thing after his fallout with his father. The only difference between then and now was the little episode with his brothers, who had come to make fun of him for having a girl for a first child.  
  
That's pretty much how it went for the first few years. He would try to defend his pride every time his brothers and father would open their mouths, but they always seemed to find a way to beat him down every time.  
  
Frowning, becoming even more fidgety, Mr. Kino turned away from the window and looked back down upon his sleeping wife. "Damn it!" He yelled out with no concern for his wife waking up at the noise.  
  
Closing his eyes, he turned his head down. He was finally starting to realize where everything started to fall apart; why he had always seemed to resent his daughter.. This had all happened because of his selfishness; because of his stupid pride. If he couldn't beat his family back, he would join in on their laughter at the expense of his daughter's feelings. He hated being tormented by his father, and would have done anything to make him stop, which is precisely what he did. He didn't think of the effect it would have one Makoto. He would prove to his father that Makoto wasn't weak, and wasn't a baby, which was what they had always said about her. He forced her to start fighting at a very young age, and yelled at her when she had tears in her eyes as she begged him not to make her do it.  
  
Wanting to ram his head into the wall for being such an idiot for the past thirteen years, he opened his eyes and looked back into the direction of his wife. She had been right all along. He had always been particularly spiteful toward their daughter, whom he had been proud of before his father and brother's opened their big mouths. He knew he couldn't blame this on them for he was the one that had let into them. But they did play a role in the entire ordeal. Even to this day, they treat Makoto with less respect than any of the other children in the family.  
  
Frowning as he sat back next to his wife, he decided that he would make more of an effort to treat her like a human being, or more importantly, like his daughter and not just some wandering idiot off the street. But with everything that he had ever done to the girl in the past, he would have to work extra hard at trying to be a better father. He had already lost thirteen years, and he wouldn't lose anymore. He knew it wouldn't happen over night, both he AND Makoto were both stubborn people, but he knew it would eventually happen.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~The Next Day: Mugen Lab~~  
  
Professor Tomoe put the finishing touches up on his newest creation. "Don't get this one killed, Kaori." Turning to her, he handed her the little silver box.  
  
Kaori had no reaction other than reaching out and grasping the handle. "I have no intention of letting that happen, Professor."  
  
"And make sure you come back with a Pure Heart Crystal. I'm not sending you out to retrieve regular Heart Crystals, that's what Viluy is for."  
  
Kaori rolled her eyes as she turned from the Professor. "Don't worry. I know for sure that my next target will have what we're looking for."  
  
Tomoe frowned as he watched the woman proceed out the door. "Don't let me down."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Are you sure you don't mind coming with me?" Haruka looked down at the girl who was comfortably latched upon her arm.  
  
Michiru smiled with a giggle as they entered the track field area of the Mugen School. "Of course not. I love watching you in tight little shorts."  
  
Haruka blushed as she looked forward once again. "Heh." She raised her hand behind her head in embarrassment.  
  
Her laughter now uncontrollable, she detached herself from Haruka's arm. "You go get changed. I wouldn't want you to be late to your second day of tryouts."  
  
Haruka grinned. "No, you just wanna see me in my shorts."  
  
Michiru laughed even louder. "That too."  
  
Haruka smiled as she parted from Michiru. "Don't forget to root for me." Waving to the girl, she turned and headed for the locker room with her bag trailing close behind over her shoulder. She made her way into the locker room, where she found a group of other girls changing. She noticed a small corner of the room where no one else was, which was exactly where she went. She tried to stay as far away from people who thought they were popular as possible.  
  
She threw her bag on the concrete floor, and opened up the nearest locker. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed another girl coming to her corner, which she didn't mind. As long as the rest of the group didn't come to harass her then she didn't mind.  
  
"Hi!" The girl chirped as she opened up her locker. "You're Haruka, right?"  
  
Intrigued that this girl would know who she is, Haruka closed her locker enough to look into her eyes. "Yes."  
  
The girl smiled as she pulled out a pair of sweats and a T-shirt. "You're an awesome athlete. I followed your career all through High School. I'm really happy to see that you're trying out here too."  
  
Haruka smiled at the compliment, though she couldn't help but wonder exactly who this girl was. "Do I know you?" The girl paused before answering to turn around and watch the other group of girls leave the locker room in a rather loud fashion. "Excuse me?"  
  
The girl snapped back to look at Haruka. "I'm sorry. No, you don't know me. I never went to your school, but I have raced you before. I actually went to Orange Start High School, but I liked to scout out my competition. The first time I saw you I was in awe. Your speed is unfathomable. You're the only person I've never been able to beat."  
  
Haruka smirked. "You don't know the half of my speed."  
  
The girl grinned back. "Don't get too cocky just yet. I've been training for the day I get to race you next. I'm looking forward to the occasion, but I don't think I'm ready just yet. I was watching you yesterday, and it seems that you've improved too."  
  
"And you'll probably never be ready!" Kaori entered the scene with her little suitcase, as she always did.  
  
Haruka frowned at the red-head. Where did she get off just butting into their conversation. "Look, lady. No one asked you, so scram."  
  
Kaori laughed impishly as she set her box down. The fact that Haruka was there didn't pass her attention. "I can't do that until I have what I'm looking for."  
  
(Well, so it's not a full nine pages, but I'm hungry, and this, I think, is a nice place to stop. ^_^ ) 


	164. Part 11

(This is my last update on fanfiction.net. With the coming of my computer I have found that I can actually update on this story without any problems. I realize that there are still some people who were following my story that never got my website address, which is where this story is currently being housed. For future reference, book 9 chapter 17 is the last chapter on this website. However, you can find more at my website, which is listed under my profile.)  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Irritated that Kaori had just barged into their conversation, Haruka glared her. "Excuse me?" She let her eyes drop down to the suitcase size box, just as Michiru had with her encounter. "What is it that you're looking for?" Wondering what was inside the box, but not taking the time out to question the woman, she let her eyes travel back up to Kaori's eyes. "Just get it and scram!" She glanced next to the girl at her side, who didn't seemed to be dazed in the least about the interruption. There really wasn't a need to be, yet.  
  
A devious smile appeared on Kaori's face as she daintily placed her box- like item down on the ground. "So you really want me to take what I'm after?"  
  
Having not even the slightest idea what the dangers her answer would bring, Haruka nodded. She didn't care what this woman needed. She only cared that one minute she was being praised, and the next, she was talking to this bozo. "Just get it and go! How many times do I have to tell you!?"  
  
Kaori's smile grew as she bent her knees as she could reach down and begin to release her new Heart Snatcher. "All right. If you really insist that much." Glancing up for a moment, she waved her hand around to motion Haruka out of the way. "Please step aside."  
  
Haruka didn't respond right away. She wanted to know why she was being told to move aside, and not the other girl. "Why?"  
  
Kaori's smile faded into a growing frown. "Just do it! I can't get what I need with you standing in the way." Under other circumstances, she would have just come right out and unleashed her Heart Snatcher, but this time she had Haruka, a possible threat, agreeing that she should just get things done and over with.  
  
Haruka frowned back as she was slow to respond. Crossing her arms, she slowly turned and slowly started walking to the far end of the locker room, thinking that Kaori just needed to get something out of her locker. Boy was she wrong. By the time she had gotten halfway to her destination, she heard a loud squeal. "Huh?!" Spinning around on instinct, she saw Kaori just standing and watching, while a human-like creature, that seemed to be covered in everlasting mud, had the other girl pinned up against the lockers. "What the hell are you doing!?" In a flash of blue light, she powered up and dashed for Kaori, and not the Heart Snatcher.  
  
Haruka's words for warning were enough for Kaori to drop to the floor in order to miss being hit, but she didn't know the full power of the girl. Haruka was able to read Kaori's movements, and followed her down to the ground. Picking the woman up by the shoulders, she flung her across the room with a growl.  
  
Kaori slammed, back first, into the metal lockers. She hadn't been prepared for the girl's reflexes; but then again, she fought like Hotaru had in the past. Trying to get over the pain quick enough to divert Haruka's attention to the undefeatable Heart Snatcher, she pointed upward. "Your friend is going to die!" Her voice cracked as a gush of pain ran up her back.  
  
Haruka stopped momentarily as she turned her head back to the other girl. She was just in time to watch the Heart Snatcher make a point with its arm and dig it deep into the chest of its victim. "NO!"  
  
Seeing that Haruka was no longer paying any attention to her, Kaori dug up enough strength to kick the fighter in the stomach, causing her to fall down to the ground. Completely underestimating Haruka, she staggered back to her feet. "Heart Snatcher, give me the Pure Heart Crystal!"  
  
Haruka grabbed her stomach, though not in pain. She had only had the wind knocked out of her. She would have to be more careful not to take her attention away from her foes. " 'Heart Snatcher?' "  
  
Kaori grabbed her back as she slowly made her way to her Heart Snatcher, thinking that Haruka was down for the count. Haruka jumped to her feet as quietly as she could, as she didn't want Kaori to hear her movements. She didn't just shoot out for her foes. She wanted to watch them first, to see what she was up against. Kaori looked nothing like a fighter and she sure didn't fight like one. However, the other guy, the thing Kaori referred to as a 'Heart Snatcher', was another story. Haruka had never seen anything like it. It had the build of a man, yet was covered with mud that seemed to replenish itself at its own whim.  
  
Powering up again, this time to her fullest extent, she prepared herself for battle. Under any other circumstances, she would have just left things alone with the mentality that this just wasn't her duty. But for some reason, she felt compelled to stop these people in their tracks, whoever they were.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Michiru was already in the stands and waiting for Haruka to come out. This would be the day the team was determined, and she couldn't wait to hear Haruka's name listed off as one of the members. However, something was wrong. Haruka hadn't come out yet, while all the others had. At first she thought nothing of it, Haruka usually did take a little longer than the others. But as soon as she felt the power up, she knew something was wrong.  
  
Michiru quickly raced down the stands and headed for the locker room. She had a feeling she knew what Haruka was fighting. The Heart Snatchers were at it again, and now they were after Haruka. Fear entered her eyes as she pushed herself harder at the thought that Haruka's Heart Crystal would be stolen, and never retrieved. "I have to save her!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Haruka watched Kaori take something from the mud-like creature. She wasn't sure what it was for she didn't get a good look at it. She only saw that it was a crystal, and possessed a bright shine. 'Was that the Heart Crystal?' Not taking the time to try and answer her question, she dove for Kaori, but found a glob of mud being hurled at her from the side. She quickly forgot about her pursuit for Kaori and paid more attention to dodging the 'attack'. She quickly jumped into the air and fired her own attack. She watched as her blue Ki ball flew down at her target. It punctured a large hole in its stomach, but it was quickly refilled. Haruka didn't let the failed attack get her down. After all, things were just getting started.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kaori frowned as she made her way out of the locker room. "All that for a lousy, regular Heart Crystal!? I might as well just toss this thing right here and now!" Looking around and seeing no one, she reached for her pouch to put the Heart Crystal in. She wouldn't really have just ditched it, as the Mistress needed all the Heart Crystals she could get.  
  
"Or you could return it to its rightful owner!" Called out a voice from above.  
  
Kaori's eyes widened as she gulped. She knew that voice from somewhere. She had heard it recently. She was reluctant as she raised her head, only to see Sailor Neptune, the one who had foiled her plans only the day before. "You!" She yelled out in surprised.  
  
Sailor Neptune crossed her arms as she began to lower herself to ground level. She didn't fail to see the Heart Crystal in the woman's hands. "You've stolen your last Heart Crystal!"  
  
Kaori tightened her grip around the item in her hand and pulled it to her side. "Oh have I?"  
  
Sailor Neptune uncrossed her arms as she took a step forward. "Hand it over!" She held out her hand, knowing that Kaori would never give it up without a fight.  
  
Kaori taunted the Senshi. "Make me!" Securing the precious item in her hand, she turned to the side and made a run for it.  
  
Sailor Neptune followed the woman, which was hardly a challenge. It was seconds before she was caught up and on the woman's tail. "Give it up!" She grabbed the woman by the shoulders and spun her around, only to be met with a fearful expression.  
  
Kaori gulped as she struggled within the Senshi's grip. "Get off!" She kicked at the Senshi, but she was too weak. Her hits weren't even felt.  
  
Sailor Neptune glared into the woman's eyes, causing more fear to arise. Saying nothing, she reached down and grabbed Kaori's wrist as hard as she could, causing the woman's fingers to uncurl around the Heart Crystal. With her other hand, she let go of Kaori's shoulder and snatched the Heart Crystal from her. "Your Heart snatching days are over as far as I'm concerned." She let go of Kaori and pushed her down to the ground. She didn't like to be so brutal, but she had to let these people know she was serious. She wasn't about to lose another human life because of them.  
  
Turning from Kaori, she started out for the locker room, where she still felt Haruka's energy going strong. That eased up the stress on her heart a bit. At least Haruka wasn't the one in danger of losing her Heart Crystal, but that doesn't mean she wasn't still in any kind of danger. With every attack there was a monster to fight, which she knew couldn't be defeated without the power of a Senshi.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Haruka was still going full force with the Heart Snatcher, who didn't seem to be hurt by any of Haruka's attacks. "Damn you!" She yelled as she dodged yet another blob of mud being slung at her. She retaliated with a swift roundhouse kick to its head. Her leg went only so far into the tip of its head before it was stopped by the hardening of the mud inside. A new, moist layer was remade, which completely locked her leg into place. Growling, she diverted all of her power into her leg and pulled it out, causing the mud to break and splatter everywhere.  
  
Haruka jumped away from the creature, and landed on her feet just a few feet away from the door. "How the hell am I supposed to defeat that? Its resistant to everything."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Sailor Neptune arrived in the doorway. Before she jumped in to stop the fight, she examined the room, which was covered in mud. Not too far from the door stood Haruka, who was standing face to face with the newest Heart Snatcher. In the far corner of the room, she noticed a body lying unconscious on the floor. 'That must be the victim.' Neptune stepped forward into the room.  
  
'Stop. Leave the room.'  
  
Neptune looked up and around. That was the same voice she had heard the night she first became Sailor Neptune. Why was she telling her to turn around and leave if it was her duty to protect those who are attacked by the Heart Snatchers? She did as she was told, and stepped back out of the room and away from the door. "Why? What's going on?"  
  
'We cannot interfere.'  
  
Neptune poked her head around the corner into the room just as the Heart Snatcher was extending its arms for Haruka, who in turn, jumped into the air to dodge. Haruka then fired a series of Ki attacks at the creature with no remorse.  
  
Moving her head away from the door, she thought back to the night she became a Senshi. Why did this remind her of that night? Probably because it was almost the exact same thing. She was left to fend for herself against a monster that was almost unbeatable. That's when it came to her. It was obvious. "She's a Sailor Senshi too?!"  
  
'I don't know.'  
  
~*~*~  
  
Haruka didn't know what to do. Nothing was working against this particular monster. Anything she threw at it was effective for only a few seconds. While she was wearing herself out, the Heart Snatcher still had full energy, or at least, it seemed to have full energy.  
  
Haruka jumped back toward the wall as she discontinued her attacks. The creature was full of holes, but she could see that it was starting to replenish itself. If she hadn't known any better, she would have thought that this was another Majin Buu from the descriptions that Goku and the others had given her. "What are you?!" She screamed as she jumped back into a wall, causing her to lose her footing. She clumsily tripped over her own feet for a few seconds before she landed on her backside.  
  
Looking up at the monster in horror, she growled. "I will not be defeated by whatever you are!"  
  
The monster looked curiously upon Haruka. It grew a wide, taunting smile on its face; looking down at her prey as a cat would a mouse. "He he he." It chirped beneath its breath as Haruka's breathing began to increase. It looked like this was finally it, her prey had been won. But just as the monster bent down to finish its victim off, a bright, blue light appeared between the two of them.  
  
The light was so intense that Haruka had to turn her head and shield her eyes with her arm. "What's happening?!" She cried out as her breathing intensified. She couldn't believe what was happening to her; the strange feelings she was experiencing. For once in her life she was scared. It was a strange, new feeling, something that she had never once given into before this moment. It was strange, all right, and horrifying.  
  
She couldn't see what was happening past the light, but somehow, as the light grew brighter, her nerves seemed to be calmed, as if something was calling out to her in a softly singing voice. "Huh?" She grunted as she lowered her arm just slightly.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Neptune couldn't believe what she was seeing. How could she have not known that Haruka would be a Sailor Senshi? Like the other five Senshi had grown up, inseparable, they too had shared the same link. She had always felt that there was something more to them than just what was on the outside, as if something were missing from their lives. Seeing Haruka's power being awakened had finally made her realize this.  
  
Sighing, Neptune felt a bit at ease knowing that she wouldn't be the only Senshi of her kind. Now she could share her secrets with her friend; her lover, just as she always had. She wouldn't have to hide her second identity and lie about where she was going, or where she had been at a certain time. She could finally tell someone about what had happened the night at the museum of art.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Haruka thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. Thought the monster seemed to be screaming louder and louder from pain of the intensified beam of light shooting into its eyes, Haruka seemed to be able to bear the powerful gleam as the seconds passed by. "What's going on?" She cried out, her voice shaking from fear.  
  
"Do not be afraid." Sang the soft woman's voice.  
  
Haruka seemed to have been the only one to hear the strange voice, as if it were talking directly into her head. She didn't quite understand; thinking it was only a trick by the enemy. But, that obviously was not the case as he seemed to be preoccupied with the pain rushing into his eyes. "Who."  
  
"I am your past, young Haruka. I am your power, hidden beneath years and years of sleep. You have summoned me."  
  
Haruka's eye instinctively widened. She didn't even realize that amount of light gushing into her pupils as she leaned closer. "I what?" She asked, softer this time than before. She seemed to be growing calmer and calmer the more she looked at the glowing ball of energy before.  
  
"It is time for your decision, Haruka. Embrace me with willingness, or shut me out to close this chapter or your life."  
  
Haruka wasn't sure what to think. She wasn't sure what was going on to create a valid opinion of what was happening to her. What was this voice saying? "close this chapter of your life"? What, exactly, was this to mean? What was she to think? She had no idea what was going on, nor did she know who her attacker was. Maybe this was part of a trick. She couldn't have that. This was serious. She could be killed. This could be one big, sick joke of Mamoru's in hopes to get a good laugh. Whatever it was, she had to make a decision fast of what she was going to do.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Meanwhile, out in the hall, Neptune had her fingers crossed tightly. She didn't think Haruka would turn down the power, but the girls hesitation wasn't exactly reassuring. "Come on, Haruka, you can do this. I know you can."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Haruka peered deep into the center of the energy, still very conscious of the fact that the monster was in the same room as her; and his moans were beginning to dissipate. Inside the tiny, round ball of floating energy, she could make out what seemed like a small, pen-like item floating inside. That just totally blew her out of the water. She hadn't found it strange that a random ball of energy appear before her, but an item becoming whole out of no where, that was just a bit too much to handle for her. "What is this?"  
  
"The source of your power, should you choose to embrace it. But, once you hold it, you may not release it. It will be your destiny to uphold the name of Uranus."  
  
Haruka backed away at the proclamation, and back into the wall. "What?!" She didn't know what to make of that. She wasn't sure if she had heard the voice completely right. There was only inference to be made off a name like that. "Are you saying that I'm a Sailor Senshi?"  
  
~*~*~  
  
Neptune gasped at Haruka's reaction. She knew how her friend had felt about the Senshi. She had hated, even loathed them. She had always said she would never be caught in a stupid outfit like that; that it was fine for others but not her. Was she honestly thinking about turning down the offer to hold a new power? The question scared Neptune to death; so much, in fact, that she was willing to defy the voice in her head that told her that, what she was about to do, probably wasn't the wisest choice in the world.  
  
Without a single thought, she leapt into the room so she would be plainly visible to Haruka. "Haruka!" She cried out as she stumbled over an abandoned shoe, causing her to fall to her knees. She didn't much care, she was more concerned with her friend's decision. "Please!" She called out in a fit of exasperation.  
  
Haruka's concentration was lost as fumbled over her thoughts and the words called out to her. "What the.!?" She quickly shot a glance at the Sailor Senshi now in front of her in shock. She didn't need to be a Senshi herself to know who was underneath that prissy Senshi uniform. She only needed her senses. There was no doubt that this particular Senshi had a bit of Michiru's power mixed in with it. "Michiru?!" She cried out in both surprise and confusion.  
  
Neptune didn't take her friend's words of shock into consideration as she leapt forward to be closer to her. "Please, you have to accept the power of Uranus!"  
  
"And if I don't?" Haruka barely managed to reply. She couldn't help but notice that the intensity of the light was beginning to diminish. Had she lost her chance? Had she taken too long?  
  
"Then the power will be passed to someone else. You have to take it, Haruka! I don't know what I'd do if I had to work with someone else." Neptune stayed still as she pleaded with all her heart. She didn't even take the time to notice that the monster was seaming to recover.  
  
"I don't want the responsibilities, Michiru. Let someone else do it!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, thought it was hardly needed. The monster was growing quiet.  
  
It broke Neptune's heart to hear Haruka talk like that. After everything Piccolo had taught them, hell, that Usagi and her friends had been able to teach them, Haruka still acted like a child. "Don't you understand? We were destined for this; destined to do it together! I don't want to do this alone!" With those last words, tiny, little droplets of tears began to run down her cheeks ever so slowly.  
  
Haruka calmed herself a bit, taking full notice of the girl's anguish. She didn't like to see Michiru in such a state. But this time, the answer wasn't as easy as 'give her what she wants'. This time, it involved her own future. Everything she ever wanted, the dreams about becoming a star athlete, all out the door. She could consider them gone. Of course, Michiru had given up the same privileges. She had given up her dream of becoming a musician to become a Senshi, maybe even knowing that Haruka would become one. Maybe she had dropped her dreams for that reason, so the two of them could live together for all eternity.  
  
Haruka's face softened at the thought of Michiru giving up everything for their relationship. If she could do it, then Haruka could too. She had to be fair about this. Without saying a single word to the aqua-colored Senshi, she looked up to the angering monster, who was starting to regain his bearings. With a growl of anger, she reached out and grasped the pen- like item, which was quickly disappearing. Her actions only worked to gain a gasp from her partner.  
  
Neptune's eyes filled even faster with tears, though they were no longer caused by fear. Getting back to her feet, she slowly walked into the far corner of the room next to the unconscious body to deliver the Heart Crystal which she had just stolen from Kaori. She didn't even wish to pay attention to how the fight played out, for she knew who the victor would be.  
  
'You should not have done that. She would have made the decision on her own.' The voice from before had returned to Sailor Neptune, though it was ignored.  
  
Haruka was immediately engulfed by a bright, dark blue light. Her track clothes were replaced with her Sailor uniform. It was much like Sailor Neptune's, but the blue was darker with a purple tint, and her bows were yellow.  
  
Just as if she had done this task many times in the past, two words popped into Sailor Uranus's head. Glaring at the blob of a monster, which was slowly making a move for her, she raised her right arm high in the air and chanted her attack. "WORLD SHAKING!" The words were nearly screamed as a ball of golden energy was formed on her fist. Almost as soon as it had formed, with a rapid action, she threw her fist all the way to the ground and released the energy to go flying toward her attacker.  
  
Uranus was frozen in place as she awaited the results of her attack. Without a doubt, it was blown to pieces almost as quickly as it had appeared in the first place. "Now that's what I call power." She chimed arrogantly, as she looked down at her hand, which she tightly curled into a fist.  
  
Neptune giggled just as she guided the Heart Crystal back into its owner.  
  
Uranus quickly became quite as she hunched her shoulders over. She looked down at her kneeling partner and sighed. "I'm sorry, Michiru."  
  
Naptune made sure the victim was alive before standing up to face Uranus. "Haruka." It was the only thing she could think of saying for she was at a loss of words. Nothing could have made her happier at that moment than to look at Haruka standing before in a Senshi suit. They were again united as a pair, the troublesome duo as their teachers had always referred to them in school.  
  
Uranus took a step forward in the rubble, not even taking a second look back at her defeat. "I had no idea."  
  
Neptune walked over to her partner. "It has been rough, these past few days, without you."  
  
Uranus took Neptune's hands up in hers and kissed them ever so softly. "Don't worry, I'm with you now, together, as it always should be."  
  
Neptune smiled softly as she took her hand from Haruka's grasp and placed it on her shoulder. "I need to tell your something." Her eyes quickly moved away from Haruka's and landed on the floor next to her feet.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kaori hightailed it back to the lab in the basement of the school empty handed. "Damn those melding Sailor Senshi! The professor isn't going to like this!"  
  
"Isn't going to like what?" Professor Tomoe turned a corner to enter the same hallway that Kaori currently occupied. His eyes didn't look quite as inviting as they usually did.  
  
Kaori came to a screeching halt, nearly tumbling into the broad-chested professor. "Professor! I thought you were in the lab."  
  
The professor looked into Kaori's eyes, which were quickly filling with fear. He didn't like the nervous tone in her voice. "You were taking too long, and I heard a noise."  
  
Kaori's jaw nearly dropped, but she held it together to the best of her ability. "I thought the lab was in the basement."  
  
The professor glared deeper into Kaori's eyes. He could detect something was wrong, and seeing that she didn't have a smirk of victory on her face, he became agitated. "You didn't get it?!" He looked down at her side, completely ignoring her implied question. "And where's my creature?!" He snapped.  
  
Kaori held herself together enough not to jump at his command. "A Sailor Senshi came at me out of no where. And then there was that melding brat, Haruka. Once I had the Heart Crystal I ran for it. But it was stolen."  
  
The professor looked up and down the hall to make sure no one was coming. "Looks like we have to implement a new plan. Time to go back to the drawing board, we need to equip our creatures with weapons." Without waiting for any sort of reply, he turned himself around and headed back for the lab. Kaori was quick to chase after him. "You would do well to find a way to rid ourselves of the Senshi, Kaori."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Haiwaka Shrine~~  
  
Makoto didn't talk much that next morning when she woke up. She was too preoccupied with the thoughts of what had happened earlier that day, with the plane crash and the falling out with her father. She ate breakfast, and quickly ushered herself back into the guestroom to be left alone. She'd barely gotten any sleep the night before, but that wasn't really anything new to her. The past week had been a restless one, ever since she'd first heard the news of her parents leaving town. But last night had been to worst. Every time she closed her eyes she saw a vision of a fiery plan with her mother lying lifelessly in front of it on the ground. Replaying the events of the day before were enough to keep her awake, and the visions didn't help ease any of the pain.  
  
She couldn't seem to put her mind at ease. Telling her father off had felt really good. She was able to let some of the steam that had been building up over the years out. But as she was left to think about it, she became more and more worried; worried that her father would forever scorn her and never accept her back; worried that she would never again get the chance to move back home with her mother if her father refused to take her back. So many thoughts of worry were piling up in her head. She couldn't deal with the stress anymore. It was all too much.  
  
Rei didn't mind seem to mind that Makoto was keeping to herself. She knew that her friend was upset and decided to give the girl some time to herself. She had other things she wanted to tend to anyway, like her Grandfather's new help, Yuuichiro.  
  
Her grandfather had walked into room just as she was cleaning up the table from breakfast. She gave him a warm smile as she gathered three plates together and placed one atop the other. "Just the man I wanted to see." She said, rather cheerfully, which was quite against the mood inside the house.  
  
Mr. Hino smiled back as his granddaughter, reaching out for the table to help her clear it faster even though it was really her duty to finish by herself. "You're quite the opposite of your friend."  
  
Rei walked to a small, wooden tub and carefully set the plates down in it so they wouldn't break. She then turned back to the table and grabbed some glasses out of her grandfather's old hands. "I'm just trying to keep things positive. What would Makoto think if she knew that I was upset too?"  
  
Mr. Hino smiled even wider as he took a seat at the small wooden table. "You really remind me of your mother, Rei. You've always been compassionate and caring toward the feelings of others, and aware of how you make other's feel."  
  
Rei blushed as she opened a fresh bottle of dish soap. She hated it when her grandfather compared her to her mother for it had always embarrassed her, especially when she was younger. He would always boast how beautiful she was, and how much she looked like her mother. "Grandfather." She scolded with a slight giggle.  
  
Mr. Hino chuckled as he rested his arms on the table in front of him. "You know its true, Rei. You seem to be growing into her more and more. She would be very proud of the way you've turned out."  
  
Rei set the bottle of soap down as she slightly dipped her head into her chest. She couldn't help but wonder what her mother was like. After all, she hadn't really ever met her. As far back as she could remember, she had always lived under the care of her grandfather. The memories of her parents were only those of what she had heard from the stories people had told her over the years.  
  
Every time she was told that she was like her mother, she wished more and more to meet her. She envied her friends more than anything for knowing their parents, as imperfect as many of them were. She was the only one who had never really known hers; and for many years, this had made her feel inferior to her classmates. They were always able to talk about their parents; of their fights and quarrels, but there was always the talk of how they had made up in the end. She witnessed these parent-child fights nearly every day with Usagi, and though she always sided with Usagi that it was horrible to live through, she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to have a mother to argue with.  
  
Mr. Hino seemed to detect these feelings from his granddaughter, for he stood up rather suddenly. "Was there something you wished to speak with me about, Rei?" He questioned, trying to get her mind away from her troubles. He knew how Rei felt about never knowing her parents. He remembered when she was just a young child, how he could hear her crying in her sleep for her mother and father. It broke his heart every time, but there was nothing he could do to remedy the situation other than to tell her stories of her mother and father to make it seem is if she knew them. For her fifth birthday, he had put together a small picture book of her parents together before Rei was born. It wasn't much to ease her mind, but it had worked to make her feel as though they were with her.  
  
Rei snapped out of her trance and looked back into her grandfather's eyes. "Oh, yes. About this helper you've hired." She got a menacing grin as she walked back to the table and placed her hands upon it.  
  
Mr. Hino smiled as he raised his hands behind his head. "Do not worry. He won't harm you. He just wants an honest job, and to reform from his life as a beggar."  
  
Rei sighed. "I hope you know what you're doing, grandfather. Beggar's usually tend to be liars."  
  
Mr. Hino slightly frowned at his granddaughter. He didn't remember teaching her to be so close-minded and judgmental. "I do know what I'm doing, Rei. I have spoken with him on several occasions. He is very sincere about turning his life around. He just needs to be given a chance to do it. Not very many people would be willing to do that for him."  
  
Rei nodded very slowly. She had to admit that he was right. Not many people would be willing to let a beggar be their apprentice in order to reform. Most people just shrugged them off and decided someone else would take the task up. "All right."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Mugen School~~  
  
"So Taro was a victim of the Heart Snatchers?" The two Sailor Senshi had allowed their defenses down and detransformed into their civilian selves. Michiru had gone on to explain her first encounter at the Museum of Art; how she had lost the life of Taro to the Heart Snatchers. She had been too slow in defeating her attacker to catch up to Kaori in time to get his very life source back. She had beaten herself up over it for hours upon hours, on into days. She couldn't find it in her heart to forgive herself. She didn't feel that she deserved to be forgiven until she found out who was behind the attacks and bring them to their doom.  
  
Michiru nodded quite grimly as she stared down at the ground. "I'm afraid so." She put her arms behind her back in shame, not knowing what kind of reaction she should expect from Haruka. "I tried to save his Heart Crystal, but Kaori got away. I hurried back to the Museum, but it was too late. He was gone. That's when I returned to you and said that I wanted to go home."  
  
Haruka didn't know quite how to take the news. She hadn't a single clue of what her partner was feeling inside for days now. "We'll fight these guys until we defeat them. We'll make them pay for all the killings that have been going on lately. They won't get past us."  
  
Michiru looked up with a smile of relief. "There's more, though. We aren't to tell Usagi, who is, unfortunately, our Princess."  
  
Haruka looked rather confused at the comment. "Excuse me? I do not give my loyalty to her. She's much too brash to be a Princess. I work alone, under the command of no one." The room became silent as the two girls stared into each other's eyes. Haruka was becoming quite curious as to why she was un- allowed to tell Usagi that they too were of the Senshi team. "Why exactly can we not tell her?"  
  
Michiru shrugged. "I was told on the night that I became a Senshi to tell no one; that we are some sort of special Senshi. No one can fell us, not even us. We have some sort of hidden power, that's why you didn't feel me become a Senshi that night at the museum."  
  
Haruka scratched her head with wonder. "How strange. I'm guessing we aren't to tell Mamoru either?"  
  
Michiru nodded as she leaned her head into the chest of the woman before her. "No. We are to work silently until we defeat the enemy." 


	165. Part 12

~*~*~*~  
  
A tall woman with long, flowing hair the color of black with a green tint approached two large, grayish-black doors that looked to be sealed shut with there being no way to possibly open them. In her hand, she held a long staff, which was almost as long as her body but only came up to her chin. Her green eyes told all that she was not one to be fooled around with. They were fixed upon these double doors as if she were protecting it from something. It was as if she was waiting for something to come in, or maybe even go out. Whatever it was she was waiting for, she was going to be ready for it when it happened to come waltzing through those doors.  
  
Seeming satisfied with herself, the woman relaxed her back as she slightly hunched over to rest on her staff. She didn't look quite as intent upon watching the doors anymore. Her eyes turned upon a small opening in the blackness around her. Inside, she could see into the world known as Earth. She could see the two people whom she had been watching very closely for the past few weeks. She was very interested in how they had grown not physically but as soldiers; the newest additions to the group of soldiers known as the Sailor Senshi. She had been there when they had first transformed, and would be there until the end. She too was what you would called the "silent Senshi". She, along with these three, were known as the Outer Senshi, while Usagi and her gang were called the Inner Senshi.  
  
When the Silver Millennium was still in existence, the Outer Senshi would need to know where their Princess was at all times, as well as her court, the Inner Senshi. The two groups generally did not mingle with one another, as the Outer Senshi were more powerful. It was their duty to protect the Princess silently, on the outer rims of the solar system. They were to make sure that nothing got in close enough to the Moon to do any damage to their Queen and Princess. Unfortunately, when the Dark Kingdom had struck, they were unable to defend their part of the solar system and had gone down with the entire Moon Kingdom.  
  
Their only job was not just to protect the Moon Kingdom, however. They had another and, possibly, more important duty to their Queen. They were to protect the solar system from one of their own, Sailor Saturn. She was known as the Senshi of Death and Rebirth for one very important reason. Her power was incredibly strong, possibly stronger than the Queen's herself. However, this was not a blessing. Her power was so strong that it was capable of destroying the entire solar system itself if she allowed it to. She was, by far, the most dangerous Senshi to be alive. When she used her power, she would die but was reborn as a baby almost immediately after. It was the Outer Senshi's duty to make sure that Saturn was never allowed to use her powers for they feared that the entire Solar System would disappear if they didn't. After everyone was reincarnated, however, the Senshi of Death had been lost, and even the Timekeeper herself did not know where she was.  
  
Her greatest fear was coming fourth, however. The Keeper of Time, known as Sailor Pluto, was foreseeing something very deadly happening in the near future. She could see it happening, Sailor Saturn awakening in response to the latest attacks, but her visions weren't clear. All she saw was an explosion with no sound backing it up, which meant one thing; Sailor Saturn was bound to wake up at any time if Sailor Uranus and Neptune were unable to stop the recent attacks. They would surely get a hold of the most destructive Senshi, and then the world would be doomed. She could not be allowed to wake up.  
  
"The Sovereign of Silence." She chanted calmly under her breath. She feared even the name. She had only witnessed the powers of this Senshi once, and what she saw even frightened her. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the girl's face from her vision, but it wasn't happening. Each time she saw it, the girl's face was covered by smoke and debris.  
  
Opening her eyes, she looked back into the hole that looked in upon earth, but not before looking back at the two large doors in front of her to make sure that they were still safely sealed. Inside the hole, she noticed that the two girls had transformed into Sailor Senshi to fight off the Heart Snatchers. It had been happening a lot, lately. Those who were behind the creation of these strange creatures seemed to be getting wiser by the day. They had finally realized that they needed to install some sort of offense/defense system for their monsters to help defend against the newly awakened Senshi, but it wasn't much. The way things had been working out before, whenever they had created their monsters, they had somehow anticipated people being able to attack it with their spirit energy. They seemed to have been able to manipulate the power they received from the Heat Crystals and turn it into a stronger defense against regular spirit energy. That much Pluto had inferred on her own. It was the only explanation for Haruka and Michiru being unable to do much damage the creatures they were up against. However, the creators of these creatures obviously did not anticipate the Senshi getting involved, or they had just not known exactly what type of energy they were up against. This meant either one of two things. Either the creator was a genius in knowing the mechanics of spirit energy, or he had access to someone who possessed this sort of power and could experiment with such power manipulation. Whatever it was, she didn't think it was anyone the Senshi personally knew. She had no reason to think that. But the person behind these antics posed a serious threat to the wellbeing of the planet, for if Sailor Saturn were to be awakened, the planet would be doomed.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Six long months had passed since Haruka and Michiru had become part of the Sailor Senshi. Their work hadn't been too insane after Haruka had become a Senshi. The Heart Snatchers had wanted to hang low for a while to create a defense system against them in hopes to battle their power. The down period had last for about three and a half months. Haruka and Michiru had wondered where the attacks were, though they didn't make it the center of their thoughts, they still wondered what was happening. The silence in the attacks was a bit unnerving for them. They sensed that something was up, but what was it? Was it that they wanted to fake the Senshi out by trying to make them believe that they had been beaten, or was that really the case? Had they decided to move their operations elsewhere, and if so, where? They would need to be found before they got what they were looking for.  
  
The attacks started up rather slowly. Some of them were successful, while some of them were not. The Senshi stopped as many as they could. In just a matter of weeks after the attacks started up again, the pace in which they were coming had quickened, and it seemed like there was an attack every three to four days. The Senshi noticed that most of the people targeted were people from their school, which had made it oddly strange. They had come to realize it must have been someone working inside the school, someone how had access to these kids everyday, but who could it be? Could it be a teacher or faculty member? Or could it have been one of the students themselves? Whoever it was, they were sure, had to be a sort of genius to create the monsters that were attacking. Each one was unique; completely different from the one before it and the ones after it.  
  
The two college students hadn't quite figured out who was behind the attacks yet, but they were sure of one thing; as long as they stuck together, they would come out on top of these new enemies.  
  
~*~*~  
  
An echoing sound was made as two feet beat against the marble flooring of the new office building across the street from Mugen School. The walls were tall; and the hallways long, which only worked to make the echo's of footsteps louder and carry throughout the entire complex.  
  
Mamoru whistled to himself as he slowly made his way from the front desk of the building to a small office in the back. He kept his eyes downward as he slumped his shoulders; his arms in his pockets. At the end of the long hallway, next to a Pepsi machine, Haruka stood leaning against the wall with her school jacket strung over her right shoulder. On her face she wore a sly smirk, as she always had. Mamoru looked up just to barely notice her and grinned, but did nothing more to acknowledge her presence as he continued his way down the hall.  
  
Upon seeing his grin, Haruka shifted away from the wall and stepped out toward her approaching friend. "You didn't show up to class today," she scolded.  
  
Mamoru's grin widened as he paused in his steps. "I didn't feel like going today." After Mamoru had finally landed himself a nice job and an apartment, he no longer had anything to busy himself with. Sure there were jobs that had come and gone. He had helped out with a few martial arts camps for kids and then there were those menial jobs that teenagers usually take up, but he had soon found that having just a high school degree wouldn't get him very far. That's when he had decided to enroll in college with his friends. It had worked out great for him because at the time of his enrollment last quarter, a new office building was opening up just across the street, and the recruiters for clerks went directly to the college to look for possible employees. Mamoru hadn't wasted any time jumping on the deal and found himself a representative from a small law firm that was opening up in the building. Although law wasn't exactly his major, the firm had cut a deal with him since he needed the job. Currently he was working as a clerk doing miscellaneous jobs for lawyers. The deal was that he would work for the firm half time, and go to school half time. It worked out great for him because he was finally able to afford a nice apartment.  
  
Working at the firm had caused Mamoru to learn a bit about law, which in turn caught his interest in the subject. He had decided to take a few courses in law, but one of the prerequisites was to learn more about his language, so he decided to take a few courses in English, the class he had decided not to attend that day.  
  
Haruka grunted as she stared into the eyes of her friend. Her smirk slowly turned into a deformed frown. "Excuse me? You didn't feel like going? You left me to sit alone with all those preps without telling me?" She had taken up the same English course as Mamoru after he had begged her to so he wouldn't have to take it alone. It worked out great with Michiru's schedule since she was in Orchestra while the English class was offered.  
  
Mamoru chuckled as he stepped to the side to allow someone from another office to pass by. "I had some work I needed to take care of."  
  
Haruka let her rising angry show as she shifted her weight, "No, you just didn't want to do that stupid skit in front of the class. you wanted me to embarrass myself by making me do it alone."  
  
Mamoru's grin grew as he began to walk down the hall once again. "You know me all too well."  
  
Haruka frowned as she crossed her arms over her chest and stepped to the side to make room for the passing man. "You ass."  
  
Mamoru chuckled as he gave a backhanded wave to the girl. "You too."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Come on, Usagi! You have to get serious about this already!"  
  
Usagi stared at Rei with bright, wide eyes. She blinked twice and managed a blank expression. Minako giggled at her friend's antics, but Rei wasn't quite as lighthearted about the situation. With the high school entrance exams nearing, the five girls had begun getting together regularly after school to study. Chi-Chi had no problem allowing her daughter to do her homework with her friends if it meant that Usagi would learn something, and that she would study for those dreaded exams.  
  
Most of their study sessions took place at Rei's, considering it was the only place where they could find some quiet time. It provided a comfortable, peaceful environment where they could focus on nothing but studying. But even with the calm surroundings, one amongst their group was still fussing over the whole situation.  
  
Usagi hated to study and hated any form of studying, even if it was a game. It wasn't for any one reason in particular, but for two. Schoolwork was becoming more and more difficult now that she was in her eighth year of school, which made it increasingly harder to study. It didn't help that the infamous Mr. Koch was piling on the math work like crazy; he had no mercy on them, in fact, he seemed to be rather enjoying his torture of them. When Usagi didn't understand something, it going boring quick and she lost interest. It seemed to be happening a lot more lately.  
  
Usagi leaned back in her chair and continued to look into the girl's deep red eyes, which didn't look too happy. "Come on, Rei. We've been doing this for hours. Let's do something else for a while," She whined. She casually placed her hands behind her head with a refreshing stretch.  
  
Rei didn't look as amused at Minako. She glanced at Makoto and Ami who had both grown accustomed to Usagi and Rei's bickering during their study sessions and were no longer phased by it. They were still working quite diligently on their own homework in preparation for the exams. Rei grunted as she glared back at her Saiyan friend, who was currently the exact image of her father with that dumb smile on her face. "Oh please, Usagi! You've just been sitting around all day whining about how you hate studying!" She paused as she looked past Usagi and frowned at the girl sitting next to her, Minako, whose giggling had erupted into laughter. "I'm sorry, but do you find this funny?"  
  
Minako nodded furiously as she threw her pencil on the table. "Rei, you two go through this every day. Why don't you just give her a break?"  
  
Still looking as dumbstruck as her father, Usagi leaned forward once again upon hearing Minako's defense for her. "Yeah, Rei; Every day. Can't we have one day where we don't study; where we just hang out like good ol' times?" Usagi tried to muster up a pitiful face of plea, but Rei wasn't buying it. The only person that worked on anymore was her father, who never could say 'no' to her.  
  
Rei frowned even harder at her friend with a sigh of frustration. "Look, Usagi, you don't seem to realize how important these exams are."  
  
Usagi shot back a glare of her own as she stood up. "No, I do know how important these stupid tests are, Rei! You don't think I hear about it from my mom? I just want one day where we don't have to do anything."  
  
Ami was distracted from her history homework by Usagi's outburst. She slowly looked away from her notebook where she was previously taking notes in. She hadn't really minded Usagi's complaining. She had learned to put anything sounding remotely like a complaint in the back of her head and just shut it out, but there were those times where the girl's obnoxious attitude toward schoolwork took the priority of her attention. Although she could sympathize for the girl. Usagi had never been one for studying for long periods of times; she had learned that the hard way when they were younger when she herself tried to tutor the girl, but things had gotten a bit better when they realized she was able to concentrate on what she was doing if she was listening to music. "I find that I have to agree with her, Rei. We have been studying a lot lately. You know how Usagi is; she needs a little fun mixed in with her studying to keep things going."  
  
Rei turned her head to look at Ami in surprise. "Excuse me? I thought you said studying like this was a good idea."  
  
Makoto too was distracted now. She lifted her head from her own notes and agreed with Ami. "I think we could all use a bit of a rest. I think we're getting a bit snappy with each other."  
  
Usagi smiled wide. "Thank god somebody here has some sense." She directed her comment toward Rei, who was sulking over her loss.  
  
Before any of the girls could reply to Makoto's suggestion, there was a knock at the door of Rei's room. Since Usagi was already standing up, she took the liberty of answering it. It was Yuuichiro at the door. He seemed to be coming around to the room lately with random news. He seemed to be poking around for any reason to come and visit them. The girls still weren't exactly sure of him; after all, he was a beggar at heart. Everyone just figured he wanted something from them, or was scouting out anything that he could steal and pawn off for money.  
  
He just stood there and stared in on the occupants of the room, particularly Rei. She tried not to look him back in the eye, as she was very embarrassed every time they met his. Usagi waved her hand in front of his face to get his attention. "Hello? Can we help you?" She didn't really care for this guy too much; not that she knew him all that well. All she knew was that he kept finding ways to interrupt them, which wasn't all that bad after she thought about it. It got her a few precious moments away from the books.  
  
Yuuichiro took his eyes off of Rei and placed them on the brunette next to her. "Yeah, Makoto, someone's on the phone for you. I think it's your dad." And with that, he turned around to leave the room. He could tell from the girls' glaring gazes that he was interrupting them yet again. He hadn't always met to interrupt them, but he was bored, and these girls were rather interesting. He had never had any siblings, and watching these girls was quite fun for him. He wished he could be a part of their group, or at least talk to them. He didn't have any friends of his own. When you grow up on the street you start to not trust people. It's a world different from the civilized one. Everyone is out to help themselves and screw over as many people as it takes. He made his departure quick and left the girls to themselves.  
  
Makoto stood up with a quick stretch of her arms behind her back. "What a bother that man's become. When will he get it through his head that I'm not coming home until mom's better? She's in no condition to hear dad and me fighting all the time; hell, she's in no condition to have to fight with him over me either. This is the second time this week he's called. Mom just got out of the hospital last week. What's he thinking?"  
  
Minako rolled her eyes as she toppled onto Rei's bed with a sigh of final relief now that she was taking a break from her studies. Like Usagi, Minako hated to study, but she did it anyway. She didn't want Rei to be on her back like she was with Usagi. "He's probably doing it on purpose, you know? He just wants a reason to yell at you again. He probably misses taking his anger out on you."  
  
Ami frowned as she took the opportunity to stand up and stretch out her legs as well. "I don't think he would go that low after what happened at the hospital. You kind of have to give the guy some credit. I mean, he is your father."  
  
Makoto frowned as she made fist. "Yeah right, that little fact that never stopped him before. It's been thirteen years and he still doesn't treat me like a human being, let alone his child." She grunted as she made her way to the door, where Usagi was still standing, though now with a frown on her face. "Let's face it, the man will never change. He's probably just going to ask me to come home to make mom happy with him again, like he's really changed or something. He's always thinking of himself and that's it." She pushed Usagi to the side with a word and left the room.  
  
Rei, who was the only one left sitting, looked around at the books on the floor. She had finished her homework long before then and was just purely studying for the exams. She had picked up a few books from her school library that were made especially for study aids and had them spread around. She looked over at her friends' books and it seemed that Usagi was the only one who wasn't finished with her homework. It was true that they hadn't really just hung out together after school outside of studying, but the teachers were really becoming quite serious about colleges. She hated that Usagi wasn't taking things more seriously. She didn't know what she would do if Usagi didn't get into the same school as them, or if any of them were split up. That was why she was being so hard on Usagi lately. She had noticed the girl slipping behind everyone, regardless of her smarts. "You haven't even finished your homework yet?!" She exclaimed.  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes with a growl. "Oh come off it!" She shouted back.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto found herself in a small room with a telephone in it and nothing more. It was known as just 'The telephone room' by Rei and her Grandfather. She had been living with Rei for just about six months now; ever since her mother had been hurt in the crash. Her mother hadn't made as swift a recovery as everyone at the hospital had expected. Her injuries were worse than they had first been tested as, which made things more complicated. She was just recently released in the past week to go home; Makoto hadn't wanted to go home quite yet. Her mother was still in a very bad condition. Her burns were finally healing, though they left her skin tinted with a reddish color. Her bandages were able to come off just three weeks ago. Her skin was still quite red then, but it was healing very nicely now. She had gone blind in her left eye as a result of a piece of burning metal flying into it. The doctors were able to repair the damage, but the eye was no longer usable. Her arms and legs had been broken in several spots, and had just recently healed. She was unable to get up and walk around, and still is. Her bones are weak, and the doctors claim that she must go through therapy to learn how to reuse them. Makoto hated the thought of her father being the one responsible to get her two and from her appointments, but she didn't want to put any unneeded stress on her mother. She knew that if she went home she would blame all of her mother's injuries on her father, since they were technically his fault. She still couldn't understand how he escaped so much of the explosion without being hurt too bad. She could just picture her father being a weak baby and crying out while her mother threw herself on top of him. She liked to think of her mother going down like a hero.  
  
Sighing with a frown, she closed the door behind her and reached out for the phone receiver that was lying on the floor. "What is it?" She yelled rather harshly. She didn't care what her father had to say to her, she wasn't going to take his crap from him anymore. She had saved his life and yet he was still ungrateful. He didn't even take a second thought of his own wife when she was near death.  
  
The voice on the other end of the line started out rather quietly, like it was unsure of itself. "When are you planning on coming back?"  
  
Makoto frowned as she let the receiver sit between her ear and her shoulder so she could fold her arms over her chest. "I told you two days ago that I'm not coming home until mom is fully recovered. Can't you get that through your thick scull." The other side of the line was silent, but she could hear heavy breathing. "Why don't you worry about mom instead of when you'll get a chance to chew me out?" Without taking even a second to hear what the man had to say in reply, she slammed the phone down.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru was shuffling through a pile of papers on his desk that needed to be distributed when Haruka walked in with Michiru. "What do you want?" He looked up, but barely noticed that Michiru had joined Haruka. She had just come from her Orchestra class, which had released about ten minutes late. Haruka had told her to meet her with Mamoru after class. They were going to patrol the school grounds, like they had been doing a lot recently since the attacks were beginning to pick up again.  
  
Michiru carefully picked up a manila file-folder from Mamoru's desk and began examining it. Mamoru snatched it from her grasp and placed it into his shabby-looking briefcase. "What?" She questioned.  
  
Mamoru glared at the girl with a slight hint of a smile. "Keep your grubby little hands off my stuff."  
  
Michiru returned the smile with a grin of her own. "Right, like you haven't had your hands all over my stuff."  
  
Mamoru rolled his eyes as he shut his briefcase. "I gotta go, you two. I promised Rei I'd swing by her house tonight and help the girls out with their homework. I guess Usagi's really falling behind."  
  
Haruka snorted. "Since when do you care about those bubble-headed girls?"  
  
Mamoru wasn't so quick to retort as he had usually been in the past. The truth of the matter was that he wasn't so hateful toward them as he used to be. Ever since he found out that he was the Prince of the Earth he had grown kinder little by little. He still resented Usagi for his past, but he was finally growing up, though he would never admit to it. "What can I say? I'm just a nice guy."  
  
Haruka grunted with a chuckle. "Yeah right! Don't make me hurl."  
  
Michiru giggled. "Come on, Haruka. We too have business we need to attend to."  
  
Haruka nodded. "Gotcha." She saw the look of confusion on Mamoru's face, but decided not to say anything. She remembered Michiru telling her of what happened when she first became a Senshi; how they were to tell no one of their little secret. So far she had been able to keep that secret, and she didn't plan on breaking that secrecy any time soon.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"She's growing weak! Why haven't you brought me any Heart Crystals?! You haven't brought me anything in weeks, Kaori! Do I need to find a replacement?!" Professor Tomoe was wearing his white lab jacket, as usual, as he was hunched over his newest creation. It was a new kind of Heart Snatcher, one that was hopefully going to be stronger than any of the others that he had ever created.  
  
Kaori squirmed in her spot as she looked upon the Professor. It was true that she hadn't come back with a Heart Crystal in weeks. In her search for one of the Pure Heart Crystals she had come to face two of the most menacing Sailor Senshi in the business, Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus. "It's those damn Sailor Senshi, Professor. They show up every time I try to get a possible candidate."  
  
Tomoe didn't turn around to face the woman behind him. He could sense how uneasy she was becoming, but he wasn't phased. His mistress was becoming increasingly angry over the fact that she was being weakened. Hotaru was feeling the effects more than ever too. Both of them were weak, Hotaru was falling ill at school almost every day. These events hadn't gone unnoticed by her teachers, who began to become too inquisitive for their own good. "That's why we've got to move our searches elsewhere. Every time you get one it turns out to be the wrong thing anyway. That means it wasn't right to begin with. So now we're going to expand outward. I've found you a starter for this one time. I think she might have one."  
  
Kaori quirked an eyebrow. "She?"  
  
Tomoe nodded as he put the finishing touches on his creation. "Yes. She lives at this address." He finally turned around to hand Kaori a piece of paper with a few words scribbled on it in red ink. With the paper he slipped her a picture of the target.  
  
Kaori gasped at what she was looking at. She knew this girl. It was one of Hotaru's little friends. "You mustn't be serious. Do you realize who these people are?" She immediately turned up to look at the Professor, who didn't looked the least bit amused. "You know then?"  
  
Tomoe nodded, but said nothing. He knew who she was, and that was why he was going after her. She would be the perfect candidate for a true Pure Heart Candidate if she was able to make friends with the brat. He reached back to his research table and pulled off the silver suitcase Kaori was so used to seeing and threw it to the woman, who caught it. "Don't mess up this time."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto slowly began making her way back to Rei's room, but was stopped by Mr. Hino on the way. He was a short man, shorter than her even. Of course, she was tall for her age and towered over all of her friends and classmates. "Did you need me to do anything before I go back to Rei's room, Mr. Hino?" She asked sweetly, even though she was quite angry. She was trying to hold some of her anger in.  
  
Mr. Hino could sense the girl's anger; he had seen it come out and develop over the past few months. Even if she had decided to go back home he probably wouldn't have advised it at the moment. She had been hurt too many times in the thirteen years that she had lived by her father, and that wasn't something you could just up and get over at the wish of. well. anyone, especially by the person who gave you the most trouble. "I couldn't help but overhear the words you exchanged with your father."  
  
Makoto frowned; she didn't appreciate anyone listening in on her conversations. "Excuse me?"  
  
Mr. Hino detected the rising anger in her tone of voice and quickly rethought his tact, or rather lack of. "I think you might try being nicer to your father next time you speak with him."  
  
Makoto couldn't believe what she was hearing. This man knew exactly what she had gone through with her father, he had heard the stories since she had started living with him, and yet he still believed in that whole give respect to your parents thing. What was he thinking? She didn't feel that she was in the wrong. "I'm sorry, but I don't think it's any of your business." She wouldn't have normally been rude to one of her best friend's grandfather, but he wasn't exactly making things easy on her by telling her she should try to be nicer to her ass of a father.  
  
Mr. Hino cleared his throat with a smirk. "Whoa there, Makoto. I wasn't trying to tell you what to do. I was just simply expressing the fact that your father may actually feel bad about what he's done to you. After the story you told me I'm sure that I would be sorry for anything I had ever said to you. No parent wants to hear that from their child."  
  
Makoto frowned. "He's not much of a parent in the first place."  
  
~*~*~  
  
While Makoto had been on the phone, Rei had stepped out to do her chores. She saw Yuuichiro entertaining some of the guests that had arrived, which left her to sweep up around the courtyard to make sure things were clean. She was already sweeping things up when she noticed a shadow lurking in the distance. "Hello," she called out to see if it was a visitor who had gotten separated from the group. There was no answer and Rei didn't really want to bother herself with doing Yuuichiro's job so she ignored the shadow and continued to do her own job. She took a deep breath of the fresh air, remembering exactly why she had always loved living at a Shrine. Things were so peaceful; not a lot of noise was heard other than the wind flowing through the tree branches and a few birds chirping.  
  
She went back to her duty of sweeping and began humming a very tranquil song to try and rid her thoughts of Usagi and the whole studying thing. Maybe Ami was right; maybe they should take more breaks in between study sessions to ease some of the stress of doing constant schoolwork. Maybe they could go to the arcade every so often instead of studying every single night after school. She had to admit that she too was growing tired of the whole idea of constant studying.  
  
Shortly after she had begun her duties, she noticed the shadowy figure lurking at her side again. Finding it somewhat bothersome, Rei sighed. She set her broom against a small cart, which held leaves, and as she was turning around, she was face to face with a huge, gaping monster. That was definitely not something that she had expected.  
  
Startled, Rei jumped back and tripped over the cart full of leaves, causing it to fall over and spill its entire contents onto the concrete yard. Rei was caught so off guard that she couldn't help but let out a piercing scream, breaking the once silent courtyard.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi and the others all exchanged glances with one another as they sprang into action upon hearing their friend's distress. Makoto, who had just arrived in the room, let out a cry of frustration. She preferred to deal with one crisis at a time; and this one was more than unwelcomed. 


	166. Part 13

~*~*~*~  
  
Staring at the creature before her, Rei let out a whine of fear. She was in no position to battle something right then. But nevertheless, she tried to scramble to her feet, but was swatted down to the ground by the Heart Snatcher. This time she was more alert and rolled forward with the hit so she could land back on her feet. With her knees clenched against her chest, she made a quick dive to her right and rolled sideways so she was behind the creature. She pressed her hands firmly on the concrete and lifted her legs in the air so she could kick the back of her attacker. "Take that!"  
  
The creature stumbled forward, but was quick to recover. He landed on his hands and performed a back flip while turning in the air so he could face his target face-to-face. With a snarling growl, he darted straight for the girl, who in turn reacted with a quick kneeing to his face.  
  
With her attacker stunned, she grabbed him by the neck and flipped him over on his back, causing the concrete below to crack. She didn't pay any attention to the damage as she jumped away from him hoping to gain the upper hand quicker than later. She was in the middle of a mental dilemma all the while this was happening. She had no idea where this thing had come from, let alone who it was working for.  
  
The time of peace wasn't lived long as the monster-like creature scurried back to his feet. He was determined to perform his job, but the girl was putting up too much of a fight for him to try anything at the moment. But he would persist as he had been programmed. He made a quick dive for Rei, but she was too fast. He stumbled forward and made a quick jump turn to face her once again.  
  
Just as Rei was about to summon her inner strength, her friends arrived on the scene. The four of them made a mad dash from the house portion of the shrine with their power levels already raised. None of them looked too happy over the attack of their friend.  
  
Makoto, who was already upset over her father, made an unplanned attack upon the creature. Her glory was short-lived when she was backhanded to the ground. She hit the ground hard on her back, but she wasn't about to let that stop her. She jumped back to her feet but didn't go full force on another attack. She wouldn't let her emotions get the best of her again. Next time she would plan out her attack.  
  
Rei tried running for her friends, but the creature took this opportunity to reach out and grab a hold of her by the arm. "Ah!"  
  
Usagi clenched her fists. "Rei!" She gritted her teeth and let out a loud growl of anger. "Let her go!" She didn't even stop to think of why they were being attacked, or by whom they were being attacked by. She wasn't about to try and contemplate things when her friend was in trouble.  
  
She allowed her power level to skyrocket; but their attacker didn't seemed to be phased, as he couldn't detect power levels. A golden aura appeared around the whole of her body as she charged for him. She could hear the footsteps of her friends following closely behind. "You."  
  
Just as she was going to make her move, she noticed that Rei seemed to be struggling, though not of trying to free herself. She seemed to be hurt. She stopped her charge, as did her friends. "Rei!" She cried out as she watched the creature lift its free hand up and reach into Rei's chest.  
  
Makoto narrowed her eyes into a frown of hatred. "What's that bastard doing to her?!" She made another charge but was yanked back by Ami. "What are you doing?!" She only received a stern look from her blue-haired friend. Grunting, she looked back up to where the action was taking place to see probably one of the most disgusting displays of an attack she had ever seen. The creature had ripped out Rei's brightly shining Heart Crystal. Her eyes widened as she watched the display. "What is that?!" She gasped as she pointed at the shimmering item in its hand.  
  
Minako shivered at the site of what had just taken place. She had seen some pretty horrible enemies, but never anything that would rip something out of your body. "We have to help her!" She shouted as Rei was dropped to fall to the ground.  
  
Usagi jumped to set out and catch her falling friend, who was now unconscious; but she was stopped when an unexpected person caught her instead. "Mamoru?!"  
  
Yes, it had been Mamoru. He had come just in time to contribute his powers to the fight, but he wasn't concerned with showing off this time like he always had in the past. There was a job to be done, and he planned on making sure that he was done. "Ami, find out what this thing is!" He ignored Usagi and cradled Rei in his arms as he ran to safety. "Don't just stand there, Usagi! Fight!"  
  
Usagi wasn't exactly sure what to do; she had never seen Mamoru act in such a concerned manner. But there was no time to analyze the situation; she knew what she had to do. Nodding, she sprang into action along with Minako and Makoto. Ami pulled out her Computer that she had received when she had become Sailor Mercury and immediately began analyzing what the monster's weaknesses were. She gasped at what she saw displayed on the screen and looked up to Usagi and the others, who were doing their best to battle it out with their attacker. "It won't do good to attack it with regular power unless it's really strong."  
  
Usagi kicked the monster in the face, causing it to fall into a punch from Makoto. Minako acted fast and performed a roundhouse kick beneath its feet, causing it to fall on its back. The girls took their chance and flew into the air and immediately began pounding it with their Ki attacks.  
  
Mamoru set Rei down next to a small pool of water and stared up at Ami, who had a dumbfounded expression on her face. "What? How strong?" He quickly shifted his eyes downward at Rei once again to make sure she was all right. Her skin had a very pale green tint to it.  
  
Ami punched a few buttons on her computer. "Usagi would have to upgrade to Super Saiyan." She pressed another button to pull up another screen, which showed what the monster was made of. "It seems to have some sort of a barrier around it, which is almost as strong as a level one Super Saiyan. I have no idea how they did this, but the person who made this thing must have been a genius. Just a minute." She began to examine the monster for further weaknesses. There had to be a way to destroy it without having Usagi use all her power to go Super Saiyan. "Oh my." She paused her keyboarding and looked hard in at the screen.  
  
Usagi was the only one that was able to overhear what Ami had just said over all the attacks. She paused her attacking for a short moment and looked down at Ami, who was currently sharing a glance with Mamoru. "What's wrong, Ami?" She quickly glared down at the creature on the ground to make sure that it wasn't going to get up now that she had cut her attack off, but it seemed to be stopped by just the power of Minako and Makoto.  
  
Ami looked away from Mamoru to peer up at Usagi. She covered her eyes slightly to block out the sun but was still able to look into the Saiyan's eyes. "Try transforming into the Sailor Senshi! It has a barrier against lower level spirit energy but the planetary power may work against it!"  
  
Minako and Makoto didn't appear to have any problem with that request; however, Usagi seemed to be troubled. While the other two started to attack, Usagi slowly let herself lower to the ground with her head hanging low. She reached up and clenched the broach, which was placed perfectly on the bow of her school uniform. "I.uh."  
  
Ami hadn't noticed that her friend had gone rather quiet and solemn. She had focused more of her attention on transforming. Mamoru, on the other hand, had noticed Usagi's strange behavior. "What's wrong? Why aren't you transforming?"  
  
Usagi tucked her head into her chest. She was acting rather peculiar, which was beginning to worry Mamoru. He had never seen her so reluctant to take on a new fight; especially if it meant helping one of her friends. Usagi lowered her eyes on the ground wanting to cry. "I can't transform." All heads turned upon the young Saiyan with a gasp. She didn't look up at them. Instead, she turned her back to her friends and faced Mamoru. "The Crystal, it's lost its power. two days ago. I felt it go away." It was true that Usagi had felt the power of the Crystal die out. It had happened in her sleep two days before this. She had been having a dream of fighting off an enemy, and then, all of a sudden, her Crystal had died and she detransformed right there in the middle of a heated fight. It had been so sudden that it had pulled her right out of her slumber. She hadn't known what to do. She had told Luna about it, but the cat didn't seem to think it was a problem. She had been told not to worry about it; that she was probably worrying about nothing. She hadn't talked to her parents about it, and how could she? They didn't understand the workings of Sailor Moon and the Moon Kingdom. Her mother was annoyed every time the subject was brought up. She didn't tell her friends because she hadn't wanted to make them worry. And so she had kept it to herself.  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Mugen School~~  
  
Haruka and Michiru had been patrolling the school grounds when they felt it. Makoto, Ami, and Minako had turned into their respectable Senshi, which wasn't something that happened every day. They only transformed when it was absolutely necessary.  
  
Michiru looked up at Haruka, who looked back down at her. Both of them shared a nod of agreement and pulled out their transformation pens. It looked as though the enemy had finally moved away from their school, but that didn't mean they, as the Senshi, wouldn't be able to stop the attacks. But they would have to stay far enough away from the scene of the fight to where none of the other Senshi would see them. They couldn't blow their cover.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto, now Sailor Jupiter fired a quick Ki blast and their enemy to keep it at bay for a moment. She couldn't believe what Usagi had just told them about not being able to transform. This could put a serious damper on things; of course, there was always the fact that the girl could transform into a Super Saiyan to defeat the enemy. The Senshi could also pool all their energy together without Usagi's Moon power to defeat it as well. "You could have told us this earlier."  
  
Usagi hunched her back in embarrassment. "I didn't want to worry you with it. I can't do it."  
  
Mamoru frowned as he jumped in front of Usagi and grabbed her by her shoulders. He shook her hard until she looked him in the eyes. "That's no way for the daughter of Goku to talk! Hell, that's no way for the Moon Princess to talk! If you believe you can transform, then you can! Now do it, Son Usagi!"  
  
Usagi looked deep into her eyes; and, perhaps for the first time since their first encounter, was afraid of him. "I."  
  
"He's right!" Sailor Venus yelled back at her friend. "You can do it!"  
  
Usagi didn't know what to think. She didn't really have the time to think either. She needed to make a decision and act upon it now. It was either never try and never find out, or try and find out if her feelings of anxiety were properly felt. "All right," She said with a look of persistence appearing on her face. She held tightly onto her broach as she called out her transformation words. "Moon Crystal Power!"  
  
Mamoru backed away from the girl to give her room for the transformation. Things seemed to be running smoothly until a bright, white light shot out from her body. Her school uniform was replaced with the pink ribbons that should have tightened against her body to create her Senshi uniform. Nothing happened past that, except the creature had gained back its composure without anyone realizing it. They were all too busy staring at their Princess to realize what had just happened. He took this moment to realize for himself what was going on. He heard a voice whispering to him from the nearby trees: "Get that broach!"  
  
He complied with his master's wishes and sideswiped the four Sailor Senshi down to the ground. Reaching out, he wrapped his free hand around Usagi's broach, which was emitting a massive amount of energy that she was unable to control. Usagi let out a scream of agony as her broach was ripped from her chest. With the loss of energy, the ribbons that had begun to form upon her transformation began to tighten against her body, though not because she was turning into Sailor Moon. Her school uniform was formed over her body once again.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Two new soldiers had just arrived on the scene to watch the event. They stayed in the shadows of the trees to keep from view of the other Senshi, though they knew that they would need to help. Without the power of Sailor Moon, a power that was stronger than the other Senshi, the monster could not be defeated.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi's friends weren't about to sit by and watch the monster leave with Rei's life and Usagi's broach. They immediately started their attacks, but nothing really happened. The creature was caught off guard and thrown to the ground by the attacks, but he wasn't really hurt by them. As long as they attacked, he would be grounded, but as soon as they stopped he would just be able to get up and walk away. It would take a stronger Senshi to defeat him.  
  
Mamoru ran to Usagi's side to make sure that the sudden drop in power hadn't affected her too badly. He knew how it could feel to suddenly have power ripped from your grasp. It was a sensation like no other with a feeling of being dropped off a building to hit the concrete below just suddenly. "Usagi!" He glanced up just slightly to see Sailor Venus performing one of her own attacks on the attacker: "Venus Love Me Chain!" She had used the chain to tie the monster's legs together, but he wasn't sure how long the chain would hold out. The creature struggled with its legs and immediately began to try and pry them open, but Venus's power seemed to be holding out all right.  
  
Usagi let herself drop to the ground, as she lay silent for a moment. "What's wrong with me.?" She whispered. She had hoped that the Crystal's failure had all been in her head, but it was apparent that it had been all too real. She turned her head so her ear was against the concrete and her chin was on her shoulder. She could see Rei not too far from her own position lying there so lifelessly. She wrinkled her nose with a frown. "I won't lose."  
  
Mamoru couldn't help but smile at the girl's determination. It was true that she had grown a lot over the past few years. Had this been just five, or even four years earlier she probably would have crumbled right there and given up.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kaori, who was watching the fight from afar, was already counting her winnings. She would have never guessed that she could defeat the Sailor Senshi so easily; especially after all they trouble they had given her in the past few months. These ones seemed to be weaker than the other two she had been meeting up with, as three of them were unable to defeat her Heart Snatcher, while one of the other two would have easily defeated it with one attack. "Time to collect my winnings." She gave a quiet squeal of excitement as she realized what she was getting: a possible Pure Heart Crystal and Sailor Moon's broach. And who knew, maybe the broach could be useful to Professor Tomoe.  
  
Just as the woman was about to step out and call her Heart Snatcher back, she noticed a small movement in the trees above. Looking up to make sure it was only her imagination, she saw something that sent chills right down her spine. In the trees stood the two people she feared most at the moment, and they didn't even realize she was down there. They were so intent on watching the fight that they hadn't even had the time to take notice of her. "Oh no!" She scolded half to herself and half to no one in general. "How do they always manage to show up!? Even when we aren't attacking at the school they show up!"  
  
Now Kaori was worried. If she were pointed out to the other Senshi by these guys then the whole plan would be ruined. They would know that she was involved in things, which would mean that Professor Tomoe would be accused too. She would lose her job, or worse, the entire operation would be down the drain. Her face turned blue with the thought of angering the Mistress. Thinking it better to flee while she could, she turned around and hightailed it out of the area. She would just tell the Professor that the Senshi showed up and killed their Heart Snatcher before it got a chance to do its job.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Things were getting a little out of hand for the two Senshi in the trees. They were getting impatient with how long things were taking with destroying the Heart Snatcher below. The longer it took, the more time Kaori would have to show up and take the Heart Crystal.  
  
Making a quick decision to intervene, Sailor Uranus readied herself for an attack. Sailor Neptune took her eyes off the fight to look up at her partner. "What are you doing?" She thought that they had agreed not to meddle around with things when the other Senshi were around. They weren't supposed to be seen.  
  
Uranus frowned as she concentrated her energy for her attack. "What weaker Senshi can't." And with that, she commenced her attack.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi had just gotten back to her feet and was ready to power up to finish the fight when she heard a strange sound from where the trees were standing. "What's that?" Her friends stopped their attacks upon seeing Usagi in her alerted state. None of them heard anything strange, but then again, none of them had Usagi's hearing abilities.  
  
Mamoru looked all around and then he saw it. A huge, yellow ball of energy flying out from behind the trees toward the Heart Snatcher on the ground. "Watch out!" He didn't know if it was going for their enemy, or any of the four Senshi standing next to it. "Get out of the way!" He called out as he grabbed Rei and pulled her as far away from the point of impact as he could before it happened.  
  
The Senshi complied and all jumped away; Usagi jumped back with Mamoru. "Who?!" She landed on the ground, but she didn't watch the blast. She was more interested in finding out who had thrown that attack. "Someone's in the trees."  
  
Mamoru set Rei down on the ground once again. "The guy who sent this thing?" He glanced up at the trees, but figured it more important to look over at where the ball of energy had landed. There no longer lay their enemy. There were three items now: Usagi's broach; Rei's Heart Crystal; and a peculiar-looking seed, which was in the process of crumbling in on itself. "That's odd."  
  
Sailor Mercury pulled out her computer and began examining the seed for any signs of life. "It's emitting a strange energy, but my computer doesn't seem to know what it is."  
  
Jupiter: "You think it's from another world?"  
  
Mercury shrugged. She wasn't too worried about that at the moment. She was more worried about finding out what it was exactly that was stolen from Rei. She set her computer up to analyze the shimmering item that now lie on the ground.  
  
While Mercury was working out her own mystery, Usagi was preoccupied with another. She wanted to know whom it was that shot that energy blast. She wanted to know if it was a friend, or foe. "You won't get away from me." She whispered. Leaping into the air, she charged into the trees only to find nothing. Whoever it was had left already. "They're fast." She frowned as she searched the area for any clues of who it might have been that helped her. "I can't feel you." Seeming disappointed, she accepted her loss and slowly lowered herself to the ground.  
  
Venus had retrieved Usagi's broach from the ground. "You might be needing this." She handed it to Usagi, who was rather reluctant to take it. Venus tried to smile at the girl, but it was obvious this wasn't just something that could be remedied with a few laughs. "We'll find out what's wrong, Usagi. Have you talked to Luna?"  
  
Usagi nodded solemnly as she placed the broach into her pocket rather than in the center of her bow. "She said it was just my imagination."  
  
"I guess it's not really part of your morbid imagination now, is it?" Mamoru chuckled as he approached the two girls, trying to relieve some of the stress from the situation. Usagi didn't look too happy at his words and neither did Venus. "Why don't you just try to transform again? Maybe if you don't get it ripped off your chest again in the middle of a transformation."  
  
Usagi held her head tightly with her hands as if she didn't to hear his words. "It's not that. When I tried to transform it felt like there was too much power building up inside of me." She let out a sigh of frustration as she let go of her head to reach down into her pocket and pull out the broach once again.  
  
Mercury approached the trio as she held the Heart Crystal in her hands. She seemed to be smiling regardless of the situation. "I've found out what it is." Her smile widened as she stared at Usagi, who was waiting for the girl to go on and tell everyone what she's found. "It seems to be the pure energy of the heart crystallized into this form. It's very powerful depending on how pure your heart is."  
  
Usagi took the opportunity to forget about her troubles and talk about something else. She hated it when the attention was on her worries and nothing more. "So what are you saying, that people are stealing our hearts?"  
  
Mercury nodded. "Kind of like that." She pushed past Mamoru and headed toward Rei. "It should just go right back in."  
  
Venus found it a little hard to believe that anyone could just come up and take your Heart like that. "That's insane, who would want to take your heart?"  
  
"And you can just put it right back into their bodies with no problem?" Mamoru watched in awe as Mercury bent down and placed the crystallized energy on top of Rei's chest. It hovered for a short moment, but it wasn't long before it was absorbed back into the girl's body. Almost immediately the girl's skin color turned back to its normal color. It wasn't long after that that she opened her eyes, though she wasn't quick to get up. She just lay there for a moment to try and realize what had just happened. "So a person can't function without this Heart Crystal?"  
  
Mercury nodded. "Right. They'll die if they're away from it for too long."  
  
Jupiter frowned. "But who would want it?"  
  
"Who would want what?" Rei sat up very slowly. She felt the affects of being knocked in her head and bent forward. "What happened? All I remember was being attacked by something and then I wake up feeling so horrible."  
  
Mercury smiled at her friend. "The new enemy seems to want crystallized heart energy. You seemed to be a target." She looked up at Usagi and left Rei to get her barring back. "As for you, Usagi." She pushed herself back to her feet as Usagi groaned. "I'm not really sure what's wrong with your broach. When you tried to transform my computer picked up more energy coming from it than usual, however. You might try taking it to Bulma to see if it's working all right."  
  
Usagi frowned. "What? There can't be a lot of energy in it. It's dead; it won't work for me. You saw what it did."  
  
Mercury shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you, unless you want me to run some tests on it. Or you could do what Mamoru suggested and try to transform until you get it right."  
  
Usagi lowered her head with a sigh. "I guess I could have you and Bulma test it for power, though I don't know how Bulma could really help. I don't think she has the right kind of machines for that kind of task."  
  
Mercury grinned. "I bet I could come up with something."  
  
Venus giggled at her friend's growing head. "Sounding a bit proud of yourself there, Ami."  
  
Rei was still all too confused at what had just gone on. She wasn't sure she was following anything anyone was saying. "Let me get this straight," she interrupted, "you guys fought off our new enemy who is out to steal crystallized heart energy, Usagi can't transform, and Ami is gloating? This is all too much for me."  
  
Jupiter smirked. "No, no. It gets better. We weren't even the ones to destroy the little Heart Snatcher. Someone else came and did the job for us."  
  
Rei's eyes widened. "What? You mean we aren't strong enough to defeat these things?"  
  
Mamoru frowned. "Don't be stupid, we have Sailor Moon."  
  
Usagi, now, was sporting a frown of her own. "Maybe! But I can always transform to a Super Saiyan if needed."  
  
Rei sighed as she lay back on the concrete. "This is amazing!" She sneered sarcastically. "Goodbye normal life."  
  
~*~*~  
  
When everyone left the shrine that night only Rei and Makoto were left to sort things out amongst themselves. Makoto had gone into further detail with Rei about what had happened after she had had her Heart Crystal Stolen. Even though she had gotten her Heart Crystal back, Rei still wasn't feeling all herself. She felt a little woozy, of course, that was probably understandable considering she had just had her heart's energy ripped away from her that same day. But nevertheless, she wasn't feeling up to doing a lot and had asked her friends to give her a little time, which was when they had decided to leave.  
  
Makoto was the only one with Rei now, as she lived with her at the moment. She hated to see her normally spunky friend in such a state. "Why don't you get something to eat? It'll probably help you to regain your energy back."  
  
Rei nodded as she slowly tried to push herself out of her bed, which she had been resting in for about an hour now. "That might be a good idea."  
  
Makoto went to Rei's side and grabbed her by the arm. "Here," She said as she offered the girl some help. "You're pretty weak still." She helped Rei out of the bed, who stumbled forward when she got her feet planted on the ground. "Lean on me."  
  
Rei felt absolutely stupid acting so clumsy like this. "I feel like Usagi." The two girls shared a laugh as they began to take a few steps. Rei was able to walk a little better than before when she had first tried to walk to her room earlier in the day. "I'm feeling a little better."  
  
Makoto smiled. "That's good, but you're still not up to par." She reached out and opened the door to Rei's room. Surprisingly, standing outside the door with a huge smile and a tray with two plates of food on it was Mr. Hino.  
  
"Hello, girls." He said cheerfully. "I thought you might like some food after what happened today." Not finding it strange at all that the words he just spoke were in reference to the fight the Senshi fought, he walked past the girls into Rei's room and set the tray down on his granddaughter's desk.  
  
It took a few seconds for his words to sink into the girls' heads; and when they finally did, they couldn't believe what he had just said. "Ex.excuse me, grandpa?" Rei stuttered her words as she became fearful of what he knew. "What do you mean? Nothing happened today except for the study session."  
  
Her Grandfather continued to smile as he began to poor some tea into two separate glasses for each of the girls. "Come now, you can't have expected me not to notice such a commotion, dear." He picked up one of the glasses and held it out for Rei to take. "Drink up, it'll help you to regain your strength."  
  
Rei just stared at the old man in awe. She couldn't believe it; that was just another person to add to the list of people knowing their secrets. "So.you saw?" She reached out and grabbed the glass.  
  
Makoto shook her head in disbelief. "I don't believe it. I wonder if the tourists saw."  
  
Mr. Hino shook his head as he poured another glass of tea, though this time for himself. "No, I hurried them away, along with Yuuichiro." He handed Makoto her glass of tea as he took a sip of his own. "Don't worry, dear, your secret is safe with me."  
  
Rei wasn't really worried that her grandfather knew, that wasn't the point. She knew he wouldn't spill the beans for her, it was just the fact that no one was supposed to know of their secret. The only other people who knew about them were the people in Usagi's parents' friends. "Are you angry that I didn't tell you?"  
  
Mr. Hino shook his head as he watched his granddaughter take a sip of her tea. "There's no reason to be. You just make sure you stay alive."  
  
Rei grinned. "Oh I plan to."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi went home that night not knowing what to do. She had reluctantly given her broach to Ami for her to study it and find out what was wrong with it. She had been promised that it would be done by the afternoon of the following day; that she and Bulma would work on it nonstop through the night. She hoped they would be able to find a way to remedy the problem As much as she didn't want to responsibilities of being the Moon Princess, she couldn't help but feel insecure without her most guarded possession. She knew it that it was a pretty-much pointless object to have at the moment, but she couldn't get over it. She had been guarding it and protecting it for a little over two years now and she felt incomplete without it.  
  
She had flown home with Mamoru, who had insisted upon going with her to make sure she got home all right for a strange reason that neither of them could explain. He had just felt like it was the right thing to do after such a let down on Usagi's part. They had said their good-byes, and as Usagi went into the house Mamoru flew off back to the city where he lived.  
  
Usagi entered the house with her eyes turned down to the ground. She wasn't in much of a mood to do anything, and had completely forgotten her books at Rei's house. She didn't really care that she wouldn't be able to finish her homework. She needed to make sense of the events that had taken place. That was top priority. Earth was under attack again, only this time the enemy wanted the energy from the heart. This guy seemed to be smarter than most and had put a barrier around his creatures, which wasn't that much of a shock. There were ways to counter it, people who were stronger than the barrier. She, for example, was stronger than the barrier. Her father, Gohan, and Vejita were all stronger than the barrier.  
  
It was five o'clock when she got home. The aroma of dinner filled the house and made a rush at her as soon as she stepped in. She was hungry, but she wasn't really in the mood to eat. "Hi." She mumbled under her breath as she entered the kitchen and plopped down at the table next to her father, who was ready to eat right then and there.  
  
Goku noticed his daughter's solemn attitude and forgot about his stomach. "Bad day?"  
  
Usagi looked up at her father as she continued to try and make sense of what had just happened. "You could say that." She quickly looked back down at the table, which was already set for dinner. It would only be a matter of seconds before it would be served.  
  
Not knowing the situation, Chi-Chi grinned as she placed a pitcher of juice on the table. "Uh oh, someone had a bad day at school."  
  
Usagi sighed. She wished that hit had only been a bad day at school, but that was only wishful thinking. "No, not at school." She looked up at her mother. "And no, me and Rei didn't have another fight. In fact." She paused, thinking that it might not be a good idea to tell them. Of course, it was exactly Senshi business, and if it was, her parents knew about the Senshi now. "Well, there was an attack."  
  
Chi-Chi's heart dropped to the floor as she immediately dropped what she was doing and sat down at the table next to Goku. "What?!"  
  
Goku frowned. "Is that why you guys were fighting today?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yeah, you know. It's the same old stupid stuff. Some evil guy wants something, we fight it off. But these guys are totally off. They steal your crystallized heart energy from you."  
  
Goku looked back at his wife, who shrugged back at him. "Odd." He looked back at his daughter. "Is it a Sailor Senshi thing?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. She'd rather not have gotten onto that subject with them. "Probably not. The monster's have got a barrier around it to keep lower level energy from hurting it, but my level of Super Saiyan can hurt it."  
  
Goku cocked his head backward with a sigh. "That really lowers our playing field. There's only four of us who can get to that level."  
  
Usagi frowned. "But there's someone out there who can kill these things pretty easily. I just don't know who they are."  
  
"Interesting." Goku commented, smugly. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back into his chair as his daughter plumped down next to him; her face falling onto the hard surface of the table. "I wonder why we didn't feel them."  
  
Usagi gave an exasperated groan as she felt her mother's hand on her back. "Maybe they're evil too."  
  
Chi-Chi frowned. "Could it be that these guys are in the middle of a war and they've just somehow stumbled upon earth?" No one answered her empty question; they seemed too deep in their own thoughts to really care to. "Maybe once one side wins they'll begin to attack earth."  
  
Goku blinked; his wife had said just the right words to bring him back to reality. "You may be on to something there, Chi-Chi." He peered down at his exhausted daughter. She seemed to quiet; like something else was bothering her. He debated on weather or not he wanted to ask her what was up, but decided to keep to the subject at hand. "We may have two possible enemies to deal with."  
  
Usagi let out yet another groan at the thought. "Great."  
  
Chi-Chi looked into her husband's eyes with worry. She had hoped he would have disagreed with her theory. "What should we do?"  
  
Goku shrugged as he leaned his head back and stared straight up at the ceiling. "Dunno. I'll tell the others to be on the lookout. Meanwhile, Usagi, I want you to pulse your energy whenever you encounter another attack. .I want to see these new enemies for myself."  
  
Usagi shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She wasn't sure if she liked the idea of having her father come to the next fight. She wouldn't be able to turn into Sailor Moon and he would want to know why; just another problem to deal with. It was bad enough that her friends knew, she didn't want her father to know too. But what could she say? He would get angry if she didn't tell him. "Alright." She mumbled.  
  
Chi-Chi lowered her head so she could be at the same level as her daughter. "Why don't you get washed up, Usagi? You've had a long day."  
  
Usagi was too tired to be surprised over her mother's words. She just stood up and began making her way out of the kitchen without another word. If the conversation went any longer there was a good chance that she would end up slipping and telling them that she wasn't able to transform into the Senshi of the moon.  
  
Goku watched his daughter stalk out of the kitchen with a look of worry. He hated seeing her like this. He waited for her to be fully out of view before he exchanged looks with his wife. "That's not all that's bothering her."  
  
Chi-Chi nodded. "I know."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi walked rather solemnly into her room and let herself fall onto the bed, face first. She didn't know what to do anymore. Too many things were happening at once; she knew she hadn't fooled her father, he knew something was up. She could see it in his face; she had never been able to hide anything from him. At times it was a good thing, she wouldn't have to tell him exactly what was wrong; he'd just guess. But at other times, such as this one, it was almost a curse. Sometimes she needed to just keep things to herself, she didn't need her father to know everything that went on with her. She wanted to keep Senshi business just that, Senshi Business.  
  
Luna quietly pushed the door to her Princess's room open and poked her head in. "Usagi?" She whispered even more quietly as she stepped in. "What's the matter? Is everything all right? I heard you talking with your parents."  
  
Usagi groaned as she buried her head into her pillows. She didn't need to be talking to anyone right now, and that meant her advisor. "Not now, Luna. Please." 


	167. Part 14

~*~*~*~  
  
Hotaru shivered in the dark cold room as she wheezed for breath. She was becoming weaker by the day, and no one seemed to know why. She wasn't allowed to see her friends anymore, Kaori made certain of that. Her father had all but lost interest in keeping the woman under control. What was going on, she wondered? Everything seemed to be turning upside down for her. She even noticed changes in herself. Her powers were getting stronger, but her physical health was deteriorating rapidly. Things had gotten so bad that she would blank out for days at a time; she wouldn't remember anything that had happened during this time. Her father had refused to take her to the doctor for these problems, he had blamed this on the stress that she had been through in the last year. She didn't know any better than to question his judgment, after all, he had never led her wrong. So she continued life as is, forgetting weeks at a time.  
  
This time she found herself in her bed. She didn't know how she got there, or how long she had been there. Last she remembered she was eating dinner with her father and Kaori. But now here she was, safely tucked away in her room where she found safety and comfort.  
  
A loud noise was heard from beneath, causing her to jump with fright. Her shaking increased, though not from the cold. She was scared; terrified of what was happening to her. She felt as if she was losing control over her body, like something else had a hold of her. She was constantly on edge, everything frightened her; even her father's experiments, which were usually conducted in the lab directly under her room.  
  
"What." she murmured as she took a look around her room.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi kept to herself the next day. She woke in a hurry and rushed to get out the door. Her parents were caught in surprise. They hadn't seen her moving this fast for school since she was little. Both of them exchanged looks when she began wolfing her food down like there was no tomorrow. Goku quirked his eyebrow up a bit. He wished he knew what was bothering the girl, but she didn't seem like she wanted to talk. She looked more as if she was trying to hurry to avoid conversation, so he would say nothing about current events.  
  
"Slow down there, kiddo, You're going to choke yourself." He chuckled as he too began speed eating.  
  
Usagi didn't look up at her father. Instead, she just continued to shove food down her throat. Luna walked into the room and jumped up on the table. She looked oddly at Usagi, and then at Goku. "Usagi, you're turning into your father."  
  
Chi-Chi sat down next to her husband with her own breakfast. "Usagi, slow down." She waited for her daughter to respond, but none came. She frowned as she set her bowl down on the table. "If you choke on your food don't tell me I didn't warn you."  
  
Usagi remained silent as she shoved the last spoonful in her mouth. She had been too busy to answer. Luna, too, frowned at the girl. She had been like this ever since she had come home the night before. "Usagi, I need to speak with you."  
  
Usagi frowned back at her cat advisor. She didn't feel like talking. She still hadn't sorted out all the details in her mind. She needed time to talk things over with her friends first. "Not now." She exclaimed as she gulped her milk down.  
  
Goku watched his daughter's peculiar actions. He was worried about her, she had never acted so distant in a time of war. She was hiding something, he knew it, but what he didn't know. He wouldn't pressure her to tell him though, she was getting old enough to fight her own battles, he just wished that she would be comfortable enough to tell them what was going on. "Usagi, you'll be late for school if you don't get going soon."  
  
Usagi looked up at her father, completely shocked. She was sure he was going to ask her what was wrong. He usually would have. Was she getting better at fooling him? She smiled just slightly at the thought. It was impossible; he knew her too well to be fooled. "I know. That's why I'm hurrying." She lied. She wouldn't normally hurry like this when she knew she was going to be late for school. Normally, she would continue to take her time and just be late.  
  
Goku looked back at his wife, who looked concerned, but knew better than to say anything. This wasn't the time to get into an argument. "Better get going then."  
  
Luna shot a glare at the older Saiyan. She was counting on him to bring up to subject of the girl's quietness. "Usagi!" She chastised as she looked back up to her Princess, who was already clearing her breakfast plates. "Be ready to talk when you get home."  
  
Usagi ignored the black cat again as she placed her plates in the sink. "Maybe." She said as she walked to her father and gave him a hug. She could tell that he was ignoring what was bothering her, which felt great. He wouldn't ask until she was ready to talk, and she knew it. "Thank you." She whispered in his ear as she pulled away.  
  
Goku let out a small sigh. Just as he was able to read his daughter, she was able to read him just as well. They both knew that the other was keeping quiet now; it would be an unspoken barrier that both of them would bring up until the time was right. He gave her a small smile as he kissed her on the cheek. "Have a good day, kiddo."  
  
Usagi scurried to get her bag, which was just outside the kitchen by the front door. "I'm going over to Rei's to study after school."  
  
Chi-Chi, not knowing how to react to her husband's unwillingness to ask their daughter what was bothering her, called back, "Don't be home too late."  
  
Usagi flung her bag over her shoulder and reached for the doorknob. "I won't." She proceeded to open the door and step outside.  
  
Chi-Chi waited for the door to close before she shot a wicked glare at Goku. "What the hell were you thinking?! Something is obviously bothering her, and you don't say anything."  
  
Goku sighed as he leaned back in his chair. "I know that, Chi-Chi. But she needs to know that we aren't always going to be the ones to go looking to fix her problems. If she needs our help, she'll ask us. She's getting old enough to know when she needs us, and when she's able to handle herself."  
  
Luna frowned as she jumped down off the table and proceeded to the kitchen door. "She's only 13 years old, Goku. Add in the fact that she's dealing with the heavy stress of being a Princess and you've got yourself a first- class problem. You need to be watching her every move, and know exactly what's going on in her life."  
  
Goku frowned at the little black cat on the floor. "She may be a Princess, but she's still my daughter. I want her to be happy, and I want to believe that she is mature enough to start handling problems on her own. Thirteen is a confusing age, it threw Goten through a few loops, but he came out all right." He pushed himself away from the table and backed up, obviously frustrated.  
  
Luna sighed as she looked downward. "Yes, it's a confusing age, which is why you should be ready to help her."  
  
Goku began to walk toward the exit of the room. "I never said I wouldn't help her. I just want her to be the one to come to me for help, when she knows that she needs it. I don't want to live her life for her and tell her when she needs help."  
  
Chi-Chi remained silent, but fumed with anger. She could see both Goku and Luna's points, but she tended to want to side with Luna. Usagi was not any ordinary 13-year-old. She was a Saiyan Moon Princess. She had more problems to deal with than any other 13-year-old. "I just want her to be safe, Goku."  
  
Goku stopped for a moment, and tilted his head to the side as he gave a little smirk. "She's a smart girl, she wont get herself into any more trouble than she can handle. Trust me on this one. She'll come to us when she's ready." And with that, he left the room. He didn't much like the idea of not knowing what was troubling his daughter either, but it's what had to be done.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi stopped just outside her house, completely surprised by what she saw. She didn't know what to say, or what to think for that matter. "Can I help you?" She asked, as she walked forward just a ways.  
  
He had been sitting out there for nearly an hour now, waiting for her to emerge from the house. "I'm worried about you."  
  
Usagi blinked twice, more confused now than before. "Mamoru." She said as she pulled back a bit. She had an awkward feeling in her gut, like he shouldn't be there; but at the same time, she wanted him there. "Why?"  
  
Mamoru chuckled as he looked straight into the girl's eyes. "Because I am."  
  
Usagi was completely speechless. He had been acting strangely lately, which was weird. He was being nice to her, for what reason she didn't know. Not that she didn't rather enjoy his changing attitude. After all, she had worked so hard to change him over the years, maybe it was all paying off. "Are you feeling all right, Mamoru?"  
  
Mamoru side as he gave Usagi a quick smirk. He could tell she was confused, and who could blame her? The two of them hadn't exactly gotten along very well in their earlier years of knowing one another. He had always considered her a bratty little kid, and had treated her as such. Hell, he was even confused as to why he was standing here in front of the Son house. "Of course I am, but I want to make sure that you get to school safely. Without being able to transform into Sailor Moon." He cut himself short, seeing a pain flare into Usagi's eyes. He knew then that he had brought up the wrong subject at the wrong time. "I'm sor."  
  
Usagi stopped him mid-word. "Don't be." She looked down to the ground with a sigh of her own. "Look, I'm fine, really." She forced herself to look back up into his eyes. They weren't the same eyes that she knew from so long ago; they had grown softer, more compassionate. "I can take care of myself."  
  
"I know you can. But we're all worried about you, Usagi." He couldn't believe what he was saying. He had just admitted that he was worried about her, something he never thought he'd be saying.  
  
Usagi was taken aback by his statement. She didn't know quite how to respond to that, but it wasn't long before she was grinning. "Oh I'm sure you are too, Mamoru." Although she kept a cool composure, a million thoughts dashed through her mind.  
  
Mamoru frowned at the girl's snide remarks. "Look, if you don't."  
  
Usagi stepped back yet again, feeling even more uncomfortable. She didn't want to get into this right now, she wanted to not have to think about the events that had come to play. "I'm sorry." She said solemnly as she continued to look him in the eyes. "I know you're all worried about me. The truth is, I'm scared. What's wrong with me? What if I can't ever turn into Sailor Moon again?" She felt as if a knife tore through her heart. Even though she hadn't really relished on the idea of being a Moon Princess, of having the responsibility of being Sailor Moon, she knew it was a part of who she was. In becoming Sailor Moon, the empty feeling that she had had finally been filled. "It's like a part of me is missing." She lowered her eyes to the ground, which were beginning to well up with tears.  
  
Mamoru crossed his arms over his chest, but stayed silent. He could sense Usagi's distress, but he didn't want to say anything that would offend her, or make her feel even worse than she already did. Instead, he would try to cheer her up; this wasn't his area of expertise anyway. "Why don't you skip school with me today, Odango."  
  
Usagi wiped away the tears that were starting to drip down her cheeks. "What?" She asked as she looked up to her childhood rival in disbelief. "I couldn't." She started, but cut herself off to look back at her house in paranoia. "My mom would."  
  
Mamoru chuckled as he shifted his weight. "I should have known you'd be too chicken." He taunted as he took a step back and began turning himself around. "If you ever get some guts, give me a call. We'll reek some havoc."  
  
Usagi could feel her face turning red as she stamped her foot on the ground. "I'm not chicken!" She cried out.  
  
Mamoru smirked back at the girl. "Prove it. Skip school, have a little fun, forget your worries." He turned himself slightly in order to face the young Saiyan. "We can go visit the squirt, or."  
  
Usagi was having a rush of emotions at this point. She had no idea what to feel; all of this was too confusing for her to handle. "Why are you doing this, Mamoru?" Mamoru said nothing, so she continued. "Why are you being so nice to me?"  
  
Mamoru's smirk widened as he tried to sort out what he wanted to say. "Because, Odango, you've grown on me." Usagi was utterly speechless. She had no idea how to reply to something like that. "Now, let's get going. We'll check back with Ami after school about your broach. Just focus on having fun until then."  
  
Usagi didn't know what she should do. On the one hand, taking time out of her busy schedule for some fun sounded like a good idea; however, her mother wouldn't think so, and it was her mother who mattered most right now. If she was caught skipping, she would never be trusted again. "Well.I.I." She looked nervously back at her house, expecting to see her mother standing there, listening to what was being said. "What if I just asked my dad? I'm sure he wouldn't care."  
  
Mamoru frowned. "What does it matter if you get your parents approval, Usagi? Just do it. You're 13 already, old enough to make your own decisions about school."  
  
Usagi looked back up at him with questioning eyes. "I guess." She tailed off into silence as she contemplated his suggestion. After thinking about it, she knew her father would probably say no to her. He would want her safe at school with her friends. "Ok." She said, finally coming to a decision. "I'll do it, but this better not be a plot to get me in trouble."  
  
Mamoru's frown turned into a wide smile. "I won't." He slowly let himself lift into the air. 'I want to make sure you're all right.' He motioned for Usagi to do the same, which she did. "Going to Hotaru's first?"  
  
Usagi nodded and the two of them started out for the city. She hated to do this, without her parents permission when she knew both of them wouldn't want her to; but she needed to do this for herself. She needed to get her mind off of school; and, more importantly, she needed to get her mind off of the whole Sailor Moon issue.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Michiru and Haruka walked the halls of Mughen at a casual pace. Their next class was still 20 minutes away, and neither of them were in much of a hurry to get there early. They had both been quiet for most of the day. Like Usagi and her friends, they too had been at the fight from the night before. They had seen how close Rei had come to her end, but they were able to save her from danger. These were not just any normal enemies that they were dealing with, they were much stronger than before. The other Senshi would be almost helpless in destroying what they were facing. It would be up to the Senshi of the outer galaxy to save the earth from destruction.  
  
But something still bothered them; something about what had happened the day before. Haruka reached out and grabbed a hold of Michiru's arm, pulling her aside to the wall. Michiru looked up into the blonde's eyes. "What is it?"  
  
Haruka said nothing as she looked to her right, and then her left. She was looking for any kind of suspicious character that may have been lurking about. "Something didn't add up last night." She whispered as she pulled Michiru even closer until she was practically hugging her.  
  
Michiru played into Haruka's 'game', and made it look like they were sharing an intimate moment. "What is it?" She had been having second thoughts of the night before as well, though she didn't want to bring it up. What the other Senshi did was no business of hers, she had her own job to do and planned to live up to it.  
  
Haruka leaned in closer until her mouth was by Michiru's ear. "Something strikes me as weird. Usagi didn't transform yesterday during the fight."  
  
Michiru closed her eyes and rested her chin on her lover's shoulder. "I know, and I have no idea why she didn't. You don't think anything is wrong, do you?" She continued to get comfortable as she dug her nose into Haruka's neck.  
  
Haruka smiled softly. "It's not for us to worry about. She's got her friends and," She paused to give a slight frown as she thought about what she was about to say, "Mamoru to protect her. We just need to focus on our duty to protect the earth from destruction."  
  
Michiru nodded in agreement, though she didn't know how comfortable she was with letting the young Saiyan fend for herself when the other Senshi were so useless. "I agree, but I don't want to lose her to the hands of these monsters; not like Taro."  
  
Haruka smirked as she rubbed her hand on Michiru's back. "You're starting to sound like Mamoru." She chuckled.  
  
Michiru gave a slight giggle back. "We're all changing." And with that, she pulled away and took Haruka's hand in her own. The two were silent as they continued down the hallway; both were too busy thinking about what the matters at hand.  
  
The thought that her two best friends were warming up to Usagi didn't disgust Haruka as much as it had in the past. It was true, they were all changing; growing up had ways of doing that to people. They didn't seem to find as much pleasure out of torturing the Saiyan as they had in their past. She'd rather just ignore the girl altogether, but that wasn't very possible given the recent circumstances. They would have to watch Usagi even closer now, knowing that she was their Princess. That fact alone gave Haruka a feeling of anger; how could such a bratty ditz be chosen Princess? She would lead the world to ruin.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Professor Tomoe tucked himself away deep in his lab where only one other was permitted. He was working on his latest project; or rather, his latest plan to take the hearts of the world. Time was running out for his lady, his protector. She was growing weak and Hotaru was getting too suspicious that something was wrong. The Senshi were getting overly meddlesome as well.  
  
Gritting his teeth, he banged his fists against the table. "Damnit!", He cried out as he swiped a pile of papers off his desk. Not a single crystal heart had come in for two weeks.  
  
A tall, dark figure appeared from behind him with a sly grin. "Don't worry, Professor. Those Senshi will be done away with very soon. The little one wasn't there last night, and her friends didn't seem to be able to hack it."  
  
The Professor's anger grew as he glared over his shoulder at his red headed assistant. "You aren't helping this. You're choosing all the wrong victims."  
  
Kaori frowned, but continued to grin. She wouldn't let his words get her down. "Have patience, Professor. The girls will falter. The two Senshi who have the power to stop us will not succeed in destroy every one of our minions." She proceeded forward and sat next to the Professor. She could feel his growing apprehension, but she said nothing.  
  
He was angry with her, and had been for some time. They had been at this for six months, and were barely keeping their mistress in power. It was because of Kaori's poor candidates that they needed a constant re-supply of Heart Crystals. The Senshi were only making things worse with their feeling of need to stop the attacks. "You have one more chance, Kaori." That was all that was said before the bell to the house rang.  
  
Kaori got up, knowing that she would be expected to answer it. "You won't be disappointed again, Professor." Grumbling to herself, she made her way up the stairs of the lab.  
  
~*~*~  
  
As disoriented as she was, Hotaru swung her legs over the side of her bed. She too had heard the doorbell, and had every intention to answer it. She knew who was out there for she could feel their presence more than anything. Her heart raced inside her chest with excitement; she hadn't seen any of her friends in so long.  
  
With a half smile, which was the best she could pull off, she slid down off her bed and scurried to her bedroom door. Her breathing increased as she soon realized how weak she really was, but she didn't care. All she wanted was to speak with her best friend, Usagi.  
  
Her excitement grew as she stumbled through the hallway up to a flight of stairs. She stopped for a moment to take a deep breath as a sensation of feeling dizzy swirled around her head. 'What's wrong with me.' She thought to herself as she put a foot out for the first step. It was at that moment that she felt a sudden rush of pain burst through her temples, causing her to tip forward in excruciating pain. She let go of the hand railing on the wall and grabbed a hold of her head as she tucked forward. Her balance was lost, and she dove down the stairs.  
  
"Owww." She moaned as she tumbled down, but she barely realized it was happening. The pain in her head was too great for her to handle. She needed help. "Daddy." She tried to yell for him, but all that came out was a mere whisper.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Outside, Usagi appeared to be fidgeting more than usual. She had her tail gripped in both hands, and was twisting it rather tightly. Mamoru noticed this shortly after they had landed on the sidewalk, but had said nothing. But now as they waited for someone to answer the door, it was beginning to get on his nerves. "Would you stop that already?" He snarled as he sent Usagi a piercing glare.  
  
Usagi looked down at the ground and only gripped her tail even tighter. "Stop what?" She demanded.  
  
Mamoru frowned. "Stop playing with your tail." He yelled as he pried her hands away from it. She gave out a small whine, but allowed him to free her tail. "What's wrong with you anyway, Odango?"  
  
Usagi continued to stare downward, slowly lifting her tail back up to her hands. "I'm just nervous about my mom, that's all. She'll be so mad if she knew that I skipped school." She raised he head just slightly in order to see if anyone had come to the door yet.  
  
Mamoru groaned as he threw his head back. "Not that again. Come on, you've skipped school to have a good time, not worry about your mom."  
  
Usagi smiled just slightly. "I know, but."  
  
She was cut short when Mamoru interrupted. "But nothing. Stop thinking about your mother. Be a little rebellious. She's not going to be able to do anything about it now, you've already missed class."  
  
Nothing more was said as the two of them continued to wait.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Hotaru wailed in pain as she curled up into a ball. She was completely oblivious to the fact that she had just fallen down a flight of stairs. The pain was that filled her head was much too immense to handle. She continued to cry for her father, but her voice was muffled by her whimpers. Her saiyan ears picked up the light footsteps of her caretaker; her trembling grew.  
  
Kaori took small steps toward the hallway in which Hotaru had fallen. She had heard the commotion, but was in no rush to aid the fallen girl. She wore a rather quaint smirk. She knew that it was Hotaru who had run down here, and not her mistress. And for that she wouldn't bother to see if the child was all right. "What are you doing, Hotaru?" She asked, though not expecting an answer.  
  
Not caring to stop even for a short moment, she stepped over the struggling girl and continued on her way. She had a feeling of who was at the door; only one group ever had the nerve to come by. "Meddling brat." She mumbled softly as she made her way to the front of the house. She wasn't in the mood to deal Usagi's interfering nature. She needed to think of more important things; like finding a pure heart crystal. She had been told very sternly of her last chance. Professor Tomoe seemed very serious in his voice, though she had her doubts. She was the only one for the job, really. But then there was the Mistress. She had a hold over Tomoe; whatever she wanted, she got. He personally saw to that.  
  
There came another ring from the door, causing Kaori to roll her eyes in disgust. "The brat can't even be patient.She'll get hers. After all this crap she's pulled on us." She reached out for the door, pulling it open when her fingers wrapped themselves around the knob.  
  
Outside she saw not only an apprehensive Usagi, but Mamoru was standing to her left. She sneered at the duo. "What do you want!" She demanded as she pushed herself out of the house, careful not to let the door swing wide enough to leave any kind of view of Hotaru lying on the floor.  
  
Mamoru found the woman's manner of behavior rather strange, even for her. He knew she didn't like either of them, but she seemed to be hiding something. "We're here to see Hotaru. She hasn't been feeling well lately and."  
  
"And that's precisely why neither of you two should be here now!" She snapped back at them quicker than Mamoru could finish his sentence. "Leave, both of you! I don't want to see either of your faces here again!"  
  
Usagi, feeling much braver now, looked up at Kaori with a frown. "What are you saying?"  
  
"Do I have to spell it our for you?" Kaori motioned for the two of them to leave the door stoop. "You aren't welcome here anymore. You're bothering Hotaru. I wouldn't be surprised if you were the reason why she's so sick! You and your.your diseases!" She didn't know what she was saying, but she could tell from the looks on their faces that they weren't buying what she was saying. She had to come up with something; she needed to think. "You were the reason she broke down and went back into her shell two years ago! Ever since then her condition has gone down hill!" Feeling proud of herself, she tried to hold back a grin. That would have been reason enough to banish all of Hotaru's friends from the property, and then she would never have to deal with them again.  
  
Usagi and Mamoru exchanged a glance of disgust for a split second, but Usagi quickly pulled her view downward. Remembering that she herself had been involved in the death of Hotaru's mother, she suddenly felt ill. It was true that she had been part in Hotaru's distress, but she didn't think that it had caused any real damage. Just the year before Hotaru had felt well enough to help save the world from Tatsuo. Surely there was no connection between her mother's death and her illnesses now, could there be?  
  
She didn't have much time to think about it before Mamoru was lashing out at the red head. "Listen here you blithering old woman!"  
  
Kaori gasped, clearly shocked that anyone would ever think of her as 'Old'. "No, you listen her little boy! If you don't get off this property, I will call the police and have both of you hauled off to jail. It's your fault that little Hotaru," She tried to sound as sympathetic as possible as she spoke those words, "is so ill today. If you really consider her your friend, then leave."  
  
Usagi looked back up at Kaori, completely speechless. There was something going on here, something she couldn't explain, but she was going to find out. She wouldn't just stand by and let one of her best friend's be shut out to the world like this. Kaori wasn't even the girl's mother. She was nothing more than the caretaker. "Right then, we'll be leaving now." She said, with a hint of a smirk.  
  
Mamoru looked down at the Saiyan next to him in complete awe. "We.we're leaving?"  
  
Usagi turned her eye up to Mamoru. She didn't give him any indication that she had a plan for she didn't want Kaori to suspect anything. "Yes. We're leaving now. We don't want any trouble here."  
  
Kaori grinned widely. "That's a good girl." She was laughing on the inside; it had worked. Her lie had completely fooled the two. She carefully backed herself into house and slammed the door shut. "What idiots." She sneered as she headed back to the hallway where Hotaru still lay in pain.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru blindly turned his back upon the house, not even taking notice that Usagi hadn't moved an inch. He shoved his hands into his pocket; his face bore an angry frown. He couldn't believe that Usagi had just given in like that. To just declare defeat in the face of the enemy, she was taught better. "You really blew it this time, Odango." He said angrily as he walked down the path leading to the driveway. "Now we won't know what's happening to Hotaru."  
  
Usagi frowned at Mamoru, but quickly gave that up for a sly smirk. "You really don't know me very well, do you Mamoru?" She gave a giggle as Mamoru stopped short of his next step. He turned only his neck so that he could see her with his side vision. She could tell just be watching his movements that he didn't understand what she was talking about, so she went on to explain. "When you beat me in our first fight, I trained as hard as I could for an entire year and came back for the victory. When Cell came the following year and all hope looked to be lost, we all trained and fought until he was defeated. Same goes for all the other enemies we've ever fought. Especially last year, when I had lost my ability to use my Ki, I still pressed on to help everyone."  
  
Usagi's words made Mamoru think hard as he turned to completely face his rival. He felt stupid as he let his eyes fall upon the ground. "I should have known you had something up your sleeve." He paused for a moment, and looked hopefully up to the girl. "You do have one, right?"  
  
Usagi grinned. "Of course I do. I'm not going to let that witch ruin Hotaru's life like this! She's hiding something, I just know it. It's up to us to find out what it is.  
  
Mamoru smiled in such a way that Usagi hadn't seen in a long time. It was his old reckless grin that she had seen every time he saw her. "Right then, what is it?"  
  
Usagi cocked her head to the side and grinned even wider. "That, my dear Mamoru, will be revealed in due time." She giggled even harder as she ran to his side and latched on to his arm. "When I've figured out how I'm going to go about doing this, I'll tell you."  
  
Mamoru wasn't sure what to pay more attention to. The fact that Usagi, queen of kindness, had finally decided to turn to the 'dark side' or the fact that she was hanging onto his arm. 


	168. Part 15

~*~*~*~  
  
The tall, red head made her way ever so slowly to the struggling Saiyan, who lay uncomfortably on the floor almost giving up her struggle on pulling herself to her feet. The girl's once traumatic wailing had turned into a soft whimper, though the pain was still very much alive. She had taken a fetal position, completely curling in on herself, hoping that the pain would eventually subside. Her hands were tucked beneath her face, which was turned in toward her chest. Her fingers curled in to form two small fists that clutched her shirt. Her knees were almost just as tightly locked in under her elbow. She was completely vulnerable, but she didn't care. The pain was too much, and growing.  
  
The blow from the fall had broken her defenses. Her body tingled all over, her muscles feeling as if they were weakening; she was losing control. This wasn't a foreign sensation, however. She knew this all too well. It wouldn't be long before she would pass out, and wake up hours, even days later in a new room, completely unaware of anything that took place during her episode.  
  
This only worked to frighten her more than anything. She felt no control over herself as her strength left her. She couldn't help but give a quick squeal as she saw Kaori nearing her. She was helpless, and Kaori appeared bigger than usual. "Stay awa." She failed to continue her words as she felt thoughts drift out of her mind. Another whimper left her lips, though that was all she could manage as two hands wrapped themselves around her tiny body.  
  
Kaori grunted as she lifted the young Saiyan up off the floor. She received another moan of pain from the girl, but ignored it. "Shut up girl. You're delirious." She didn't take care in how she treated the child, but instead hoisted her up over her own shoulder with an evil smirk. "You're going back to bed until it's time to come out."  
  
Hotaru felt a sudden surge of pain rip through her body, causing her to cry out once more; this time being twice as loud as her whimpers. She hadn't felt this since her spars with her friends, who hadn't been by to see her in quite a while. She couldn't help but wonder where they had been, but was suddenly snapped back into reality when Kaori took a sharp turn down a dark hallway, causing her head to smash into the wall. "Owe!" She yelped, but hardly moved as the pain had been too great. Her entire body ached all over, and Kaori seemed to be doing everything in her power to make things worse.  
  
"Your pain will be over soon, brat." Kaori reached to her right and flipped on a light switch, revealing several doors on either side of the hallway.  
  
Hotaru felt a bit of anger boil in her heart as she felt her body go more numb. She closed her eyes tightly as she clenched her fists harder. She wanted so much to pound her caretaker. When she opened her eyes, they were no longer their usual black-violet color. They shone bright red with a brand new frown to accompany them. "You had better not fail on those words this time, Kaori." She mumbled, not feeling exactly as herself.  
  
Kaori stopped short with a gasp. "Mistress!" She ran to the nearest room and set the child onto the desk. Hotaru slumped over, feeling weak, but her eyes still shone their bright red. "Is that you?"  
  
Hotaru's eyes flickered back to their original color as she struggled to lift her eyes to meet Kaori's. "What are you talking about?" She whined as she slumped her head back down to make her chin touch her chest.  
  
Kaori frowned; her growing anticipation had started to subside. "Good, just the brat now. The last thing I want to deal with is the Mistress."  
  
Hotaru's eyes opened her face still in its downward position. "Well," she stared, her voice sounding a bit more raspy than usual; "deal with me is what you shall do!" She slowly lifted her eyes once again, their bright red color had returned. "You are the subordinate now, Kaori!" She raised her arm, causing the woman before her to flinch with fear. "You are wise to fear me." She reached out and clamped a strong grip around Kaori's throat.  
  
"I only wish to serve you, Mistress, as Professor Tomoe does." Kaori choked out, her eyes desperately pleading with the body of Hotaru.  
  
Hotaru, or rather, the Mistress, sighed as she released her grip upon Kaori. Her eyes fell to the side with growing anger. "Ah, Tomoe, he is wasting time." She casually brought her eyes back up to meet Kaori's. "As are you." She pushed herself off the desk and struggled to keep herself standing. "I am growing weak, and this child is strong. It is a struggle for me to keep a hold of her for too long. You must bring me Heart Crystals as you did before. You must bring me the three Pure Heart Crystals, or else your life is what I will take."  
  
Kaori gulped after taking one look at the child. The one she had once loved to torment was now the tormenter. "As you wish. I will get on it right away."  
  
Hotaru smirked. "Yes, you will."  
  
~*~*~  
  
It was already lunchtime, and there was still no sign of Usagi at school. Her friends had begun to worry about her. Without being able to turn into Sailor Moon, she would only be able to ward off foes with normal attacks. Soon, however, she would be drained of all energy and the enemy would be at full force. Even if they, as Senshi, were to show up, it would only be a matter of time before they were defeated as well. It seemed almost hopeless right now. They were at the complete mercy of those two mystery warriors who appeared to be Senshi themselves.  
  
The lunch bell rang, which started the daily frenzy of hungry teenagers racing down to the cafeteria in hopes to be the first in line. Minako, who was normally one of these teenagers, found herself hanging back with the others, who were taking a slow, casual pace down the hall. If it was one thing that could pull her away from her stomach, it was her friends' safety.  
  
"Where do you think she could be?" Rei asked, hugging her books tightly to her chest. She and the other girls had decided to start studying during lunch for the entrance exams, and so the whole lot had lugged their books with them from class. "I mean, it's not like her to just miss school like this, as much as she hates it."  
  
Makoto looked to be deep in thought. She too was puzzled over the recent disappearance of their friend. "Well," she started, "I suppose she could be at home."  
  
Ami nodded, keeping her eyes downward as she walked forward. "I suppose that's true. It would be a lot easier if we could just sense her, but she's so relaxed right now that she's not emitting a lot of energy." She looked up and over at Rei, who was on her left. "It must be her Princess qualities. She's always been like that, I suppose its because she's meant to be kept safe."  
  
Minako sniffed the air. They were nearing the cafeteria, the smells lingered out into the hall, causing her stomach to rumble. "What if her mom wanted her safe, so she was made to stay home?"  
  
All eyes turned to the blonde, but Ami was the only one to answer. "Usagi doesn't like to worry her parents with the business of the Senshi. I doubt she would have told her parents anything about being unable to transform. However." Her words lingered on into nothing as she went back into thought. There was always the fact that Goku had always been able to pry anything he wanted out of his daughter. If he begged long and hard enough, there was a chance that she would have spilled everything to him, and he to his wife. "We'll have to go there after school and see if she's there."  
  
Minako's eyes were dazzled with an idea as she suddenly forgot about her loudly rumbling stomach. "What if we went now?" She knew her idea needed more of an explanation by wary eyes of her friends. "All I'm saying is that protecting a friend who happens to be the Moon Princess from harm is a lot more important than school. We can afford to miss a day, can't we? Usagi's safety is our duty, right?" She tried to sell her point to her friends, but they didn't seem to be buying it.  
  
"I do see your point, Minako, but don't you think leaving school is just a little on the drastic side?" Makoto continued forward, though staring directly at Minako. She didn't even realize that she was about to bump into a teacher, when - bam - she plowed right into one. The first thought that ran through her mind was if she had been heard, or how much of their conversation had been heard. "Oh." She said quietly as she looked up.  
  
The rest of the group looked up, horrorstricken at what they saw. All but one stammered their words. "Mr. Koch." The levelheaded one of the group tried to remain calm, as if no talk of leaving school early had been said. "How nice to run into you here.in this hall.on our way to lunch." Though more levelheaded she may be, she still had something to hide, something untruthful.  
  
The teacher eyed the girls with an untrusting glare. He could tell by their mischievous faces that they were up to something, and he knew exactly what it was. "Not thinking of skipping out of class, now are we?" He accused. Seeing that Usagi wasn't present in the group, he relaxed a bit; returning back to his former ways of feeling high and mighty being the teacher and they, the girls, being the students. He puffed his chest as he put his hands behind his back, increasing his glare upon the girls.  
  
The four friends exchanged glances. There was a certain unease in their aura that caused their teacher to crack a smirk. He had finally caught them; he would now be able to take them to the principal and get them in the trouble that they had always deserved. "You'll be coming with me then." He jumped to say before any of the girls could get a word in for their own defense.  
  
Makoto was the first to jump in and interrupt him. "Wait just a minute!" She demanded as she planted her feet firmly on the floor, appearing as if nothing could make her move. She looked nervously over to Rei, who seemed not to want to get involved, but was looking just as worried. They could have cared less about the fact that this bozo was trying to get them into trouble, but they were worried about how much he had heard them saying; not that he would really believe anything about Usagi being a Princess.  
  
Mr. Koch's face scrunched in on itself as he tried to frown. "Excuse me, Ms. Kinou? Did you just tell me what to do?" Sounding like a child, he pulled his hands out from behind his back and placed them on his waist.  
  
Makoto kept a straight face, not wanting to give him a reason to say she was talking back, or provoking him. "No, I asked that you listen."  
  
"What she's trying to say," Minako didn't allow the brunette to get very far before she started in, "is that we were only talking about leaving." She heard Rei groan in the background as if she had said the wrong thing. She knew she had better clarify what she had said before Mr. Koch took them in for attempt to leave school. "However, we were never going to actually leave."  
  
"R.right. A lot of kids talk about leaving early. You know, what we could be doing instead of wasting away here?" Rei didn't want to leave the job of a recovery up to Minako. "We were just talking about how nice it would be to go home and watch TV all day. We're not breaking a rule." She and the rest of her friends held their breath as they waited for him to answer.  
  
"I suppose not." He replied rather disappointedly. He had wanted so badly to get them into trouble. "Tell Usagi she had better get back here soon if she doesn't want extra homework." With that, he stomped off, his hands deep in his pockets.  
  
"That was really close." Rei exclaimed as she stepped to the side of the hallway. "We should be more careful about what we're saying. You never know what bum is listening."  
  
"The walls in this place have ears. Teachers are everywhere." Ami agreed with Rei as she watched Minako sigh with relief. "But what are we going to do about Usagi?"  
  
Minako gained as sudden look of horror. "She'll be in a state of trauma if she gets anymore homework than what we've already been assigned." She looked up to Rei, who was shaking her head side to side. "Right." She said before anyone else could add. "We should go and check in on her then."  
  
Makoto sidestepped to the girls' restroom and pushed the door open. "In and then out we go. Let's hurry." She motioned for the others to head in, where they would then teleport out.  
  
~*~*~  
  
The aqua blue eyes stared off into nothingness as the sound of chatter from all around droned on. They were worried; their normal twinkle was no longer present. A pair of dark blue eyes stared into the emptiness of those that were aqua blue. "You're silent."  
  
"She's not at school." The aqua eyes shifted to stare directly into her partner's. "What's she thinking, Haruka?" Michiru's eyes drifted forward, down to the front of the classroom, where their professor was covering the basics of human biology. She had no interest in paying attention. Her mind was wandering to her duty as a Sailor Senshi; and more importantly, her duty to their Princess, who was known to make reckless decisions.  
  
"You're thinking of her again?" Haruka reached down and wrapped her fingers around Michiru's hand. "I thought we were going to let her friend's watch out for her safety." With her free hand, she tried to guide Michiru's face toward her so she could look back into those aqua blue eyes, but Michiru refused.  
  
"They aren't with her."  
  
Haruka frowned, clearly upset that her partner refused to forget about the Saiyan Senshi. "Mamoru is with her. He can protect her well enough until we can arrive if the heart snatchers decide to attack." She was a little more forceful the next time she tried to pull Michiru's face toward her, this time she wasn't getting any resistance. "But we can't watch her every move or she'll get suspicious. With her Ki as low as it is, she'll wonder why we're able to feel her presence in the first place."  
  
Michiru's eyes became softer. "I know."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"So where to now?" His discomfort rose as the duo made their way to the edge of the Tomoe property. The fact that he had anyone touching him was bad enough, but the fact that he had Usagi latched onto him was just too much. She was the most unlikely person to ever want to get this close to him without throwing a fit. But it was just such an odd situation that he didn't want to bring much attention to it. Instead, he just lifted his arm upward, causing Usagi to release her grip.  
  
She hadn't really known why she had acted the way she just did. It was really more of a set reaction that she had always done whenever she was happy, or feeling proud of herself. It was usually her father or one of her brothers that she had done this with, as she was most comfortable with them. She too didn't wish to bring any attention to what had just happened. It was just too awkward. It was silly of her to think she was comfortable enough with Mamoru to have willingly had any kind of contact with him. "I don't know." She said as she stepped away from Mamoru, keeping her eyes down upon the ground so as not to look him in the eye. "The day is half over."  
  
Mamoru refused to look at Usagi, so he had no idea if she was upset that he had pulled away from her grip. "Why don't you tell me your plan then?"  
  
Usagi smiled with a sigh of relief. He had changed the subject; obviously not wanting to talk about the uncomfortable actions that had just taken place. "I already told you to wait. I want to discuss this with the others before we do this. We need more eyes."  
  
Mamoru kept himself from looking curiously upon the girl to his side. "More eyes?" He wondered out loud as they turned on to the sidewalk. He wondered what she could possibly be thinking if they needed more then just the two of them to find out what was going on. "So no sneaking in then?"  
  
Usagi, irritated that he wouldn't drop the subject, stopped short and peered up at Mamoru's back as he walked forward. "I know what we can do." She said with a hinting smirk. "We haven't sparred in a while."  
  
Mamoru, too, stopped. "What?" He asked, wondering what she was thinking. "What about your father?" He added as he stepped in such a way that would allow him to stare back at the eager Saiyan. "He'll know you're not at school."  
  
Usagi cocked her head to the side. "What do you care if my parents find out that I'm not in school? I know you'd love to get me in trouble." She replied, feeling a bit spiteful.  
  
Mamoru couldn't help but feel a little hurt by her accusations. "You're right, Odango. I would absolutely cherish the thought of getting you into trouble with your mother. However, I don't think that's what's best right now. If you're going to be it top shape to fight off this new threat we need you in full capacity of mind, and not going on about how you're mother is so terribly unfair in grounding you."  
  
Her face went red with anger as she narrowed her eyes into a glare. "Why you little.!!" She couldn't find bad enough words in her vocabulary to express her anger. "I should have known better than to trust you!" Usagi cried out as she pushed herself into Mamoru, causing him to lose his balance and topple over onto the street. She didn't stop there. Feeling her anger rise, she stomped off down the street, leaving Mamoru behind.  
  
He sat on the cold pavement with his legs in front of him and his arms resting at his side. Mamoru had again, failed to go a single day without somehow insulting Usagi. He grinned, 'not that she's hard to insult, the little crybaby,' he thought to himself as he pushed against the ground in order to stand up.  
  
"Let her fend for herself." He said out loud as he stepped back up onto the sidewalk. A woman in a business suit walked by, eyeing him carefully and half expecting him to attack. He ignored her and shoved his hands into his pocket. "That's the last time I try to do my duty to protect her."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Rei, Minako, Makoto, and Ami arrived just a few feet away from the Son house in the woods. They were a bit nervous about knocking on the door during school hours - what would Chi-Chi say?  
  
"I sure hope Usagi's there." Minako said in almost a whisper as they neared the house. "This could mean trouble if she's not."  
  
No one answered; they were all too nervous to. Instead, they just continued their way, tiptoeing as if making no sound would make a more desirable situation. They proceeded forward until they reached the small house. None of them wanted to ring the doorbell.  
  
"Better get this done and over with." Ami said, breaking the silence.  
  
"The sooner we get it done, the better." Rei added, as she reached out and pressed the button next to the door. Inside they could hear a chime, which alerted the occupants of their presence.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Chi-Chi, someone's at the door." Yelled a male voice from the top of the stairs.  
  
Chi-Chi, who had been sitting in the family room just below the stairs, placed her book on the coffee table in front of her. "Got it." She yelled back to her husband. She thought nothing of visitors at her home, regardless the fact that they lived in the middle of nowhere. They had many friends who stopped by occasionally, and their sons would sometimes come home for a visit during the day. She had no idea, however, of who actually stood outside.  
  
Luna lay curled up in a tiny ball on the sofa next to where Chi-Chi had been sitting. She had been taking an afternoon snooze, but was awaken by the doorbell. Yawning, she stood up to stretch. She sat back down, looking drowsy, which gave a droopy look to her stance. Her eyes turned to the door, which Chi-Chi was just opening.  
  
Outside stood four girls, all of whom were well known around this house. They looked uncomfortable to be there, but stayed just the same. Luna's eyes bolted wide open as she jumped back to her feet. Chi-Chi looked just as shocked. "Girls?!"  
  
Luna jumped to the nearby coffee table and walked to the edge. She counted heads, realizing first that Usagi wasn't present. "What on earth are you doing here?"  
  
Chi-Chi noticed just moments after Luna that her daughter wasn't there. "Where's Usagi?" She shouted, losing control of herself. " She pulled the girls in one by one and slammed the door shut. "Where is she?" She demanded once more before any of the girls had a chance to reply.  
  
Luna, knowing that something serious was bothering Usagi, became just as rushed as Chi-Chi. "Say something girls! Where is Usagi?!" She became more worried at the thought that something may have happened to the Princess.  
  
The girls exchanged grim looks, causing Chi-Chi to go white in the face. If no one in this house knew where Usagi was, the where exactly was she? That's the question that went roaming through their minds as they stared into Chi-Chi's black eyes.  
  
Ami opened her mouth to say something, but was soon cut off by the sound of creaking stairs. It was Goku. He had heard the commotion from downstairs, and had come to see for himself what all the trouble was. "What's going on down here?" He casually asked, not knowing the true danger of what was happening. His eyes scanned the room. He saw his wife, Luna, and all of Usagi's friends; but someone was missing. "Where's Usagi?" He looked to his wife, who looked back at him with question.  
  
Ami opened her mouth to speak again, this time being uninterrupted. "We thought she may be here." Her words were solemn, and brought no comfort to the ears of the advisor and two parents. "She never," She paused, not wanting to continue, but was urged by Rei to go on, "She never showed up to school today."  
  
Chi-Chi fainted at those words, falling back into Goku, who caught her with ease. Goku looked up at the girls, with a worried frown. "She what?"  
  
Luna had the same look on her face. "How could she not have shown up at school today?" She looked up to Goku, who was trying to wake his wife. "I don't understand. Can't you feel her presence?"  
  
Goku reached out, searching for his daughter's Ki signature, but felt nothing. "She's either knocked out, or so relaxed that she's emitting almost no aura." He was horrified to think that the reasoning was the former. "Luna," He started, ignoring the girls and turning to the cats, "Watch Chi-Chi for me. If she wakes up, tell her I've gone to look for Usagi."  
  
"You're going out to look for her?!" Makoto watched as Goku carried his wife to the sofa. "You won't know the first place to look."  
  
Goku frowned as he gently placed his wife down. "No, but I know what route she uses to get to school. If she was knocked out, she may be out there. If she was carried away." He stopped himself from finishing. He didn't want to think of losing her. "Right, you four stay here while I search."  
  
His words weren't met with happy faces. All their lives they had been told to stay put when something like this happened. They were always the back up fighters, at least that's how they were seen to the older fighters. They had proven their worth on countless occasions; fought strong enemies and prevailed over evil.  
  
This time, they weren't going to stay in the background. "Not this time, Goku!" Minako commanded as she got her 'fighting face' on. "We're helping you look for her."  
  
Goku looked stunned by her reaction, but apparently she wasn't the only one who felt this way. Makoto had added; "Yeah. She's our friend and we deserve a chance to help. It'll go faster this way. More of us will be looking."  
  
A smile spread wide over his face. "I keep forgetting how able you four are. Alright then, you can help me."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The Tomoe house was nearly as chaotic as the Son house. Professor Tomoe was hard at work developing new creatures to withstand the blows of the two newest Senshi. He had been trying for months now, and still nothing worked. They had gotten a little stronger, obviously strong enough to ward off the old Senshis' attacks, but the other two were still able to take them out with one attack. It was unacceptable, and the Mistress wouldn't be kept waiting while he tinkered with inventions. "I'm going to fix you good, Sailor Brats."  
  
Down two hallways Kaori was hard at work with her own research. She needed to find a good candidate for the next Pure Heart Crystal before the day was out. She would show Professor Tomoe and his Mistress that she wasn't a complete failure; not that she was, but they needed a bit more convincing.  
  
She sat at her computer in complete darkness. The only form of light was being emitted from the screen. She worked best this way, she felt as if she were in complete solitude. "None of these are good." She complained as her fingers flew across the keyboard. She was sifting through a list of possible candidates, but none of them were pure enough to go after. "This one has to be really good, full of good intentions and extremely pure." She suddenly stopped typing and a picture of a young woman showed up on the screen. Her black hair was pulled tightly behind her head, and she wore a yellow dress.  
  
The sides of Kaori's lips turned upward into a smile. "She's perfect." She popped in a disc to the computer and uploaded the woman's information to it so it could be downloaded into Tomoe's next heart snatcher. "This time I won't fail. No one will be able to stop this extraction!" She pulled the disc out and laughed as hard as she could.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Kaori's maniacal laughter was carried throughout the complex. It seeped into every corner, and bounced off the concrete floor. It even found its way into a dark hallway, which housed a single door. On this door lay a sign, which read, "Witches 5".  
  
A woman with long, red hair sat in front of a computer, her arms crossed over her chest and one knee over the other. "Listen to her in there, girls. She thinks of herself as a great heart snatcher, but she's nothing. Professor Tomoe has already informed me that I'll be next in line when Kaori fails next." Her eyes formed two ovals, giving her a look of complete evil.  
  
A woman to her right, with short, orange hair, scrunched her face into a frown. "I won't to be next! Why are you always first?" She whined.  
  
"Put a sock in it, Mimet. I've already got a line of victims waiting to be attacked when she fails. You've got nothing."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"How dare he say that to me!" Usagi sulked as she walked aimlessly through town. It had only been 20 minutes since she had run off and left Mamoru behind, but her anger hadn't subsided at all. In fact, thinking about it only made her angrier, and thinking about it is what she did. "He practically called me a crybaby!" She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at her feet. "He hasn't changed a bit! He's the same old mean Mamoru who has no compassion for others. I hate him!"  
  
She stopped at the corner of the busy street. People were so preoccupied with themselves that they didn't even seem to notice that she wasn't in school, let alone the fact that she was talking to herself. Looking over her shoulder, she had kind of hoped to see Mamoru chasing after her, but there was no sign of him. "Selfish!"  
  
Not letting her scowl lighten up any, she turned down the alley, which was created by a convenience store and a liquor store. She wasn't afraid to travel down allies anymore, not now that she could defend herself adequately. But this time, she didn't have to worry about anyone jumping her; there was no one around. "Nimbus!" She called into the air. Almost immediately a small, yellow cloud came flying for her. She jumped on, and leaned forward. "Let's go home, Nimbus."  
  
The cloud flew high into the air above the white clouds so that no one would see them flying overhead.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Luna sat over Chi-Chi while Goku and the girls were out looking for Usagi. She too was worried about the Princess, and wished there was something she could do to help. This Princess was nothing like the one she knew from the old Moon Kingdom. Princess Serenity had always been a calm, rule-abiding child. Usagi, however, was a reckless child who, in Luna's mind, found it fun and exciting to break the rules. She had promised the Queen that she would watch over the new Princess, and keep her safe. But it wasn't very easy when the child wouldn't even share her worries.  
  
Sighing, Luna lay down on the coffee table, keeping her eye on the fainted woman before her. She wondered if this was always normal for Usagi; to just disappear without a word. "That girl." She thought out loud, but didn't finish.  
  
"Mmmm." Chi-Chi moaned as she twisted herself on the sofa. "Usagi." She appeared to be waking, but Luna stayed cautious for any outbursts. "Where are you?"  
  
"Chi-Chi?" Luna called, not wanting to frighten the woman.  
  
Chi-Chi opened her eyes to see Luna staring at her. Although she had fainted, she remembered exactly what was happening. "Usagi!!" She screamed as she bolted upward.  
  
Luna jumped to her feet in surprise. "Calm down. Goku's gone to find her." She didn't want Chi-Chi to freak out over the disappearance of her husband as well.  
  
"Goku? Gone to look for Usagi?" She pushed herself off the sofa and bolted for the door. "I've got to help. My baby is out there all alone!"  
  
"No! You're not in any condition to." It was too late. Before Luna could finish, the door had slammed shut and Chi-Chi was gone. "No wonder where that child gets it."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Using the Flying Nimbus, it took Usagi nearly a half-hour to get to the mountains surrounding her house, but she didn't mind. She needed to waste time before going home. Her parents would think nothing of her skipping school, and would never know the difference. She would go home in about an hour. School got out in half an hour. She had completely forgotten about going to Rei's with everything that had happened at Hotaru's, but she wouldn't lie to her friends about skipping class. It was only her mother and father that she wanted to hide the truth from, as well as Luna.  
  
On her way home, Usagi tried to forget about the happenings with Mamoru. She didn't want to let on to her parents that she was in a bad mood or else there would be questions; there always were. But something caught her attention on the forest floor. Something was running down there, something not natural to the forest. It was a bright yellow and ran almost as fast as she did. "What the." She motioned for Nimbus to lower her to the ground.  
  
Little did she know that nearby stood Kaori, hiding behind a tree with a big, silver briefcase. She was hunting her next victim.  
  
"Usagi! Usagi where are you?"  
  
Usagi perked her head at the sound of her name. "Mom?" She called back, not even thinking about keeping up her lie.  
  
Kaori, ignoring the mother/daughter dialogue, poked her head out from behind her tree. Her victim was standing two feet from her. Grimacing, she kneeled down and set her briefcase in front of her.  
  
"Usagi? Where are you?" Chi-Chi looked to both her sides but saw no sign of her daughter.  
  
Usagi spotted her mother in the distance. The yellow blob that she had seen run by was her mother, but why was she searching? "Mom, I'm right here." She stepped toward her mother, but what she saw next absolutely terrified her.  
  
Kaori had opened her briefcase, and had unleashed her newest heart snatcher. "Get that Pure Heart Crystal for me and you won't be sorry!"  
  
Chi-Chi turned around just in time to stare straight into the ruby red eyes of a giant spider. She let out a horrified scream as she stumbled backward, almost completely paralyzed with fear.  
  
Usagi's eyes went wide. "MOM!!!" 


	169. Part 16

~*~*~*~  
  
A giant spider-like creature stood over Chi-Chi, its sharp fangs dripping with poison. Its legs were covered in spikes, and body was covered in a thick layer of metal. It had been designed to withstand stronger hits and last longer in battle; long enough to deliver its package to its owner.  
  
Chi-Chi stared into the eyes of her attacker in utter fear. Her entire body shook as a fright like no other took over her body. The ruby red eyes seemed to stare straight through her as if she were nothing more than a meal to be eaten mercilessly. "My god." She whispered, not wanting to alarm the monster.  
  
Usagi's eyes were beginning to tear up at the thought of what the monster and its caretaker were after. They had come to her mother for one jewel, the very item that would kill her if removed. "Run mom, run!!" Though she thought she had yelled her words, nothing more than a quiet whisper came out. The heavy breathing of her mother's attacker was all she heard.  
  
Chi-Chi had almost completely forgotten why she had left the house as she stared at her attacker. Instinct had taken over now and all she could think about was running far away. Without saying another word, she took a small step backward. She nearly screamed when the spider lifted one of its legs out and set it down next to her. She gulped as her body shook even harder.  
  
Kaori muffled her laughter so as not to disturb the spider from its prey. She knew this was going to hurt Usagi, and could have kissed herself for her dirty deed.  
  
Usagi was too shocked to move, even though she knew she had to somehow help her mother. Her brain told her she needed to attack, but somehow the signal got lost before reaching the rest of her body. She was just as fear stricken as her mother.  
  
Chi-Chi took another tiny step back, which was followed by the giant spider stepping forward. She let out a yelp, fearing what it would do to her. "St.. Stay back." She stammered, stepping back even further. It was useless to try to ward this thing off with words, as it wasn't human, but she still tried.  
  
The spider straightened its legs so that it stood much taller than its victim. Its fangs were twitching beneath its eyes, which bore continually into Chi-Chi's. The left front leg was lifted just slightly, causing Chi- Chi to jump back.  
  
From behind, Kaori was coaxing it on with whispers of a promised kill. She commanded that it take the heart crystal from its victim. And, after she had what she wanted, she would set her creature on Chi-Chi for a small feast. She didn't seem to care that Usagi was present for she knew that the girl was powerless against her monster.  
  
The spider seemed to react to Kaori's wishes with haste. It put its leg down behind Chi-Chi and leaned in, pulling its fangs apart and readying itself for the kill. Chi-Chi could feel the spikes running down her back, causing her to cringe with rising fear. "No." She moaned as she looked over her shoulder only to see slim building up behind her.  
  
Usagi blinked twice, fearing what might happen if she didn't act soon. Slapping herself to wake up from her own disbelief, she darted for the giant spider. "Nooo!!" She screamed as she brought both hands to her right. Inside a golden light began to glow.  
  
Kaori scowled at the nuisance. "You will not interfere, brat." She stuck her foot out from behind her tree just as Usagi was passing, causing the girl to fall face first. "Your mother's Heart Crystal is mine."  
  
Chi-Chi's trance was broken by her daughter's voice. "Usagi?" Her fear taking a backseat to anger and worry, she reached down and threw a flurry of dirt and pebbles up into the spider's mouth, causing it to pull back a few steps. "Usagi where are you?"  
  
Usagi didn't answer, she didn't have time to before Kaori had shoved a stick into the back of her neck. "You're going to stay and watch your mother be devoured by the greatest creation ever to come out of the lab."  
  
Usagi gritted her teeth as she dug her fingers into the earth. "I should have known it was you!" She shouted as she built up enough strength to over power Kaori. "You're going down, Kaori!" She pushed against the weight that Kaori was putting on her and jumped to her feet.  
  
Kaori frowned as she glanced back at her creature and Chi-Chi. The woman had been able to stall long enough to watch the dialogue between Kaori and Usagi and was absolutely furious. "Maybe this will turn out to be a two for one." She got an evil smirk as she looked back down at Usagi, who was glaring back up. "Who should I make watch? Mother watch daughter? Or daughter watch mother? Either way I'll be killing two birds with one stone. or should I say people?" She roared with laughter.  
  
Usagi took her attention off of Kaori, who was the lesser threat. She was more worried about her mother and the attacker. "Mom watch out!" She wailed as her mother barely ducked down in time to save herself from being completely devoured.  
  
Chi-Chi rolled on the ground away from the spider, who was stomping all its legs on the ground in hopes to skewer her. "Usagi get out of here!" Now that her daughter was involved, she didn't care about her own life. She wanted her daughter protected. She knew that whoever these people were, they were after her, and not Usagi. They had attacked her first, Usagi only entered in after she saw the danger her mother was in.  
  
Usagi shook her head back and fourth. "No, mom. Run away, I can fight this thing!" She knew in her heart that she had no power against whatever this thing was, but she couldn't let her mother know that. As much as Chi-Chi wanted to protect her daughter, Usagi wanted to protect her mother, and protect is what both of them intended to do.  
  
"I'm not going to sit here and argue with you. Now do as your." She was unable to continue before a piercing sensation filled her left leg. She had been too busy pleading with her daughter to realize that the spider was going in for another attack. It had missed its target, which had been through the middle of Chi-Chi's chest where her heart crystal was located, but this would work to slow her down.  
  
Usagi's eyes impossibly widened even larger than before as she felt a sudden burst of anger. "No!" The surrounding area was suddenly filled with a beautiful silver light that was worthy to be compared to the light emitted by the moon. Usagi's power level had soared to that of a Super Saiyan. The color of her hair and tail had been turned into Silver as her aura danced around her like flames. "You will not harm her." She said in a moderate voice. Her anger fed her power, which was reaching its peaks.  
  
Kaori had backed off, knowing that she had picked the wrong fight. Although her creature couldn't be hurt by Usagi's power, she in fact could. No, maybe it was best to let her monster do all the work while she sat by and watched.  
  
With no further words, Usagi's fists were engulfed by two silver flames of Ki. The spider paid no real attention to Usagi, it was more interested in its prey, who was trying to crawl away from the scene, regardless of the pain in her leg. "Your turn!" Usagi screamed as she lunged herself at her mother's attacker.  
  
Chi-Chi took her opportunity to roll over and hoist herself up on a fallen tree. "Usagi, no!" Ignoring her growing pain, she raced forward to the spider, who still had its full attention on her. She wasn't going to stand by and watch her daughter do all the work. She too was a fighter.  
  
Usagi saw her mother out of the corner of her eye and frowned. What was she doing? Why wasn't she running away? Either way she didn't have time to shout at her again. Her fists met with the spider's body. It was knocked away from Chi-Chi, but no real harm had come to it. A loud clank had been sounded off, but nothing more.  
  
Usagi stared in disbelief, though she couldn't say she had expected more to have come out of that. "Damn!" She cried out. Without the power of Sailor Moon she would be useless. Whatever this was, it was shielded against her normal power.  
  
Chi-Chi looked on in amazement as she watched the spider double back for more. She glanced at Usagi, who seemed to be struggling with her thoughts. "Watch out!" She dashed forward and made an effort to kick the attacker away from her daughter as it zoomed past for Usagi. Her efforts, however, were useless. It had done just as much good as Usagi's had.  
  
Kaori chuckled from the background. "You'll never be able to defeat it. But I wouldn't worry if I were you. You'll both be dead in just a few moments, after you wear tired."  
  
Usagi and Chi-Chi both scowled at Kaori as they powered up for another attack.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru bolted into the air the second he felt Usagi's sudden burst of power. "Damn it! I Knew I shouldn't have left her alone like that! What was I thinking?!" He raised his power level to his max in order to fly faster. He could have killed himself for letting Usagi go off alone like that. He was supposed to help protect her, not let her run off into danger.  
  
He flew off for Usagi, but he knew she wasn't the only one in danger. Chi- Chi must have been the one to have been attacked. Maybe that was one good thing about Usagi running off like that. She was able to be there when her mother was attacked, maybe the only one by the looks of it. He hadn't felt Goku's presence there yet, or any of Usagi's friends for that matter.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru hadn't been the only one to feel the disturbance. Haruka and Michiru had just been leaving campus when they too felt it. They ran from the stairs that led down to the street and found the nearest alley so they could transform.  
  
"It's Chi-Chi this time." Haruka said calmly to her partner as they entered the alleyway. "Usagi must be trying to protect her."  
  
Michiru nodded, feeling sympathy take over her emotions as she thought what it must be like for Usagi to be out there right now. "Mamoru is on his way."  
  
Haruka rolled her eyes as she reached into her pocket to pull out her transformation pen. "Figures."  
  
"Let's go." Michiru followed Haruka's action and pulled her own transformation pen out. "Before Usagi loses her mother."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Back at the battle, Usagi and Chi-Chi were losing miserably. They were throwing everything they had at it, but the most their attacks had done was knock their attacker aside just long enough to give them time to recoup. Kaori seemed to be enjoying the show immensely. She was in a ball of laughter on the sidelines as she watched failed attempt after failed attempt. "I don't know why you're still trying. If you give up now, it'll be less painless.for my creature that is." And with that, evil laughter echoed off the surrounding trees.  
  
Usagi, who was breathing hard by now, looked over to her mother, whose fear was returning. Both of them nodded, is if giving each other a thumbs up to try again. They were going to try a double attack this time. Chi-Chi started first, flying high into the air. She threw down several Ki blasts to the ground, which kept the monster's attention away from Usagi, who was moving in rapidly. "Come and get me, you stupid oaf."  
  
Meanwhile, Usagi had a plan of her own. As she made her way forward, she built up a giant ball of energy in her hands, hoping to throw them directly at the spider's face. It seemed to be the only thing that wasn't covered in any sort of protective armor. It was their only chance to defeat it.  
  
"Eat this!" She shouted as she shot the ball of pure silver energy directly at those ruby red eyes that were fixed upon Chi-Chi. Usagi ducked out of the way of the explosion that followed. She could hear a loud squeal of pain , but she wasn't watching. Her eyes were covered with her arms, but that didn't stop her from crashing into the ground.  
  
Kaori hadn't expected such a huge blast. It had thrown her off her feet and back a ways from the fight. Her back slammed hard against a tree, which was the only thing that had stopped her from flying even further.  
  
Chi-Chi was thrown back by the blast into something solid, yet not hard like a tree. "What.?" She took her eyes off the forest floor and looked over her shoulder. Her eyes widened as she gasped at what she saw. "Goku!"  
  
He and the girls had still been searching for Usagi when they had all felt her sudden burst of power. That was a clear heads up that she was in trouble, but not too much trouble to where she couldn't help her self long enough for the girls to clue Goku in on what they were up against. They had left out the part about Usagi being unable to transform into Sailor Moon. They had come as soon as they were finished, and it was a good thing too.  
  
Chi-Chi was trembling with the knowledge that this was a useless battle. She relaxed it a bit knowing that her husband had arrived, but if he couldn't destroy whatever this was, then what would they do?  
  
Goku held his wife close to him as he slowly lowered to the ground. Usagi's attack seemed to have bought enough time with the spider, which was still trying to throw the effects of the blast. He searched the forest floor for his daughter, but didn't see her anywhere. "Usagi?" He called, releasing Chi-Chi.  
  
Climbing back to her feet, Kaori grimaced. "You think you'll do any better than that brat?"  
  
Startled, Goku turned around to the voice from behind. There stood a redheaded woman who wore a snide smirk. She looked somehow familiar, but he couldn't place her. He decided not to dignify her words with a response and to locate his daughter instead.  
  
The Senshi had arrived right along with Goku, but weren't paying any attention to what he was doing. Venus and Jupiter had gone off to look for Usagi, while Mars and Mercury were busy trying to find out what their new enemy's weak spot was.  
  
Mercury scanned every part of the monster. "Oh wow." She exclaimed, her voice wavered a bit.  
  
"What is it?" Mars asked, her ears perking at Mercury's obvious worry.  
  
Mercury punched a few more buttons to bring up a new screen on the computer. This one showed what the monster was made of, causing her to nearly shriek with surprise. "Well, whoever made this thing knew that we would probably try to attack it. That's why its body is made of pure metal. Its legs seem to be coated with some sort of poisonous spikes, the same poison that coat its fangs. If they extend, anyone who gets jabbed by one of those things won't be able to move."  
  
Mars let out a yelped. "Yikes. That's dangerous stuff."  
  
Mercury nodded, punching a few more buttons. "No kidding."  
  
"See any weak spots?" Mars asked, looking over Mercury's shoulder.  
  
Mercury didn't say anything right away as she concentrated on her work. "The face. Usagi had the right idea when she went for it, but the attack only seems to have stunned it momentarily."  
  
Goku had only been half listening to the Shenshis' comments; he was more intent on finding his daughter. "Usagi?" he called again, not getting an answer. He searched the ground with his eyes and listened to the stirs of the monster behind him. If it awoke, he would have to abandon his search for Usagi and continue the fight.  
  
Venus and Jupiter had yet to find any sign of Usagi either. Neither of them knew where she could have possibly gone considering she had dove out of the way soon enough to where she wouldn't have been knocked away by the impact of the blast.  
  
Goku stopped in his place when he heard the soft rustle of leaves just in front of him. His eyes looked hopeful as he knelt down. "Usagi?" He called once more as he motioned to the Senshi that he had found her.  
  
The leaves and twigs moved again as Usagi's voice let out a small moan. Goku smiled as he reached down to uncover his daughter. "Hey there." He said, cheerfully. "You've given us quite a worry today kiddo." He noticed that her power level had dropped substantially; her tail and hair were back to their normal golden color.  
  
Usagi opened her eyes and looked up to her father. A faint smile had crossed her face as she slowly sat up, her head feeling slightly woozy. She had put all her energy into that last attack, and had barely escaped being blown completely away. All her energy had escaped her, and now she would be useless in the fight. "Dad." She mumbled as she tried to stand to her feet.  
  
Goku knew better than everyone how much energy that his daughter had put into that attack, and knew full well why she was having trouble even sitting up, let alone stand up. "Here." He said, pulling out half a Senzu bean from his pocket and handing it to Usagi. "It'll replenish enough energy for you to turn into Sailor Moon and get rid of this thing."  
  
Stunned, Usagi eyed her father oddly. "What?"  
  
Venus and Jupiter ran up from behind Goku with wide smiles. "Usagi!" They both shouted at once. "You're all right!"  
  
Goku ignored the girls and continued his focus on Usagi. "The girls told me about these enemies; how they can only be defeated by a strong Senshi's power. I'll hold that thing off, you worry about transforming."  
  
Usagi's eyes widened with a sudden fear. "Wait!" She cried out, but she was too late. Her father had jumped into the air and flown off to attack the giant spider, which was regaining its stature. "Oh no." Her words came out solemnly as she stared into the eyes of her fellow Senshi. "I can't transform."  
  
The two Senshi exchanged worried glances, for they knew all too well of Usagi's problem. This wasn't at all comforting to Usagi, who was now rising to her feet. "What can I do?" She asked, though not directing it at either of them.  
  
"Maybe you should just try it." Venus said, hoping that a day's time would make a difference.  
  
Jupiter nodded in agreement. "I wouldn't hurt."  
  
Usagi gritted her teeth, not liking their advice. "If it didn't work two days ago, it won't work now. If it didn't work yesterday, it won't work now." She clasped her right hand over the broach that sat in the center of her school uniform. Seeing her friends' glare, she decided to suck it up and try. "I suppose I could give it a go." She looked to her left, where her mother stood watching. That only made her anxiety grow even higher now that she had an audience.  
  
Gulping, Usagi pulled the broach from her shirt and held it high above her head. She closed her eyes before she said her words so she wouldn't have to witness the failure. "Moon Crystal Power.Make up!"  
  
Kaori, still hidden behind the safety of her tree, watched the spectacle intently. "She's not a. no, she can't be. can she?" Curious, she poked her head out a little more. Nothing happened. There was no change in the girl, which seemed to have caused her great distress. Kaori smiled maliciously. "She's lost her power to become Sailor Moon. Professor Tomoe will love to hear this juicy news. Usagi is Sailor Moon, which must mean all her friends are the rest of the Sailor Senshi."  
  
While Kaori had figured out the Senshis' identities, Usagi was still hoping that she had transformed. She had heard her friends gasp, but what did that mean? She opened her eyes and looked down at her clothes, her mouth turning downward at what she saw. "Nothing." She whispered. She was still in her school uniform. She hadn't been able to transform.  
  
Mars had watched the failed attempt to transform and couldn't help but feel sorry for her friend. "Right then." She shouted so that all the Senshi could hear here words. "We have to fight down one Senshi."  
  
Venus turned her back to Usagi. "We can do it!" She said, trying to give the group a pep talk. She was, after all, the true leader of the Sailor Senshi.  
  
Goku had just slammed his feet into the ruby red eyes of the spider, hoping to blind it. "Why isn't Usagi going to fight?" He asked as he turned his head enough to see that Usagi hadn't transformed into Sailor Moon even though she had just called out to do so. "What the.?"  
  
With his guard slightly dropped now, the spider took its chance to jump forward on top of Goku, causing him to topple off of his feet and onto his back.  
  
"Goku!" Chi-Chi screamed as she darted forward to rescue her husband. But before she could get too close, three balls of energy smashed into the monster from above. Goku was once again free as the monster was thrown onto its back. Relieved, Chi-Chi looked up into the air, as did all the others.  
  
Gohan, Piccolo, and Pan were flying above with rather smug smirks of their own. "Reinforcements have arrived." Pan exclaimed.  
  
Piccolo scanned the ground and laid eyes upon Goku, who had just gotten back to his feet. "We came as soon as we felt Usagi."  
  
Gohan looked toward his little sister, who looked to be pouting about something. "What's going on here?" He let his eyes drift to one particular woman who didn't seem to fit with the crowd. His eyes narrowed as he stared down at her.  
  
Kaori was feeling the heat as she looked up and saw the rest of the fighters. There was nothing keeping them from attacking her, and she knew it was only a matter of time before one of them got smart enough to do so. "Enough playing around!" She snarled. "Get what we came for and return to me when ever one of these fighters are dead!" With that, she turned to run off.  
  
Gohan frowned. "You're not getting away that easy!" He dove after her at top speed.  
  
The spider was struggling to get right side up. It was rocking back and fourth, but seemed almost hopeless until it extended the spikes on its legs and dug them deep into the ground. Putting all of its weight into its legs, it managed to flip itself right side up.  
  
Pan, not knowing anything about what she was up against, began firing in all directions, not even caring if her attacks hit the target or not. She wanted to scare it, if that was possible. The spider was hardly afraid of a few misfires, but it appeared to all that it was. It turned its back to the fighters and hoisted its rear into the air. Mercury knew exactly what was happening. "It's set up to act like a real spider!" With her computer still at the ready, she analyzed the spider's backside. A box appeared around a small opening that was forming at the very tip of the back end. "Pan, watch out!" She cried out, but her words were lost in the commotion of attacks.  
  
Gohan's attention had been pulled away from Kaori by the sound of his daughter's reckless attacks. One look at that spider's position told him exactly what was happening. "Shit!" He yelled as he doubled back for his daughter.  
  
Pan, not paying any attention, wailed with laughter. "Look, he's just a scared piece of metal!" She continued her attacks, unknowing of what would happen next.  
  
A large, silky rope emerged from the spider and was launched toward the Saiyan. Pan just laughed as she redirected her attack at the rope, but they ricocheted off and bounced toward the fighters on the ground, all who jumped out of the way to dodge.  
  
Gohan had reached his daughter just in time to save her from being completely wrapped by the spider silk, taking her place instead. Pan was knocked out of the air and came crashing down to the ground. Goku, who continued to stare up at his son in horror, caught her.  
  
There was no way to tell that the person spun in the spider silk was Gohan. All that was left was a tight woven outline of his body, which had begun falling to the ground.  
  
Chi-Chi stared up in horror as she watched what happened to her son. "GOHAN!"  
  
"Dad!" Pan cried out as she jumped out of her grandfather's grip. She ran out beneath him, ready to catch him, but she wasn't needed.  
  
Piccolo had snatched Gohan's body and lowered it to the ground. He sneered at Pan as he set Gohan gently on the ground. His hand emitted a strange, bluish-white energy, which was transferred to Gohan's lifeless body. A soft crackling noise was heard by only those with Saiyan hearing, which was the sound of the energy eating the spider silk away. Underneath was an unconscious Gohan. "One fighter down already, Pan. You had better not pull anything stupid again." Pan lowered her head as she backed away from him. Piccolo looked over his shoulder; there was no sign of Kaori. "We'll have to find that woman later."  
  
Usagi ducked away from the group, not wanting everyone's attention brought back to the fact that she couldn't transform. Pan too tried to duck away, but Piccolo had grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. "We need to come up with a plan." He looked around, only seeing four out of the five girls. "Where's Usagi?"  
  
Goku too searched the area, not seeing his daughter, and shrugged. Piccolo grunted as he released his grip on Pan. "We'll have to deal without her then. There's no time to try and find her."  
  
Goku nodded, though continued to scan the area. "The only power able to defeat that thing is Senshi power."  
  
Taking her cue, the Senshi entered the small circle of fighters. Mercury took the lead in this case. "Right. If you three can create a diversion long enough for us to perform a combined attack on the spider then we just might be able to pull this off. We'll need easy access to the face. Once we've attacked, we'll need to vacate the area quickly or else we may be caught in the explosion."  
  
Piccolo frowned; something didn't add up. "Why isn't Usagi Sailor Moon?"  
  
The girls shared a nervous look, not knowing what to say. "Because I can't transform." Came a voice from outside the circle. It was Usagi, she had decided to come back and face her shame. "I can help with the diversion though."  
  
Goku beamed a smile at his daughter, but decided not to bring any unwanted attention to her by saying anything about how proud he was that she was facing her embarrassment. "If two of us focus on taking out the legs, and two of us focus on the face, I think we can stun it just long enough to give the Senshi their chance to attack."  
  
All nodded in agreement of the plan, though Mercury had one more thing to add. "Try to stay clear of those legs. They're poisonous now. One touch from those and you'll be as stiff as a board, and will only have 30 minutes to live."  
  
"Let's get crackin'." Pan was the first to leave the circle and take to the air, assuming her role as one who would attack the spider's face. She wouldn't let her father down this time. It was her fault that he had been caught in the silky rope, and now she would correct her wrong. She was soon joined by Piccolo, who took to his fighting stance.  
  
Usagi and Goku took on the role of attacking the legs to keep the spider down. "Take the left side, Usagi. I've got the right." Goku commanded as he went to the right side. Usagi nodded and did as she was told, not saying a word so as to keep her concentration. Both Saiyans immediately powered up to their own levels of Super Saiyan to give themselves the extra power needed to knock the spider down.  
  
The four Senshi grouped together and prepared themselves for battle. It was up to them to watch both teams so they would attack at just the right time.  
  
Chi-Chi ran to Gohan and dragged him out of the way, her eyes full of tears.  
  
On the count of three the attack had commenced. Goku and Usagi were the first to attack. They slammed countless energy balls into the front set of legs first, causing first the poisonous spikes to retract, and then the legs to just turn in on themselves.  
  
Piccolo and Pan's attacks didn't come much later after the first set of legs were down. Piccolo focused a Mosenko attack down at the spider, who was too busy kicking its remaining legs at Usagi and Goku. The blue energy hit its target right on, and was followed by a series of attacks by Pan.  
  
The spider was confused. It was getting hit from two different directions - front and side. As soon as it was hit in the face, it spit poisonous fluid up at the aerial fighters. Pan and Piccolo had plenty of time to dodge and throw more attacks at it.  
  
Just as Usagi and Goku were making their way to the third set of legs, the first were beginning to uncurl. Goku noticed it first, and motioned for Usagi to stay put while he went up front to keep the spider off its feet. He fired a giant Kamehameha blast at it, which caused both front legs to curl under again. "We can do this!" He shouted, trying to keep the team in good spirits regardless of the fact that they weren't doing any real damage.  
  
Usagi had gotten her third leg down and had moved back to the fourth and final when her father had moved back to meet her. Neither of them said a word as they continued to concentrate on their job.  
  
Piccolo and Pan were doing a good job of keeping the spider's attention on them, rather than Usagi and Goku where the real danger was. If they were hit with any of those kicking legs, they would be dead within a half-hour. Usagi they could bring back, however, Goku they could not.  
  
"You're not so tough!" Taunted pan as she threw her own Mosenko down at the spider's face. This only worked to earn her more poison spit at her, but as before, it was easily dodged. "This thing wasn't built very well for offense, was it?"  
  
At last, Goku and Usagi had gotten the last set of legs down. With all legs stunned, the spider was lying on its body. Both Saiyans moved away as Piccolo and Pan stopped their attacks. The Senshi moved in quickly, each hoping that their combined efforts would be enough to do away with this thing.  
  
Chi-Chi watched in anticipation as Goku and Usagi joined her. Piccolo and Pan landed to the right and watched from the safety of a tree, where they could duck behind once the attack was thrown.  
  
Venus glanced to the faces of her four friends with a sudden grin. "Let's get this thing rolling girls. We've done this before, we can do it again." Her pep talked seemed to work as smiles appeared on all their faces.  
  
The four Senshi huddled together and pushed their hands out so they would be able to create one, massive Celestial attack. They concentrated their power, and dug deep down inside to pull up everything they had. They would have to compensate for the power that had been lost since Sailor Moon wasn't present, but they had all the confidence in the world that they would be able to pull it off.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Neptune and Uranus were nearly at the fight when they felt something horrid brewing. "What the hell do they think they're doing?" Uranus demanded, though not expecting an answer.  
  
"That won't be enough power. They're going to make it mad." Neptune looked over to Uranus. "We better hurry up before they do anything stupid."  
  
~*~*~  
  
As the Senshi were building up for their attack, Pan noticed that the spider was beginning to wobble around. "Uh oh."  
  
Chi-Chi didn't like the sound of that 'uh oh'. "What 'uh oh'?" She inquired, though not sure she wanted to know the answer.  
  
Usagi looked on in fear. "It's moving."  
  
Chi-Chi gulped. She didn't need to ask questions to know what that meant. "They better hurry up."  
  
The first string hadn't been the only ones to noticed that the spider was stirring once again. The Senshi saw it and knew then that they needed to hurry up, but they weren't ready yet. They needed more power if they were going to defeat this thing. But there was no time to collect more power. The spider's front legs had already been released and its second set looked like they were unfolding as well. If they were going to have a clean chance at this, they needed to do it now.  
  
Mercury, still with her visor on, cried the command: "Release NOW!"  
  
And with that, a giant orb with Orange, Blue, Green, and Red all intertwined within one another spiraled toward the waking spider. It was their only chance to defeat this thing and it was seconds away from hitting its target. The Senshi ducked out of the way to avoid the blast when it came.  
  
The area grew silent with anticipation. All eyes lay on the massive attack. As it crashed into its target, a large explosion was created. Pan and Piccolo slid behind the tree as debris began slamming into them. Goku grabbed his wife and daughter and pressed them hard against the ground to shield them from the twigs and rocks that had been thrown their way.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Uranus stopped short in her path to the battle. "It's not over yet. They weren't strong enough to defeat it."  
  
Neptune looked worriedly upon her partner. "They've only made things worse for themselves."  
  
Frowning, Uranus gave herself a quick burst of speed. "We've got to hurry."  
  
~*~*~  
  
The loud rumble from the explosion had subsided, though smoke remained in the area that had been closest to the blast. The Senshi were the first to move, curious as to whether or not their efforts had worked. Jupiter stood up, but couldn't see anything past the smoke.  
  
Goku sat up next, releasing his wife and daughter from his protective hold. "That had to have done something." He exclaimed as he helped Chi-Chi to her feet.  
  
Pan and Piccolo emerged from behind their tree, completely unharmed. Neither of them could see through the smoke, just as the Senshi couldn't. Piccolo made his way to Goku and his family. "Good job back there, you two." He said, looking especially at Usagi, who was just climbing to her feet.  
  
Mercury was a bit skeptical about the whole situation. That had all seemed a little too easy, especially since they had been almost useless in yesterday's battle. She turned her visor back on and pulled out her computer once again to scan the smoke and see what really lay within it. "Oh no." She gasped, closing her computer.  
  
With his acute hearing, Piccolo had heard the sound of Mercury's voice quite clearly. "What is it?" But she didn't have to explain. Almost as soon has he had asked his question, a giant spider emerged from behind the smoke, its face completely caved in. "Oh crap."  
  
Usagi could feel her legs going limber with fear as she gulped. "It wasn't enough." She whispered.  
  
Before anyone had a chance to react, the spider made a mad dash for the Son family. What was left of its mouth had begun opening wide and a long, white beam shot out of it for Chi-Chi. Usagi knew exactly what was happening. She had seen this happen just the day before. If she thought she was weak in the legs before, now was even worse. She had lost almost all feeling and had collapsed to the ground.  
  
In a split second the beam of light had ripped through one side of Chi- Chi's chest and out the other, causing a small, bright crystal to fly out with it. Chi-Chi's face went an immediate pale gray as she fell face forward.  
  
Usagi was utterly horrified; her worst nightmare come true. "Mommy!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.  
  
Goku's eyes went wide with fear for his wife's life. "Chi-Chi!" 


	170. Part 17

~*~*~*~  
  
Kaori ran as fast as her legs would carry her. She needed to get away from the battle before any of the fighters would be able to capture her. She hadn't expected them to suddenly group up and help each other like that; they had never done so before. Professor Tomoe would angry when he heard that she had fled the battlefield without what she had come for, but that didn't seem to matter to her. The truth was that she was angry too. She wouldn't be able to monitor the progress of the fight, not that she figured there would be any trouble, but she wanted to watch their demise. They would never be able to penetrate the magical shielding around any of the heart snatchers, Professor Tomoe had personally seen to that. They would never be able to discover the weak spot - they were all too stupid for that.  
  
With a malicious grin, she glanced over her shoulder to see if she had lost Gohan. To her surprise, there was no sign of him. "Must have been taken down." She brought her eyes forward once again, not wanting to run into anything.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Goku starred horrorstricken down at the lifeless body of his wife. His eyes stretched as far as they could while his face went pale as the color of snow. He had just witnessed something new; something that had never crossed his mind. Chi-Chi was attacked, for the very first time, in front of his eyes. The life had been torn from her body, and now it lay in the form of a crystal. "Chi-Chi." He whispered as he stared, not knowing how to react. He had been used to seeing his children in danger, and he had always been able to help them before an unwanted fate took them over. But his wife. this was completely different. She had never gone with them to a major fight. She had never been put in any real danger until now, and it hurt him to see her like this.  
  
The light beam that had shot through the middle of Chi-Chi's chest enveloped itself around the Heart Crystal and pulled it back into the spider's mouth.  
  
Pan stuck her tongue out in disgust as her grandmother's life-force was slurped up into the giant spider. "Oh great, now how are we supposed to get it."  
  
Goku narrowed his eyes into a scowl as he took his eyes from his wife and placed them on his wife's attacker, and possibly killer. Arching his back, he could hear the panting of the Senshi, who had given almost every last bit of energy on their last attack.  
  
Usagi's eyes welled up with tears as she sat down to her mother's side. Unlike her father, she wasn't used to seeing her family in such a horrible state. "Mama." She whispered.  
  
Goku let out a growl as he readied himself for an attack. The spider was on retreat now that it had what it was programmed to retrieve, but its business here was far from over. Letting Usagi's tears feed into his anger, he bent his knees; positioning one foot before him, and the other behind.  
  
No words were needed for Piccolo to understand the sudden rage Goku was feeling. He would help the Saiyan in anyway possible; they had never lost a fight before and they wouldn't start now.  
  
The Senshi took deep breaths as they looked upon Goku and Piccolo, who were both readying themselves for battle. They were nervous for they knew of the magic shielding that surrounded their foe. "Be safe." Mars wailed as she hurried her fellow Senshi out of the way. She wanted to give Goku plenty of room.  
  
Seething with anger, Goku was prepared for his battle. He would personally see to it that this monster would see its end before nightfall. "Let's dance." And with that, he was off.  
  
Sneering, he set off at top speed. The spider was unknowing of the attack, as it had its back turned to the Saiyan. Goku used this to his advantage. He grabbed one of the hind legs and leapt into the air. The spider let out a squeal of confusion, immediately extending its poisonous spikes.  
  
Usagi gasped at the sound, knowing full well what would happen to her father if a spike touched him. Her eyes were diverted upward to the fight, but to her surprise, nothing had happened. Her father didn't seem to have been poisoned at all. "What?" She squinted to see clearer only to notice that not all of the spikes had been brought out. Her eyes got larger with excitement. "Yes! Our attacks must have damaged the legs!"  
  
Mercury couldn't believe her eyes. Usagi was telling the truth. "By my calculations, your non-stop, massive attacks somehow penetrated the magic shield in some spots." She jumped to her feet, ignoring her exhaustion. "Goku, keep attacking it! It's beginning to malfunction!"  
  
Goku had no intention of stopping until his wife's heart crystal was back where it belonged. With the hind leg still in grasp, he began spinning around in circles. Once he had enough momentum built up, he released and watched the spider go flying high into a tree, and then fall to the ground.  
  
The spider was met with a hard crash, but it got up with ease; however, one of its legs was emitting a bright light.  
  
Goku dove downward, not taking any chances with there being another attack. The spider, more aware of its surroundings now, jabbed at its attacker with its front legs. Goku sidestepped to the left and kicked it front underneath, which did nothing.  
  
Quick on its remaining legs, the spider spun around to meet Goku, who was going for another attack. The fangs parted, allowing poisonous juice to be spit at the Saiyan. It was at that moment that two green hands had been shoved into the spider's eyes, which forced another high-pitched squeal from the enemy.  
  
Goku looked up just as he had landed from his back flip. "Great idea, blind it!" He grinned up at Piccolo, who had mounted himself on the spider's body.  
  
Piccolo smiled back, clearly enjoying himself. "We can take this thing out if we continue throwing physical attacks at it."  
  
The Saiyan nodded, just barely noticing the poison that was being thrown at him from all angles. The spider had gone berserk now that it was blind. It was bucking wildly, trying to throw Piccolo off its back. Pan decided it was her turn to attack, seeing that both her grandfather and Piccolo were occupied with their own troubles.  
  
Picking up a long stick from the ground, she trotted to the side of the spider where she was met with near doom. In trying to throw Piccolo off, the spider had nearly trampled over her. She jumped back, hollering up to Piccolo. "Shove this in its mouth!" She threw the stick up to Piccolo, who did as she had said.  
  
Poison was only able to ooze out of the mouth now, and it was dripping everywhere. "Better watch out now." Piccolo exclaimed as he jumped down to the ground.  
  
A soft moaning was heard by Usagi's ears. She looked down to the person who was lying next to her. "Gohan!" She gasped as she put her hand on his forehead. "You're all right!"  
  
A bit woozy, Gohan opened his eyes to see his sister's bright, blue eyes staring back at him. "Of course I am. Just a bit knocked out." He gave her a smile, and closed his eyes again.  
  
Still filled with raging anger, Goku ducked behind to grab one of the spider's legs again. He made sure his grasp was far enough away from the remaining poison spikes, but that wasn't all that he had to worry about. Though still blind, the spider still had its senses. With its free back leg, it stuck Goku in the stomach, causing the Saiyan to give a yelp of sudden pain.  
  
"Oh no you don't!" That was when Usagi had decided to lend her help. She raced forward next to her father and grabbed the attacking leg.  
  
Goku glared down at her. "I've got this, Usagi." He didn't want to see her hurt, or worse, dead. One family member down was bad enough.  
  
Usagi frowned as she powered up. "Let me help." She sent a sudden surge of energy through the leg of her foe, which was completely engulfed by her golden aura.  
  
Mercury, who was constantly scanning, let out a gasp. "Usagi, that's it!!"  
  
Usagi perked her eyes. "What's it?!" She shouted, hoping that she had found a away to defeat this thing.  
  
"Whatever you just did.that shorted out whatever magical field was around this thing. It's just a normal enemy now!"  
  
Usagi squealed with joy. "Are you serious?! You mean we can blow this thing to pieces now?!"  
  
Goku kept his hold on the spider, though listening carefully to the girls' conversation. 'We must have torn down its defenses pretty far for her attack to have penetrated it like that.'  
  
Mercury shook her head, still looking for clues on the whereabouts of Chi- Chi's heart crystal. "No, that would destroy the heart crystal. You have to be careful with it, we need something that will destroy the monster, but not the heart crystal. We need something like."  
  
"A real Sailor Senshi." A new voice had entered the scene. It was that of Sailor Uranus; sarcastic as always. All eyes turned to the two new arrivals, who walked on to the battlefield with heads held high. Uranus took the lead, while Neptune followed close behind.  
  
"Who are you?" Piccolo demanded as he looked from one set of Senshi to the other. "You aren't Sailor Senshi!"  
  
Uranus's eyes traveled to Piccolo, her old Sensei. He was probably one of the only adults she had ever really respected for he was Mamoru's father. "We are very much so Sailor Senshi. I am Sailor Uranus, and this," She said, pointing to Neptune, "is Sailor Neptune. We are the Senshi of the outer rim. Together, we serve in silence to protect our Queen, and," She shuddered, "Princess."  
  
Neptune, who had so far said nothing, looked on to Goku, who was ready to do away with his squirming foe. "You've all done well here, to bring this creature's defenses down this low." She looked down to Usagi and gave a sympathetic smile. "Where is the heart crystal?"  
  
Usagi, knowing exactly who these two new Senshi were, glared at them both. "In the monster, but you can't have it!"  
  
"Come off it, kid! We'll take it if its what we need!" Uranus snarled back at Usagi, whose face had turned red with anger. She turned back to face Goku and his catch. "Right then, we'll take over from here. As the blue haired kid said before, without a pure power strong enough to destroy this thing, you'll never get that heart crystal out."  
  
"We don't need you're help!" Usagi shot back, thinking about how much joy Haruka must be getting out of all this. She wondered who in their right minds would have made Haruka a Sailor Senshi. She wasn't fit for the job and loved to torment everyone.  
  
Goku released his grip on his opponent, which fell to the ground with a pathetic screech. "If it's the only way that your mother can be saved, then we'll let them do it."  
  
Usagi frowned, but Uranus smirked. "We'll show you how real Senshi work, kids." And with that, she readied herself for the attack was built to eat away everything evil. She nodded at Neptune, who was just getting herself ready as well.  
  
She stood tall and wore her usual smirk as she peered down at the struggling spider that had been severely hurt. She raised her right arm high in the air and chanted her attack. "World Shaking!" A ball of golden energy was formed on her fist. With a rapid action, she threw her fist all the way to the ground and released the energy to go flying toward the attacker.  
  
Neptune added in her attack. She raised both hands high above her head and almost sang her words. "Deep Submerge!" A turquoise colored energy ball formed in the palm of her hands, which she released almost immediately.  
  
Both planetary attacks joined to be one. The color had changed into the silvery light that was produced by Sailor Moon's attacks. The spectators were in awe, but this was old news to the Senshi of the outer rim. Their double attack wavered back and fourth as its spiraled forward. It met its target with a loud bang, but there was no explosion. It ate through the metal like acid, causing glittering remnants to fly in all directions.  
  
The Senshi that belonged in Princess Serenity's court were mesmerized by the spectacle. They were the first to see the shimmering item that lay where the spider once sat; it was Chi-Chi's heart crystal, and it was bright as ever. Its warm light was shadowed by that of Uranus and Neptunes' attack.  
  
"There it is!" Uranus shouted as she ran to it, hoping that it was one of the Pure Heart Crystals that Sailor Pluto had told them about.  
  
"It's so bright!" Neptune shouted as she joined her partner. She knelt down next to Uranus, who was already holding the jewel in her hands. "Is it what we're looking for?"  
  
Though relieved that the immediate threat was over, Goku had a new feeling of fear form in the pit of his stomach. "What are they talking about?" He asked, looking to his daughter for questions. "Why aren't they putting it back?"  
  
Usagi frowned, not knowing the exact answer to that question herself. "Give it here!" She yelled, ignoring her father. She stomped toward Uranus and Neptune, who were still examining their prize. "That belongs to my mother!" She reached out and grabbed for the crystal, but Uranus pulled it away. "What are you doing?"  
  
Uranus scowled up at Usagi. "Hold your horses, kid! If it's one of the Pure Heart Crystals then we have to take it with us."  
  
Piccolo, now interested, stepped forward. "Pure Heart Crystal?"  
  
"What's that?" Pan chimed, not letting Piccolo get the next word in, which earned her a stern glare.  
  
Uranus shifted her attention from Usagi to Pan. "We are not permitted to share our business with any of you." She stood up and shoved the crystal in Usagi's face. "Here, it's useless to us."  
  
Usagi greedily snatched the crystal from the Senshi and held it close to her chest. "It's not useless!" She could feel anger building up inside, but decided to let it go. The important thing was to giver her mother back what rightfully belonged to her.  
  
Goku walked to his wife with everyone following closely behind. All of them wanted to make sure that Chi-Chi pulled out of this ok.  
  
Uranus held out her hand for Neptune to take hold. "Let's get out of here before they start asking a bunch of questions." She helped Neptune to her feet, who nodded in agreement.  
  
None of the other fighters noticed when the two Senshi left, not that any of them cared. Usagi held her mother's heart crystal close until she got close enough to put it back. "I hope this works." She knelt down and placed the heart crystal over her mother's chest. It hovered for a short moment, and then disappeared.  
  
Color returned almost immediately to Chi-Chi's face, the pale gray leaving completely within just a few seconds. A sigh of relief was shared among the entire group as her eyes fluttered.  
  
Usagi got on her hands and knees as she peered down at her mother's face. "Mom?"  
  
Goku placed a gentle hand on his daughter's back as he knelt down next to her. "Chi-Chi? You in there?" His voice was soft, he didn't want to startle her after what she had just gone through.  
  
Pan looked just as worried as her grandfather and aunt. She bent over to get a better view. "Is she alive?"  
  
"Yes." Goku took his hand from his daughter's back and nudged both arms under his wife; one under her neck, and the other under her knees. "She just needs to rest now." He stood up slowly, careful not to bounce his wife around too much.  
  
He looked down to his son, who was showing signs of waking. "What the heck are up against?" This was absolutely unbelievable. Never in his life had he fought an enemy with such strong defenses, but at least now they knew they weren't completely defenseless against their new enemy. They would have to work harder to defeat their opponent, but it wasn't impossible.  
  
He watched as Piccolo hoisted Gohan over his shoulder. "I'll take him home, Goku."  
  
"Wha'd I miss?" A voice called from above the group.  
  
Usagi cringed; she knew that voice all too well. It was Mamoru. He actually had the nerve to show up after what he had pulled earlier. "Everything!" She replied with a certain rudeness in her voice.  
  
The Senshi looked at their Princess with worried eyes. They could tell that her inability to transform to Sailor Moon was beginning to wear on her, her actions told them so.  
  
Mamoru sighed as he lowered himself to the ground. His eyes went directly to Chi-Chi, who was softly moaning. "Good, she's safe."  
  
Usagi scowled. "No thanks to you!" She taunted.  
  
"What's gotten into you, Usagi?" Goku stared down at his daughter. She was sulking about something, something other than her mother's danger. He could see it in her eyes.  
  
Usagi lightened her expression up a bit, not wanting to make a big scene in front of everyone. "It.it's nothing. Can we just go home now?"  
  
Venus, seeing her friend's obvious distress, came to her aid. "I think that's a great idea. We're all tired from the fight, let's just call it a night." She looked to the rest of the Senshi for support.  
  
"R.right." Mercury chimed in.  
  
Mamoru raised a brow as he crossed his arms. His face bore a mischievous smile as he walked to his father. "Let's go, pop."  
  
~*~*~  
  
~~Son House~~  
  
Usagi didn't feel like talking much that evening, and neither did her father. Both of them had been put through a lot emotionally, though Usagi had more to worry about than her father. She was still unable to transform into Sailor Moon and she had no idea why. Her crystal really had died, but why? There was no reason for it to just stop working. It was supposed to be a source of everlasting power. As long as there was love in her heart, it was meant to work. But it hadn't, and there was no explaining why.  
  
She sulked around the living room for the rest of the night. Although she didn't feel like talking, she still wanted to be in the company of her father. They both sat on the sofa, completely silent. Neither of them had said a word to one another since they had returned home. Usagi sat on one end, while Goku sat on the other; both were completely lost in their own thoughts.  
  
Goku had been given a real kick of reality today. His wife could have died, and nearly did. None of his children had ever been in the position of nearly dying, and he had hoped they never were. The feeling that had rushed through his body when he saw Chi-Chi's body fall lifelessly to the ground was worse than anything that he had ever felt in his life. It was worse than the knowledge that he had been the one responsible for killing his grandfather. At least then he wasn't aware of what was going on. He didn't have to suffer the pain of watching.  
  
He looked to his silent daughter, who appeared to be off in a world of her own. A million questions were running through his mind, mostly about why she hadn't been able to transform into Sailor Moon. "Usagi." He called softly, not wanting to disturb her.  
  
She barely flinched at the sound of his voice. She had hardly heard his words. Questions of her own were racing through her mind, and those were taking priority over anything her father had to say. She looked as if she were in a total trance.  
  
"Usagi." He called again, this time reaching over and shaking her shoulder.  
  
Usagi sighed as she looked up into her father's tired eyes. "What?" Her voice was terse and her eyes told him to leave her alone.  
  
Goku backed away, not wanting to upset her. "Are you ok?"  
  
Usagi turned her view away from her father and continued to stare at the wall directly in front of her. "I'm fine."  
  
It hurt him to see her in such a state, but it hurt him more that she wouldn't share her worries with him. "If you want to talk I'll be outside." He decided not to push her into sharing with him, that would only make her mood worse. Instead he stood up and made his way downstairs.  
  
Usagi hardly noticed him leaving; but she did, however, notice a small black cat jump into her lap. "What do you want Luna?" She asked, groaning.  
  
Luna sat down on Usagi's legs with a frown. "You shouldn't be so rude to your father, Usagi. He's worried about you."  
  
Usagi looked down at the cat, unable to ignore her. "What you talking about, Luna?"  
  
"You completely blew him off like he was nobody. Why don't you go apologize?"  
  
Usagi rolled her eyes as she leaned her head against the back of the sofa. "No I didn't. He asked if I was ok, and I said I was fine. Now get off, Luna. I want to be alone." She picked up the cat and set her on the floor.  
  
Luna wasn't going to just drop the subject though. She jumped back into Usagi's lap and started to climb her chest. "You didn't see the hurt in his eyes, Usagi. He wasn't asking if you were ok in the sense that you're feeling alright, he wanted to find out what's been bothering you for the past two days."  
  
Usagi brought her attention back down to the cat, though said nothing. Now that she thought about it, she had been a little hard on him. She had refused to tell him earlier what was bothering her, and even now she was refusing. "I guess I could go."  
  
Luna lightened up her frown. "Good girl. Go down there and have a nice, long talk with him, Usagi. It'll be good for both of you."  
  
Usagi nodded with a slight smile. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. Maybe it would even make her feel better. "Right." She set Luna on the seat next to her and stood up, making her way toward the stairs.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Mamoru had only gotten halfway home before he stopped and turned around to go back to the mountains. Something was bothering him, something he couldn't explain, and he wouldn't feel right until he set things straight.  
  
~*~*~  
  
Makoto and Rei returned to the shrine just after dark. They were met with the smiling face of Yuuichiro, but like Usagi, their moods weren't all that great. "Hey girls!" He called, trying hard not to look Rei in the eye.  
  
"Hi." The girls greeted back solemnly. They passed, not even giving him a second look. They had other things to think about.  
  
Yuuichiro's face went red. "She noticed me." He was obvious oblivious to the fact that she hadn't actually noticed him, but rather blew him off.  
  
The girls made their way to Rei's room, completely forgetting that they had left their schoolbags back at the school. Homework wouldn't be an option for their nightly activity, but that wasn't a priority.  
  
Rei went straight to her bed and rested her elbows on her knees. "Well that was interesting." She exclaimed sarcastically.  
  
Makoto pulled the chair out from the desk and sat in it with her eyes fixed upon Rei. "At least we know how to defeat those monsters without using our Ki. But even if do use Ki, we can still take it down if we keep throwing stuff at it. Remember what Ami said? The shield isn't strong enough to defend against numerous amounts of attacks."  
  
Rei sighed loudly as she threw herself back on her bed. "Yeah, that works if the monster doesn't have the stupid crystal inside it already. But we're totally reliant on the outer Senshi if it does. I don't like that."  
  
Makoto leaned against the desk. "Neither do I."  
  
"We need to get Usagi her power back. The power of the crystal is probably pure and strong enough to make them disintegrate if we need it."  
  
"Agreed. Any ideas?"  
  
Rei shook her head. "Not a one."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Usagi stepped outside with caution. She didn't want to startle her father, who was sitting only a few feet away from the house. His head was bowed forward, which earned him a look of content from behind. Usagi gulped as she started forward, taking light steps. She had no idea what she was going to tell her father. She knew that she had been blown him off pretty bad in the past couple of days, and he didn't really deserve it. She had just been too caught up in her emotions, her worries, that she didn't even really know how to talk about it. Add in the fact that she didn't want to worry him with yet another one of her problems; she had no idea what to do, not that now was any different.  
  
She walked until she was at his side. He probably knew that she was there, for he could probably hear her footsteps regardless of how quiet she was trying to be, but he didn't let on his knowledge. She sat down next to him and looked up to his face, he was looking straight ahead, his eyes stark and almost lifeless. A feeling of sorrow grew in her gut as she pulled her knees against her chest and rested her arms upon them. What would she say?  
  
"Dad?" She said softly.  
  
His daughter's words were heard, but he didn't turn his eyes upon her. "Yes?" Goku answered, his voice almost as silent as hers.  
  
She sighed, dropping her head to rest upon her arms. "I didn't mean to blow you off just now. I mean.I mean I was just."  
  
Her words had caused her father to smile as he brought his attention to her. "No problem, Usagi. I know you're upset. I know you didn't want to talk."  
  
Without lifting her head, Usagi looked up into her father's eyes. "It's not that I didn't want to talk, it's just.I'm.oh I don't know." She frowned at her own inability to share with her father, something that had always come so easily to her in the past.  
  
Goku leaned back into the cold night grass, keeping his hands place upon his stomach and his legs bent upward. "Don't force it, you don't have to tell me." Although he told her not to, he wished she would open up and tell him what was bothering her.  
  
Usagi frowned as she lifted her head to stare back at her father. "If you want to know what's bothering me just ask, you don't have to try and make me feel guilty!" Her expression lightened up as she realized that her words might have hurt him. "Look, I'm sorry. I just don't know what to do anymore. You're not even supposed to know that I'm Sailor Moon, not supposed to know that I.that I.I can't transform." Tears began to form in her eyes as she looked forward, trying to hide them from her father.  
  
Goku, knowing his daughter all too well for her to hide anything from him, sat up again, placing his arm around her shoulder. "Hey, hey now. Cheer up now, come on."  
  
Usagi turned her face away. She had no idea why she was acting like this, it was almost as if she were embarrassed to act this way in front of him. "You don't understand. I'm supposed to be able to transform and I can't."  
  
Goku didn't force her to look at him. "It isn't the end of world, Usagi. Sure you're supposed to be able to transform, but for some reason, at this time, you can't. I'm sure you'll get the power back when you're meant to. It can't have just gone away. You are, after all, the Moon's princess, right?" Meaning every word, he tried to sound reassuring as possible.  
  
Usagi wiped away the tears on her face. "I can't be the princess if the very power that I'm supposed to be protecting has died." She pulled away from her father and stood up. "Look at me, acting silly." She tried to dry her face with her sleeve before her father could look up, but it was too late. He was already yanking her back down.  
  
"Where's the Usagi I know? She wouldn't be worried about such a silly thing. I'm sure it will pass, just like every other bad thing that's ever happened. Like tonight, we thought things were useless, but we didn't let that get us down. We kept fighting until we found a way to beat it."  
  
Usagi allowed herself to sit down next to him again, this time a little more willing to let him see her face. "This is a little different than fighting an enemy. And besides, we wouldn't have won without the help of those other Senshi."  
  
"That's what you think. We can be pretty resourceful when we need to be. We didn't need them to defeat our opponent, we pretty much had that done. We only needed them to save." His words trailed into nothingness as he was reminded of why he had come out here in the first place.  
  
Usagi looked up at her father, who had shifted his view to the trees in the distance. "So you do know what I'm feeling?"  
  
"Yes, I had my own worries today. But they were resolved," He looked down at Usagi, who was now looking him in the eye, "As will all of yours."  
  
Both Saiyans' attention was brought to a figure that was fast approaching them. It was Mamoru, which surprised both of them. He was the last person they had expected to show up, especially after the cold shoulder Usagi had given him early.  
  
Goku stood up to greet the boy. "What do you need?" He asked sternly.  
  
Mamoru, knowing of Goku's hate for him, put his hands behind his back and looked down at Usagi. "I'd like to have a few words with Usagi, if that's ok." He said, looking back up at the girl's father.  
  
Goku was shocked a bit by Mamoru's politeness. "Only if she wants to." He said, looking down at his daughter. She didn't look like she was in much of a mood to anyone, even after their little talk, but she did give a nod. "You're sure?  
  
Usagi nodded again. "Yes." She stood up and dusted herself off.  
  
Goku nodded back with his acknowledgement. "Ok." He looked on to Mamoru. "No funny business." He turned away to make his way back to the house. "I'll be in with your mother if you need anything, Usagi."  
  
"Ok." She turned her eyes upon him. "And dad? Thanks for talking."  
  
Goku didn't stop. "Always." And with that, he entered into the house and shut the door, leaving Usagi all alone to talk with Mamoru.  
  
Her eyes fell back upon the boy before her. "Come to make fun of me some more?" She scoffed.  
  
Mamoru frowned, but kept his composure. "No, actually. I've come to apologize."  
  
Usagi snorted with a loud laugh. "You?! Apologize?! A likely story! Why have you really come?" She eyed him carefully for any sort of funny movements.  
  
Mamoru growled quietly, trying hard not to lash out at you. "Damn you're such a girl! First you want me to be nice, and when I try, you throw it in my face! You really are a brat, aren't you!"  
  
Usagi frowned. "I knew it! I don't have to stand here and listen to this! You're just a bully and that's all you'll ever be. You'll never amount to anything."  
  
Mamoru was taken aback by her words. He had heard that sentence so many times in his life; by teachers, his friends, classmates, and father. It had always bothered him when his father had said it, but for some odd reason, it actually stung him hearing it from Usagi too. He answered in the only way that he knew. "And neither will you! The one thing you were destined to do, you can't even do anymore!"  
  
He knew he had hit on a sensitive subject when he saw her face. "You're awful! I hate you Mamoru!" She turned back to run away, but was stopped by his hand around her arm. She scowled up at him, trying to break free of his firm grasp. "Let go!"  
  
Mamoru pushed her to the ground to keep her from running back to her father. "Sit down and shut up!" He yelled, not knowing what had come over him. He paced over her. "You think you're so great, do you? You asked for that one, regardless of how wrong it was."  
  
Usagi scurried back to her feet. "When I tell my dad what you just did.you'll be sorry. You had no right to say that to me! I'm your princess!"  
  
"Wrong. You're the Moon's princess. You're your friends' princess, not mine. I could walk away right now and never say another word to you. It's not my duty to protect you. You just assumed it was."  
  
"Then why don't you?" She yelled back at him, completely infuriated by the fact that he was trying to teach her something.  
  
Mamoru glared at Usagi. "Because believe it or not, and I know I'm going to regret saying this later, but you're my friend." Usagi opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly closed it. "Now let me see your broach."  
  
"You.I.we.what?!" Usagi couldn't find the words to express what was going on in her head at the moment.  
  
(Right then, there you have it - all that I've written so far on this book, besides chapter 18, which has just been posted on the website. I had a nice, long run here, but it was time that I moved. I was having too many technical problems here that were preventing me from posting.) 


End file.
